You've Got to be Kidding and Mermaid Wisdom

  
     A couple new visual journal pages. One about my ridiculous gall bladder called "You've Got to be Kidding." Might as well have fun with this right? And I had fun making a grand poobah type headress for this persona, and very prickly looking hair.  I also had fun with her shoes, love to make curly toed shoes for some reason, I don't own a single pair and wouldn't know where to buy them either. The jelly belly logo in her hands represents my own jelly like belly that probably got me into this mess as well as the irony that I can still have jelly belly products, since most are fat fee. The stand up collar is something I want to add to more figures as well, something regal yet silly about it with lots of potential I think. We'll see...

     The other is titled "Mermaid Wisdom." I am crazy about mermaids, among other things. They appeal to me artistically in a way that invades my thoughts pretty often. I find the idea of mermaids mysterious, sensuous, beautiful, serene and playful all at once.  I also love the water and maybe that has something to do with my feelings too. And then there is living so close to Lake Michigan, you can't help feeling inspired every time you drive by or jump in. I'd love to write a book, create a few sculptures and some dolls, all are already formed in my head, but I haven't done more than collect the items I need to start...just procrastinating at this point for some reason. Visual journal pages give me the opportunity to explore a little more with them in a more manageable way until I'm ready for the big stuff. At least that is what I'm telling myself, don't you love rationalizations?

New Books

     I am so thrilled! I got two new books in the mail today, Rice Freeman-Zachery's "Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art," and Alison Eads' "The Artful Card." I'm about halfway through Creative Time and Space and highly recommend it for anyone struggling with this issue, finding and making time and space to create, it is very inspirational and full of great ideas. I just skimmed through the other book,  but it looks yummy as well. It has some great techniques that I can use for visual journal pages too, and lots of collage of course.
     As for my inconsiderate gall bladder, still feeling it, but not bad enough to go to the ER, just bad enough to not feel up to doing anything very active. I have piles of "housework" but no real energy to get to it right now. Oh well, it isn't going anywhere, is it? The fat free diet has been interesting. I'm not starving, and actually, my appetite is way down, another sign I'm not feeling up to par. But I have had to be pretty creative. The liquid diet the Dr. recommended ended yesterday, so today I've been able to eat solid food too. My favorite today was a can(I normally don't go for canned veggies except beans) of dilled green beans with a can of black beans. The two together were pretty good. The dilled green beans were actually green beans marinated in a vinegar and dill and they were very good, surprisingly. But even better with the added black beans. I would eat this again, fat free diet or not. I will have to be eating fat free for a few weeks until I have my gall bladder removed. Any fat will cause it to "turn on" and could bring on another attack, so I don't want to agitate the thoughtless thing if I can help it. And I have to admit, it was time to change my eating habits. I won't cry if I never eat another piece of fried anything or fast food, honestly. The chocolate covered twinkie is another thing altogether though.

Happy Birthday Julie!

     My friend Julie turned the big 5-0 this week and we threw her a surprise cocktail party. We had vintage photos from her childhood along with more recent ones plastered around a big photo from her childhood that everyone could sign. We also had some balloons in the tropical bright colors she and I both love, turquoise, pink, orange, lime green and red, forgot the purple though. The cosmo is her favorite cocktail and she had enough to keep her happy and cute all night long. I made this card for her using the visual journal techniques I've picked up, especially influenced by Teesha Moore, of course. My friend is among other things, a survivor of breast cancer, a wonderful mother of 3 smart and good looking kids, supreme knitter, seamstress, photographer, crafter, boss lady and generous friend. I feel so lucky to have her in my life and delighted in celebrating such a milestone birthday! Happy Birthday my friend!
     And it was after the party that I had my ridiculous gall bladder attack, can you believe it?

Gall Bladder attack anyone?

     I had my first gall bladder attack, guess I need to make a patch for that! Started around 9pm last night and by 2:30am, I had my husband take me to the emergency room, in the middle of a big thunderstorm, of course. I thought it was just gas, lol, really painful gas, and was too embarrassed to go sooner. And apparently the best cure for a gall bladder attack is to have it removed! I think that is overkill, no? They don't take hearts out for heart attacks do they? The staff at Munson hospital was wonderful and kind. They took some blood, hooked me up to an IV and gave me some dilauden for the pain and then a lovely ultrasound. We left at 5:30am, with the sky lightening, but too many clouds to see one of the five sunrises on my list of 44 things to do before I turn 45, darn it. I felt better and was advised to take it easy and stick to a liquid diet for the next couple of days, broth, water and jello type things. But after that kind of discomfort/pain, I could care less if I ever eat anything again the rest of my life! So looks like I'll be losing my gall bladder at some point in time probably sooner than later considering that the pain has been creeping back up on me for the last couple hours, even though I've been laying in bed trying to sleep and have only had some water to drink today. Why didn't I think to put "have something removed" on my list of 44 things to do before I turn 45? BTW, number (5) is the gall bladder in the illustration, tucked under the liver...

Birthday and Father's Day

     It's my son Ricky's 16th birthday today and Father's Day, so we had mucho amounts of celebrating to squeeze in to the day. We had a lovely ice cream cake thanks fo my mom for the birthday and we had a brunch of chorizo sausage and eggs along with homemade tortillas, also thanks to my sweet mom.
We didn't get to visit with my dad as much as I would have liked, but we still had a four hour drive home.
     Now we are getting ready to enjoy my hubby's Father's Day present, a slide show! His mom and dad gave him a nice big box of slides years ago and I finally found a projector and trays recently at a garage sale so we can all take a look at them. We have a sheet hung up on our entertainment center and we are just waiting for it to get a little bit darker and then we'll have our show! There are photos of him in the hospital up till his high school graduation and lots of birthdays and Christmas' in between. We are so excited to see these, there is something about old fashioned slides that we just love. As I was putting them into the trays last week, I got to see little snippets of them, which was like getting to have a whiff of baking brownies but not getting to taste them!