My (red and green again) weekend!

My tomato plants are cropping nicely now and so I decided to make some tomato soup for lunch yesterday with them.

It was lovely, just some olive oil, garlic from France and tomatoes from the garden. Add some vegetable stock and some basil, boil and then blend. None left!



That's low fat cheese on the top in case you were wondering!

My Mystery Stole is going ok. It's slow going as it's my first lace/beaded knit. Clue 3 came out last Friday and I have just finished Clue 1. I am proud of my progress, albeit slow, as I can only knit it in the day at the back of my house in the study where the light is great, but it's next to Basil's bed and I just have too hope he doesn't take too much of an interest.

Some pictures of my progress up to the end of the first clue....


please click on the picture above to get some idea of the pain I am feeling knitting this!



It's a nice design, by Georgina Bowman (look on Ravelry) but I'm not sure I would knit lace again in a hurry.

In the evenings I have been knitting Breezy, which I shall take a picture of this week. Gorgeous cashcotton. Makes a change from bloody 2 ply fragile lace!

This weekend we've been busy clearing out the garage ready for my WW stock to arrive, and I have given the garden an Autumn spring clean. That should've used up a few calories at least! Maybe I've burned off the popcorn I ate last night-we went to the flicks to see Tropic Thunder. Hmmmm.....I love Jack Black and Ben Stiller but, put it this way, I looked at my watch a fair few times through it.....

Thank you for your lovely comments on my last post. I really do appreciate them. I shall take a picture of my new ring when my hands are a little cleaner!!

It's Official!!

I have finally passed all my assessments and am now a fully fledged Weight Watcher leader! I have been given 2 groups a week to take over and start next week. I can't wait. I did feel a bit daunted, but it's my own business to run as successfully as I want it and now I'm really excited about it. Having trodden the path myself, I just want anyone who is unhappy with their weight to come and know that there is another way, you don't have to put up with anything. I just think, if I did it, anyone can!

Rob and I had a great weekend last weekend while Lily was away. Although I love her dearly, it's nice to have some time to be 2 people again and not have any other role that that of a friend, lover and eating companion!!! And we did!! We ate out twice a day, but I still managed to stay the same on the scales this week! (Minor miracle!)

My old wedding ring, which I did love, was so big, it kept falling off since I lost weight. So Rob promised me a new one. I could have had the old one made smaller, but my fingers are so much smaller now, it would have looked too thick, so we decided to go for a completely new look one. I am now sporting the most beautiful 9 diamonds, channel set in a square cut gold band. It is so sparkly, I can't stop looking at it, it's like being newly married all over again!!!

So, my body has gone down by 3 sizes and my fingers have gone down 4 sizes. Not bad in less than a year!!!!

What with planning my assessment meetings and buying diamond rings, knitting has taken a back seat a bit. But I have started the Breezy Wrap from the RYC book I was kindly gifted recently, and also I am on my second attempt of Mystery Stole 4. I am knitting on 2 ply lace, and on row 2 there is a bead on every other of the 113 sts. Now, do you feel a little knitting pain for me????????

Well done Christine!

Christine from dillydallyknitter recently did a great thing. With a group of friends, she walked 60 miles over 3 days for breast cancer. They stayed in tents and they knitted beautiful bunting to drape around the tents. On each triangle of the bunting, they knitted the initials of women who had fought or who were fighting breast cancer. She so kindly did one for my mum, who died from the disease, CH, and also one for Mary, MP, who had the best news last week, that the tissue they removed in the mastectomies was completely clear from malignancy. HOORAY!!!! What a relief.

Go on over to Christine's blog and check out her pictures of the whole thing...especially the ones of her poor feet!!!

Well done, go you!!!!!!

Lemonylicious

Cupcakes.
So delicious.
Lily is off for the weekend on an art course.
We are off ring shopping as my wedding ring is silly big now I have lost so much weight.
Have a lovely Friday.

Look at that! I got an award from blog blethers!!! Thank you so much for that.

Now, I need to 'pass on the honours' to some bloggers who I love to read.

The Rules:
The rules for award acceptance are as follows:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her webshttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifite/blog.
2. Add a link to the person who gave you this award.
3. Nominate at least 7 other websites/blogs.
4. Provide links of the nominated websites/blogs.
5. Leave a message at each website owner that you´ve nominated.

My nominees, in no particular order, are:

Crimson Purl
Gilraen's Knits
Tiennie Knits
Yarn Crawl
Queen of the Froggers
Pheelya
Zebra Knits

You all are the most awesome knitters and so entertaining to read. You deserve this award.

Red and Green should never be Seen

My mum always said that, and I say it to Lily. Not sure why though! Anyway they are seen together in this post!

First crop from my tomato plants!



There are loads on the plants still green, so I may be making green tomato chutney if they don't hurry up and ripen, as it's so wintery there could well be a frost soon!

They were lovely in a salad last night, together with some runner beans from my normal neighbour's dog walker's garden, with roasted vegetable lasagne! YUM! The aubergines are the size of tennis balls now, so I shall pick them soon.

On the green front, I have finally received the yarn for my Mystery Stole 4 and decided on the bead choice.



The yarn is Lane Borgosesia merino laceweight in olive and the beads are 3 different colours. I don't do things the easy way.

Now to decide, do I swatch, or just go for it?????

H is for Happiness

After my last post, I must have jogged some higher spirit's conscience, as this week, my life has become near perfect!

Mary is out of hospital and on the mend and sounding so well and cheerful. We are just waiting for results next week and then she will be able to move on properly.

I had my 3rd (out of 4) assessments this week to be a weight watchers leader, and it went brilliantly. I love doing it now, it gives me such a buzz to stand up in front of people and make them laugh and motivate them to be what they want to be. I have my final one next Tuesday, which my Area Manager will be at and I will find out if I have passed or not.

Lily is settling into the 6th Form and is off on an art weekend this weekend, doing stuff like sculpture, felting, printing and photography. Wish I could go too!

I still haven't started my Mystery Stole as the yarn I ordered is out of stock and so I reordered it in green, so I think purple was not meant to be. And I can use the mega expensive beads I bought (and love) too!!

Rob is being a dream husband at the moment! Not that he normally isn't, just more so at the moment!

I had an order for a baby quilt yesterday which I sent out. (that's the relevance of the picture...the H stands for Henry really!)

I can finally crochet and am looking forward to making the Babette blanket when I can get some cascade 22o for it!

I am feeling extremely content in my life and my skin at the moment. I am very grateful for it and hope that everyone else is as happy.

Sending you all a golden glow..........xxxxxx

One Disaster After Another......

you know when it all goes wrong at the same time? Check this out. It's not serious, I know, but bloody irritating though...

First, I dyed the yarn.



I soooo wish I hadn't put the red in. When I wound it into a cake, it looks horrible. I call it Yukilicious. Sweet but awful.



Then, having joined the Mystery Stole 4 group on Yahoo and Ravelry, I decided, after spending a small fortune on green beads, to go for purple and dye my own yarn up for it. I spent ages winding balls back into hanks and then dissolved the grape Kool Aid crystals into the water. I added the 4 skeins I had wound one at a time. Well, by the time I added the last one (and I wasn't that slow) the dye had all gone, so I have 2 purple, one lilac and one a bit white and blotchy.



BUGGER!!!!! In the end, I thought, fuck it, and have ordered some laceweight on line, with a begging note to the vendor to send soon. Bloody hell!!!

Then, I am knitting the Waving Lace sock and look at this...




The pattern said 50g, which is what I started with, and I'm not even round on to the bottom of the foot yet! Help!! I was considering knitting the rest of this in another colour, but I think it'll look silly, so I am considering unravelling quickly. :(

No time...

for anything at the moment, hence the lack of blogging.I am in the midst of training now as a weight watchers leader and have taken 2 of the 4 meetings I need to to pass my assessments. The final one will be the week after next. I have to say, I love it!!! After getting over my nerves, I am really much more comfortable than I ever thought I could be, standing up in front of total strangers and running a meeting for half an hour! Hope I haven't jinxed it now!!!

On the knitting front, I am having a disaster with Waving Lace socks as the yarn is running out halfway along the foot.

On all other fronts, Lily has gone into the 6th Form and looks sooooo smart in her suit, my house is a total tip as there is no time to tidy up and I have decided my dad is a cock and I'm not wasting any more of my (too short) time on him again! You can give a person so many chances...!!!!

On the Mary front, she had her op this week, and after a really rocky time, today is feeling better and off for physio, and hopefully home soon.

Tomorrow I have some time so am hoping to get some photos on here as well as rambling!!!!! Lily and I are hoping to make Lemonylicious cupcakes tonight so I shall tempt you all ff any diets you may be on with them!!!