What March Made

Hey there,

It's me. I'm still on earth. March #yearofmaking2018 was a big fail. I had all sorts of stuff planned. In the end I only made something for 9 days?

I didn't touch my knitting at all. I found my knitted lace but I had no motivation to finish it. I thought a new knitting project might interest me but nothing!

I did become interested in making a table runner which I saw in a Korean drama "Good Thieves". What intrigued me was the runner was single layer. I did some research and discovered the technique uses something similar to french seams to hide the raw edges. Everything is hand sewn so it's quite tedious. If I give this a go again, I'll do 2 things differently. Firstly, I'll use fabric which has a good wrong side (because of the single layer) Secondly, I won't hand sew.

I made a coin pouch for myself. For someone who has made hundreds of pouches, I don't have any. I use it when I go to the coffee shop to buy tea.

I wanted to complete my running stitch sampler but it came to a halt. This is work in progress and I'll add to it in April. There are so many variations of running stitches. I really enjoy working on this project.

I wrote a tutorial for a Lucky Charm Pouch. p.s. My daughter happily accepted the lucky charm I made.

To be honest, I was having quite a nice time in March until 19th March. I remember that fateful day. I had a dental appointment at noon. Just the usual cleaning, no decay, thank goodness. For lunch I had Vietnamese pork chop rice. Not my first time having it. It tasted fine. By night-time, after my usual dinner of rice+vege+chicken, my stomach had blown up and a very familiar god awful headache returned. From that day, anything I ate or drank (even water) would trigger a nightmarish bloating, excessive belching and the ginormous headache. On top of that, I had morning diarrhea every day. You know, all these is very familiar. I remember for a year between 2015 and 2016, I had all these symptoms. It ended spectacularly with me going to the hospital emergency department and I had my gall bladder removed. Remember all that? I still have the scars. I wonder how it'll end this time? I don't think I'm open to losing an intestine.

So after my gall bladder removal thingy had settled down, my digestive issues disappeared and I even managed to travel overseas 2 times. And I thought I had recovered forever. I blame the doctor. The surgeon who removed the gall bladder told me I could eat anything afterwards. I could lead a normal life. He shoulda told me to live life carefully. Ugh. I even went back to eating rice even though I know from experience rice makes me bloated. Seriously, it's madness to try to get a Chinese to stop eating rice. When I was on a rice-free diet, I would dream of eating rice... Okay, it's not all on the doctor. The past 1 year, I've been quite careless with my diet. I ate a lot of fried and oily food. Dem you Korean fried food! I read that it's not good for someone without a gall bladder. But it's on the internet. So I'm not sure if it's fake news.

In the beginning I took a lot of panadols to cope with the headaches. Bloating, belching and headache - I almost thought I was going insane. I couldn't think of anything other than my stomach. My entire day revolved around not going mad and of course clearing air from my stomach.

Fortunately last week, I discovered that exercising helped tremendously. Sometimes I could make the headaches go away by jumping/running around. The higher intensity, the better I feel. I wonder if this is the Universe's way of making me exercise? Stopping the panadol was the right step. My stomach was so sensitive I needed to give it a break from chemicals. I have modified my diet. No rice and I take very small meals. I'm avoiding oily and fried food for now. Hopefully, my stomach stops bloating and I can eat and drink without fear. If not, I have to see a doctor. Having gone through this before, I fear my doctor will just throw all kinds of drugs at me, just to see which works. Not looking forward.

Oh, speaking of exercising, did I tell you guys hubs and I signed up as a couple to train with a personal trainer at Fitness Bravo? The trainer is my niece, Mindy. I was quite apprehensive going in. I mean, I was super unfit and had put on so much weight. I wondered how torturous it would be.

We've gone for a total of 4 sessions (1 hour each and we go once a week) and I kid you not. It was tough. I know Mindy tried to ease me in but still, my muscles hurt like f*ck afterwards in the beginning. It is starting to feel less sore so I think I've made progress! I even do some exercises at home. Like every day. I'm a changed woman.

So overall, March, not so good for crafts, bad for stomach but great for exercising and fitness. I hope April will be a more balanced month.