Pounds and books

You know, if I was writing in French, the title of this post would have been 'Livres et livres'. It would have been cool.

It's been a while since my last update so I thought I'd share what's been going on.

First, can I say just how much joy these boys bring me?

They are my life and I thank the stars every day that I'm lucky enough to be their mommy!

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So I'm still doing the Couch to 5 K program. I'm currently on week 6 (I did day 2 last night). Things are going so well, I'm very impressed with the progress I've been making. I could hardly run for one minute straight at the beginning of April and I can now run 20 minutes straight (I'll be doing 22 tomorrow). I'm slow as a snail, but I've stopped worrying about my speed. I'm running and it's all that matters.

I'm still on Weight Watchers as well and things are good. I've lost 20 pounds so far. I've sort of hit a plateau this month, but I've heard it often happens when someone starts exercising (something about water weight). I have faith that the weight will come off. And I went from a size 18 to a size 13-14 so that's good for sure :)

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I've been knitting. I'm saving it for another post.

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Books! I have now read 7 books this year, more than half of my goal for the year! The last one I've read is 'The Host' by Stephenie Meyer (of Twilight fame).

I'm not a huge Twilight fan (I enjoyed the books, except the last one, but I didn't go crazy for them). But I think Stephenie Meyer has a great imagination and it shows in this book. It's the story of an alian whose specie took over the earth by inserting itself in human bodies (or host). The main character, Wanderer (aka Wanda), got inserted inside a 17 year old girl named Melanie, but Melanie has a strong personality and she stays inside her body even after the insertion.




The book was long (over 600 pages) and it took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I really got sucked in. I thought Wanderer was a little bit too perfect for my tastes (I love me some flawed characters) but I still enjoyed the story. I was a little disappointed to learn that there's going to be a sequel, as I think the conclusion was perfect, but we'll see. I gave the book three stars out of five.

I'm currently reading 'Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us' by Michael Moss. Very interesting read so far.

Books I've been reading

So another one of my 2013 resolutions was to read more. I've always loved to read but I've been putting books aside since having kids.

Thanks to my friend Robyn who inspired me to join Goodreads, I've been reading a lot more these past few months. My goal was to read 12 books this year. I figured a book a month was doable. Well I'm happy to say I'm now at 6 books, so I'm halfway there!

Here are the ones I've read:

1. GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn
What a great way to start the challenge! The novel tells the story of a couple, Nick and Amy, who each tell their side of the story (one chapter is Nick, the next is Amy and so on). As you can guess by the title, Amy disappears and Nick quickly becomes the suspect. Did he or didn't he? The book is a real page turner, I couldn't put it down! I gave it five stars out of five.

2. LIFE OF PI, by Yann Martel
(Ok I totally wrote Yarn Martel at first!) I had been wanting to read this book for a while and it was the book of the month in one of the groups I'm in on Goodreads. It's very very different from Gone Girl, unsurprisingly. Not as much of a page turner, not as much action. It moved a bit too slowly for my tastes and I was gonna give it three stars until I got to the end. Oh how I loved the end, it was totally unexpected for me. So I give it four stars.

3. DIVERGENT, by Veronica Roth
It's not a secret, I love Young adult novels, especially dystopian ones and that one was gooood! The story is about Beatrice Prior, aka Tris, who lives in a society divided in five factions that each honor a particular virtue. At 16, each teenager must choose in which faction they want to spend the rest of their lives. Born in Abnegation (the selfless), Tris must choose between staying in her faction with her family or listening to her heart and go with the Dauntless (the brave). I loved the story and the world the author built. I can't wait for the movie to come out! Five stars.

4. INSURGENT, by Veronica Roth
Surprise, surprise, I went for the sequel next. I loved it just as much as the first and I'm now very impatient for the end of the trilogy to come out in the Fall! Five stars.

5. MATCHED, by Ally Condie
Another Young adult dystopian novel! Cassia lives in a world where everything is decided by the Society. From the clothes you wear to the food you eat to the work you do. And if you want to marry, the Society will find a match for you. Cassia is happy to live this way and even happier to finally be old enough to be matched... That is, until she receives two matches instead of one. This book was ok. The Society concept is interesting even though it's not that original. But I'm getting tired of love triangles in most young adult books and this one was the main focus f the story so meh. I will probably still read the next two, but I'm in no rush. Three stars.

6. PAS: CHRONIQUES ET RÉCITS D'UN COUREUR, by Yves Boisvert
This one is in French, obviously. Simply put, they are stories about running, told by a runner. As someone who is currently trying to learn how to run, I found it very interesting and it motivated me even more to try and get better at it. Five stars.

That's it. I started The Host, by Stephenie Meyer, so I'll hopefully post about it soonish!

Hello, world, I'm running!

So one of my New Year resolution was to lose weight and train for a 5K.

Well I'm proud to say that I'm doing both!

I've lost 16ish pounds since January. I'm very happy about that, even though I still have a lot to lose. I'm in no rush to lose it all since I've given myself until summer 2014 to lose 70 pounds. I'll get there.

I've also started the Couch to 5k program, which, if you couldn't guess, has you go from couch potato to running a 5k in 9 weeks. I'm currently on week 2 and it's going well. I got myself some brand new running shoes and I'm enjoying the workouts. I have to run with the baby in the jogging stroller during the week, which is much harder, but then I find my weekend stroller-free runs so much easier!

On top of the 5k during the Montreal marathon, I've also signed up for the Color Run in August (if you don't know what it is, look it up on YouTube). It looks like tons of fun!

Look, knitting!

I told you there would be knitting! Sadly, this is all I've knit in all of February! I love the project too, I'm not sure why I'm not working on it (or anything else) more. I actually started mitten #2 last night even though I still have to knit the thumb on this one.

Project Life, how much do I love you?

The answer is: a lot.

I've been thinking a lot about this blog and my desire to come back to it. My problem is: I don't knit as much as I used to. Not because I don't like knitting, don't get me wrong. But with two very young kiddos, I have very limited free time, but lots of hobbies. Blogging about knitting is fun, but there can only be so many pictures of a half-done mitten before it starts getting repetitive, if you know what I mean.

So this blog is going to change. It's going to be about my hobbies in general, so yes, it will include knitting. (I've really only knit one single mitten in all of February, and it's not even done. I still have to knit the thumb. I love the mitten, but I don't think it'll get worn this year!). I'll also be posting about my other hobbies: reading, photography, digital scrapbooking and Project Life. I also want to talk about weight loss (13 pounds down and counting, woohoo!) and eventually, I'll start training for my 5K and I'm sure I'll want to talk about it too. So stay tuned! :)

So as the title of this post suggest, I'm going to talk about Project Life today.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to take pictures, especially since I have kids. I feel like they grow up so fast and I hate that I can't remember everything from their life. Since having Laurent, I realize that even though Julien is still very young (he just turned two on Saturday), there are already things I had forgotten about him as a baby. Laurent is growing up so fast too and soon I won't have anymore babies to remind me of how they were.

So I started a digital Project Life album so I can remember. I try to write about all the little things I like about them, Julien's favourite songs, Laurent's stats from his doctor appointments, etc. And I take lots of pics! I'm loving it so much that I decided to go back and create a Project Life album for my 2012 pictures. It's much smaller (two pages per month except for Laurent's birth month, October, which has four) and there isn't as much journaling in it, but I still like it. I finished it two weeks ago and sent it to Blurb to get printed in a photo book. I got it yesterday and I'm in love.

It's a beautiful 12X12 hard cover book. Julien has already looked at it several times, he loves it and I know his brother and him will cherish it for years to come.

Here are a few more of the layouts:

Nose and glasses added because my friend doesn't want her son's pic online.

I used the Project Life Clementine core kit, some Project Life templates and others created by Lori Whitlock, as well as a few elements I found here and there.

I'll post some of my 2013 layouts soon. And maybe, just maybe (ok probably) I'll go back in time again for a 2011 album...

Life and other things

Hello world,

Things have been crazy again in our household, due to that evil evil thing that we call gastro (i.e. a bad stomach bug). The effects were pretty mild on everyone but Laurent, the poor baby was sick for five days! He's doing better now and I finally got some sleep and I feel like me again. I hope it stays away from our house for a long long long time now.

So there hasn't been a lot of knitting. I've been working on my mittens, hoping to finish them before the end of winter, but considering I'm not even halfway done with the first mitten, it looks like I'll wear them next winter instead. On the other hand (hand, mittens, get it?), winters are long in Canada, so you never know!

I'm working happily on Project Life and it's going well. I can't wait to have an album made at the end of the year. In fact I like it so much I also started a 2012 album. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's an example of a layout I've done for my 2013 album (in French, obviously):

A small sweater for a big baby

So I have a FO to share. I knit a little sweater for my sweet baby Laurent. I chose the Telemark Pullover and chose to knit the 12 months size because I had heard it ran small. I finished it a few days ago and it just fits my three month old! I'm guessing he'll be able to wear it a couple more times before it's too small for him. Oh we'll. I really like the sweater and I plan on making it's version 2.0 for Julien too.
Pattern: Telemark Pullover, by Erika Flory
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Sport in Depths
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm circular needles

 Since I finished this, I cast on for a pair of mittens for MEEEEE, using leftover yarn. Pattern is Herringbone mittens with poms, though I'm doing mine without poms.