No pain, no gain

Last time I posted, I mentioned I was going to do a strength training session on Wednesday with my sister and her personal trainer who is also her neighbor and friend. The session lasted an hour and was a mix of weights and calisthenics.

When getting back into exercise of any type, soreness is to be expected either the following day or the day after that. I got sore DURING the session. The next day, I could barely move and I whimpered every time I encountered stairs. The following day was much the same. I was still sore on Saturday but not as much as before, so I agreed to do another spin class with my sister. I think that helped expel much of the residual soreness from my body, though my butt was still feeling it yesterday (that's what she said).

I think an hour was probably too much ('DUH!' - said everyone), although the trainer said I did quite well. My sister chatted with her the entire session while I remained fairly silent and just focused on getting in the proper number of reps for each exercise. I guess that may have made me appear dedicated but really I was just wanted to end the anguish as soon as possible. If I'm stupid enough to torture myself again, I may only do half a session.

All right, I've got to get back to being my sister's personal assistant. We've got packages to open, another shopping trip to Michael's and I'm hoping to at least get the pew decorations completed today. I can hope, right? And while we do all of this, we'll continue quoting My Big Fat Greek Wedding, because that is exactly what this wedding will be. I'm tempted to put a tag on all the bubble bottles (we're having bubbles in lieu of rice) that say "Put some Windex on it."

OPA!

Workin' it

Sweet jesus, Chicago is boiling. I did not pack appropriately for this trip. Stupid England has weakened my heat tolerance. Ugh.

Anyway, I was right - my sister's fitness freak out is rubbing off on me. I've been here for a week now and I've already run once (3 miles) on Lakeshore, swam on Monday and I've now attended four spinning classes at Flywheel. It's hella expensive, but I'm only here for a month and I've always liked spinning so it's worth it. We're doing a strength training session later today too. I'm also eating cleaner and, because of the heat, eating less. So all in all, things are well on the fitness front.

There's a crazy amount of wedding prep still left to do. I've spent the majority of the week ordering stuff online and cleaning out Michael's to make the bombonieres, wedding favors and other assorted items. When all that crap finally arrives next week, I'm going to turn into a one-woman sweatshop putting it all together in time. Did I mention there's 300 people coming to this wedding? Yeah. I'm screwed. But I love my sister and I want her wedding day to be perfect, so do it I will. Now I sound like Yoda. Lordy.

Before I sign off, here's a little treat for my fellow Game of Thrones readers/watchers.

Later gators.

Repeat

I still haven't run. It's raining heavily right now and will continue to do so for the rest of the day, so it's not happening today either. Or tomorrow since I'll be on a plane to Chicago. Eh. I am packing my running shoes. My sister has been on a bride fitness freak out for the last few months so I'm hoping her hysteria will rub off on me. Couldn't hurt, right?

Coasting
A couple of weekends ago, I made some coasters. I was sick of the cheapo cardboard ones with smiley faces I'd bought a few years ago, so I made something more along my interests.

They were really easy to make using only cheap tiles from the DIY store, printed images, modge podge, cork for the bottom and acrylic sealant to make them waterproof. There's tons of tutorials on the interwebs, but here's a good one if you want some direction.

If you'd like some additional distraction today, you can check out my previous post for photos of my visit to a 13th century abbey. It was a rare day of good weather around these parts. I lucked out.

All right, that's it for me. Next time I post, it'll be from the Windy City. Have a great week, everyone.

Later gators.

P.S. - I saw this over the weekend and thought it was hilarious. Can you believe this was the first time I had heard this song? I was wondering what all those internet memes were going on about. Enjoy.

Friday photo fest

After three and a half months of dealing with ignorance, apathy and a whole lotta incompetence, I finally have working fiber optic broadband in my flat. And I'll be in Chicago for nearly a month as of Tuesday. Virgin Media's timing is impeccable.

Besides work and racking up my phone bill with calls to one of Richard Branson's poorly run companies, not a lot has been going on in my neck of the woods this week. The weather has been depressingly dreary and I've been trapped at home most of the time waiting for technicians who never arrive. So instead of continuing to bore you with the tedium that is my normal life, I'll just post a few photos from my outing last Saturday to Netley Abbey. Enjoy.

 

Inscription commemorating the construction of the church by Henry III in the 13th century.

 Lots of people hunting for oysters along the shore that day.

Happy weekend, everyone.

Gnome sweet gnome

I'm currently on Day Three of a four day weekend (God bless the English monarchy!) and I'm enjoying myself to the full. I've taken walks, visited an historical site, ate ice cream, attended a dinner party, read Game of Thrones, watched Game of Thrones and crafted to my heart's content. What I haven't done yet is run. My cold has calmed down considerably, but my cough is still deep so I'm taking it easy on the exercise front still. I may chance a run tomorrow though. I'm getting tired of waiting.

My real purpose in posting today is so I can enter a contest, so if you're not interest in crafts you can see yourself out now.

Aimee Ray of Little Dear is holding a gnome contest. As luck would have it, I have had two gnome-related craft projects in the works for a while now, so I'm using them as my entries in her contest. My first entry is a passport cover with a felt gnome applique I made as part of my sister's travel-themed bridal shower gift. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take a photo of it before I gave it to her so she emailed me a not so great iphone photo of it after. Here it is:

My second entry is a a piece that has been half finished for months and I only just completed it today. It's a piece of hoop art for my flat.

I picked up the toadstool fabric in a pack of fat quarters at the fabric store earlier this year. I thought the fabric would look great on my wall and what's more appropriate to pair with toadstools than a gnome. And so here's mine. I kept to the basic triangular shape of the passport cover gnome, but I had to add more detail considering how much bigger he is (the embroidery hoop is 12"). So I have him holding his arms behind his back and added a belt and some shoes. It took me forever to decide what his eyes should look like and I finally settled on open eyes with thick white eyebrows. I think it's cute and way too childish for a non-child home but once again I couldn't care less. It makes me happy.

That's it for me. I'm going back to enjoying my long weekend.

Later gators.