Do you like reading? How do you manage with holding books?

I love reading, and quite often, when the fatigue is at its worst, reading is just about all I can manage to do - besides sleeping, of course!

The other benefit of reading when your abilities and life in general is extremely limited, and you suffer from the kind of depression brought on by those limitations - reactive depression - reading books is a brilliant way to take you away from the life of limitations and pain, as you become absorbed in the story you're reading.  Does that make sense?  I can't watch tv or a movie because I struggle with sensory overload, and I can't take it all in fast enough, so reading is my only option, really.

However, that brings a whole set of problems of its own, doesn't it?

I love books.  The real kind, with paper pages and the distinctive and wonderful smell of the paper, printing ink and whatever other materials were used to manufacture the book held in your hands.  But I love thick books with very long storylines that I can become so absorbed in that I can lose myself in them.

Book rests of various types can work well sometimes, especially with hard back, or well worn library books that don't object to staying open on a particular page, but for me, I can't afford to keep buying hard back books.  Also, being house bound, and not only reliant on others to get me out, but suffering a lot of pain just sitting up for a few minutes, and the additional fatigue that comes with any outing, even a short one, can take me a week or two to recover from, after almost literally sleeping 24/7, means that visits to the library aren't really practical for me either.

Thank heavens for technology, because I'm no longer able to feel very much with my fingertips, so turning over a single page at a time fluently just doesn't happen, so it spoils the flow of the story I'm reading, even if someone brought me books from the library.

A couple of years ago I was talking to my daughter about the problems I was having just trying to read a book, and she bought me one of the very first of Amazon's Kindle e-readers - the keyboard version which is no longer in production - and my reading life was transformed!

I soon went on to discover, also, that I didn't need to have to pay the high prices that established authors charged for their books, because there were a plethora of new indie - or self published - authors, who not only don't charge much for their books, but also have 'free' days, or even don't charge at all for certain books - ever!

Furthermore, all you need is a computer and an internet connection, and you get to choose your own books! To be honest, you don't really need a computer, as you can use the Kindle itself to shop for books, but you get to see more information using a computer to go book shopping.

Whilst shopping for your own books might not seem much of a boon to most people, anyone who has difficulty getting to a library and has had to leave their choice of books to someone else will know exactly what I mean here.

When you have to live with permanent limitations, it is often the little things that mean so very much, and choosing your own reading matter can be one of them!

Towards the end of last year, I was lucky enough to acquire an upgrade to my first issue keyboard Kindle which, unfortunately, like many technology items new-to-the-market, had a few glitches...the first keyboard Kindle, I mean, not the upgrade!

My upgrade was the 7 inch screen Kindle Fire HD.  Primarily, I wanted an e-reader, but I had managed to avoid being hospitalised for a very long time, that I knew my luck couldn't last, and there is so much more to the Kindle Fire HD that it is basically a mini portable computer as well!

If you buy the right case for the Kindle, you also have a stable and quite adaptable stand/rest, as well, and all you need to do is either tap, or swipe the touch screen in order to turn the page! No struggling with separating the paper pages.  No aching hands and arms with trying to hold the weight of the book.  No fidgetting and moving around to try and find a suitable place to support your book and still be able to read it.  With a back light, you don't even need to make sure you can get enough light on your pages.  You might not even need to use your reading glasses, because you can change the font style and size to suit your preferences.  And if you're photophobic like me, you can even alter the brightness of the screen, too!

Of course, I do still miss the wonderful smell and feel of real paper books, but with all the other advantages to using a Kindle, I no longer really miss them as much as I thought I would, to be completely honest, and I'm ususally so absorbed in my reading that I don't even think about it at all, because I can read fluently and don't lose the story line whilst trying eagerly to separate the next single page!  Or have to stop reading because I can no longer hold the book!

I know this blog was initially about arts and crafts, but I figure that reading is a leisure pursuit with so many problems all of its own, that I would discuss options here, to show others in a similar situation to me that there are still ways to enjoy reading, even when going through bouts of illness when you are too weak to do anything else.

Furthermore, the past couple of days has given me a bit of a nudge to mention the Amazon Kindle Fire HD, because Amazon have just released the next, improved version, of the Kindle Fire HD, called the Kindle Fire HDX.  As a result, the Kindle Fire HD has just massively dropped in price to just £99!  The new version is twice that price. Mine cost £159 just over a year ago, so £99 is an excellent price, in my opinion!

I'm not sure what added features the HDX has over the HD, but the latter has served me well, even during a brief hospital stay in March (perhaps I tempted fate with my previously mentioned reason for choosing the HD model over some of the cheaper versions which were just e-readers with no other options - the possibility of me ending up in hospital before too long! LOL!), and I can honestly say that if I had the funds available at the moment, I would actually buy another HD model at that price, as I've already filled the entire 16GB of storage with books, games and apps, and keep getting messages telling me it is full! LOL!

And there is another advantage to using a Kindle - I have a veritable library at my fingertips, so no struggling to get out of bed and trying to locate a book on a dusty bookshelf that I struggle to get to!  When I spent a few days in hospital, that 7 inch little gadget that easily fit into my bag, carried with it literally thousands of books, a good selection of games to play, some apps with info on knitting and crochet, as well as some books of knitting, crochet and some small fell sewing patterns...all in one little package. And I didn't need internet access to use most things.

You can even store music and stream movies with the HD, though I haven't done either, so can't comment on the ease of use or quality of these functions.

What more do you need?

It might seem a fairly expensive layout to start with, but if you consider the price of books produced by well known authors, it wouldn't take you long, or really purchasing so many of those books before a Kindle would be paid for!

And the books produced by the vast majority of Indie authors are every bit as good, and sometimes even better, than mainstream authors!

Another reason why I decided to bring up the Kindle now, is that one such Indie author, Lizzy Ford, is giving away 12 Kindle Fires before Christmas!  You don't have to do much, though you do get your name in the drawings more times if you have Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts.  I have the first and last, though don't use Facebook a great deal.  I do enjoy using Pinterest on days when I can manage to browse the net, but not much else, and don't feel like reading...but I will talk about Pinterest in another post, as it is very useful for any crafter, especially!  And it can also be very addictive! LOL!

I do tend to have a problem with rambling and going off topic and off at a tangent, but typing things means that I can back track if I do! LOL! Not that I did on this occasion, at least!  Honest!






As you can see by the above image, we have all missed some of the earlier draws for Kindle Fires, but we can all get in the draws for those still open.

Lizzy Ford's Kindle giveaway page can be found at the web address at the bottom of the above image.  Go and take a look.  What do you have to lose?

Good luck!

Love...Diane x

Long absence and computer keyboards for people with limitations

Well, I can't believe I got everything set up here, and then became pretty ill physically, and got some bad news about my health - or lack thereof -  that brought me so far down emotionally that blogging was just not so high up on my priorities list, I'm afraid!

I'm still struggling a bit, but beginning to pick up a bit - if only I could stay awake!  My doctors think it could be a combination of the strong medication I'm on, but I'm not convinced; whatever the cause, I just can't seem to stay awake for long enough to actually achieve anything much.  I even think I'd give most narcoleptics a run for their money since I fall asleep drinking a cup of tea or a bottle of water, or even whilst sitting on the loo, or even whilst crocheting!!! 

It's kind of funny at first, but when it continues for months, and you just can't seem to actually do anything without falling asleep repeatedly, then it becomes not only really annoying, but terribly frustrating, too!

And waking up to find a open bottle of water upended on my laptop keyboard is no fun either.  I don't think I was drinking the water before I fell asleep, but it's possible that I knocked it off whilst sleeping, as I do get a lot of muscle spasms, especially when first going to sleep. 

The other alternative is that there wasn't a great deal of water in the bottle, and my desk fan on the unit near my bed could have toppled the bottle right onto my laptop.

Whatever the cause, my computer decided not to work for a couple of days until it dried out a bit, and then after the drying out, I was thrilled to discover that my lovely pink Packard Bell laptop isn't entirely dead, but that the keyboard now has a few limitations - rather like me, I guess! LOL!

Using the on-screen keyboard really made it pretty impossible for me to type much, so I now have a usb plug and play keyboard as a temporary measure, until I can get the floating keyboard on my laptop replaced, which is going to take a little bit of saving up for!

Talking of floating keyboards...until about 18 months ago when I got this laptop, I was completely unaware of what a 'floating' keyboard actually was.  I guess I'm not exactly up on technology information, and manage just fine as long as everything works like it's supposed to do.  If it doesn't, I usually get a bit stuck, in all honesty.  It took me long enough to set up this blog. LOL!

Having used a floating keyboard for around 18 months, and then reverting to a standard keyboard, I can honestly recommend floating keyboards for people with chronic fatigue issues, as well as difficulties with co-ordination or with limited sensation or movement of the fingers/hands.

The keys of a floating keyboard are basically flat and level with the surface of your laptop, so you can rest the heels of your hands on your laptop, and don't have to support the entire weight of your arms and hands whilst trying to type.  As long as you don't weight bear on the keys, you can kind of slide your fingers over the keys until you reach the right one.  You won't break any speed typing records, but you won't necessarily have to take rest breaks every few words or a sentence or two, like I usually do. 

I suppose it's a bit of a case of 'swings and roundabouts' as for speed, comparing the two types of keyboards, but for anyone with issues such as those I mentioned above, and looking to purchase a new laptop in the near future, I strongly suggest you give them a try out to see if a floating keyboard might suit your needs better than a standard keyboard, as I have discovered.  I really wouldn't like to have to go back to a standard keyboard permanently again now after having got used to the benefits of using a floating keyboard - I'm forever pressing keys I don't mean to press on the regular keyboard, as I keep forgetting that I can't support or even stabilise my hands on the standard keyboard at all, so I either hit the wrong key with my fingertip, or keep accidentally pressing the spacebar and other nearby keys as I get absorbed in what I'm writing and as I tire and weaken, go to rest my hand on the edge of the keyboard! Oops! The backspace and delete keys are probably getting used more than any other key, with the exception of the spacebar! Haha!

I will try to write more often from now, even if it's only a short entry, just to keep in touch, and so that you can see that I haven't given up on the idea of this blog, or disappeared into the ether!

Take care everyone!

Love...Diane x

I saw a quote by Joseph Campbell today which really struck a chord with not only the was my life turned out, but also with my hopes and aspirations for this blog:

"We must be willing to let go of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

I think this is true of most people, as real life rarely goes to plan, but illness and disability can make the biggest changes to a person's life, as well as everyone who is involved in their lives!  It tends to leave a lot of people having to make adjustments they're ill prepared for.

That is where I hope this blog will come in useful.

Don't get me wrong, I can't promise to wave a wand and make everything right again, or I would have already done that for me years ago! LMAO! But through my own experiences, I can offer some support and guidance that maght make your transition into your 'new' life, just that bit easier, and maybe point you in the right direcrion for further support, too, especially if you live un the UK, where I am.

I didn't really know who Joseph Campbell was, I'm a tad embarrassed to admit, so I looked him up on wikipedia, and find that he was an extraordinarily accomplished gentleman.

He lived from 1904-1987, and was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss." 

After just reading that short bio on Wikipedia about him, I suspect I may well go back and learn a little more about the man, because I like the way he thought if the above is a prime example.

However, today I'm a tad more limited than usual as I'm having an extremely bad day with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), and following some bad news yesterday afternoon, have been launched into a full blown Fibromyalgia flare-up.

Does anyone else suffer from these problems?  If you do, I would love to hear about how you manage or cope with such episodes.  I really haven't found anything other than trying to relax, rest, and just wait for them to pass, unfortunately. In both cases, the more I fight them and try to go on as normal, the worse the symptoms become, and the longer I'll need to wait for recovery in the long run, unfortunately.

Take care.
Love.....Diane x

I haven't yet located photos of my crafts, but I thought I would show off something even more precious to me today - my family!

From left to right: Joshua, Louise, Aimee and Ash.

One of my very favourite photos of Josh with his little sister:

Josh has been completely fascinated with Aimee, and has amazed all of us, considering he is a rather hyperactive two-and-a-half year old, at just how gentle he has been with her.  And I just love the way they are gazing at each other!  It's such a beautiful sight to see that brother-sister bond being created in ones so young, right before our eyes, don't you think?

I guess it is often a sight that is rarely captured in photos, but my daughter has quite a talent for photography.  Though still in the early stages of building up her portfolio, you can see some of her work on her Facebook page for Louise's Lens, if you're interested.

Photography is an art I was interested in at a young age, too, in the days when we used film and dark rooms, and getting into photography then was very expensive! 

I guess it's still not exactly cheap, but not as expensive comparatively speaking, and it is a wonderful creative art where you can hold that finished product in your hands, just like with crochet or knitting, for example.  And with all the special effects that can be used through computer software, I guess it has become even more of an art form than ever!

Another treasured part of my family that I couldn't possibly leave out, is my big fur baby, who seems to look after me more than I look after her - Lexie:

She was only about 15 months old here, and she'll be 5 years old next month, but it's the best photo I've got of her, so I always seem to come back to this one!

Anyway, that's me off for tonight - I have some paperwork to do with a very close deadline, but I have put it off for long enough, and really need to get it done! No more excuses, Diane, get on with it!!!

Does anyone else have to talk themselves into doing the things they really don't want to do, but need to?  Please tell me that I haven't completely lost the plot?  I know I lost my marbles a while back, but I'm sure they'll turn up eventually . . . probably when I'm digging through my yarn stash at some point!!! LOL!

Love . . . Diane x 

Welcome to the social journal blog - read what it's all about!

Hiya everyone!

My name is Diane, I'm 51, and I live in north west England.

I named this blog to really allow an 'anything goes' kind of thing, but mainly because I'd like it to become literally a 'social journal' of sorts, and the 'grandmumzie' came from the 'mumzie' nickname my daughter gave me when she was still a child, and it just stuck!  But now, I'm not just 'Mumzie' any more!

Now, my daughter, Louise, has all grown up, is getting married later this year to Ash, and they have already presented me with two absolutely gorgeous grandchildren, Joshua, who will be 3 at the end of January, and Aimee who was just born in the middle of August this year!  Unfortunately, they don't live locally, but thank goodness for computers, phones and Skype, eh?! :-)

I'm ill and disabled, and as a former (medically retired) Occupational Therapist, I've learned a lot about my health conditions, so I intend to make a reference area about these conditions (and possibly other health issues if there is interest), partly to help people understand them more, whether they suffer from the same conditions or not, and partly to create an environment where you feel you can ask questions not just of me, but of each other.  I know I'd like to hear about how other people manage or cope with their health and disability issues, especially the same ones I'm battling, too.

Maybe we can create a support network of sorts.  A place to feel you can post and feel safe.  A place where the only silly questions are those which go unasked.

I've been ill and disabled for most of my life, though it is only with hindsight that I'm able to recognise some of the health issues that I experienced at a younger age, particularly as a child.

My enduring passion in life, for as long as I can remember, are crafts of one kind or another!  I have always said that my crafts are what has kept me (relatively! LOL!) sane throughout the years, but now I find that there is actually plenty of evidence to prove that hand crafts do actually help people with a range of conditions, emotional and physical, to endure through some of the worst kinds of health issues and emotional experiences.

Of course, as a former occupational therapist, I understood the benefits of creating things with your hands, but when the career became thought of as 'just basket-making', it moved away a lot from hand crafts, which is a shame.

I am currently reading a book called "Crochet Saved My Life" by Kathryn Vercillo of the blog crochetconcupiscence.com, and the evidence that Kathryn has collated vindicates everything Occupational Therapy ever stood for!  It has also explained to me even why I browse, and dream, and plan, and even buy more yarn, when I have more than enough stash, during the times when I have periods of such poor health that I can do very little other than lay in bed and browse the web!  I doubt it would be adequate explanation to my bank manager though! Haha!

I generally have a very dry sense of humour, and am usually smiling, but I've been going through a difficult time emotionally recently, so I'm trying to drag myself out of that black pit of depression by being pro-active, and doing some things that I've been putting off for long enough ... my bucket list, if you like. Creative writing - writing a book or a blog - is right at the top of my list, so here is the new blog!  I decided the interaction of a blog would be much more useful to me and probably others, than writing a book, and working alone, here!  A double pronged approach to pulling myself out of that pit, I guess!

Another main aspect I'd like to discuss personally, and hear about other people's experiences, is how the changes, particularly in the UK, are affecting you, whether you are disabled, under 25, on jobseekers allowance, or any of the other areas that are facing harsh cut backs.  I know politics can be a touchy subject, but after the propaganda that has been posted about disabled people, I think people need to know just what we are going through because of the brutal policy chages and the so-called 'austerity measures', whilst the members of the government continue to drink champagne, give obscene amounts of money to other countries, and ignore our pleas to chase up the billions of £'s owed in taxes from some of the  wealthiest people and most profitable companies in the world!

I want, again, to create a support area/network for those of us facing great difficulties, and to educate those who are not experiencing them, because I have spoken to a great number of people like nurses and staff in care agencies who have absolutely no idea how the care system in the UK works!  Most think that if you become too ill to take care of yourself, you are looked after - that's what we pay our National Insurance contributions for, isn't it?  Well, that's not quite what happens . . . pop back here, and I'll tell you my story one day.

But, the real fun part of this blog, I want to be about crafting, of course.  It's that which makes all the other things more tolerable, and just for a while, we can forget the problems exist!

I don't remember learning to knit and embroider, and only really remember learning to dressmake because I remember my mother telling me that it was 'about time I learned to make my own clothes so she didn't have to do it any more, and could concentrate on making her own clothes'.  So I learned to make my own clothes from patterns, then learned to design my own, too!

When I was 2 years old, my motther returned to work, and I spent the time with my maternal grandparents, and my grandmother taught me to knit and do embroidery.  I was a pretty quiet child, content to just draw and colour laid on the floor, art being my favouurite thing, even so young.  So when I watched my grandmother virtually drawing with threads whilst making colourful clothes for my dolls from knitting or sewing, or creating beautifully embroidered designs on tablecloths or doilies made of very fine fabric, I was eager to learn this new form of art.  In fact, I wanted to learn everything! I wanted to know how to do everything, and I wanted to know how everything worked, or was made! LOL!

I also spent a lot of time in my grandparents caravan in Southport during the open summer season, and Southport is still one of my favourite places.  My grandparents were more the age of great-grandparents really, as they were born in 1899 and 1900, having my mother later in life, during the 2nd world war, in 1942.  I  was born 20 years later, and just about remember my grandad retiring from work, and them moving into a warden serviced bungalow because of teir own health needs.  Though I had been taught crafts by my grandma when i was younger, it was my grandad to whom I was the closest, and the same with my own parents - I had more of a bond with my Dad than my Mother.

Anyway, i digress -getting carried away and overdoing this very first post!

I may have photos of some of my past craft work, scattered here and there, on memory cards, pen drives, CD's etc., so it'll take  me a little while to find them to upload to the blog, but if anyoe else would like to tell us about something you've made, please feel free to send me photos and your story, and I'll write it up and post it for you.  Kind of like a social community blog, which is my aim here.

Tell us about what kind of crafts you've worked on over the years, and which ones drew you or fascinated you the most?

My most favourite crafts at the moment are crochet and jewellery making, often combined in a mixed media approach. This has really developped for me through the circumstances of my health, as I'm mostly confined to bed, and can't actually sit for long, so can only work on small projects that are not too heavy.

Also, with having two young grandchilren, I  am encouraged to make things for them, but have so many ideas I don't know where to begin! Blanket, amigurumi or clothes?  Pinterest and Ravelry have a lot to answer for! Haha!

I do still knit, but I was taught to knit with longer straight needles, and holding one of them under my arm, leaving one hand free, which made hand knitting very fast.  Now, with not being able to sit for long, I can no longer knit this way and have learned to knit in-hand,  but it seems so very slow to me now, that i keep being drawn back to the much faster to work crochet.  I do actually want to learn loom knitting to see if that is faster and find out if it will satisfy my currently unfullfilled knitting urges! LOL!

I also have an urge to make some felties that are so popular of late, and to resurrect some of the general embroidery skills and stitches I learned so long ago!  I do have a bit of a fetish for pincushions and some other sewing tool cases, so working with felt might come in handy there!

Paper and card crafting are favourite hobbies, but require me to sit, so I don't spend much time doing that any more, to be honest.  The same with dressmaking . . .I'm still trying to work out a way to operate my sewing machine from my overbed table, but haven't quite worked out some of the finer points yet, considering some of my disabilities.

These are the kinds of things I intend to share with you through this blog, and maybe I can show others that disabilities don't have to stop us from doing our favourite crafts, and maybe you can let me know if you have already worked out a solution to some of my problems, too!

This is the main reaason why I wanted to combine a health/disability blog with crafting.  I ideally want to creat a social journal where we can vent and learn about health problems, then work our way through to showing ourselves that whatever we have wrong with us will not stop us still being useful and worthwhile, whether we just make a single hat for winter, a coat for or dog, or whether we get into one of the very many worthwhile charities out there who always need supplies, especially as there are likely to be many more homeless people in the UK this winter with all the cuts in benefits!

On that note, it is really late, and I have got carried away with writing this initial post! LOL!  If you decide to follow this blog, you will find that I may not post every day, but when I do, I can rabbit on and on! I just hope it all makes sense! Haha!  And the reason for this lengthy post is that I have been wanting to do this for so long that I'm now really excited to actually be doing something about it!!!

Until next time . . . keep crafting!  Love . . . Diane x