MdDS rears its ugly head...

Almost 2 years of feeling "normal", and then, the last few weeks of January, my allergies kicked up. Those imbalanced feelings only started getting stronger. I verified with my PCP that this was indeed a re-occurrence. (I was hoping the Mal de Debarquement was nothing but a distant memory.) No such luck.
This time is a little different though. I don't have a constant pulling sensation on one side of my body. Now its more of a swaying and bobbing sensation. Its irritating. It always seems like I have this low-grade headache. Concentration and short term memory seem to be out the window, and most days I think "how much longer can I deal with this?".  I try to remind myself that there are so many worse things I could be dealing with than MdDS. It is a struggle though, and I wish I would just hurry up and go back into remission and stay there.
I've tried eating Primal again. Sometimes it really sucks. Its hard to plan meals, and I really miss freezer pizza and other "easy" meals. It's also back to chiropractic care, and next month I'll probably start up acupuncture again, but  I just need to plan it for a day that I can take those "flu" like symptoms for the first session. I'm trying everything I did before. Eating a primal diet, vestibular/ eye exercises, and even the supplements.
Speaking of supplements, one of the forums I belong to mentioned passionflower to use instead of a benzo. I only used benzos (Diazepam) in the very beginning the first time around. I'm not sure how much it helped except the first few days. Besides I'm really not much on traditional pharmaceuticals. Many people said passionflower really helped when they were having a "bad" day with extreme symptoms, or traveling. Maybe I'll have to check it out. 
In another forum I belong to, someone said essential oils were helping her symptoms. Ginger, Basil, and Frankincense. I already belong to Young Living oils thanks to my Mother-In-Law, so I immediately jumped on that band wagon and ordered them up. Again, I think it helped initially, but now I'm not sure its doing anything for me.
Work takes on a whole new meaning for me now. I like my job mostly as far as jobs go, but its a catch22. The lighting definitely doesn't help my headaches, its moderately stressful, but it keeps me busy and sometimes so busy that I don't feel my symptoms as much.
Most of my days are 3-4 days or 5-6 depending on stress levels, and what I eat. (Low inflammation seems better.) Often I have a low grade headache even though my symptoms are low. Bad days are a 7-8 and I have had a few of those, but generally the 7-8 only lasts for a few hours, and mostly occur first thing in the morning or at night when I get home from work. Only one day that was for sure a 10. It literally woke me up! I had a dream that started out as feeling like I was in an earthquake and suddenly turned into a tornado. I woke up and everything was rocking and bobbing violently. It felt worse than the 15ft swells from the reminisce of Hurricane Sandy in the back dining hall of the cruise ship that I got this from being on. This one lasted for about 5-6 hours.
Finding a cure would be fabulous and everyone of us who have it are praying it happens soon, but since very little is known about Mal de Debarquement, there aren't that many researchers studying it. Most Doctors have never even heard of it before. There are "treatments" at Mt. Sinai, but it hasn't worked out for everyone... and supposedly there is still danger of re-occurrence. I wish I knew what caused it exactly... and why is it mostly women? They say it isn't hormone related. Sure seems like that must have something to do with it. Maybe if we knew what cause it, it could be prevented or even cured. For now, I know I just have to live with it, but if I could manage the symptom so all of my days were 1-2 or 3-4. It sure would be nice to have some normalcy back.

If you would like to know more about MdDS (Mal de Debarquement) please click the link below.
MdDS Foundation

Bata de Cola

For the past few weeks, I've been working on a BIG project.
I was invited to join a group of Flamenco dancers from Flamencura, at the Austin School of Fashion Design to design my own Bata de Cola skirt. The basics of the skirt are similar to wedding dress design.

How could I say no to that???

With the help of the instructor, I found these lovely fabrics at JoAnn's. The pink daisy fabric also comes in white with yellow or navy, so I think I'll be making another. We used the pattern ordered online at flamencodressmaking.com. to sew up the basic skirt, but changed many aspects of the actual instructions as you'll see if you follow along. This project was time consuming and gave me a real eye opener to the amount of time that goes into an actual wedding gown. (I know hundreds of hours sometimes.) I think I spent about 45 hours or more on this. Of course the second time around will probably go faster. 

Here's the basic skirt sewn up with zipper attached...

 Next come ruffles....

 

 Starting to look more formal...

 You can't tell very well from the above picture, but I did chalk the lines for ruffle placement.

But wait... I don't think that's quite enough ruffles you say???

How about now?
This looks pretty good, but there's still the under ruffles to contend with to give the Bata that lift and heaviness for movement while throwing the skirt around with your feet....so MORE RUFFLES!!!

Using the seam from the underside of the skirt I tacked these stiff ruffles in between the lines. You can also see where I surged the lining to each of the upper parts of the skirt... you don't line the whole skirt, because that makes it too slippery against the body... specifically the legs. You need to be able to move the skirt with your legs and feet.

 Here's what it looks like from the right side All fluffed from underneath. 

 

Next just finish up the waist facing. Add a few left over ruffles to a tank top and
Ta-Da!!! I'm ready to Flamenco!

 

Gardening Adventures

Coming Soon!
I thought it might be fun (and useful I hope) to document some of our successes and failures of gardening. I'm quite the amateur in this hobby, but my goal is to eventually grow enough to supplement some of my family's favorite produce. If nothing else hopefully this can be a forum where we can help each other!

Gerbera Daisies

This month at the Decorative Painters Society after meeting we painted Gerbera Daisies. The Gerbera Daisies are a fun project, and one I'm sure I'll do again in the future.
For this project I decided to use a 8"x10" stretch canvas, and prepped it using Deco Art Americana Paint in Midnight Blue.
Next I traced on my pattern and based the petals in Deco Art Americana Light Buttermilk.

 Next I filled in the petals using Cadmium Orange, and shaded with Napa Red and Deep Burgundy.

The center of the flower was done with Antique Gold, Cadmium Orange, Cadmium Yellow, and shaded with Raw Sienna, Burnt Umber, and Burnt Sienna. 

Going back to the petals, highlighted in Spiced Pumpkin, then finally finished up the stems with Avocado, Evergreen, and highlighted with Anita's Acrylic Craft Paint in Olive Green. (Yes, all the paints were Deco Art Americana except one!)

This project was just so cute! A number of painters in our group used Greenish Black or Black background prep and the petals turned out a beautiful reddish color, but there are lots of little changes you could make with this type of project. Next time I'm considering making my daisies in shades of pink! Perhaps on a Memory or Jewelry Box??? The possibilities are endless. 

Happy Painting!

On Healing Wings

This month our decorative painting group Heart-of-Texas-Tolers, painted a beautiful angel from TheDecorative Painter Magazine 2-2012. This is the kind of  project I want to again and again!

On Healing Wings - designed by Erika Joanne - DPM2 2012

My version (as well as most others in the group) was done with Americana Deco Art paints rather than the designer's original JoSonia paints. Next time I'll experiment with different color variations and maybe add some sparkle. This was so much fun to paint, and I was able to complete it in one day, minus the finishing varnish. Wouldn't this make an excellent gift for someone? I love it!!!

January Sewing Projects and Pattern Making

Several weeks ago I showed you I had bought a bunch of new patterns. This month I decided this is the pattern I'm going to work on as part of my sew 1 garment a month goal.  McCalls M6515.

 My wardrobe really needs some dress pants. I really have none that fit me right now, so I picked this pattern to work on. I'm between sizes on the chart, so I plan to start by making a muslin. Once that's done, I'll have to pick some fabric, as I don't currently have anything in my stash that would be business appropriate. I'm thinking maybe some Black Gabardine. Anybody wish to do a sew a-long?

On another note, this week I'll be starting an advanced pattern making class at the fashion school. Hopefully I'll learn to make my own pants patterns for the future. I haven't yet attempted to make my own sloper, but the instructions in this Textbook: Pattern Making for Fashion Design - 5th Edition- by Helen Joseph-Armstrong are pretty good for creating designs of your own.

Post below and let me know what you're working on sewing this month. I'm starting to look for some ideas for February.

Reversible Twirly Skirts

This Christmas, I decided I was going to sew some skirts for my nieces. I found 2 fabrics I thought the girls would love. Red for Tessa, and Blue for Natalie.

 

I thought about making them from some store bought patterns, but then I found this blog post... MamaMakesStuff.com

I followed the directions mostly...

I used Swedish tracing paper and followed the instructions for measurement

But decided I wanted more twirly in the twirly skirt, so I used 6 inches between the cuts instead of 3.

 Gave the pattern a seam allowance of 5/8 inch but, trust me it really didn't need it.

Then I got caught up in having the skirt lined... or better yet why not make it reversible.

HOW FUN!!!

Here's the results

Not too shabby... Can't wait to see them twirl!