My first scrapbook page!


Well, I tried my hand at scrapbooking. It’s bright and it’s cheery. I do have bipolar disorder, so it’s the first stop at the crazy carnival: The Med-go-Round. I basically cut up some PI sheets from meds I take.

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I feel like a little kid. I used stamps, and stickers, and foam letters and glue!

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This was fun.

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Hope you like it.

I do a lot of “art therapy”, even though I’m not an artist at all. Here’s another doodle from this mornings anxiety attack.

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Pardon my handwriting.

I kinda suck at this stuff, but it’s fun and I like it!

For those interested, I have bipolar disorder type 1 with rapid cycling and psychosis, diagnosed 2001. I also have schizotypal personality disorder, but I’ve been told “you have the schizotypal, but not the personality disorder”, diagnosed 2008. Whatever that means. I think I hit the criteria. I also have mild inattentive ADHD, diagnosed when I was a kid. I take:

Topamax as a primary mood stabilizer, 150mg and still titrating. Lithium was my “godsend” but I ended up with a rare kidney disease. Epival/depakote lands me in mixed episodes, Tegretol and I don’t play nice, Gabapentin is meh.. I don’t mind the weight loss side effect, even though chocolate and pop (and beer) taste odd.

Haldol as a primary antipsychotic, 5mg and seeing how that goes (may have to add an extra dose)

Artane for possible Haldol side effects. I take Haldol because atypical antipsychotics (such as Seroquel, Abilify, etc) don’t work well for me. I have nearly NO side effects from Haldol. I tolerate it well.

Lexapro (40mg and reducing) for anxiety and mild depression. I’m using US names for you. 😉 It’s Cipralex in Canada.

Ritalin for inattentive ADHD, 20 to 40mg, it helps with sedation, even though I’m rarely sedated.

Clonazepam for anxiety, up to 1.5mg.

I’ve also had unilateral ECT, in 2008, 6 sessions, and it worked WONDERS. I haven’t had an episode of depression that wasn’t caused by a situation (for example, death in the family) or suicide attempt since.

If you think my med list is long now – you should have seen it then. I’ve been on almost everything. I had a short (3 week) hospitalization in Oct 2013, to stabilize, to de-stress and get involved in groups. I was a voluntary patient, and had a med overhaul. I’ve been stable since.

I also ride horses. It’s not horse therapy, per se, because I’m a competitive hunter/jumper. I journal, do CBT and DBT (which are good therapies for anyone, even without mental illness) and have a worker in the community. I see my psychiatrist every 6 weeks. I finally have a good one!

I just thought I’d share that with you.

Yesterday was like Christmas!


I’ve been shipping stuff to my parents, and I went to pick it up. Three packages arrived yesterday, here’s my stash.

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What’s in the box?!

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I ordered this off of Amazon, since my brothers girlfriend is expecting (he hasn’t popped the question though!) and we’re all excited, and a co-worker/friend of my mothers is expecting a baby girl in 3 months! So I thought this would be a good purchase.

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I’ve got a 12 peg (good for little people), 31 and 36 peg loom here, as well as the “Slim Jim, good for scarves. All Knifty Knitter, also an Amazon purchase.

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Some extra knitting tools never hurt, and I always lose or break my plastic yarn needles.

Note to self: Get metal ones.

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The big purchase. The Cindwood SMALL 90 peg 1/2 afghan loom. 

As you can see, it’s not quite small. You can do practically everything with this loom. I LOVE it and I haven’t used it yet. It’s wooden, it’s sturdy as hell, quality here. Worth every cent. It was $35 + shipping. The big one (I can’t imagine how big it is!) is $50, I think. Definitely worth it.

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And I’ve gotten into scrapbooking. The owl is my “memory box”. I got all sorts of stuff on sale at Michael’s Arts and Crafts.

I didn’t get any yarn. I’m on probation until I use up most of mine and my moms! I’m having fun scrapbooking. I got most of it on clearance, and it’s a lot of fun. 😀 I got 3000 stickers to colour (I’m no artist, but I love colouring) for $2.99, some erasers to carve into stamps, so much more.

My mom wants to go to Mary Maxim in Paris (Ontario) next weekend, if the weather is good. I hope it is! I love our yearly trips there. It’s a small town, like the one I live in, but this store is HEAVEN.