Kim, I am on the Low Tyramine diet for Migraine auras...so, my response is experience with the diet. The diet has been a pain due to my love for chocolate, avacados, bread, cheese, peanuts and raspberries. How all these things get lumped into one is beyond me. All were a mainstay, as was microwave meals. Oh, I forgot the raisins loved in oatmeal and ham for great winter soups. It is interesting that our minds think we have to have these things. I still "want" them, and keep thinking I hate everything else. Which is a bit silly as the everything else is quite a long list and no reason to not have some great stuff. Guess it is the grass being greener deal. My list also includes avoiding MSG. Have done a lot of searches to get a handle on this and the Low Tyramine diet. There is nothing out there except one book. And, if you start looking too hard. the list of what you can't have gets longer or just too confusing. Bottom line is anything on the store shelf has MSG as does fast food. So, I'm on the cooking from scratch diet, using fresh food, etc. Tis a pain, but am dealing with it. I will say that with this diet I am sleeping wonderfully. It has been years since getting more than a few hours at a time and waking up at 4 am. Actually I wake up surprised the night is without interruption. Cannot really say there are any other significant changes seen. Let us know how you are doing. It will be interesting to know how the diet affects another in a different situation.

faithann I agree with everyone above. I have been either buying seeds directly from Europe or having them brought back for me by friends for some time now. There are some really wonderful small seed producers with things you'll never find here. I haven't had any problems. If you're only buying tomato seeds, they're so light you can easily just mail them back to yourself. A friend who went skiing in Switzerland a few years ago brought back tomato seeds that I have really enjoyed growing from a company called Mauser. You can now get seeds directly from some companies in Europe over the internet. I wonder if it's getting easier for them. Two of my favorites are Le Biau Germe and Kokopelli (terredesemces.com), both on France. I buy beans, lettuce, etc. and the packages are marked with the names of the seeds and something like "garden seeds". Tomatsidan.se is a small company in Sweden that has some really interesting tomato varieties, particularly short-season types and lots from Eastern Europe and Russia. Some of these have become my favorites. Michael Anderson who runs it has charged me two dollars for each variety and just sends them in an envelope as you would a letter. As far as Italy, you can buy a huge variety of seeds directly from growitalian.com and italianseedandtool.com. I'll be curious to hear about what interesting varieties you find in your travels. Best wishes. Lou

Alison- how scrumptious are those cats?! I must admit that I had two of the three items mentally purchased as soon as I saw the theme of the swap which is why I was so disappointed when I looked like I was going to miss it because...well...I just love these things and I loved the idea of sharing them. The 3rd is giving me a little difficulty if only in the having to narrow it down to 1 more but it gives me an excuse to go shopping & see what sings. Cloud_swift- I thought of the fragrances because my husband is vilely opposed to anything scented. Potpourri, candles, sachets, even lotions. I've never had a problem with fragrances but after 14 years of having none in the house I find that I've become very sensitive to them. I can barely walk past a place like Yankee Candle. My MIL, on the other hand, adores scented things & is constantly giving them to us...whereupon they get promptly regifted or donated. So I guess I'm overly sensitive to sending my partner something that they might find repellent :-). In my excitement I missed the caveat of no food. Which eliminates the concern about food allergies. But it's still good to know for future swaps! Nina

I disagree that it is too late to add a zipper. An invisible zipper doesn't need a larger-than-usual seam allowance. Here is the picture from the tutorial showing the zipper which will be pinned in that position, with the edge of the zipper (the side with no teeth, where the "7" is ) lined up with the edge of the seam allowance. Their comment is "The seam needs to be just as it would with the seam allowance. So measure 1 cm away from the edge. So the only seam allowance that you need is the width of one half of the zipper, about 1 cm which is 3/8". The standard seam allowance when sewing is 5/8", so there will be plenty of seam allowance to insert a zipper.