Gluten Free

Last Sept we decided to go wheat/gluten free and to also cut out corn anything including corn syrup from out diet.  I wanted to lose weight and I had seen it said it helped someone with there skin problems.  So as I have hand eczema I wanted to try it for at least 2 mos and see if it helped.

well after 2 weeks I discovered it helped my breathing problems tremendously. we improved our over all well being and I no longer have days where I feel like i am walking in water. My hand eczema is 85% improved and is receding more every day.

so this is a life style for us now. I have decided I have had this intolerance or allergy to wheat for along time and just didn't know it. I have struggled with breathing problems for over 15 yrs and now that is all gone! Praise the Lord!

But if I am tempted which I have only done twice - I ate 4 bites of garlic toast last week and it came back to bite! I struggled with my breathing all day the following Sat. so no more giving in to temptation! LOL

We have gone back to basics no prepackaged or canned goods from the store. I have found a few gluten fre products we can use but I dont' want to add too many carbs back into our diet so I use them sparingly. there are some really good pasta alternatives out there. Mostly the ones I've used have been made from brown rice. but they taste just the same as wheat pasta.

the one thing I have discovered is we eat alot more lettuce salads now. so I had to find dressings that are gluten free CORN SYRUP free!  Cutting out the corn syrup is much harder than cutting out the wheat.
but I found Hidden Valley makes a Hickory Bacon that is a thousand island  dressing and we really like that one. Ranch is the only one I have found so far that I can get in restaurants. It's not my favorite but it is okay.

It has been an interesting journey this last few months and as I discover more things I will talk about them here.  I hope to come up with my own bread recipe using a gluten free all purpose flour.

I've been working on dresden kaleidoscopes lately. They fascinate me! To make a dresden kaleidoscope you need fabric with enough repeats so you can fussy cut 10 exactly alike blades. then you sew them together and get a dresden plate with a kaleidoscope look.  they are so much fun because you really don't know what they will look like til they are sewn together.

I wrote an ebook on this subject and if it interests you you can find it here for $10.60.
I show how to pick out the right kind of fabric and show some troubleshooting ideas. there are 6 project directions you can use. Plus more info on how to make great dresden kaleidoscopes!
 http://store.payloadz.com/details/1012850-ebooks-arts-and-crafts-dresden-kaleidoscope-ebook.html

so back to the fun stuff now!  here is a wall hanging I just completed for a wall hanging swap I host on the Quilting Board forum   - www.quiltingboard.com

These are some of the dresden kaleidoscopes I have been making. some are already on my etsy site and some will be on there soon.

Dresden Kaleidoscopes

well this month of January is over and we are going into  February! Winter is wending it's way through slowly! Hope everyone is keeping warm and enjoying some stay at home activities!  I work on my computer as I host several things between two quilting forums and I work on my quilting!

I've been playing with dresden kaleidoscopes lately. These 5  all came out of the same fabric. I fussy cut the same blade 10 times and they come out looking like a kaleidoscope.
 I had a lady order 5 of them in a soft romantic fabric so this is what I came up with for her:

 

This one is from a different fabric. I love making these. They are so much fun!

   I have been playing with some fabric I fell in love with. It is Valentine in feeling but it is mostly buttons and pink and reds. the buttons are part of the pattern. NO I didn't sew them on! LOL

Here is the fabric and then 3 Dresden Kaleidoscopes made from it.

I will be posting these three on my online store for sale. I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I do. I love the Dresden Kaleidoscope look.

I do want to mention that I have a Dresden Kaleidscope Ebook available on my websites. You'll find the links at the top of this page on the left hand side. 

Wishing you all Sunshine and Laughter and lots of warm HUGs!

Welcome to my blog. I have had a busy holiday season as I am sure most of you have too. But now I am back and ready to get some things done.

I started working on stock for my online store and got a couple of things done so far. But I really need to get alot more done!  

  Here are a couple of bookmarks and a checkbook cover I finished and will be getting in my etsy store and my ebay store and my web store.

Here  is one in progress

     

I hope to get more accomplished this week. I am the queen of procrastinating so we shall see! LOL

Wishing you all Sunshine and Laughter to brighten your winter days!!  God Bless!!