Archive for November, 2010
The Everyday Creative- Week 3
This week has been really good creativity wise. I’ve managed to do multiple creative things each day, so this week’s photo collection is really just a sample. 
Other things I’m working on are a Christmas collage wall (to put the presents under, seeing as we don’t do Christmas trees), and STILL finishing off my rose/teacup quilt. I have also discovered a few unfinished Christmas projects from last year, including an embroidered Christmas Advent Callender, so you might see those make an appearance in the coming weeks!
Don’t forget that on Wednesday I’ll be posting up the details of the Handmade 12 Days of Christmas over at We Heart Life, so check it out then!
22 November: “Beach” iPhone case (buy it here)
23 November: Pretty Pepper in the flowes.
24 November: Packaging for the iPhone case I sold.
25 November: Video for “Gelato” iPhone case.
26 November: Photos of the Gelato iPhone case.
27 November: Card making
28 November: Practicing filming on the new DSLR
Thanks for visiting my site again! keep checking back for more updates!
Oh Thyroid, Behave!
Boy am I glad this week is over. It certainly has been a week of ups and downs in nearly every area of my life!
I won’t go into all the details except for the few relating to my health. I only write this in case someone is out there googling away and they find these posts and think, “Hey, the same things happen to me!”. To that person, may you discover this problem a LOT earlier then I did.
Quick as lightning recap:
About three years ago I started to get a lump on my throat which has slowly gotten bigger. It doesn’t really effect me apart from the fact that you can see it. In the last few months it has occasionaly started to push on my throat and I can feel it as I breath.
It’s been difficult for me to loose weight for YEARS.
For the last year I’ve been lacking energy, and get tired really, really easily. I can sleep for most of the day if my husband will let me, and he often says things like, “I don’t know how you can sleep so much!”
Nearly four months ago I went to a seminar on thyroid health after hearning an interview on our local radio station. (read what I learnt here)
After that I started going to a naturopath. She asked me to get a blood test (dun, dun, duuuunnnn!). (read about my first experience at the naturopath here)
Now:
Just before we went to Europe I went to the doctor to get the above mentioned blood test. Now, I HATE needles (I am literarly terrified of them for some reason), and was all upset when they took my blood etc. The nurse saw me cry, but I got it done.
All my results came back within the normal range, and so my doctor recomended I get a biopsy to test the cells. This is mostly to see if the cells will mutate into the C word, and if I will become a statistic.
Did I mention I hate needles? And did I mention that the biopsy is basically sticking a HUGE needle into my throat, an area that I haven’t let anyone touch for the last 8 years because I am oddly sensitive about it? Yeah, well, I was TOTALLY looking forward to this procedure, and I didn’t constantly put it off, or spend nights stressing about it, or dodge all coversations involving my thyroid or said procedure. Definitely not… :-S
Long story short, after our holiday Luke nagged me about getting it done, and my mum took me down to hold me hand. Is cost me 150 big ones, and MORE people saw me cry and stress and tense up to the point where I felt like I was going to explode. I am still waiting for the results (I just did this on Tuesday), but will keep you posted. I’m not at all worried about the results, they’ll hopefully just help the naturopath know what to do (maybe it is foolish not to worry- we will see!).
Wednesday I went to the naturopath who I haven’t seen since ages before we left for Europe, and she looked at the results of my blood test. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw the level of thyroid hormone I had. It was .01 off the minimum. TECHNICALLY in the ‘normal’ range, but as my naturopath says, the ‘normal’ range includes a lot of numbers which are anything BUT normal. So this is both good and bad. Bad because my brain isn’t working properly and it’s telling my thyroid the wrong thing, but good because we now know what the problem is. Any plans we may or may not have had of starting a family soon-ish (*blush*) have been put on the backburner, as apparently that could be pretty bad for my health at this stage.
I’m relieved to know that there’s a REASON it is so gosh darn hard for me to loose weight. I’m relieved that there’s a reason I feel so tired all the time. I’m relieved that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
So if you’re suffering from these types of things, it might be worth going to the doctors, or a naturopath and talking to someone about it. I’m on some helpful herbs (the legit kind- no Amsterdam style herbs for me!), that are giving my body some of the things it needs to keep me healthy and awake!
Tags: blood, healthy, naturopath, needles, thyroid
Travel Photography- Show Shutterspeed
I know you’re probably all sick to death of all my holiday stories by now, but I wanted to take the time to show you a few photos in the coming weeks, and the stories that go with them. The stories that didn’t fit into the other blog posts.
This photo has two stories that go with it.
Story One:
This photo was taken in Notre Dame de Paris. If you ever get to go to Paris, then DEFINITELY go to Notre Dame. It’s so relaxed and beautiful. As you may have guessed from the posts about it (here and here), we absolutely LOVED it. Notre Dame Cathedral (in the background), was desecrated in the 1790s during the French Revolution, and at one stage it was used as a barn for animals etc.
Victor Hugo, who wrote the Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831 wanted to bring attention back to this beautiful cathedral (one of the finest examples in the world of Gothic Arcitecture), and so he wrote the book. The success of his book is one of the key factors that promopted the restoration of the cathedral in the 19th century.
Pretty cool, hey?!
Story Two:
One our tour we had a photo competition, and I entered this photo as one of my submissions for the ‘people’ category. On our way to Amsterdam they announced the winners and low and behold, I won! I won a little St Goar Beer Stein. I had wanted this exact one while we were there, but didn’t get because we were feeling the money pinch that day and being a bit cheap. So to win one later on, out of the blue was pretty special!
From a technical point of view, here are the details of the shot:
Canon 400D
Aperture: 4.5
SS: 320
54mm
ISO 400
If you like these stories you can vote for me over at Blog This…
