Project Life (Weeks 19 and 20)

 20 weeks in already - this year seems to have flown by so far!

Week 19 - we changed up the bedtime routine a little (a cup of milk on the sofa in his jammies then tucked into bed), it bucketed down with rain and the playground at work flooded!, I made Peanut Butter Choc Chip cookies, I bought some hycainths to go in my Mothers Day Cornishware bowl, I made some cards to send to Sophie and I included a motivating quote.

Mothers Day goodies from Mr Mischief (a painted card and a little glass jar planted with seeds from daycare), paper fishing with magnets, a visit to a cafe, more Mothers Day goodies (a labelmaker and washi tape from Teapea!), Mr Mischief's update at 2 years and 9 months and a lovely picture of the waterfront.

There's also a folded journalling card where I have written about 12wbt and included my before photos and measurements inside.

And here's the double spread. 

Week 20 and I got my week numbers confused - argh! So I had to cover up my mistake with a sticker on the weekly title card! I got a Mothers Day parcel from my Mum (I was well and truly spoilt this year!), a picture of me "glowing" after my first 12wbt workout, a screenshot of my FitBit weekly report showing I climbed 71 floors that week! A progress card for 12wbt week 1 (showing total minutes of workouts, weigh-in results, favourite meals and thoughts and reflections), a family shot, Mr Mischief gardening and Mr Mischief in the car telling us he was happy (*insert big happy sigh here*)

On the right hand side I have a shot of Houghton Bay as I was driving round the coast, hubby on 3 news! (his company won an award), playing with the Beautiful Mess app, Mr Mischief wearing his superhero mask on a Saturday morning, 10,000+ steps before 11am, we found the Tardis in Wellington, skyping Grandad and the view from a walk with a fellow 12wbt-er - we climbed soooooo many steps!

And here's both pages together.

Onwards and upwards! Here's the link to all my Project Life pages.

Crochet Adventures: a Nest of Bunnies

I kid you not...I just googled "what is a group of bunnies called?" for the purposes of being accurate with this blog post title. Unfortunately Google doesn't have an definite answer so I picked nest as I like that one :-)

When I saw Leonie's Show and Tell post last week I realised I never actually blogged about these bunnies I made back at Easter time (nearly 2 months ago - argh!). They did feature in my Project Life pages at the time though. I got the idea from the Queen of Crochet herself (Lucy at Attic 24) and followed the tutorial by Janette at the Green Dragonfly.

The 1st bunny came together pretty quickly (over the course of a day with mother and household duties thrown in the mix) and I think he may actually be my favourite...

Here's his back with his fluffy pom-pom tail!

And peep-o! Here he is.

This little bunny went to live with Maria's son when I stayed with her in Christchurch.

Next up we have corporate bunny.... 

He has more space between his eyes to fit the big brain required to be a corporate bunny. He hopped off to live at hubby's work and was crocheted in the company colours.

And last but not least....

We have Easter Bunny with colours picked out by Mr Mischief himself. He was waiting by Mr Mischief's bedside when he woke up on Easter Sunday and he was happy to see his new hoppy friend!

To be honest, after crocheting 3 bunnies in the space of a few days I was all bunnied out and vowed not to make anymore! Now a few weeks have passed I won't say never but it will probably be a while before I contemplate another bunny!

I'm linking up with Show and Tell this week - why not head over and see what everyone else is making?

Project Life (Weeks 17 and 18)

 Time for another Project Life update...

Week 17 features a detox we did around ANZAC day, Mr Mischief being silly, some cakes, dens, a trip to the park and a summary of things that aren't featured in the photos

More park photos, G playing footie, my ANZAC poppy, some crochet bunting (you can read about it here at Deb's blog), some lovely library books and beautiful sunflowers

And here's the double spread.

 

Week 18: some lovely photos I took of Mr Mischief at the park at Seatoun, a parcel arriving from Nanny, doing puzzles with Daddy, saying hello to next doors cat and the blurred photo is a new workplace for me (I picked up some extra hours at the same company, different location)

The finished bunting before I sent it off, we took Mr Mischief for a ride on the train which he loved! We made him a superhero mask, some books I re-read (favourites from when I was a teenager) and the blank space is awaiting a photo from a Project Life crop! (Hopefully I will get a copy of the group photo - if not I took a photo of the view from the drive so can always add that!)

And here's the double spread.

The album is starting to look quite full. I was hoping to squeeze a years worth of photos in one album but may have to consider making it 2.

Click here to see all of my Project Life pages and I'll be back soon with more layouts!

Fishing for Paper Fish with Magnets

Over the weekend we turned one of our big moving cardboard boxes into a pretend fire engine. Mr Mischief had been asking about this for a while and we finally got around to making up the box and letting him loose. Once the excitement of the "nee-naw" wore off he was finding other fun ways to play with the box. He dragged over a dining room chair and a long-ish scrap of yarn and was laying on the chair pretending to "fish" in the box. All of his own accord - I can take no credit for this whatsoever!

But then a lightbulb flashed above my head! I remembered from years ago "fishing" using magnets and I was out of the chair searching through the junk drawer and random boxes.

I came up with some fish roughly cut out of paper scraps (with faces drawn on with a Sharpie) which I then attached a magnet to the back of. I was planning to cut up some of those flat type advertising magnets we had but actually found 6 plain magnet discs I could use. I attached them to the fish with some double-sided tape (where would I be without that stuff?!)

Next up we made the "rod" by attaching the strongest magnet I could find (I knew I was keeping my magnet stash for a good reason!) to a long piece of yarn using washi tape.

We used a blue plastic tray as a pond and arranged the fish inside it. We demonstrated the rod picking up the fish at a high, up close level to begin with and then pretty soon Mr Michief was off on a roll! We laid the pond on the floor and he sat/stood on the couch to catch his fish.

This activity was so quick and easy to prepare and entertained him on and off for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I have put it aside for now but will likely bring it out again when he's looking for something to keep him busy.

I'm not the best at planning out activities like this on a regular basis so find that jumping right in when the idea comes is the best way to introduce fun like this!

This week I am linking up with Miriam's Becoming the Mama I Want to Be. Why not head over for some other great parenting ideas and inspiring stories?

My Commitment to My Future

This is a little scary...
I promise to try not to bore you with lots of health and fitness talk (and especially depressing "I fell off the wagon" posts) and this may come as a surprise after yesterday's cookie recipe but here goes...

I have signed up for Round 2 of Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation.

The whole thing kicks off for real next Monday (13th May) and at the moment I am working through the Pre-Season tasks.

I am loving the concept of the plan so far as I really agree that I need to have my head in the right space to achieve weight loss and fitness goals. I got to the fourth pre-season task and may have stalled for a week...it involves what I am doing right now...putting my commitment to my future out there in public.
This is daunting. But it's time to shake things up and do things differently.

Many times I have started a health-kick and fizzled out in the first couple of weeks.
I've lost count of the number of times I've joined Weight Watchers to then not actually follow the plan and get more and more miserable each week when the scales showed what I knew in my heart - that I wasn't committed.

I like to think this time is different. I feel more determined. I am looking forward to trying the exercise options. I am keen for some more healthy meal ideas. And I am putting it out there in public.
I plan to give this a go. Commit for 12 weeks (that's only 3 months and these days that time period seems to go by in the blink of an eye!), get through Winter and come out the other side fitter and healthier and hopefully a few kg's lighter.

My commitment for the next 12 weeks is to follow the plan - find the time to do the exercise, eat the healthy meals and snacks and monitor my results.

I'm not posting a before picture or any stats here now because looking at them upsets me. But I will record them and in 12 weeks I'll be back here to show how far I've come.

I can do this!

Recipe: Simple Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's been such a long time since I shared a recipe on here so I thought it was about time. A colleague let me try one of these cookies this morning and gave me the basic recipe. I had to come home and give them a go this afternoon to see if they really were as easy as she said!

These cookies aren't particularly healthy but they are simple (only 4 ingredients), dairy free and pretty quick to make. They are also AMAZINGLY YUMMY!

Makes 12 (I halved everything and made 8 smaller cookies but they are still a decent size!)

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix it all together, dollop spoonfuls onto a baking tray and bake for 10-15 mins at around 175 deg.

Simple as that!

Great for those times when you need a plate of something quick and don't have much in. I usually have all these items in my pantry so I think they will definitely become the emergency recipe (so long as I know it's going somewhere with no peanut allergies).

Enjoy!

I'm linking up with Fun with Food this week. 

Why not head over and see what yummy food everyone else is making?