Sorry, all - I am truly miserable and while I lovelovelove getting your comments, I am just not up to replying. Arrgh! Thanks you so much for them, they DO help - but I think something is really WRONG. I’m just so tired and feel so HEAVY all the time.
Mr Beloved thought I was up reading too late- nope, even putting the book down and turning of the light and putting on my CPAP mask at a reasonable time, (ie, before himself even breaks away from his computer!) and sleeping right through until about 5-6 am when the dog says she has to go OUT, I’m STILL EXHAUSTED. So much so that I crashed out from around 2pm til 7 this evening. THIS IS NOT RIGHT!!
Did a few minor errands today - needed more pattern tracing paper so I can trace off a Jalie pattern - possibly this one - to make up in the $2 metre knit I scored at Spodshite yesterday.
Also got to the library - my turn with the Trinny and Susannah Body Shape Bible finally came up (there were a dozen reserves ahead of me) - but after a quick look through I’m more confused than ever about my shape.
Haven’t lost any centimetres off my waist or hips in the last 4 weeks - but my weight is now down to 107.9 - that’s lighter than when I left Canberra, at the end of 2003. Yay!
It probably would have been a little bit more if I had said no to dinner with the girls before we went out on Saturday night - but hey, ya gotta live, right?
And now - I’m back to bed. For those of you lucky enough to be able to work, I’m sure that sounds like BLISS - it’s not when it’s your whole LIFE!!
Had a lovely night out with the girls on Saturday night - dinner at a Thai place (Thanks, Sue, for bringing wine - yum!) and then off we went with several THOUSAND other women and a few intrepid blokes to see Menopause the Musical. Fun, but LOUD!
I have spent the last two days entirely in bed - Mr Beloved wakes me up and makes me eat stuff, and feeds me cups of tea, but that’s all the energy I’ve had. Pathetic.
Tried to sew a dress to wear for the big night out and it was even more DISASTROUS than the last attempt!! At least now I know that long full sleeves with elastic at the bottom make me look older than my grandmother…. and that the weight of knit fabrics makes a HUGE difference to the alterations I need to do- which I spent AGES on - and which were then TOO BLOODY BIG.
BTW: I HATE THE F****KING CONTRACEPTIVE PILL. It was supposed to suppress ovulation and therefore the pain - NOPE. after some research, did you know that every kilogram heavier you are than 70kg makes the pill less effective? Great. I’ve had 4 migraines and feel like I’ve had PMT all month and THEN been run over by a garbage truck. And the diet? That’s just a loss right now - I think if I even walk PAST food I’m putting on weight, I don’t even have to eat it. I am NOT looking forward to seeing the dietician tomorrow.
Right, that’s about enough whinging from me - I’m off to make a last cuppa tea for the evening and watch CSI:NY.
The old - straggly, unflattering, frizzly, with dye growing out.
The NEW - sleek (and even I can manage to straighten it now there’s SO MUCH LESS HAIR!) and definitely more age appropriate. Hair colour completely natural (I’m growing into my silver hair…)
Whaddaya think?
It’s sort of a modified bob - longer at the front, not severe shaping at the back but enough to keep it sharp. And I feel so much LIGHTER without all that hair - wow - must take that into account at next weigh-in, LOL!!
I love it so much. I am now officially at home here - I have good girlfriends, and a good doctor, dentist, and hairdresser - I’m NOT (touch wood) MOVING!!
Yes, we went and saw Sex and the City: The Movie. Yes, the dresses were fabboo - and yes, we cried - even the one of us who claims to be QUITE hardhearted shed a tear, didn’t she, Chriss??
Best dress? Ooooh, such a choice! The rose dress. DEFINITELY the rose dress! Not the shape so much (cos bubble dresses on bigger bodies= CIRCUS TENT!) but the print - I am sw0ooooooooning for the print!
Also? Tomorrow, I’m getting my hair cut. OFF.
Yep, you heard me - OFF!!
See, there’s this dyed LINE in my hair (from when I gave up getting it dyed) that looks totally BOGANish, and since I refuse to start smoking Winnie blues and wearing flannie shirts, the only other option is to REMOVE IT. WITH SCISSORS.
My hairdresser doesn’t know yet - except that I changed my appointment from “Trim” to “Style Cut”….
In other news - tonight I decide whether to attempt to pull apart the Domino fabric dress and re-sew it smaller. Cos - this “sack of unsmiling potatoes” look? BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!
I can’t believe I just blogged that picture. Have I NO SHAME at all?
Well, since I have…. should I attempt to unpick it? Or just give up??
I missed ANOTHER quilters day. Grrr! I am SO SICK OF THIS PAIN!
Went to the gastroenterologist yesterday - he was much nicer than he seemed last year - thank goodness! Agreed that my issues are NOT his department, and also agreed with the course of action that my GP had already planned. Good to know, but not particularly helpful on the day.
Also - he acknowledged that while I don’t have diagnosable coeliac disease, I do have a wheat intolerance. YAY! Why yay? Well, now I feel justified in avoiding gluten most of the time, but can allow myself the occasional piece of toast if I really feel like it.
No sewing happening either - tried a sleeve from the Rio jacket in muslin and Mr Beloved reckoned it looked like something Frankenstein’s monster would have sewn! Also, the whole tricky seam is on the back of the sleeve, where it can’t even be seen - so why bother?? I still like the look and drape of the vest so I might have a go at that. I might even just put a plain sleeve in and make the jacket…
Sorry no posts with pretty pics - all I want to do right now is hunch over a hot water bottle and moan. I realise that isn’t helpful, but you try exercising when your lower abdomen feels like it has a bread knife cutting into it!!
I have ONE piece of Marimekko in my stash, that I got as a trade many years ago. It’s lime green with orange flowers and I love it too much to cut it up!
In other news: Today I bought a new book. Which is very helpful, so I’m off to read some more. I have got a photo to trace off to see my body silhouette (so very confronting!) like these women did.
The author, Annabelle van Tongeren, is an Aussie who has dressed a lot of our celebrities, and the book is beautiful. (And looking at her gallery, I remember seeing one of her gorgeous dresses ages ago in Australian Stitches magazine - but that’s not one I keep, so I can’t tell you which issue.)
You know, when I finally get down to my goal weight, I’m going to find a way to have one of those makeovers. In the meantime, I’m going to try and learn and sew as much as I can to keep me motivated. Only another 47 kilos to go!
I though I’d make a simple little skirt, nothing flash. I chose this pattern:
Dead simple, innit?
Bought cheap fabric which I thought would do for a knock-around sort of skirt.
BUT - first I cut it out in the wrong size. And blithely sewed it up without fitting cos well - I’m ALWAYS the biggest size, aren’t I.
Except I completely failed to take into account the recent weight loss. La la la, try it on to see hem length - and watch it fall straight to my ankles, since the waist is the only fitted place on the skirt. Oops.
Unpick the whole thing and start again. (And leave it for a few more days.)
Re-cut, sewed next size down. (Leave it for another few days.)
Decided to use invisible zip.
Put it in back to front.
Unpick.
Try another method of inserting invisible zip - hmm, right way this time, but not really invisible!
Mr Beloved (quite rightly) insists I have a cuppa tea.
Get out The Book (so glad I found it - safely filed under my sewing machine. D’OH!). When Ms Betzina says “Idiot Proof invisible zipper” - she means it’s even CAITY proof! (Although for a moment due to my complete directional dyslexia I thought I’d sewn it back to front again - but then I zipped it up. Ahem.)
But then - the waistband treatment on the pattern was STUPID. Using narrow (half inch wide) twill tape to finish the waistband as though you were using petersham? DOESN’T WORK. It just doesn’t. There isn’t enough width to turn the top of the waistband down.
No worries, I’ll buy petersham (it’s a ribbon, with unlocked edges so you can make it curve - see here for an illustration.) Eventually found some at Lincr*p today - in only one size, one colour, and well hidden away from any other ribbon. (Yeah, that makes sense… NOT!) And at $4.99 per metre!! When I know (thanks to the girls on Pattern Review) That I can buy the same width from the USA in a gazillion different colours , for $US 2.89 per yard… and the postage isn’t much.
But - I wanted to wear the skirt tomorrow, perhaps. So I lashed out ($2.99!) on a packet of pre-made bias binding. All was going FINE With that until… I notice I had sewn the invisible zipper in about a quarter of an inch HIGHER on one side than the other.
FLIPPIN’ HECK! I can’t believe all the hassles that have come up with one little skirt!! All stupid little mistakes that I shouldn’t be making - although, it HAS been a while since I’ve sewn clothes. Mostly because at my current size and shape it’s pretty much like sewing circus tents.
No progress photos - they’d mostly be of me TEARING MY HAIR OUT. But here’s a photo of the almost finished skirt:
Which is now TOO BIG again!
I don’t care. I’m going to hem the damn thing and take it in at the waist with a safety pin on each side for a couple of weeks.
(Actually, I might make it again next week- with the petersham waist band - and another size smaller.)
All those shakes and bars and calorie counting? IS WORKING!! My blood pressure is dropping, and more importantly than just the kilograms lost - my shape is changing!!
When I started on March 26, the body composition measurements (electrical impedance thingummy machine) showed that my Fat Free Mass (that’s all the organs and muscles etc) was 52.9 kg: today, April 29th: 54.9 kg. I’ve put on muscle!! YAY!!!!
On March 26, the Fat Mass measurement was 64.9kg. Today: 57.7! so I’ve lost 7.2 kg ofJUST FAT. That’s 15.8 lbs.
My waist measurement has dropped by 3cm, and my hip measurement has dropped by 5cm. (Nearly 2 inches!)
My dietician is thrilled - and so am I. Mr Beloved is also losing weight, because he’s the main cook - and with weighing out my veges and protein, and not having The Phantom Baker* spring puddings and cakes etc on him, he’s already shrunk out of some jeans that I never got around to hemming up (bonus! I hate hemming jeans!)
*The Phantom Baker is a tricky beastie who used to pop up far more often than was good for ANYBODY, and make cakes and brownies and puddings and bikkies and…. we haven’t seen her since March 26, and we are hoping she remains MIA for quite some time yet.
Next week is my heart-rate measured walk with the exercise physiologist. I’m hoping to be a lot more motivated to walk daily after that.
The annoying Weasel neighbour (it’s a long story) is MOVING OUT - and when he yelled out “Faaaaaaaat girl” today, apart from ignoring him (which burns his butt - you should see him desperately trying to attract our attention, LOL!) I REALLY wanted to yell back “But I’m losing weight - and you’re not getting any smarter!”, a la Winston Churchill’s famous remark (”Sir, you’re drunk!” “And Madam, you’re ugly - but in the morning, I shall be sober.” Possibly apocryphal, but a good story nonetheless.)
And in other news, I wore my t-shirt inside out all day. Nobody noticed. Until Mr Beloved did at the dietician’s office. Admittedly, I wore a jumper (sweater) most of the day, but there were HOURS at quilters when my inside out t-shirt was on display - and nobody noticed. Geeze guys, ya coulda SAID something?! See, that’s what all this “deconstructed” Fashion (read: SLOPPY UNFINISHED RUBBISH!) has lead to. *sigh*
I’m all for desconstructed (as is the author of that blog in the link) where that means: thoughtful rethinking of old paradigms, playing with shapes, opening the way to new techniques. But just ripping holes in a t-shirt and sewing the seams inside out? IS.NOT. DECONSTRUCTION.
Why, when I was young…..
Editors note: At this point, Ms O’Connor was gently led away, as it was time for her stewed prunes and a nap.
Well, now that my host server has decided to WORK again (grrrr!) I can post!
I’ve been crook, obviously. Booked in for another scan next week, and seeing my helpful GP again soon. Got to get this sorted out, arrggggh!
HOWEVER, on Saturday I had the BEST day - went to Brissy with Sue. GIRLY SHOPPING!! Oh man, I’d forgotten how much fun it is to just wander around the shops. I didn’t try on any clothes (there were no fat chick shops) but Sue did, and managed to score some good buys. I had fun just seeing what was “in” in ready-to-wear, and we both grabbed piles of ideas for our sewing - especially from the David Lawrence outlet store - over-runs, samples, and seconds, but still worth checking out.
For example - knit dresses with double faced satin ribbon on the inside of cascading edges and hems - not only helps stabilise the edge, but also means the dress looks really finished inside and out.
There were some really - interesting! samples at the Cue store - things that I’m glad someone said “Ummm, NOT for production!” - and that was also the only store with no mirrors in the dressing rooms, just one big one on the back wall of the store - which I agree with Sue was icky - you kinda wanna know if something looks REALLY dreadful before you have to come out into the glare of the whole store, you know?
We looked at shoes, yum - agreed that the slightly furry leopard print shoes would either
a) have to be petted all. the. time. or
b) be guarded carefully from our dogs….
The find of the day, however, and one we both REALLY regretted not buying (we didn’t even check the price!) was this handbag. Forgive the bad pics - I took them with my phone and I was so busy laughing that the phone shook! Is this not the absolute muppet-est handbag you’ve ever seen?
Sue and I looked at this and immediately thought of the Yip Yip aliens meeting the telephone on Sesame Street….
Isn’t it FABULOUS!! I would be unable to use it, it would become a puppet that I would have to keep playing with. But I am seriously considering driving back down to Jindalee just to get it…
I tried on lots of hats (Have I mentioned I LOVE hats?) which reinforced my determination to get sewing on some - hats hats hats!
Eventually we were shopped out and headed over to the 2QAQ meeting. LOTS of inspiration from the Reddy Art Quilters, who had brought along their journal quilts and Artist Trading Cards (ATCs); and an ATC swap which got out of hand (some people are GRABBY!) and ended up being inequitable. Grrrrr. Simple rules, you get ONE BACK for each one you put in - Linda should N OT have ended up short!
Thankfully, the wonderful organisers of 2QAQ have said the swap will NOT be a free-for-all next time, to prevent that happening again.
I was really thrilled that Sue’s ATCs were all snatched up, too. Next month I’ll have some done… my small contribution to the economy of Jindalee DFO was to buy two small rubber stamps from Smiggle - an elephant, and a skull and crossbones for Mr Beloved. So my ATCs will certainly feature those!
But right now, I’m off to watch the F1 grand prix. If the weather is warmish this week we’re planning some fabric dyeing; and on Tuesday I’m hoping to be well enough to get to quilters and am taking my Shiva sticks and supplies so we can have a bit of a play.
I know, BORING, second verse, same as the first… but I REALLY get frustrated by people who criticise internet and tech stuff without even bothering to find out what they’re talking about. *sigh*
Not a lot else happening here, I’m afraid. Still haven’t watched the Kemshall’s new DVD; still haven’t finished the brown skirt.
I did, however, buy new slippers today - lashed out and bought the real Grosby ones and not the chain store’s cheap knockoff - so they should last all winter. Yep, elegant whether at home or on the town, that’s your bloggist. Didn’t you NEED to know that? Uh huh.
Mr Beloved went on a hunt and destroy mission for the dust buffalo herd under the bed… only one more corner of the room to go, and I’ll tackle that one tomorrow, perhaps.
Move along, nothing to see here….
If you wanna see some REALLY stylish dresses? GO here. Swoooony blog from the Met Museum, all about frocks.
1. Why are cheap bracelets/bangles (And even more expensive kits to make same at the bead shops) sized for teeeeeeeeny wrists? My wrist is 7 inches around. No matter what I weigh. My wrists have been this size since I was 12 years old. And not a single !@*&#)(@*! bangle will go around it. (Let’s just ignore for the moment that the vast majority of bangles also won’t go over my hand to get to my wrist).
And for those who say “Well, buy elastic ones” (TACKY!) “or opening ones” - we run straight back into the 7 inches problem. To those fashmagslags who say bangles and baubles are so very IN for winter? :-ppppppppp raspberries…
(I have never had an opportunity to test this - but I bet Cartier and Tiffany make their bangles BIGGER, dammit!)
2. Why does hair go wiry when it turns grey? Isn’t GREY Punishment enough? Must it stick out from my head like alien antennae too?
3. And why couldn’t it be my CHIN HAIRS that are white/grey, huh? How come the chin hairs have full, rich, hair-colorant-commercial-strength colour from root to tip?
4. You really do become invisible to shop assistants after a certain age. I have reached that age.
A note to staff: You are there to serve ME, the customer. Not gossip about “So and so’s boyfriend” or “So and so in accounts”. ME. I pay your wages, dammit!
Or NOT, if I choose to walk out instead of waiting for you to notice me standing with my wallet open waving CASH at you. (Now I know why older women tend to mutter darkly to themselves in shop doorways…)
5. I have now also reached the age when all the police constables look like they’re far too young to be out by themselves after dark.
Please, whatever Deity is listening - as I age, could I please look like this
Well, I’m totally peopled out and exhausted - had to crash in bed as soon as I got home this arvo. WHY do I talk myself into these situations?
Answer: because I don’t believe you get to whinge about something unless you’re prepared to get in and have a go & make a difference. I suppose I could stop wanting to make things better/different? But indifference does NOT appeal.
I just need better strategies for dealing with people - especially BULLIES. I don’t know what to do with bullies. If I back down I feel - well, bullied - and if I attempt to stand up to them I think I come across as being - ummmm - rude?
I also find it really difficult when other people don’t stay focused and on task - which makes me seem like I’m being pushy. If I’m in a meeting, I want to get the things done that need to be done, get tasks assigned, and get it sorted.
Other people want to share every little experience from years ago that may have related in some minor and peripheral way to the discussion at hand. Or tell me how “We tried it that way once (and therefore we are never going to revisit the issue regardless of what may have changed.”)
My new mantra for such meetings will be “That’s very nice, but how is it relevant?”
Or I could just not go, not be involved, and go back to having no social interaction except online, hmmm?
Hi, I’m Caity, and I’m an ASPIE….
I wish I’d know that years ago - it would have saved me from a lot of “life lessons” … I’m going to go curl up in bed and whimper now.
Viv Stanshall from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band said it best:
My pink half of the drainpipe
Separates me from the incredibly fascinating story of your life and every day to day event in all its minute and tedious attention to detail… And was it a Thursday or a Wednesday? Or, oh, no, it wasn’t though. Oh,who cares anyway because I do not so Norman, if you’re normal, I intend to be a freak for the rest of my life, and I shall baffle you with cabbages and rhinoceroses in the kitchen and incessant quotations from “Now We Are Six” through the mouthpiece of Lord Snooty’s giant poisoned electric head.
So
theeeeeere………
Did a few minor errands today - needed more pattern tracing paper so I can trace off a Jalie pattern - possibly this one - to make up in the $2 metre knit I scored at Spodshite yesterday.
