wagwaan?

Playing catch-up

You'll have to forgive me for not posting sooner, but what with one thing and another, I haven't been up to it. Before I post last weekend's pics, did you see the Royal Wedding? Sigh.  It was lovely, wasn't it? I did get a bit choked up at times. I hope they'll be very happy together and we can look forward to the patter of tiny Royal feet very soon. I'm sure Kate won't want to wait too long, being nearly 30 and all!

Anyway, this one will be picture heavy but light on words. I just wanted to show you my pictures of Camden:

(yes, that's a table full of weed in front of Mr Marley there!)

Loving this wall in the curved staircase. Wanted to take a moody picture of the boyf leaning against the bricks, but he wasn't having any of it. I'm a poor, misunderstood artist...

Next up, we left The Stables Market and went for a walk down the High Street:

You wouldn't guess that it was a scorcher of a day with clear blue skies - it just looks washed out here.

And lastly, our Easter choccies and presents:

I prepared the baskets for Claire and the boyf - he doesn't "do" holidays, so I didn't get him an Easter egg, but rather a box of After Eights instead. Claire was too generous, and got me the Glee egg + mug you can see, together with a sweet card ("Easter Tweetings"), a bunny lollipop, Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert and 3 sweet Cath Kidston notebooks, which I've started using already. She's my darling girl!

Right, I'm done in after cutting the grass in the garden earlier today, so I'm going to call it a day.  Toodle pip.

 

Rule Britannia!

Celebrating in style!

What a weekend

Sorry if I've been MIA for a while but it was quite a weekend - for all the wrong reasons!  On Friday I made sure I rested because the boyf and I had plans to go to London on Saturday. Saturday dawned hot and sunny and we made our way to Camden to see a photo exhibition. After looking at the stunning photos we wandered around The Stables Market - for the moment I've just uploaded one lot of pictures for you:

(click to see bigger)

The place was absolutely packed as you can see!  We made it home before a huge thunderstorm, thank goodness, and I got an early night (more pictures will follow).

Easter Sunday dawned just as gorgeous, if a little fresher thanks to the rain overnight. My friend Stéphie came to pick me and Claire up to go to Mass at our old church. It was lovely, although the church was full to bursting. Thank goodness I'd had the foresight to make sure we got there early.  After Mass we came home and had a cup of tea and a natter... and nibbled on the chocolates that we'd given up for Lent.

In the afternoon I started to feel really, really tired, and I thought it was just payback for my busy outing. Sadly, the tiredness turned to sickness and I ran a fever of 38.7 C that night, and was laid low all of Easter Monday - another gorgeously sunny day.  

What a way to spend the loveliest weekend of the year!   I have only started to feel well since this afternoon, so you'll have to wait a while for the other photos.  Oh, and Claire has come down with sickness tonight, so I expect she'll be off work tomorrow, bless her!

Well, that's it from me for the moment. I hope you all had a much lovelier Easter than I did :) 

 

20lbs off!

I'm so excited: I've lost 20lbs since my birthday and I'm feeling great. 

Not only that, I've lost 3" (or 8cm) off my waist, and my BMI has dropped by 2.5 points. I'm most excited about the loss of belly fat, because I know the implications of carrying weight round your middle. 

The "homework" for this week is to start increasing your exercise and to use a pedometer. I used to have one, but I'm darned if I can lay my hands on it. A healthy target is 10,000 steps a day and I know I do waaay less than that, what with still being in recovery, but I know I need to increase the amount.  

Whenever I get a bit down about how little I feel I can do, I remember the wise words of, well someone, and think how far I've come since I came out of hospital. They said don't compare yourself with you before, but compare yourself with how you were when you came home. It makes a lot of sense. I can remember a time when 3 minutes on my friend Liz's treadmill at a snail's pace wore me out! 

Anyway, I'm a happy bunny today, which is quite appropriate seeing as it's Easter and all....  And I allowed myself two small Hot Cross Buns for breakfast too!

Enjoy yourselves out there - don't forget the sunscreen!

 

I'm so blessed

Yesterday Claire came home with a present for me - just because. She knows how much I love my Philippa Gregory books, and how I've been waiting for The Red Queen to come out in paperback. Well, now I can read it! I love my daughter so much, especially when she does sweet little things like that. 

Not only that, but she surprised me in the morning by doing the washing up, unprompted, too.  I don't like to gloat, but she's a good 'un, my girl.

Well, Good Friday is here, and it's Hot Cross Buns for breakfast, diet or no. Then I need to get my decorating mojo on, and if the weather is fine I shall be doing some gardening later too. 

Happy Easter!

Music

I've apparently been living under a rock, but I just saw this rather lovely young man, David Garrett, on Loose Women. I love his style of crossover classical/rock played on a £4.5 million Stradivarius....

In a different genre, I watched the gorgeous Hugh Laurie on Jools Holland the other night.  He is a dab-hand with a keyboard and has written some of his own stuff. If you like jazzy songs, click here for your free download. Although he says it's "the blues", this song sounds jazzy to me. What do I know?).

 

^_^

This is for SR, who asked to see the new "do".  It's not that different, really. Just slightly shorter and spikier on top, although it's not that apparent from this picture.

Although I took it in the mirror, I flipped it so I look more or less how you would see me, if that makes sense. I realise I'm going greyer and greyer, but that's ok. I never coloured my hair before because of my scalp psoriasis, and when I tried recently with some non-permanent colour it just made the grey bits look yellow and nasty, so I'm going to just let it do its thang.  

That was this morning, before I spent 2 hours at the Job Centre with the disability employment consultant. I'm not disabled in the way most people understand the word, but as I'm in receipt of the ESA since my little brain frazzle last year, the Government want to make sure I try and find some kind of work at some point. The lady I saw was lovely - she said it was her last day; the new Government are doing a big shake-up and who knows what's going to happen next; she doesn't even know if she'll still have a job in a few months, but she was obliged to see all the people who had been referred to her before 21st April.  We talked about how hard it is to come to terms with being changed through illness, and also about any help that will be forthcoming for me to become self-employed.  She was really sweet and, although I was yawning my way through the interview, I felt understood and supported. 

I got the bus home and had an early lunch, then tried to nap. I was sooo tired but I couldn't fall asleep. So annoying when that happens!  I finished my book and Claire and I are going to watch the movie soon.  I have to say, and this is just my personal opinion, but I really, really enjoyed the read. Maybe it's because I'm in a particularly spiritual frame of mind lately. Anyway, for me, it gets a big thumbs up.  I suppose it's good that we don't all like the same things, right? The world would be a pretty boring place otherwise!

And just before I sign off, here's an oldie for you: a pic of the OH landing after paragliding from the top of a mountain in the Pyrenees. Gosh, it's a few years ago now, but I have such good memories of that trip to see my sis and her family! Happy times, lots of laughter, it seems a lifetime away from the stresses of more recent weeks and months....  (where was it Caro - Bagnères de Luchon ?).

(photo is of a digital layout I did way back when I was still scrapbooking...)

My favourite time of the year*

(*ok, I probably say that about other times of the year, but I just LOVE Easter!)

I'm thinking about how I can decorate the house for Easter. It's such a lovely time of year, especially when the sun is shining like right now, and if I can bring some of that beauty inside, then it's all good.

As usual, Martha does it big-style, so I pinched a few photos from her website to illustrate this post:

 

bunny ears!

I've done something like this before and will probably do it this year:

I do like these découpage eggs, but it won't look the same on brown eggs, will it?

I'll no doubt be uploading the results of my little Easter decorating jag later in the week :)

Let's Move

Beyoncé has joined Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign and is encouraging kids to eat healthily and move more.... What's not to like about that?  I shall prance and dance around the room (with the blinds closed) and no one will be any the wiser, but it'll help with my fitness regime!

 

 

 

Your invite to the Royal Wedding!

Well, the auction is live.  Check out Rose & Bird's blog to find out more.