Coming Up For Air

What a tumultuous past three weeks! On May 29, 2 days after I wrote the last blog, our precious friend, our dog Taylor, died during the night unexpectedly. She was 11, but we thought we had a few more years with her. Our other dog Abby was with her when she passed, and I think that has helped her deal with it, but we have all been grieving.

I had an appointment in Charlotte with the specialist, an appointment a couple of days later with my GP for a routine checkup and also in the same week, an appointment with the acupuncturist. It's taken me some time to recover from the trip to Charlotte, and while there, he diagnosed me with another issue to add to my long list - heart problems. However, they are being dealt with quite well with another medicine.

I have been trying to paint some more in a class I have been taking which includes a new product I am finding great fun to use, but I have not felt very much like painting till recently. More on that another day, with pictures.

I have been trying to market my art, and that has taken effort to look at the options and figure out the best direction to go. And with a tired mind, it's been slow, since I have spent a good bit of time resting.

I also started a 6 week workshop doing something completely different for me - playing with clay! I will share more with you about that in the upcoming days, again with pictures. Both this workshop and the other class are more or less up to me to schedule - the videos have all been done and I can view them and work according to my energy level.

I have also had some neat experiences with the birds in the area, especially with the Sharp Shinned Hawk, who likes to pluck birds from our feeders. He's come very close to the house, in fact in one instance he was sitting on the porch eyeing a small bird in the shrubbery, right outside the dining room window as I was eating lunch. I was able to enjoy an up close examination of him, and he (or she) is so beautiful. Thankfully he did not get the bird or that may have ruined my lunch!

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I have not skipped out on my blog, and I will bring more details to you in the coming days!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Three Leaves and a Heart

Another painting to go into my Etsy store, BelleSouth Studio. I think this got a bit too dark, but I am going to post it anyway. 

Three Leaves and a Heart

(click for details)

It is another mixed media on wrapped canvas, including acrylic paint, oil pastels and collage. I tore a strip off of a collaged piece of Tyvek, which is on the right side and put a bit of it on the left upper corner. In the lower right corner, I attached a piece of torn heavy tissue which I wrinkled first before attaching. It is mostly done with oil pastels. Ready to hang with no framing necessary!

So, at least I am being able to do some art, for which I am extremely grateful!

And on the home front, we have 2 bluebird nests with 5 eggs in each of them already! They were laying them even though the weather was going down into the low 30's every night and there was frozen water the next day. I was amazed when I found them on a windy blustery day! Bluebirds are pretty hearty. The is the slowest Spring I can remember since we moved up here. And we still have some cool weather to come. I hope I remember this when it becomes really hot!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

FINIS! on the Art Postcards!

I hope that my American readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We celebrated at a local nice restaurant, and I will tell more about that later. I finally finished the postcards I was doing for some other ladies who have this same illness. It was a protracted project because of my own illness, and some of the photos may seem a bit out of focus because my fibro has made it difficult to bend over. But all that aside, I hope you enjoy looking at them!

The beginning posts are here, here and here, if you would like to see how things started and how they progressed. The materials I used include printed tissue paper, acrylic paints, soft gel, silver leaf pen, gold leaf pen and copper leaf pen, sequins, pages from old books and music sheets, "gems", metal pieces, postage stamps, dried flower petals, old jewelry, and stencil.

 Please click on any postcard you would like to view closer for details.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Journal Play

I haven't been able to do much, because my husband shared his cold with me, so whatever energy I had was drained fighting my "gift". I feel better today, and really wanted to make some art, so I just played on a journal page rather than focus on something which needed a clear mind to get it done right.

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This page had already has some light lavender color on it from a baby wipe I had used to clean up other art pieces. Some of it shows down at the bottom left (it looks gray in the photo). I played around with using foam plates to stamp with, the first was the whole bottom of a plate with Vermilion paint, and pressed on there twice. Then I did a smaller one with a heart carved in and swiped with Sap Green. The page background is painted in a wash of Indian Yellow. I added a scrap of paper from Taiwan, and two butterflies are collaged on. Oil pastels were added for color effect and then some squiggles with a paint pen. Oh yes, I also used part of a background word stamp in the upper left corner and the bottom right corner. And it was fun!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Simple Card

A very thoughtful lady from our church gave me a good sized box crammed with rubber stamps and many different colors of inkpads. I was floored with how much stuff she put into that box! Although I usually use rubber stamps when I make cards, occasionally I will use them on artworks, or frequently on postcards. It was like an early Christmas, or a late birthday! So I made her a simple card to thank her.

(click for details)

The card size is 5.5 x 4.25, cut out of card stock. I then crumbled some green paper that had come from a bouquet of flowers and glued that to the front. I chose a heart stamp which had been in the box and using red ink, stamped it on some paper that had faint printing on it, then tore it out. It's attached to some colored paper which I spritzed some ink on. The little ribbon with the birds was glued on the top. I hope she likes it! 

John and Tabitha left today for New Jersey to help celebrate his aunt's 90th birthday. They will be gone for 6 days and it will be the first time I've been alone for that length of time since I came down with this illness. But I am not really alone - I have the Lord and 2 dogs here (and a cat and fish, but they aren't very sociable)! I'm hoping that I can get some art work done and work on knowing when to go rest. I hope they have a wonderful time with the relatives!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!!

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!

Back To Blogging... I Hope!

I have finally regained some of my stamina from the trip out of town last week. It was a wonderful, if grueling, appointment! He and his staff are some of the most compassionate people I have met, especially as regards this illness, ME/CFS/FM. (I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, caused by the ME/CFS - that was news to me, and now I know why I have such pain some days!) It was so tremendous to be in a place where there were no doubts cast or rude/questioning comments made. I have some work to do as I begin to learn to manage this illness and see what good things await me as I lead a completely different life than I lived the first 60 years. And I have no doubt that there will be good things, because God has shown me His love and held me up, so I know He will have blessings for me. I've already experienced many in the past 4 years of this illness!

Before I left, I wanted to do at least a little bit of art, even though I had to be careful not to tire myself out. I pulled this postcard out of my reject pile. I had started it a good while back, and did not like where it was going, so I put it away.

(click for details)

I did a little bit of altering before I went to Charlotte, and after I returned, I finished it. It's pretty simple, but I was happy to be doing something! It has now been mailed to my sister, who loves purple (and the flower is more purple than pink!)

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A little paint, some strips of tissue, some alcohol ink, a big flower, 3 shiny hearts, rubber stampng and a bit of Stickles and Gold Leaf Pen and there it is! I hope she likes it! (And she should have gotten it by now!)

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!