ysabet

Thankee I had a good day - did nothing much except repaint my nails (a lovely shocking green colour), laze around the house, and get taken out for thai by my dearly beloved.

It's been a rough fortnight or so. But first, the important thing: I turned 32 yesterday! Whee! Levelup FTW!! Moving right along, I've been feeling the lack of a single online space where I can post all my style/colour/makeup/etc experiments and thoughts, so I started a new blog here. If you're interested, go read; if not, don't. I took a bunch of photographs, which right now I am too tired to post. I need to do an assessment post, which I may possibly do tomorrow; the short summary is I missed a couple days with food and showering, did lotsa exercise, took photos, got out of the house, in no particular order. I'm also starting to get ready for my upcoming trip to Australia, which is where I'll be spending most of June. I'm excited and a bit apprehensive; travel doesn't really agree with me, and I know from past experience that I'll find it very difficult to keep up my exercise, and also to get back into good habits once I'm back home. Dinner's just about ready, so I'm going to go attend to that, and attempt some sleep.

No, I am not dead. I have left the house a bit, which is why I haven't been updating. I'll do more of an update later today (probably?), as I'm off to another training session.

Weekend was good! On Saturday I went shopping with a bunch of lovely ladies I met through Facebook who all do various colour and style systems for fun. Also, fitbit sent me a new fitbit for free! Woot! And then the DOMS from Friday's workout hit, and I've been wiped out ever since. I have another workout this afternoon, and I'm crossing my fingers it won't wear me out too awfully. I'm still exhausted. I need to start tracking my food again, I think, because I strongly suspect that at least part of my current problem is that I'm not eating enough. Again. Anyway, time to go get ready for training!

Thanks Red I loved it too! My shoulders, on the other hand, were screaming at me. I think if I do all the sectioning first, and maybe start at a different point, I can get it down to ~10min, instead of an hour or so of having my hands in the air.

WEEK 3 ASSESSMENT POST, JOLLY GOOD! Goal 1: Eat breakfast before 2pm Assessment: I failed to eat breakfast twice, and I failed to eat it before 2pm twice. One of those times, though, I woke up at midday. And I have been better in what I eat - partially helped by my husband cooking me breakfast on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (bank holiday). Score: B- Goal 2: Shower Daily Assessment: Missed only one day this week! An improvement. And I had quite a long relaxing soak in the tub twice, for bonus points. Score: B+ Goal 3: Train twice a week Assessment: Sigh. I only made it to one session, because my trainer was away on a course, and I have been exhausted and lacking motivation. Still, I did get quite a bit of walking in on my outings away from the house. Score: B- Goal 4: Leave the house twice, and take photos. Assessment: Definitely! I went to a birthday party on Thursday, and to High Tea at the Kensington Hotel on Saturday. Two social events, with people I don't see often. Win! Score: A+ Other Achievements: I did my FIRST EVER crown braid, yo. And recorded a video of it, and posted my first ever video to youtube. And my second ever crown braid. And I did nail art for the first time EVER. With a pastel nail colour (another first). And I chased up fitbit.com and they're replacing my lost fitbit for free. AND I tried a new treatment for my hair (apple cider vinegar rinse) to address some issues I've been having with it lately. So my procrastination activities were at least crazy-productive this week. Trying new things deserves bonus points, I believe. Overall Score: A- (B+ without bonus points) And because I am nice, and stuff, some pictures from the high tea on Saturday:

Rightio. Might see if I can link to click-through larger-size versions. Hrm. New forum software is hard.

So I went to the gym today, and thought I'd take a photograph that shows exactly why I have difficulty finding stretch positions for my hip flexors: That is my right foot my face is resting on, by the way. I can't manage it on the left, not quite. Yet. While that position is not exactly entirely comfortable (my feet aren't quite fragrance-free, especially not after a workout), it's not really much of a stretch, either. More pretty things, though: Whee! Also, is this a good size for photos? Should I do larger? Smaller? Right. Off to shower so I stink less. Or maybe a long soak ...

Heh. My hairdresser banned me from using hair elastics back in February - part of this is learning how to live with hip length hair and no hair elastics! It's bearing the hoped-for fruit, though - my wispy bits are getting longer, and I have less breakage at my previous usual tie-back point. This should, in theory, eventually result in a much thicker length of hair. Oddly enough, this length is actually really comfortable for me. It's not so long it's hard to handle, and it's not so short that it is uncontrollable. A lot of people have issues with the weight of their hair; lucky for me, my hair is both superfine and thin, so it's still almost weightless. That does of course have downsides; the slightest movement of air (or me) and my hair decides that gravity is for losers. Well, some strands do. Frizz city ensues. I do love my hair, it's just ... well, similar to the person whose head it grows out of. Contrary, inconsistent, and really strange.

Speaking of funny looking side braids ... today's hairstyle: That includes my first ever attempt at a french braid. It's a bit of a mess, but apparently looked pretty classy. And this, which included my first ever rope braid: Also, this is what my hair looks like before it gets frizzy: ... and now I am exhausted and going to go lie down for a while.

Off to an afternoon tea thingy. Will post photos of hairstyle etc when I get back, because I am running late >_> oops!

As noted in my previous challenge, I'm reworking my image as part of working on my body. So today I spent some time writing up some of the thoughts I've been having on my colouring. Quite some time, especially since facebook lost my first draft after an hour. Then I did the sensible thing and made it a google doc instead. This doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SoCmROVriotvAJDnvO-saYE7JvYRZdicTszi4uo91Xw/edit?usp=sharing . It is probably boring to anyone not interested in this kind of thing, but anyway.

I am trying to do more with my hair, this is why I am attempting such things. If I could do this neatly, and in less than 20 minutes (my upper back and arms were not at all happy with me) then I think I would wear this every day. It is crazy comfortable! And I suspect would stay put in wind etc rather well. Now if only I can figure out a way to do it neatly enough to make me not sad ...

http://youtu.be/rqCFlBspn54 .. I also did a video of my attempt to crown braid. Critique welcome!

Today's experiments. Nail art: My First Ever Crown Braid: From the back the utter mess looks almost intentional, don't you think? Oh well, I guess it's not bad for my first ever try.

Oh, and some moar flowers, taken yesterday:

WEEK 2 ASSESSMENT POST, TALLY-HO! Goal 1: Eat breakfast before 2pm. Assessment: I skipped breakfast entirely for 2 days, I still managed two meals a day the rest of the week. Solid improvement from last week, for sure, even if I'm not entirely meeting my goal yet. Score: C Goal 2: Shower Daily. Assessment: Aside from the weekend, where I skipped showers, I bathed every day. Not an improvement, but adequate. Score: B- Goal 3: Train twice a week. Assessment: Got this one! Two sessions with my personal trainer. This week coming up will be harder - he's on a course, so I have to do it by myself. Score: A Goal 4: Leave the house twice a week, take photos. Assessment: Not as much as I would like, but I did still do it. And it was attached to my PT sessions, instead of 'just because'. So not as good as last week, but did fulfil the letter of my goals. Score: A Overall Assessment: I improved from last week in at least some ways. And I did get a lot of stuff done at home (my poor plants!). I still need to work on the eating and bathing thing, but non-daily habits are going well. Overall Score: B

I thought about ear plugs, and I'm almost at the point of giving them a go. Problem is, I have sinus issues, and even my in-ear headphones I have to take in and out pretty frequently to avoid pressure differences every time I blow my nose. I'm going to give them a go sooner or later, but I'm not confident. Fortunately, I seem to be really excellent at germinating from seed (which is apparently hard?). It's the keeping-them-alive-long-enough-to-flower that I seem to have difficulty with (which is apparently easy). Sigh.

Yesterday was ... interesting. I skipped my food (oops) and my shower (but I had a long bath the night previous). But I did spend a couple of hours with my houseplants, reducing the spider mite infestation I have going on, and repotting (from the supermarket pots) my sage and rosemary. A lot of the sage is dead as a result, as expected, because it was terribly root bound. Still, I have hopes that I will save at least a few plants. My rosemary looks very happy to be in a larger pot, though. And the marigold and cornflower seeds I planted last week have germinated, yay! Examination this morning leads me to suspect that I have something else bothering my plants, not just spider mites. Sigh. Little wiggly things. I'm searching the internet for what on earth they could be, and having minimal success. Today, once I have breakfast (cooked by the dearly beloved) I plan to seed a few more plants. Maybe some cornflowers and sweetpea, or poppies. Perhaps I might even walk down to the nursery, even though it's horribly cold today (by comparison). Or I might sit on the couch in the sunshine and read. I'm no green thumb, but I'm learning because my Queensland sensibilities can't cope with the lack of green over winter in London - and well, with the lack of green even in summer. I'm hoping that once I learn enough I can have lots of green things in my house all year round, with minimal angst. A girl can dream, right? In other news, I've been trying some herbal sleep supplements, and they seem to be working. I find it difficult to sleep (despite the hypersomnia) because my dearly beloved snores. And while I can sleep through that, I can't go to sleep with it going on. Because it makes me anxious that I won't sleep. Anyway, the ones I'm using are called Natrasleep, and have valerian, hops, calcium and magnesium in them. I'm going to continue using them to see what happens. You'd think that if I feel tired all the time anyway, not getting enough sleep wouldn't be a problem. That isn't the case; while I don't really feel all that different if I haven't slept, my attention is even more scattered, I get more sick more easily, my memory doesn't work as well, and muscle recovery takes longer. Actually, it's more true to say that a good night's sleep isn't any guarantee of those things not happening, but a lack of sleep means they will happen - and also that I might be high from lack of sleep. Which is a bad thing. In any case, hopefully getting more consistent sleep will help me function more consistently overall. Oh, some photos from when I was out of the house on Thursday, and also of my sadly reduced (but hopefully healthier) garden:

Today, I did a load in the dishwasher, rewashed and hung out my laundry, and ... spend a lot of time sitting around staring at the internet. I also had breakfast (at midday). Training is at 3pm, so I probably ought to shower and stretch before then. In other news, I was up at 3am because my body is playing silly buggers and hurting for no reason.

Heh, well, I know some of it, anyway! I do at some point have to do a wardrobe cull, then a wardrobe refresh. I have an awful lot of clothes that just don't quite work anymore, sads.

..... So I haven't left the house yet (at 3.50pm) ... but I did play dressups in my closet. Lots of dressups. http://ysabet.smugmug.com/Fashion/Outfits-and-Colours/28309380_P62gn6 That's the album. The last couple pages are today's efforts. Here are a couple of them: Fun!

Today's to-do list: - Pick up prescription from doctor after 4pm - Call dentist because my crown fell out - Rinse off all the houseplants because I have a really awful spider mite infestation - Maybe plant some new houseplants - Find a spray bottle for misting the houseplants so I don't get more spider mites - Hang out the laundry I'm rewashing because I forgot to hang it out yesterday - Call the showerhead filter company because I forgot my password and their reset process doesn't work and I need a new showerhead filter - Phone hospital to organise Liver ultrasound (should've done this a month ago, but ...) - Find paperwork for liver ultrasound so I know what number to call - Return a jacket I bought a couple days ago, because on further thought, I don't like it so much (not the teal one!) Fun.

Aw, thanks! I'm really trying to improve my photography skills, it's a bit of a challenge. Thank you I love taking pictures of things that people mostly don't notice.

WEEK 1 ASSESSMENT POST, AHOY! Goal 1: Eat breakfast, before 2pm. Assessment: Well, it happened more often than the week before ... but I still missed 4 days. Running out of time before an appointment, being too ill twice, and just not having the energy once. Score: D Goal 2: Shower Daily. Assessment: I missed one day. But that's still an improvement. Score: B Goal 3: Train twice a week. Assessment: Only one training session - but I did get to the gym twice, and go rollerblading, and go walking (playing Ingress) for 4 hours on Sunday. Score: A+ Goal 4: Leave the house twice a week, take photos. Assessment: I left the house 5 times - once each for training, physio, and a hairdressing appointment. I also took heaps of photos. Yay! Score: A+ Overall Fails: My daily habits are still AWOL, but I'm making slow improvements. Failures on the eating front were generally a result of poor planning - either not getting started making food early enough (and running out of time before appointments) or not having sufficiently easy to prepare and consume food on hand. I ordered more just-reheat meals for this week to try and combat that. Overall Wins: Yay photos! And yay new outfits! And yay doing things to look after my appearance! And yay nice weather! Overall Score: C+