busy weekend

I’ve been really productive this weekend, and if I could find the camera cable I would be able to show you all. Whenever I need the cable for my Palm I can only find the camera cable and vice versa.

This weekend I have been such a domestic goddess. I managed to make my first skirt, it fits and I can’t wait to wear it tomorrow. I cast on the Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting, and have nearly completed the third block.

Then I cooked, a lovely quiche lorraine, pastry recipe from Nigella and filling from food bible - Leith’s. Once in the cooking mood I baked some brownies, from a recipe sent to me by Kat - OMG are they good!!!!!

My camera has photos of blanket, quiche, brownies and skirt and I will search properly for it tomorrow.

My order from Possets came this weekend and boy do they smell good - and a real bargain! I ordered 2 packs of 6 samples and they added an extra 4 free for me, all of which smell great too.

I just a great book - Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale, it was really good and I highly recommend it and I have just started The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld which I am really enjoying. I totally lost my reading mojo for a while (well, over a year so more then just a while) and am so glad to have it back. As long as I can remember I was reading, and averaged a book a fortnight from about the age of 13-14, so loosing the want to read was actually really hard for me. I found audiobooks and this helped, but listening to a book isn’t the same as reading it. I like to listen to books, as I can knit at the same time but nothing beats curling up in a chair/sitting in the sun and loosing yourself with a book. I did just this at uni on Thursday whilst waiting for Karl to finish work. I sat under the semi-shade of the tree canopy and finished Notes from an Exhibition. I haven’t sat and read a novel for more then 10mins in one go for ages and ages, but Thursday I sat for most of the afternoon.

Hope you all had a great weekend, I’m off my paint my nails to match my new skirt for uni tomorrow.

finally got my bp meds sorted and the dizziness seems to have subsided but I am anxious about my appointment at the Brompton in August as last time the bp in my legs was really low, so wonder what it is now.

I have been knitting on the Honeybee stole, but wip pictures of lace are boring, so i will save you until I have something to show. I have nearly completed the quilting on mums wallhanging, so this should be done soon. I got some fabric to make some skirts with the other day and will try to remember to take some photos of it. It was from Cotton Patch in there bargain fabric section, very summery so perfect for skirts. Just need to find the time to make them now. I hope to make at least one before my exams start.

University is going well, this week is the last teaching week then we have two weeks for revision and then exam fortnight. I am lucky that my exams are in the last week so essentially get three weeks revision. Two of my papers are seen and my applied microbiology paper is nice, genetic will take some thinking but shouldn’t be too bad and Pathology isn’t a seen paper so its in the hands of the gods! The pathology paper is half short answer questions and then 2 or 3 longer answer questions, whereas the 2 seen papers are either 1 or 2 essay type questions (hence we get to see them before the exam). I am not too worried at the moment but I will still be listening to Overcome Exam Nerves CD each night starting monday. It really does work and has really helped me improve my exam marks as I am able to concentrate on revision and the exam rather than worrying. It also helps me sleep better in the run up to the exams.

Think I may get the sewing machine out tonight as there is nothing on TV and it may be my last chance for a while, but before that I’m off to the shower.

blood pressure update

it appears that my bp isn’t much lower than it normally is 120/72 this morning, but the GP still feels it is best if  I half the dosage of Amlodipine - she just wants me to double check with brompton first. Being the strange one that I am, i have a higher pressure in my right arm and lower in my left due to the place where my aorta is narrow. The reading today was from my high arm so it is reasonable to say that pressure in my other arm is lower than is accepted as ‘normal’ but my appointment being at 8.30 in the morning I forgot to get her to check both arms. I can home after uni and fell asleep, so have to contant brompton tomorrow.

Meeting at uni went well, we have great looking presentation for genetcs, with good content and within the specified time frame so as long the sky doesn’t fall in over Cambridge all should be good on Friday.

when weight loss is not a good thing

I don’t mean extreme size 0 weightloss, I mean controlled weightloss that is needed. This time last year I weighed 15st 7lbs and at 5ft 2″ this is considered clinically obese. I decided it was time to do something, and over the past year I have steadily lost weight and now weigh 11st 7lbs (which is still overweight for my height and my BMI still high) but due to my pear shaped figure I am a UK 10 top and UK 14 bottom so if I was to loose much more weight I would look gaunt and bony on my top half.

In most respects losing this weight has actually been quite easy for me, just eating sensibly and healthy. I have acheived it all through eating less and better as due to my chronic fatigue I am unable to do excercise. I am now in the postion where I need to try to do some light muscle excercises to tone up my arms, tummy and thighs - hopefully once univeirsyt finished for the summer I will have the energy to do this.

I can see you wondering how the weightloss has been a bad thing i will exlpain.

First off, it has been expensive, but not so much the food but having to buy new clothes as my old ones are now way to big. Although shopping for clothes is now a fun activity as opposed to the depressing activity it was due to nothing fitting or looking good, I now see things that I like and can wear and will fit me and I want to buy. The expensive has been slightly reduced due to having a Tesco so close wear I can pick up jeans for £15 and some nice t-shirts for between £2 and £10.

The second, and more annoying at present, but in the long run is actually a good thing is that my blood pressure appears to have dropped. I have been on meds for high blood pressure for years (over 10 now) because of my congentical heart problem. I was always told that my weight didn;t effect my blood pressure and weight loss would help it to drop - as ever I seemed to have proved them wrong. For the past few months I have been sufferign from dizzy spells especially on standing from a sitting and lying down. It has gradualy got worse over the past month so I decided it was time to mention it to someone. The clinical nurse at the Royal Brompton says it sounds like I have typical postural hypotension (low pressure on standing from a sitting/lying position) and it is probably due to my loosing weight and my meds being to strong for me. Never did I think I would be making an appointment to see my doctor about my blood pressure being too low. Although this is a good thing, it is annoying as it means more tests (more then likely another 24 blood pressure test which I hate), more trips to the doctor and messing around with the meds till the right dosage is found, it also means in the meantime I have live with the dizziness. I try to remember to stand slowly but often forget and then lurch forward as my headrushes. I know in comparison to some problems this is small but it is happening more and more often. I managed to snag a canceled appointment for tomorrow morning, so I will just have to see what my GP says. I am hoping she is happy to deal with it as I know my consultant is very busy at the moment and can’t bring my annual appointment forward unless it is a real emergency (i.e. lifethreatening) but the thought of dealing with this until Sept is not good. Unfortunately, my GP does tend to pass the buck as far my heart is concened and leave it too him, which is no bad things as he is a leader in the treatment of my condition in adults but nonetheless I want it sorted!!!

Anyway rant over! I am off to sort out dinner - roast tomatoes and warm goat’s cheese salad. Hmmmm!!!

Fabric & Yarn

Fabric & Yarn , originally uploaded by lyndsey-jane.

I finally have the fabric and yarn for my outfit for mum’s wedding, all I have to do know is make it. The printed fabric will be used for the dress and exterior of the handbag, with a small amount of the contrasting plain fabric used on the dress and for the lining of the bag. The yarn (which is Baruffa Cashwool) is due to become Honeybee stole. The colours are more vibrant in real life, except the turquoise which seems much brighter in the photo.
I seen the most gorgeous pair of shoes that would go brilliantly with this outfit but am unsure if I can justify the price - for those interested they are Imelda in lime and can be found here.

I have also bought the same printed fabric in the purple colourway which I plan to make a skirt with, pictures on flickr.

Whose line is it anyway? Results

So i thought I’d let you know the answers to the movie quote meme

1. Clerks

2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s

3. Sliding Doors

4. Four Weddings and a Funeral

5. My Fair Lady

6. Dead Poet’s Society

7. About A Boy

8. Dogma

9. Talented Mr Ripley

10. The Breakfast Club

As you may be able to tell I love Audrey Hepburn, Kevin Smith movies and have a weakness for British Rom Coms.

Well Done to those who guessed correct.

Who’s line is it anyway?

Saw this on Knitdevil and thought I’d play

Movie Meme

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t. If you do, a big thug named Guido will pay you a call. Naw, not really, but I’ll be sad that you’re a cheater.

1. I’m not even supposed to be here today! Clerks

2. Timber!

3. Well, two things really. One, you’re still counting how long you’ve been apart in days - and probably hours and minutes - but the big-flashing-red-light way of telling you’re not really over someone is when you’re still reading their horoscope in the hope that they’re going to get wiped out in some freak napalming incident.

4. Excuse me, i think I need to be where people are not.

5. The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated My Fair Lady

6. Sucking all the marrow out of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone.

7. Suddenly I realized - two people isn’t enough. You need backup. If you’re only two people, and someone drops off the edge, then you’re on your own. Two isn’t a large enough number. You need three at least. About A Boy

8. See? I’m as anatomically impaired as a Ken doll.

9. Don’t you just take the past and put it in a room in a basement and lock the door and never go in there? That’s what I do, And then you meet someone special and all you want to do is to toss them the key and say; open up, step inside, but you can’t, because it’s dark, There’s demons and if anybody saw how ugly it is. I keep wanted to do that, fling the door open just let light in and clean everything out.

10. Do you know how popular I am? I am so popular. Everybody loves me so much at this school. The Breakfast Club

Swallowtail blocking

Swallowtail blocking, originally uploaded by lyndsey-jane.

I got around to blocking the Swallowtail Shawl tonight. I managed to get hold of some foam maps to use as blocking boards and boy! does it make life easier. I am really pleased with this shawl and can’t wait to wear it next week when Mum and I go to Dancing on Ice tour.

Spring into Pink Swap Parcel

Spring into Pink Swap Parcel, originally uploaded by lyndsey-jane.

Found the camera cable!!
My parcel was awesome, I was gifted:
Lamb’s Pride Worsted - Strawberry Smoothie
Wildfoote Sock Yarn - Sonata
Pink Stitch Holders
Millstones Flavoured Coffee - Caramel Truffle and Chocolate Velvet
Pink Heart Washcloth
Bath & Body Works Shower Gel - Cherry Blossom
Ghiradelli Milk Chocolate Squares
Thank you Tammy!!!

Photoless :(

I was all set to show my great fabric and book haul from my shopping trip with my mum yesterday and the great Think Pink swap parcel I recieved but alas I seem to have misplaced the cable for my camera. In fact I think Karl has misplaced so hopefully when he gets home from work he will know where it is.

I have to admit to looking that hard for it as I am injured. I hate to admit this but I fell over at uni on tuesday and hurt my knee - I then walked around Cambridge on it yesterday (it didn’t hurt that much) but have woken up today and it really hurts. As I am upstairs and most of the cables etc are downstairs I only went down once to look, picked up what i thought was the right one but once I got back upstairs discovered it didn’t fit.

Hope everyone is well and not suffering with hayfever like I am - yes I am really feeling sorry for myself today.