Orange Loaf Cake and a new remote

I love Sweet Peas, they remind me of my Dear Dad. I have been trying to grow them here for the last 4 years and finally I have some flowers. Only a tiny bunch, but they smell divine!










I decided to make my Lemon Loaf Cake into an Orange Loaf Cake today and it is delish! Just substitute lemon rind for the rind of an orange (be careful not to grate the white of the orange, as it is very bitter) add less sugar and some freshly queezed juice from the orange instead of lemon juice. I have posted full recipe in my Recipe Blog

Here

I "powerwalked"(I have decided I deserve to call it that, rather than walked) the Longford Fun Run yesterday (Sunday)(6km). There were 280 people in the Fun Run/Walk. We had a great day. The weather was beautiful and DH won a Clipsal Universal Remote Control (valued at $160+) in a random draw of competitor's entry forms. Today I have spent the morning programming our TV, Stereo, Austar and Video so now we only need one remote. Not something I would have spent money on, but a nice luxury to win, just the same.
Have a lovely week won't you?!

My black tote

I made a black quilted tote today. You can't quite see. but on the left top is a little dangly "S". The slim girl on my bag looks taller and more slim than me, but I thought she was cute. She was just an "iron on" girl, so hope she stays stuck!
My sewing machine is 33 years old. It is very basic and sometimes very annoying. Today I broke 3 needles. I lined the bag with black quilted fabric too, so it was quite thick to sew through. Nothing is straight in my sewing. I don't measure anything. I don't have a pattern. I do everything by "eye" and sometimes I go cross-eyed! Anyway, that only makes my finished product more original. I bought another cute girl and I will make a smaller black quilted evening shoulder bag for her to sit on. I will post a pic, if it turns out OK.

Flowers are starting to bloom in the garden. It was a lovely day today. Still windy though. I like to pick flowers because I hate to see them ruined by the wind.

Have a lovely, happy week!

P.S. Here is my smaller bag. I used a re-cycled cord from another bag of mine which had a broken zip. This girl is SO cute. She has a skirt that floats out, long boots (which are hard to see in the pic) and she is wearing her own little bag.

Some info on grocery shopping

I know I have said this to myself (and you) before, but I must drink more water. During winter I have become lazy with my water intake and it is time to change. I am going to squeeze a lemon into a jug of water every morning and make sure I finish it all each day. At least 6 glasses. I started on Monday and I am sure I feel better for it.

Dear son-in-law has finished Uni for the year and so "little" won't be coming on such a regular basis for a while. I may go back to the gym. I can't decide. I did really enjoy it last year, and I am sure I was much more toned than I am now. I like the treadmill there and the equipment that I don't have at home, but until the sun is out for two days in a row, I can't get motivated enough to decide.

BY THE WAY, did you know that you can get a raincheck on a grocery item at the Supermarket? Don't know if it applies to all supermarkets, or all products, but today I went to get some more Cappuccino sachets (I'm hooked) which were $1.50 cheaper in this week's catalogue and they were out of stock. The girl filling the shelf told me to go to the service desk and get a raincheck. It is valid for one month and therefore when the stock comes in I can get it at the cheaper price. I can't believe how many times I have gone to get a special and there has been no stock and I thought I just missed out. Sometimes specials are quite substantial on expensive items too! Anyway I am spreading the word!!!! I won't mention any names, but check it out for yourself!!!!

P.S Some of our New Zealand blogger friends and our Aussie friend Philippa had a meet up last night. Looks like they had a lovely time. Check them out via

Katey's blog

One year older, one minute faster!

I was too tired to tell you last night, (especially after a bottle of Omni shared with DH to celebrate our day) anyway:

I power-walked the Burnie Ten in 83 minutes 58 seconds. One minute faster than my time last year. I was SO pleased. There were actually 700+ people behind me and most of them ran and walked. OK, so there were 2600+ in front of me, but most of them ran or ran/walked too. It was very, very windy. In fact, I was walking sideways at times due to the extreme wind, but I loved every minute of it (well nearly every minute). When I arrived at the finish line I was scanned with a paddle (in case the transponder on my number didn't work) and then I was handed a piece of paper. Oooh, I thought, a certificate already! But no, it was a letter telling me they had run out of medals and mine would be posted in 5 weeks. I was very SAD! I wanted my medal! I was exhausted, starving (you know me, I can't go without food for too long) and I had been SO looking forward to receiving my medal. Anyway, I will just have to wait.

The main thing is I achieved my goal of finishing my own walking race in my own personal goal time and I can still walk today (albeit slowly).

DH ran really well (49 minutes 42 seconds). He was slower than last year, but considering his knee injury has hindered his running for the last three months, he was quite pleased too. He received his medal (above) and kindly allowed my to take a pic to show you what mine will look like.

Stepping out

17,372 steps (12.2 km)
8.5 points used (not that I am counting them at the moment and not that I could count exercise points while maintaining, but interesting all the same)

DH and I had a lovely walk yesterday (12.2 km). we didn't stop for lunch halfway, just coffee, as we had a bacon and egg late breakfast before we left. I was SO starving when we arrived home. Other than being hungry and having to stop a couple of times due to my heart palpitations (caused by my age and stage of life, I think), all in all I felt pretty good after. It was a lovely day.














I do wish the WIND would stop though. The sky is hazy due to bushfires and (as you know) fires are still raging around many States. I am hoping for rain and no wind so property and lives aren't threatened. Fingers crossed xxxxxxx

Indulgences

Today I walked 6km to DH's work (the long way) and then came home with him at lunch time. My cold is still lingering but I managed to walk fairly quickly, so I think I will be OK for Burnie on Sunday. DH is off work on Thursday and we are going to walk to town and back (12km), with lunch half way of course. The days that I don't walk I have been jogging on my tramp 20 minutes and doing 10 minutes on the elliptical trainer, so I don't feel too bad. I made a pastie each before I left. It was just left over vegies from last night's tea plus some onion flakes, herbs and spices and low fat puff pastry. Extremely yummy!
I also indulged myself by buying a packet of skim cappuccino at the supermarket and some glass cups. I have been looking at the cappuccino for ages and didn't know whether I would like it, but luckily I do. A tiny bit sweet for my liking (I don't take sugar and I usually drink tea), but very yummy just the same. Only 1/2 a point (actually .7) per drink. I would normally be starving at this time of day, but it seems to have stopped my hunger.

Hope you are all having a great week.

Lemons and laziness

I feel about as energetic as Mitsie today. Yesterday I didn't exercise, but I did clean all the windows in the house and washed curtains. Today I made a Lemon Cake. Good for my cold I thought. Yes, I know, a lemon drink would have been more slimming, but the cake is yummy! Here is the recipe:

Lemon Loaf Cake

It worked out quite well!

Here is my bag now. See the original ball of string colour.(See last post for before photo). I am quite pleased with it. It isn't exactly plum colour, more salmon pink/mushroom pink, but who cares. No such thing as doing it the wrong way when you make up the pattern and colour yourself is there?

Things didn't go as planned.

My knee was OK, but my cold turned nasty. I woke up yesterday and felt like crap. Today I felt just as bad, so consequently we didn't go to our run/walk. So much for the new fit healthier me! Sometimes it just gets you whether you want it to or not!

Anyway I am determined to do a lot of walking in the next two weeks and will make sure 10,000+ steps are achieved each day until Friday 13th of October. Rest on Saturday 14th and then Burnie 10 on 15th.

Eating has been OK because my appetite has been off as well.

Daylight saving has started here today and Spring cleaning should be started this week, so that will keep me busy. Tonight is the first time we haven't had the heater on for ages. Hopefully that is a sign of things to come!











I have finished knitting a bag from jute (string). Don't ask me why. I don't know. I just had an urge to make something nice from string. After I started I realised I would have to knit it out on the deck, both because of the strong smell of string and the fact that small bits kept flying off as I knitted. Anyway, when it has been nice enough (not very often) I have been sitting outside knitting and I have finally finished. I have bought some dye and will dye it a nice plum colour (hopefully) and use it when I walk to get vegies etc.

No more news today.