wELl THis iS dIfFEReNt!

It's been a while since my last post, and while my back was turned Blogger changed it's look and now I have to learn how to navigate this thing all over again I guess.  I've had busy days and slow days.  It's 7:30 am at my house - I'm finally, thankfully getting my sleep patterns back to normal.  Another sign the chemo is out of my system.  My energy level is coming back up and good most days but I still have to pace myself so my FM won't flare and put me down.  The pics I'm putting on this post aren't the best, I had to take a few with my phone until I could replace my camera batteries but this is what I've done lately:
New Atc's:

 Jewelry I've done to donate for the Cancer Walk and Auction coming up in June:

 Art Therapy in May - We put together glass pendants - they are being fired and in June we will learn wire wrapping techniques, I can't wait to see how they turn out.

 New canvases - 16x20 approx. playing around with watercolors on different papers and mounted on canvases I painted black. 

 Hobby Lobby had soft oil pastels on sale in May, couldn't resist picking up some to play around with and see what I could do with them.  This is a new media for me. 

Oh, and I have picked up a couple of books on fabric embellishment.  This is a new project for me.  I'm starting by making some fabric beads (just a small sampling above) to use on any pieces I make but more on that later.

Summer is here in my area and has settled in, days are hot and humid but we still have the occasional cool breeze.  We've been getting the yard cleaned out the last couple of weeks and it's nice to have "breathing space" out there.  I'm loving the openness of it and enjoying short rest and meditation periods on the front porch.  However yesterday wasn't fun.  I discovered a thrashers nest 2 weeks ago during the massive cleanup/cleanout and backed off trimming the Japanese Maple and other trees around it until the babies were grown and gone.  But I had noticed during my porch sitting the last few days not activity by mom and dad feeding the little ones but have noticed a mockingbird hanging around a lot.  So yesterday afternoon I decided to walk down to the tree and check the nest (it's been built low - at eye level).  The nest is empty, I don't know if something got the babies or if they were old enough now to leave.  There are briars around the area and as I was trying to peek into the nest I felt a stinging - figured I had gotten tangled in a briar.  Then I looked down to find my left shoe and ankle covered in fire ants.  The little demons had evidently set up a colony under the tree and since we've had rain this week the mound wasn't noticeable.  So now I'm covered in bites, made a hasty retreat to the spigot and washed them off my leg and shoe but my ankle and foot burned and hurt for hours afterwards. Went through a routine of alcohol, hydro cortisone and tylenol.  I gave the area a good dosing of ant killer - hope they got the message.  I know what the rest of my week is going to feel like - itchy, very, very itchy.

Forgot One

I can't remember if I uploaded this mixed media piece (8x10 board canvas), if I did here it is again, if not here it is (lol).

Back in Focus (well almost).........................

It's been so long since I felt like doing anything creative, I was beginning to think it would never happen again.  It's been a long time since I last posted.  On August 17, 2011 things changed in a big way for me - I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.  That day everything started to move quickly medically.  From the colonostomy, to the ct scan, to the other barrage of tests, doctors - seemed each test added a new doctor to my every growing list of medical help.  Chemo and radiation over an 8 week period (5 days a week) significantly shrunk the tumor thankfully and surgery on the 23rd of November removed all of the cancer.  But in January, I started sets of 3 day followup treatments, each done every other week for 6 weeks, insert in there a week in the hospital in January for a blood clot in my right lung and there you have my life in a nutshell over the last months.  The followup chemo is behind me as of mid-March thank goodness.  My oncologist added a third chemo med (oxaliplatin) to the other two I had already had in the first round and good ole chemo med no. 3 almost knocked me off my feet.  Well it did in a lot of ways, the sofa became my best friend.  Cold anything became my worst enemy.  My hands, feet, mouth, and nose suffered at the smallest chill.  It felt like thousands of needles were jabbing me.  Everything thing I tried to eat, which was limited because of a horrible taste in my mouth, had to be warmed in the microwave:  salads, watermelon, grapes, anything out of the fridge had to be at room temperature.  I have slept around the clock some days, my body screamed for sleep and rest.  So I gave in to it and let it have it's way.  There is one more surgery to be done, probably sometime in June if I'm healed and ready.  I have to wait 6 months, being on the warfarin because of the blood clot.  But I'm feeling stronger everyday now, I still haven't managed to do much at one time, my son and I alternate nights of cooking supper, I manage by breaking down tasks to get the dishes, laundry and a little cleaning/straightening done.  The house needs a major overhaul, nothing but the basics, the basic basics has been done for a while and we aren't even going to discuss the yard.  But I know in time it will be back to normal, whatever my new normal will be.  The main thing is ideas are starting to flow a bit again creatively speaking.  My chemo brain is starting to clear.  So I'm uploading what I've completed in the last week - no jewelry right now but I have had a great time playing in the paint, paper and glue.

These are two paintings I finished yesterday - they are slight variations on stretch canvas of an atc I made a couple of years ago.  I've been wanting to do a bigger size.  The first is like the atc, the second started out that way but I changed the tree.

 Another bowl in my Bowl Series 2 completed.

Two 8x10 mixed media pieces on board canvas.

New Jewelry Sept. 14, 2011

 Approx 6"

 Approx. 7"

 Approx 7"

 Approx 7"

 Approx 8"

I've finally caught up and I've slowed down a little bit, other things are taking priority over my jewelry making. 

New Jewelry, Sept. 3, 2011

My Happy Place (well one of them)

 It's Friday and seconds from my afternoon of painting shows (always hoping to pick up tips) but I decided to catch up here and post what I've gotten finished this week - this has been a slower week.  Actually the pendants below I've finished a while ago but had them stashed back.  I'm still concentrating mainly on bracelets.  I've just had life interrupting in a major way this week.  I've spent two days at the hospital's health campus having tests and I'm scheduled next Thursday to see a surgeon and probably looking at some surgery and a short vacation at the hospital the next week.  The last couple of days I've spent on the sofa sleeping when I wasn't participating in the tests, trying to replenish my electrolytes and stop the room from spinning violently every time I got in bed.  But I have managed to have a few ideas pop into my head.

 I'm thinking I probably need to work on some more pendants too.

This memory wire wrap bracelet is not my original idea/design I had a kit come in from Simply Beads Kit of the Month that made a bracelet similar to this so I decided to do another one.  I love, love, love agates and I loved the look of the bracelet in the kit.

Oops, I hear Bob Ross - gotta go!!!

Bracelets 8-14-2011