TANGIBLE

Power is Out

in the ghetto aka Avonmore where Nadia lives, (due to 100km winds). So far we have been spared but my joints have not gotten off so lucky. Am feeling like shit tonight, there are not enough drugs in my house. I've officially finished them all and have a new order in for tomorrow morning. Even my toes are aching...Where oh where is the morphine fairy when you truly need her? Today was good, tonight though is just plain ugly...pass the heating pad please..

Today

I was a pedestrian..

Long walk through Safeway buying food for the masses. I had plenty of escorts though and in the end they put me in the car while they went through the till...hmmm getting rid of me was an understatement! It did however, make me feel like I had moved a major step forward and may even attempt to go down the stairs in the next day or so. I wonder if the Studio chair would be better for my back anyway?

Nadia dropped off my Calligraphy class homework and at the moment am just not sure if I can hold a pen that long. But it will happen! Every day is better and that is what counts.

Tomorrow is a morning spent with the female little at a Dr's appointment. Afterwards I think I may supervise her making something nice for her dad and brother for dessert...those cake mixes look old anyway..grin..

Home Again.

hmmm...where was I...

I've gone back and forth over the last 6 months whether or not to keep this all under wraps, and have come to the conclusion that it would be best just to be as honest as possible. This weekend completed the end of nearly 2 years of testing and assessment. All this has finally cumulated in what I truly believe was my personal move to save my life.  Last Wednesday I went in to the Royal Alex for Bariatric Weight Loss Surgery.  Not an easy decision and let me tell you..it is nothing like they show you on TV. 

I feel extremely fortunate that I had some options as to the type of surgery but in the end I decided that the best decision for me was to do a full bypass. I could have gone less evasive but there were just too many risks of complications and an even wider range of outcomes.

In the end though, I have not a single regret. I am excited about the new possibilities open to me and my family.

I have the wonderful healing hands of people who love me. Support and more love than I ever expected ..thank you..

Please know that I am unbelievably sore ...but am looking forward to each new tomorrow.

Going going Gone!

Am offline for a few days. Don't panic! All will be perfection upon my return!

xo

-L-

Human Pin Cushion

Finally have Internet back! It lost it's way sometime over the weekend but has miraculously found it's way back home. Still painting, still trying to figure out where some of these canvas's fit in with where I am going this year. All in all though it was a very productive weekend. At one point Diane even dropped by and I made her paint something too..

Today though, typing is about all I have in me. Just as I was leaving my dietician appt some "brainiac" decided I needed to get my labs updated, seeing how I have joined a research project...and...they wanted them by Wednesday! UGH.. So seeing as I was already fasting and all that crap I decided to be uber responsible and get er done. hmmm...can you say dehydrated? 6 pokes late by 3 different techs. They even had me running my arms under hot water to try and find the missing veins..please let this get easier..If anyone has any tips for those of us with crappy veins...please send them on my way asap.

On the plus side...today I had ginger beef from Wok Box..it was soooo goooood ...I got a single meal respite. Tomorrow back on the shit through a straw diet.

Later on I'm going to try and push the envelope and go have coffee with Anam. Sounds like we both need to rant..

Orange you glad to see me?

checking in..

So here it is, 11pm and I am still in the studio. I've been painting since about 1pm today and am now on my 3rd  "in progress" canvas.  Currently taking a break ..well to let paint dry if the truth be told. You would think I had had a bit too much of that dark lord in my life...coffee. Sadly no..not a drop. Instead I think this is more about finally having a plan for 2 canvas's that I was completely blocked on. They've sat in the studio for nearly 3 weeks. I walked by them. Picked them up occasionally. But until today just couldn't figure out where I was going to take them. Now that they are nearly finished I am able to move on to the next idea.

ORANGE

Don't ask me why, but all different hues of Orange were what I mixed for my pallet. Will I regret it? It is coming together rather quickly and seems to just be filled with more energy than I expected. Orange is funny that way..

-L-

I've decided..

• I haven't have coffee in nearly a month. and I miss it terribly...
• My hair no longer suits me.
• Hibernation only works when cookies are involved.
• I have no nice shoes.
• "Lost" looks lame again and so I probably will only watch it out of desperation.
• Lola is still mad that we shaved her
• I could be a better friend.
• To go renew my Library card tomorrow.
• I wanna see some theatre this year.
• That I need a holiday from myself.

 

It's been a tough week. Can you tell?

Food Avoidance

I can't be the only one who does this. It does work though for me to find myself those little projects that keep my mind off the quart of Double Dark Marble Slab ice cream  in the deep freeze calling my name. This past week+ has been a lesson in will power and plain old perseverance. To think that I could still be sucking my meals through a straw and living to tell the tale...wow...Even better..can we give a high five to a whopping 8lbs gone and no cravings? ( just a mild headache..) Just call me She-Ra Warrior princess. In fact I think if Beyonce can have a secret alter ego for her stage life..I can certainly have a dieting one..

Filling my time in-between meals....That unfinished Cathy Zielske class! (remember.. this is Simple Scrapbooking style and is very linear!)

First we have the mini book within the album called Take 5! These are 6X6 pages that focus on 5 statements about the subject.

 

 

Then an 8.5x11 page using some color theory.

 

And finally a 12x12 lesson in white space. This one I am very proud of. Mostly because I ended up liking all that white, also because I used my limited Photoshop skills for the journalling!

    

The other thing that had...key word here...HAD me spending literally about 8 hours on...organizing photo's into new folders and  subcategories  etc etc...One of the new things I am trying is to have folders to sort photo's into not only for the event or day but for self portraits as well as sub folders for each person. This way I can easily go to say Morgan's folder and see 10 or 20 pics of JUST the pics of Morgan I like or photo's that would look good with cropping everything out ..but the boy... Some of the layouts I like the best are where there is no real subject matter but a person , using 3-15 photo's all taken at different times in their lives, but all of that one individual. Get my drift? 

 

It'll take some time to sink in...I'll wait...grin..

I Challenge You! - a post with too many quotations

So here's the thing...I'm not being a very "nice" person right now. In fact I am pretty much the last person you want to spend time with. Of course we all know this is due largely to this damn fast I am on (7 days down, 7 left). Anam  says she knew I was doing pretty bad when she saw I had lost my smile. OMG! I had a smile? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not pulling off the heads of all my daughters dolls or taunting the dog or anything. But I definitely have no patience for small children and stupid  people who don't seem to understand how hungry I am aka..stupid spouses.  I figure that it was about last Thursday I lost my "nice". I know it will come back when I can finally eat something not sucked out of a straw, but right now my "nice" is missing.

Wanna hear something weird?..There is like this huge "nice" study going on out there. Run by real scientist dudes and everything. It turns out there are a lot more of us who have lost our smiles. In fact we are all over the world but according to this thing I saw on TV ( I get to control the "clicker" damn it!), Canadians....well we are not doing so good in the "lets be courteous" to each other category. In fact, those darn Americans may be nicer than us now! What are we going to do if we can't open more doors or help more old ladies across the street than an American? Sigh...all this and their dollar is better..

So in order not to scare any more little people and because I am sensitive to all of your needs. I am going to try to challenge myself to be nice. Luckily there are other people out there struggling. Yes Timmy!, there is a NICE SUPPORT GROUP!

So please join me in trying to spread a little more Nice...

Go Feed Some One Else

Here