Coveting Ego trainers

I don't wear trainers very often so I was surprised at how much I wanted to buy myself these gorgeous embroidered trainers after seeing them on Laura's blog. I immediately saw them teamed with summer dresses and my khaki dungarees. I'm so tempted, but if I do give in to temptation I'll have to wait until Frugal February is over, which might just be long enough to cool my desire...

Cooking

When I read Jennifer's post on cooking with leeks I knew I would be making the Creamy Squash Leek and Pancetta Pots sometime very soon.

Oh-my-goodness they are delicious. The recipe was for four people - enough for two nights for Andy and me. Having finished my first helping I could've easily tucked into a second, not because it wasn't satisfying, but because I was being a glutton. I resisted so that we could enjoy it re-heated the next day. I spent the entire day looking forward to it and we ended up much eating earlier than usual.

Filming

I downloaded the 1 Second Everyday app after seeing it on Oh Gosh. I decided to wait until something exciting happened before starting to film snippets of my day but with little on the horizon I decided to just start. Naturally the first clip is of the cats. On the second day the most exciting thing to happen was me curling my hair for the first time in ages, so that's clip no.2 (did I mention I had nothing exciting coming up?)

Maybe I'll share a full month when it rolls around? Or perhaps a week of clips would be enough. My goal is to film everyday, even the most mundane of snippets, to end up with a year of little memories. I'm so excited by the prospect of this!

Going sugar free

I have an allergy to sugar beet and in an effort to cure it I'm taking a homeopathic remedy for a week. This means I have to cut out sugar altogether. I'd been putting it off, knowing that it would be a pain as soooooo many things have sugar in. I'd decided that I needed to do some research, plan my meals in advance but I was procrastinating and in the end I decided to start and wing it.

So far, it's been OK. The Spag Bol I made last night wasn't as tasty as it could've been as I couldn't use stock or Worcestershire Sauce. My lunchtime cheese on toast has been left wanting after discovering I couldn't use my usual ketchup on it (thinking about it I might've been able to use tomato puree). So many surprising things have sugar added, it's been a real eye opener - I even have to be careful when it comes to bread. Bread!!

If I'd thought about it I would've weighed myself before I started to see what difference it made, but I don't own scales, so...

Living in chaos

We discovered that our central heating pipes where leaking under the floor in the lounge, so we've had the plumbers in digging up the concrete and scaring the living daylights out of the girl cat in order to sort out the issue.

The house has been in chaos for the best part of three days. We decided to replace all of the under floor pipes downstairs so carpets have been pulled up, furniture bundle out of the way, they've needed to take up floorboards upstairs in most rooms. Only our bedroom has remained intact although it has been filled with bits of furniture and odds and ends from other rooms.

I've been hiding in my bedroom reading, and scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest.

I'm glad to say it's now sorted, order has been restored. Now I just need to get rid of the thin film of dust that now covers everything we own. It's so true that you don't appreciate what you've got til it's gone. Boy! I missed my usual peace and quiet.

What have you been up to this week?

I have a rather nifty little app on my iPhone called Pro HDR and it has allowed me to take some awesome photographs over the past few years.

It takes a double exposure and can produce some beautiful results, it's especially good for landscapes and capturing skies at sunrise and sunset. But it's not suitable for people shots or anything that moves as you have to keep still whilst it takes the two exposures.

And because I'm nowhere near done talking about my recent trip to the Sahara Desert, I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite shots taken with Pro HDR (any excuse!)

Sunset Day 2





Sunrise Day 3




Only a few left to go, keep scrolling!




And just to show you the difference, below is a shot taken at sunset with my normal iPhone camera, see how the sky is over exposed?

That aside, it's me sitting on a sand dune in the Sahara, look it's me! In the Sahara! (Can I go back please?)



Day 4 of Blogging Every Day In November with Rosalilium

I've dipped into most subjects on this blog but one thing I don't tend to talk about is technology. More precisely, apps. I have plenty, most of which I don't use, but I find the ones I do use, I use a lot.

My favourite? Instagram and Camera+

The ones I should use more often? Simply Being and 5K Runner. I'm seriously behind on the later.

Couldn't live without - BBC iPlayer, 4OD, Pinterest and eBay (clearly I need to spend less time sat on my ass and more time in my running trainers)

The one I wish worked? Google Places, this has worked once. Just once. It let's me down when I'm in London all the time, and this is when I'd find it most useful.

The most recent? 7 Minute Workout Challenge.

Reason for buying? The promise of a good workout in just seven minutes.

Does it work?

I've used this twice so far and I have to say the day after I felt it, not in a I-can't-move-without-winching sort of way but I definitely felt it. It's easy to follow and all you need is a wall and a chair and seven minutes.


It's 12 high intensity exercises done in 30 second bursts with a 10 second rest in between. The claim is that it's the equivalent of working out for an hour. I'm not completely convinced by this but it is a good way to get your body moving and heart pumping - which can only be a good thing, right?

I'll be using this as an addition to my (currently meager) exercise regime, not as an alternative. It'll be easy to see if I improve as currently I can't do 30 seconds of push ups. Not even close. Push ups with rotation? Not a snowballs. Strangely, I can do triceps dips without to much difficulty... which makes me think I must be doing them wrong!

Do you use apps to workout? Which apps do you use the most?


This topic is one from #BEDN hosted by Elizabeth, albeit rather very late!