The making of a Harry Potter Halloween!

This year I stayed true to my "no store bought costumes" mantra and made all 3 of my children robes for their Harry Potter character costumes.

I started off with THIS pattern that I found online.  But rather than lining the whole thing I only did the top (hood, sleeves, yoke/collar area) For the sleeves on the boys' robes I only did the area that is the cuffs, rather than the whole sleeve to save time.

As I was merrily sewing along my needle busted and got stuck in the presser foot! I had never seen this happen before, so of course I had to take a picture of it!

Lily's robe was the first one I worked on, and it was very much a "learn as I go" project for me.  The main body of the robes are polar fleece, and the lining is suiting in the appropriate house colors. Lily's is grey because she is a ghost.  You'll have to see the my next post to find out WHICH ghost!

Here is her robe all finished (I thought I took more in progress pictures, but I guess in the hurry to get them done in time to wear to our cub scout party I forgot!)

My hubby helped with the finishing touch for their costumes and whittled them all wands. (we have lathe turned wands that a friend's hubby made them a few years ago, but they have gone missing) Here's Lily's:

A few other finishing touches like hair color, ties in the right house colors, a couple of temporary tattoo scars and we were looking pretty good!  All in all I am thrilled with how the whole look came out. 

30 Days of Thankfulness-Week One Recap

I think I did pretty good! Only missed one day and repeated myself once. But at least that repetition had a bit more detail AND it just shows you how much I LOVE my children.

Day 1: So hopefully I can remember to do this every day, but I am going to at least start the whole "Thankful for Thirty Days" deal. Today, Nov. 1st, 2011, I am thankful for my amazing husband (Marc)

Day 2: I am thankful for my children and for being a mom.

Day 3: You know it's pretty cool that I am having a hard time deciding what to post today for 30 days of Thankfulness, not because I can't think of anything, but because I have so many to choose from! So, today I am thankful for all of the amazing women in my life who are smart, strong, beautiful people that both support me and inspire me to be a better woman.


Day 4: Today I am grateful for my extended family. Those related by blood and those who we have chosen to be family. I am blessed to be a part of so many amazing people's lives. Remember I am thankful to have the chance to be there for you, as you have been there for me.

Day 5: Thankful today for warm sweats, a comfy bed, and my ipad to keep me company.

Day 6: Today I am thankful for my children. Each of them has taught and continues to teach me something new and beautiful about the world, challenge something in myself, and allow me to be what I've always wanted to be: A mother.

Day 7 & 8: Ok so I missed yesterday's "thankful" post. So today I am thankful for mistakes, failures, and 2nd chances. Without them we'd never learn, grow, or change.

Here is to the next week of gratitude!

Adventures in NRT and diet change

So as many of you know I've been dealing with chronic pain, inflammation, fatigue, and fogginess over the last few years.  I'm starting a new approach in healing my body and hopefully this will fix the problems that I'm facing once and for all.

NRT=Nutrition Response Testing.  It is an alternative medicine approach to finding the root causes of your ailments and using whole food supplements to help your body heal itself.  My assessment with Dr. P showed things that I had suspected but that all previous testing had shown to be "within normal range".   I have low thyroid function, severely compromised adrenal function, a high level of residual mercury, and an intolerance to sugars. All of which combine to create the above symptoms.

So with that I've been given a few supplements to help my thyroid and adrenals begin to function normally again, a detox supplement to rid my body of the mercury, and been told to strictly limit my sugars. To start with I'm cutting out all processed sugar even more than I already have. i.e. no cane sugar at all, no corn syrup  HFCS or otherwise, no sugar processed from anything not whole.  I can still have honey, maple syrup, and whole fruit but not fruit juice. FOR NOW.  After a few weeks of doing this if I don't show improvement I will have to cut back/cut out those as well.

Today is what I'm considering DAY ONE even though I started the supplements last Thursday.  My food intake so far has been egg salad, a sourdough English muffin, some Greek yogurt with fresh strawberries, and my coffee with honey and cream.  Pretty darn good if I do say so myself, especially considering the fact that there are 3 HUGE bags of Easter candy sitting on my dining room table.

I haven't quite decided what I'm making for dinner tonight. Probably pork chops. Cinnimon Apple chops for everyone else, plain salt and pepper for me.

Anyone out there do "low sugar/no sugar" diets? WITHOUT using artificial sweeteners which I will not eat?  I'd love some tips and tricks!