SEPTEMBER team challenge teams/rules/chitchat thread

I have a bit under 200 points at the moment but honestly I'm more excited that I caught up on a ton of sketches yesterday and am now only a week behind

I can't believe I'm beating you, it's some kind of miracle!

Slowly catching up on sketches. Still have a week's worth to go, though.

KikiPea - ouch! hope you feel better soon - that doesn't sound the least bit fun!

I'm scrapping today but won't be uploading for a day or so. I made the mistake of trying to backup my WHOLE pictures library at one time and the process is VERY slow and I'm afraid to add new files while it's underway

KikiPea, how is your back doing? I need to make an appointment for another Cortes one shot for my knee.

((((Hugs)))) and prayers KikiPea - that sounds miserable!

So how is everyone going with the sketches? Are you trying to complete them all (or did you set a different target for yourself)? Are you on track to reach your goal?


I kind of had the vague idea I'd like to complete them all but thought it was highly unlikely. I'm still kind of working towards the goal of doing them all but am currently 10 sketches behind.

I'm 6 behind, but yes, I plan to get them all done! Thankful that we have until Oct.5. I did 6 in the past 2 days however, I'm really in a groove and I LOVE it! I'm just heading to my space to start another. I love stinkerbelle 's DD pages that she is "pre" completing, and I need to get that challenge out of the way. It might speed things up if I do smaller sized layouts for the sketches?

I had planned to attempt them all, but really didn't think I would get it done this month, or in time for the bonus.  But I have completed 23 so far, so finishing the rest seems possible now.  Biggest push will be for me to do a couple of pages for my OWN sketch before Saturday.

Wow! The Gallery and the board are HOPPING this week! So much scrappy goodness! Good luck everyone on your final PUSH!


I just left lots of love in the Gallery this morning.  I need to go to the sharing thread to leave some more at some time today.  But that will have to wait until later.  The power company is coming into the yard soon to change out a power pole, so there will be no electricity or internet until early afternoon.  See ya later!

I've got nine to complete including tomorrow's final sketch to get the bonus points. I've got Grammadee's sketch from today nearly finished but I think I'm ready for bed.

I'd be much further along if I could just stop fluffing about with the embellishing and actually commit to sticking stuff down but I'm still aiming to get them all done before the extended deadline.

Also, I shall update you all on my diabetes progress cause I feel like you guys have all been along with me since July 3rd when I was diagnosed. I had my Hba1c (blood test checking your blood sugar levels over the past 3 months) done last week and I have almost halved it! I was 90 in June and 3 months later I am at 46. This means I'm in the 'pre-diabetic' zone now. Under 42 is 'normal', 42-48 is pre-diabetic and over 48 is you are diabetic. I didn't expect to get mine so low so fast, that was about 10 weeks of work. I also took my cholesterol down from 6.6 to 4.2 (it should be under 4) and my kidney function is fine. So a great set of blood results I am doing all the right things.

I have lost 13.2kg (29lb). I check my blood sugars a lot and I have watched them come down from a 30 day average of 10 and I'm now at 7 and expect that to drop to 6 very soon. Thanks to sleepingbooty who recommended the 8 Week Blood Sugar Diet book to me, I have been basically following the principals of that. I don't restrict myself totally to the diet but I am usually around 800 calories per day and under 40g carbs but if I want to eat a bit more one day, I do. I don't eat bread, pasta, rice and have very few potatoes, I've found low carb alternatives to rice & pasta (konjac rice and vegetable pasta from black beans or edamame beans). So all in all I seem to have figured out what is working, the weight is falling off and clearly carbs were not my friend no matter how much I loved them I never thought I'd be able to give up pasta, rice or potatoes but the way I see it, I don't have a choice (but sometimes I really crave a donut  )

kiwigirl! I'm so impressed and inspired - you've been working so hard and you're seeing awesome results!

I just ordered the book from the library. I need to work on my own numbers too.