Bring on the Haters!

You’re late!

I went to the gym this morning… It took me six minutes of laying in bed and debating with myself but I eventually got up and went. I dilly dallied getting my clothes on and forgot to put my gym bag together last night so I only left the house at 4:55. I sped over the bridge and careened into the parking lot at 5:03 only to find that every other 5am gymgoer was standing outside. I got out of my car thinking that maybe they were waiting for some sort of special event bus to come and pick them up and that I would just slip past them into the building. Ya, no. The girl that opens the gym ended up coming at 5:28… 28 min late! It was damn cold outside and waiting outside for 30 min to do half a workout was a bit of a slap in the face.

Now, do I wish I’d stayed in bed? No. That’s a good sign, since normally I would say yes, had I known that this would happen, I would have just slept in.

What I realized as I was doing my 28 min on the elliptical was that this has stopped being ‘kill you hard’. I ramped up the resistance and crossramp on the thing for the 2nd half of my workout so that I wasn’t just coasting along, but I wasn’t counting down every second as wanting to vomit or die… that’s a good sign… right? I recovered quicker and felt better than any other day I’ve been to the gym in the last two weeks so I was very happy. Altho I would have been happier if I could have gone and treadmilled for a few min.

Community

The one good thing about getting locked out of the gym at 5am is that because I chose to get out of bed this morning, chose to wait to get into the gym and then chose to work out as hard as I could for that measly 28 min, I felt part of a club. I chatted with the guys (cause I was the only girl there) and we commiserated about getting out of bed at that time, why we had to leave at a certain time (some of us have the science of am workouts down to the minute) and why this was ‘so stupid’. I missed being a part of a community like that. It’s a special group of people (my sister included.. of course it’s special!) who get up when everyone else is still snuggling and go put some sweat on the machines. I always liked being part of that group of people… and now I’m part of it again… It gives me a little bump up in drive and determination!

You’re no fun!

So it seems that my muscle memory for working out is coming back and with it, it’s bringing memories of other things. Like people being assholes about my personal changes. Now, I realize and learned this lesson many years ago that when YOU make changes, it’s your responsibility to help other people adapt. That seems weird to say right? Why do you have to manage other people’s reactions? Because it’s in your own best interest. When you make any sort of massive change, it rocks the boat of your world and those waves affect people around you. Normally I would say that everyone can deal with their own reactions to things outside their control but I know from experience that unless you want to just wash your life of all your friends and family that are feeling uncomfortable with the changes you’re making, you need to do a little management.

Of course by managing other people’s interaction with you, that doesn’t mean stop doing something for yourself because it makes others feel uncomfortable. But it does mean that you can help them adapt by adapting your own behavior to make the change less difficult for loved ones to deal with.

For instance, let’s pretend you’re getting married and your single friends are having a hard time dealing with it. You can help yourself by managing how the change is being presented. You can book girls nights, make sure that wedding talk doesn’t monopolize every single conversation and invite them to participate in a way that is both helpful to you and fulfilling for them etc… You’re not going to NOT get married because your single friends are upset but you can manage the change to make life easier for everyone, including yourself.

You're getting married??

Now, I’m not getting married, but the changes I’m making in my own life are starting to affect the people in my circle. I’m getting a lot of negativity and pushback from people I would have expected to be some of the biggest cheerleaders. And I’ve been declared un-fun for declining to go for cake and cookies and bottles of wine and beer. I’m still a lot of fun if you ask me but the ‘club’ I used to belong to (as opposed to the sports club I now belong to) is being shaken up. The security and security blanket of my participation being removed is rocking the boat big time!

People have other people in their lives for various reasons. Oftentimes it works for both parties. When one party changes the pieces around, the other party has now had a component of their life changed and sometimes removed. Often people do get over it in time and the change takes hold and the relationship evolves to continue to reward both parties.....but in reality, if you have friends who saw you only as a junk food eating, wine drinking, lazing about participant who potentially made them feel OK about that part of their own personality, it's possible that they will go elsewhere to fill their need for that. The part about managing this is the difficult thing. I don’t want to scrub clean my small circle of friends right off the bat without allowing a chance for the change to take hold and the relationship to evolve, so I will try to help them become more comfortable with the new me. What I will not do is work diligently on myself all the while consciously helping them adapt only to continue to get beaten up for it. A time will come when decisions have to be made about how people will fit into my new life.

Sisterly Love

There are few things I count on in life more than my relationship with my sister. I sent her a portion of this post that sounded like it was written by someone for whom English is their third language. She understood what I was trying to say and was able to put it into words. It’s incredibly comforting for me to know that she’s been down this road… I’ve been down this road in the past too, but I was young then and things important then are certainly not important now. She knows the hurdles and boulders that will be in my path and even tho I know I’m equipped to deal with them, having travelled this path before, she walked it more recently. I’m incredibly thankful for having someone in the world that can make my own thoughts sound coherent and who will cheer me on for every life circumstance, regardless if it potentially makes her feel uncomfortable for a minute. And I do the same for her!

Credit goes to my beautiful sister at  FittyvsFatty for writing portions of the ‘You’re No Fun!’ section!

No FanFare?

Where’s my parade?

Yesterday was Day 30 of my 1st Whole 30. I’m not sure what I expected? A parade I guess… or a big pat on the back for doing something ‘so amazing’ as has been mentioned by my work friends on numerous occasions. But it’s not amazing really. In the grand scheme of all the crap that I’ve dealt with in the last few years, this was no amazing feat of anything. This was a month of doing what felt right and natural and what I should have been doing all along. I know that processed food isn’t good for you. I know that dairy makes me itchy and additives, sodium, and all the wrong kinds of fat make me bloated, uncomfortable and well… fat. It was just a matter of getting my mind around the fact that I deserved better dammit! That I didn’t have to live in my old life anymore and that no one but me made decisions for me. Once I had that figured out (right before the W30 started), I realized I could easily do whatever I wanted to. So I guess that’s why there was no parade… no fan fare for finishing… because it’s not finished. You’re not expected to (or encouraged to) spend every day for the rest of your life on the W30. As they say, it’s not called W365 for a reason. However, I believe that for now, this is where I belong. Eventually something worth it will come along and I will indulge in something off plan but for now, I expect nothing will be worth it when considered in contrast to how I feel being in charge of my own everything!

Moderator or Abstainer?

I just read on the Happiness Project about two styles of people… moderators (those who can have ‘some, sometimes’) and abstainers (those who are better at an all or nothing approach). I’m a sure fire, all or nothing abstainer! I don’t do well with ‘some, sometimes’… because ‘some, sometimes’ turns into lots all the time. It’s true, it would probably be more strong of me to learn how to manage myself so that I could have ‘some, sometimes’, but as I say to people who wonder why I don’t only eat organic if I’m so ‘worried about my health’… I can only do so much… I’m not a saint and I can’t do everything perfect so I’m going to do the best I can. And the best for now is recognizing that I’m not good at moderation and an all or nothing approach is certainly the wise choice for me!

What’s Next?


Well, more of the same really. I have a commitment till April 3 to stay strictly on the W30 program. April 4-7th I’m going away on a teeny tiny vacation. All our food is planned for and it’s all W30 approved but I will probably consume some wine with dinner and some Bailey’s with my morning coffee, so even tho I’d like to go a full 60 days stoppage free, as I said above, I can only do what I can do and since I haven’t been anywhere but work and home since the end of December, it’s not reasonable to expect to not indulge a bit.

So April 8 begins the 2nd phase of my All or Nothing way of eating. Only this time I’m going to make dates, berries, fruit and Larabars on the ‘nothing’ list… because my sense of moderation doesn’t work well and I’d really like to be able to curb the ‘need’ for evening snacking.

When Salad is the King, the Dressing is the Crown

So I eat a LOT of salad… one huge bowl every day for lunch. I’m not really much for chopping up ‘fixin’s’ for the salad so I go with a mixture of Kale Slaw and Organic Mixed Spring Greens from Costco… I used to like the Kale Slaw on it’s own but one day it just got really hard to choke down so now I mix it. I top my salad with two and a half baked chicken thighs (boneless skinless).


I’ve been eating this exact lunch since before the New Year and the only reason I don’t want to whip the bowl off the 5th floor deck and go get a cheeseburger is because of the dressing. When I started the W30, I knew I had to figure out a new salad dressing and quick because the one I’d been eating has every disallowed thing in it that they could jam in there… sugar, soy lecithin, dairy, chemicals!

I’ve since made both the following dressings successfully and so much so that people LOOKING at my lunch have requested the recipe. I imagine since they see my lunch every day also, that they must think it’s some sort of magic that keeps me interested every day. It is.

First up is a creation all my own.

I call it Toasted Walnut Bliss Dressing. People have asked if it has cheese in it or anchovies or if it’s Caesar salad dressing. The answer to all those is no, but with a taste profile like that, how can it be anything but great?



Toasted Walnut Bliss Dressing

1 cup of toasted walnuts
Splash of Balsamic vinegar (or whatever vinegar you have on hand… sherry, redwine, rice)
1tbsp whole grain Dijon mustard (check for W30)
½-1 tbsp minced garlic
Juice of a whole lemon or lime… I’ve done both and both are great!
Olive Oil
Water
Salt/Pepper to taste

Load the first five ingredients into the magic bullet or blender. You’ll use the olive oil and water to thin the mixture to your desired consistency. I usually start with about a ¼ cup of olive oil and if I need it thinner, then I add water and then EVOO in equal parts until I’m happy.

This lasts in a mason jar in the fridge for at least a week (I use it all up in a week so I can’t say it’s staying power past that but there’s nothing in there that should go bad).

The second dressing that I have for you today is actually a repost from Northwest Cave Girls. They call it a Ranch dressing but I find it closer to a Lemon Dill dressing. I guess depending on your amounts of seasonings you can make it more or less dilly as you like.

Paleo/Vegan Ranch Dressing

1 cup olive oil
1 cup Coconut Milk (use canned to get the thicker texture or use coconut cream mixed with coconut milk)
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
1 Tbs prepared dijon mustard
2 tsp Dill
2 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp Chives
4 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Parsley
1/2 tsp Thyme
1/2 tsp Sea Salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp pepper (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a blender or magic bullet and pulse until well combined.

There you have it.  Two amazing Paleo approved, W30 approved and yummy approved salad dressings to keep you interested all week long!

This is not Zero

Good morning!

It’s absolutely GORGEOUS outside today! There’s fresh snow (hopefully some of the last!) on the mountains, the sun is shining brightly and the blue sky is dotted with just a few fluffy clouds!

I got up at 451am this morning, put my previously layed out gym clothes on and marched myself down to my car. It took 4 min to drive to the gym and park… when I got in there my scan tag wouldn’t work, which was annoying since it was only set up a week ago… the girl said it was never applied to my name… anyway, got that all fixed up and then I worked out. At 5 in the morning. I can’t say that it was the best workout I’ve ever had (obviously) and I wanted to puke halfway through it but I did it.

I didn’t take it too easy on myself either, which is what I was planning to do… I climbed 15 flights of stairs in 5 min (and then I couldn’t take anymore of that machine! Planning on doing it every day to get better at it… My first goal is to get to my old Climb the Wall time of 49 flights in 11 min)

I did 20 min on the elliptical but have no stats for that because I accidentally restarted the workout with 5 min to go and then I did 20 min on the treadmill and even ran for a short portion of it!

The biggest thing that I learned today is that if I can get my mind on my side, I can pretty much do anything I want. I was telling my sister last night that I was annoyed because I didn’t like having to start back at zero after having been away for so long. This morning that was bugging me too until I realized that zero is sleeping past my alarm, telling myself I can’t because I’m too tired or scared or whatever… being in the gym at 5am and sweating is not zero in my book!


Last night before I went to sleep I asked God for rest and relaxation for the night… to put my mind at rest and quiet the nervous energy. I asked for mental strength to propel myself out of bed when my alarm went off and strength to put aside all the negative self talk that I can use to derail myself.

I was duly blessed by an excellent night sleep and the energy and strength to climb out of bed with no thought of ‘starting tomorrow’. It is a lesson I continue to learn; that putting your faith and trust in God is the only way. That when you’re following God’s plan, you’re given the strength and endurance to get it done for He wouldn’t ask you to follow His plan without the tools to do so.

Every day may be a battle for the next little while but it’s not a battle I have to fight alone!

Perfect Whole30 Frittata

I think I’ve finally managed to perfect my Whole30 Breakfast Frittata.


I’m on week 3 now and don’t forsee giving up this way of Eating at the end of 30 days. Which means, more frittata!

I got the original recipe from my sister who sent it to me from here but I’ve changed it a fair bit and no offense to her, but I like mine better! Plus it has way more veggies and anyone doing W30 knows that the world revolves around veggies.

Loaded Veg and Sausage Breakfast Frittata

1 red pepper, chopped
1 yellow or orange pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped (I used dry minced onion because I hate chopping onions)
2 Celery stalks, chopped
2 cups sliced mushrooms
Garlic (lots… minced)
1 small tin Tomato Paste (check ingredients if W30)
1 large bag of Spinach (Costco)
1lb sausage (or ground meat...whatever kind you like… check for W30)
2 roma tomatoes
1 dozen eggs
Oregano
Basil
Cayenne
Nutmeg**
Coconut Oil



** The nutmeg seems weird but be sure to add it in… it does something lovely to the spinach without making the whole dish taste weird. For the full Costco bag of spinach, I add around ½ -3/4 of a teaspoon.

First, sauté the pepper, onion, celery and garlic in coconut oil until the veg are partially cooked. Set aside and sauté mushrooms until they are cooked through and then set aside with other veg.

Sauté sausage until cooked through. Sprinkle with seasonings (I’m pretty generous) and then add in half the bag of spinach, mix around and put a lid on… you’re trying to wilt the spinach and incorporate it into the sausage. Once you have room in the pan, add the rest of the spinach and wilt down until incorporated. Pour sausage/spinach mixture into bottom of greased (with CO) 9x13 baking dish. Add sauted vegetables.

Crack 12 eggs into a bowl and add one small can of tomato paste. Whisk to incorporate and then pour into baking dish. Slice roma tomatoes and lay on top.
Cook in 350 oven covered with foil for 30 min and then remove the foil and allow to continue baking until egg is set.

I cut it into eight pieces and serve for breakfast with ¼ avocado and a handful of cherry tomatoes.
NB: Normally I would put salt and pepper in, but it’s better to season per serving because it’s very easy to make it too salty if you’re not sure of how your sausage will cook up. (ask me how I know!)

Other variations include using ‘turkey stuffing seasonings’ and a turkey sausage (or ground turkey meat) and then leaving out the tin of tomato paste.

Enjoy and let me know if you make this and how it turned out.

Please forgive the kind of mulched up picture with the dirty
glass bowl... but look how yummy!

Six Days Down

Today is my 6th day on Whole30.

I don’t really blog on the weekends so I thought I’d post today about what’s become of me so far on the first week.

1. I keep thinking I must be cheating on this because everything I’ve made so far tastes so good and doesn’t need the added dairy or sugar. As I’d already been pretty strict about grain, there hasn’t been much of a change there. I cooked last Saturday and Sunday and made my breakfasts, lunch fixings and dinners so that I didn’t have to cook at all this week. I didn’t mind eating the same thing every day altho dinner got a bit boring, but I have a plan to combat that next week.

2. I have food cravings in the evenings. I can’t even really say it’s a sugar craving… it’s more of a ‘food in my mouth’ craving. I’ve been drinking a lot of tea to stay hydrated and interested and when the craving pops up (more of a habit than a craving… it’s all mental) I ask myself if I’m hungry. The answer is predictably no, so that’s the end of that mental conversation.

3. My sleep has improved. I’ve always been a good sleeper but often would be dog tired when I finally went to bed and wake up tired and a bit crabby. Now at 9pm I turn the tv off and get started on my bedtime routine that includes face washing, teeth brushing, cat duties, sometimes a bath and then into bed. I find that I’m still alert and cognitively functioning when I crawl into bed but sleep comes easily and is deep and lasting. I wake up at 7am in the morning and feel alert and ready for the day (except this morning but I think I over did it on Valarian tea last night).

4. My digestion has gotten better. I haven’t had a stomach ache or bloating or gas in days.

5. My skin condition on my hands has cleared up. It’s not a full win in the skin category as it’s winter and dry and harsh for skin but I have no more itchy red bumps on my hands and my legs don’t itch at night.

6. I’m a lot calmer. I think this can be attributed in large part to having my food planned and prepped for the week so I don’t’ have to spend valuable week night time on cooking, but I also feel more calm and peaceful. Every day right after work I put my pajamas on and sit on the living room floor to play with the kitty. Because I don't have to do much in the way of cooking or cleaning because it’s taken care of on the weekend, I really look forward to and enjoy the time that I get to spend with the little fuzz ball. It’s probably about 20 min of playing and he makes me laugh. He seems happier because of the extra focused play time and we’ve invented two new games this week that he really seems to enjoy.

Those are all the things that I’ve noticed thus far. I know it seems weird to attribute a happier cat and a better kitty/human relationship to W30 but as they say all over the website and in the book, W30 is about changing your lifestyle. The planning and prep time that I invest on the weekends is something I never did before and now I’m realizing the benefits of it. It’s also given me cause to think that my easy wake up at 7 could probably be pushed to a bit earlier and some excerise could be scheduled in to the am. I’ve always been an AM workout person and I used to really enjoy it so I’m going to expect to start that soon and see if I can make AM workouts fit in my life again.

All in all, a fantastic and successful first week on the Whole 30.

PURGE

So last week when I wrote about throwing things away and rearranging furniture to better suit the function I need from my house, I went straight home and did it. I cleaned out three drawers, made room for my napkins (which will hopefully be here today) and then I rearranged the dining area to accommodate the new dining bench. Let me tell you, it’s been a completely life changing moment!

I haven’t had a proper table and chairs to eat at in about 13 years. I’ve had various substitute set ups that were less than desirable and I always ended up just sitting on the sofa.

Eating at a proper height dining table with both my feet on the floor has made such a huge impact on my life in this short time I can’t even tell you!

There’s a new rule in my house which consists entirely of the notion that no food shall be consumed elsewhere than the dining table. There is no more sofa sitting and eating.

Meal time is now defined. I still watch TV while I eat and that’s something that I would eventually like to change also, but for now, this is working.

Because I’m eating at a table with a place mat and a proper table setting, I’m more likely to want to eat a proper meal that consists of sides or a salad. I eat less because I eat slower and even though I am still watching TV, I’m able to concentrate more on what I’m eating. Eating dinner (because lunch and breakfast are consumed at work) takes longer but when I’m done I feel content and I take my dishes into the kitchen and clean up dinner straight away.

All these things may seem like normal every day fare to some and it is, but for me, it’s a completely new lifestyle! I love it!

With the idea in mind that change is good, I changed a few more things around my house this weekend. I rearranged some of the other furniture to function better and I put some items for sale on Craigslist as well. One of the items sold and while I’m glad to be rid of it and have the cash instead, I could have done without the buyers lingering in my apartment and making me feel awkward for wanting them to leave.

The small changes that I made to my house have lightened my spirit (which I actually didn’t know needed lightening) and made me feel even more at home in my home. I have a very full next three months coming up that include 99 hours of volunteer training, a friend coming from out of town and some other things planned that will take up time, so the more organized and functional my house is, the better!

I also did one other thing that made me feel better about the clutter in my life. I deleted a bunch of people off my Twitter feed that did nothing but serve to irritate me. I realize that Twitter is a mechanism for attention seeking at its worst and we’re all obviously guilty of putting 140 characters of ‘hey, look at me’ out there, but there’s that and then there’s the length many people go to get attention. For example:

I can’t decide if I want a piece of cheese or not
My sister emailed me a baby picture
I’m going to have quiche for dinner
I don’t like the color green

I mean seriously! It’s not necessary to publish every thought that runs through your head. The sort of attention one receives for having verbal diarrhea is superficial and unnecessary. Keep a few things to yourself.. it’s not necessary to describe your bowel movements due to your dairy allergy on the internet… it’s just not!

Now, I’m, of course, not suggesting people change to suit me. If you’re immature, you’re immature and that’s fine, you’re the one that has to live your life. I don’t care about your moral cheese dilemma and I find it a bit insulting that people who write this type of nonsense obviously think their followers SHOULD care… That said, I went through the list of people that I follow and it’s now a much shorter, but a more mature, reasonable selection of nonsense!

It’s amazing what getting rid of a bit of irritation does for the mindset.
I’m off to Costco tonight to see about getting my deep freeze delivered and maybe a passport photo taken and then it’s home to make Mexican Pasta Sauce (this being chili without the beans) and go to bed early before my first day of being out of the house at 7:20 and not back again until close to 11.

All over the place

I have an incredible urge to throw things away!


In fact, as I’m thinking about it right now, I already know which drawer I’m going to start with and I know I will be doing it almost the second I get home.


I squandered the last bit of my holidays away playing with Mr. Fluffypants and watching television. I was trying to keep a cold at bay so on Friday I took the day off and slept most of it. Saturday and Sunday were both uneventful (except getting evacuated from Costco on Sunday afternoon… but that was barely an event!).


I’ve been doing very well in the past little while with ensuring that I cook and prepare all my own meals. I ate grain twice over the Christmas Holiday. Once on December 21 when I ate a piece of custom made birthday cake. It was a chocolate lazy dazy cake in which you use coffee for the liquid and it was covered in whipped peanut butter icing and garnish of more chocolate and peanut butter.

And then I ate two bites of stuffing on Christmas day because Janet makes the Canaday/Janzen stuffing recipe and it’s kind of kryptonite. I will say that I suffered IMMENSELY after both those indulgences… which relegated them right outside the indulgence category…


ANYWAY… One of my Journey Plan items is to continue to not eat grains of any sort, no legumes, no really starchy veg and a meagre amount of dairy. So far it’s working out great! I’ve been filling my freezer (soon to be deep freeze if I can figure out a way to get the effer home from Costco!) with home cooked grain free meals so that when I start into my 99 hours of training next Tuesday I’ll have good things to eat.


That said, I’m feeling in a very purgey way right now. I want to throw everything in my house away! Obviously I’m not going to but there are some areas that won’t be spared. The impetus for it was really a purchase I made on Etsy. Another one of my Journey Plan items is to continue to try and make as little impact on the planet as I can, while still remaining sane and not wasting spending all my time on worrying about it. One of the ways to do that is cloth napkins. Now, I’m sure you can go to the store and purchase some really heinous cloth napkins at Winners or Canadian Tire. But, always one for wanting something interesting and unique, I bought myself a set of four screen printed napkins from THIS ETSY VENDOR

In fact, the ACTUAL ones I bought are pictured below.

The other thing that I’m really itching to do is figure something out for my dining room. I love my dining room. When I first moved I repurposed a small loveseat to function as banquette seating on one side and two antique chairs on the other side. It looks great! The problem is that the sofa is far too low and you can literally scoop food from off the table into your mouth… no lifting necessary. It’s funny at first but it makes your stomach hurt, and it’s hard to get in and out of with the table so close. Cat toys go under there to die on a very frequent basis, which means I have to pull the two chairs, table and sofa out to rescue them for the whining machine!


So I’d like to do either two nice chairs that I can refinish and recover, or, ideally, because I like the banquette idea, I’d like to do this.

Thanks for the great idea pinterest! And if that doesn’t work, I’m considering trying to find some legs and making just the bench portion. In the scheme of things, that would work best with the way the room is designed and where the drapes are anyway!


So I went looking online just now for dining benches… and then it hit me! I have a 4’ wide incredibly sturdy coffee table that is currently the holder of stuff in my bedroom until I get a dresser! When I first got it I had them cut quite a few inches off of it, which I’m sorely regretting now, but if it’s pretty close to 18”, I should be able to shore it up with some layers of mdf or plywood and then make the bench cushion for it! The stain on the coffee table matches the chairs and I have plenty of the sofa fabric left to cover the bench!



I’m pretty happy right now because it means that my lost creative mojo (which I lost about three weeks before Christmas) seems to be coming back. Maybe I’ll even knit a little tonight, once I’ve thrown out a bunch of stuff and measured my bench (and let’s be realistic, moved the bench to the dining room, moved the sofa to the bedroom, rearranged the bedroom because the sofa won’t fit otherwise and then cleaned the whole place! Good thing dinner is in the crockpot as we speak!

No Guilt

This past year I've been working really hard on getting my ducks in a row and one of the things that I did somewhat subconsciously was to do a lot of the knitting I've done this year from yarn I already own.  In the knitting community this is referred to as Knitting from Stash.  I consider 'Stash' to be any yarn that is either a year or so old, or yarn that was purchased with no particular project in mind.  That being said, I have a fair amount of 'stash' but it's tiny comparatively speaking.  But since what I have isn't being compared to what others have, I decided that since I only buy what I love and I bought the yarn in my stash, I must love it and therefore want to knit it up.

I've knit pretty close to 10,000 yards of yarn this year (and we're not done yet). That's equal to about 9 KM or 6 miles.  I've been reasonably diligent, mostly in the back half of the year.  The first half of the year saw me knit about 2600 yards in new purpose purchased yarn, which is great! I knit a sweater and a shawl that make up about 2/3 of that total.

The rest was knit with yarn that was purchased over a year ago... I'm still working on knitting with yarn I already own... but this weekend was the big fibre festival and my stash needed a little enhancement.

I've just taken up spinning for real on my spinning wheel... I'm not that good at it yet, but I'm planning on taking a class and then I think it's off to the races.  I can get yarn out of it, but it's not good yarn and I think I just need a bit of technical help.

So part of my purchases this weekend included wool to spin my own yarn.  I'm not interested in spinning enough for a sweater or anything so I bought little bits that I can use to hone my skills and then knit mitts or use for trim on a shawl.
The top three were purchased from Caliope's Fibre (spelled the Canadian way because she, and I, are Canadian!)
These are three layered batts with a base of wool and then sparkles and noils and everything lovely sandwiched in.  These are likely not 'practice' pieces as I'd like to get some good looking yarn out of them.  The fourth picture is a Shetland batt with some colorful silk threads added in.  I bought it from Everything Old.  Both ladies were very charming and talented!

I did also buy some prespun yarn too.  I bought one skein that was just too beautiful to pass up but I have no project in mind... two of the others are going to be mitts and the last two (one not pictured) were 'just because'.

The first one that I bought was a skein of Little Red Bicycle.  I'd seen her stuff on Ravelry and some friends of mine have had some and knit with it so it was one of those 'yarn fan' purchases... don't need to have it, but want some of her stuff.  I bought a OOAK (one of a kind) skein too that was the most dark plum color it is almost black and for obvious reasons didn't photograph it...

The next two skeins I bought were one each from Caliope and Everything Old.  Caliope's is a self striping handspun yarn that is one stripe of a soft mint green/soft yellow bamboo and then one stripe of a crazier ribbony multi fibre... I don't know what to do with it yet because I have to swatch (*gasp*) to see how the stripes work out.  The one I bought from Everything Old is a 100% BFL in a colorway called Film Noir.  It was one of the reasons I went back to the show the second day.  It's mostly gray with some red splashes thrown in and I think it will look amazing as a pair of mittens. It's a bit washed out in this photo but it's gorgeous in real life!

I also bought a skein of yarn that was dyed by local dyer Sweet Georgia, specifically for the show.  The colorway is gorgeous and it actually screams Vancouver to me...
Here it's shown wound into a ball (half a ball) and then knit into a partial mitt.  Unfortunately I have to rip that mitt out and reknit it on a bigger needle.  The fabric is gorgeous but a little bullet proof for mittens... Plus, on those small needles, the row gauge is off and they're going to be pretty short!

In that top picture of everything together there's also a cute little owl hat and some colored sticks... the colored sticks are actually colored pencils with felt balls on top.  My plan is to use them as shawl pins altho in trying this morning, it is clear that the tips need a little sandpaper... they're a bit rough for soft wool!
The hat was a bit of a lark... I was playing around trying it on and the artist was trying to convince me to buy it (for $30, which is perfectly reasonable for a hand knit wool hat).  I wanted to I told her but I only had $10 cash dollars left... and that's when she said she'd take my ten bux and I could have the hat because she wanted it to go to a loving home!  I love the owl hat... he needs a bath because some jerk spilled coffee on him right before I bought him but I can wash that out no problem.

That's pretty much the extent of my weekend... I'm hoping to make connection with someone I know that will teach me how to use my spinning wheel and then I will press my Mickey Mouse apron in to service and start spinning! (apron because otherwise you end up covered in wool).

I have no guilt about how much I bought at all!  Also, someone (wise) mentioned that 'souvenier yarn doesn't count' so there's that too!

Well then...

Fall has arrived... and by 'fall' I mean the part of fall that feels like winter here in Vancouver and it's started to rain.  I'm told that the rain won't last for long and that we're to have a mild, dry winter.  Let's hope so because it's raining today for the first day in months and I don't like it!

Last night I made spicy meatballs in a soup-ish sauce and Curry Fish Stew... Normally when I come on here and say that I made things, I share the recipe and gloat a little bit that while I don't enjoy cooking and I'm not all that 'cheffy', I can come up with some pretty yummy things with nary a cookbook in sight.

I will suffice it to say that I was not entirely successful last night and there are some inedible things in the house right now that I'm hoping Mr. Fluffypants takes upon himself to dispose of while I'm at work (I'm sure I'll be disappointed and he'll just snooze on the bed until I get home to take care of it!)

So, since it's fall and my apartment doesn't have any heat, and after spending a few nights on the sofa, looking like this,

and like this, 

 I took some twitterly advice and took myself down to Costco to buy a Parabolic heater.  For the suggested $40 it seemed like a good idea... Well when I got there the heater was actually $65 and the box said it heats 'you' but not the air... Not exactly what I was looking for and to be honest, with tax and environmental fee, that little heater would have been almost $75!  So I wandered through the store and stumbled down the blankie aisle... and for $12.99 bought myself a twin bed sized sherpa and microfibre blanket.  It's big enough to cover me from tippy toe to tippy top of my head when I'm laying on the sofa and it's as soft as a cloud.  Obviously that won't heat up the air either, but it was $13 and that'll have to do for now.

Last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada.  Normally a huge dinner is had with family and friends but that's not quite how it worked out for me this year, altho I'm certainly not complaining!
On Saturday my friend and I had a little studio time and we stopped at a butcher and liquor store before arriving to get a snack.

She worked on cleaning up a mess we made last time we were there and I worked on making myself a wreath for my door.  Back in my younger days I made quite a few wreaths... Most of them have been given away so I thought it would be nice for my door to have a seasonal decoration.  The neighbors I've spoken to have really really liked it and I think it's been well received.  Except for the crazy guy that lives upstairs that makes rude face and hand gestures toward it everytime he walks by..

On Sunday evening, the more popular day for the big Thanksgiving Feast, I made salt and pepper chicken wings and sliced tomatoes with bacon seasalt.  I was cozied up on the sofa with my knitting and my kitty and some tea.  Not a bad way to spend Thanksgiving.  I felt very thankful!

Last weekend I started and finished a little hat out of scraps for myself.  It was touch and go for a few minutes and I think at one point I was actually just knitting the idea of yarn and not actual yarn, but in the end it turned out cute...

It's a sock monkey 'inspired' hat but I've been told it would be more effective with a pompom.  Since the only thing I have left from the scraps is the yarn fumes, there will be no pom pom... maybe next time.

After I finished this last item a week ago, the only thing I could think of to knit was another one in a different yarn.  I tried everything to find a new project, but the only way around being obsessed with something is through it, so I went and got myself a little ball of sunshine and started knitting.  I wish it was done today... all this rain already and I need a little sunshine wrapped around my neck!

The other thing I'm making is my Christmas Hat.  Normally I make myself a Birthday hat every year but I'm probably going to be pretty busy around that time this year, so I figured I'd take a different route.
I had to start early because it's tiny yarn on tiny needles and it's going to take a while but I already love it!
You can see the yarn in the picture with the chicken wings and yes, it is sparkly.  The yarn is woven with a strand of real sterling silver... very cool!  The hat is going to be a double thickness and reversible... it'll be this glittery red on one side and on the other side i'm going to stripe in some cream so it is remeniscent of... a CANDY CANE!  What better Christmas hat than that!

And finally, altho it seems like 'no big deal', Charlie seems to be more interested in actual snuggling now... not lap snuggling, but normally he doesn't make much of an effort to touch me unless he's whapping me with his eagle talons.. so this is a big step! It could be because it's about -10 in the apartment...

That's about it.  I'm hoping to go to KnitCity this weekend with a friend but if she bails, I'll just go on my own...
For those of you in Vancouver (and surrounding area) who have not heard of it, this is Vancouver's very first Fibre Festival!
Here's the info!

Feel free to wander over to another blog that I contribute to with my sister.  It’s one that we both post to; pictures, recipes, anecdotes.  Anything light and fun that maybe doesn’t quite fit on our regular blogs.  Go see Half A Pear