Weekend Getaway in Portsmouth!

I have been so wiped out lately that when John suggested a weekend getaway the weekend of my birthday, he didn’t have to twist my arm very hard!  When we took our driving trip up in New England last year, we both really enjoyed Portsmouth, New Hampshire – so that was where we decided to come back to.  I worked right up until the time we left and actually everything was pretty well caught up for the first time in a couple of months (although that didn’t stop them from called me to work on Sunday).  

Portsmouth is very charming. It is a very old city and not a huge city, so really just about perfect for a quick visit.

Our first stop was dinner, as we were hungry.  I remembered the Beach Plum from last year and that really good lobster roll, so we went there again. Ladies’ choice!! 😀

lobster roll

These are pricey, but oh so good!  John and I split this lobster roll. I think it had 10 ounces of meat on it? I was pretty happy after dinner 😀

clock tower

 

The downtown area is where we spent pretty much the rest of our time.  We stayed in a little place we booked through AirBNB, and while it was relatively inexpensive and walkable to downtown, I don’t think I would stay there again. It was a rental unit and not in great condition. The host was nice, though.

Anyway, downtown Portsmouth is full of charm. Lots of shops and eateries.

WP_20140606_015

 

Of course, the boats.

WP_20140606_018

.

WP_20140607_050

 

The city itself has tons of old buildings, which you know I love.  The shopping is fun, too, with all the nooks and crannies filled with little boutiques.

WP_20140607_001

Tons of breweries, too!

WP_20140606_019

 

This sandwich board was highly amusing to me and I don’t know why.

We had to stop back at Friendly Toast!

WP_20140607_042

 

This place is fun.  I got an omelet that came with toast. I chose the cheddar cayenne bread.

WP_20140607_046

 

I seriously could bathe in this bread – it is sooooo good!  It’s a good thing we walked a lot this weekend. 😉

We found a very interesting open house at the the Moffit-Ladd house, which turned out to be really fun. I learned more about pigeons than I thought could be learned.  I had no idea that people actually bred pigeons like they do dogs and there are over 500 varieties!

WP_20140607_040

 

People used to (and still do, apparently) raise pigeons for food. This is an example of a pigeon barn.

WP_20140607_036

They would put boxes up on the inside and when pigeons fly into the holes and laid their eggs you could get them from the inside. 

This was one of the bedrooms in the house.

WP_20140607_041

 

Tres cool.

There were tons of flowers in bloom in town, too.

WP_20140606_013

.

WP_20140607_053

It’s so different being by the sea than by a lake.  John was saying how the sea is just enchanting and I think he is right.

WP_20140606_012

Tomorrow I will talk about the museum complex we went to called Strawberry Banke, but that’s enough for today!

What’s Blooming and Birthday!

First off, thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday through various outlets!  I had a great day, despite working mostly a full day.  I would have liked to take the day off, but we are planning a mini trip this weekend and so I will take that instead 🙂  

That also meant I couldn’t do a 46 mile ride to celebrate the day, but we did get in 20 miles! 

 

For dinner, I chose Siam Thai Sushi.  Not for sushi, but the curry and other dishes!  I actually had a beverage with my meal, which is a rarity.  I had a Thai iced coffee:

WP_20140605_021

 

Cheers!

We split some crab rangoons:

WP_20140605_022

 

Then I had the Spicy Cashew with scallops:

WP_20140605_023

 

John had the pineapple fried rice (which we both love).

WP_20140605_024

Then it poured rain all night!  We had family cake the night before – I am one who likes to stretch out the birthdays!

Anyway, enough about *me* – time for my garden!  😀

WP_20140606_004

 

My last iris has opened up. I have been waiting 3 years for this to bloom after moving it to different places.  This is Tiger Honey.

Tiger Honey

 

Such an ususual color, too.

Tiger Honey

Yay!

My Allium bulgaricum.  Alliums come in all shapes and sizes and this is a cool one.

allium

One of my tippy pot sets with purple wave petunias.

WP_20140605_004

 

My other centaurea – which is called Black Sprite:

black sprite

 

These are fun flowers. I do like the amethyst-in-snow the best, though.

It’s almost time for the roses!

WP_20140606_003

 

Have a great weekend! We are off for some much needed R&R.

Dresser Redo Complete!

It’s really nice to have a project idea in your head and have it come out like you imagined. A lot of times things I plan end up way different than the initial vision, but the dresser worked out just right!

Here was the before:

dresser

I did this with my own version of chalk paint. Again, that was using calcium carbonate (bought online) mixed in a 1:2 ratio of CC to paint. So, for these sample jars (8 oz) I used 1/2 cup of calcium carbonate plus 2-3 tablespoons of water. Mix the water and calcium carbonate, then mix in the paint. The thing I love about making my own is that I can buy a small sample color and not have to purchase a whole quart of chalk paint (super expensive), which allows me to have multiple colors on the same piece.
WP_20140520_011

 

I decided to go ahead and prime the dresser with Bullseye primer just to make sure the paint would adhere and also because I was going from dark to light and only wanted to do 2 coats of paint.  I took the drawers out and took them to another room to paint. I will be honest and tell you I didn’t even take the clothes out LOL. I am such a risk taker 😀  I put the dresser frame onto some pieces of wood to elevate it and painted that right in the bedroom.  

I got some great hardware from Cabinet Hardware Designs on Ebay.  Their prices are amazing!  I got 3 pulls and 4 knobs for about $15 with shipping.  Score!!!   The only annoyance on the hardware is that the screws that came with the pulls are too long:

WP_20140604_001

Now I have to buy some nuts to fit in there – or cut the screws.  

Once the painting was done, it was time to do the graphic on top.  Since I was doing a large size, it was going to be to hard to do an inkjet transfer, which I did with my little table since it only took 1 sheet.  So, I tried a different method I researched.  First, I took the graphic from The Graphics Fairy and enlarged it using Block Posters.  I played around with the sizing and decided I didn’t want the graphic to be too huge on top.  This gave me 7 sheets of paper, which I taped together and measured placement on the dresser.

design

 

Then I took a soft drawing pencil (you could use chalk) and rubbed the back of the design all over with it.

WP_20140530_003

Then I flipped it back over and taped it in place. You need to tape it so that it won’t move around when you are tracing.  The next step was to take a pen and trace the outline of everything.  This was fairly painstaking and I am glad I did not have a hugely ornate design.

WP_20140530_004

 

The beauty of the chalk paint is that it takes any kind of transfer really well.  When I lifted the paper up, I had the design transferred in place.

WP_20140530_005

Neat, right?  I was stoked that this actually worked LOL!  Now I filled in the letters with a fine Sharpie.

WP_20140530_006

I would have like a more dark gray color, but that would have meant using paint and a brush and since my skills in fine painting are on a preschool level, I decided to live with the black.  This took some time to do – maybe an hour?

dresser top

 

It’s not completely perfect. I had a smudge, but it’s barely noticable.

WP_20140530_008

Normally I like to do poly on things, but I only had spray satin. I didn’t want to drag the dresser downstairs and outside to spray, so I decided to go ahead and try waxing the piece instead since I had some.

WP_20140531_055

I tried waxing before, but it was on latex and didn’t work well.  The beauty of chalk paint is how well it takes the wax. Nice to learn these things.  I did 2 thin coats of wax on the drawers and sides and 5 thin coats of wax on the top for extra protection.  Note – I tried putting wax over the sharpie on a scrap piece of wood to make sure it wouldn’t smear, which it did not, obviously.

I love how it came out!

Painted dresser

 

With buying the paint samples and hardware, this project cost me about $25.  I already had the calcium carbonate, which still was only $5 for 5# and I have it for future projects. So even if you count that, it was $30 for a fun new dresser!

However, I do need to buy a new clock.  This one just doesn’t go with the dresser LOL!

WP_20140604_005

May Wrap Up and June Goals!

A little behind on this post, but it’s all good 😀   I did a lot in May, actually.  Biking really kicked into high gear and I finished a few furniture projects:

WP_20140511_025

and the dresser!

WP_20140531_056

I will post more detail on how I did this in another post. I am in love with it!

Here were the goals for May:

1. Continue with Female Body Breakthrough and continue my 45-60 minutes a day of exercise.  Done and done.

2.  Eat with my guidelines of 6 eats per day with protein for all meals and snacks. Sort of.  I started snacking too much later in the month. At first I lost my appetite with all the work stress, but then the stress eating came back. 

3. Make some doctor appointments this monthOoopsie.  I didn’t do this.

4. Clean more windowsDONE!!!  Actually, I will confess that we finished them up on Sunday the 1st, but close enough. It was starting to become a joke during the month about finishing the windows, but now they are done and it looks so much better.

5. Participate in Photo a DayI sort of enjoyed this, but then I felt pressure to follow the prompts and I tend to be a more spontaneous photo taker. Then I would also forget about it with work.

6Attitude adjustment about the house closing. I think maybe I did better this month. We are sort of laughing about the house closing and making jokes about it that are almost funny, but not quite – if you know what I mean.  On that note, we just signed *another* extension.  The definition of irony? That would be this:

contract

Now on to my goals for June!

1.  Continue the last stage of Female Body Breakthrough.  I will be only lifting 2 days a week on good weather weeks due to biking. I am enjoying my workouts! They are tough:

WP_20140603_002

2.  Be more disciplined with eating.  I really need to buckle down with this and quite futzing around.

3.Deep cleaning in rooms of the house. After doing the windows, I noticed things like baseboards and other dusty stuff.  I am not going to set a particular number of rooms, but I will be working on them.  Something that would have to be done when we put the house on the market anyway.

4. Keep doing my projects. I really enjoyed doing the furniture projects, which really helped me deal with the work stress and house stress. Not waiting on these until we move.  I will do anything to keep my stress level down (which will help with goal #2)

5. Try to write a couple garden how-to posts. I have had a couple different requests and I keep thinking I will get around to it, so here it is.

Here’s to a great June!

AIM – The Organized (Or Not) Approach

aim_logo

 

 


Organization.  This is one of those traits that I really wish I had.  I think I can best be summed up as semi organized.  My sock drawer?  Totally unorganized.  My lifting program? Totally organized. Employment? Totally organized. Keeping track of my keys? So not organized.

There are definitely times when organization is a must to help keep you sane.  With weight loss and maintenance, organization can be the difference between it being a real struggle and much easier.

I try to stay organized by tracking my food and also by rotating in usual meals. I do like variety, but just have go-to meals and the ingredients on hand to make life easier.  When I am really on point, I actually will take about 5 or 10 minutes the day before and put the next day’s food in my tracker.  Then I just have to look at it and eat what it says.  I am more likely to stay on track that way, although there are some days if it has been a particular bear at work (which was pretty much all of May, blergh) – I will ignore the tracker and go for pizza.   I think if the majority of time you stay at least partly organized, the better chance of success you will have.

With workouts, particularly strength workouts, being organized is really a must. Otherwise you end up at the gym, do a few biceps curls, look around, do a couple squats and then get on the elliptical because you can’t think of anything to do.  Now, I like following lifting programs (NROL, FBB, ect), but if I am not doing that – I will write out a lifting schedule so that I make sure I am hitting all the muscle groups – I do full body workouts – and how many sets and reps I want to do.  That saves me time at the gym and is much more effective.

On the flip side, I do think you have to be careful not to become so organized that you let it rule your life. When a friend calls for a last minute get together and you decline because you had a workout scheduled or it wouldn’t fit into your eating plan, not so good.  Organization is great, but you also have to let life happen.  It seems like it always comes down to balance – in all aspects of life.


 

Make sure you read more at my fellow AIMers’ blogs for their thoughts on this topic!

Lynn @ Lynn’s Weigh

Debby @ Debby Weighs in

Shelley @ My Journey to Fit

Cammy @ The Tippy Toe Diet

AIM: Adventures in Maintenance is Lynn, Lori, Debby, Shelley, and Cammy, former weight-loss bloggers who now write about life in maintenance. We formed AIM to work together to turn up the volume on the issues facing people in weight maintenance. We publish a post on the same topic on the first Monday of each month. Let us know if there is a topic you would like us to address!

 

50 miler!

Riding day!  John planned our route for us. I knew it would be in the 40s since we were going to Saratoga, but the actual amount depends on what way we go.  We did take a detour at the start because there is construction leaving town that we wanted to avoid, which ended up adding 4 miles onto the trip down.  Then we got onto River Road, called that because it follows the river 😀

WP_20140531_005

I am getting good at taking pictures while pedaling!  I love going down this road because there is almost no traffic and kind of rural.  Okay, not kind of. It is rural.

WP_20140531_004

We had a really good tailwind on the way down. It was really windy and I kept thinking about how coming back was going to suck LOL!

Around mile 13 was time for a snack!

WP_20140531_007

Loves the dried pineapple when riding – or any time, really.  It was in the upper 60s and I couldn’t decide whether or not to take off my jacket as I would get warm and then the sun would go behind a cloud and with the wind it would feel colder. John shed his jacket, though.

WP_20140531_012

 

Lots of farms on this route. You see horses, cows, sheep and llamas (or alpaca?):

WP_20140531_010

 

I was getting pretty hungry by the time we got to Saratoga at mile 27! We had a big breakfast and the snack, but it was time to eat!  We hit up Comfort Kitchen, which is a place that sources local stuff and makes really good food.

WP_20140531_015

 

I had a pulled pork sandwich with a side of sweet potato chips, which were flavored with orange and rosemary.  Yum!

WP_20140531_016

 

Food tastes even better when you have worked for it! We then walked around Saratoga.  We stopped at NorthShire Bookstore and I was pointing out the cycling books to John.

WP_20140531_019

 

I mentioned again how much I liked The Secret Race. Apparently one of the workers overhead me and asked if I would write a review of the book since they didn’t have one.  You know those little cards with a review on them that hang on the shelf? That’s it.  Anyone who shops here – you will be able to see my review, sloppy handwriting and all 😀

Good advice for all:

WP_20140531_045

 

Time for cuppicakes!!! We stopped at Bettie’s. I had a Samoa cupcake, which was delicious!  John’s was key lime.

WP_20140531_041

Not pictured was the chocolate cannoli we shared as well.  While those items are great, the coffee was terrible.  Mine was full of grounds, too.  Never getting coffee there again.

We also walked around Congress Park and saw baby ducks!

WP_20140531_025

 

They are soooo cute!

WP_20140531_035

 

I didn’t zoom in on these either.  Look at where these babies were:

WP_20140531_036

 

Time to use that cupcake power to get home!  John had planned for us to go back the same route, but I wanted to take a more direct way since we would have been at about 55 miles if we went the same way – into the wind.  That is a really a bit big of a jump in mileage. We did head into the wind, which thankfully was less, but still pretty strong.  John and I switched front and back a lot for drafting purposes.

Around mile 40 and we took a break after a hill section.  I think we were getting a bit loopy and I tried to do a jazz hands pose while John took my picture.

WP_20140531_048

 

All while trying to balance my bike on my thighs. Now that is talent!

One more rest at about mile 46 to stretch.  Kind tired at this point.

WP_20140531_052

Final bit of the ride to go!

WP_20140531_053

 

Done and done.  Longest ride of the year.

WP_20140531_054

 

Ride Stats:

Total miles:  50.3

Average speed:  13.3 MPH

Top speed:  26.2 MPH

Saddle time:  3 hours 45 minutes

Calories burned 1540  (probably more with pedaling into the wind, but whatever).

This ride really felt good, I have to say. Both of us felt great.  Even my legs, while tired, could still have gone more.  Sit bones a little sore, but that is what happens when you increase the mileage by that much.  I felt Saturday’s ride more on Sunday morning when we did another 20 miles.  Monday is rest day 😀

What’s Blooming – Iris time!

Bloomity, bloomity!  The garden has been a joy to go out and visit each day this week.  John usually comes on a tour as well so I can point out all the new things 😀

garden

 

There is a bit of a hole in the garden right now.  I mentioned that I thought my butterfly bush was dead.  It wasn’t, actually.  It normally wakes late, but this is really late.  It’s very small right now.

WP_20140529_015

 

It almost looks like 2 plants. This is normally 5 feet tall when in bloom, so I am curious as to whether it will get that high this year or not.  Ah the mystery!

What is doing great now, however, would be the irises!  I have 2 different kinds. One is the regular iris (I forget the name) and the other is the bearded iris.  The regular:

iris

 

These blew up this year!

WP_20140526_005

 

I think I am going to have to divide this group, which I have never done before.  Eeep!  These came from one of my neighbors a few years ago. I got 6 rhizomes and ended up with all of these.

WP_20140526_003

 

Now for the bearded iris. This came as one single rhizome and this is year 3.

boysenberry buttercup

 

These blooms are huge!

iris

 

I am so finding room for more bearded at our new house (if we ever move 🙄  ).

On to some containers:  This is a classic combo of geranium and spike plant, which I have never done before and figured I would for a change. 

WP_20140529_019

 

Excuse the porch. We scraped to paint and are awaiting dry enough weather to paint.  Note Pixie meowing at me here.  🙂

Remember that old metal pot I found? Here it is with a plant:

WP_20140529_012

Another new plant for me this year is the firecracker plant.

WP_20140529_013

 

It’s very cute (again, more scraping done on the front steps. Painting… the neverending job).

I am loving the centaurea:

WP_20140526_006

I have another color of these that should be open next week. Squee!

WP_20140529_007

The aliums are blooming as well.

alium

 

I was just standing outside smiling at the garden last night. I makes me so happy to look at!

And on orchid watch:

orchid

 

WOO HOO!  Finally open!  One of the buds shriveled and fell off and I was worried the other 3 would do that, but 2 of them are open now. 

Stage 4 of Female Body Breakthrough

Stage 4 and the final stage for Female Body Breakthrough!  This one is structured a little different in that each workout has different reps and sets. So in week one I did 4 sets of 5 with heavy weights and then the next workout will be 3 sets of 10 and then the 3rd will be 2 sets of 15 with lighter weights.   Then you go through that rotation again.

Workout A

Exercise
1. Plank with alternate arm/leg reach (on elbows)
2. Complex: Deadlift, High Pull, Push Press, Reverse Lunge
3A. Bulgarian Split Deadlift
3B. Single Arm Chest Press on ball
3C. Back Squat
3D. Chinups

Yeah  – that plank is flipping hard. Looks like this:

Plank 6

Source

I was able to do it once I got the hang of it. Good thing I was using a mat, though 😀 

The complex – I forgot how much I liked this.  What it means is that you perform 8 reps of the deadlift, move right into a high pull and do 8 reps, move right into the push press with 8 reps and right into the reverse lunge and do 8 reps – all without stopping.  This one is the same for the whole month where you rest a minute and repeat the complex 4 times. You do have to use a lighter bar for this and it gets your heartrate up there!  I need to remember to rotate the complex in to my regular routines in the future.

Workout B

Exercise
1. Crunches on stability ball
2. Complex: High Pull, Front Squat/Push Press, Back Squat, Good Morning
3A. Deadlift
3B. Dumbbell Overhead Press with rotation
3C. Single Leg Deadlift (modified from a single leg squat)
3D. Bent Over Row

Same deal here with the change in sets/reps each workout.  Now this should last for a month, but because of biking cutting into my weekend lifting, I might go ahead and just extend the time and get in all 12 workouts since they are each different. 

I do have to say that I am really tired of doing chin ups. Even with resistance – I don’t care for them. I don’t think I will bother with them ever again after this program is done.  Too many good moves I like to do ones I don’t!

 

Just a day.

Sorry, I have title blank today. Mid week already! I did work about half a day on Monday, but still managed to take half a day for myself…and then proceeded to cram it full of stuff.  I need to find some way to have a 2 day workweek and 5 day weekend.  I am going to have to break it to John that I need to find a sugar daddy.

We were going to bike to breakfast, but it was wet and misty out. Boo!  It was also a lot cooler in the low 50s. Feels like early spring again.

WP_20140528_001

I brought my own cream cheese today and tried the Philadelphia higher protein cream cheese, which was pretty good.

 

Work has been at a dull roar this week, which is good, and I haven’t gotten called since Sunday (when they called twice). I’ll take the little things right now.  And on a random note, I got my hair cut shorter for biking season.

WP_20140527_002

Post workout and shower flushed face, too!  At least it wasn’t a hot flash…

Lunch – eaten at computer, of course.

WP_20140528_008

 

I am still in the yogurt/apple rut, although I had it for breakfast the other day – so I do know how to change it up!

My garden is opening up blooms by the minute now, I swear. I woke up this morning and the Boysenberry Buttercup irises had started to open. 

boysenberry buttercup

 

These blooms are huge, too. They have to be at least 6 inches across. Friday’s garden post is going to be filled with irises! There were 2 ladies standing on the sidewalk pointing and gesturing about my garden today. I almost thought about stopping work and going out to talk to them, but I didn’t.

My snack!

WP_20140528_009

Half eaten protein bar, because I am classy like that to take a picture. 😀

Dinner time arrived so fast today! Midweek always seems to be cobbled together from precooked stuff, but it’s all good… and typical.

WP_20140528_010

 

I have missed a few days of the Photo a Day challenge.  Today’s prompt is “Unique” and I thought I would show a picture of black cherry soap that I just made.

WP_20140528_011

 

Long-time old customer called asking if I could still make some soap for her.  Of course, instead of saying no because of how busy I have been, I said yes LOL!  It wasn’t that big an order and all the same scent – black cherry.  I do have to say that this is about my least favorite scent that I do, but she goes to craft shows with it and sells out.  She will cut this into about 100 bars.

Off to have some frozen yogurt tonight, or maybe coffee because it is kind of cold out LOL! 

Fit Female Breakthrough Stage 3 wrap up.

Finished up stage 3!  I actually started stage 4 today (owie).

I made good progress in this stage even though I did not do all 12 workouts. I got in 10. Now that biking season is here -YAY!!!!- I have dropped down to lifting twice a week instead of 3 times a week. Unless it is raining on the weekend — then I will get in the third.

Here are both the A and B workouts and my progress over the past month.

Workout A

Exercise Set/rep/weight Week 1 Set/rep/weight Week 4
Plank on stability ball 3 sets of 60 second holds 3 sets 70 second holds
Ball Crunch 3 sets of 10  3 sets of 12
Deadlift 3 sets of 6 with 65# bar 3 sets of 6 with 75# bar
Military Press 3 sets of 6 with 20# DBs 3 sets of 6 with 25# DBs!!
Forward and back step over 3 sets of 15 each leg with no weight (balance issues) 3 sets of 15 each leg with 10# DBs
Incline Dumbbell Chest Press 3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs 3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs
Hamstring curl on ball 3 sets of 15 3 sets of 15 
1-point Dumbbell Row 3 sets of 15 with 15# DB 3 sets of 15 with 15# DB

Workout B

Exercise Set/rep/weight Week 1 Set/rep/weight Week 4
Prone Cobra 3 sets of 60 second holds 3 sets of 70 second holds
Front Squat 3 sets of 6 with 20# bar 3 sets of 6 with 45# bar
Chinups 3 sets of 6 with assistance 3 sets of 6 with less assistance
Stiff-legged deadlift 3 sets of 15 with 55# bar 3 sets of 15 with 65# bar
Dumbbell Push Press 3 sets of 13 with 15# DBs 3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs
Barbell Split Squat 3 sets of 10 with 45# bar 3 sets of 12 with 45# bar
Split Stance Single-arm cable row 3 sets of 15 each arm at 20# 3 sets of 15 each arm at 30#

Thoughts? I was really, really pleased with this.  I made good strength gains.  Definitely have upper body strength and good core strength.  Lots of balance work this month, too, which is really good practice and something I don’t think about doing. I just have been feeling fatigued lately, which I think has a lot to do with insomnia and work stress (you think??)

Absolutely no weight loss over 3 months. No size loss, either.  : shrugs : 

I need to remember to not start a program late in winter because the tough parts bump into biking season and that takes priority since it is such a short season.  Must start programs in January like everyone else LOL!