Animo Manoli!

I am not going to lie. the last six months have been some of the busiest time in a while. Not full on working mode, a lot of traveling both for professional and personal reasons. In six months, I have been to 8 different countries and flown to 12 different destinations. While I have enjoyed them very much, now I am contemplating the next couple of months without taking airplanes, and the prospect is looking good.

But today I want to share something else, something that it is not about me. Something that it is about our craft community, albeit the spanish craft community.

I met Manoli Picatua early this year in one of my trips to Portugal. I went there to demonstrate and teach Sizzix at Tubo d'Ensaio, the Portuguese distributor of Sizzix, Teresa Collins, Basic Grey and Stix2 among other fantastic brands. Manoli is a "tallerista de scrap", a fulltime workshop teacher of all things related to paper and scrap. I loved her. She is so sweet and talented that you can not not love her.

I met her again on my second trip to Portugal this year, where I took this pictures of her between workshops, and again I felt she is one really sweet girl. Manoli talked a bit about her youngest daughter's illness, one of those rare conditions that is so rare that there is no funding or clear treatment for it.

Spanish free health care is the best I have first hand knowledge of, and with a family and close friends that are or have been spread across Canada, USA, UK, France, Switzerland, Germany... that is saying something. But as much as it is free, rare conditions are that, rare, and, not only funding is nearly impossible, specialists are non existent. That means that when there is an acute situation the stays in hospital are long just because doctors do not know what to do or how to do it. Trial and error is needed, which is not only devastating for the patient and for the family, but it also means an extra lengthy stay in hospital, which is exhausting in more ways than one.

Manoli is her family's sole provider and as much she is one very hardworking person, being full time freelance, as she is, means that she can either make a living to provide for her family or be by the side of her very ill daughter. While she is making the best she can, it is extremely hard on her own. 

Patricia Villa Boas (Tubo de Ensaio's owner and all round Superwoman) and I were chatting about what could be done to help. Patricia had already in mind doing an event fundraiser for Manoli but soon developed the idea of setting an online fundraiser was mentioned, as another friend of mine in need did recently,  as well as a Workshops for Manoli, which means that all the money people pay to attend and materials goes to Manoli.

You can read more about it here, here and here.

In less than 24hrs many shops and "talleristas" have organised their own "Talleres para Manoli" and donations have started. Considering how much Spanish people are struggling with money, this has warmed my heart. I am grateful to be part of this wonderful close knit community that is scrapbooking in Spain. I am proud.

This is not an abstract donation to find a cure for some rare disease. This is to help, here and now, someone who needs it here and now.

Ánimo Manoli!

Why I have been able to loose weight

Earlier today I shared a little of my weight loss journey about why it happened. Now I am sharing the five reasons on what I have done it and why I have succeeded. (From more determinant to least.)

1. Accountability 

I am a deadline person. Give me a deadline and I will deliver, give me all the time in the world and I will never do it. This is why having monitoring appointments with the specialist has made my weight loss possible. He is like this funny grumpy old respectable teacher that you both love and fear and that you do not want to disappoint. He gave the orders to maintain a food diary in which to write everything that I ate, which I did. It made certain decisions on whether to eat something or not much more simple.

I know that without this one single reason I would have not lost a single gram. Because I was well aware all the other reasons bellow  before I step inside his room. 

2. Affinity with the diet guidelines

This may not seem that important, but for me it was. You see if you are going to be dieting long term - to me anything more than a week feels like longterm dieting! - you need to feel that you are going to be able to eat/do things that you really enjoy even if they are in moderation and/or small portions.  

If someone had told me you can't eat any type of bread or starchy carbs at all, as well as not being able to eat any chocolate, cheese, seafood (high cholesterol!)... until you reach your target, I would have not been able to do it. I needed a well balanced diet that allowed me to look forward when I would be able to indulge. All with good measure and 

The diet guidelines were simple enough: a low fat 1000 calories a day: 

• 4 small servings of starchy carbs - of varying sizes depending on their calories/sugar content, ideally wholegrain; 

• 3 pieces of fruit; 

• two weight restricted protein servings; 

• as much vegetables as I wanted. 

• Cheat foods one portion every 15 days of one of the following: chocolate, cheese, prawns or other shell seafood or avocado. (I hate avocado so no worries there!, but choosing between the other three was hard.)

I always have loved raw carrots and salads, so I always have bags of carrot batons and salad ready in the bridge. I kept the cooking as simple as possible, thinking about ways of cooking things may work for some but for me makes me want more the stuff I cant have. Simple and quick works for me, the less time dedicated to food, the less it is important.

The same with exercise. I hate gyms, I hate swimming, I hate running and walking. What I like is dancing. So Zumba looked like a good idea. And it was, I love it. I was lucky that I found a local instructor - Leean Lok - who not only is very good at it but also is a lovely encouraging woman. Even more lucky was to have a friend - the lovely Sarah Mcgrath - who also wanted to do it and together it was so much easier those first few weeks of Zumba.  Thank you Sarah!

The point is that I felt I could follow the rules because they seemed to fit me and that helped enormously. I am not saying that the diet I follow will  suit you or anyone else for that matter. It suits me and that is why I succeeded. My recommendation is to find a weight loss program that you like the idea of, that it sounds like you will be able to do it long term. Chances are you are going to succeed too.

3. Trust in the guidelines

We live in a day and age when the media is constantly giving us mixed information about which is the best/fastest/most healthiest way to loose weight. I am a perfectionist by all accounts, if I am going to spend my money I want the best for my buck. If I am going to diet, I really want to make sure it is a proven program and that I am going to actually loose weight healthily. 

Having a professor of endocrinology - recommended by a friend of ours - as my specialist, made me trust his guidelines. My husband laughs about it - "Did you have to go to the best endocrinologist in London to tell you you need to loose weight to actually do something about it?"

The truth is that no, I did not needed him to tell me that I needed to do it, but I needed him to tell how in detail. I trusted his opinion above all other information given by the media or friends (Sorry!). No matter what people told me ("Your body is going to go into starvation mode", "It's an old fashioned system", "Avoid all sugar rather than fat"...) I focused on what the specialist had told me. 

I found this app called myfitnesspal which has been a great help in order to track calories, sugar, fat... I have it installed on my phone, ipad and computer (website) and with is is easier to maintain the focus.

For the first 4 weeks I did not have scales at home. I did not want them. I thought they may have been depressing. Once I knew at one of my check ins that I was loosing weight, I bought myself one and weighted myself first thing every morning. Some days are good and some days are depressing. But the thing is week by week the weight came off and the focus and perseverance in the guidelines continued. 

 4. Health

That is the reason why I first went to the specialist. I wanted to get better. The fact that he was quite insistent on the fact that weight loss would help me get there meant that loosing fat brought me closer to health. 

After months of dieting, I feel slightly better, unfortunately I don't feel that much better. Though, I do hope that with time and close monitoring of all my issues I will get much stronger and feel better.

5. Apperance

Yes, the old one. The reason that everyone uses to advertise weight loss programs and the one that most people start dieting: to look good. Funnily I think is the least important reason that made me loose weight. If it had been, I would have never let it get this bad before I started. I was not blind nor delusional. 

As I said before, women are rarely happy with their weight and how they look. I am happier about that now than I was four months ago, but I am not completely happy. Of course.  

However, starting to get compliments from friends and family and it helps your moral, focus and perseverance. So, to see the appearance improving is also very helpful and should not be tossed aside as just vanity. 

Anyway, these are the reason why I believe I succeeded. It was not because I have a strong will - because I don't - for me it was down to Accountability, Affinity, Trust, Health and Appearance.

A quite personal post: my weight loss journey so far

13 kilos, just over 2 stone.

Like many women, I have a struggle with my weight. Actually, I should say like 99% of the women in the western world, as no one ever seems to be happy with theirs even when it is pretty perfect. 

I remember feeling fat since my preteens even though I was rather skinny until I turned 20, but with my height ( I am just over 5 ft tall! Tiny!) and my bone structure (proportionally big) I was never happy.
Since my early twenties I started to put weight, not too much and gradually. Then when I hit 28 I started to put a lot of weight very fast. I knew that, I wasn't blind or oblivious to the fact, but I also did not care much. I have never been someone with a strong will power, I knew I needed to loose weight but could not actually make myself do it. I hate exercise and I love my fatty and unhealthy food, and tasty food has always made me happy.

At the end of 2011 I started to feel unwell, getting extremely tired, with excruciating joint pains... and my weight kept piling on. My GP diagnosed me with some mild hormonal issues and sent me on my merry way, but all my health issues kept worsening, so much so that I started to question if I could do my full time job at the time at Sizzix. Finally, in late 2012 I felt had to leave the full time dream job at Sizzix because I personally felt my body was letting me down. It was probably the hardest decision I had to take professionally as I loved working for the European division of Sizzix, from my my boss, to my wonderful colleagues - specially Pete Hughes - to the products... It really was a dream job for me. But I needed to get better and not being a good multitasker, I knew I wanted to concentrate in getting better.

And that was what 2013 was all about. It took me over a year and a half to get my GP to refer me to the specialist, an endocrinologist. But I am so glad I persisted on my quest because a couple of visits and tests after, the endocrinologist had diagnosed me with some strong deficiencies and further mild hormonal imbalances that have no serious consequences but that can be monitored and helped a bit. The main way to help them is to loose weight.

At the end of September 2012, the specialist gave a simple system to diet, exercise rules (minimum 2 hrs of cardio a week), and periodic check ups in which my weight and blood levels would be checked.

The weight started to come off. And today I have reached my initial weight loss goal which looked so far away and impossible to reach when I started this journey.

13 kilos, just over 2 stone.

Later I am going to post about the five reasons why I think I have succeeded in reaching my weight loss target.

My friends and family think I should be very proud of myself, and in a way, I am. But it has been very hard, and still is, and it will be always hard to make those healthy choices I will have to make everyday.

13 kilos, just over 2 stone.

Ps. I am still part of the Sizzix team on a freelance basis, I love the company and people so very much and they have been awesome to me. And I am happy to say that there are more projects with them in the pipeline! I just couldn't do it full time and they were very understanding and supporting.

I am no multi tasker

I haven't been very good at blogging lately. I dont even have the "I have too much work going on" excuse either. I just been focused on other things, mainly family and loosing weight.

Those who have known me for years will know that I had put on weight, not much in real terms but as a roughly 5' 1/2" woman - yes, I am that short - it was quite considerable. So the doctor ordered me to loose weight. He gave me clear instructions and with a diet of 1000 calories a day and a couple of exercise sessions a week, I have been loosing some weight, but oh boy, has it been distracting!

As I am no multi tasker, the focus has been on that and on the family, visiting them abroad and having my uncle and cousin over for a few days.

Between those two things and articles for Cardmaking & Papercraft - I did the 10 ideas for handmade gifts issue 125 as well as for other issues before and after, well, lets just say the blog and my christmas cards have been neglected.

But on Saturday I got a lovely email from Christine Ashton with photos of her Christmas Tags made with my Leafy Tree dies for Sizzix. That really brought as smile to my face and made me want to craft Christmas again. Thanks, Christine!

In the meantime, I will leave you with my Christmas decor. Very simple but all lovingly handmade using my dies for Sizzix EU.

Happy Christmas!

The last few weeks...

Haven been filled by a very busy days both professionally and personally with really highs and some lows, but so its life and we need dealing with all of it.

I know it took place almost three week ago, but I havent talked about my experience at Stitches - the UK craft trade show - this year.

Of course, I was demonstrating at the Sizzix stand, such an honour to be demonstrating at what I think - and many others agree! - one of the best stands in the whole show for a third year running. Forgive the bad quality of the photos as they were taken with my mobile.

This year, though, it was extra special. I had not one but two collections launching: Fresh Moments - Spring available right now!

And Winter Moments - Christmas, available from August 2013:

 I had so much fun putting these areas together. Although, in true creative nature, I was very anxious about them before the show opened. But people were very kind with their positive comments!

I was demonstrating the new Big Shot Starter Set - available from May. The new machine - available on its own as well as part of the new Starter kit - is so lovely.

The samples on the left were mostly made by the super talented and amazing person that is Pete Hughes. I think this new starter kit is great - but then I am biased, I designed them! with many simple and useful shapes in all technologies or type of products that Sizzix produces.

The super star that is Celine Navarro was also demonstrating and teaching the workshops for Sizzix. She is so lovely, an talented too, but that is well known already! And also Celine is the editor of EntreArtistes, a french scrapbooking magazine of the highest quality. In the pages of the latest issue I found this beautiful layout by Karine using the everyday butterflies using vellum. I love it!

On the first day, before the show opens, Pete explained each area concept to the rest of the  team. He and Debi did a fab job in all the areas they had work on.

The flowers from the new Susan's Garden collection were extraordinary, so was once again the inside of the house. Madison Parker from Echo Park and Carta Bella papers came to visit the stand as Sizzix does a collaborative line with Echo Park stamps.

As usual, I tried to get in early (by about 10 mins), eat fast and leave late so that I would have some time to walk part of the show and see some of the new things and old friends. I really liked the Button Company stamp which now do beautiful felt and ribbon is matching colours. And Paperartsy, one of my favourite companies in the UK. My personal style is very different to what they do, but I love

Seeing Kirsty Wiseman demonstrating at Fantastic Ribbons and the always lovely Rachel Greig from the Darkroom Door was at the Personal Impressions - the European distributor of her products - stand demonstrating her great products.

There should be another photo here, of two of my most admired UK crafters, which are Julie Hickey and Lin Brown. But I was forbidden to post it!

But, I had to steal this photo from Lindsay Mason's blog. She is one of my very dear friends in the craft industry. Indeed, I love Lindsay, she is such a talented artist, demonstrator, designer... and yet humble and lovely.

Well, that is it for a Stitches recap. After that I went to Spain for ten days. I shall post more about that soon!