finishing some layouts

To prove that I do actually finish things, here are some of my recent layouts.

The first two have been sitting around half finished in the good old "in progress" file for longer than I care to admit.

Autumn Leaves at the Botanical Gardens June 2010

Upside Down May 2010

This is a direct scraplift of a layout I saw in a book I borrowed from the library a couple of years ago. I can't remember the name of the book, but the designer of the layout is Tracey Odachowski. Take a look at the fancy cutting out there.

The third layout has also been sitting in the "in progress" file for a while, but only because I found the toilet training scrapbooking paper (yes, there is such a thing!) in my local shop and wanted to make sure I remembered to use it. I wasn't going to use any photos, just the chart. Then I saw a Becky Fleck sketch that had a large photo with some small round photos/embellishments and thought it would look good to use some small photos as well to tell the story of our toilet training experience. The journalling is hidden behind the chart - the blue tab at the top is where you can pull it out.

Toilet Training April 2010

And two more just because I finished them:

Santa 2011

Using some very old s.e.i papers.

I can read May 2012

I saw the pre-cut title for this page and knew it would be perfect for these photos, which were taken on Mothers Day this year. It's based on a sketch from Creating Keepsakes magazine.

healthy heart - week 1

I've now completed Week 1 of the Healthy Heart Challenge.

At the start of the week, I set my goal for the week: to walk for 10 minutes each day. My aim was to start working out the best time or times of each day when it might be possible for me to incorporate exercise.

I was rather pleased with my efforts:

Monday: 2 x 15 minute walks
Tuesday: 2 x 10 minute walks
Wednesday: 1 x 15 minute walk and 1 x 25 minute walk
Thursday: 2 x 20 minute walks
Friday: 1 x 15 minute walk
Saturday: 1 x 25 minute walk and 1 x 20 minute walk
Sunday: 1 x 40 minute walk

That's well above that I set out to do.

This week I'm on holidays, so the opportunities for exercise will be different than on my normal working weeks. With this in mind, my target for this week is to walk for 20 minutes each day, either in two 10 minute blocks or one 20 minute walk - depending on the day, where I am and what I'm doing.

I don't think this will be a big stretch - I already achieved that almost every day this week - but as I explained, I'm trying to build the habit at this stage, not to rush into an exercise program that I can't maintain over the long term.

So far, so good.

Healthy Heart

A couple of weeks ago I signed up for the Heart Foundation's Healthy Heart Challenge, which is part of the "Go Red for Women" campaign to raise awareness about heart disease in women.

It's an online challenge that starts today and runs for six weeks. Participants select an area they would like to focus on (being active, healthy eating, cholesterol or blood pressure) and set goals each week to improve in the area of their choice.

I've chosen exercise as my goal.

After my miserable attempt at reintroducing running into my life late last year, I've been fairly inactive and that worries me. The fact that I needed to do something became very clear a few months ago when I stepped onto the scales for the first time in months and discovered to my horror that I was very close to weighing the heaviest I'd ever been.

At that point I decided things had to change.

I'd got rid of a lot of clothes that became too big for me after I lost about 15 kg seven years ago (before I got pregnant and stacked most of it back on again), and I really didn't want to see myself going out and buying more clothes in those sizes.

I actually weighed a lot less back when Juniordwarf was a baby but since then the weight has steadily crept back on, in that sneaky way that weight does when you aren't paying attention. I really don't think I can use the excuse of baby weight when the "baby" is in Prep.

After that horrifying realisation, I started to make a few changes to my diet. I've lost about three kilos over three months, but I know I need to do more, especially in terms of exercising. When I heard about this challenge I thought it would be the perfect way to gradually start to exercise again, doing a little bit more each week, with the intention of cementing some new habits into my life.

With that in mind, I've set myself a very low goal for the first week: to walk for 10 minutes a day. It doesn't matter when or where. Just getting out and doing it is all I want to do at this stage.

Because I have a different schedule almost every day, I find it hard to fit in a regular time for exercise. Then I tend to give up altogether because I miss a session or two that I'm supposed to be doing but where the time isn't convenient for that particular day.  So my aim over the next six weeks is to work out the best time or times each day to get moving, and then to actually do it at those times. And to stick with it.

Progress so far: 1/1.