Thursday, July 23, 2009

Flowergirls' dresses

Just thought i'd update and put up the pics of Em 'practicing' in her flowergirls dress (ie; me making sure that the sockings wouldn't show through the open back, that the jacket was the right size over the dress etc) I am so stoked with how they turned out :)






Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Deleted Post

Thanks to those who responded, I have now deleted that post . . .

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Change to Diet: 3 week round up

Well the 3 week challenge is up. To be honest I find it hard to tell if the things that have changed are due to the diet change or the seasons, or the ages of the kids . . . or a combo of all three!!

Positive health/health related results:

* Z's rash on her face has cleared away and most of mine have gone, besides the contact dermatitis on my hands
* Emily is now (mostly) sleeping in her own bed all night and also not needing to get up to go to the toilet during the night
* Z has slept through a couple of times
* I haven't noticed my tinnitus nearly as much as normal
* Pre Menstral Symptoms non existant (normally I am ripping heads off in the few days before my period arrived, but it snuck up on me this month!!)

Things Unchanged:

* Sinuses are still stuffed (including with my lactose free trial week)
* One migraine (that absolutely knocked me for six) and a few headaches
* Foggy head (but more often when tired)
* Lack of concentration/motivation - trying to study but just can't get into I like I used to

Regardless of whether it was food related or not, there are some permanent changes that I am going to be making.

As often as practical artificial colours will be out. There is no need for them and alternatives are available. It does no alter the taste of the food in any way so is unneccessary in my book. That said, if there are lollies at a party, I wont say no to the girls eating a couple(but will likely provide a naturally coloured option as well).

I will be ruling out as many preservatives as possible, mainly done by making food from scratch. I was dissapointed that the one type of wine I drink is preserved with 220. We found some on the shelf wich didn't have 220, but it stated that it were preserved with sulphates - same thing different name! Since I drink so rarely, I am going to allow that to slip through. I now have frozen squeezed lemon juice in the freezer so I won't use the preserved stuff again.

MSG and other Glutamates (flavour enhancers, yeast extract) are gone from my house. I have found a few pre-mix jars that do not have any for easy meals and have a stockpile of, well, stock in my freezer so I don't have to rely on the store bought variety. I am missing vegemite though :( And having a hard time finding a suitable BBQ sauce. Anyone have any ideas??

Naughty things that will be making their way back are pork products (nitrates), Coke (yes I know I deserve a slap on the wrist for that one) and 'flavour' although I will be looking for natural flavours over random unknowns.

I am disappointed that my sinuses showed no improvement to be honest. It is my one health issue that bothers me the most and since I am still breastfeeding I can't take my previous medication for it - quite frankly though I am sick of NEEDING medication for it!! I guess it is something I need to keep exploring to find my solution!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Other things I have been up to!

Goodness! Three posts in one day!

We are still waiting for our no-dig garden to be delivered (grr) after 7 weeks when it should have been a 3-4 week delivery time . . . apparently they will call us today . . . I won't hold my breath! They were quick enough to take our money though . . . hmmm

But I do have a whole heap of seedlings ready to go in though!! The only thing that hasn't sprouted is my ox heart tomatoes. I might try thm direct in the garden when it is up.

I have also been doing some other sewing with the hopes of earning a little play money. I haven't sold anything yet, but I am using up my quite large stash of material, so I'm not outlaying anything to give it a go.

You can find my stuff at madeit.com.au

Other things I have been up to: Wedding Sewing

I have promised a couple of times to update this with other things I have been doing, but have been a bit slack - sorry!!

Namely, I have been sewing!! With BIL and SILs wedding in 4 weeks, I was put in charge of making the flower girls dresses. The first attempts was HORRIBLE and is here forth known as the potato sack dress. It was FAR too wide and didn't sit right at all.
So that one was out (might fit her as a swing top when she is 12?? lol) so on we went. A blog I follow (and adore) has a corset dress tute. I have made a top from it before for Ashlyn's 5th Birthday but hadn't done a dress. I managed to score some cathedral satin on clearance from Spotlight and whipped up a practice one. I used an existing top as guidance for the top and a circle skirt for the bottom. We have a winner!!! After showing the bride-to-be she was hooked too, so we now have 2 of those dresses in red with ivory straps that I made up on the weekend.

Now to my gripe (I'm sure you knew there was one coming!!) The wedding is in 4 weeks. I have met the other flower girl once (not a big deal) and have asked for her measurements for the past 3 weeks! I was sent through some measurements and I had to ask for some others. I called sent her a message saying I need these measurements today (Saturday) or I might not have time to do the dresses . . . it got to 6pm and I still hadn't heard from her, so I messaged again and they were about to be going out to her Dad's place (where the other flower girl lives) which was an hour away. I asked if she could please just call ahead and get the measurements because I really needed them. Heard nothing and she was not answering her phone. It got to 8pm and I had still heard nothing! So I called again and apparently she was just about to call me. I asked for the little girls height . . . they gave me shoulder to floor, waist to 'just below the knee', no back measurements or anything else and she had since gone out - GRR!! So I have pretty much winged it! At lease with the back being lace up it is adjustable. I have made it about 3cm longer than what I think it should be, because it is easy to make it shorter - but longer - not likely!!!

I'll leave you with one final image . . . me telling Em it was time to take the dress off. . . not a happy camper!!

Change to Diet: Week 2 review

There have been a few slip ups this week. I discovered that the lemon juice that I had in the fridge has preservatives 211 and 223 plus flavour . . . after I used it to make cupcakes(on Friday), I've been drinking coke again :( and on Friday night I had some bacon in my (home made)fried rice. I have remained snuffly all week, Z's rashed on her face have flared up again and on Saturday night I had a horrible migraine, complete from being blinded to throwing up - lucky me. other things that may bave contributed to my migraine was that I was ovulating (hromones?) adn very tired after only 4hrs sleep the night before.

This week I am going to try going lactose free to see if that changes my sinuses.

This is a list of somethings I have been eating (brands included) that have none of the excluded ingredients:

Sauces and Condiments:

Masterfoods or Rosella Tomato Sauces
Woolworths select Mayo 97% fat free
Heinz Capsicum and Chilli Sauce
Trident Sweet Chilli

Spreads:

Woolworths Homebrand Peanut Butter
Woolworths homebrand Nut Spread (their Nuttella)
Woolworths Select Strawberry Jam
Honey
Golden Syrup
YLC Dairy Blend

Biscuits etc:

Arnotts Milk Arrowroot
Arnotts Saladas
Quite a few of the red rock deli chips

Jars/packet Mixes:

Woolworths Home Brand Taco Mix
Chicken Tonight Lite butter Chicken
Maggi Cottage Pie Packet

Maccas: (needed to find something I could eat while out - still waiting to hear back from subway about the ingredients in their products)
Chicken Nuggets
Ketchup
Garden Salad
Apple Slices
Water (obviously!)
Nudie Drinks

So that is a few things that I found I just had to change brands to still be able to eat the same foods :)