Fibromyalgia Awareness Blog Train

The Digi Blog Train List is focusing on Fibromyalgia Awareness this month. As some of you know, I myself have fibromyalgia, so this month was special for me. We had a beautiful bright color palette to work with, too! Here is what I came up with:

You can download my portion HERE.

I'm sure some of you are wondering what is up with the spoons.... While you can learn about Fibromyalgia here, what you really MUST read is The Spoon Theory. Yes, The Spoon Theory. This story does a better job of explaining what it is like to live with chronic pain than anything I could ever come up with on my own. Please, take a minute to read it! It will help you to understand what its like to live with not just Fibromyalgia, but all types of chronic pain.

Some quick Fibromyalgia facts:

-The major symptoms of FM include: chronic, widespread body pain; moderate to severe fatigue; sleep disorders and disturbances; and problems with cognitive functioning and memory.

-Recent studies have suggested that FM patients have generalized disturbance in pain processing and an amplified response to stimuli that would not ordinarily be painful in healthy individuals.

-Since there is no known cure for FM, treatment focuses on relieving symptoms and improving function.

-Approximately 10 million Americans have fibromyalgia (FM) with a ratio of about 8 to 2, women over men, and it occurs in people of all ages, even children.

This is what awaits you if you follow along to all of the remaining stops:

The complete list of stops is as follows:

Patty B Scraps
Mama’s Designz
Becky’s Creations
Dakota Winds Graphics
Shuckclod’s Stuff
Xelax Scrap Free
Touched By A Butterfly
Sugarbutt Designs
Kreations By Sparky
Jenny’s Designz
Marniejo’s House Of Scraps
Star Creationz
CL Graphics
FB Queen JJ Creations
Aprilthescrapaholic
Leterati Artful Scraps
Caroline B.
Made By Keuntje
Speyegull Designs
Callaluna Creations
Misplaced Mermaid
Crazy Tiffs
Designed By Laura Wellighoff
Jody M Designs
Dezines2Amaze

Thank you for stopping by! Just a reminder that I have not one but TWO specials running in my shop right now! A sale and a coupon! Be sure to check them out! My store at Southern Comfort Scraps will be closing at the end of the month, and I will be having my grand opening at With Love Studio sometime in July!

Alopecia Areata Awareness Blog Train

I had never heard of Alopecia Areata prior to joining this blog train. One of the participants has a six year old daughter that suffers from the disease. Can you imagine being six years old and losing your hair? Children can be so cruel! I'm dedicating this mini kit to Jenny's daughter. You can read about her here.

According to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, alopecia areata affects 2% of the population - that is more than five million people just in the U.S.! Alopecia areata is an autoimmune skin disease that causes bald spots on the scalp and other parts of the body, and in extreme cases can result in complete hair loss. I learned a lot about the disease by reading this article from the New England Journal of Medicine.

Here is my contribution to the blog train:

You can download it HERE.

There are so many beautiful creations for this train, have a look at the "master preview" made by Shannon of Shuckclod's Stuff:

Here is a complete list of stops on this blog train!

Leterati Artful Scraps

Touched By A Butterfly

Patty B Scraps

Sugarbutt Designs

Mandog Scraps

Shuckclod’s Stuff

Princess Mahi

Mama’s Designz

ABCreations

Yez Designs

Jenny’s Designz

Cindy’s Tags & Tuts

The Maltese Scrapper

Queenies Signatures N Kits

Dakota Winds Graphics

Crazy Tiffs

Dillie’s Designs

Becky’s Creations

Aprilthescrapaholic

Misplaced Mermaid

EmJay Scraps

Callaluna Creations <-----You are here!

Kreations By Sparky

Crafting With Jack

Shirly Ann’s Download

If you are new to my blog, please take a minute to look around. Plenty of freebies to be found! Also, please check out my store and my Facebook page (pssssst, more freebies!). Thank you for stopping by!