Making Fitness Fun - Angry Birds Workout

Today I started Nerd Fitness' Angry Birds Workout Plan.  I love the design of this plan because it plays off of some of the addicting qualities of the app. game.  The article I linked explains it well, so if you want to know more - go read it.

So I'm out of shape.  I've only done workouts sporadically of late and that needs to change.  I've modified some of the plan to fit where I am at and what I need to do to get to where I want to be.

So here are my starting levels:
Squats - tutorial level 1 - 30 chair squats - I need to do the squat with a chair currently to help get my form correct.
Push Ups - I'm terrible at push ups.  So I completed tutorial level 1 (40 wall push ups)  today - wall push-ups.  I will work my way through the following tutorial levels: T Lvl 2 (45 wall), T Lvl 3 (50 wall), T Lvl 4 (80 wall), T Lvl 5 (100 wall).  Once I complete the tutorial, I will proceed to incline push ups (following the guide to a proper push up).
Back Exercise - Lvl 1.0 (30 one arm rows [OAR] with 5 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.1 (30 OAR with 7.5 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.2 (30 OAR with 10 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.3 (30 OAR with 12.5 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.4 (40 OAR with 5 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.5 (40 OAR with 7.5 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.6 (40 OAR with 10 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.7 (40 OAR with 12.5 lb. weight), Lvl. 1.8 (50 OAR with 7.5 lb weight), Lvl. 1.9 (50 OAR with 12.5 lb. weight).  I will split up level 2 in a similar way, working through the bent over rows with my weights before doing Lvl. 2.9 (20 inverted rows).  This process will build up my strength so that I can eventually do pull ups.
Planks - Level 1 - planks kick my butt, but I don't need to modify the plan.  It just may be a while before I have the strength to progress through the levels.  I should hit level 2 before the week is over.

I warmed up with 40 jumping jacks and got right to it.  I started out with planks and then hit the other three in order.  I had to remind myself to breathe while holding the plank.  I made it through everything.  I got through the arm rows on the first set.  So Thursday it's on to level 1.1.  I made it through wall push ups on the second set - so onto T Lvl 2 on Thursday.  Planks and squats took three sets to accomplish - so they will stay at their levels and I will go for three stars on Thursday.  I finished with a stretching routine that I like.  So day one = complete - earning 10 of 12 stars for the day!

As a way to stay accountable, I will be tracking my progress on my Nerdy Workout page.  I'm competitive by nature, so if you want to join me in this workout, let me know how you are progressing - we can get a friendly competition going and keep each other motivated.

Today's stats:

Key:
S - Squats
P U - Push Ups
B E - Back Exercises
P - Planks

3/26	Goal #	Total #	Grade	Level	Stars
S	30	34	**	T-1	10 of 12
P U	40	41	***	T-1	Time
B E	30	L 33 /R 33	***	1	22:56.0
P	60	66	**	1

Hobbies

I feel lucky to be able to enjoy so many fun hobbies.

What do you do for fun?

Earrings and Learning a New Technique

 One of my friends at church loved the butterfly earrings I made my sister in law so much - that she requested I make a pair for her in brown.  This was my first tatting sale.

 

I loved the blue earrings I made for my mum-in-law so much that I decided to make a pair for myself with some silver seed beads.

At Saturday's Shuttlebirds Tatting Guild meeting, I learned how to make flowers branch up off a chain.  The chain pictured starts with playing around a bit with pearl encapsulation.  Then it moves into the flowers and a branching encapsulation technique.  I love this technique and look forward to using it in many future pieces.

The pattern we worked from during the meeting is "Thicket of Flowers" and can be found in Sherry Pence's Branching Encapsulation book.  The pattern is very well written.  She clearly explained each step.

I went away from the meeting knowing the following:

* how to work with three shuttles

* how to spiral tat

* how to encapsulate the stem of a flower so that I ended up back down at the chain

I will be tatting this afternoon with my mom.  She is working on making a flower and getting the closing join down.  I plan on trying some branched off elements on the flowers (following the part of the pattern I didn't get to on Saturday).

February's Completed Items and a Look at March

February:

Finish up the Tetris bookshelves [still to do]

Finish at least 3 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket [looks like I have some catching up to do in March]

Complete one Amigurumi [didn't crochet at all this month - I need to make my little brother's Angry Bird]

Make 5 things to list on Craftsalot [done-ish - I need to tuck tails and finish up the necklaces for the tatted hearts]

Learn a new song on one of my instruments [done]

Finish Tauntaun frame

Tat at least 2 things [done]

Workout three times a week every week [Week 1-2 - missed, Bevan found the missing pieces to put the elliptical back together! So weeks 3-4 - done]

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [1375/5000]

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck” [Done - It was a blast!]
Fix the bathroom leak [Done - Thank You Joey and Bevan!]
Find an ecommerce cart with better security [Done]
Register a new domain name [Done]
Design logo for new store name [Done]
Learn php [In progress]
Introduced 4 people to tatting basics [Done]
Try at least 2 pins [done - the spiral earrings and black lace earring images were from my pinterest pins]

I like making this list.  It helps me see where my time is spent during the month (outside of work).  I feel like it was another accomplished month and that there is always room for improvement.  There is a lot I wanted to get done that I didn't, but I'll keep working on those things.

March:
Finish carving the Tauntaun skull and horns
Finish Tauntaun frame

Start sewing Tauntaun musculature

Finish at least 9 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket (3 for this month and 3 for each previous month)

Complete one Amigurumi (priority - I need to make the bomb bird for my little bro)

Tat at least 2 things

Make five things to list on Craftsalot
Get the Craftsalot web store running

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”
Work on Tetris bookshelves
Try at least 2 pins

It looks like March will be a busy month.  I'm excited for it!  I hope you have a wonderful day!

Trial by Fire and Long Lost Friends Reunited - Thanks Maxwell!

I haven't written as much in the last year as I would have liked to - well, at least not as much fiction as I would have liked.  It's been almost a year since a pretty life shattering event happened and I think I've finally come to terms with it.  I won't be going into details about the "Event" here, because this is my happy place and I'd rather not see it marred.  Besides, that is not the purpose of this post.  This post is about finding joy in writing again.  I pretty much shut down the creative portion of my brain last March.  I was wounded and dealing with the fallout and I just didn't feel creative.

I ended up in a rut.  My energy felt zapped and I didn't want to do much.  I wish I could say I held my head up high and rode out the aftermath of the "Event" unscathed, but I did not.  I went through my own journey and learned a lot about myself in the process.  Many of my priorities shifted and now that some wounds have started to heal, I'm okay with it.  Would I willingly go through the "Event" again - not for a million dollars, but I also wouldn't give up what I've learned through this journey.

I didn't really allow my creativity to resurface until late August when a friend asked if I wanted to learn how to tat.  If you've read any of my recent posts, you can see that I quickly picked up the craft and I am loving it. 

In November, I won another NaNoWriMo, but a lot of what I wrote needs a severe edit.  Last November was more of a prove to myself that I can still write even when I feel like my muse is gone or that my brain is overloaded with real life drama instead of fun plot twists.  So I powered through it.  Sadly, since November, I've only jotted a few ideas down and haven't really sat and focused on my writing.

But now, now I am feeling like I've come back to myself.  Now I'm ready to go back on adventures with my friends who have been waiting for me.  I owe a thanks to my fantastic friend, Maxwell, who has reminded me why I love to write in sharing her own journey.  Check out her blog: http://thewanderingquille.blogspot.com 

As for now, I'm off to write about adventures in a land that eventually will have a name.  Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Birthdays and Tatting

I had a lot of fun making birthday gifts for my Mum-In-Law and my Sis-In-Law who both share the birth month of February.  As you may recall, I was introduced to the wonderful art of tatting last August.  So they both received two sets of earrings and complimentary necklaces.  Since they have both been able to open their gifts, I can now post this.  Enjoy the pictures!

I keep seeing cute jewelry photos with earrings hanging off of coffee mugs or tea cups.  I think the earring placement made my mug look like a fancy owl face.  The mug was a bit distracting to me - so my clock won out as the place to hang the jewelry for photos.

I love the simple little butterfly.

This was the first time I used seed beads with my tatting.  I really like how they turned out.

Jewelry waiting on the clock (and out of reach of my kitty) to be packaged and shipped to my family.

The small butterflies are from Barbara Foster's Butterfly pattern which can be found in the Handy Hands (http://www.hhtatting.com/) catalog. 

The larger butterfly is from the diagram found here: http://puntoypunto.myblog.it/archive/2012/04/25/schemi-a-chiacchierino.html  It is the second butterfly I have made from this pattern.

The hearts are from my Accidental Heart pattern.  You can see the pattern and story behind it here.

Those are the ones I used patterns to make.  Now onto the pieces that I did not have patterns for.  I've been challenging my understanding of how tatted pieces are put together by tatting from pictures.  When tatting from pictures I tend to leave off or add bits at whim.

So the blue pendant was tatted from a picture of Gosia's Little Black Lace Earrings (http://littleblacklace.com/2012/05/14/black-royal-lace-earrings/).  This was my first time using seed beads in a tatted piece (I had used a few larger beads prior).  The blue earrings were a simplified version of the pendant.

The pink swirl earrings were tatted from a picture of Swirl Earrings by Julie Strier (http://www.etsy.com/listing/114008536/pink-green-purple-variegated-tatted).

Lastly, the butterfly pendant earrings were a simple design involving split rings and a clover that I arrived at playing with the leftover thread in one of my shuttles.

That about sums up my most recent tatting adventures.  Thanks for reading this post and following my blog!  I always get super excited when I find out my blog has more followers!

Trying Another Tatting Pin - Butterfly

I had so much fun with my last pattern off of Pinterest - that I decided to do another.  This pattern comes from an Italian blog - so I have no idea what the blog post says.  Luckily for me, the tatting pattern was a diagram.  It is the forth image down on this blog post: http://puntoypunto.myblog.it/archive/2012/04/25/schemi-a-chiacchierino.html

 

I was curious as to how long a tatted piece of this size (it's roughly two inches wide by an inch and a half tall) would takes me.  This pattern was new to me and it took about 2.5 hours (this included having the thread break halfway through round one which meant starting over, having to pull out a hand full of stitches when I missed a join, and tucking tails).  Probably not fast by an experienced tatter's standards, but I felt like I had a pretty good pace.  The butterfly turned out cute.  I think I may consider tatting the antennae around wires next time to prevent the drooping caused by the beads.  This is a pattern I will do again.