Falling off the Edge of the Earth

For a moment it may seem like I have fallen off the edge of the earth.  But the reality is I was so busy living and making a living that I didn’t set time aside to blog about it.

Those of you that have been reading my blog for awhile know that I run a campground with my husband.  Since this is seasonal work and it’s summer time, we have now officially stepped into high gear (days off, what are those?).  Life has been busy.  In the midst of the June craziness, my prep start date was creeping up on me. I could feel panic setting in.  I was starting to crack.  Workouts and meals were being missed and I was just doing my best to try and get everything done (and obviously failing).  How on earth was a I going to be able to workout 6 days a week, when I’m struggling with 4?

I was hit with a brick of reality.  There is no way I can give competition prep 110% during the summer months.  As much as ONE truly can do whatever he/she puts their mind to, one should be realistic with their expectations of themselves.   I needed to tell myself NO.  Prep is something that will consume a lot of time and energy and at this point in time I would not be able to commit to both a demanding job and competition and maintain my sanity (or what’s left of it ).  It was a hard reality for me to swallow. I didn’t want to share this reality with too many people right away, because I wasn’t even sure how I felt about it. I was relieved and disappointed all at the same time.

A few weeks later, I have finally made peace with the fact that Spring 2012 will be a better show date for me, I’m feeling much better, I’ve accepted this new goal.  Furthermore, after a weekend in Southern Ontario and having appointments with my posing coach, trainer and swimsuit seamstress, I’m getting excited about tackling a Spring show (instead of feeling disappointed).  I’m now motivated to use the extra time I have wisely.  There will be no doubt that by Spring I will be my best body!  I can’t wait to spend the next year practicing my posing, experimenting with my diet, supplementation and I’m eager to train, train, train.

 

The Year of Colourwork

Those who know me know I’m an obsessive knitter.  It’s my “me time” activity of choice.  I love to relax and just happily knit a long to an audio book, the radio or a tv show/movie.  I’ve always admired beautiful intarsia and fair isle knits.

Intarsia and Fair Isle are two methods of adding colour into your knitted pieces.  Both are challenging and require time and practice to get nice tension.  In order to force me to make the leap into colourwork pieces I have titled 2011 as the year of colourwork.  From beginning to end I have planned and acted on numerous colourwork pieces.

I thought I might show you the large projects I have planned.

Highland Dance Kilt Hose

PROJECT #1 – Status: In progress.

Some of you may know my favourite kind of cardio is Highland Dancing.  It’s fun and I take classes with 6 other awesome women in my age group, BONUS: it’s a killer workout.  The socks that you see to the left retail for approximately $200-$300 dollars.  Yeah you read that right, they aren’t cheap and now I know why. Being the crafty knitter I am, I decided to take on the challenge of knitting my own argyle kilt hose.  They are knitted out yarn the size of thread and will most likely take me over half a year to complete (who on earth would knit these by hand and sell them, you’d make like .50 cents and hour.  Regardless, I have cast on these babies with hopes of finishing them before our local dance competition in November 2011.  Wish me luck!

I'll be smokin hot in this sweater for the library's Don we now our gay apparel day!

PROJECT #2 – Status: yarn on order!
Everyone needs to have a Christmas Sweater and I admire this sweater for having both classic appeal with a twist of tackiness.  My friend Ruth and I are going to cast on this sweater in July so that we are armed and ready for Don we now our gay apparel day at the Brodie Street Library. Ruth is a librarian and I’m a wannabe librarian who dives at any opportunity to wear festive garments.  So once I finish this fair isle and intarsia sweater I will be wearing it every Christmas until the day I die, grow out of it…or knit another ha!  A quick side note about this project. I purchased this pattern from the designer because I have a great deal of respect for her design talents, sadly H&M did not feel the same.  They blatantly ripped off her design and had it mass produced overseas and then sold it in their stores a few winters ago.  As a result of discovering this, I now boycott H&M for there complete disregard of the artist’s intellectual property and I am happy to give the designer the money for all her hard work.

 

 

Lopi Dress

PROJECT #3 – Status: I gotta hurry up and finish Project 1 & 2
I love this dress.  In fact I love pullover dresses that I can wear with leggings in the winter.  I have Juicy Couture one, a lululemon one and hopefully this fall I will also be the owner of this Lopi dress.  I bought the pattern book, now all I have to do is get crackin on that Christmas Sweater.