Gluten Free - Grain Brain by Dr. Perlmutter

I've been living the gluten free for a few years now. I'm gluten sensitive so I know there are some things that slip in via cross contamination or so far down the list of ingredients, I miss it but I don't have full blown episodes of IBS.
People are always skeptical about those of us who eat this way. Are we really gluten sensitive or are we just following a fad? 
In my case, growing up on a vegetable farm and eating a basic Japanese diet, I wasn't exposed to much gluten. My mom was a super cook and made almost everything from scratch. Coming from a big family, we had bacon and eggs for breakfast instead of cereal. I don't remember my mom making pancakes, which with 6 kids to feed would have taken too long. There was little or no flour used in our house. I really was raised with real, locally grown and in season food. Living in California our growing season is almost year round so fresh veggies were always available. 
As an adult I started having more and more issues with my stomach and I knew if I ate sandwich I would get really sleepy afterwards. I never linked eating gluten with my bouts of IBS. I was talking to a fitness teacher friend about my IBS when I hiked (really bad to be on the trail when it hits) and she suggested I go gluten free for 3 days. Well, it was like walking across the street, the changes were that fast. 
I go IBS free so long as I'm good with my eating. 
I post this because everyone has issues with gluten even if they don't have outward signs. After reading the book Grain Brain by Dr. Perlmutter, I understand more of the science behind it. Hard book to get through because it's very technically but does help explain the process.
Makes me sad when I meet people suffering from the effects of gluten but their refusal to even try going gluten free for a week. They would rather pop pills or under go surgery than change their diet. 

Altnew Watercolor Floral Stamp set.

Card by Charlene W. 

I have some very talented crafty buddies! Last night at our monthly get together, Charlene shared this card. Stamp set is from Altnew "watercolor floral" and distress inks. Charlene motto is, "I buy craft supplies instead of traveling". She is my go to advice person on anything crafty. I'm going to try and make this card using the stamps I already have. Even with down sizing my stash by 90% I still have a lot to work with. :) 

Hero Arts Fish

I waited for months to get both the fish stamps and matching die cuts. Ordered from two different places which was part of the problem. At first I was going to put the fish in a small glass fish bowl filled with blue jelly belly for my crafting group but after thinking about it, I didn't think the ladies would have much use for it, so I made them into cards. Late last night I couldn't decide if I should use the Hero Arts girl or the vase (sorry can't remember the name of the company) with my fish. Thankfully I have crafting buddies who are night owls so I sent them a text for their opinion. So far it's a tie, one liked the girl and the other one liked the vase. :) 
I put the eyes on the fish because I thought it was funny. Reminded me of the fighting fish that have to be kept separated. I don't use a glue pen a whole lot but the only way to secure the white ring was to dig out my pens, which of course many have dried up. I think finding a working pen took longer than make the card!

Penny Black Stamp - Using up Scraps

Penny Black Stamp

I think every paper crafter ends up with a tons of paper. I don't teach as many classes as I use to but I still have a lot of paper scraps from those classes. This weekend I started going through my class kits and using up all the left overs. These cards are made with the strips leftovers. Using full sheets of label paper as a backing makes fast work of the making background paper. 

Using up my scrap paper

Carmel - May 2016

Carmel City Beach/Farmer's Market

For Mother's day, we spent the weekend down at the Carmel beach house. It was once again a house full of kids, dogs, noise and way more food than we could eat. Really miss those days when my mom was still here and going to her house for all the family holidays. After everyone left on Sunday, Annie and I spent a few more days to enjoy the beach. One day we walked into the town to Annie's favorite snack shop. It's a self service type of place for dogs. Annie is good about not trying to eat everything in sight. She really does sniff everything before deciding which ones she wants. Another things we picked up was a rain coat. Annie is hard to fit so I have to try everything on her. This coat is a XXXL. Annie is a big girl but I would never thing of her as a 3X. 

FABMO - Totes

I volunteer at FABMO almost every week in some way. I've been working on making tote bags for the homeless. We make the totes a little bigger with outdoor fabric samples with extra long handles. The outdoor fabric isn't very popular with the crafters so there is always plenty to sew with. As the homeless line up at the food banks, many only have black plastic trash bags to carry their things in. The fabric totes are much stronger and easier to carry things in. 
My sewing skills are very rusty so I've been able to practice getting into the groove of things while helping out someone in need. The fabric samples are small, so I have to piece together the squares (can't really call it quilting, because my corners never match up) to get enough yardage to make a tote.