Frugal Frump to Fab/Winter Solstice

Carmen

.....I was stung on the finger a few days ago :eek: I'm not sure what it was (glasses off) but by the end of the day my whole hand had double in size! I did not think to take the ring off that finger, O/H was considering cutting it off :eek: Today the itching has stopped and the swelling has almost gone!

LL, I know what you mean about feeling guilty after your rant, unfortunately our nearest and dearest are sometimes in the firing line during these moments thankfully their love is unconditional :heartpuls

Your comments about the llama's reminded me of the cute alpaca our electrician bought for his children, I believe they make lovely pets, if you have the space. Would you believe the farmer along the road has also just bought two, my crops are safe :rotfl:A friend of mine went on a llama walking holiday a few years ago, not quite sure how that works! I would worry that I would become too attached and would want to take it home at the end of the holiday:rotfl:

brb....

podperson

Hi all,

Skipsmum - enjoy the relative peace while you can then, hope all goes ok with the LOs arrival Glad to see there does seem to be some demand for pet portraits - though I would never have thought of fish :eek: Did you do it as a business? I'm a bit crap with that side of things tbh, I can see what I want to do but the business side of things like marketing, pricing etc is a bit daunting. I think like so much else relating to this thread is tied to a lack of self confidence but am trying to work on it

Tru - sounds like it's all go at your at the moment, hope Mr Tru is ok x

Bitsy - glad you had a nice holiday
Floss - I'm thinking I've missed you by now but hope you have fun

LL - hope you're feeling a little better hun, sometimes it's just the small things that get to us isn't it. Good news on the oven and being back at WW tho

Carmen - hope things are looking up for you, 3lbs isn't much, will drop off in no time. Hope the pampering helps you feel better, you deserve it x

Bit of a lazy night last night, OH has been very down lately so we had a few drinks and a bit of a silly night - distinct lack of healthy eating and exercise. Think we are going out for tea tonight as well so probably won't be much better, one of those traditional pub-restaurants and since I'm veggie I'm usually limited to just one or two choices and neither of them very healthy. Ah well, hopefully will perk OH up a little.
Feeling a bit of a lack of willpower at the moment, I'm not really over-doing things - I'm not snacking much, not eating a lot of junk food etc. I've lost quite a bit of weight the last few months and it doesn't seem to be going back on yet, which is good, but I know if I made more of an effort with the eating and exercise then I could start losing again. It's my birthday near the start of next month and would really like to have lost quite a bit more by then so big push this month I think!!

Carmen

My plan of losing 20lbs in 20weeks (WS) will not happen now, but I am hoping to lose another stone. I have bought a maxi dress as an incentive (not really a good idea) I love to wear long dresses (hide my VV) and I don't care if they are not in fashion next year, at least I have one now

I am looking forward to changing my summer salads to hearty casserole's and jacket potatoes. That will come as the weather gets colder, but lets not think about that on this lovely sunny day!

Bitsy_Beans

I borrowed Grow your own drugs from library before I went on hols and never got around to reading it. Am quite looking forward to reading it now, just need the ankle biters to go to bed early enough to give me some time to read it. Anyone readmit before. I watched only a tiny bit of the TV series so am hoping there will be some lovely beauty remedies in it.

Carmen - sorry to hear you have had a rough time of it lately xxx

LL - don't feel too bad, we all lose it at times xxx

Have a great day all, sunshine lovely and hot here. Typical because we're back of holibobs!

vasseur

Afternoon all :wave::wave: been lurking a lot lately.

Sorry to hear some of you are feeling a bit down.

LL - I lost it BIG time this weekend with my OH and he really hadn't done anything wrong. It all boils down to my own insecurities and how irrational it makes me

Anyhow it's made me think that I really must start taking Evening Primrose Oil. I have felt so rotten this time of the month and if it has started to affect my relationship then something must be done before I wreck things completely. I've waited so long for a decent man to come along and now he is here I don't want to lose him over something stupid

Lovely and sunny here too although it has been very chilly in the evenings. My heating is not going on until at least 1 October though!

I've put on weight but have been for a couple of runs this week and won't dwell on it too much. Just thought though, we had a cheese evening on Monday and then on Tuesday someone brought HM scone, jam and clotted cream in to work. It was rude to refuse

Off out to see a blues band with my OH, have a good evening everyone

lolly101

Hey Everyone,

PP - That is an amazing amount to make in such a short time! :T I will definitely have to find some time to learn more about it - and thanks for the offer of help, I'm sure I'll have a few questions along the way!

Maman - Funny you should say that about mascara - when wearing it today, I was told how well rested I looked!!! Must be the first time anyone has ever told me that, I ALWAYS look tired!

Bitsy - I know exactly how you feel about the mindless eating when on holiday! I was the same on mine... I have a 2lb holiday gain to prove it.

Polesalot - Very brave of you RE the heating - I didn't even make it to the 1st Sept! :rotfl: I've had it on most nights since sun, don't usually want it on until nearly midnight though so maybe I should adopt your pledge and get some early nights instead!

lessonlearned

Good evening everyone

Feeling a bit more cheerful now, oven fixed so I can cook more easily.
I'm afraid I'm rather a traditionalist and like using my oven. I use a slow cooker a lot but only use the microwave for heating milk and re-heating meals. I've never been happy with any "cooking" in it as such.

Had a nice hour or so all by myself in front of the chiminea, burning old paperwork - just watching the flames. Very relaxing.


Carmen - Glad to have you back Twinnie - was wondering if you were ok. I noticed you were "lurking";) Anyway glad to hear you're feeling a little better and hope the worst of your woes are behind you.
I'm sure you'll lose that 3lb soon enough.

Don't worry about losing 20lbs in 20 weeks, we always say don't we an average of 1 lb a week. It's great if you can manage that but I think we do have to make some allowances for the difficult times when sticking at it proves so difficult or even the nice times such as holidays/meals out.

What really counts is what happens in the long term. After all as one of my friends always neatly puts it "we have to live in the real world"

Like you I have revised my target to losing a stone by our deadline. If I achieve that I will be happy enough even though I won't have reached my ultimate goal weight.

Perhaps Frump to Fab will need to run and run ...........................

Funnily enough a couple of the ladies at WW were discussing their weight loss today. They have both lost 24lbs in 35 weeks.

So to all who have put on a few lbs over the last few weeks - don't worry it's just a blip - draw a line and start again. Keep going and you'll be fine.

Maman is an inspiration to us all. Swanning around at target weight:rotfl: busily preparing to look truly Fab for that posh wedding.

Anyway Carmen - nice to hear that you've booked yourself some treatments - you deserve a bit of pampering by the sound of things.

Back in a mo .......................

maman

:wave:

Sorry to hear about the bad start to your day LL, hope you're feeling a bit brighter. We've had a really lovely day here, warm and sunny so maybe your time in the garden did the trick. While DH mowed the lawn,I've been weeding a flowerbed in DDs new garden Then I planted it up with daff bulbs, vilolas and pansies so she should have a good show in the next few months. It was a great excuse to be out in the sunshine:D Hands suffering as a result but I gave them a good slathering with handream and will do it again before bedtime. Other fabness can wait until tomorrow as I didn't get dolled up for the gardening (except mascara lolly;)).

Hope you're over your family troubles Carmen and it's great that you're back posting. Your DH has been down for a week or too now podperson. I'm sorry to hear that but hope your pub meal was an enjoyable distraction for him. Good that you seem to be forging ahead with the sketching and everything. Meals out can be very difficult when you're trying to eat healthy food/lose some weight. I do try hard but sometimes it defeats the object if I have jacket potato and beans and salads can be so full of oil or mayo that they'e not healthy at all. I had fish in batter last week for the first time in about 9 months and it was delicious.:)

Your cheese evening sounds great too polesalot. I love cheese and so that's been another treat I've allowed myself this last couple of weeks. I've had a proper cauliflower cheese and lasagne last night. I must say I'm with lolly on the heating. My mse head tells me I shouldn't be putting it on but some evenings have been so cold that I've succumbed for just a couple of hours to take the chill off the house.

I'm off on holiday for a week on the 21st so no doubt will also be indulging in a fair bit of mindless eating (and drinking;)). My treats in the last two weeks resulted in me putting 1.5lbs back on which isn't too bad and still in my target range.

I'm thinking ahead to this wedding I've got in November. I asked for ideas on the wedding/special occasion board and these two were suggested:

http://www.marksandspencer.com/Autograph-Tie-Back-Flare-Dress/dp/B004FX8FQ4?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_3&nodeId=192501031&sr=1-3&qid=1314916702&pf_rd_r=0FZPQKR9Y6VF822GXKBZ&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=192501031&pf_rd_p=215570647&pf_rd_s=related-items-3

and

http://www.asos.com/ASOS/ASOS-Midi-Dress-with-Contrast-Belt/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=1703716&cid=12899&sh=0&pge=0&pgesize=20&sort=-1&clr=Mink

What do you all think?

(Sorry about the huge links, I've never learned how to replace them by a single word.)

Off to bed now, sleep well all posters (and lurkers).

lessonlearned

Bitsy - I've got both of the Grow Your Own Drugs books - there's two of them to tie in with the TV programmes. I really enjoyed the TV shows, I've tried several of the recipes. The only one that I didn't do very well with was the horse chestnut varicose vein gel.

You have to use gelatine for the gel and I couldn't get the consistency right, other than that I really like the books.

I also have a couple of aromatherapy books which I refer to quite regularly. If you have a shop called "The Works" they do quite a nice range of beauty/health books - in fact they do a nice range of books to fit most of my interests, art, design, gardening, cookery etc and they are usually very reasonably priced.

Pod Your sketch ideas sound great. I wish I could draw - although I'm "arty" I'm hopeless at drawing.

A friend of mine is very good - she sketches local views etc and also does watercolours. As well as selling originals she also has copies of them made up into Christmas cards, calendars, prints etc. She gets local gift shops and cafes to sell them for her. Her town has an exhibition twice a year for local artists and she displays her work there as well. Sometimes hotels/restaurants like to showcase local artists. If you are too shy about approaching them yourself I suggest you get a friend to act as your "agent".

I think it is often easier for a third person to do the actual selling/marketing - we er hem "artistes" are often a bit too embarrassed about promoting ourselves.

I know I tend to play down my jewellery whereas my chiropodist friend does quite a selling job on my behalf.

She tells me the jewellery sells itself but I think she is so enthusiastic about it and probably waxes lyrical. I can just hear her saying "and of course each piece is an original one off - you'll never see another piece like it".:rotfl::rotfl: All true of course. Maybe I should start charging more

Anyway I'm very impressed with your match betting. An old colleague of OH's decided to go for it when she left to have her babies.

She set herself a target of £100 a day. Sounds rather good to me - mind you she was a bit of maths whizz kid. I don't know if I could do it even on a smaller scale because my maths aren't too hot.

Anyway I'm off to bed now. The weather looks good for tomorrow so fingers crossed a bit more pottering about in the garden. Cleared out all the half eaten brussels and caulis to allow room for the strawberries to spread for next year. I do hope llamas don't like strawberries.

G'night all x

Molly41

Maman - I love the M&S dress in either the pink or the red.

Links MSE : find the website to want to link to copy all of the web address, go back to MSE reply box... highlight word/words you want to use as your link then you'll see the earth planet with black thing on it (). Click on that delete contents, paste yours in that box and ok tada its done. It must be easy as I have just learnt how to do it!!

Planning some pamper time today as it has been sorely lacking. Sending you all my positive thoughts x