It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

 We've had our Pageant.

Another fabulous community event.

With lots of local floats, lollies and good cheer.

It's such a lovely way to get together as a community 

and celebrate the start of the Christmas Season.

 It's become a tradition to put our tree up after the Pageant.

Heather was fascinated with the process.

All the decorations from years past were hung with lots of talk about their history.

" I remember ..." was said frequently.

 Very few of our ornaments are shop bought.

Mostly they have been made by the kids in years past.

And here is the little Geek.

Heather managed to snaffle both ipads.

One she had iview on and the other she was playing the new ABC Kids app.

She is a whiz with an ipad.

Not a lot crafty going on here.

I've been baking lots of Gingerbread and eating it too!

I've been swimming a lot, which makes finding time to run difficult.

Rose and I have been to two swim meets this season..

Rose keeps beating her personal best times.

I'm slowly improving my technique.

The kids are all out swimming me.

Many of the kids I train with, I taught when I was relief teaching a couple of years back.

It's nice to spend time with them again in a different context.

The kids are been great in accepting me as a fellow team member.

Our swimming club has such a lovely supportive and friendly atmosphere.

 

Taking the plunge

 

Pattern For the English Woman's Weekly 29th November 2011

Less than 4 weeks to go... 

and I still haven't bought a single present!

So much for last years promise to myself not to leave it to the last minute this year!

I've opened an Etsy store.

My handspun yarns will slowly get listed as 

I work out what I have and get the time to take photos.

The LINK to the new Shop.

I've been setting myself some new goals.

One of which is to become a Successful Creative Fibre Artist.

I had to think about what my measure of success is.

I've decided it's money!

And as such I need to start making an effort to sell some of my yarns and creations.

If I fail, well I fail, there's nothing lost.

And I'm used to failing so it's not a new emotion to deal with.

But you never know I may just be successful.

Feel the fear and do it anyway!

Ho Ho Ho....

Ho Ho Ho..

There's 4 weeks to go!

Just in case you didn't know

A rather wobbly santa.

Pattern from the English Woman's Weekly 29 November 2011

Fit Your knits.

Another Craftsy course I'm enrolled in is Fit Your Knits.

One of the knits featured is Bad Penny by Stefanie Japel

 Bad Penny is a free pattern from Knitty.com

 I've altered the Bad Penny pattern to include waist and hip shaping.

Although the pattern is a little big in the shoulders for me,

I am happy with the fit of the waist and hip shaping.

I knitted the smallest size of this pattern,

I will knit it again but will reduce the size by casting on less stitches.

 I'm enjoying the Craftsy Course.

I've been binge eating again.

I still battle with the emotional eating.

Last night I baked some Afghan biscuits and

I knew when I was making them I was going to binge, 

but it didn't stop me!

I'm an emotional eater, 12 months ago I would of told you 

I'm fat because I eat too much and don't exercise. I just like eating.

I know now it's a lot more complicated than that.

You can like eating and not be obese.

My obesity came from emotional eating.

From not dealing with my feelings but eating them down.

From not saying and expressing how I feel.

I can see now if I don't change my parenting my children

may too be dealing with obesity.

I need to help my children to learn to express themselves emotionally.

I need to stop telling them how they should and should not feel.

I need to start telling them it's ok to feel angry.

When I'm angry and frustrated I eat my feelings.

The kids were noisy, arguing and fighting last Saturday.

I was feeling frustrated and angry and fed up.

I headed off to the supermarket to grab a few things for lunch.

While there I bought a large pack of Salt and Vinegar chips.

The thought pattern as I put those chips in the trolley was....

"Oh you've been so good, 

you deserve a treat, 

you can just have a few and put the rest on the table for the kids,

they are on special!"

Most of the chips were eaten by the time I got home.

I won't be going near the supermarket when I feel so angry and frustrated again.

When I started my journey to lose weight,

I never knew how much I'd learn about myself along the way.

When I started I was so focused on all I had to give up to lose the weight,

now I see how much more I have gained.

I may never get to the point where I don't battle the binge,

but being aware of my behaviours and the triggers for them 

gives me the ability to learn new coping skills.