Remembering...

The subject for the Christmas journal on the 30th of December was to remember the past year, good and bad. For me there was one major thing that stood out (both good and bad). I didn't want my page to be about the design but about the journaling. I did lots of journaling (all tucked into a pocket at the back of the photo), it felt good to write it all down, and you can read it all below:

***

Food intolerance.
It feels strange to write this down. It’s the first time I have done it. The biggest change in 2006, both on the good and bad side was my food intolerance. Between January and April I was feeling so ill. Almost constantly. I could hardly go out and we had to cancel plans many times. I kept a food diary and it showed about 10 “reasonable well days” out of 60!! It was even affecting my mood (lack of nutrients because I didn’t get to keep any food?) and my skin/looks. Not to mention how it wears you out, constantly feeling ill. In April I was so desperate that I went on a very strict elimination diet. Ross was sweet enough and did it with me - that meant so much!

After a week of pure torture I was in tears, I was still ill and didn’t know where to turn or what to do. The doctors were no help as they didn’t do intolerance tests. I knew it was something I was eating, I just couldn’t work out what. Neither was I aware of that you can react to something you are intolerant to up to 72 (!) hours after you have eaten it. During this time I had bought and read LOTS of stomach/intolerance books. Several seemed to suggest that a private IGG intolerance test was the way to go. But it cost a fortune. And would it even work? It has been on my mind for months.
Speaking to my mum on the phone in Sweden, being in tears as I made the decision to give up the strict elimination diet, she said maybe I should try the IGG test after all. If it would give me the right answers it would be worth any money in the world. But would it work?

She said she and dad would pay. This time I cried with happiness & ordered the test the next day. Waiting for the results were very scary & exciting. This was my only hope it felt like, I couldn’t think of anything else that I could try.
When the envelope came through the door I was so scared. I kept looking at it and looking at it. I was wondering if this would finally have the answers for me. I waited until Ross came home and opened it...
I cried and cried. Seeing the results were a nightmare. I kept saying “What am I supposed to eat? What am I supposed to eat?” The results were showing severe intolerances to: dairy products, gluten, wheat, rye, barley, eggs, almonds, hazelnuts, brazilnuts, haricot beans, kidney beans, yeast, cola nut etc and also “borderline intolerances” to things like maize, corn, white fish etc. I was devastated.

The next few weeks we learnt to read the ingredients of everything we bought. Have you ever thought of how MANY products contain things like gluten/wheat, dairy, eggs and yeast? Basically anything pre-made is out of the question, so is breads and cakes, most sauces, almost all candy/sweets/chocolate etc. Eating out is impossible.
Now, several months later, I have learnt to cope with it. Ross being so supportive and eating the same things I do help incredibly much. It’s not easy, it’s never easy, but I have learnt to cope. I read on everything I buy. Everything. I feel SO much better it’s unbelievable, my skin is back to normal (amazing what intolerances can do), Ross says I look so much better and healthier, my mood is so much better and I feel generally “myself” again. A feeling that is SO great it’s hard to describe.

Don’t get me wrong, writing shopping lists and finding FUN things to cook is still hard, and every few weeks I have a few hours when I feel really down about it and could kill for something like a slice of pizza. However taking the test was the best thing I did!

***

And for Chris, who asked me to recommend some "free from" books:
* "The AiA Gluten and Dairy Free Cookbook" - Marilyn Le Breton This book is aimed at children with autism, but it works great for anyone with food intolerance. All recipes are gluten and dairy free and on top of that they are all marked as "egg free", "yeast free" etc (when that applies).
* "Cooking Without Made Easy: Recipes Free from Added Gluten, Sugar, Yeast and Dairy Produce" - Barbara Cousins I just received this book from Amazon the other day, so I really haven't had the chance to get an opinion of it yet. I think it will be worth it though because almost all "intolerance" books feature ONE food intolerance only...and when you suffer from several "big" ones, they are not much use.
Hope this was of some help Chris...

Really excited...

I'm really excited!!! I made up my mind and signed up for one of the Big Picture scrapbooking classes last night. (Thanks to Sherry for recommending them!) It's called Product Playground and it's all about playing around and experimenting with your scrapbooking supplies. Buttons, brads, ribbons, chipboard etc! Just what I need as I tend to use them like I always have done and don't really "alter"/"play" with them very much. So I really can't wait and I'm really excited about it. If any of you are also taking the class, I'd love to hear about it please.

Now, today I'm making sure I'm transferrring my photos correctly to the computer from my camera, and I double-checked that the images were there before I deleted them off the camera LOL! So these are my stationery bargains I got in the sale the other day. The cats are sooo cute I think. And I love to add up what things should have cost had they not been in the sale. It's just a habit I have which gives me some satisfaction I guess LOL! I'm not sure about the price of the two purple items with the big bead on the string in the front of the photo. But the other four I only paid £4.51 in TOTAL for. If they hadn't been on sale it would have been £18.96. So I feel pretty pleased with my cute stationery and bargain.

And before I go I want to share the next page I have made for my Christmas journal. Today I, once again, came up with my own subject. You were actually supposed to go back and make the intro page. But that wasn't really good for me: a) I don't want an intro page (the cover and first page explains enough I think) and b) I really didn't want a "gap" in my book...ie no page for the 29th. That would irritate me LOL!

So I came up with my own subject. Since we always spend Christmas in Sweden, I wanted to make a page of what Christmas (or rather the run-up to it, really) is like for us in the UK. How we still have a tree and decorate the house etc a bit.

Hrm...

...took some photos of some cute stationary that I had bought in the sale. Transferred them to my computer. Or so I thought. I deleted them off the camera and then found they were not on the computer!! Must have forgotten to "paste" them. Grrr! The light has gone again (it's so dark and rainy outside) so it will have to wait until another day now. Oh well...

And I'm still battling (not in a negative way!) along with my Christmas journal. 28th of December and the subject was to write about what things you like about this time (well, not THIS time as in January...but as in Christmas/December). I thought it was the perfect subject to do in a list form.

Ooooh and I had some fun with my Slick Writers using them straight onto the photo. Bought a big box of them (mixed colours and nib sizes) and have kinda forgotten to play with them (Ross keeps stealing them to write onto CDs with though - apparently they are great for that! LOL!)...so today they came out. Wow it was easy to write onto photos with them!! L-O-V-E them!! Will definitely have to do that a bit more (before they get worn out by writing onto CDs!!)...

Thinking about signing up to one of the Big Picture scrapbooking classes. Never tried one of those before. If any of you have, I'd be very grateful if you could let me know your opinions of it/them in the "comments" section please, please!! Thanks...

Grey, grey, grey...

It's one of these days when I think it never became light outside. It's just totally dark and grey. And rain, rain, rain... Have been forced to have the ceiling lights on all day - it's just been too dark. I really hate those days. No matter how much you try and stay in a good mood, things just go against you on these days. Not sure why, they just do...

On the other hand, once it's actually evening on a day like this, and you feel you really *should* have the lights on, it can be rather cosy. So I'm hoping for a cosy evening as this has really not been my day today.

Still I have at least managed another page for my Christmas journal. I was surprised when I noticed I don't have too many pages left to do now. I guess taking it one day at a time, one page at a time - you WILL catch up and finish it after all. I'm not very good at "being behind" on something, it gets me rather stressed. So to have the little schedule of just continuing one page a day has really helped me. I feel rather pleased that I have continued, not given up and not got stressed about it.

The prompt for the 27th of December was all about sleeping. Didn't have too much to journal about so I added a cosy winter/evening picture which was actually part of our advent calendar. Thought it was rather appropriate with the starry night...

What a special day...

This is my page for the 26th of Dec (Christmas Journal). A quite simple one this time. I decided to actually use something that was connected to this Christmas, so I took the very Christmassy box I got given a CD in, cut it up and used one side (decorated with Stickles glitter glue) as the main photo of my page.

The journaling is all about the tradition we have for Boxing day. Since many years back, mum's sister and her family have invited us over for food in the afternoon. We all try and make it on the day as it's really the only time of year that the whole family (on mum's side) gets the chance to get together. So that is always very nice.

I used lots of Stickles glitter glue to make the picture come alive in the page and make it a bit more 3D. I tried to take a close-up photo of it, but I'm not sure how much will show up properly.

Went shopping this morning and made some bargains. Also got myself a self-healing cutting mat as the one I already have is pretty useless. I was intending to get an A4 sized one. Possibly look at an A3...but really go for an A4. After lots of visits to several shops, I didn't find a single cutting mat. Then finally I found some in The Works. But they only had A2 (!!) sized ones. So A2 it had to be.

Apart from that, I've had a really nice day today. Sending lots of hugs to someone very special - you know who you are...

Not feeling well...

...at all. Think I must have accidentally eaten something I'm intolerant to. Suffered from extreme stomach pains and nausea yesterday evening and today I'm feeling very uncomfortable in my stomach. Not nice!

On a happier note, I was so pleased when I got an order from Amazon today (thought it might not arrive until early next week). Five books in total...one being a cookbook full of "without" recipes (without gluten, dairy, yeast etc). Really can't wait to have a read of it after I have posted on here. I hope it's good. It's very, very easy to get your hopes up only to be disappointed yet again (it's very hard to come up with nice recipes when you have to avoid as many common ingredients as I do. Gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs, yeast etc). BUT this book did have very good reviews on Amazon, so I can't help but being very hopeful and excited about it...

Sharing with you yet another page I have done for my Christmas journal. This one is for the 25th of December. A very "calm" and "relaxed" day for our family as it's not a day we do anything special at all.

Just a cosy day really, reading books and "playing" with our presents we got the day before etc. Sorry that I have a shadow covering some of the close-up text. I hope it's still possible to read it.

Right I'm off to read my new book and hopefully discovering some nice and exciting recipes to try. Hope you're also having a great Saturday, wherever you are...

Need circles...

...so I'm looking into circle punches. But then, after some talk on ScrapPad, I decided to give my circle cutter another go. I have never got on with it. Might have something to do with my cutting mat. It's one of those in three pieces that "snaps" together and I catch the knife on the joins. Also (thanks Kirsty!) I think I have been trying to do it the hard way and move the cutter rather than the paper/card.

So I'm after a new cutting mat and then I will give my circle cutter another go. This time being sure not to move my cutter, but the material instead. Just need to get a new mat now. Have been adviced that Poundland and The Works do some to great prices.

This is the page I made today for the 24th of Dec for my Christmas journal. 24th is THE day of Christmas in Sweden and I wanted to somehow fit the whole day into the page. In the end I came up with the idea of making a rough "timetable" of the day.

It's only short notes of what happens and at what time and might not mean too much to someone outside the family without more information, but at least it's enough for me to sum up the day in a short way together with my memories.

And I'm continuing...

...my Christmas journal. Didn't have any space in my suitcase to take any stash with me to Sweden. Therefore I had to take a break in making my Christmas journal. I took a little notebook and pen with me so I could journal and do some sketches while we were away but that was all.

To be honest I know what I'm like. If I get very behind with something I get rather stressed about it and then of course the easy way is to just give up and call it a failure. However I was determind to finish this project so therefore I brought a notebook with me. And I'm pleased to say I'm now back on track. Yes so I am behind, but it would be impossible not to be, so I'm just going to take it one day at a time and work at my own speed. My goal is still to do one page a day. I won't finish on the "correct" day, but I will finish. Let's hope I can stick to it!!

So back to where I left off. This is the page for the 23rd. The prompt was all about stockings. However since the UK traditions are a bit different to ours, I have to change some days and do my own subjects. The 23rd is the day we take the tree in and decorate it. Ready for the proper celebrations on the 24th (not 25th like in the UK).

My page is about what we do on the 23rd to get the house ready for Christmas. I have to say I'm not happy with my page. But with an achy head (migraine), there's just not any creativity to solve the problem. I'm just uploading this quickly and then I will leave the computer alone - the monitor is not good for the poor eyes/head.

More tomorrow...

I'm back...

...in the UK. Travelled back from Sweden yesterday afternoon. Trip went well, but it was pretty late when we got home and we had lots to unpack, not to mention the house was cold (turned off the heating before we left) and we were starving. I'm spending today unpacking some more and sorting out all those little boring jobs that need to be done (like doing something about a overflowing washing basket etc!)

Feel a bit like I'm walking around in a daze today. Like I'm a bit "lost and confused" after the travelling, all the things that need to be done, plus suffering from a migraine. Took some tablets which has helped reasonably so I could get on with things, but my head keeps feeling very "fuzzy". Know I have the joy of that for the next few days too until it goes. Oh joy! NOT!!

Wanted to share this layout with you. Done for a cybercrop about a month ago. It's actually pretty much a scraplift as I really liked the original layout (done by Ali Edwards) so much and it suited the photos I wanted to use etc. The papers I have picked are by Chatterbox.

Don't you just hate it...

...when you're without internet? You feel totally lost and cut off from the world. We have been without internet since Friday afternoon and it's only just come back now. It really shows you how much you rely on the internet just for little things like finding contact details etc. Anyway, I'm back and it feels goooood!!

We had a great New Year's Eve. Lots of fireworks in the neighbourhood and lots nice food to eat. Hope you all had a great time too! Amazing to think it's 2007 - where did 2006 go???

This is a little "thing" (no idea what to call it!) that I did for the guest spot on the ATDML design team. Just something to have on my noticeboard to remind me what to think about when I do my journalling on my layouts. Amazing how much a few simple questions (words!) can help...

...and my final ATDML item I did was this layout of some tulips. The doodles are handdrawn straight onto the paper (no pencil sketching first) using a Zig Millennium pen and then I used some watercolour pens (no water though) to colour in some of the parts. The letters are Basic Grey rub-ons.