More Jewelry Fun

I have been wearing a lot of grey lately. I was in love with grey a few years ago, then it switched to navy, then brown. Can you tell I love neutrals? When grey started to get popular for clothing a little while back, I was still too close to last grey phase to be into it.

But now I have over done brown in my wardrobe and I am tired of it. Grey is looking fresh to me and is rising in popularity in my wardrobe once again. So for my next beaded creation I made a nice chunky grey necklace.

I was loosely inspired by an Anthropologie necklace. It is beautiful and I love the colours, the chunkiness, but not really the price. Yikes.

My version took only a few minutes and cost less than $10. The length is just perfect and I like the way the beads are kind of see through.

Song Lyric Sunday

This is another song that won't leave my head once it gets in. Not a bad topic to be meditating on all day though. It is a hymn I believe, reinterpreted by Caedmon's Call, the same band who did the song that inspired the name of my little blog.

Thy Mercy My God - Caedmon's Call

Thy mercy my God is the theme of my song
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue
Thy free grace alone from the first to the last
Hath won my affection and bound my soul fast

Without Thy sweet mercy I could not live here
Sin would reduce me to utter despair
But through Thy free goodness my spirits revive
And He who first made me still keeps me alive

Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart
Dissolved by Thy goodness i fall to the ground
And weep for the praise of the mercy i've found

Great Father of mercy, Thy goodness i own
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son
All praise to the Spirit whose whisper divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine!
All praise to the Spirit whose whispter divine
Seals mercy and pardon and righteousness mine!
Alleluia!

Pretty in Pink

These beauties came from my front garden. I am not much of a flower person but you can't argue with pretty, fragrant and free. If you know me, you know these are perennials planted by the previous owners that I have pretty much ignored. There are more blooms to come and that makes me smile.

Beading

I got some jewelry making pliers and such for my birthday from my sister (cough, last year, ahem) and a Michaels gift card from my in-laws this year.

I was inspired by a necklace knock off I saw on a site called Lemon Tree Creations. I thought I could easily make it, and that is what started this all off.

The inspiration

In the last 3 weeks I have made 4 cute little necklaces and I have a few more ideas brewing. Here is the necklace that started it all....

The real reason I decided to try making my own necklaces is because I can't seem to find anything quite my taste in the stores I can afford to shop in.

I like those long chains on other people but on me they just settle around one side of my chest (not a great look) and then get into everything when I bend over. The very dainty feminine pieces aren't really me. I don't really go for super oversized chunky things either, so that eliminates most choices out there right now.

But I decided little miss L is big enough (and girlie enough) not to rip things off my neck, and I could use a little something extra in my outfits. Even this necklace that I made is smaller and shorted and simpler than the one it is copying.

It is pretty cheap and pretty fun and just pretty so expect to see more creations soon.

10 + 3 Challenge

I am of course behind due to the interruption in computer access but I thought I should address the 10 + 3 challenge.

Jen the one who inspired this challenge stopped a few weeks ago, without me really noticing. Actually I stopped on my own around the same time. It seems as though the point of the challenge was to live a more healthy life and in the end it was actually getting in the way of being healthy so I stopped.

2x 8kg kettlebells new for my birthday.

It opens up a whole new world of 2 handed exercises.

I am still going to aim for 3 kettlebell workouts a week. Last week with R's birthday party and our family trip I *GASP* didn't do kettlebells at all. That was the first week since early February that I skipped. It is all good though, I feel like it was a nice break for my body. The week before that I only got in 2 workouts, but besides these 2 blips I have worked out 3 times a week since this whole thing started.

Drinking water as a goal has not been a priority. I find if it is busy at home, I just don't think of it. The funny thing is I have become very aware of how crummy my body feels when I am dehydrated. So I won't be letting this goal slide anytime soon. I will still aim for 6-8 glasses a day. In fact it's 7 am and I have already had 2!

Food journalling was the real last straw. It is what made me stop the official challenge. It was great for a while, don't get me wrong, I was fascinated to see how quickly the calories add up and identify some foods that just don't fit with my goal of being healthy. I was surprised to see that if I ate healthy choices for every meal, I could even have a small chocolatey snack and stay easily in the range I was aiming for. I also discovered that I didn't loose a ton of weight on very restrictive calories (1200 a day, don't worry, not crazy low, just the minimum recommended number). When I aimed for 1500 a day I lost more weight and when I tried calorie cycling I did even better. So the ongoing plan is to do a version of calorie cycling but not to record calories every day, just if I want to see what is going on with my diet. The modified plan is this: 2 days a week very healthy and low carb, 3 days a week moderately healthy, and 2 days of more liberal diet.

But how did the challenge benefit me in the weeks I was sticking to it? Have I noticed any differences from when I started exercising regularly (February remember)?

Well, I have triceps. That is a first for these little arms. I have much better posture, I really notice this and my shoulders are hardly ever sore anymore. My legs and hamstrings in particular are very solid. My tummy, especially lower abs, is improved, probably more flat than it has ever been, at least since before the 3 pregnancies. I am in pants that have been untouched for a year and just bought my favorite jeans 1 size smaller. And the numbers? I am down 10 lbs. Not bad I think.

So that is the update and the plan.

Good Hair Day

Hey, ya gotta catch these moments when they happen.

Not every day is a good hair day.And besides, I like this top. It's in my current favorite colour.

It matches my eyes. Which have perma-bags under them these days. What's with that?

And one shot of the little princess as she was

brushing her teeth when I took these and wanted in on the action.

FYI I edited out the toilet with the lid up just for you. What can I say? This is the potty the boys use.

I was also pretty inspired by the what I wore wednesday over at the Pleated Poppy, coincidently that blog is another current favorite. Think she could come move her house up here? Especially the kitchen, yummy. And the loft. Total inspiration for the basement here. You really should go look over there.

Right now, OK?

Go look.

See you later.

And we're back

The Mac has had an eventful month visiting the home planet, I mean Mac Store, receiving a new mother board, then off to a different Mac Station to receive a new hard drive. I am very thankful for our warranty that basically means we got a whole new computer for free! Also thankful for our external hard drive and for a hubby that knows what all that means and how to implement it.

Anyway.

I did try posting from the laptop but it was not working too well. So now after the absence of the Mac and the family trip/6 year olds Birthday party I am finally back. I will try to be catching up this week on both bloggity blogs.

Notice anything new in this picture? Hopefully, we can explore that topic and many others in the next few days.