Crafty As L

Glitter and Christmas are synonymous with each other, well, in my book anyway. What better way to ‘glitter-ify’ a card than to completely cover it with the sparkly stuff?!  Read on for how to bling up your card with some super festive sparkle. The Snow Front stamp set is the Christmassy cousin of Waterfront, also with the same water-colour styling.  For my sky, I used the starry background stamp from the Bokeh Dots set. I was excited when I first received the Bokeh Dots set as I love the bokeh effect.  However, when I went to use the background stamps, the results were just rubbish; no definition, too much ink, bare patches etc.  I was so disappointed ☹  So, I put them back on the shelf and moved onto something else.  A google search revealed that what I had encountered was a common problem.  Juicy ink pads are not your friend with these stamps.  Apparently, the trick is to apply the ink using a roller of some kind.  Heeding this advice, I...

  This week, Mr L and I have discovered how to make homemade nut butters.  It’s remarkably simple requiring nuts, salt, a food processor and about 10 minutes of your time.  Mr L eats peanut butter like it’s going out of fashion.  I’m an avid label checker when shopping and nut butters often have a lot of other stuff added to them and the ones that don’t have a layer of oil at the top that is almost impossible to stir in.  The solution? To make our own in small batches that get used before the separation occurs.  I began by making cashew and sunflower seed butter which then spurred on Mr L to make some peanut butter.  He even managed to not eat it all straight out of the blender and put some in a jar for later! I’m not a huge fan of nut butters as they are but I like to use them as a base for sauces and dips.  I found this great  recipe for homemade nut butter granola.  This is currently our favourite breakfast! Arm progress is still...

  This whole arm problem is really starting to get to me now.  The constant pain is just exhausting.  Whilst the physiotherapy and acupuncture have improved the tennis elbow symptoms, it seems those symptoms were disguising other elbow pain. It feels like I’m taking one step forward and two steps back.  On the plus side, I am getting to be a dab hand at ‘mousing’ with my left hand.  To avoid having a similar problem with my left arm, I’ve purchased an ergonomic left-handed mouse.  Aside from having to switch around the left and right buttons to be the same as a right-handed mouse, it’s been really easy and comfortable to use. Anyway, I’ve really been missing crafting and crafting is one of the things I would do to de-stress.  I figured that not crafting hasn’t improved my arm situation so I may as well do a bit and de-stress myself.  A large box of Stampin’ Up! goodies was delivered this week and I was keen to get playing with some new stuff....

A major contributing factor to my recent arm problems have been using a computer mouse at work.  Admittedly, my mouse technique may have some room for improvement but a quick Google search for “computer elbow pain” reveals that ‘computer elbow’ is a thing.  Symptoms are the same as tennis or golfer’s elbow, or if you’re really unfortunate, both simultaneously.  I’m really unfortunate!  I had heard of these two conditions but had no idea how painful they are – until now.  The problem is typically caused by the repeated small, gripping movements needed when holding the mouse coupled with holding the arm in a fixed position for extended periods, often quite unconsciously.  Adding to the problem is that using a conventional mouse twists the arm 90° from its natural resting position which puts further strain on the muscles and tendons in the forearm.  I am in no way a medical professional but I have read a lot recently in an attempt to help myself to a) u...