I RAN NON STOP FOR 3 MINUTES!!!!!!!

Thankfully a bit cooler today so managed my W3D1 run this evening. Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then two repetitions of the following: run for 90 seconds and walk for 90 seconds to recover, run 3 minutes and walk for three minutes to recover. Then five-minute cool-down walk.

I cant believe I managed to run for 3 minutes non stop - TWICE!

Must admit the second time was easier as I didn't have the fear I'd had for the first time :)

Press-ups!?!

Thinking I should do some other type of exercise on my rest days and came across the 100 Pressups site similar idea as c25k but with pressups not running. Don't think I can do any at the moment :)

Facebook | Joanne Cowie

Facebook | Joanne Cowie: "Back on track W2D3 run just completed, its quite warm this evening so a bit more out of puff than normal. Quick shower and relax on the sofa I think :)"

Duh!

Ok Change of plan was meant to be on my second run of the week tonight but forgot to turn on the dryer on the way to work so running kit was still wet when I got home. Not keen on running my current route in fading light as its through the park so will do W2D3 tomorrow instead and W3D1 on Sunday afternoon. Then I can get back to normal on Tuesday.

May be I better restart Flylady as well and remember to reboot my laundry :)

C25K

Ok this is not some weird techno jargon but my latest exercise attempt. The Couch to 5km program on Cool Running.

Now those of you that know me know that exercise and I have never been very close. I admit I toyed with aerobics and swimming a couple of years ago but could always find excuses not to do it or a reason to visit the chip shop afterwards and I never really got the 'feel good' factor that you hear people who love exercise talk about.

So, why take up running? Well I started thinking about it last year while driving back from our visit to Silverstone. We stopped for a snack and magazine refill and not having a Weightwatchers magazine I bought a Womens Fitness magazine that had exercises to help me trim down a bit before the cruise in August. The magazine included a section on starting running by doing intervals of walking and running. As I was already doing some walking after work by taking a long route home I thought that could be doable.

I did the exercises for a while, enjoyed my cruise until my hip and legs got sore with all the walking and when I came home went back to couch potato mode during Autumn and Winter. The freezing ice and snow this Winter was a great excuse to cut back my walking even further.

Then fast forward to this Spring and Eddie Izzard on comic relief running all those marathons and to the other celebs cycling through Scotland in the freezing weather that had kept me tucked up in bed. I started to feel guilty. Then to Spring Harvest this year and on week 3 my two chalet mates were both runners and got up early to run before hitting the rest of the day and they did enjoy it!

I was getting the message :) I started checking out running forums for good ways to start and found a lot referred to this c25K program. Once I found there were podcasts to help with the timing and that I didn't have to break any speed or distance records I decided to give it a go.

So here I am on Week 2 Day 2 having just done my fifth session of walking and running. I do feel better, I am enjoying it, I even ran in the cold and rain last week and felt great after.

I'm updating my status on facebook after each run and will start to log how I'm doing here and hopefully in a couple of months I can say I'm a runner, rather than just runner in training :)

Panto!!

I had a great fun yestarday attending the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow to see their Panotmine of Pinocchio with the kids and parents of Ballochgoy Playgroup. The cast were fantastic, the songs and dance routines highly enjoyable, the magic amazing and the sets, costumes and sound and light effects truly stunning.

Its running till 30th Jan and next Wednesday (27th) they are doing a special £10 show to raise funds for the Haiti Earthquake appeal. If you havent yet seen it I'd highly recommend going along.

ITS COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok the Snow was nice before Christmas and helped lend a seasonly feel to the holidays and looked pretty.

But its now been two weeks, its not snowed again, we still have below zero temperatures and now ice skating rinks instead of pavements.

I'm officially over the fun of snow and want the sunshine to come back!

Unlikely I know :(

I'm actually starting to wish we could get the heavy snow that Englands getting as then I might get the day off work.

Apologies to those who are getting the heavy snow and hate it or to those without snow and ice who want some.

[ Ali Edwards ] : One Little Word 2010

[ Ali Edwards ] : One Little Word 2010
Found this across on Ali Edwards blog and it seems a great idea so while I have time between the housework and preparation for New Year I've decided to choose the word CAN.

To often this year I've focused on what I couldnt do due to lack of money, work commitments, health, weather or something/anything else. So in 2010 I can be more organised, I can loose weight, I can share my love of crafting with friends and I can spend more time with family.

I'm going to concentrate on what I CAN do and how to do it not what I cant. Thanks to Ali Edwards for sharing this idea.

Hogmanay

Well the New Year is now just a few hours away and there will lots of Hogmanay celebrations over the island and the country. To everyone heading out tonight wrap up warm and stay safe and I'll see you next year.

Quote for the year ahead - "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." (Herm Albright)

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Eve

Its nearly Christmas are you excited yet? If not check this out.
Norad has started tracking Santa and he's safely on his way round the other side of the world heading our way. Hopefully all the snow in Scotland wont give him too much trouble and he wont have any delays.

Hope your excited now! Have a very safe and happy Christmas.

Busy, Busy.

Its been a busy couple of weeks :-

• I've had a trip up to Edinburgh to visit the Scottish National Archives for some family tree research and discovered my Great Grandfather was a poacher!
• I stayed over to see We Will Rock You at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Fabulous!
• Turned 40! Still working on that :)
• Continued working on my christmas cards. Never ending task.
• Started thinking about Shimelles Journal Your Christmas class.
• Worked extra 20 hrs over 2 weeks. Need to find some time to sleep zzzzz

Christmas Journal Cover
Originally uploaded by Jantyannie

Rememer...

Its Remembrance Day in the UK when we remember all those who have given their lives for our safety over the years.

'Coming Home' is the title track from this album from Lance Corporal Ryan Idzi, Sergeant Major Gary Chilton and Sergeant Richie Maddocks AKA The Soldiers. Proceeds from the album's sale will go towards charities including The Army Benevolent Fund, Help For Heroes and The British Legion.

If you missed them on The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance on BBC1 on Saturday night click the link to see what you missed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mDhqbXpULE

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
(For The Fallen - Laurence Binyon)

Favourite Places on the Web

Following Shimelles prompt this morning from the Blogging for scrapbookers class I've decided - along with a lot of other people :) - to start an occasional series of top 5's. Today will be my current top 5 places to spend time online.

1 In Love With Stamping, since becoming a Stampin' Up! demonstrator this has become the first forum I check each day lots of ideas on using the Stampin' Up! products as well as a place to share info with other demos.

2 UKScrappers, I've been a member of UKScrappers since the boards were set from the original yahoo group and enjoy getting inspiration, advice and shopping hints there as well as taking part in cybercrops.

3 Facebook, Yes like many others I have a prescence on Facebook and spend a lot of time tending my Farmville, running a cafe,visiting friends in Yoville or playing various games.

4 Scotlands People Since I started researching my family tree I have spent a lot of time and money on this site tracing my family lines back to the early 1800's and spreading the branches of my tree.

5 Ancestry.co.uk This is where I put a lot of the information gathered about my tree and try and contact other people who may have similar research interests.

Blogging Intentions

Thanks for all the comments and good wishes everyone hoping to start feeling better soon.

Well the prompt for today was to layout our intentions for the next three weeks. Here goes.

I'm intending to post more often at least weekly but unlikely to keep up with daily blogging past the class so if your waiting for a post from me dont hold your breath or you'll turn blue :D

Bit like this man that was an 8 metre high puppet that came to visit Bute in September and has since been spotted all over Scotland and I believe will be in the Inverclyde/Gourock/Greenock area this weekend coming. See Bigman Walking for more info.

Monday 2nd November

Its Monday and I should be at work excitedly waiting for Shimelles first blogging prompt and instead I'm at home wrapped up with the heating on, a supply of painkillers, hot juice and Tamiflu!
I'd been feeling sniffly and coughing all last week but on Thursday things got worse while at work so after a detour to stock up on painkillers, juice and tissues I decided to wrap up warm and have an early night. However by 3am i was awake splitting headache, sore throat, stuffed nose, my asthma had kicked in and then my temperature began to rocket.

So I muddled through the night, as you do, trying to find a position you can sleep in but not wanting to bother anyone as its night time. Eventually had to admit defeat and phoned in sick on Friday morning still part of me thinking its a cold it will get better but as by afternoon my temp was still over 38 I decided I better check with the health centre.

After Several phone calls including NHS 24, several hours and many questionaires I had a call back from a Doctor to advise that I had Flu - they are treating it as swine flu and I am now in quarantine till this Friday. I then had to phone my dad to go and pick up the tamiflu for me as obviously they would rather I didnt leave the house :)

Now if i were fit and well a week of work to play with my blog or craft stuff would be great BUT as I'm getting out of breath and tired just walking up the stairs my activity this week may be limited :(
Hoping to join in more with the class as my meds kick in and hoping I'm feeling better soon. At least my temperatures nearer normal now so thats a start.

Blogging?!?

Ok I'm a bad blogger. Its been months since I updated this blog. I'll say again I need to get better at this but this time I'm doing something about it.

I've signed up for a class with Shimelle designed to help our blogging and our scrapbooking at the same time. Shimelles class starts Nov 2nd and if you want to play along you can click the picture to the left for more details.

I love Shimelles classes she includes daily prompts to get you thinking, practical and technical help and lots of ideas also a place to chat to others doing the class to share problems, breakthroughs and inspiration. Roll on Monday :)

In the mean time I have been busy and here is a layout to prove it.
This is me on the Helipad just out side my window on the Celebrity Summit.

I used the Petal Party kit from Stampin' Up! and extra sticker from a set I got onboard and the announcement from the ships daily paper that hasn't scanned very well.

Helipad Sailaway, 5;00pm, Helipad, Deck 5 Fwd, Port.
Join the ships Officers and get the best view of the Dalmation Coast as we sail away from beautiful Dubrovnick. Bring your cameras. Steps involved, weather permitting.
Weather was 27 and sunny in case you wondered :D

Bute-iful Day

Saturday was a fantastic day warm, sunny, got up early and did my washing got it all dry before lunch.

I worked on organising some website stuff as yahoo geocities is shutting down soon need to move the discovery centre cinema site and my personal sites.

Then I took a walk upto townhead to visit the Community Garden set up by Bute Produce.

This was just a plain grass field last time i saw it and now its all set out with raised beds, poly tunnels, vegetable patches, planting sheds and lots of plants.

They have their official open day in September but as its a community project any one can visit or volunteer to help (help with weeding always appreciated) mon - frid 9-4 and sat 9 - 2

They are growing a wide range of veg, fruit trees and even strawberries and rasberries.

I was very lucky to be allowed to take some strawberries home with me :) and the guys are right they taste much better than the shop bought ones and go great with ryvita and cream cheese and with cereal.

Hmm a word for today

Your Word is "Fearless"

You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it! You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing. Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities. And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary.

What's Your Word?

March!!

I must try and get more regular with this blogging thing :)

Well we've had the wedding and my wee brother is now a married man and Mr & Mrs Cowie (jr) will be back from honeymoon soon.

First couple of pics from the wedding courtesy of my Dad.

where does the time go!!

Ok so I didnt really get any journalling or layouts done this christmas as snowed under with wedding invites for my brothers wedding. Due to misunderstanding I thought i was making 150 invites instead of the 96 they actually needed. :) also reply cards and thank you cards :)

Signed up to Stampin' Up and got my first set of stamps through :)

Only done 2 layouts through January so was really in need of the UKScrappers cybercrop last weekend and finished 6 layouts including my first digi layout.