Round Up Sept

Wow September sure flew by huh? Seems like yesterday I was recapping August and everything that happened and here I am with another month done. Sheesh! As my Mum would say "Soon be Christmas"! Well here is a chance to take a little dip into my life and see what else I have been up to this month, aside from blogging ;)

What books and/or magazines did I read this month? 

Still on the quest to keep reading and this month was a super book heavy month. Not sure why really. I guess I just got my inner bookworm on. Mostly though it was because of this first book, which I devoured in one day!

 

Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris. I love the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, I love True Blood. I love vampire books/series/movies. I sat down with this book and read it cover to cover one Saturday afternoon. Yes they grip me that much! I pretty much did the same with the previous 9 books in this series and the Twilight series (not as keen on the Twilight Movie - Bad!). I was also the same with the *Brian Lumley books (great vampire/supernatural author, more grim and grizzly than Charlaine Harris but great series - Necroscope) *NOT suitable for children!

 

Throw out 50 things (clear the clutter, find your life) by Gail Blake. Wow I got this because we are in the process of tidying, organizing, decluttering, purging whatever you want to call it. Basically this book tells it like it is. STUFF doesn't make you happy, Keeping stuff just complicates our lives and makes things harder to do. We all have too much stuff. This book helps you work through areas in your home and throw out things. I didn't use this book as a work tool, more as an inspiration tool. It made me be more ruthless for sure!

Last dog on the hill by Steve Duno. If you love dogs, you will LOVE this book. I am a sucker for a dog story, dog movie, and basically anything dogs and this book came recommended so I figured why not? What ensued was a Sunday afternoon, chuckling, smilling, grinning, empathizing, and understanding. Basically it's the story of the author Duno and his dog Lou, how they met, their toils, their first years, growth together, learning together, and their love for each other. You WILL get so invested in this book that the last chapter will leave you in tears.... trust me! Well worth the read! If you enjoyed Marley & Me (book not the movie, the movie kinda sucked!), this book is 10x better!

Going long, stories from Runners World. I got this book because I needed some running inspiration, training for a 1/2 marathon can leave you a little flat of energy and inspiration. Anyway the first section of the book was "inspiration". Full of stories of disabled runners, comeback hero's and runners fighting adversity. The rest of the book: not a patch on the first half. I would rather have had the whole book filled with these people! The runners who lost limbs, who got run over by a bus and run marathons later. The runners that get stuck in the outback for 3 days with no food or water (dog to the rescue, yay!). THOSE are the stories I want to read about, if anyone has any recommendations for other inspiring running/fitness books leave me a comment! In all a good book but the first section MADE this book!

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

 

Predator (blu-ray) We got this ages ago as part of a promotion, hell I don't even remember what the promotion was but we got about 5 Blu-Rays and hardly watched any. I have to say this movie was exactly as I remembered it. Crappy acting, but good storyline. Seriously how Arnold Schwarzenegger had an acting career is beyond me! And how the hell did he get into politics? Mind boggles!

The Expendables, pretty rubbish storyline but it's all you can expect from a "guy movie". It's basically all action, explosions, fights and no story. Which is just what we were in the mood for when we watched it. Just don't expect anything deep and meaningful and you'll be ok!

28 weeks later. I mentioned last month we had this movie to watch, but we wanted to rewatch 28 days later before it. So we did and then 28 week later came up on the movie list. Honestly it left you with so many unanswered questions. It follows on from the last movie, yet it doesn't. The characters you saw in the first movie aren't in the second one so you don't know if they made it or not. 28 weeks later was an ok movie in it's own right though, but everything was kind of obvious as to what was going to happen. Or maybe I'm just a storyline genius?

Get him to the Greek. We watched this recently and when Bob suggested it I immediately though "urgh, whatever, sure" but ended up quite enjoying it. I have to say I haven't really watched much Russell Brand stuff, except one of his gigs recorded but other than that I haven't had much exposure and thought he was a bit of an ass, and I still do but... he's a bit of a weird funny ass. I like people that can make fun of themselves and don't take things so seriously, and I think he does this well. However I have no idea how the hell he is so sexually successful as I find him physically and socially blah! Takes all sorts I guess. So yeah, funny movie, and Sean Combs was funny as hell!

Probably forgetting a few other movies, but those are the ones that spring to mind. TV wise well everything either ended or started again. Greys Anatomy started again, as did Dexter and House, oh an Biggest Loser. Can't help but watch Biggest Loser!!!

What special days did I celebrate and how?

September was our 12th Wedding Anniversary, wow talk about time flying! We didn't do much, but Bob and I both had the day off work and we went out for lunch to Follow Your Heart, a great vegetarian cafe. Neither of us had been there for a long while so it was nice to go again after a long hiatus. In the evening we decided to stay local and just headed to Red Robin. We like it there cos of the bottomless steak fries with malt vinegar. It feels like real "chippy chips" from back home, especially with vinegar! And yes they do a veggie burger!

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

None for me, though Bob had flu for a week! So he was out of it for 4-5 days, just staying in bed and catching up on movies/tv etc. Sky was diagnosed with Pancreatitis but seems to be making a great recovery. As a bonus we now have them both on diets and they are losing some weight!

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

Dinner with Chris, Alecia (and her older sister) oh and I wore nail polish for the first time in a LONG time! We always seem to go out for food with friends and there is usually a lot of that going on. Other than a few meals out September was a slow month as Bob was off for a week with Flu :( I have managed to avoid it!

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

Back to Follow Your Heart as I mentioned. Not new but oh so good and felt new as we hadn't been there in SO long! I had the broccoli soup, 'meat'ball sub and we shared a slice of the chocolate raspberry cake (took it to go and had it later). Great food if you are in the valley!

We went to Lenors vegetarian Mexican restaurant one lunchtime and although I am not a fan of Mexican food I was happy to see a few other things on the menu so I left the Mexican stuff for the boys and I had Spaghetti with their veggie meatballs. It was delicious, the sauce was awesome and the dish it had a nice spicy kick to it! I LOVE pasta in all forms so seeing pasta on the menu I knew my choice was done!

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

I bought a few pieces of make-up this month which I already blogged about. We bought a new toaster and Waffle Maker, both of which I'll be doing reviews on soon :) Love me some kitchen appliances!!! So far loving both! I also bought a hydration belt (similar to this one) and body glide for my 1/2 marathon this weekend! Eeeks!

What were this month’s disappointments?

Not so much disappointment as major sadness. The dogs lost one of their favorite pals this month. On Monday 27th Sept, 15 year old Tara took her last walk and headed over to rainbow bridge :( She will always be remembered as the gentle and loving dog, one of those dogs that was just one of kind. My heart goes out to Tricia and her family as they deal with their loss :(

RIP Starlite's Tantalizing Tara 1995-2010

Aside from Sky, Tara was River's favorite dog. We never really saw Tara much as she got older, as she couldn't walk as far, but River truly loved her. Just the mention of the name "Tara" and her ears would prick up, the head would raise and she'd get excited looking for her pal. Sky has always been more afraid of the Tara fluffball but in the 7 years we've known Tara she's helped Sky a lot with her 'fraidy cat issues. You will be missed Tara!

What were my accomplishments this month?

I Taught my first PiYo class :) It was just a sub cover class but it went well and gave me lots of feedback on what I personally need to work on. Everyone in the class seemed to enjoy it. It's not yoga and it's not pilates. PiYo is balance, strength and core.

I also taught my first class at Golds gym! This was butterflies in the stomach all over again as it's a pretty intimidating place! Anyway the class was packed and went very well, I got LOTS of positive feedback from the class. In fact just Tuesday the regular instructor called asking me to cover again as the members loved me so much! Good to hear!!!

Ran a 1/2 marathon in training. Such a milestone for me, and gave me the satisfaction in knowing I CAN run that far!

Other news

Bob was away for 4 days this month with work. He went to Kelowna, Canada to visit Club Penguin. Lots of meetings etc and we chatted via text, phone and Skype. It's weird when Bob isn't here. River sulks the first night like I am withholding her favorite human from her, she is such a Daddy's girl! On Skype she doesn't get that he's 'in' the computer, and when I say "look it's Daddy" she gets up barking running to the front door! Dogs are nutty sometimes :)

Kelowna

While Bob was gone I did a little cleaning up :) I tidied off the kitchen/dining table, and reorganized the kitchen. This was WELL overdue so it gave me a great sense of satisfaction. Still a lot to do for house reorganizing - decluttering - tidying - purging but we are making progress. We also moved the pinball machines into the house this month!

Work in progress

We also had our side fence replaced this month, from a chain link fence overgrown with ivy, to a wooden fence. Looks so much better! Plus I don't get attacked by bees when I take the bins out to the curb now! Bonus! This is another step forward in the house/yard renovation, things are progressing slowly but they ARE progressing! Since this photo was taken the blocks have been set and have caps on :) Everything looks tidier!

So onto October!!! Wheeeeee!

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Pinball Wizard & Randomness

So I know I said I was gonna be busy tidying/organizing and purging my scraproom/office and I have done a lot in there but we kinda got sidetracked with house cleaning. We decided to move around some furniture and move the pinballs from the garage into the house. Right now it all looks a bit of a state as we are still sorting and purging but things are taking shape! Here are a couple of photo's of the work in progress, in the dark so you can the pinball amazingness :)

This is Rescue 911 and Hook. These are two pinballs I love and are "mine" so hence they are in the dining area? I love Rescue 911 because it's just fun with the little helicopter and 'rescuing' people. Hook is a "project machine" we bought recently but I have always wanted one (along with Adams family) as these were the two pinballs Bob and I used to play in an arcades during our vacations at Skegness water leisure park. Just a little piece of Bob & Di history :)

These three reside in the lounge and from R-L are Whirlwind, Fishtails and Tails from the Crypt. Eventually an arcade machine will go the left of these machines. I am thinking Space Invaders but we'll see...

Yeah I know I know not everyone has pinballs in their houses (ok some of our friends do) but we don't have kids, just dogs so why not enjoy the space and our hobbies? And yes local friends we DO plan on having a pinball party at some point soon!

And onto the randomness part of todays post. This:

It's September right? This was yesterdays temperature! Yes you are seeing that correctly 108 degrees! Saturday was 102, sunday was 106 but the weather forecast was for a cooling trend after the weekend. Guess no-one told the Sun this?

Why is this important? Well I am supposed to run my 1/2 marathon race this weekend! Thinking of moving to the North Pole!!!!

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Monday Mavens

Another round of inspiration this Monday to kick off the week! Get creative peeps!!!

DIY Ruffle Asymmetrical Shirt

On Craft recently Erica Domesek shared a tutorial on making this awesome One should ruffle shirt from a regular t-shirt. I have been very into t-shirt refashions for a long time, since a lot of mine no longer fit after losing 30lbs and getting back into shape. I especially love the cutting tutorials (no sew) but this one seems pretty easy and looks awesome! Check out the tutorial on Craft.

Sewing on Cards

I've recently been seeing a lot of sewing on cards again, I guess just like fashion trends in crafting go round and round and something old is new again. I've been thinking lately about doing sewing on cards again so it was interesting to see this feature on Craft recently.

I've been seeing other forms of sewing on cards from just machine stitching, to embroidery to full designs. It's definitely given me the sewing bug for crafting on cards but more than that it's got me thinking of making designs specific for crafting on cards! I think maybe a challenge coming up!!!

Heat Wave Halter

Seem to be on a sewing kick lately with the inspiration and so here is another sewing inspiration on making this cute halter/boob tube from a mans shirt. This was inspired by fashion from Forever21 but done on the cheap (or free if you raid a guys wardrobe). Full tutorial at: My Gramma Said

Specialty Cakes

I'm not much of a baker, or have much of a sweet tooth but thought this was just amazing! There is a Flikr group called Specialty Cakes and the inspiration there is beyond awesome! Check out this octopus cake! Yes this is a CAKE! Talent like this amazes me, it's beyond belief to think this is EDIBLE! It's a work of art! And here I thought my Aunt Sue was great for making a hedgehog cake when I was younger! Check out the group on flikr for more great cakes!

Finally this week I thought I'd leave you with some creative space inspiration...

When I saw this pop up on my google reader I just thought "WOW what a great color for a creative room!". I love the wall color, the furniture and the pops of color. Blues have been my favorite color hues for a while now so this really speaks to me! I've been thinking of painting my room for a while but just cannot decide on a color so it remains white :( Not very creative at all. Maybe it's time to get some paint on the walls??? Check out the allsorts blog for more details and pics of her creative space!

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Digital Scrapbooking Sunday

Celebrations is a page kit made for Birthdays or special occasions but with only one themed element the kit would suit a variety of occasions! The color palette is Orange, Yellow, Pink and hint of blue.

The kit includes:

• 3 textured solid papers
• 5 patterned papers
• Coordinating embellishments including: brads, bookplate, photo anchors, buttons, flower, ribbons, bow, stamps, and stitching

Priced at just $2 and remember all my digital products are S4O/S4H friendly! Available at Di Hickman Designs and Scrapwow!

Enjoy your Sunday! I'm up early to go teach Spinning :)

Di

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