19/52

 A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

19/52

"Big Beds" are currently a source of fascination to Wiggles, any chance she get she'll hop into her sister's or ours and squeak with glee.  I'm not sure whether it's the combination of sheer space in which she can play, or the blankets, or just the fact that it's different to what she's used to.  This week I turned a corner upstairs and heard some pretty exciting noises coming from my room.  I entered to discover two cheeky girls all tucked up peeking over the top.  I love how similar both sister's look in this.  Cheeky scamps!

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

Weight Loss Wednesday....#2

Happy Wednesday! I'm finding it hard to comprehend that a week has passed since my first post for #WeightLossWednesday! I'm joining in with Nat and Bel over at Twice The Mum again this week. 

I promised myself when doing these posts I wouldn't just trot out a string of excuses, but I do think I should point out that I was away in London all weekend and didn't "diet". I refuse to nibble in a lettuce leaf whilst enjoying a little break, it's not normal. That said I have been eating well the rest of the time and here are the results of this week's weigh in:

Start weight: 10st 8lb

Current Weight: 10st 7lb

Lose, Gain or Stay the Same: Loss (-1lb)

Total Loss: 1lb

I don't think I mentioned last week, but I would like to (eventually) reach a goal weight of 9st 7lbs. Though right now, a round 10st would make me very happy!

Today I feel like I've wasted a lot of calories on eating "snacky" food at work. It's all been good healthy stuff, but it does add up! I've eaten plenty of fruit and veg today, but the breakdown of my intake (via MyFitnessPal) suggests quite a lot of that was carb based. This is something I'd like to work on.

It also seems that I need to up my fat and protein intake a little too. 

So here's to what I hope will be a good week. Fingers crossed for a little more progress next week!! 

The Week That Was - Farms, Football and The Big Smoke...

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Oh Monday! Monday! Monday! Usually so dull, but not today! After dropping Biscuit off we took a trip to the supermarket to buy drinks and nibbly snacks for the evening. We came hone and Wiggles slept then we headed out to meet my lovely friend Nettle and her three  gorgeous girls. I have known Nettle since Biscuit was a baby and it's lovely that we still manage to meet up and catch up. This time we went for an after school trip around the farm. All the girls enjoyed the tractors and the animals. Oh yes, and the welly wanging!

Afterwards we scooted back super-quick to scoff down our smug slow cooker sausage casserole before putting the girls to bed. Because Mr Husband was out at the football I invited Lucky, Tilly and Impressive E over for a couple of drinks. We were distinctly well behaved!  No one did a sick!  Although when Mr Husband arrived home he was greeted by the sight of me on all fours with my bum in the air cleaning up a glass of water knocked over by Tilly Butterfingers! It wouldn't be a Tilly if something didn't go flying! Eventually we turned in at around half one.

Tuesday -  Woke up tired, but not hung over. Yay! A bloomin pneumatic drill was digging up the road directly outside my bedroom window which was a delight to wake up to. Wiggles and I went to baby group, no babies were biffed. Result! There were lots of new mummies and babies to chat to which was lovely. We came home and I joined Wiggles for a nap. After collecting Biscuit from school I had to race into town to colder a courtesy car and take my car in to be repaired. In the evening Mr Husband and I watched Game of Thrones then headed to bed. We were both sleepy and in need of an early night. 

Wednesday - Work, work, work.  At lunchtime I went and got my fat ass weighed in Boots, as reported in this post. In the evening Uncle Schubert, Auntie Schubert and Baby Schubert came over to see us, they brought Biscuit and I birthday presents, bless them!  Poor Baby Schubert was feeling windy and a little grumpy so they couldn't stay that long but it was lovely to see them anyway. Mr Husband was feeling poorly so went to bed early, leaving me to stay up far too late watching Orphan Black episodes on iPlayer.  Naughty!

Thursday - It chucked it down first thing, it was grey and horrible like a winter's day. We went to Biscuit's church assembly, which was nice. After coming home we did house jobs, made soup and had lunch. It was the first time I'd had soup for ages and I used my new soup bowl, kindly bought for my birthday by Lucky. How cool is this? 

After lunch Wiggles had her nap. The weather eventually cleared up and because we were feeling a little stir crazy we took Pearl the Pug out for a walk. Biscuit went to ballet with her Gran straight after school so we didn't need to be back home. It was really nice to get done air. Mr Husband came gone still feeling a little poorly so we has tea and a quiet night. 

Friday - A wholly unremarkable day, even lunchtime was dull, I went to the shops to buy hits to prepare for the weekend. Me Husband was still feeling poorly when I got home, so we threw a couple of things  into a case ready for Saturday. 

Saturday - I woke up early and gave the children breakfast, then a quick bath and off we went to London to begin a weekend away just Mr Husband and I. It was hard leaving the kids, but lovely to spend some time alone. We travelled up and got the tube, eventually arriving at Liverpool Street where we met my Dad. Weirdly just as we arrived they were evacuating, so we had find Pa in a crowd outside. We made our way to his apartment and he showed us around before heading off. 

It's beautiful, but it's a looooomg way down! The balcony have us the heebie jeebies! After sorting ourselves out we headed to Spitalfields for a butchers. There was a big vintage market on, but nothing really took my eye. We had a very healthy lunch at Leon, Thai green chicken and Moroccan meatballs which we shared between us. Once we finished we headed over to Southbank, had a wander and bought tickets for Titus Andronicus at The Globe that evening.

We headed back to the apartment, got ready and then headed to the apartment building's club for dinner. After we'd eaten we set out for The Globe again. We prefer to walk most places rather than relying on public transport as we always think you stumble across things you'd otherwise miss.

I LOVE The Globe. Our seats were ok, plus we hired cushions and we had chocolate - yay!

Titus Andronicus was great. All the reviews have said it's really grisly telling tales if audience members fainting. It WAS grisly, I can't deny it, but nothing that bad! We decided that the audience member that fainted (yes, there was one) early wasn't used to watching Game of Thrones like us! Anyway, if you get the chance I'd recommend it. Afterwards we headed sleepily back to the apartment and to bed. 

Sunday - We woke up early to a strange buzzing sound. Annoying as being childless we didn't NEED to be up early. Grrr. We had breakfast in bed and watched telly which was delightfully decadent. After taking ages to get up and get ready we headed out to Arsenal football ground. We popped into my favourite shop in the world in the way; Vivien of Holloway, but sadly just as we arrived a group of bridesmaids arrived and occupied each of the three changing rooms. I knew they were going to be there ages as they had no clue about sizes and were very general about what they wanted to try on. Sadly this meant I couldn't try on the dress I'd had my eye on (that I was 99% sure I wanted to buy) so we forced to leave empty handed. A real shame. At least the sun was shining! We made our way to our seats in the ground and soaked up the atmosphere 

I'm not really much of a football fan. Not at all of truth be told, but it was the last home game of the season so there was a happy feel about the place, especially as we beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0. 

Afterwards we walked back to our apartment stopping off for a delicious four seasons pizza and antipasti near Liverpool Street. It was YUMMERS! And I enjoyed a lovely pink glass of wine too. Cheeky! 

Once we'd finished we hot footed it back to our apartment as we'd booked the private cinema for 6pm. We ordered a drink, took our seats and watched Insomnia with Al Pacino and Robin Wiliams. It was good. The cinema was great though! If I'd lived there I'd never go to a public cinema again! We were pretty shattered after that so headed back for an early night. We drank tea snuggled in bed and watched old episodes of QI. Lovely!! 

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

18/52

 A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

18/52

18/52

Biscuit all dressed up for a party.  I asked her to look elegant.  For one so small I think she pulled it off quite well!  You can't quite tell, but her hairband has matching spots.  She was insanely proud of this, which warmed the part of my heart that insists that everything must match!

Wiggles playing on the tractor on a visit to the farm.  She adored it!  Dragged herself up on her own and refused point blank to leave.  Yanking at the gears, turning the steering wheel, she's going to be one heck of a driver!  She looks so tiny here.

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.

Weight Loss Wednesday....#1

On Friday 28th March 2014 something wonderful happened. Something that has been burnt into my memory. Something I refer my mind back to when things get a little, erm, testing.

The day before, on the Thursday I had a nasty tummy bug and had been sick as a dog. Ugh, as a dog. This was not the wonderful thing. I'm not that peculiar! No, the wonderful thing was that on the Friday morning, in my fuzzy sick person's stupor I stood on my bathroom scales. I can remember it clearly, the light wasn't on when I looked down and initially I thought I'd gone batty. That maybe my poorly-ness was confusing my senses, but no, I turned on the light, checked again and the scales definitely and categorically said 9st 13 lbs. Those treacherous wonderful scales, that I love and loathe in almost equal measure. 

Just to give you some background I'd started my "big diet" back in August 2013 after those scale-y bastards had pronounced that I'd eaten my way up to a whopping 12 stone 3 lbs. the heaviest I've ever been. 

I'd worked hard, used My Fitness Pal and Map My Walk to track my diet and exercise and eventually I'd managed to get myself down to a weight that I considered to be much more acceptable.

9 stone 13 lbs. There's a 9 in that. Only *just* a single figure, but nevertheless the smallest I'd been since my twenties. Even though I was ill I was pretty flippin smug about that!! 

Now my rational mind knew that I'd achieved this dizzying height by throwing up solidly for a number of hours. Bummer. Still, once I'd stopped being ill I managed to hover around 10 st 1lb for a little while. Then we had Easter and take away. And quite a lot of birthday cake. And the tiniest smidge of booze....

I knew I'd put on weight. I could tell. Weight always goes to my tummy first and I could *feel* it. Wobbling around me. Today I decided that I had to do something about it, so I took my little piggy butt down to Boots and got myself weighed. On the big scales. On the "Tell No Lies" scales. 

The news wasn't good. Since my best ever weigh in I've gained 9 pounds. Ugh. So not good. 

The readout also gives me my BMI and my bodyfat percentage. Not terribly useful in the grand scheme of things, but important to monitor I think. 

So today in back on it. And to enforce my commitment I'm joining in with #WeightLossWednesday over at Twice The Mum. 

Today I've had a good strict day food-wise and I've accrued an extra 199 calories in exercise. Hopefully, despite being away this weekend, I'll be able to keep in top of things and report a loss next week. 

Wish me luck!!!

The Week That Was - You've got a little something on your face...

For the first time this week I'm linking this post up with The Week That Was Captured over at Make Do and Push.  I've done so many of these weekly posts now and I can't work out how I only just discovered this link up!  I thought they would fit perfectly so I'm happily joining in the fun!

Last week, my week went a little something like this:

Monday - Bank Holiday Monday!  Yay!  This meant Mr Husband was at home so we were lucky enough to be able to spend another day with him.  He is good. We pottered about, ate roast beef. Bought the children new clothes and enjoyed ourselves doing very little. 

Tuesday -  Back to the old routine! Biscuit to school, Wiggles and I to baby group. We took my new neighbour Jill along who was ace and not at all phased by new Mummies. I got to have a cuppa and a catch up with my Mum chums, yay! Wiggles had a monumental nap afterwards, but not before scoffing scrambled eggs with gusto! Our lovely hairdresser came over and cut my hair & Mr Husband's. I decided to start gradually raising the angle if my cut to go up at the back and down at the front. Here are my before and after pictures: 

Now I know these aren't the best pictures, a phone shot is never easy, particularly when you're trying to get the back of your head! But it does illustrate the shape change. It's a gradual process though, a few more months, a couple more cuts and it should be closer to the overall look I'm after. It IS quite short though!!  

What do you think? I also coloured it just before taking the later pictures (L'Oreal Casting Creme Gloss No. 323 Dark Chocolate if you're interested). I've used this colour before and I really like it, lovely and dark, but with no coppery or reddy tones which I hate on me. Mr Husband made excellent use of his time whilst I faffed about doing all this and watched The Hobbit again.

Wednesday - Work. I forgot my phone and felt like I'd lost my right arm for most of the day! I went out at lunchtime and succumbed to buying two Frozen t-shirts for Biscuit, a new little outfit for Wiggles and a pretty little necklace for me from H&M. Here's her favourite of the t-shirts, she LOVES it! 

Thursday - After dropping Biscuit off I came home and tidied up a little befits going to Tilly's house for a cuppa. Just before leaving Wiggles did this:

Yep, permanent marker. Ugh! It came off after rubbing at her vigorously with a baby wipe! Tilly and I had a good catch up before we headed home for lunch and a nap. Biscuit started watching Frozen AGAIN after school and I made Toad in the Hole, YUMMERS!

Friday - Work for me. I had to make three separate trips to the cinema to get tickets for Biscuit and I to see Muppet's Most Wanted on Saturday. Grrrr! Got there in the end though. It was an otherwise dull day. I stopped off at the supermarket on the way home to pick up The Lord of The Rings Lego set Mr Husband had ordered. I love that man. 

Saturday - I took Biscuit to the cinema armed with popcorn and copious amounts of sweets! We watched Muppet's Most Wanted it was marvellous! I bought a fabulous dressing gown from the chazza, £2.50, woooo! I can't resist a bit of quilting!! In the evening Mr Husband and I enjoyed a Chinese takeaway and a completely delicious pear cider, sneakily housed in a Babycham glass.  Any excuse! 

It was a proper lovely evening to end a proper lovely day! 

Sunday - I got to have a lovely long sleep in the morning.  I cleaned downstairs ready for friends to visit the following night then I took Biscuit out to a birthday party.  She wore a dress given to her for her birthday by Tallulah and she looked adorable!  After collecting her we came home, had tea and the girls had baths.  A very quiet Sunday really, but I feel like I got plenty done, so that's good.

Well that was mine, how was yours?

Love, love,

17/52

 A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

17/52

Easter this year, in their Easter Bonnets, looking distracted by the chocolate.  After I'd taken this I realised it reminded me of something.  I later realised how much it reminded me of last year's portrait, taken at Easter time (13/52 then, Easter was earlier in the year).  It made me chuckle to see how little had changed, Biscuit looks distracted and away from the camera, Wiggles tucks in regardless.  And yet so much has changed, they looked so small, both of them! Wiggles was still very much a baby and even my big girl just looks like a dot.  How lovely this project is for capturing them as they grow.

Happily joining in with Jodi at Practising Simplicity and this year's 52 Project.