Antiques?

I was going to post some pictures of antique treasures that I found a couple of weeks ago...but since I neglected to take any pictures of said treasures and my feet hurt too much to get up and take any pictures, you'll have to imagine what I got instead (with the assistance of Google images).

Item no. 1: a jar full of buttons. Imagine one of these, but full of little metal buttons instead of a colorful variety:

I'm an unabashed button freak. I just need to find a way to use them all.

Item no. 2, a pair of rather well-made spats. They're far too small (curse you, anorexic ankles of yesteryear!), but still look very cool. Mine are like these below--same style and color, but without the buckles:

Items no. 3 and 4, little square glass bottles. Each holds roughly an ounce, maybe a bit less. One has a cork and currently holds my attempt at perfume (essential oils splashed into some olive oil and glycerin). It smells good, but doesn't last for more than 15 minutes. Sigh.

And item no. 5, a little bottle of ink with a built-in inkwell. I'd never seen anything like it before:

Mine has the brand 'Skrip' on the lid, and is completely full of black ink. I have yet to try it out yet, but I'm sure it's still good for writing. And it's dang cool to boot.

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In other news, I'm off to see my brother's girlfriend tomorrow...she's going to cosmetology school and needs a model for hairstyling, washing, etc. I'm her lucky guinea pig. And it ought to be interesting. Her mom is picking me up at 6 tomorrow morning...hence more interesting (or just sleep deprivation).

Mom and I have been walking in the mornings since last Wednesday. There's a lady my mom used to work out with, and we've all fallen off the fitness wagon (as it were) so we're trying to get back into shape. For the past week we've been walking from 6 to 6:30 (that's AM, not PM *sobs*) and may start jogging this week. There's also some bike riding in there somewhere. And I DO enjoy it once I get moving...but it's been freakishly cold these past few days, coupled with it being very dark that early in the morning, and late nights, and it's just not that pleasant to begin with. Sigh. Maybe I'll get used to it. After a couple of years of 'sleeping in' til 7:30 or 8 it's been rough on the old sleeping pattern.

 Umm...what else...I've done a couple drawings for a Hobbit fanart contest, but I'm stuck for a bit between lack of time and agonizing over if they're good/not good/whatever. I'll post them eventually along with pleadings to vote for my drawings before they go up before the official judges. *gulps* So far I have one of Bilbo (on a HORSE!), and one of a random Goblin-town goblin. He's pretty mean-looking.

I'm not sure what else to talk about, so I'll leave off with a question: If you could request anything to be drawn from The Hobbit (creatures, characters, weapons, or places), what would it be? I'm debating doing the spider den (or just a couple of spiders by themselves) for a location...but I want to hear what you all would want to see. I can't guarantee anything, but inspiration is wonderfully welcome.

Fitness Goals n' Stuff

I'm noticing that a lot of my posts have the word 'stuff' in the title. I need a larger vocabulary. Or to not write when I'm tired and low on nouns. (Weird thing: the more tired and taxed I get, the less grasp I have on nouns and am reduced to calling objects 'thingies' and 'stuff'. The words just won't come.)

In January I made some fitness goals involving going on the Paleo diet and working out/getting stronger. I started off very well, and even remembered to take a 'before' picture for reference. (Today I took a 'during' picture and there's definitely a difference. It were highly inspiring. :3) In February my efforts crashed and burned and in the depths of depression I could barely function as a human being, much less work out.

Last week I worked out for the first time since February. And promptly died. (Fine, I exaggerate--I just lay on the floor afterwards and dribbled sweat for about 10 minutes.) And after the soreness wore off (yesterday) I'm back in the swing of things.

I was down to 130 in February, but that's crept up some in the past few months. I love food, what can I say? And being upset/depressed makes me eat more. So here are the current stats:

135-137 lbs (last weighed about a week ago)

BMI (body mass index): 23.2

BFP (body fat percentage): 25.8

Overall I'm about average. I'd like to get my BFP down to 19% or 20%, into the 'fitness' range rather than 'average'. If I'm going purely by fat lost, that would equal about 127 lbs...which doesn't factor in muscle gain but hey, it's a start. 

I might start logging those efforts here. Most of my workouts are Pinterest-inspired, so posting a picture of what I did for the day should be a better visual than 'I just did such and such amount of exercises'. Or something. I dunno, I'm just rambling here now.

Hopefully those efforts won't go the way of the endurance riding, which crashed and burned after I got a part-time job. I need to manage my time better. *slaps wrist*

So today I roller-bladed for about 20-25 minutes and did this (from Pinterest!):

This may not sound too hard, but MAN. I've done this 1x in the mornings (only twice so far), and I'm dripping by the end. It's wonderful. 

So that's about it. I may go over diet stuff (*makes note to log intake*) but at this point I'm eating TONS of meat and protein and need to up the vegetables intake. I like veggies...it's just that eggs are so much easier to fry up and eat. ^^;

Until next time!