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Archive for the ‘This and that’ Category

Found Art

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

I took this photo of some graffiti on my walk today. It has potential, don’t you think?

It is about all I have to offer in the way of visual entertainment tonight. I spent most of the day doing housekeeping on my computers. I downloaded MacKeeper and put it to work. I found lots of duplicate files, especially on my laptop because of backing up stuff when the last laptop was stolen. Both computers are much faster, now.

I also went to the Art Media which is closest to me. It is closing at the end of the week so there was a big sale on stuff. I got some gallery wrapped frames, Dynaflow paint, brushes and Gesso. They gave me a bunch of free samples of Golden’s digital ground. I will miss that store. The other two stores will become Dick Blick stores as of Monday and then a big Dick Blick Superstore is opening in the Pearl in January. That is over the river and difficult parking for me, but I can’t wait.

Tonight, I have been doing SDA database work and watching Project Runway. I can’t believe how in love the judges are with Anya. In my opinion, she should not be showing at fashion week.

Two weeks from today, I will be in Houston at IQF with 8 of the other Twelves. I am getting so excited.  I need to get busy cause I have some stuff to finish up  before I go go!!

A Night in the ER

Sunday, October 16th, 2011

I did not have a virus. By last night, I realized that my left arm was swollen and red and my temp was going up and up, no matter what I did. I had a recurrence of cellulitis in my lymphedema arm. I have had this problem off and on since my first breast cancer when I had lymph nodes removed from that arm.

It has been a while since I had a problem. I am not sure what caused it this time. I do know that it is nothing to mess with. I need to get antibiotics asap.

I got to the ER at 8:30. The ER on a Saturday night is a surreal place. I was low priority so it was 9:30 before I got into a room. They decided to do an IV infusion of antibiotics. I felt better and the redness was abating by the time I arrived home at 1:30 am.

I still feel as if a truck has run over me and have a high fever. I hope to be up to speed tomorrow for my interview with Pat Sloan. Click on the link in my sidebar to listen in or if you miss it live, you can catch me later. I am the second guest.

True Colors

Friday, September 9th, 2011

But I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that’s why I love you
So don’t be afraid to let them show
Your true colors,
True colors, are beautiful,
Like a rainbow.

I had my first cataract surgery yesterday and wow!, I was not prepared for the difference in how I would see my world. Driving home from the hospital, with my sunglasses on, I closed my non-surgical eye and with my new eye, I saw a beautiful blue sky and white clouds as in the first photo. When I closed my new eye and looked at the sky with my old eye, I saw a gray-blue sky and gray clouds.

Mr C thought I had gone nuts, but it was so dramatic. When I got home, I felt as if new brighter light bulb had been put in every room of our home. I was told it would be dramatic, but I had no idea.

The whole procedure was quite painless and seamless. Kaiser Permanente, our health care provider, has a wonderful system for their ambulatory surgery. Everyone has a job and does  it well. I left home at 10:30 and was back home at 1 pm. I have had no scratchiness or pain in the eye.

When I went in for my post-op visit today, I had 20/2o vision already. He told me that I was a star patient.

Today, I did some research about artists and cataracts. It seems that many of the impressionists suffered from them. Mary Cassatt stopped painting. Monet even had cataract surgery done with many complications. Imagine what it must have been like back then. Here is a link to his story. More information about how cataracts affect vision and art, here is a link.

I am noticing things I have done in the house since we moved here that are interesting to see with my new eyes. Most of it is good. I realize the kitchen tile is not as green as I thought it was and am not sure it goes with paint color. Mr C says that we can change that. I would like to do red, green and black glass tiles.

I went downstairs to look at my quilts. That was a trip, as I checked each one with my new and old eye.

I can no longer wear my bi-focals. Everything is blurry when I wear them. I went out and bought some magnifiers for reading and computer work. My vision is supposed to improve as the week progresses, but so far I am very happy even though I have to put 3 different drops in my eyes 4 times a day and have to shampoo my hair without letting any water get in my eyes!!

Good To Be Home

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

After a long flight from JFK to PDX, we arrived home around mid-night. We fell into bed and got a good west coast sleep in plus some napping on the plane. I need to get back to this time zone because I am heading to Tacoma on the train tomorrow. My STASH friends are going to the APWQ quilt show and will be there for two nights, coming home on Saturday afternoon.

Today, I sorted mail, paid bills, did laundry and shopped for food. Scooter came home. He seems exhausted! I am sure he had a great time running with all the big dogs at the canine resort.

I found a package from Aurifil threads. I played a little game on Face Book and received some free thread. Aren’t those colors gorgeous. I want to make a quilt to go with the thread.

This is the Cherrywood fabric that I bought at City Quilter in Chelsea. I think those blues will work nicely with my indigo fabrics. I also needed to fill in some nice dark colors. These will be fun to discharge, too.

I was also excited to get my new Sketchbook Project T-shirt.

I am particularly excited that the sketchbooks are coming to Portland next year.

I will be taking my camera and laptop to Tacoma and hope to get in some blogging. I am looking forward to catching up with some blogger friends, too.

The Color Purple

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

All of my studio work is stuff I can’t show you so instead, you will see photos of pretty flora from my neighborhood walk with Scooter and Mr. C. There seems to be an abundance of purple flowers.

I had a glitch with one of the pieces I am working on, today. I was fusing organza to a piece of silk and a little purple thread got stuck under the organza. Amazingly, I was able to use tweezers to pull the thread out with out it showing any damage to the organza – whew!

We are having such a chilly summer. The sun does not come out until the afternoon. It is great sleeping weather, but not weather for tomatoes or dyeing!!