I went to the hospital this morning and had to have my blood taken… so they sent a vampire:
Thanks to Vampire Grace Abankwah for making me laugh. Happy Halloween!
Oct
31
In our November issue, we did a great story on Digital Gifts- things that you can make with all the hundreds of digital photos you have on your computer. We came up with a bunch of fun ideas I think, but since, a couple more websites have come to my attention that offer really great products, custom made, on-line, and available before christmas.
The first is my mom’s amazing website. I know, I know, she’s my mom, but I swear I’m being totally professional and impartial in recommending this.
www.heritagecookbook.com: a famliy and friends cookbook making program
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The basic concept is that you buy a very inexpensive membership to the website that allows you and anyone with a computer that you want to include, to upload recipes and images and format them into a cookbook. The program has attractive templates that you can use, or you can create your own. About ten days after all the recipes, photos and stories are input, the books are printed and sent to you. You can chose the type of binding you want, and if you want black and white or colour, or a combination. It’s inexpensive, easy, fast and an amazing idea for christmas, family reunions, fundraisers etc… She started the company about four years ago and it’s been a huge success for her and her clients. You should see the beautiful thank you notes she gets from happy customers.
Here’s an example of a fundraising cookbook that was made:
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Here’s another cool website:
www.spoonflower.com: a custom fabric printing company
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This e-mail was sent to me this morning and I haven’t stopped dreaming. You upload your design/pattern (made with photos, scans, photoshop, whatever) and they print it for you and send you back your own, custom fabric. There is no minimum yardage, and they ship to Canada. There are some really amazing and inspirational examples to look at on the website. I haven’t stopped thinking about the custom fabric I could design for my baby’s bedroom! We’ve been working on a story for our March issue on what to do with leftover paint, and some of the projects include painted fabric- now I’m thinking we could take some of the beautiful projects the stylist came up with and get them made into yards of cotton. Love it!
here are some of the inspirational designs I saw:
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Fun!
Oct
30
Things have been a little hectic these days so I’m making a quick dinner. I’ve put together a combo of grainy bread, gruyuere cheese and a beef salami with fennel. Here’s it is:
I’m going to eat it now. But I’ll let you know how it tasted and some tried and tested guidelines I have for grilled cheese when I’m done dinner.
Oct
30
I went for a chest x-ray today. I had requested it, telling my doctors about the ongoing ache in my chest and the cough that hasn’t gone away since I picked up my daughter’s most recent cold several weeks ago.
I have never been the hypochondriac in the family (there are actually 2 of them) but I’m aware that I might be getting a bit hysterical about this. I’m gripped by fear that my cancer may have spread — specifically to my lungs. This fear is of course at least partly due to the symptoms, but I also think partly due to timing: I have just finished chemo and I want to know immediately if I am going to have to go back for more, before I let my defenses down and get too comfortable with the idea that it’s truly over.
Then again, the fear of cancer spreading in my own body might have something to do with the news last week that not 1 but 3 people I know were diagnosed with cancer (lung, breast, esophagus/liver.) I am just reeling from the random unfairness of this disease.
I’m also sure the oncologists have seen this kind of fear-response before. I spoke to my cancer shrink at the hospital today and he managed to make me feel not completely crazy (he’s really very good at that.) I’m behaving like someone who is going to be more attuned to alerts in her body – more likely to react with fear to certain symptoms – because, let’s face it, last time my body had something to tell me it ended up being a pretty big deal.
The trick, according to my cancer shrink, is to try to keep it in perspective. His advice was to get my GP to vet my complaints: ask her to evaluate things that are genuinely worrying me in as fair a way as she always has. I’m lucky to have a GP who will be good at that – taking me seriously, but not indulging my fears. Being a good doctor, basically.
I feel better already. But not as good as I’ll feel when the x-ray results come back and give me some concrete evidence – the good kind. Nothing like a bit of science to augment the psychological stuff.
I’d like to direct you over to Leanne’s blog, “Living with Breast Cancer,” for her candid take on the botched cancer tests in Newfoundland and the Newfoundland-Labrador premier’s apology, which he offered during the inquiry that’s currently underway.
Last March, Newfoundland announced that 108 women died after they were screened for breast cancer and received inaccurate tests results.
