NOT TOO MANY!

 

Yesterday was SUCH a good day!  We got so many jobs done, I'm thrilled to bits.  Stew was on fine form, and did not mutter, or huff and puff AT ALL!  I think he was just so relieved he didn't end up having to assemble the new cabinet.  😂😊😉  (Thank You Steve!)

ABOVE: Instead of using wire for the passionfruit vines to grow on, Stew decided some trellis would work better.  So there it is and it looks great.  I hope the vines grow.

ABOVE: The new cupboard in our bedroom.  I'm really happy that now I can actually SEE and  REACH all my winter tops.  And before any one says I have too many... remember this.

1.  Some are for next winter, when I'm a bit smaller, so smaller sizes.

2.  Some are going to the op shop once I outgrow them.

3. Some are heavy weight, and some are lightweight, as you need choices depending on the weather.

4.  Some are for 'just around the house/village', and some are for wearing 'out', and are a bit more 'dressy'.

5. And some I just love and will never part with!

GEORGIA :  Thanks for the suggestion of turning the cupboard around, sadly it can't be done as it would jut out into the room too much.  Good idea had the short wall been longer.

Today is supposed to be a bit wet, so a quiet day at home is on the cards.  Bex is doing the Cambridge Trash 'n' Treasure market, I hope she doesn't get rained out.

ONWARD...

SATURDAY JOBS

 

With my .800 gram loss over the past week, my total loss, since starting WEGOVY,  is :  7.5 kilos.

That is over 10 weeks.  I'm happy enough with that, though of course, I'd have liked more.

ABOVE:  I thought I'd show you the WEGOVY 'pen' injection.  You use the same pen for 4 weeks, but use a new needle each week. 

Every time you go up to a higher dose, you also get a new pen, which is pre-loaded with the medication.  Stew has gotten really good at administering my injection now.

And I still have not felt a thing, which is really neat.  Sadly, I do get stressed out, even knowing it's not going to hurt... and I end up having a big, nasty hot flush.  

I wish the damn hot flushes would stop, but I do believe I'm going to have them for the rest of my life, having already 'suffered' from them for 22 years.

Right... today.

We will do the weekend grocery shop.

Stew has to pick up his dry cleaning, and drop off the next lot. (business pants)

Then we will attend the Playcentre Garage Sale.

After that, home to assemble the bedroom 'drawers'... which ain't drawers at all.   I will show you what we got ... later.

Finally for the morning, we shall go to Mitre 10 and get some wire, for the passionfruit vines to grow on.

And that's it. 

This afternoon I will probably sort out my wardrobe and drawers, and then we MIGHT head down to the Community Centre to, (god help me), watch the rugby on the big screen.   It is a chance for Stew to spend some time with fellow villagers, something he doesn't get to do very often.

ONWARD...

9.50 am, and Stew ended up going to the supermarket on his own.  I wasn't ready to go, and had to get the washing on bla bla bla.

ABOVE: Steve and the kids called in, and he saw the new thing waiting to be assembled.  So, of course, he just got on with it!

So, Stew and I nabbed the Ginger Spitfire (formerly known as Lily), and took off to the Playcentre.

ABOVE:  It is many, many years since we pushed a littlie in a pushchair!

ABOVE:  Wow, I'm feeling quite happy with my backside 'view'!  Not to bad. Certainly not as bad as I thought it was.

ABOVE: After visiting Bex and buying a few things at the Playcentre, we walked home again.  Miss Lily walked all the way, she did not want to be in the pushchair, and kept saying "Me walk".  It was so cute.

ABOVE: Teenagers are SO HANDY!  

He didn't even mind.

ABOVE:  well.. she's just so adorable.

And getting so big.  *sniff*

ABOVE: All the kids on our bed, watching their Dad assemble the cabinet.

ABOVE:  Dante helping Steve... Dante aspires to be a builder when he's grown up, just like his Dad.

ABOVE: The things we bought at the garage sale.  Old jeans for Loretta to turn into bags, which she does really well.

Plus a few other bits 'n' bobs we really didn't need... but the money is to support our local Playcentre, so a good thing.

ABOVE: And there is the new bedroom 'drawers'... A cabinet that I can put all my winter sweatshirts, jumpers and coats in.  I am NOT getting rid of anything else if I can help it.  Unless is doesn't fit me, or is too old. 

Though, I do have something that is at least 35+ years old that I am keeping  ...  more about THAT, on WEDNESDAY.

It is now 12.16 pm, time to go out, get a few things we need (chicken wire etc) and then come home so I can sort out the clothes to go in that cabinet.

5.15 pm, and all the jobs are done.  My new cupboard is full of my winter tops and a few other things.  It looks great.  Stew moved a couple of large mirrors around in the house into better positions.  Just 'tweaking' things a bit.

I love tweaking.  lol

Soon we will head down to the Community Centre to join others watching the bloody rugby.  I am only going cos I know a couple of the ladies who will be there.  I am taking a couple of little bottles of bubbly to drink and Stew is also taking his own grog.  The village bar does not serve the beer he likes. 

9.05 pm and we are home.  The ladies I had expected to be there, were not.  So I sat with Stew and he watched the rugby and I scrolled on my phone, and watched little bits here and there of the rugby game.  The All Blacks won convincingly, which was good as they had lost their last three games in a row.

Stew was happy.

But we won't be going to the community centre to watch again, even with the 'big screen'.  It was uncomfortable sitting in upright dining chairs, and like, there were probably 12 adults there, and 4 kids.  And we were on our own at our table, so yeah.  Stew can watch the rugby in comfort at home next time.

And that wraps up our day, it has been a lovely day overall.

Catch ya tomorrow.

CRAFT ROOM... THEN PLAYCENTRE.

 

Yaaa Friday.  Looking forward to having Stew home for the weekend.

AND perhaps going fishing on Sunday?  Not sure yet.

Today though, I shall wander down to the craft room and join Loretta for a few hours.

ABOVE:  I picked up that spotty fabric off Bex last night.  She got it off a de-stash Facebook site.  I think the red fabric around the outside will look OK... for placemats.  I think I will work on them this morning.

After lunch I am taking all the mosaic supplies (from the Cambridge Mosaic group), down to our local Playcentre.  They are having a Garage Sale tomorrow, so maybe someone will buy it all?  Bex will be there today as she's helping organise the Garage Sale.  It is the Playcentre that Lily attends, so I'm happy to give them the mosaic supplies.

Oh and btw, I sent an email to the Village Manager, asking for a response to our proposal re:  The window.  I hope he replies TODAY.

Now.... I'm off to have a nice, productive day.

Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

ABOVE:  I got 9 of these placemats 'tops' made in the craft room this morning, while yakking with Loretta.

AND the Village Manager came down and talked to me about the window.   Seems we are waiting on the council to give the go ahead, and if we need a building permit or not.  The Manager thinks we won't need a permit, as my neighbour didn't need one.  Fingers crossed, cos a permit is another few THOUSAND dollars!   AND more waiting.  And inspections bla bla bla.

At least the 'neighbours from hell' don't have a say in it!  That was what I thought would halt my window in it's tracks.

I am now heading off to the Playcentre to offload all the mosaic stuff.

4 pm, and well, that didn't take very long.  I gave all the stuff to Bex, and had a quick browse over what the ladies had managed to get out on the tables, in readiness for tomorrow's garage sale.

AND ummm...

ABOVE:  I grabbed these four coffee mugs.  At $1 each, they were a steal.  I am going to take them down to the craft room, for anyone who wants to drink out of a decent sized coffee mug.  Most of the cups down there are those old fashioned, china tea cups.  Small.  Dainty.  Not what I wanna have a hot drink out of for sure.

And how cute and happy do they look?  I like them.

Very quite on here today... I hope you are all having an awesome day.  DOGSTARS, I miss you!

8.16 pm.  Thank you so much for the comments this afternoon, I'm not feeling like ... ignored now!  lol  😂😅😊  Sorry the blog has been a bit MEH lately.  But, it's better to be MEH, than full of drama I feel.

We just had an evil meal cos I was craving carbs.

Chips, garlic bread and chicken wings.  OMG so yum!

Bearing in mind I only have ONE EVIL MEAL a week, I'm not even feeling guilty.

I lost .800 grams this week.  Must be doing something right.

I'm signing off for the day now, catch ya tomorrow.

THAT'S A LOT

 

I started making placemats 3 weeks and 3 days ago.

And so far I have made 67 !

ABOVE: There they all are, minus the 6 I made on Monday, and sold on Monday.  lol

ABOVE: Today I am going to make more in these fabrics.

ABOVE: And finish these four cats ones that got started yesterday.

As it's a 'Coffee & Chat' morning, I will wander down there a bit later on.  It will give me a welcome break from the sewing machine.

I will also go to the bank and withdraw enough CASH to last me all summer!  I need cash for markets, we don't have EFTPOS... we don't do enough markets to justify the cost of having EFTPOS. 

ONWARD...

12.35 pm. Coffee & chat was pleasant this morning.  I spent about an hour there before heading off to The Base.

I went into the bank and BUGGER ME!  They were still not doing cash outs.  I asked why the fuck not, as it is A BANK?  Something to do with a system failure, and I would have to go to another branch if I needed cash before the weekend.

So I went to Chartwell.  I COULD have waiting until next week, but I don't like leaving things to the last minute.

I eventually go the cash I needed, and then into Woolworths for more fresh fruit.

Home now, and I've just had some Almond Bread with salad, like yesterday.

Now, finally, I can get into Crabby Quarters and get on with some sewing.

I might be getting a villager calling in this afternoon to get some... placemats!  She's seen what the ladies on Monday bought and wants some as well.  LOL, I might get rich living here.  

Well... I can dream right?

3.20 pm, and I've just finished another 6 placemats.  My possible visitor has not been yet.

AND the village Manager has not gotten back to me with 'formal permission' to go ahead with my window.  YET.  I'm starting to get crabby.  He already gave permission to my immediate neighbour to put a window in his brick wall... so what's the hold up?  Surely he's not going to say NO?  If he does there will be hell to pay... somehow.

I'm starting to stew about it.

Tits in a knot type stew about it.  

My STEW would say "Settle down, no point getting all stressed about it". 

But it's not him who is directly affected by this, and he knows me enough by now to know I'm not the most patient person.   YOU know that too eh?  😂😅 

After typing that last lot my neighbour called in and bought 6 placemats.  That's 12 placemats sold to villagers in 4 days.  I'll take that.  😊

She stayed for about an hour, we had a lovely old yak.  And I was told to pop in any time to visit her.  Don't mind if I do... she's lovely, and we seem to get on just fine.

She was still her yakking when Stew arrived home, so he got to say hello to her as well.

Then after she left, Stew and I went for a walk, a bit shorter tonight, as my back is really aching from all the sewing/sitting going on this week.

We ended up at the pub, as per usual.  I stayed for about 45 minutes, then walked home.  I'll go over to Steve 'n' Bex's soon to see the kids.  

And then I'll pick up Stew and we will head home together.   

Right, all that is done and dusted.   Happily home now, and we are going to enjoy the rest of the evening in front of the telly.

Catch ya tomorrow.

DOGS.... AND COCO

 

Yesterday I actually got 10 Dog placemats completely finished.

ABOVE:  I thought that was a decent effort.  Blurry photo, sorry.  I will continue working on them today, who knows, I might even get them all finished?

Then I'll see if I've got any more cat fabrics, and make cat placements next.

Coco is getting groomed this afternoon.  I better not forget that and go out.  This is my reminder  😂😅.  The blog is pretty good for keeping me on track with what I'm doing.  lol

I am now 100% positive the WEGOVY is finally working.  I had a very, very small, early lunch yesterday... and then I worked on placemats ALL DAY and didn't feel hungry or want food at all.  I only had some dinner with Stew because I know you should not completely starve.  I'm thrilled to bits it's now working.  Maybe the weight will start to drop a little bit quicker now?  

I HAVE been doing more exercise too, adding in walking with Stew in the evening.  That was something I had hoped we would do once we moved here.  And now that his knee replacement has settled down, we can finally do that.  

It is a really good feeling knowing things are finally falling into place.  

And I am happy here in the village now, that's taken a long time to be able to say with complete honesty. 

Right, time to make a start on the day... or roll over and catch a few more Zzzz's.  

ONWARD...

12.55 pm.  I sewed all morning. Lacy called in on her way back from doing the Hakarimata Track again.  She does it at least once a week now.  AND she runs up and down!  Crazy tart.

At midday I decided to head to The Base.  I needed to get cash out for our upcoming markets and had been putting it off for a couple of weeks.

I get to the bank and head to a teller's station.  There's this freakin' sign there, saying "No Cash Out Facilities Today".  WTF?  It's a BANK, and they won't give me cash?

The staff told me I could still get cash out of the ATM machine.  Yeah right, it's going to give me $5's and $10's then?  I think NOT.  I was really annoyed.  

Now I have to go back tomorrow.  Grrrr.

I've been watching on Facebook the establishment of a new 'Christmas Collective' shop at The Base.  It opened today.  And OMG... 

ABOVE:  It is AMAZING!!!   I have never seen so many Christmas decorations/ornaments/figurines/toys ... you name it, they had it.

It was fairly expensive, but still ... OMG!  I managed to get out of there without buying a single thing, because I just don't need anything.

Though, those little Christmas houses were adorable. I loved the ones on the top shelf, just saying.... 😂 😌😖

FELICITY:  You would go NUTS in this shop!

On my way home I stopped in at a supermarket for some fresh salad stuff, and more cottage cheese.  The cottage cheese is for the Almond Flat Bread recipe.  I use a lot of it now.  Once upon a time I would NEVER have bought that shit!  😂😅😆

ABOVE:  I made more Almond Flat Bread when I got home.   I plan on having some for my lunch, and leave the rest for Stew's dinner.

ABOVE:  And there's lunch, a corned beef salad 'sandwich'.  And I only ate half of it.  I will have the rest for my dinner.

ABOVE:  A very special day for these two... it is their 10th Wedding Anniversary.  And I forgot.  Whoops!

ANON:  The Almond Bread Recipe is from some site on Facebook!

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs.

1 cup of Cottage Cheese.

1 Cup of Almond Flour.

THEN: 

Any herbs/salt, you wish to add. I add about 1 teaspoon of Garlic and Herb salt.

Any cheese you wish to add.  I add 1/2 cup grated tasty cheese.

Blend the eggs and cottage cheese very well, add the almond flour, blend again.  Then add anything else you wish to add.

Lay out on baking paper evenly, then bake at 200 d Celsius for around 20 minutes, or until it looks cooked. 

Ovens vary, so keep an eye on it.

Allow to cool.  Cut  up into whatever size suits you.

I also put the mixture into 'dollops' so they come out round sometimes.

ABOVE: Cutting out batting has to be the shittiest part of this job!  I hate having to lay it out on the floor... it kills my lower back working on the floor.  I cut out 20 pieces today, so that should keep me going for a few days.

ABOVE:  I got 8 more Dog Placemats finished today, and 4 Cat ones.

It's been a long day, and I'm bloody tired. 

I've stopped working in Crabby Quarters now.

Feet up.   Might not go with Stew for his walk this evening.

I'll see how I feel in an hour.

ABOVE: The mad dog took over an hour to calm down enough for me to get a photo of post-groom.  That weird tuft above her eye?  I did that a few days ago when she couldn't see for hair in her eyes.  I got a bit 'rash' and just chopped the hair off.  Mucked up her look for a few weeks I did.  It's just another 'bad hair day', sorry Coco.

STORAGE

 

Today is another Coffee & Chat morning.  So I shall wander down to the Community Centre at 10 and spend an hour listening to various conversations, chucking my 2 cents worth in and then coming home.

And sewing.  I'm determined to get as many placemats ready for market over the next two weeks.  Most of the ones on my work table are more 'tasteful', not loud, bright ones.  

I am still tempted to do some in that new, cute heart fabric... just not sure?  Maybe if I used some of that fabric and mixed it up with some more plain fabric it would work.  

So, that's my plan for the day.  What's yours?  Anyone got exciting shit happening? Dogstars... how's ya film work going? 

I have Stew's car today.  This afternoon I shall, (all going well), be picking up our new bedroom 'drawers'.  They have to come down from Auckland and I have been told they will arrive this afternoon sometime.  Whoop!  I've done some work sorting out my clothes, but have left most of it for now. No point rushing eh?  😂😉

ONWARD...

12.10 pm.  I chose not to attend C & C this morning, the placemats were on my mind too  much.

I continued cutting out and pinning and now...

ABOVE:  I'm in the thick of doing the quilting.  I think I'll be there for quite a while doing that.  And it's really cold in the garage.  I might have to stop soon just to warm up.

Lacy came around and I sent her up into the attic to find something. And she found 'it' straight away.  I was so damn happy, it was something I feared I'd gotten rid of when we moved.

It holds some powerful memories, and knowing I still have it literally made my day.

MORE ON THAT THING on the 14TH of OCTOBER.  It's going to be a 'special' post on that day.  

OK, back to my sewing...

4.15 pm, and I'm making great progress in the sewing room.  Very happy with what I've managed to get done so far on the new batch of placemats.

Now though, I'm calling it quits.

I'm going to walk to the Weight Watchers meeting this evening, and Stew will pick me up afterwards.

It will be a nice distance, probably about 3 kms?  Not 100 % sure, but I know it will take me about half an hour.

6.30 pm, and I'm home much earlier than anticipated.  I walked the 2.94 kms to the meeting (took me 28 minutes), and once there sat a yakked for a little while.  Our usual coach was away, so we had a reliever coach.  And she couldn't unlock the cupboard holding the scales, so she cancelled the meeting.

One of the ladies there heard I was now going to be walking home and offered me a lift.  So I jumped in her car and she dropped me home again.  That was very nice of her, as she didn't know me at all.

Now I'm feeling a bit tired, I've been on the go literally all day.

Time to just sit and do what we do in the evenings.  Relax.  Watch the telly, do puzzles on the phone or laptop and sometimes yak.   

Oh and I forgot to say, I did pick up the new item of furniture for our bedroom after lunch as well.  Stew just got it out of the car.  I will now sit and look at it for a few days until he puts it together in the weekend.  *sigh*

Right, that's me for the day, catch ya tomorrow.

SUNSHINE

 

Quite a few people had expressed concern about the new window's placement.  How I will have sun on my face, get too hot, sun fade on my fabrics etc. 

I have thought of this in depth, and this is my solution:

ABOVE:  Vertical fabric blinds, that are made with 100% sun blocking fabric.  I can have them pulled all the way to the side, to allow maximum sun/light in, or pulled across and angled one way or the other... depending on where the sun is.  I can close them completely when I want total privacy, or when we go away/out.

I can angle them so I can see out, but 'they' cannot see in.  Perfect solution.  I cannot wait for it all to happen.  It's going to make such a difference to my Crabby Quarters.

My sewing trolley is loaded, ready for Craft Group today.  I'm still working on Placemats.  I didn't realise we have a market in just two weeks time... I thought I had more time.  So now I have to get moving, so I have plenty of choice for the summer markets.

ONWARD...

2.55 pm... and I'm home from Craft Group.  I went down at around 9.45 and got stuck into making placemats.  My goal was to get at least 6 fully made today while down there.

ABOVE: I got four kitten placemats made, and two Labrador dog ones. 

And they won't be going into my market stash... because two ladies bought them immediately!

I can't even show you the dog ones as they were sold and out the door before I could get a photo... luckily I can make more of them.  NOT the kitten ones though, I only had enough of that fabric to make 4 placemats.

I hadn't even started making the Labrador ones and they were SOLD... I was like... bloody hell!  OK.  I now need to make more cat/dogs placemats.

But not today.  I'm knackered, after not sleeping well last night , or the night before, or the night before... for months!  I don't know why I'm struggling to get to sleep and stay asleep?  Most annoying.  Oh well.. that's life I suppose.

My appetite has certainly taken a massive dive since getting up to 1 mg of WEGOVY!  I have had three small pieces of almond flour 'bread' for lunch, hardly enough to make a sparrow fart, and I'm simply not hungry!  It's great.  😊  I'm not even thinking of food.  So weird, it used to be all I'd think about when I woke in the morning.

7.05 pm.   When Stew arrived home from work, we went for a walk.  I decided to take Coco with us.  Yeah.  NOT the best idea.  She did really well for the first half, then she slowed and then she started wobbling a bit, so this happened:

ABOVE: She got carried for a while.  Once we got back to the village she walked a bit more.  But I won't be taking her for our walks anymore, she simply can't do it.  Little walks around the village are still OK, but that's it. 

It was a perfect evening for a walk, fine with some crispness in the air.  

And now we are going to settle down and just relax for the evening.  

Catch ya tomorrow.

JUST PUT IT OUT THERE

 

Yesterday when I showed those salt and pepper shakers, and said I wanted some... I KNEW someone would hunt them down for me!

THANK YOU PAULA R from Christchurch... and a couple of other ladies as well.

I now know exactly where to get them:

ABOVE: The only decision now is... which ones? Top ones are from Fishpond.co.nz and the bottom ones are from Fruugo.co.nz. 

You can even get them in coloured glass.  I prefer the clear ones.   I might get both sets, then I can see their size in real life.  Which ever set I choose not to keep can become a gift.  WIN WIN. 

Now what else do I want you to find for me???  😂😅😊  Gotta love my internet friends.  

Now, back to the day.

I am going to crack the whip and get Stew to move things on Crabby Quarter's wall, so the position where the new window will go is clear.

I am 99.9% positive I will get the 'official' go ahead, as the Village Manager simply can't say no,  having already said 'yes' last week.  

AND there has been a precedent set by my other immediate neighbour, who got a new window on a blank brick wall just a month ago.    AND yet another neighbour just in front of our home is also changing his windows to ranch sliders... and getting a new fence too.

So  yeah.... I'm forging ahead with getting our area ready.

That will take up a little bit of time, as I might need to take all the fabric strips off the backing so Stew can move it.  Also, the shelf with the big roll of batting has to be moved as well.  Stew loves me, he really does.  lol

I'm sure he is hoping I don't come up with any more bright ideas.

Can you have too many clothes?  I don't think so!

But in saying that, my wardrobe is NOT big enough, so I am going out to get myself a cheapish tall boy (drawers) to hold all my sweatshirts etc.  They are all piled up in big boxes in the bottom of my wardrobe right now... and there's even more on the top shelves that I can't even reach.

I am annoyed because we 'got rid' of at least two sets of drawers when we moved here, thinking we didn't need them.  Bugger.  

So, I am going to check out, online, what's available and then go get some.

ONWARD...

Success! We looked in about 6 different shops at bedroom drawers and finally found the perfect thing. So happy with it, but have to wait till next weekend before its here, assembled and in place.

STORAGE... is incredibly lacking in our little home. The garage is fully utilized for my sewing stuff. There is nowhere else to store summer or winter clothes not in use. I will be doing a sort out during the week and getting rid of anything I don't still fit or want. But I still need more storage, hence what we bought today. And I'm not gunna show you until its in our room. 

ABOVE: And there we are... the fabric board has moved over, and the window will go above my sewing deck.

We decided not to move the high shelf right now, as it might not even need to be moved.

Another good job done.  And now.. taking a break.  Stew is thrilled to bits, he is now watching rugby in peace.

4 - 6 I lay on our bed and just relaxed.  Might have nodded off for a minute too.  BLISS.

Then Stew and I went for a walk up the hill and visited some friends in the village for a little while. Then we continued our walk for a bit longer before coming home.

Stew is going to cook up some bacon and whatever for our dinner.

I've got my sewing trolley loaded up, ready for tomorrow's craft group.  One less thing to do in the morning.

Time to sign off for the day, catch ya tomorrow.