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I finally finished my first page for the great class that Tam is teaching on Willowing Arts. The class is a year long and hopefully I will be able to draw enough to improve my drawing skills. How very slow I am. When I wake up and feel like doing something within in an hour I am exhausted and ready for a nap. Very frustrating for me. My brain is about as functional as a bowl of oatmeal.

I quite like my mermaid. Not sure how she turned into a mermaid but she did so I tried to make the best of it. Now I need to work on my dream board. That is another really fun thing to do.

Why me?

I have been struggling with this ridiculous pain for months. Dx is Fibromyalgia. I'm pretty sure that is the dx they give you when there isn't any other reason for the pain. I can treat the pain but can't seem to get beyond the damn fatigue. Every day it rears it's ugly head. Maybe 3 days out of 7 are pretty good days. I feel well enough to actually do some cooking and art work but most of the time I am worn out just sitting and reading a book. How the hell do I combat this monster? I tried a high protein diet with very low carbs and I felt better after about a week but the better didn't last long. Of course I kept adding carbs to the diet. Protein is a difficult thing for me to get enough of.  My brain is like a bowl of oatmeal. Just mush. I can't remember something for 5 minutes without looking at it again. I really hate this mushy brain thing.
Had my appt with Dr Peters yesterday but someone from his office called and said it was Wed and not Tue so I missed yesterday and showed up today. Now I am off until early Feb. Need to start tx for osteoporosis before I screw around a break a bone. Not my hobby of choice.
I am slowly doing my first page for my year book with Tam. I am enjoying the program she has put together and I do believe I will manage to complete the series. This is learning to work with water soluble crayons and pencils. It is a learning experience and I like that.
I want to get to my mojo bags too. I know what I want to make so getting to it is the biggest problem I seem to have. Very little motivation it seems. I don't even want to visit Michaels and that is really a serious problem.   Back to my picture.

What a beautiful day

Yep it is or was a beautiful day. How does 88 degrees sound. Friday was the Autumn equinox and all day it was about 102 degrees. I must say, "where was Autumn?" But, Sunday turned into a nice cool semi cloudy day and Monday is great. Even my birds were happy with the cooler weather.  I can hardly wait for the cooling down and the wispy clouds. My favorite time of the year. The air has a different scent to it.

I have been busy as a bumble on a flower. I have been making a beautiful little book for pictures and journaling. It is adorable so far and I'm not done yet. I have run out of tape dispensers and ordered one from Amazon. It will be here tomorrow and in the mean time I visited Michaels again and came home with a short supply of tape and more paper. I absolutely am addicted to papers. I just can't pass them up. My own form of opiates. There is nothing better than beautiful paper to hold and just stroke it. Is that a fetish?

My journals are coming along. I added two more pages today in my journal and the other journal for Elements is lagging behind a bit. I need to get into it and make a page for the element of Air. I still haven't done my mindless writing so that must be completed. I so want to sign up with Tam for her year long classes. The classes start in Jan of 2012. Then I really will be behind. I want to complete my books too. I would like very much to complete 4 of them before I give out. I plan on giving them to my grand kids. They are just beautiful when completed and I"m sure the kids will appreciate them.  I completed the cutest little Halloween house. It turned out so cute. I have another one to make too. I have no idea what I'm doing sitting here writing with all this stuff I have to do. I must say that I am happy when I'm doing things.  So get busy!

Journal pages

I have been working very hard on a journal. Not having done any journaling prior to this year it is a little more difficult than imagined. I have taken a couple art journaling e-courses and they are very instructive and make me feel a little more secure in putting my stuff out there. It is a sure way to ignore the constant pain I deal with. It is almost like losing myself in a magnificent forest. So much to look at and explore that I lose my problems. Finally something I can actually say I love doing and it has really helped me.

Having a screwed up back was bad enough without the Fibromyalgia added to the daily stress. Some water therapy twice a week and changing my diet to high protein has really helped. Any one can smear paint while having back pain.............just ask me!

Now for the good news

I am so happy. I had an injection for my flared up scaral nerve foot last Monday and by Thursday I was as painless as I will probably ever be. To wake up pain free, and best of all to actually go thru a day 90% pain free is such a wonderful relief. I have been able to stand and do drawing and gluing in my art journal, I have actually cook a couple meals with out any increased pain. That part about cooking is only good on days I don't have PT. Trying to walk back and for in the water really stresses my nerves and muscles. I don't get sore like some one with a build up of  lactic acid in the muscle but mine just fatigue so badly that I can hardly walk. I'm like ole rubber legs after PT. Not real painful as much a terribly fatigued. But after the injection I feel oh so much better!

This hurricane Irene is going to be a whopper of a storm with a drizzle of a category. Looking at pictures of roads washed away and those beautiful bridges floating down stream is pretty sad. I really feel for those poor people. I am thinking that Mother Nature is really pissed and we are going to pay big time. I guess it is time for us to pay for our attitudes and destruction of this earth.  It has been a long time coming. My cosmic justice theory...........works for me!

It is about time.

I am really into neglect. At my age that is about the only way I can perform, since it takes less effort than throwing a snit. I've never been good at slamming doors because sure as hell I will knock something off the wall and break it. I own nothing of any value but I am too lazy to clean up the mess.
I have been struggling the last few weeks with this so called fibromyalgia. I think I would be able to tolerate the pain better if I wasn't already taking pain meds without any real improvement. And the fatigue is just awful. I wake up 3-4 times a night and I am so stiff I almost have to lift me to roll over, tricky I might add. I have stairs to trek up and down. 13 steps to be exact and some days it might as well be a mile. Rubber legs as though I had run a mile. It is hard to tell if the meds I am taking is actually helping or not. There is no consistency to the aches and pains.It takes me forever to accomplish anything. I start back at PT next week to see if that helps
I have started doing some journal pages in my book and find I really relax and seem to drift off the pain highway when I am cutting and gluing. Diversion really does work. I have a bunch of sewing I want to do also. It is such fun being able to switch back and forth and not worry about a time frame. It is impossible to get everything I want to do done but I am giving it one hell of a try. I just don't want any more diagnosis es to contend with.

I am posting the newest picture of my grandson Rufus. He is absolutely adorable, as all puppies should be. Maybe I can teach him to paint..........nice thought. 

Art for the sake of art

I watched one video about using the Derwent Intense pens. They are wonderful and the color is so vivid compared to a regular watercolor pencil. I decided to draw my face on paper before I tackled fabric. The class   is part of a class with drawing a face on an apron. Using the pens on paper instead of fabric is a really big difference. As with most art techniques it takes practice and I am not very good at practice. This is going to require some discipline on my part. I'm pretty sure if I had to do art to be able to eat I would either get a lot better real quick or starve to death in a very short time. Of course there is always the option that Van Gogh took. Just keep smearing paint and wait until you die to become famous. Poor sap. I do love his art though. Well, back to the videos. One must strive for perfection............or some such shit.

A nice picture of a tree in a meadow in and around Medford Oregon. It is a beautiful place in the spring.