A Good Rain...

Yesterday was, for those of you who love a good rain shower, a lovely day. Despite the overcast skies, heavy rain and muggy air I enjoyed the day and was in an overall good mood.

T treated me to a strong coffee at lunch and I was able to participate in some change of command activities at work and meet the Cmdt designate. The real excitement came when I made my daily trip to the leaky mailbox. TWO things just for me, neither damaged in any way by the rains.

First a Tin Can Studio postcard penned by Grace (Juniper Grace) with a quote I chose. I thought I could be sneaky and get Grace's return address via the postcard, but of course there is no room, and no reason to put a return on a little postcard. 

Knitting is the saving of life

Virginia Woolf

Secondly a lovely bag from Fat Squirrel (of The Fat Squirrel Speaks). For the sake of full disclosure I have not yet listened to her podcast but got sucked in by her striking fabrics. Looks like she has another update Aug 8. I must resist.

That was it for mail, but after a quick trip to town for ice cream I spend over an hour listening to a Homespun house podcast and knitting on my Dessine-Moi Un Mouton. No progress pics to show yet, but here is my swatch from last week. 

Emotional Debt: Work In Progress

One of my favourite things to do on the weekends lately is to get into bed early, or rather lay on bed (it's been blisteringly hot & muggy), and listen to Podcasts. I have a long list of those I love, but one in particular has captured my imagination: Enter stage left....

JUNIPERGRACETUBE

I'm about half way through her pod-casts now and somewhere around number 9 she (Grace) talks about giving yarn away and the freeing feeling it gave her. She also talked a bit about finishing WIP (works in progress) and how working through that emotional baggage was freeing as well. (Do you sense a theme here...freedom!)

All this talk about WIP's motivated me to cull through my WIP bin and have some serious conversations with myself.  I have divided all WIP's  into two basic categories with some variations on a theme. 

1. Frog:  (rip the knitting out) and make something else with the yarn, or give yarn away. 

2. Finish: Finish knitting the darn thing. 

First up the Frog list. Some of these are so far gone they did not even get a photo. They were just too pathetic. These would include my 'never gonna happen' make up your mind tank.

 

 

Next Up, the finish category...look out, it's longer...

The red disc will be the back to the pink.
The blue will need a back made

This was one of the first patterns I ever did knit!

This just needs to be seamed and
stuffed with dried lavender.

These just need to have the
tails woven in.

Part of one arm, buttons and blocking.
The baby I originally planned this for is almost 2.

SSS

Maybe these just need different
buttons, or maybe the whole
project is a flop.

Single mitten syndrome, and missing a lace weight liner.
They might be too shallow, so may need to fix that too. 

This next project is a group of swatches for the Master Hand knitter course which I have started and not finished- twice. I'm still undecided if I will carry on. I know Ana from Toil and Trouble is working on her certification now and seeing all her work makes the perfectionist in me squeal with delight. 

These swatches were knit with Plymouth
 Yarn Worsted Merino Superwash Solids

The last two items to share are WIP's but not languishing ones. They should be finished up stat!

A pebble vest cast on in July 2014. Instead of
 selling/donating the yarn I will give this
knitted vest to charity. 

Migee: Originally cast on in Miami Fl in May, it was
frogged and restarted sometime in June. 

  

The Tour de What?

Every night for the past few weeks I've been sitting down at my Ashford Kiwi to indulge in some spinning. It is uncommon for me to do this nightly as I'm more of a sporadic, unfocused, too many hobbies spinner. However, I do love a challenge-and the Tour de Fleece provides just such a challenge. 

If you're not familiar with the Tour de FLEECE, you can read about it here. 

Here are some pics of my progress to date. 


The girl in the fireplace
8 oz: 100% Coopworth
Ravelry Link

Sweet Georgia

Superwash 100% BFL

Ravelry Link

In case anyone is curious as to who helped me with my tension; that would be Elizabeth (Liz) Miller of Clifton Woolens. I spend a warm and uncharacteristically sunny afternoon in her studio on Germain Street in Saint John, and learned so many hints and tricks I had to write them down!

WIAW-Food is Fuel!

Have you seen the show "My 600 lb life"? We seem to catch 3-4 episodes each week, and for some reason have become hooked. I'm not sure what draws me to the show, is it the 'freak show' effect of seeing someone that large, the act of cheering them on as they work hard, or even the ones you want to smack because of how 'delusional' they are. There was a woman on last night, 

Penny, 46, from Maryland who said "I cannot live without wantons". The camera pans to her husband who is deep frying the wantons and he says "I wasn't sure about deep frying these, but she says its healthier then ordering out." Penny can later be heard saying the visit from a dietitian was "bull s*#t". I had to just shake my head at her-she was given the gift of good health but she essentially threw it away. 

 I suppose it depends on how an individual was raised, their values and food philosophy but I see people using food as a fix for boredom, to escape after an argument, to become part of a group because they are not being mindful, or frankly because it's yummy! But shouldn't food be more then that? Food should be fuel to power our minds and bodies, it should be delicious and beneficial but should not become something we 'cannot live without' (wantons, not food in general).

You may notice that my food the past few weeks has been mostly simple. The reason behind this is that I'm trying to get back to basics-fueling my body with the simplest of nutrients. When I'm happy with this progress I'll start adding other things back in.

Anyway, enough babbling-onto the FOOD!

Breakfast:

1 Simply for Life Mexican Patty, 1/2 cup blueberries, coffee with 2% milk.

Snack:
Simply Protein Chips. These are an EXCELLENT way to satisfy a craving for spicy, crispy foods like cornchips. 

Lunch:
Greens with 1 cup of Quinoa & Black Bean salad

Afternoon Snack:

Cucumber, Cherry tomatoes and Tzatziki

Supper:

2 Simply for Life Italian Sausages, Spaghetti squash and Stir Fried veggies!

All in all an excellent day! Hope on over to the Peas and Crayons blog to see more awesome WIAW participants!

WIAW-The Sun Is Shining!

If you're reading this it means I've successfully managed to blog two weeks in a row! Hurrah for me {and cheers to you for reading}!

Its still February, and in Eastern Canada that means its still winter- cold, wind blowing, school's cancelled, frozen toes winter! But, somehow, jut a little I think I see signs of spring. The sun creeps in through the shades making it easier to rise, and we don't eat dinner by just the light of candles anymore. Soon enough, 28 days to be exact, Spring will be here.Until then I'm happy to revel in the little changes. 

These little changes in the light are also having an impact on my mood and overall ambition to get stuff done. Most importantly at the moment is food & meal preparation. Getting food ready for the week makes morning and supper time much more enjoyable. I still get the question 'What's for supper", but now I'm happy to say I usually know the answer. 

This text was literally delivered after I finished writing the above paragraph. Oh and how grammar has declines since the text message was invented. We sound like Neanderthals! "Grunt Grunt-Ooh- Arooh"

Without further ado  here are my What I Ate Wednesday pictures!

Breakfast: 

A delicious Simply for Life spicy hamburger patty (looks ugly, tasted great), Rocha pear and later a coffee.

Morning Snack:

About one and a half Wasa crispbreads, and half of a mushed up avocado. I really love avocado's.

Lunch:

My final serving of Chicken Stew with Quinoa and Green Beans.

Afternoon Snack:

Another delicious cup of coffee in my new favourite mug, and an organic apple. 

Supper:

This is actually last nights supper, but for the sake of getting this post up today I can live with the inconsistency.  

Salad and Chicken Meal Balls or "Chicken Balls" as T calls them, and Green Beans. According to T "Meatballs" have to be made out of ground beef. What do you think?

After a good workout I had some Greek yogurt with blue and strawberries, two tsp cashew butter and a sprinkling of Omega Crunch.

I went to bed, happy healthy and whole! Until next week!

As always a BIG thank-you to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting hosting this!

WIAW-New Beginnings

For the past several weeks I have been enjoying the Back To Her Roots blog, so much so in fact that I've decided to start blogging here again.

If you know me well you've likely noticed I get very GungHo to start new projects and then, my enthusiasm tapers off...quickly. So, this time I've decided to start off slow; the only pressure is to post once a week, for What I Ate Wednesday.

Breakfast:

I've been trying to apply the Food Rule: "A desk is not a table", but my habit seems to be 'breakfast at work', so for now I'm not got to sacrifice a healthy meal for eating hurriedly at home before work. 'Cause you know I'd eat a bowl of cereal standing by the kitchen sink!

Wasa Sesame Crisps with 1/2 of a mushed up avocado, sprinkled with Trader Joe's Sea Salt

Morning Snack:
Epicure prep bowl with blueberries and 1/2 cup Strawberry Kefer

Lunch:

A few nights ago I tried an Eating Bird Food recipe for Health Boosting Cabbage Lentil Soup. It was good, and spicy, and since T has been in the field I've been eating up the leftovers on my own. This is the last serving and I'm a bit sad. 

Cabbage Lentil Soup & Small Banana

Afternoon Snack:

Egg & Cantaloupe...yum!

Supper:

"Super food" Salad from Costco. Topped with dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and a wee bit of poppy seed dressing. On the side marinated tomatoes and Simply for Life Mexican Hamburger patties. Thank goodness for leftovers!

After Workout Snack:

Simply Whey chocolate mint bar. My first time having one and it was pretty great! Interesting texture and nice flavour. 

Thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for starting this buzz!