Just a moment!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.
(see the rest of the set at becca photographs! )

getting fit!

I'm rather squishy. 
I'm fairly thin, just squishy!

I would like to get in a routine before baby making time so I can safely continue to exercise after I'm pregnant.  ya.   I'm running out of time!

I started this and this. 

I'm on the bottom terr for push ups.  I couldn't do ONE 'good form' push up.  I can however now do 5 knee push ups.  just finished week one.

I can, however, do squats.  I'm on the top terr for that!!  woo hoo!  but I lack stamina.  So although during the initial test I could do 40, doing 5 sets of 13-20 is hard...

I'm still hooping with Sadie.  I'm feeling pretty challenged!  I've added another challenge, in that I want to add hooping to my clown turn...what!?  oh, I have a clown character...she only has one turn ('turn' is what clowns call an act/routine).  the challenge is that I'm performing at Lunacy Cabaret on Feb. 19...buhbuhbuh!

I had planned on starting circus conditioning with Kalen...but I started a meditation night with a friend. Gotta exercise the mind too!!

On top of that, I'm doing yoga podcasts a few days a week.  Trying on Tuesdays and Thursdays, my off days for the push ups and squats, and today, I did it all! 

And I feel GREAT.  The big challenge will be to continue when I start work in the spring!  eeee!

the pom pom!

I forgot to post what the pom pom was for, and what all my secret knitting was!

I knit my sister a hat and mittens!
First time cabling (what are we SO scared of!)  and first time mittens!

all bundled!

I'm knitting myself some grey and red mittens, and I'm about to start one hour baby booties from Stitch and Bitch Nation  (the mittens are from there too!)  The hat is found on Ravelry.

Just a moment

find my {this moment} at becca photographs

This week I went to a trade show!!  It is a landscape/horticulture trade show called Congress. My boss payed for me to go, and take the seminars.  it was quite inspiring.  I was mostly inspired by a seminar called "Horticulture as Therapy for Specialized Populations" .  I was thinking of my Grandparents through out the seminar.  They belong to three horticulture societies, and are on a yearly garden walk.  My Grandma can't garden anymore because she can't bend/kneel.  And I know it's starting to take it's toll on Grandpa too.  I plan on going up once a month this summer to help out, and I'd *like* to help build some raised beds to make things easier on Grandpas back/knees.  My boss suggested even just things like ikea/rubbermaid bins...I could even make nice simple wooden boxes for the outsides.  Maybe if I can make a seat that Grandma can easily sit on and move, she can grub around again too.

At the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton they have a program called Horticulture Therapy Professional Training that I'd like to do, then I'd be certified!

My sister is a Personal Support Worker...I kept thinking that maybe she's want to get in on this with me too!

the pig and the pom pom

one of my favourite gifts this Christmas was a salt pig!  with pink Himalayan salt.  I could just eat it on it's own...thats how good it tastes!

*edit*

I was asked why it's called a pig, I guessed the shape slightly resembles one...but it's because "Scots and northern Brits way back when used the word "pig" to refer to a pot, jar, crock, or earthenware vessel. "

and here is a tutorial on how to make pompoms!  this was *my* first time...so...

 first you cut 2 (TWO) circles of card stock (cereal box would work) a bit bigger than you want your pompom.  cut a hole in the middle of each about half the size (so if your circle is 3 inches...the inside should be 1.5 inches)  I have no idea how much yarn you use!!  I brought the 'doughnuts' halfway between a bunch of yarn (leftover from a gift (revealed tomorrow or Sunday!)) and started winding!

 I just kept stuffing it in.  You wind until you cant fit the yarn though anymore.

 Then, you slip scissors in between the two cardboard circles and cut around.

 Slip a long piece of yarn between the circles and pull tight.  I made a reef knot a couple times after winding.  wind once, knot, wind again, knot.  leave a tail for attachment.

the pompom might be a little shaggy, so give'r a trim (I trimmed onto an open book to catch the fluffs)

A knotty joke:  

A rope walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "I'm sorry, um, we don't serve ropes here!"  So the rope walks out all disgruntled.  He sits on the curb thinking for a bit, and has a light bulb moment.  He ties a knot at the top and messes up the end a bit, and walks back into the bar.  the bartender rudely says "HEY BUD!  didn't I say NO ROPES ALLOWED!!??"   and the rope replies "I'm a fayed knot!"

the plan

Now that the holidays and craziness are over, I need a plan of action.  Otherwise I'd be on the Internet/knitting/reading all day.  I can't turn into a lump pudding.
My grand plan includes:

• Not getting up at 10:30am anymore.  It makes my head grainy.  So I'll be getting up at 8am.
• doing yoga EVERY MORNING, except Saturdays, thats when I work at the cafe.
• doing a cleanse.  I'm going to cut out most meats and dairy...maybe eggs?  for a couple weeks.  I have IBS, and all the rich foods/wheat during the holidays has my tummy upset.  Brown rice and veggies.  and homemade soup!  (oh, theres a good tutorial...kitchen sink soup), and *lots* of water and herbal teas.
• Study plants.  I got 100% in my plant ID class last winter...but I don't remember a single thing!!  (you remember the Latin names of 12 weeks of 13 plants a week!!)
• visiting friends.  I have a friend with a new baby, and her husband has to work.  she's got some major food restrictions, so she can't do fast foods easily.  I want to bring her food!  and just friends in general.
• Hooping and circus conditioning classes once a week.  I take my hooping class with my friend Sadie, and the circus conditioning with my friend Kalen at the Centre of Gravity.  I promised my boss I'd get in shape for this next season, and J and I will be trying for a baby this spring...I want to be in shape for that too!

and that's what I can think of now.  That along with a stitch and bitch group I'm trying to get organised, and some performances I'm doing (more later) I'll be busy.  Thank goodness, 'cause, I was starting to get bored!

I'm on facebook!

Join my Facebook group!!

I'm trying to et more traffic here...spread the word!

day planner

By trade I'm a gardener...or a "horticulture technician".  So I work about 8 months, generally April-end of November/beginning of December.  Then I go on EI (employment insurance) for December-March.  When I am working, my mind is focused and I know exactly what day it is and what is going on.  My brain this past month has gone to mush!  days?  the date?  (ie, my previous post ...oh, it's NYE!?).  I declared I needed to get a day planner!

but they are 'so' expensive...for something I will use for a year?  sure.  I could go to the dollar store...and some of them are kinda cute...but  made in China...I try not to buy from China, I'd rather source Canada, or even better, Toronto.  I generally don't mind paying more for local, but since I'm on EI, money is tight...

SO...what is a crafty girl, who has too much time on her hands do?  MAKE ONE!  out of reused items...AKA, upcycled items!  A new term I learned recently.

My new boss gave me some gardening mags this year.  I ripped out pages that I had read, and where pretty.  I generally was able to use 3 pages for a month.  5 weeks, plus the month page.

I folded them into 4.  using double sided tape, I stuck the 'wrong' sides together, in half.

I made two holes on the folded edge.
 

for the days, I used label stickers I had, (I didn't want to buy anything new)

 I made a little booklet of each month, cut covers out of card stock, and tied it all up in ribbon.

 AND.  I ran out of stickers!  I happened to have old (one from '96 !!!!!) calendars.  (I keep them if I like the pictures, to make cards/wrap with)  I cut out the days that had no writing on them, and used a glue stick to stick 'em on

It was all kind of random and slapped together...but I love it.  I want to make more for next year, and better, for gifts.  (give me your 2010 calendars!  Maybe you'll get one for Christmas this year)