New Stuff

I colored in my adult coloring book the other day because it does soothe me and helps me to relax. I need to do it more often. A friend sent this to me one Christmas and like I said, it helps to calm me down. I have to remember I have it. This book is Enchanted Forest by Johanna Basford.

 I also finished off two of my latest preemie quilts by stitching down the binding and putting on quilt labels. These are 36 inches by 36 inches.

Mercury

Yes, Mercury. Which is not in retrograde. I was wondering why I was losing my mind over the past month. Forgetting things, not wanting to do anything, crying, feeling agitated. I just couldn't put my finger on it. It felt like there was a mini monkey pulling out parts of my brain. I was in bad shape and I wanted to crawl under a rock and die or find the nearest bridge. It wasn't until I happened across an article on Facebook that talked about Mercury cruising into retrograde. What? I read the article.

http://galadarling.com/article/how-to-survive-mercury-retrograde/

I couldn't believe what I was reading. The symptoms, the craziness, the feeling discombobulated. Because of this planet. I went back to my journal and found when the problems started to come around. Right when Mercury was making it's journey. I know a lot of folks don't believe in this but for me, there's something to it. And once the planet was in retrograde it was like nothing had happened. I could think clearly, my emotions were in check, I could breathe. Until next time. I will be writing down when this bugger will be doing this again, because it will before the year is out and I will be prepared. To tell myself that I'm not losing my mind, it's not me, and it will be over soon.

Now I can get back to work. Slowly but it's happening. I got my outline done for my NANO escapade this November. I will succeed this year with my 50,000 words. Onward.

Mountains

Wow! I haven't been on in awhile. Geesh! I do apologize but life was happening. I did manage a road trip with a writing friend, Donalee. Thank goodness she's got a Prius. Gas was next to nothing so I bought her lunch. We went to Marshall, NC. What a cool little town on the French Broad River. Population 900. Yes, I'm in love. I will have to go back. It's right in the mountains.

The skies opened up before we went to have lunch. Boy did it pour. It was nice and refreshing.

This shot was taken from the island in the middle of the river.

That's the City Hall building. This little town is the County Seat.

Plot Twist!

I remember a meme on Facebook that said something like if things go wrong , pick yourself up and say, "Plot twist!" Like you planned for this and know what to do to keep going. Yeah. That's what I'm feeling now. This hasn't been the greatest year. I know there are still a few months left to go but I have no idea what's going on. Going wrong. Whatever. I'm treading water and that makes me crazy. I've had so many truck problems that I don't even want to dream anymore. I'm bleeding funds. My poor truck it 18 years old with over 200,000 miles clocked on it. It's been through a lot. Gotten me to a lot of places. So in that respect, it's a good thing. A good vehicle. But just when I'm trying to do things and go places, he just decides to break down. So far this year, brakes, new starter, and just this week a new radiator. I'm getting to the point where I ask myself how much more money do I want to put into the little guy? But I've got to get some fundage saved up to get a new/used one. It's going to hurt so much to have a car payment each month.

Gah!!!!!!

Oh well, such is life. I'm feeling a bit numb right now. It seems whatever I attempt to do doesn't work. I'm afraid to try new things that I've wanted to do for a long time now. You know, waiting for that Sword of Damocles to fall on my noggin. I almost passed out from heat exhaustion. Even with all the humidity in the air my skin is so dry. I feel like a paper doll left in the desert. I haven't been able to walk because of the weather. It feels like I'm breathing through a giant wet cotton ball when I do. So I don't. I'm just trying to figure this out. What the heck is happening?

I'm slowly working to get back on the road. It's daunting. Like that sword, there are potholes, speed bumps, ditches, stinky road kill, quicksand, water under the road, trolls under bridges, fallen trees... you know where I'm going with this. But I will take a deep breath (maybe several) and take my next step. Maybe the road pixies will give me a break and cut me some slack. Just a bit.

Fall is coming. I love autumn. It's a lot cooler. I love the smell of things changing, waiting to go to sleep for winter. Waiting for the longarming to pick up. Christmas is on the horizon too. I did get a part time job to help out a bit. You do what ya gotta do.

I'm bruised and battered but I'm not giving up yet. I'm a work in progress. It's time to be good to me.

Two Little Paintings

I am a work in progress. I had a good early part of the week, then I had problems with my sinuses because of the weather and humidity and didn't get much done at the end of the week. I tried to salvage something by doing two little paintings. The mermaid is a thank you card and the other has a letter in it to a friend. I enjoy writing letters to friends and most of the time I add artwork. And I have a short list for today.

Yee Haw!

Moving right along.

I am a list maker. Some people think it's a waste of time. Good for them. As for me, I make lists. Always. Daily, weekly, I used to do monthly, and sometimes things I really should get done for the year. And then there's that wishful thinking list that used to be a 'Bucket List' is now called a 'Life List'. I may or may not get to everything on the list but I need a guideline of what needs to be done and get done. What I have been doing is writing everything to do on a particular day. Then at the end of the day, I only see that I've ticked off maybe three things, I get frustrated and I don't want to do anything because I didn't see any progress. Still thinking things through, I decided two days ago to do a short list. Instead of filling up a whole page (one of those yellow Junior Legal Pads), I try to do half. I have small things to do for a couple of projects. I can work as long as I want on each project as long as I do something. It's kind of working. Still need a little tweaking, like maybe the things that didn't get done or a lot worked on, go on the next day's list. I also have a master list to pull things from. I tell you, I've been able to get back to projects started some time ago.

Such as Hank Frank. I had an idea, started the piece and then stopped. Call it a little fear because I didn't have a clue as to what to do next. He sat. In a spot where I could see him. And I put 'find plastic mug' on the list. I found it and then started his arm and hand.

I made binding for the two preemie quilts I've been working on and got it attached to them yesterday.

More work on mug rugs. The first group with batting and quilting done. Then I shored up the edges, ready for binding.

The lone mug rug. I only had enough of this fabric for one.

And I finally started a new applique project. After having several not-so-good starts, I decided to give it a go again. I will figure this out. This is of a Kokeshi doll. Love those dolls.

I painted the pants on my little creepy ornaments. Oh, and more writing. That's what's been going on this week so far.

Shifting Gears

Sometimes you just have to shift gears and keep going. I still writing and trying to make time to type up some short stories for editing. And I'm trying to think of something to write for this year's NANOWRIMO. National Write A Novel in a Month. It's in November. For 30 days you write a 50,000 word novel. First draft. It's to help you get the words on paper. Then you go back and fix it. I've got loads of stuff I haven't fixed yet. Working on remedying that.

Still working on those sketchbooks. Got the pants painted on my Halloween ornaments and started working on the tombstones. Right now I'm just working on one thing at a time. When I get to a point where I need to stop, I move onto something else.

Mushrooms. Background and grass is watercolor and mushrooms are Ink Tense paints.

Getting tombstones ready for wrapping.

I also was able to cut the batting for my next batch of mug rugs. And I longarmed two preemie quilts today.

New Halloween Project

I had started this project some time ago but it wasn't working the way I'd wanted it to. Good thing I didn't throw the pieces away because I've come up with another idea. I cut the foam board today and found five square wood bases.

Mug Rugs

I've gone a little crazy on my second batch of mug rugs. They don't look like much right now but I've got 27 of them. I'll cut out batting tomorrow.

Sketchbook

I'm getting better at logging things into my sketchbooks. One is very tiny and it's difficult holding it open while taking pictures. Maybe I can get a friend to do a short video while I flip through some of the pages. My watercolor book if starting to fill up. Being silly. The thing is to do something everyday or every other day to fill the book up. The two below are permanent ink and Ink Tense paints.

This exercise, I wanted to get all the colors of the Ink Tense paints on paper to see what I have.

This lighthouse is watercolor paint and Ink Tense.

Hello August!

I was going to do better about posting but life seems to always get in the way. It's summer in the south and still hot. Even though the temperatures have gone down a bit the humidity has not. I have been able to turn off my AC (air conditioning) for the past two days and it would be nice if I could keep it off a bit longer. Not very hopeful about that because it's in the dead of summer now. The heat and moisture and cold breezes that come through are ripe for late afternoon and early evening storms. Rain is needed, so I'm okay with that but the sun dries everything up again. It looks like there's some storm activity in the Atlantic but we probably won't feel anything from it. Oh well, life marches on.

 I saw this  cute little plant at the grocery store. It was inexpensive, I love flowers (fresh), and I wanted something alive and pretty in my apartment. It's a chrysanthemum. And I got another preemie quilt top put together.

I'm back to writing after a few days off. I have one big story and several short stories. I've a lot to do by the end of the year and Halloween is in full swing. I got the first bit of paint on my creepy ornaments. They were supposed to b voodoo dolls but now... I don't know. We'll see.