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What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

gennepher said:
Okay...

Fbg at 3:20 am is 7.1

when I went to make a cuppa early yesterday evening, I came back to the couch to find a totally fast asleep cat, Popeye, between my Berber fleece blankets. I wasn't going to disturb him, and so I took myself off to bed, expecting Popeye to rouse himself (he usually does when he realises I have gone to another location) and come and settle n the bed. But he didn't. So that was me waking up every couple of hours to check he was okay. He always seems to be awake normally, literally checking on me.

3am I went and checked on him again. He was definitely breathing (he is old, though doesn't act or look it, 28 in May he will be). Went back to bed, and moments later someone is mithering me, patting my face with his paw. So, we go off to the kitchen because he probably wants to use the cat tray after such a sound sleep (the kitchen door is always kept shut at night, I do shut all doors at night for fire safety, but if Popeye has decided to sleep in another room, then I leave interconnecting door open so he can reach me.

So, I am up very early painting...

This morning I tried doing two paintings at once. They are on totally different papers. One is the A5 sketch book I am using which is a mixed media paper. The other is a blank white index card.

The mixed media paper absorbs the watercolour paints and they look more hazy, which is a great effect for some subjects. The index card is not absorbent, the watercolours sit more on the surface, making the painting a little darker (which is what I was aiming for), and because of the nature of the index card (not meant for painting on) I cannot work into the painting in the same way as I do with the mixed media paper. But that is fine, I just have to find ways of working round it to get the effects I want.

The reason I am going small is because I belong to Postcrossing where random strangers send random strangers a picture postcard. The site issues you with an address. More people are asking for a handmade card on their bio. And I would like to do that. But send a painting. The painting will have to be postcard sized. And the reason why I am doing it on index card is so that I can glue it on a conventional postcard so I can post it. Some people still want you to send the postcard as a conventional postcard, others want you to put it in an envelope to protect it.

Anyway, over the last month, I have mailed myself a few of my paintings literally exposed on the postcard. They were pasted on to the postcard. I wanted to see if it was feasible without damage. To test it further, I out it in a postbox exposed to the elements on a Saturday, and it wouldn't get collected until the Monday afternoon. Each postcard survived out postal system intact and no damage at all to the exposed painting. One was a minimalist acrylic painting of Mount Fuji, another was a Chinese black ink drawing, the third was a collage of my painting to create something different...so it is feasible. I do have loads of ideas, far too many...I used to think ideas would run out, but they don't, ideas are unlimitless...they are are bottomless pit...

View attachment 39027

Top one is sketch book. Bottom one is index card.

I will do this for a few days, two a day to see how it goes.

Now to get started with the day...I have some work I promised to do for someone...
Have fun
Take care
Hugs if you would like some...
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Those are lovely! I enjoyed looking at the differences in the way the paint looked on the different surfaces (thanks to your clue!). They look delightfully cold and icy.
I am glad Popeye is all right. I scared myself yesterday, sleeping for 4 hours after breakfast.
I hope you and Popeye are having a good day.
 
Barb McD said:
There’s an awful lot to be said for old school grammar education. Inter peer, inter form and house debating. The differences between listening and hearing. Opinion validation. Tolerance. The last three essential as life skills in Northern Ireland. Oh and sailing and fencing...

I was just a surprise baby, last of seven, housebound because of 70’s Belfast. All siblings almost a generation from me, all at grammar. So I could read, and did read all the time. ‘Rents were older fashioned than most, and maths was learned at my dad’s knee working out a treble Yankee at Doncaster.

Just a working class girl, aiming for stardom with nothing but a dream and a foil

Culture clash? Yes.
Did my kids go grammar? Yes.

Parsing and analysis rocks!
Click to expand...

I think I have just figured out what a treble Yankee at Doncaster is.
Looking back at my own childhood, I feel sorry for my father trying to teach me anything to do with numbers. We shared a love and aptitude for words and music, but I never could get math beyond basic arithmetic, while he, an electrical engineer, could make poetry of it.
 
Hugs to everyone suffering the effects of bad weather of all kinds, and for dealing with it, including the ruin left behind by former occupants.

@OldButBold Thank you again for starting this wonderful thread.

I must go take a shower and get dressed: a neighbor is taking me out mattress-shopping later this morning. I have been taken out 3 weeks in a row now! I hardly know what to make of it -- such generous, kind neighbors! :)
 
Just popping a few things that help me with neuropathy pain and these work head to toe but only for ten or fifteen minutes at a time.

Cloth with warm rose water & witch hazel for the icy numbing pains, anywhere needed. Or vice versa, a cooled cloth for the hot burn.

Arnica cream is as close to happy as my feet & head ever get but that’s only useful in the summer. All five days in June then...

Distraction. Laughter even when I have to work to get there.

Or writing it all down, so that on a better day I can make myself ready for the worst days.

Never ready though.

Be brave

B
 
Just popped in to say Thanks for the good wishes re Parkrun this morning @PenguinMum and @Muddy Cyclist. When I arrived I was told it was cancelled, not because of the weather, or Coronavirus or anything the rest of the nation is talking about, but because the World Pasty Championships are taking place there this weekend!! I had to slink away while lots of folk carrying cool boxes of delicious pasties were arriving full of hope. I’ll check beforehand next week.
Good luck mattress shopping @SaskiaKC your neighbours do sound lovely.
@gennepher I love both those paintings, but why not paint directly on a plain postcard rather than an index card you then have to stick into a postcard. I had loads of these when I did a lot of competitions and would decorate the front in a way that was appropriate for that particular competition, whether it be for wine, holiday, car etc etc ( never won a car but lots of other stuff)
 
Thank you, @DJC3 . :) I had fun. We took turns lying on almost every mattress in both stores. And one time we bumped a***s when we both "ended" up on the same one at the same time. :D
Then I got home, turned on the TV and just happened to catch the first running of the Saudi Cup and the Kentucky Derby winner who had his victory snatched from him winning this one fair and square and convincingly.

I am sorry you were robbed of your planned run. Hopefully the organizers will communicate with each other better next time. :)
 
Ryhia said:
I have moved over to almond milk in my tea instead of cream but not sure if that is doing me any good to be honest. Still have some sugar free jelly and cream for dessert though.
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I did try almond milk in my coffee (only once) because it is really low carb. But unfortunately the cream won by a mile and I went back to the cream.

my guilty secret is that I absolutely love almond butter - especially when spread on my 100% chocolate.
 
Hi All just checking in after another 7 hour day at No2 son and GF’s new place. Very satisfying day and we are leaving them now in the best place we could have imagined. GF’s dad fixed the kitchen sink plumbing and made a hugely important decision about the black mould in the spare bedroom wardrobe...it has to be removed! The anti fungal stuff I as trying to clean it with was causing me chestiness. He then did a great jobtifying outside. Mr PM meticulously painted loads of built in shelves and finished rolling paint in the bathroom. (He is verry good at painting). did cleaning after of said bathroom, catering and helped son and GF take up carpet (which revealed beautiful floor boards) and strip wallpaper from second bedroom. We are done for now and are so satisfied to leave them so set up. Only problem is we are both aching where we never ached before.
I imagine this is small beer for @Debandez .
 
SaskiaKC said:
Thank you, @DJC3 . :) I had fun. We took turns lying on almost every mattress in both stores. And one time we bumped a***s when we both "ended" up on the same one at the same time. :D
Then I got home, turned on the TV and just happened to catch the first running of the Saudi Cup and the Kentucky Derby winner who had his victory snatched from him winning this one fair and square and convincingly.

I am sorry you were robbed of your planned run. Hopefully the organizers will communicate with each other better next time. :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like you had a really fun day. Did you make a final choice?
To be fair it wasn’t the organisers fault about the run, I should have checked - they put it on Facebook apparently. I’ll know next time. I had a nice walk anyway with Dennis and grandchildren - we went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan where they had a rare breed pig weekend event going on. The girls loved it, lots of very cute piglets.
 
Krystyna23040 said:
I did try almond milk in my coffee (only once) because it is really low carb. But unfortunately the cream won by a mile and I went back to the cream.
my guilty secret is that I absolutely love almond butter - especially when spread on my 100% chocolate.
Click to expand...

I don't dare buy any almond butter as I suspect I would love it far too much. I dont buy peanut butter for that reason plus too many carbs for the amount I know I would eat. Just finished the last of the tub of thick cream - thinking about trying to do without for a few days to see how that goes. It might be an interesting experiment to see if cream adversely affects my bloods. But then it might be best if I don't find that out otherwise I see a guilt trip coming.

Got a few bars of Lidl 95% chocolate in the cupboard but to be honest I can take or leave chocolate I say that to the person who bought how many? I find chocolate doesn't offer the same satisfaction as cream or nuts. Even before Dx I used to keep boxes of chocolates for months on end before opening or giving away. Mind you, used to like to keep a bar of Bournville in the house as I used to make a mean Gateau le Progress, which actually now I think of it should easily convert to low carb. Its layers of almond macaroon, layered with chocolate crème pat, the crème pat is made with unsalted butter, eggs, dark chocolate and sugar, so the only substitute would be to replace the sugar.
 
Just reading back @DJC3 not the walk you expected but sounds like a great day anyway! @SaskiaKC loving your day of trying out matresses very helpful but so much fun! Its amazing the days we all have really and it seems to me that whether you share it with your family, your animal family or both or your close friendsit is indeed a blessing.
 
PenguinMum said:
Hi All just checking in after another 7 hour day at No2 son and GF’s new place. Very satisfying day and we are leaving them now in the best place we could have imagined. GF’s dad fixed the kitchen sink plumbing and made a hugely important decision about the black mould in the spare bedroom wardrobe...it has to be removed! The anti fungal stuff I as trying to clean it with was causing me chestiness. He then did a great jobtifying outside. Mr PM meticulously painted loads of built in shelves and finished rolling paint in the bathroom. (He is verry good at painting). did cleaning after of said bathroom, catering and helped son and GF take up carpet (which revealed beautiful floor boards) and strip wallpaper from second bedroom. We are done for now and are so satisfied to leave them so set up. Only problem is we are both aching where we never ached before.
I imagine this is small beer for @Debandez .
Click to expand...
Laughing out loud!!!
 
DJC3 said:
@gennepher I love both those paintings, but why not paint directly on a plain postcard rather than an index card you then have to stick into a postcard. I had loads of these when I did a lot of competitions and would decorate the front in a way that was appropriate for that particular competition, whether it be for wine, holiday, car etc etc ( never won a car but lots of other stuff)
Click to expand...

Hi @DJC3

Sorry your Parkrun didn't happen...

Thanks for your idea, but when I am painting these particular landscapes they are very wet in wet and it leaks round to the other side of the card, so it would mess up the front of the postcard with paint. However, I have some other painting ideas which don't involve so much paint, and they might be able to go direct on to the postcard... I hope so! Less work then.

I have never painted on or decorated postcards before, it is a completely new thing for me.
 
DJC3 said:
Sounds like you had a really fun day. Did you make a final choice?
To be fair it wasn’t the organisers fault about the run, I should have checked - they put it on Facebook apparently. I’ll know next time. I had a nice walk anyway with Dennis and grandchildren - we went to the Lost Gardens of Heligan where they had a rare breed pig weekend event going on. The girls loved it, lots of very cute piglets.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you won the day despite the non-run. :) I would love to see some rare breed pigs. I love pigs but have only ever gotten to see any on a few occasions. I remember the first hog I saw in the flesh looked more like a cow -- huge and black, and I was about 6 or 7. He was definitely not a Babe! :D

I learned something very valuable about mattresses -- you can try a Euro-top hybrid of one brand at one store, then go to another store and try a Euro-top hybrid of a different brand, and you would never know they were both Euro-top hybrids if not for their labels. At the first store I decided I wanted a good old traditional classic innerspring (sprung) firm mattress; at the second store the same type of mattress was so hard it hurt my shoulders and arms, while a softer hybrid mattress felt so good I was about to fall asleep on it while my neighbor was asking about two-sided mattresses. At the first store, the soft hybrid mattresses were too soft, I felt as if my nose was being swallowed up!
So -- conclusion from today's lesson -- just buy whatever mattress I can afford online and expect it to be as comfortable as every other mattress I have ever slept on for the past 67 1/2 years. :)
 
SaskiaKC said:
Sounds like you won the day despite the non-run. :) I would love to see some rare breed pigs. I love pigs but have only ever gotten to see any on a few occasions. I remember the first hog I saw in the flesh looked more like a cow -- huge and black, and I was about 6 or 7. He was definitely not a Babe! :D

I learned something very valuable about mattresses -- you can try a Euro-top hybrid of one brand at one store, then go to another store and try a Euro-top hybrid of a different brand, and you would never know they were both Euro-top hybrids if not for their labels. At the first store I decided I wanted a good old traditional classic innerspring (sprung) firm mattress; at the second store the same type of mattress was so hard it hurt my shoulders and arms, while a softer hybrid mattress felt so good I was about to fall asleep on it while my neighbor was asking about two-sided mattresses. At the first store, the soft hybrid mattresses were too soft, I felt as if my nose was being swallowed up!
So -- conclusion from today's lesson -- just buy whatever mattress I can afford online and expect it to be as comfortable as every other mattress I have ever slept on for the past 67 1/2 years. :)
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Hey Saskia that sounds so complex I dont even know what to say. I am always perturbed by matresses but I have to admit tnat our best mattress was the mosrt expensive but the base was not as imporant...but just our experience! But totally feel free to ignore me!
 
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