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ChronicBabe Blog Carnival #11: Arts & Crafts

After reading all the submissions for this edition of the ChronicBabe blog carnival, we are in awe of how creative, crafty and clever you Babes truly are. It's impressive how you all use your own brand of art therapy as an amazing and life-affirming chronic illness coping tool.

For those of you who don't consider yourselves very crafty or
artistic, read on and get inspired by your fellow ChronicBabes. Then
we'll meet you at the fabric and crafts store afterward to help you
pick out the supplies for your very own first project.

Art Can Heal

Inspired by other chronically ill people who are gifted crafters, Juliann aka The Sick Chick is on a mission to craft as much as possible. In her post Can you give me a hand? she is asking us for our help. We love this opportunity to help cheer her up and have fun at the same time.

Wonder what life with chronic illness would be like if you were a character in a comic strip? Meet Miss Waxie, coping with chronic illness at A Comic Life, Indeed. In her latest adventure, The Belly of the Beast is in my Belly, she asks: Is it Crohnís Disease? Ulcerative Colitis? Will I live forever and ever on prednisone? Only time will tell...

Bling Is the Thing

Stuck in a cast, splint or other orthopedic support? Take a tip from Lisa Copen over at Rest Ministries Chronic Illness Pain Support and learn how to turn that unattractive orthotic into a trendy, bling-worthy accessory with good "street cred." Lisa shares her fashion secrets in Finger Splints - How I Became Crafty, Trendy, and Got Street Cred All In One Day.

Kairol Rosenthal says she's not a crafter, but she sure did put together a fab post with links to awesome patterns for hospital gowns, catheter bag covers, chemo caps and a whole lot more. With a free pattern you could make your own hospital gowns in leopard print, watermelon silk, or taffeta stripe! Check out this great chronic crafting resource, Crafting, Cancer, and Chronic Illness?, at her blog Everything Changes.

Crafty Inventors

Our friend the Migrainista at her blog of the same name has become a medical support inventor in her spare time. Spurred on by joint and nerve pain as well as necessity, she has developed homemade solutions for preventing death-grip fists and bent elbow pain when she sleeps at night. Read Projects For Pain Relief for some great tips.

From the world of YouTube comes the zany and fun Ask a Wheelchair Girl series of video clips. In episode 4: Gadget Show, Jocelyn shows us some of her favorite gadgets and how she makes them. While not arts & crafts per se, they all are resourceful solutions to common chronic illness problems. Be sure to visit her blog Disadventure.com: Putting the "dis" in disability since 1979 too.

Go see pictures of Selena from Oh My Aches and Pains! in her pajamas! In her post Fibro-friendly: The Sleep Scarf she models her solution for keeping her neck covered and warm overnight. Plus she teaches us how to make our own sleep scarves, too.

When the normal way of doing things is too hard, it's time to get creative! Dana Marton of I Already Gave My Right Arm To Be Ambidextrous! is full of smart ideas about how to make ordinary activities doable when you have arthritis. I think you'll agree she is one ingenious babe after you read Getting Crafty With My Arthritis!

Creating Beauty

Rachel at Tales of Rachel is about to create some beauty right on her body. In Inked (and charmed), she talks about her plan to get a tattoo. Read all about her journey toward a symbolic tattoo, incorporating all the strength gained from both acute and chronic illness, as well as designing a charm necklace to recognize being a proud aunt.

Don't let chronic illness stop you. Over at the blog dots&yarn they are Making curtains...cfids style. We marveled at this step-by-step description of how to accomplish this daunting task, which includes many important rest breaks along the way. The curtains turned out absolutely stunning, too.

Writing down your thoughts becomes a beautiful experience when you are inspired by the cover of your journal. We covet these gorgeous handmade journals made by p-art of m.e.2. View them all in Ready to write down some new thoughts.

Diabetes test strips—can they be a work of art? You won't believe your eyes when you see how beautifully they are incorporated into Lee Ann's artwork for the upcoming Diabetes Art Day, September 1, 2010. So all you babes with diabetes, now is the time to break out your art supplies and get your submission posted on your blog and the TuDiabetes, dLife or Diabetes Daily web sites (more information here). *A big thanks to Rachel B for submitting the post Announcing Diabetes Art Day from Lee Ann at The Butter Compartment: Where So You Keep Your Insulin?

Scrapbooking Historians

Amanda Goodwin of Amanda's Journey: Waiting for a new liver and a new life shares with us her vlog post, Why (and how!) I'm documenting this journey Amanda says, "This is my take on why documenting your illness journey is critical. I'll take you through my album (what I have completed so far!) and share different ideas on what to include and talk about...yes, the good and the bad!"

Another avid scrapbooker is the Novel Patient, Lauren. Like Amanda, she has found that keeping a scrapbook of photos of her illness, including hospital stays and doctors appointments, has been therapeutic. Check out the beautiful pages she shares with us in her post Scrapbooking My Illness Journey.

A Source of Inspiration

Need some inspiration to connect with your own inner artist? Then check out the Chronic Artists blog, which featured posts and links to a bevy of artists, writers, photographers, musicians and artisans, all of whom are living with chronic illness or chronic pain. And if you want to be added to their blog roll, all you have to do is leave them a comment and let them know.

Like what you see here? Why not enter the next ChronicBabe Blog Carnival?!

We're having so much fun running a blog carnival! But maybe there's room for improvement; we want to hear your suggestions. Let us know what you think in the discussion over at the Forum.

Want to participate in the next carnival? It's two weeks from today (publish date: September 7, 2010), and the theme is: Health care reform. Everyone has an opinion. What's yours? We want to hear all about your experience, what you hope will happen, what you think will actually happen.

If you want to participate, send us your name (as you would like it to appear), the name of your blog, the name of your post, and a 1-2 sentence description of the post. We'll let you know if you're accepted. Send all that to chronic babe @ gmail dot com. The deadline is Sunday, September 5, at Midnight CST.

P.S.: Why not spread the love and submit a post from your favorite ChronicBabe blogger? Tell us who you love to read and we'll include her, too!

And as always, we thank our pals at Fibrochondriac and Oh My Aches and Pains!, who make this carnival awesome!

Posted: 8/24/2010 in Blog Carnival | Also posted in: Crafty

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