BG Doillies, minimal scrapping, survivor skills, running and boxing

What a combination hey?

I spent last weekend with a wonderful bunch of fellow scrappers at the Long Point Camp located at the back of Campbelltown. Great venue, beautiful location and heaps of room. It was pretty cold but the room we scrapped in was warm and the 'eating' room had a gorgeous slow combustion fire. I love these - used to have one in a house I lived in years ago. It does bring out the pyromaniac in me though!

On the Saturday morning I was up early'ish as I was heading back home to watch Rebecca play netball (important match against the No 1 team which unfortunately they didn't win but that's OK) when I saw that the fire which should have been stoked up the night before had all but gone out. I went into 'Survivor' mode as Belinda called it and was determined to get that sucker going again. After ripping logs apart with my bare hands (well a slight exaggeration - I tore some bark from the outside to make some kindling), using nearly all the newspaper and a significant amount of hot air - which I have plenty of - Yay I had success. Gave Belinda a good laugh watching me. I hate to be defeated and this was just the challenge for me.

I was just not in much of a mood for scrapping this time which might seem odd for a weekend away scrapping but as anyone who has been on one of these weekends knows, half the fun is just being away from the daily grind, being with friends and having a chat and a laugh - and I did all that. I did eventually get into the groove a bit and will share all when I have photographed everything.

I was determined not to let the weekend interrupt my exercise fanaticism and much to the amazement I think of a lot of people I got up on Sunday morning and went for a 5 km run. It was so cold when I started but I soon warmed up and had fun . Most of my running to date has been on a treadmill and running on a real road, with ups and downs and things to look at and distract me was actually very enjoyable.

Here are three things I made on the weekend for Shop and Crop. Two cards and a layout featuring one of the new Basic Grey 'Doilies'.

Today had a training session in the morning (6am) with my gym buddy. The alarm went off at 5 am and I very nearly slapped myself and stayed in bed as it was not just cold but wet and dark as well and we were doing an outdoor session. Lunacy you may well think. As usual I forced myself to go and after a slow, whinging start really enjoyed it - in a sick, masochistic 'I know this is really good for me' way. We did a lot of boxing and seriously I have sore hands and shaky arms still ( 11 hours later). What will I feel like tomorrow - who knows?The trainer commented that I had a strong right hook - I told him it was from all that cutting and pasting! See scrapbooking strengthens your scissor arm.

I love to add a photo to most posts sp here is a pic I took a couple of weeks ago of a beautiful light at a friends house. It is stunning IRL.

I think I need to go an eat some more - all this exercise makes me hungry!

Early Bird

That's the name of the latest Cosmo Cricket range and it is very cute indeed - the chipboard die cuts are especially cute with a bird, a toaster! and cutlery set - very breakfasty. I used the chipboard bird and flowers and the Sleepy Head words for my Lo - which uses the Cosmo Cricket range in one of the latest Page Kits from Shop and Crop. I made a second LO too using mainly more materials from the page kit but with a few little extras thrown in like some old Cosmo Mr Campy and October Afternoon Old Book Paper.



On the weight loss & getting fit front - things are going extremely well. I finally got below 65kgs! Yay me - 9 kilos down and 3 to go. I am exercising regularly and loving it - I have rediscovered the joys of a good, hard sweat and the buzz you get afterwards. The going nuts of a few weeks ago ie. competing with RE on the bike and rower to the point that a sort of madness overtook us sometimes and we would seem to try our best to reach the point of puking for the sheer fun of it (idiocy I know!) has stopped - thank heavens. I seriously thought I was going to have to be carried off on a stretcher if I kept it up - who other than the likes of Lance Armstrong and Cadel Evans can keep up a 37 kph pace on the bike for long stretches!

I have settled down and am aiming for a new goal - to RUN in the City to Surf in early August - 14kms. I walked it a few years ago but this time I want to run it - or run as much of it as I can and walk when I am past it. In some ways it's a mad goal - I have NEVER been a runner - but I am thinking why the hell not! You only live once and I am always up for a challenge. I am treadmill running at the moment and my furthest is 7kms - but I did run 2kms had to have a quick pit stop then came back and ran another 5 kms - no reason I can't do that in the C2S! So i know I can cover half the distance - just another 7kms to go....all at a very slow pace - but I will not be there to race - just to prove to myself that I can do it. Wish me luck.

Latest upload for Shop and Crop

There are some new page kits up at Shop and Crop. I got to work with Sunkissed "Only Smiles" series from the fun new My Minds Eye Breaking Free range. I love MME - their papers are great quality, have a great mix of patterned and matching distressed 'plains' on the reverse side plus co-ordinating die cuts, acetates and tags.

Here are the two layouts I made - one uses pics of Rebecca and I in the Mothers Day Classic walk in May and the other uses a 22 year old pic of me!! I was lean and very brown (and also very puffed) after the best part of three weeks trekking in India through the Himalayas. This was s uch a great trip - and I am really happy I found this pic - I was looking through all the folders on my hard drive and spotted this!

Why??

Why do I still keep this blog? Not sure really as I don't update it much lately.

I don't want to scrap it though (excuse the pun) as it is a pain in the butt to start up again. I will have some more scrapping to share in the next few days so stay tuned - if anyone still reads this. LOL

Some Card Making

My work is featured in two different card magazines this month - very unusual for me. I haven't submitted much scrapbooking at all for a long time but have been fortunate enough to be asked to make cards a few times in the last 12 months or so.

In Creative Cardmaking & Papercraft I have 3 cards (only two of which I have pics of - and anyway the photos in the magazine are much better than mine!). Two cards feature glitter which was a lot of fun to work with and the third card is in the shape of a cake. I did a girlie birthday cake and think it's pretty cute (but this is the one I forgot to photograph). Here is a pic of the other two.

In Essential Papercraft (the Australian Edition) I have a series of co-ordinating masculine cards using a variety of stickers. Sadly I forgot to take pics of these before I sent them off - so if you want to see them please check out the magazine which is out now
.

On the exercising, healthier me front things are continuing to go well. After stalling at 67 kgs for a while the scales became my friend again and I am now close to my mini-goal of 65 kgs. I have been loving exercise and am finding my competitive nature coming to the fore. My exercising buddy and I have a bit of a competition going on the rowing machine and the spin bike. Who can row the fastest 2kms and who can cycle the furthest in 35 minutes. The competition has been fierce! So far she is the rowing champ - at 8min 59 secs (I am way behind on about 9 mins 15 secs) but I am the bike champ - 20.53 kms yesterday (I think that's an average of over 35 kms an hour - not bad)!! My friend did 19.65 kms. The healthy competition is good in many ways but I am feeling it today!! It's good to have goals though.

Looking at that pic is funny - that was taken in February and those shoes don't look so shiny and clean any more. They have worked hard and show it.

(Records don't last long around here! I got a text today to say that my buddy had cycled 21.02kms - damn!!! Well I couldn't let her beat me could I? So off to the gym I went and I did it! 21.35kms in 35 mins. I was wrecked at the end of it - I literally had to put my head on my arms across the handle bars and just wait about 2 minutes until I could breathe normally again - the guy on the bike next to me was giving me some worried looks LOL!)

The Mothers Day Classic

To celebrate Mothers Day my girl and I did the Mothers Day Classic Walk around Parramatta Park for the second year in a row. This year I had hoped to do the 8 km walk (next year I am aiming for the 4 or 8 km run)but circumstances meant that we did the 4 km walk instead with a friend and her daughter. I love this event - so much good feeling but a fair bit of sadness too. The money raised goes to help the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Many participants wear tributes on their t-shirts - dedicating their participation to someone (sadly often more than one) they have lost. I spend much of my time choking back tears and feeling very grateful.

This year the weather was dodgy and just as they called the start of the 4 km walk the heavens opened up - it made the walk a little more interesting that last year. We had come with umbrellas but when it's pouring and you are in the open they are a bit of a token gesture. Luckily for me I had also brought my VERY attractive bright yellow rain poncho from Taronga Zoo - complete with tiger face of the front and tigers butt on the back. Maybe not the best look but I was drier than most! Rebecca refused to wear it.....

Afterwards we had a lovely brunch at City Extra - they make the BEST pumpkin soup I have ever had. All in all a great day.

I hope all you Mums out there also had a great Mothers Day.

Still on track......

A quick update for me mainly - I have been using my blog entries to create a journal for My personal BL journey.

I am still well on track, which is great. I got stuck a bit weight wise for a few weeks - which I believe is quite common but finally saw the scales dip below 67 kgs this week. I have been exercising regularly and seriously busting a gut doing it - my attitude to exercise has always been that if you're not sweating you're not trying hard enough! I even ran for 10 minutes non-stop yesterday (1.3 kms) - a big deal for me as i have always struggled with running. I can feel that I am much fitter already and love the feeling. I'm not quite back to my old cycling days but am getting there. My next goal is to get a new bike and do some long distance rides again - those were the days - 18 days around New Zealand, 7 days along the Great Ocean Road........aaaahhh.

On the scrapping front I got to play with some new Scenic Route for the April Page Kit for Shop and Crop. I loev Scenic Route at the best of tiem but this range is amazubg because the two sides of the double sided papers are really different - not just in colour but in style. One is really bright, fun and colourful and the other side is soft and almost pastel in style. I made two Los to showcase the different styles. Here they are: