Saying "hi" to the G.I. way of life...

Is it OK to detail your dieting journey on a blog originally meant for cushions and frugality?? Well it is now!

I'm fed up and feeling bloated - maybe due to not really doing anything about it since Christmas, and maybe also because it's been cold...??? - and so I was searching through my bookshelf this weekend just gone and rediscovered by G.I. dieting book.

 

The thing I find hardest about dieting is breakfast time. I like cold cereals for breakfast, and on most of them it is very limited - maybe one or two Weetabix or porridge. On the G.I. diet, I can have All-Bran... not the most exciting cereal, but with a bit of sweetener or honey on it it's really nice, and it fills you up, and properly sets you up for the day!!

It basically means you eat foods that take a long time to digest in your stomach, and foods that are very low in fat and as many sugar-free foods as possible. Lots of fibre is also essential, and no alcohol either. Most fruits are fine, but bananas and mangoes are evil! New potatoes: you can have 3 or 4 a meal. Baking potatoes are also evil, because their size means there's more starch in them and so that turns into more sugar once in your tummy.

Luckily it's not all doom and gloom though: the book above has several recipes for G.I. friendly treats. I had a go at making some tonight...

Apple Bran Muffins with spices, honey and currants

These are Apple Bran muffins. Made mainly from oat bran (Tescos), All Bran cereal, wholemeal flour, sweetener and apple. The batter was the weirdest batter I've ever seen - it audibly swells when you mix the whole lot together!! But incredibly, there's not a grain of sugar or a slither of butter in them, so very healthy indeed. One of these with a low-fat yogurt over it is delicious.

I was going to post a starting weight photograph (I don't weigh myself, I haven't done since I was 20, because I'm a believer in it's how you feel, how your clothes feel on you, that counts, and not a number on a machine.) but I don't have the guts at the moment!!

 

I have a pair of light coloured skinny jeans, that have lycra mix, and at the moment they simply don't button up around my spare, sugary, fatty tyre. Once they fit, I will post a photo, and with any luck I'll look a little like the skinny cow pictured above.

Wish me luck!! And if you have any recipes for G.I. treats or meals, post in the comments below!

BBxxxxx

Flutterby...

It's been a while since I showed buttons some lovin'... so I've created this little Valentine's special for y'all. I used some buttons bought in a bag from Keech Hospice Charity shop - whole bag for £1 which is a bargain! - and there were some really gorgeous green and blue buttons in, HENCE:

Button Butterflies...

It has also been listed on to Folksy.com where you can see the rest of my collection, as it slowly but surely grows.

BBxxx

Boring Sunday, sooo....

Hello y'all,

I'm midway through creating another cushion design, harking back to the originals where I use a hell of a lot of buttons! Photos and the finished creation still to come.

I've recently moved things around my flat a bit and have managed to clear out an entire big basket to put my rapidly growing collection of sewing stuff and rags in to keep organised, so as to get them off the living room floor. It makes looking for thread, or buttons, or fabrics a lot easier:

Anyway, whilst doing the cushion I put on 'How To Make An American Quilt' which is this terrible, TERRIBLE movie with Wynona Ryder in it. There is some references and scenes with lots of old women working around a table making a spectacularly dull but albeit impressive quilt, but other than that it's mainly about her love life. However, it did get me inspired to just try some patchwork. So from an old t-shirt, an old skirt, and two other rags I adopted from Tom's Grandma, I put together my first EVER 4 patches:

They're a little skewed, and I'm not sure they'll make anything impressive, possible a cushion...? I need some tools before I can make a real go at it, but the use of the iron and the fabric pen really helped. I cut some more squares to see if I can piece it together. The other massive problem I have is I don't own a sewing machine: I borrowed my landlady's today but it's old and it kept chewing up loads of thread. I'm going to look on Ebay later to find a bargain.

Can anyone recommend a good beginner's patchworking/quilting blog I could follow next time?

BBxx

Silver & Lacey Simplicity...

This has literally taken me AGES to complete! It's a very simple design, but the lace was so tricky to sew on, even with the aid of hemming glue!

Available with everything else of mine on Folksy.com:

Made with vintage lace and hand-sewn on to a silver synthetic-silk cushion

Love Day and Sad Love Songs...

I don't call Valentine's Day Valentine's Day - I call it Love Day, because it is a little bit ridiculous as far as National Holidays go. But that's not enough to curb me from buying a cute card for my luvver, and this year I went to The Paper Bird for mine. Vicky makes cards from recycled paper and musical scores found in Charity Shops, and creates these one-off beauties like this one I bought for Tom:

We're off to Brighton in the next couple of hours... SO EXCITED!! We're staying in a hotel tomorrow night and then going to a gig promoted by a friend of ours in the city centre on Valentine's night. First and foremost though, we're going to do some house hunting and some research for work. Literally can't wait, I just want to get down there now. I'm going to get the most of the seaside air.

In other news, two days before Love Day, and we hear that Whitney Houston has died in her hotel room, aged just 48. No doubt the press will be plastered with pictures from inside her hotel room identifying the clues to a troubled and sad last moments of a life. So sad.

All for now, peeps. See y'soon. BB xx