Ouch My Tooth

Quaint and Curious- Anatomy Print $12

I've been really ill this week, I got an abscess because my wisdom teeth are going through a growth spurt. It is mind bendingly horrible pain, I thought I was going to lose my mind on Tuesday night, I couldn't sleep and even lots of Nurofen Plus wasn't taking the edge off the pain. Luckily when I rang the dentist as soon as they opened on Wednesday they were able to slot me in at 10am. It turns out I was very lucky I didn't leave it any longer, he said I was a hairline away from going to the hospital to get the antibiotics through a drip. Apparently if you leave something like that go it's very dangerous as you can get septicemia and die....who knew you could die from a tooth ache???

At the moment I'm on crazy strong medication that are making me pretty dopey, stringing sentences together is a little difficult(as is typing actually!) I picked out some weird and wacky tooth themed things from the land of the internet to celebrate my near death tooth ache, har har!

Sorry I couldn't find a source, but isn't it fabulous?

The Triangle of Bears- Mix and Match Colgate Earrings $6 per pair

Iron Fist Zombie Shoes

Denis Art-Female Dentist Sculpture $109

Triangle of Bears- Teeth Ring $4

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I Bought A Slow Cooker

Cannellini Beans and Sausages

My friends Branden and Mary-Rose have a slow cooker and they are obsessed with it, and kept nagging me to buy one. I really like the idea of bunging all the ingredients in a pot and leaving it for 6 hours, and at the end you have a delicious dinner that didn't really involve any work. I like cooking but like most people I'm pretty strapped for time, so a lot of my meals are quick and easy but not that exciting. I also fell into the trap of cooking the same 8/10 meals in rotation just because I can't think of anything new. Things improved a bit last year when I went on my detox as it forced me to change how I eat and how I think about food.

I found it hard to get healthy recipes, lots of them that I looked at used convenience food like canned soup and pre-made jars of sauce as their base, which to me defeats the purpose of making a healthy dinner as these foods are packed with salt, sugar, stabilisers and preservatives. I'll probably end up making up lots of my own recipes, and figuring it out as I go along. Don't worry if I invent something delicious I'll share it here with you guys. Here are the few that I found that were made from fresh ingredients.

Ps: I got my slow cooker in Tesco for just over €20

Beef Stew

Falafel

Jambalaya

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Health and Exercise

Source

I've gotten the New Years bug and I started using my exercise bike again. Let me just preface this post by saying that I am in no way naturally inclined towards exercise, in fact I find it more than a little torturous. I was one of those girls that tried to weasel out of every gym class, and I succeeded most times. But now as I edge ever closer to my 30's I realise that I can't continue like this and not expect it to effect my health. My father had three heart stents put in last year, even though he never smoked or drank, was lean and fit and walked about 5 miles a day most days of his working life. Thank goodness he is OK now, but it set off little alarm bells in me that I should take care of my own health while I'm young. 

For the past few weeks I've been cycling 5 miles about 3 mornings a week, I know that's nothing huge, but it's a step forward. Maybe when I build up my fitness I'll do longer cycles, or cycle one or two of the evenings after the market. Although to be honest now that I'm doing the book stall, which involves hauling about 600 books in and out of the storeroom each day, I'm pretty wrecked when I get home.

By the way I look nothing like the ladies in these pictures, I'm rather more pink and sweaty, and I certainly don't have a post salon up-do, but I do love these photos!

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Spicy Sausage and Bean Casserole

As a lot of my regular readers will know I've changed my eating habits a lot over the past few months. .I've been refining this concoction over the fast few weeks but I think I hit the perfect balance at last.

Spicy Bean and Sausage Casserole:
You will need the following:

1 Tin of Tomatoes
1 Tin of Mixed Beans( I use the organic ones from Eats of Eden)
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Red Onion
1 Red/Green Pepper
1 Punnet of Cherry Tomatoes
2/3 Large Spicy Sausages(from the French Stall at the Milk Market...and they are gluten free too!)
1 Cup of brown Rice(also from Eats of Eden)
1 Veg Knor Stock Pot
Small Pinch of Chilli Powder
Small Pinch Sweet Paprika

(I get all my veg from the Milk Market which helps keep costs low)

*Turn your hob to No.2 and heat a large pot with a small bit of olive oil, pop in your 2/3 sausages in the pot and cover with a lid. While they are slowly sizzling chop your onion finely and crush your 4 cloves of garlic. Leave to slowly cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

*In the meantime chop your cherry tomatoes in half, and your pepper into long strips. When the onions and garlic have softened and started to smell delicious pop your peppers and tomatoes in the pot. At this stage add your spices to taste. I use Sonnentor Chili Powder which packs quite a punch, so I only use the smallest pinch. I then add about a half a tea spoon of paprika. Leave for 5 minutes.

*Strain your tin of mixed beans, put both your beans and tomatoes into the pot.

*In another pot put on your cup of brown rice, adding 2 1/2 parts water to 1 part rice. Add your knor stock  pot to the rice water to add extra flavour. Leave your bean dish stewing on No.2 for the length of time it takes for your brown rice to cook.

*At this point sit down and have a cup of tea and relax...this is when I watched an episode of the IT Crowd on 4OD.

If you've used 3 sausages this is more than enough for 3 servings, with maybe a bit left over for lunch the next day. It's a really luscious hearty meal, perfect for a cold blustery evening.

Here is some info on the health benefits of adding beans to your diet and also some info on brown rice.

PS: Please excuse the poor picture quality, I was way too hungry to hunt down my camera, so I used Johns phone instead.

Mooncup Review

Warning: If you are squeamish about hearing about periods and all related details then stop reading this now, don't blame me you have been warned!

As any of you who read this blog regularly know I've made loads of lifestyle changes over the past 2 months and it's not just about my food. I now wear salt crystal deodorant, use a wooden toothbrush, use all eco friendly household cleaners, have eco balls instead of detergent in my laundry, got a remineraliser filtration system instead of drinking tap water, to name but a few of changes.

I've recently gotten to know the lovely Claire who runs her business Eco Brats, which offers ecologically sound alternatives to raising a baby, selling a range of cloth nappies, organic cotton soft furnings, and natural fiber mattresses. She has a stall at the Milk Market at the weekends and I was browsing through all the amazing products she has at her stall, but since I have no kids I don't have much use for most of them. It was during one of these chats that I spotted that she sells Mooncups at her stall, something I had heard of before in Eats of Eden( local health food shop). It's an eco friendly alternative to using tampons, a silicone cup that you can reuse. I had been toying with the idea of getting on for a while but it was great to actually ask Claire about the nitty gritty and get answers to all the questions a manual just doesn't answer. In the spirit of all my recent changes I decided to buy one, they are less than €30, which is very reasonable when you consider one Mooncup lasts for years, and costs the same as the average woman will spend on disposable protection in three months.

I had to wait for a couple of weeks before I could use it, but my period arrived this weeks so I can finally report on my new adventure. Having used tampons for years I thought the process would be fairly similar, but there is a folding technique that took me a few tries before I could master it. I'm glad the first time I tried it I was at home, as I may have found it a little daunting in a public toilet. The key is to stay calm,to not get flustered, ie. relax the muscles and everything will go smoothly. It's worn much lower down that a tampon, as you can see here in the diagram, which was a little strange the first time I wore it. Also the first time I removed it it was a little sore, but I just wasn't doing it properly, I would recommend reading the manual twice. Despite all the changes after just 2 days I'm a total convert and I don't think I'll go back to using tampons.

The Mooncup is ideal for me as it hold 3 times more liquid than a tampon, which is great as I suffer from very heavy periods. The cup can be worn for 4-8 hours before you need to empty it. On my first day I used it for 6 hours whereas normally I would have only gotten 3  hours use from a tampon. This also means that you can use it overnight without worrying about leakages, sorry to be gross but it happens to everyone and it's a really pain in the ass! Also with a Mooncup there is no danger of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) as there is no absorbancy, so the body doesn't react adversely.Weighing up the financial benefit, the environmental kudos, the added comfort due to being able to use it for longer I'm starting to wonder why this isn't a more mainstream product. It would be nice to see this advertised on t.v and magazines instead of the disposable counterpart.

Here is a really handy Q&A if you are thinking of getting one.

Detox Update

I'm two months into my 6 month detox that I'm undertaking as a result of an allergy test, you can read the details here. I just wanted to do a bit of an update as a milestone for myself to look back on and also to let you guys know how the battle is going.

The good part is that I feel 100 times better, I have more energy, I'm waking up earlier, sleeping better, and I feel more alert. I've lost a fair bit of weight too, I've gone from a 16 to a comfortable 14. Thankfully I've lost weight evenly, sometimes you see people who go on extreme diets and they loose it all in one area, like off their legs or chest, I was afraid this would happen and I would look lopsided. But because this is a detox and not some mental diet it's far more balanced and therefore it's an even all over body weight loss. Also my skin has improved somewhat, not entirely but I can see definite improvements, it has improved enough that people won't comment about it anymore(people can be so rude sometimes!). But I think my skin will take the longest to heal as I've had trouble with it for years. It's really great to work so hard for something and to actually feel the results from it, it makes it a lot easier to carry on the struggle. People have been very kind and commented on how well I'm looking which really helps, as it's a gradual process sometimes I can't see the changes, somebody even said I looked younger the other day, I should have given them a hug!


Physically I feel better too, I no longer feel sluggish or over tired. I used to wake up in the mornings still feeling  exhausted sometimes. Apparently this is a sugar hangover, when you are just letting your body go from one sugar rush to the next. So now there is no highs and lows it's just an even keel energy level. My stomach feels a lot better too, I no longer feel bloated sometimes as I'm no longer putting rubbish into my body. The first month was very tough with physical withdrawal symptoms, mostly from sugar, I got headaches, chronic tiredness, crashed energy levels, extreme cravings, and pretty horrible mood swings. Toni who did my allergy test told me to warn my friends and family about this so they could help me through it. So pre-warned my friends excused my ratty mood for about 3 weeks.

There are difficult parts, mostly when I try to eat out. I'm really happy about what I'm eating when I'm at home because I'm well prepared and have lots of variation. Whereas if I try to eat out it's a nightmare, if I can find something on the menu it usually has to be changed, and lot's of the time I have to take out the main contributor to flavour. Even when I go to my local shop I can't buy anything. Or worse again if I'm in Tesco/Dunnes it's shocking to see that most of what is sold is processed food. Now 90% of the time I do my shopping between the Milk Market and Eats of Eden as I can't find anything I can eat in a regular shop.

We went for dinner the other night in a nice restaurant and I asked nicely about making some changes. The waitress was lovely and made a huge effort, but the food that arrived out was really bland and tasteless, it disappointed me that they couldn't add seasoning and flavour. Having worked in a restaurant I know it's hard, but I thought I might get a bit more inventiveness in a good restaurant.

Exceptions to this rule are:
Bon Appatit Crepe shop at the Milk Market, who made a wheat and dairy free crepe and soup the other day that was delicious.
Cafe Noir on Robert Street, who on a few occasions made lovely salads and baked potato for me(although it drives me nuts that they don't have table service there).
No.1 Pery Hotel where Paul and Shelly got married were really accommodating, and gave me gluten free bread, herbal tea, and fruit salad. Amazing service considering it was at a wedding. By the way the rooms were to die for, I felt like an Edwardian Lady staying there. It's only around the corner from my house but I want to stay there again!
Eats of Eden has been totally invaluable, I don't know how I would have gotten through this without that shop.  I buy a lot of my food there, most of my cleaning products and all of my supplements. I've gotten fantastic advice and pointers towards what food I should be eating.
Orla Redican at the Milk Market has a totally gluten free selection, I buy my yummy bread off her every week. She also has amazing gluten free cakes for those of you who can eat sugar, sadly not me though(she is just past the fish stall on Saturdays).

On top of the difficulty of food I really miss drinking, not in a depressing chronic way, but I miss the fun of it. I'm a very sociable person and going out with friends has been very different. It has been quite isolating, even when I'm out, probably self imposed because I feel kind of awkward. I'm trying to meet people for 'coffee' more (herbal tea) or food, so that there is a different focus, and I'm more likely to be on the same wavelength. Summer time with my friends is very much about long lazy days with some pints and a laugh, and now that the sun has eventually arrived I really miss that easy sense of relaxation, sparkling water is just not the same.

Despite all this the benefits totally outweigh the difficulties, and I am 100% sure that I see it through the 6 months. If I'm going to do this I'm going to do it well, and do it once so I never have to do it again!

I'm Not Superwoman and That's Ok

Sometimes I try to take on the whole world, I think if I just work hard enough and focus I can get it all done. It was refreshing today to give myself permission to not try to be Superwoman. I have a million things to get sorted before the wedding tomorrow, iron my dress, finish making the brides bag, change the buttons on a cardigan, make 3 separate urgent badge orders, deliver some cards, go to an exhibition, and go on a family dinner tonight. On top of that I was trying to squeeze in working at the Pop-Up shop...which is totally insane! On top of which I couldn't sleep last night because I was running through everything I had to get done today. It was at 6am this morning that I decided not to open the shop and to give myself a little time today to breathe....it was then that I eventually drifted off to sleep.
I'm gonna add this lesson to the new me, there is no point eating lots of healthy organic foods and then walking around like a stressed maniac. I'm gonna take more time to just breathe, and get done what I can but not get in a frenzy trying to tick all the boxes.

Healthy Living and Oat Cake Recipe

As you can see from my lack of blogging over the past week I've been kept pretty busy. I've mostly been readjusting my life after I was told I'm allergic to the world. So I've been cooking lots more and basically living a bit of a Martha Stewart life. I feel positively virtuous as I munch away on organic rocket, hummus and rice cakes. I even passed the test when some friends came over for wine and I didn't touch a drop. To be honest I'm finding the lack of sugar the hardest thing. Because I work such long hours I found I was taking little sugar breaks during the day to keep me going. Now I just have to plan my meals better and eat things like brown rice so I have energy for longer. I have found myself having to take the odd nap here or there as I just didn't have the energy to keep going. They warned me that this would happen so it makes me feel a bit better, and a little less like an old lady.

I cleared out my press the other night, making room for all the new spelt pasta, brown rice, nuts and dried bananas that now fill my shopping list. Gone is the stabiliser laden peanut butter in favour of an organic one, gone is the white pasta, gone also is all my bread, replaced by rye bread(yummy one with hemp seed, see above) and ryvita(the best one is with oats and sunflower seeds).

I even tried my hand at baking for the first time in 8 years or so. It's quite a challenge making a wheat, dairy and sugar free snack that is tasty and filling. But I need to make a snack that I could eat at the market, as everything for sale that is ready to eat is totally unsuitable so I've been bringing a packed lunch. I baked some oat cakes and it is the simplest easiest thing to cook ever.

Ingredients:
3 cups of oats
1/3 cup of crushed walnuts/hazelnuts
1/2 jar of organic peanut butter
2-3 crushed bananas
1/2 raisins (optional)
1/2 hot water
1/4 cup of apple juice, or exchange for 2 tablespoons of honey
1 bar of sugar and dairy free chocolate

This is how easy it is. Mix it all together in a bowl, you are better off putting the peanut butter and oats in first. Then add the crushed nuts,raisins,and crushed banana. Then break up your chocolate quite small, pour in your apple juice and hot water mixed together. This will melt the chocolate a small bit, but still leaving most of it in chunks. Make sure it's a moist but not gloopy texture. Grease a baking tray, spreading the mixture out evenly. Put in a preheated oven of 180 degrees for 30 mins. Et voila, the easiest baking known to man. I couldn't believe I was eating so yummy today and it's totally sugar free.

Allergic to the World

As some of you who know me from 'real life' might know I suffer pretty badly from allergies. After years of sneezing, wheezing, and generally feeling pretty lousy I went and got an allergy test. Initially I got a mini one, but after a few minutes we both realised this was not going to be enough. I went back for a full consultation this week, which tested 100's of substances. 

I'm now allowed to officially say I'm allergic to the world. If the aim was to tick as many boxes as possible in the test then I got an A+, whereas really I got a big fat F. It turns out I'm the worst case she has ever seen when it comes to the chemicals that are used the products we use every day like; make-up, deodorant, hairspray, household cleaners, plastics, etc etc,basically stuff that's nigh impossible to avoid. I still have to get the comprehensive list,I'll be getting my new food/lifestyle bible tomorrow.

In the meantime I know it will be a complete lifestyle overhaul. This means giving up wheat, sugar, caffeine (which I did a year a ago), alcohol, and quite a few other specific foods, along with minimising my contact with plastics and chemicals. I also will be investing in a posh new water purifier, eco friendly and chemical free detergents and cleaners, along with replacing my shampoo, deodorant and shower gel with a soap and chemical free alternatives. Also I've started on a series of suppliments which means chomping down 14 tablets a day, which will increase to about 20 per day in a few weeks.It seems like it will be a really tough first 6 months, after which I will be slowly able to reintroduce foods into my diet. She said that I have a few core allergies that ballooned over the past few years which led me to the state I'm in at the moment.
I'm half excited and half terrified. In the past few years I've made lots of changes to my lifestyle, I've cut down hugely of crap fast food, sleeping more regularly, drinking a lot less, and I gave up caffeine.These small changes over a period of time has made me feel a lot better in myself and I know it makes me more prepared to face the months ahead of me. I know that if someone had come to me 4 years ago with this challenge I would have failed miserably.

Giving up drinking for 4 months is going to be difficult. To anyone outside of Ireland this will sound crazy, but our entire social scene is centred around alcohol, and people are not very understanding when you say you're off drink. But the suppliments I'm on will not be effective if I drink, so there is no point in spending all that effort and money on them if I just wash it all away with beer.
I'm choosing to see this as an exciting new opportunity to get healthier, to learn how to eat differently,and find new ways of cooking. My friend described it very well the other day, he said it's not about giving things up, just about making new habits, it's a much more positive way of looking at it.

Granny Ruth's Cold Cure

I've been rather under the weather lately, last week for 3 days I swayed between having no voice at all to sounding light a nervous teenage boy, then like a 40 a-day-habit jazz singer. I'm feeling a bit better now but still not 100%. I did want to share with you my miracle cure hot lemon drink. Everyone has their own individual concoction of this, and my own has a few incarnations. But this one here is the one I brewed up the other night to help me get through the cold market the next day.

You will need

1 Lemon

Honey

Fresh Ginger

Vinegar

Hot Water

Cloves

Green Tea (optional)

While your kettle boils, chop half a lemon and squeeze into a hug, then cut 2 thick slices from the other half. Push your cloves into the white part of the rind, this stops them from floating around in your drink. Put in 2 tablespoons of honey. With a fine grater grate a small amount of fresh ginger. Then here comes the weird bit also put in a tablespoon full of vinegar, you can't really taste it but it acts as an antibacterial for your raw throat. Pour in your hot water an stir well. If you want you can add green tea, but I only sometimes have that in the house and it's not essential to the drink. Drink this 2 or 3 of these a day while you're sick and you'll feel better pretty soon...a little paracetamol might help for headaches etc though.

Jack Frost is Nipping at my Bits

Winter has definitely hit me with a bang, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was wearing a jacket over a dress with some runners, but this weekend I was attempting to wear all of my wardrobe at one in a vain effort to stave off the chill.

It's an early, and therefore very cold start to the morning at the Milk Market, and this week I relinquished any effort to look good in favour of warmth. I wore from head to toe;

Marino felted wool hat

Huge knitted scarf

Triple layered rainbow jacket

Woolly Jumper

Warm vest

Gloves & mittens

Jeans

Legging

Slipper Socks

Knitted Uggs

...and I was still cold!!! Mari, the owner of a coffee shop at the market was selling hot water bottles, pay €5 and get €4 back when you return the bottle, what a fantastic idea!! It was really great for keeping the aching chill out of my fingers. I've heard that Pennies are selling thermal vests and long johns, I'll definitely be taking a trip there this week to stock up on some winter warmers.

Caffeine Addict

I am attempting to give up, or at least cut down, on my caffeine consumption. This time two years ago I never really bothered with tea/coffee but a couple of years doing markets got me hooked on coffee, and I drink coke too. A lot of people are fine when they drink it but I get really hyper, and then crash horribly, and in the new year I noticed my sleeping pattern was all out of whack. Something had to give, and after a few sleepless nights I decided coffee and coke just aren't worth it. This marks day 4 totally clean, I'm tired and cranky but I'm sure it will be worth it....right?

Moaning Murtle

I've had a crap day today, and I just want to moan for a little bit.

I'm one of those women that suffers from really bad cramps. So I've spent the whole day in agony, in bed with a hot water bottle and a lot of pain killers. I didn't get any work done, and I feel as weak as a kitten. Sometimes I wish there was a fast forward button for some days.

...moaning finished.

Insomnia

I had a very weird bout of insomnia last night and I have yet to sleep. On the upside I was up (VERY) bright and early and I just figured out how to fix my buggy problems with yahoo and facebook, so now I can reply to emails at long last!!
Today I think I'll make some headway with some wedding invitations I'm making for friends of mine. 100 invitations all indiviually handmade and unique from each other, but using the same palette of papers to design them. I actually find it far more interesting to do this then to repeat the same process 100 times.
I might just treat myself to an extended nap later I'm still feeling truely awful

Body issues

Womens body identity is an issue close to my heart, and is something that I've been meaning to write a post about for a long time, and it was when I read this , that is spurred me to say something. I have in the past had very black and white ideas about female beauty and how we feel about ourselves and our bodies. On one hand my business is in fashion, an industry notorious for promoting the anorexic look, and ignoring anything resembling a narural female body.In college I shaved my head, didn't wear make up for years, never wore a bra, and generally wore mucky drab clothes. Somewhere in my head I thought this was a statement about female empowerment and an unwllingness to conform to an idea of what a woman should want to be. It was something I needed to do at the time, but I was denying myself a lot through my militant feminism. I wasn't willing to let anything 'girlie' in for fear that I would become trapped under a preasure to be beautiful.
Most women I know don't like their bodies, thankfully as I get older the women around me grow enough to learn to accept what they have and hopefully at some point they will love it. I've seen too much of anorexia to know that the path of self loathing only leads to destruction. I'm not sure what this post is about except that I have a great sadness inside after the things I've seen friends do to themselves, something has to change about how we live as women. Especially at this time of year when every ad on tv is trying to tell you another way to feel inadequate about yourself. I don't diet, I don't feel guilty about food, and I refuse to berate myself about how I look...maybe it's a start.

You might find this interesting on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUUAgZ8f1OU