JULY TEAM CHALLENGE: teams/rules/chitchat thread

I got my box of DT stash yesterday and I'm working with Doodlebug's Hello collection. I did think I was going to struggle with it cause I didn't think it was very me but I bashed out 2 LO's yesterday with it already! And they're both using just that collection, usually I throw all sorts of other things in the mix but so far, I've stuck exclusively to Doodlebug! Loving this

I think when I have something stressing me, I often craft like a machine to get my mind off it!

kiwigirl - so sorry about the diabetes! We are currently on a "no bread, starches, sugars" diet - I've been good for about 2 months but I will "crash" soon. It's sooooo hard to change our dietary habits! Good luck, stick with it!

Also...I don't buy Doodlebug generally, but I did an album (kathy orta/paper phenomenon pattern) for a friend and used the "Hello" line and the "barnyard" line (because they have chickens) and wow did I love it!

stinkerbelle - jealous! We don't have lots of the stores in Canada

Me: my neck flared up on June 30, and the posture of sitting and looking down at scrapbook stuff is the WORST for the pain, so I've barely been at my desk Ah well, it will be there when my neck settles down.

kitbop so sorry about your neck hun, sore necks suck the big one! You have my sympathy.
grammadee enjoy that clutter free room while it lasts, I'm sure it'll be chaos soon enough!
stinkerbelle I got some ephemera packs and they are packed too! They were a couple of quid dearer than normal ephemera packs but everything is much bigger than usual and I am liking it a lot! I think this collection has really got me back to my style of scrapping, grids and pretty clean & simple. I've done 4 LO's already with it. I am usually doing my LO's in the week before my blog post is due, having them done so early in the month is very weird for me (my blog posts are on the 1st of the month).
craftykitten hope you're in the zone chickadee. I bet your recovery is up and down, that was massive surgery you had! Glad things are looking good and maybe the heat has finally broken? It's very grey here in loucestershire this morning and much colder than the past few weeks. I'm enjoying it!

I am slowly getting my head around what I need to do with this low carb diet. My diet was very carb heavy (probably why I'm in this mess eh) so it is a whole new way of eating and it's just getting my head around not having rice, pasta or potatoes. I'm taking things slow and trying to work it all out, am feeling quite determined at the moment!

Yeah, this is so. hard. We used a lot of "crutch" foods: Costco has nut bars with dark chocolate; pistachios by the handful; hunks of cheese; protein shakes to mimic milkshakes. Check out cauliflower crust recipes - they really work and you can make quiche or pizza. We now eat a lot of cold cuts - I know they aren't good for us at all, but I can grab a slice of ham and wrap it around a piece of mozza and eat it as a snack. And whenever we have burgers, I just put mine on a salad, no buns. My kids call the me "salad queen". I'm eating about 100g of carb/day - so not like a keto diet (been there, tried it, not sustainable) even though I let myself have desert once a day!

Hey joyfulnana I'm on the team of a store here in the UK called Hey Little Magpie. I only do one blog post per month but I've been on the team a few years now, you can see my blog posts here, I'm particuarly happy with this one using Crate Paper Notes & Things and Extra Large Wedding Photos and the two I have done about Nuvo Crystal Drops, Post 1 and Post 2. I put lots of work into those Nuvo posts lol! Glad your DGS is home!

You're so right kitbop , I've read half of a book today and I feel like it said carrots are good, carrots are bad, carrots are good, carrots are bad! I just want a list of what I can and can't eat! The book is sort of saying this is a low GI food, but it's high in salt so therefore it's bad. Or this is a good GI food, but it has loads of fat (and then I'm still confused over the different fats). I'm sort of like geez Louise, I've gotta eat something. Like you say about cold cuts, the book is saying ham is ok but then it's also bad cause it's high in salt. But I'm like can I eat it OR NOT!!!!! I'll get there, it's just a whole lot of information at the moment and I just want a flippen list with yes or no written on it to get me through a couple of weeks while I figure it out! I have tracked my eating today on a diet tracker on a UK diabetes website and I'm at 93 carb and only 1279 cal for the whole day so I'm quite chuffed, I am not really trying super hard yet but I am going to weigh my portion of rice for dinner and I know it will be about 1/8th of my usual portion!

Oh that's just bloody typical isn't it, the past 3 months you're a scrapping machine and now you're on my team and the mojo is *poof* gone! I hope it's back soon (for you, not me..... honest.... ok, a little bit for me ). It's hard to kick it off isn't it. I was a bit lost last month. I'd wander out to my craft room, sit down, look at paper, sniff it (that might just be me who likes the smell of the papers), shuffle, stare out the window and go off somewhere else. If only we could buy mojo in a bottle!

gramma that is good advice thank you! That is what I'm doing at the moment, just eating less, last night I weighed my rice and had a proper portion and holy moly, it was small! But it was fine. As for the feet, I've always suffered with my feet! I've always had got blisters so easily and even ended up on crutches once after trying to break in some Doc Martins! So I always go for comfort, definitely not style here! But thank you for the advice. I'm currently on the pills and hoping I can get myself sorted to reverse this, or at the worst, stay on the pills. I am definitely trying to avoid having to start pfaffing with injections if I possibly can.

crystalb if you've already posted your creations online then you just need to right click on it and 'copy image address', then come here and click the little button above where you type your reply, the one with a picture on it, when you hover over it, it will say 'insert image'. Click on that, paste in your copied image address and that's it done. Of course, that's using a laptop. If you're on a phone I'm no help at all, I use mine for taking photos and that's it!

Why thank you joyfulnana! I wish they would make more bright colours!

OH and I got the exercise bike out of the shed and into the lounge yesterday, and I actually got on it and did 20 minutes! So I'm hoping to get that as part of my daily routine now. I'm starting to get to grips with this low carb business too. have knocked smoking on the head.... so far, I'm on day 3 which I know can be a danger day but so far so good. Still feeling very determined to reverse this thing.

Pfaffing. I love that word!!! Tanya Hubbard uses it. Must add to my vocabulary!

We just had a cauliflower crusted quiche, asparagus, bacon and gruyere. It was yummy and my kids gobbled it down.
I recommend this cauliflower crust recipe if you want to give a try.
Cauliflower Crust
I used grated mozzarella instead of goat cheese. And I just pressed it into a pie-pan and let it bake for a while before adding my filling, instead of using it "pizza"style.

Can someone grammadee, kiwigirl, stinkerbelle let me know if pocket pages count for the challenge? I’m doing some 12 x 12 pages but they’re really simple.

Feel well rested this morning after an over busy weekend with Rock stars and Rodeo queens here in the house. But they had all headed on their way by early Sunday morning. I rested most of yesterday, so woke up with a clear head this morning. The house is also quite cool after a few quite hot days.

Finished two pages this morning. (Well finished one, and put the other together ready to slap on a 5x7 photo when I get it printed.) Have the house to myself, so might just see what else I can manage in the cool and quiet.