Goals

Exercise-wise last week should have started out on a good note as on Monday we headed out to Monsal Dale to do a 7 mile walk, but as the ground was so frozen we walked so slowly in terms of my fitness it made no difference what-so-ever. It was a bitterly cold walk but we enjoyed some great views at the start.

Monsal Viaduct

Looking towards Preistcliffe

High Dale

River Wye

The route and  more images can be found on my Peak Walker website which also had an upgrade this week and is now responsive, so it works on mobile phones etc.

Other commitments meant Tuesday and Wednesday were going to be difficult days to fit any exercise in so it was Thursday before I finally got to the gym. In the end although I was a 10 miles short of the total for the previous week I still managed 42 miles and remain on target for reaching the goal I set myself of covering 2018 miles this year. I also found a Facebook Group that comprises of a group of people who are aiming to walk 1000 miles this year, so I've joined that as well just to give me two goals to aim for, my 2018 goal includes time on the bike at the gym and swimming.

I've also been thinking about my stitching and have decided that rather than picking up Celtic Autumn, putting a few stitches in her and not getting any sense of achievement I would start working on some of the small projects I have on the go. On Thursday I put a few stitches in a PIF I was doing for someone and never finished. If  When I get it finished I will have to track them down and send them it. Whilst I was searching through my stash I also found a Travelling Stitching Pattern I appear to have never started, now I know that fell apart because I started my HNC just after my second cataract operation and found I never had time to pick my needle up. I aim to get that started and moving again. Stitching-wise that is properly enough to be going on with for now. Hopefully my next post will contain some stitching pictures, I just have to get back into the habit of taking before and after shots.

Of course the really big goal for this year is to build up my photography portfolio and start working as a freelance photographer which is quite daunting, but nothing ventured nothing gained and the worst I can do is fail.

Custard Anyone?

Thanks to Son we now have rather a lot of custard to eat, in fact we have that much to eat I think we'll need to buy a cow for all the milk we are going to need! Son is an Adult Instructor with the local Army Cadets, the idea that my son is an adult is a concept that I still struggle with but I digress!! Last weekend he was away on a training course and returned on Sunday with a 3.5 kg pack of custard powder, yes I got that right 3.5 kg. Guess I won't be buying any custard at Sainsburys for the next year or so.

The kitchens at the camp were closing that day for an upgrade and giving away all the food that they couldn't use and he grabbed a 'bag' of custard. Not sure how many years it will take us to use it up but if I was to make the whole bag up at once I would need 46.5 litres or 10 gallons and 2 pints of milk and 2.3 kg of sugar. Mind if you think that's bad one of his friends went home with 12 bags of the stuff in the boot if his car, apparently they eat an awful lot of custard in their house!!!

Sewing wise very little has been done during the last week as most of my time and energy has been spent getting the flyers out to promote Husband's business. Thankfully they have worked well and the leads, meetings and quotes are happening at a fantastic rate which is great news.

The other good news is that I have lost weight, not sure if it's the exercise or worrying about loosing the house that is doing it, I suspect the latter. I currently go from thinking everything will be alright to feeling really worried that we will loose the house etc, etc. The reality is that the business is starting to take off and Husband has jobs to apply for so no doubt everything will be OK but I just can't shake off the feeling that we could end up loosing everything. It doesn't help that Christmas is coming, a time of year that I absolutely love but this year I hate the fact that we are having to say to everyone, "Sorry no presents this year". For someone who hates shopping this is the one time of year I adore it as I love choosing and wrapping the gifts for my family and this year I just can't enjoy it as I'm just thinking of whom I'm not buying gifts etc for.

Needless to say my sewing mojo has also disappeared but I have managed to do a small amount of work on Love Songs. Aside from the flyering working on Love Songs is the only target from last week I managed to achieve so I shall roll most of them over to this week.


It felt strange to be working on aida after so much time spent working on linen but my eyes were grateful for the rest, especially as I was often shattered from the hours spent flyering.

Hopefully this week I'll feel a little more inspired and get on with the things that need doing such as starting my Christmas shopping and making my Christmas Puddings. The day I steam my puddings is normally the day I start wrapping my presents so I'd better go and buy some. Mind the turkey is already in the freezer as they were half price at Sainsburys last week so I grabbed one before they sold out!!

A Goals Catch Up & Flyering

Setting goals on a weekly basis is defiantly more successful than setting them by the month. That said I'm still too ambitious with how much I try to achieve so it's not surprising that I didn't do as much as I hoped. I also have to admit that when I made these goals I wasn't expecting to see Friday and Saturday become days spent flyering for Husband's business.

Swim - Twice a week (60 lengths) - Done
Gym - Go three times - Done
Walks - At least once a week - Done
Website - Post last 3 walks - No although I did get one walk posted
Love Songs - Work on it at least once -Yes, I worked on it for two evenings
Celtic Autumn SAL - Stitch on it at least once - Yes, worked on it for two evenings
Good Friend's Count SAL - Finish - No
Christmas Cards - Finish second one - No
Greenhouse - Clear out & clean - No

There will be fewer goals this week because most of my time is going to be spent flyering but as it has already produced several new leads I'm not complaining, although it was pretty miserable flyering yesterday in the rain by myself. Today in the sunshine and with Husband for company it was quite pleasant. Needless to say the goals aren't going to include many to do with getting fitter as the 3- 5 hours flyering each day are more than enough exercise, especially when you consider that where I live is essentially a collection of hills with lots of slopes and steps up to letterboxes.

Next weeks goals are:

Swim - One session of 60 lengths
Walking - Hopefully I'll be out walking on Friday
Flyering - Get them all out by the end of next weekend
Christmas Cards - Finish 2nd one
Love Songs - Stitch on it at least once
Celtic Autumn - Stitch on it at least once

I plan on doing some more work on Love Songs tonight, if I can keep my eyes open long enough, so I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

A Lot of Driving and Not Much Stitching

It's Wednesday already and I haven't done any sewing for over a week. Time seems to be disappearing at the moment.

Last week I did manage to do some work on Celtic Autumn on Monday although I'm fast realising that I need to work on her during the day as I seem to make more mistakes working on linen at night. I haven't had time to pick her up this week but I might set some time aside to work on her tomorrow morning before work.

I have also done some more work on Love Songs although I had to frog a bit that I had done ages ago as I discovered a mistake, which didn't make me vary happy.

Daughter has returned to University which meant that Wednesday saw us making a trip to London and back and not getting home until 11:00 pm. We took her stuff down and she went on the train as we can't fit her in the car. We also had to pick up four boxes we had stored at a friends house over the summer. Of course we also had to take her shopping to stock up on food etc which was very expensive. It was a very, very long day.

On Thursday Husband decided he'd like to go camping for the weekend so we booked a campsite for Saturday night planned two walks and headed to the Lakes for the weekend. We left at 7:15am Saturday morning and returned at 10:30 pm Sunday night. I reached a significant milestone in my attempt to complete the Birketts (a list of 541 tops over 1000 feet in the Lake District) as I reached the half way point of 271 done, 270 to go, on the last top on the Sunday. The first summit of the weekend was not gained easily and my knees and shins are covered in bruises but we had a fun, if somewhat exhausting, weekend.

Having looked at my list of plans for the month I realise I'm going to fail miserably at most of them but maybe I'll let myself off as I did make the list before I started my new job. This weekend we have said we are having a quiet weekend at home so maybe I'll get to tackle some of the jobs in the garden then. I might even find some time to do some stitching.

Old & New Targets

When I set August's targets I thought they were quite ambitious. My biggest mistake in setting them was not taking into account the effect of the Olympics. As you can see I didn't do very well.

Get swim up to 60 lengths - 9th August
Get 1/3 of Love Songs finished - No 19 % done
Complete Jayne's Attic Monthly Challenge - No, stitching done but not finished
Make a pinkeep - No
Start Christmas cards - No
Read Lorna Doone - Started but finding it hard going although improving
Get website up-to-date - No one walk behind now, so an improvement
Fit in at least one 10+ mile walk - No
Attend the gym at least twice a week - No

Never one to throw in the towel at the first sign of trouble here goes with a new set for September

Swim - Up to 70 lengths
Gym - Go at least twice a week
Walks - At least one a week
Walks - Build distance up to over 10 miles again
Website - Get & keep up to date
Reading - Finish Lorna Doone
Love Songs - 40% completed
Celtic Autumn SAL - Stitch on it at least once a week
Good Friend's Count SAL - Keep up to date on it.
Christmas Cards - Finish two
Greenhouse - Clear out & clean
Back Garden - Plant bulbs, remove buddleia, paint fence
Front Garden- Weed, plant up tubs for winter

That should keep me out of trouble. Especially when you take into consideration that we hope to get away on holiday twice this month and the Quiz League starts again soon, so as Treasurer I'll have accounts to sort out.