Sentimental mush alert…

• Enlightening – because I’ve learned so much from you.
• Silly – because you are.
• Supportive – because you’re always there for me.
• Snorglable – because even with your recent pruning, I still must snorgle eet.
• Exciting – because at the end of a working day, my heart still flutters when I see you for the first time.
• Patient – because you have it by the bucketload. Good job since I’m now a diet bore who can’t eat without consulting three books and a web site.
• Kind – because every time I say “That’s a nice fountain pen”, you always try to give it to me.
• Creative – because you are and you encourage me to be.
• Gorgeous – because you are. So shut up.
• Interesting – because after 12 years, I’d still rather spend time with you than anyone.
• Thoughtful – because, well, two words… Paperblanks diary.
• Grateful – because I am.

Happy 12th Anniversary, Michael. I love you.

Fun With Mr Scale

The first meeting of 2008 kicked off with a lot of new faces arriving at group, nervously approaching Mr Scale for the first time as they start their own journeys. As Frankie’s Little Helper it’s my job to record members’ weigh-ins in their books, and it’s a daunting experience when it’s your first time, as I well know. So I did my best to make them feel welcome in my role as Helper/Wannabe Consultant/Star Pupil .

My own encounter with Mr Scale was rather pleasant. Looking back through my diary and previous blog entries, I knew that this week’s weigh-in could potentially show a gain, as I seemed to be in a pattern of gaining a little every four weeks. So I had been really careful for much of the preceding week, knocking out syns altogether and limiting a few other bits as well. When you’re Food Optimising you have room to be flexible both ways – some weeks it’s fun to be a bit more indulgent, others weeks it’s wise to be that bit stricter. Neither way is a good idea long-term, but the great thing about the plan is that it’s so flexible, it’s all possible. So, I was hoping that a bit more control had paid off, and indeed it did – with a loss of 3 and a half pounds which takes the total loss so far to…

8 stone, 3 and a half pounds or 115.5lbs or 52.38kg

A cracking start to the New Year. As I settled into this week I became ill, and had to have a couple of days off – one of which was spent entirely in bed sleeping off whatever lurgy I’d picked up. Unfortunately my daily checks on the home scales (now, strictly speaking you’re not meant to weigh yourself between meetings as it can fool you into a false sense of security/despair) have shown a slight creep in the wrong direction, so I’m going to do exactly the same as I did last week for the next few days in the hope I can turn things around. If I don’t, it’s okay because I know it’ll catch up one way or another, but it’s always worth a go.

Fun With ‘Her Off Of Casualty’

Over Christmas I treated myself to Rebecca Wheatley’s new exercise DVD. Rebecca’s journey is very similar to my own – she started out at over 24 stone, and has lost 12 stone through a combination of exercising and going to Slimming World. It’s great. She’s a very lively, confident, energetic lady and a great role model for me because she demonstrates that it’s not just possible to shed the weight and change your life, it might even actually be fun in places. The workout is in 10 minute chunks, and it’s very easy to get into. Her trainer is quite a charmer, and is in her words ‘gorgeous’ – not my type though, not nearly enough hair for a start*.

Fun With 2008

In IMAGE Therapy, we’re encouraged to think about what we’d like to achieve in the coming week. Here are my goals for 2008:

• Continuing with the ‘stone a month’ weight losses.
• Doing the Race for Life this year (and not chicken out like I did in 2006).
• Entering a Slimming World National Competition.
• And, finally, reaching my target weight of 11 stone (154lbs).

Plenty for me to be working on, then! I had best get on… the journey continues!

* – There’s an amusing thought “Hi, I’m Slash. Welcome to my workout DVD!” Amusing but unlikely. Wouldn’t be surprised to see one from Duff McKagan though.

UPDATE – Added a link to a new article from innowen at DIY Planner.

What are they?

Artist Trading Cards, or ATCs as they’re more commonly known, are a new way for artists to get to know each other and share their creativity. The only rules are that the cards must be 2.5″ x 3.5″ (6.35cm x 8.89cm), and the cards should be traded with other artists rather than sold – however, some cards are sold, and these are known as Art Card, Editions and Originals or ACEOs for short.

How are they made?

Basically, you take a 2.5″ x 3.5″ card, and decorate it according to your desire and whim. Anything goes – paint, fabric, punching, sewing, printing, calligraphy or plain and simple drawings. The card is the canvas, you’re the artist, it’s entirely your call.

Have you made any?

Yep! And here they are…

Work Kills!

An appeal on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Artists:

[image:2629 size=small]

Affirmation

A bit of a personal one here. Trying to use my art to lift my spirits on a low day:

[image:2630 size=small]

Calling Card

Known in ATC circles as a ‘signature card’. Everything you need to know about me on one small card:

[image:2631 size=small]

Message to the Artist

Because all us creative types need a lift now and then:

[image:2633 size=small]

More ATCs

Check out these great ATC sites:

• DIY Planner – innowen on ATCs – all about ATCs and creative uses for them.
• Crissi’s Craft Room – a great UK-based eBay store stocking all manner of pre-cut craft bits, including blank ATCs. I bought some blanks from here recently and they come highly recommended.
• ATC Quarterly – a Canadian ATC print zine.
• Art In Your Pocket
• Emberlexi’s ATC Set
• Artist Trading Cards – A Collaborative Cultural Performance

Sweeney needs more fun in her life, so we need lots of Scalextric. It’s not for us, it’s a cat toy.

(Found on B3ta.)

So, there went 2007, and here’s 2008.

It’s been an interesting sort of a year for us. When 2007 arrived, we’d only just moved to Devon, and had sort of theoretically started new jobs, but not quite. In the space of a year, I’ve settled happily into the new job, while Sam’s been through a few of them. We’ve lost a cat, and Sam’s lost a grandmother and eight stone. Her mum had cancer, and then didn’t again.

Speaking of my work, I’ve had a couple of successful projects there – PenFinder and Pencyclopedia, along with enjoying the general day-to-day stuff.

We haven’t finished getting our old house sorted out for selling yet, but we’re getting there. It’s at the stage now where we can get other people to do things, rather than us having to drive over 200 miles each way every time to do a bit more on it. Sam has arranged for some nice house clearance people to visit on Wednesday, meeting her mum there, to quote for emptying it. Then we can have it cleaned, have some repairs done, and get it redecorated. Once all that’s done, hopefully someone will give us some money for it, and we’ll be able to stop throwing away money on rent and mortgage for a house we don’t use any more.

A year ago, I had a little Canon Ixus camera, and Sam had an old Nikon compact. Now, we both have Nikon D40 DSLRs, so we can do a whole lot more photography. I have a 55-200 VR lens, in addition to the kit lens, and a Gorillapod for even more options.

At the start of the year, we’d pretty much given up on the idea of PigPog being anything much more than our personal place on the web, but PigPog hadn’t given up on it yet. We’ve changed that in a few stages over the course of the year, so it’s admitting to being a personal home page now. More catblogging, less attempts at being the world’s number one resource for anything to do with being creative. It’s a step down in a lot of ways, but at least it’s realistic.

Thanks to my parents, we have a new car, which should make exploring Devon more fun. Our old car struggled with some of the hills. Our new Honda CR-V seems to quite enjoy them.

That was 2007 – what about 2008? I don’t really go for resolutions. I’ll probably aim to be less fat than I am at the moment, but I’ve been slowly heading in that direction for a while. Nothing like as fast as Sam is, but I’m happy as long as I keep heading in the right direction. Like almost all bloggers, I’ll plan on blogging a lot more, but I probably won’t actually keep it up. I’ll probably try to get better at actually doing things, rather than just putting them on lists and moving them around. I’d like to spend more time taking photos, and to get better at getting them processed and shared.

In the end, though, I don’t mind too much if things don’t change – I’m enjoying life as it is. My work is fun, Devon is fun, and, most importantly, Sam is fun.