anita meade - simple.creative.life

Tired buddies.

Just had to share this with you.....

How cute is this pic of Corey and Molly taken Monday evening? Guess whatever was on TV wasn't exciting enough to keep Corey awake. School holidays sure are hard work!

Happy mail....completely unexpected.

So I've signed up for a swap. It's a Christmas stocking swap run by the awesome Selina from Selina's Vintage. The stockings are due to be posted by early November. So in my typical style, I've signed up and pushed all thoughts of it to the back of my mind. After all, there is heaps of time.

On Friday, I wandered down to my mailbox and was perplexed to find a parcel in there for me. Puzzled, I looked to see who the sender was. "Nup! I don't know who this person is." I thought. Who would be sending me a parcel from New Zealand? I didn't order anything from anyone in New Zealand......

Imagine my delight when I excitedly ripped open the parcel and found that it was my Christmas stocking.....and it was filled with lots of other handmade goodies! Yay! Christmas has come early! This gift was the work of the amazingly talented Sarah from Red Gingham. The time, thought, and love that has gone into the making of the Christmas stocking and each of it's contents astounds me. Here is someone who's taken the time to visit my blog to learn about me so that her gift was nothing short of perfect. Red is my favourite colour and I do love gingham and polkadots passionately too.

The Christmas stocking is double-sided. One side is Sarah's favourite red gingham decorated with a doily and lovely red buttons......

....the other side is pretty festive patchwork and has been decorated with a "A" just for me :)

 

....and then there were the prezzies! Check these lovelies out:

  The clear packets with the blue ornaments and chocolate coins were a present for Jayden and Corey - from Sarah's girls :) How sweet!

All the other little prezzies were so prettily wrapped in tissue paper and ribbon with handmade embelishments. Inside the wrapping paper were these beautiful things:

1. a red polkadot pincushion;

 

2. a super cute felt birdie tree ornament;

 

3. an ADORABLE roll for storing my crochet hooks;

 

.....here it is opened out. Sarah, until now my crochet hooks have been stored in a snaplock bag! I feel very posh!

The best thing about all of these presents is that they were handmade by Sarah. I feel incredibly lucky that she spent some of her time, energy and talent making all these goodies just for me. Thankyou so much Sarah. 

Finally, this is the card that came with my presents. The beautiful artwork is by Sarah's clever daughter Molly. Thanks Molly :)

As well as being astounded by Sarah's talent and kindness, I'm also astounded by how organised she is!

I have no idea what I'm going to make for my swap recipient (who isn't Sarah, by the way) but I'm inspired to get started now. 

I am a very lucky girl. I have "met" some amazing friends through blogging. Being involved in swaps is such a fun way to spread some kindness through the blog community. And who doesn't love "happy mail"?!

Thanks for stopping by to visit. Special hi to a new reader, Heather Robinson. Any friend of Laura's is a friend of mine, Heather. Welcome!

Hey! I remember how to do it! Yay!

This morning I have actually scrapbooked. My kitchen looks like a bomb has hit it, and I haven't had a shower yet (it's 11am!) but I actually started and finished a scrapbook page this morning. And it was FUN! More of this simple scrapping stuff coming, for sure.

 

Excuse the dodgy photo. The light is a bit uneven. The background cardstock and journalling block are cream. And just in case you're wondering, Jayden's PJs from these photos have since been handed down to Corey. I think Jay had well and truly grown out of them! hehehe :D

So much fun! Thanks for stopping by. Happy Friday.

Reminiscing - scrapbook layouts from the past

Find more photos like this on The Boxx

Definitely going to start scrapbooking again!

Remember when I used to scrapbook? I'm thinking I might start again.....

It has been so long that I have almost forgotten how! I pulled out one of my scrapbook albums yesterday and I was so excited to see those long, lost pages and relive almost forgotten memories. "Why don't I scrap anymore?" I asked myself. I think it got lost in the haze of illness; it got drowned while I was desperately trying to stay afloat and cling to some semblance of my old life; it got overtaken by other crafts like stamping, cardmaking, crochet, knitting, etc which I used as distraction for what was really going on with me.

But looking through those albums I recall how much I enjoyed just recording those little details of our life. The details that make life so beautiful. The details that remind you of just how lucky you are, no matter what challenges you are facing. 

So I think I might make some time and space in my life to return to scrapbooking. And I think that I'm going to place my scrapbook albums out somewhere where we can all access them and enjoy them. Not up on the highest shelf in our study. 

Here is the last layout I did, in May this year. This is my one and only layout for about 12 months. I think I need to go back to basics and start scrapping again. Photos + words, and maybe just a little something to make it pretty :)

 

 

Despite all the challenges life throws up at us, we (our little family) are blessed beyond belief. My scrapbooking helps remind all of us of that fact.

Fibromyalgia Symptoms - Aching Joints, Sore Joints | Healthline

If you don't know anything about fibromyalgia, you must be wondering what I'm going on about all the time! Here's a quick overview to fill you in......

Fibromyalgia Symptoms - Aching Joints, Sore Joints | Healthline.

Today in my world......

    Haven't been around here much lately, but I thought I'd pop in and let you know what's going on today, in my world.  I'm happy to say there have been quite a few "good hours" in the last little while. The last week has been a little better - slightly less pain and a bit clearer head - even maybe a little more energy. I am hoping it is a bit of a breakthrough with my NAET treatments. I was beginning to lose motivation for my treatments, because I seemed completely stuck and hadn't seen any improvement for a few months. I am hoping this weeks milder symptoms have been because of a treatment breakthrough, and not just due to a break in the freezing conditions of the last couple of months.

 

(From our front veranda this morning - a little bit of blue sky poking through the clouds  - but believe me, it is still mighty cold outside)

    Unfortunately I've woken up feeling a bit of a relapse this morning and guess what.......it's cold and horrible outside. Who knows?! I really hope the NAET is doing something, because I can tell you that if my fibro is a bit better over summer and still terrible come next winter, we will almost certainly be taking the gamble and moving north to a warmer climate. You only live once and you've got to do whatever it takes to maximise your health and quality of life.

    I think I've come to a place of acceptance about my fibromyalgia. I realise that there is not going to be some magical cure, and that this is probably a permanent part of my life now. Knowing that, I am able to make some choices to minimise it's impact and manage it as well as I can. They say chronic illness goes through stages; I am over the denial, I am over the anger, I think I'm over the stage of sadness and hopelessness - of grieving for my old life. I think, after four full years, I've finally reached a place of acceptance and management. Acceptance and management are not the same as resignation and defeat. I am not despondent about the future, I am hopeful. Now that I have accepted FMS as a part of my life I can work on making the best of a bad situation. I can choose to focus on the good things in my life. I can choose to stop longing for "the good old days" when I was fit, healthy, athletic and high achieving. My achievements now are measured differently.

    From this illness I have learned a great deal. I've learned to be more compassionate to the suffering of others. I've learned to be less judgemental about peoples appearance, ability to work, mental health etc.  I've learned that you can't condemn someone's actions (or lack of action!) without knowing their story. We all have our stories of hardship. We need to listen to each other more and be there to support each other rather than criticise each other. Ironically, if I could still work as a nurse now, I think I'd be a better nurse than I ever was before. 

    It has taken me an incredibly long time to accept that I didn't bring this illness on myself. I didn't ask for it. I didn't want it. My all-or-nothing, flat-chat lifestyle and Type-A personality may have contributed, admittedly, but there are also lots of factors that were beyond my control - genetic and environmental factors for example.  Guilt about this serves no purpose. It only adds to my stress and therefore worsens my symptoms. It creeps in every now and then, that sneaky guilt - undermining my confidence as a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend etc. But I am doing my best under the circumstances, and nobody can ask any more of me than that.

    Guilt = stress. Stress is something I really have to minimise in my life, because the presence of stress invariably leads to a flare up of my fibro symptoms.

    So I take each day as it comes, enjoying the time when I'm feeling OK and trying to ride out the bad times with patience and grace. I don't always succeed. 

 

        (new buds are just starting to appear on the trees -

                               Spring has sprung!)

    I haven't blogged a lot about my health. I've always thought that people probably don't want to read about fibromyalgia. But it is a part of my life right now. If people don't want to read about it, that is completely OK. I understand. Sometimes I want to just read about people's lovely sewing, or scrapbooking, or painting, or decorating, or cooking......something happy and productive. So please, if you're not in the mood to hear about my health on any given day, feel free to move on to the next creative blog, or whatever interests you. I won't be offended in the slightest.

       But maybe, if you have fibromyalgia or another chronic condition, or you are a carer for someone who does, you might relate to my posts. You might find my ponderings helpful and encouraging, or you might just like to know that you are not alone. Others are facing up to the challenge of chronic conditions everyday. I am one of them. I am doing the best I can each day.

    This blog is primarily an online journal. It is my everyday. Just as creativity is my everyday, and motherhood is my everyday, and marriage is my everyday; so too  fibromyalgia is my everyday. Journalling here is therapeutic for me.

    I have decided to try to write less about what I think people want to read and more about what is going on in my head and my heart. It won't all be deep and contemplative, I'm sure. There will still be plenty of creative show-and-tell and snapshots of our everday family life. So check in from time to time and see if there's something here to suit your mood. I do love it when you stop by :)

 

(New plants waiting to be popped into the garden by the driveway).

Just a quick question.....

 

           

Apparently my computer is working fine ;)

Portrait comission complete!

Well my graphite portrait commission is all done and it was received by Amanda yesterday. I'm happy to report that she loves the drawings I did of her kids. I thrilled that they've been so well received and I'm happy to share the finished product here.

First up, here's Taila:

 

Next in line is Payton:

 

 

and finally, cute little Jack:

 

 

(hint - you can click on the images for a closer look or visit my Flickr page for clearer images).

I had a lot of fun drawing these gorgeous kids, and I look forward to doing some more portrait commissions in the future - you can email me if you're interested :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing these, and that your weekend is shaping up to be a good one. We are in for some seriously heavy rain according to the weather bureau, especially up in my Mum & Dad's neck of the woods (north-east Victoria). Thanks for stopping in to see what I've been up to - I appreciate you taking the time to pop in.

See you again soon. Love Anita. xxx

PS. A special message of love to my dear friend Mel whose Mum passed away on Sunday at the age of just 53. Safe trip back to Singapore Mel and we are here via the 'net, or in person, whenever you need us. Love you.  xoxo