Woodland Knits

After seeing a few of Tiny Owl Knits patterns on a friends blog I had to know more. I found the book of patterns on Amazon and now it is mine. All of the patterns are so cute, and most use chunky wool so will probably knit up quite quickly. I'm so excited to get started, can't decide if I want to start with the Woodland Hoodlet or Mr Fox Stole My Heart though, what do you think?

  

Hastings Museum

 Today we decided to visit our local museum. I've lived in this town my whole life and I don't ever remember going, I'm sure I did when I was small but I just don't remember. It's such a cute building and as entry is free it's nice to go visit when you are at a loose end I just haven't done until now.

Most of the exhibitions cover our local history as you would expect, mods and rockers, local landmarks, 1066 and all that jazz. 

But for me the most spectacular part of the museum is when you stumble upon the Thomas Brassy exhibition, a large room two floors high full of the most beautiful carvings, the walls doors and ceilings were all completely covered in these beautiful carvings. I could have spent hours just looking at all the intricate details. Definitely worth a second visit at some point.

Most of my pictures didn't come out that great as it's quite dark, so this is just a taster. I believe you can also get married in this room which would be a beautiful setting for your special day.

There are so many other little things to look at as you go around this compact little museum. We only stayed for around half an hour but I could imagine whiling away hours if the mood took you.

Do you have a local museum, have you been? 

Rainy Day = Cake

The weather today was grim. Heavy rain, hail, thunder and lightning, so we ventured out in the morning to get some breakfast and do some shopping at the fishmongers and butchers (hark at us). Then it just got too much so we decided to be shut in's for the afternoon, indulged in a tasty bacon sandwich made with butcher meat, then I got down to some cake baking. 

Go to sponge cake recipe, courtesy of Rachel Allen "it's so fluffy" mmm, strawberry jam and whipped cream. Think I put too much cream in though, because it all squidged out when I tried to cut it, oh well didn't stop it being scrummy.

November Fitness Goals

Ok so first off I should probably do a quick round up of how I got on last month.

October Goals:

• To do at least 3 runs a week

• One session of yoga a week

• One/two body weight sessions per week

Well I started with the best of intentions as always, I was pumped and raring to go the first couple of weeks, I managed everything plus an Insanity workout each day, intense but I was on a roll. Then I started to flag, the runs dropped of and by the end of week 3 I had completely lost focus, I was still going to my yoga class but that was it apart from the Zombie Run. Thankfully I still think I managed to shift a few pounds so all was not lost.

I have decided to scrap Insanity again it is just not my thing 2 - 3 weeks seems to be my limit then I get bored, so the thought of doing it for 2 months, 6 days a week really does not inspire. I will get back into the swing of running seeing as I have now committed to the half marathon eek!

Which brings me to....

November Goals:

• One session of yoga a week

• 2 - 3 runs a week, pushing my distance/speed on one of the runs

• At least one other random workout per week, magazine, TRX or lucky dip challenge*

So lets see how I go.

*Lucky dip challenge is something that has just come to me in a flash of inspiration, I will write down a number of challenges i.e 100 push ups, 10 handstands etc to be completed during that particular day. I will put them all in a box/bag and pick one whenever I feel the need. What do you think? Good idea, bad idea?

Ippo the Zonkey

How cute is Ippo the Zonkey, love child of Martin the Zebra and Giada the Donkey, lives in Florence.

Picture of Ippo the Zonkey from Yahoo news.

Zombie Weekend

Not really for Halloween, just incidental but this weekend has been a bit of a zombie fest for Adam and me.
Saturday we had a Walking Dead Season 4 catch up, soo good love Walking Dead. Then we watched World War Z, I'm in the process of reading the book but it's taking a while because I'm a wuss and can't handle reading it at bedtime. I know the movie had mixed reviews but we both thought it was great.

Then on Sunday we did the Zombie Evacuation run with my bezzie mate Sarah. It's a 5k obstacle run with a few zombies thrown in the mix, but due to the bad weather I think some of the obstacles had to be adapted. (I left me phone at home so Sarah took the pictures, hence why she is in the middle.)

Luckily you can't see in the picture but I had to write my bib number on my forehead with a sharpie, thankfully it didn't take too much scrubbing to come off.

We were given these belts with 3 velcro tags on, they represented our lives, bit like in a video game I guess, if all 3 were taken by the zombies we were classed as "Infected", which happened to us all, I was the last of us to lose all 3, right near the end as well, typical.

Because of all the rain over the past couple of days the course was pretty much just mud, and we were in the last group so it really was quite churned up, but on the plus side the rain held off until we finished, and a lot of the zombies were quite weary by that point. They still did a great job, I think I am right in saying that they were all volunteers too. All were superbly made up, there was a ballerina, police, and a clown to name a few, some were fast and would chase you, others were slow and moany. One in particular made me scream, she was dressed as a police woman and hiding in a ditch, so as I jumped over the ditch she jumped out, freaked me right out and many others behind me.

At the finish we all got a dog tag and a t-shirt, it was great fun and we were discussing maybe volunteering to be zombies next year.

If you fancy having a go next year these are the guys we used Zombie Evacuation I'm pretty sure there are a few others around, so give it a go, great fun and a bit of exercise too.

Cheer Up

A friend of mine has been quite poorly this year, but she is finally on her last treatment, so I thought I would send her something to keep her spirits up during. So I drew her a picture of me being a cheerleader, to cheer her up/on. (Bit of poetic licence with the lack of muffin top and bingo wings) But it made her laugh so job done.