Hi! Yes I am back after being gone from here for a year. So many things happened in 2018 that kept me from updating and posting on here like I had planned to. I was unable to do any of the art projects I had planned. 2018 was the year of injuries and thus made me feel very uncreative.

I started out 2018 by slipping and falling on some ice in front of our old house. Besides hurting my hip, back and knee; I also broke my left wrist; specifically the radius bone. Even though at the time it was a swollen s-shaped mess and it was believed that the bone would have to be realigned; it thankfully was only weird swelling as the bone had broken but not moved. Due to that weird swelling they did a temporary ace bandage with a plaster brace for a week in the hopes that the swelling would dissipate. It however did not so instead of a cast which with this swelling could cause nerve damage as well as it would have to constantly be cut off and replaced, the doctor decided a brace was best as I could adjust it based on the swelling so that the nerves wouldn’t get constricted. However since a brace is not as protective as a cast I had to be very careful. The pain was horrible for the first few weeks and the pain medicine they gave was useless. So I basically just grinned and bared it; pretending it wasn’t painful whenever I could. Nights of course were the worst. It took 2 1/2 months for the break to be considered healed enough that I didn’t need to wear the brace 24/7 and that I could start physical therapy. The doctor only wanted me to do 1 to 2 sessions so I could learn how to do them at home but despite that and despite the fact that the therapists said I was doing way better than I should they tried to keep adding sessions. I did 3 sessions before quitting and then just did the therapy at home. I did have some nerve issues which caused constant numbness on my thumb, two fingers, part of my hand and arm. Thankfully it eventually went away after a few weeks of not wearing the brace all the time.

While healing from the broken wrist we decided to sell our house and buy one closer to my husbands job. I immediately started packing up the house as I don’t like waiting to the last minute. I also knew with my broken arm packing was going to be slow. In about 2 weeks we found a house, put in an offer and it was accepted. This new house dropped my husbands commute to 20-25 minutes instead of the 1 hour and 15 minutes it was before. Also with this new house my cats had a room of their own so when maintenance people or things were being done to the house they had a safe place to be and it also gave me a room to be my art studio. Then during the move I managed to hurt both my achilles tendons. So with that and my arm still being painful sometimes, unpacking took a lot longer then it should have. Since I now had a larger art space and I got rid of the old mismatched storage, I purchased new furniture at Ikea and while building one of the heavier units I not only hurt my wrist but also both elbows. Thankfully a couple of months went by with no further injuries and by the end of September my injuries were either healed or almost healed. I thought I could finally start getting back to doing the things I enjoyed and then I went to Longwood Gardens and my achillis tendons acted up again. This time far worse then before. The next day I could barely walk and they were incredibly painful. I went to orthopedic urgent care where they said I again had achillis tendonitis on both feet and I had hurt my tendons really bad but thankfully nothing required surgery. I just had to rest, keep elevated and iced. I also started at home physical therapy. Thankfully my achillis tendonitis is improving but I’m still not 100%.

I did manage to do some art towards the end of the year. I do feel rusty creatively but hopefully this year will change that. I have a lot planned for 2019 and am looking forward to a more creative year.

I’m back!! Its been a long time since I posted on here. I’ve been busy and keep postponing on posting; saying “I will do it next week” but next week turns into the next and into the next, etc. So I am back for now. I won’t make any promises as to how often I will be posting so as not to break them. I have been creating and posting some of it on my instagram.

For June and July I have been participating in Daisy Yellow’s Index Card a Day (ICAD) challenge. I have been posting the cards on instagram and in the facebook group for the challenge. Once the challenge is over I will post a slide show of all the cards I created during the challenge.

I have also signed up for Effy Wild’s Radiant Faces and Radiant II: Art Journaling classes. I have a really hard time drawing faces so I thought these classes might help me create them better or help me come up with a style that I would like doing. Another big reason for taking the classes is that my friend Sarah Trumpp of Wonderstrange will be a teacher in Radiant II. Her art is awesome, weird and fun! Radiant Faces is currently in self guided mode and Radiant II will begin October 1st. Each class can be purchased separately or together for a savings. To see the full list of teachers and to get more info on the classes click here.

I have already completed the first lesson in Radiant Faces and hope to start working on the second lesson this weekend. I will post the finished pieces on here every once in a while.

In October Rhonda, Ruth , Sarah and I will be hosting another art-a-thon. This one will only be 13 hours and will be Halloween themed. It will be held on October 24th. We are still working on the starting time and a few other details. As with our other art-a-thon everyone is welcomed to participate. For more information check out our 24 Hour Art-a-thon site. You can also join the facebook group.

Also in the next few weeks I will be updating my etsy store and adding more items. The “White Rabbit” painting will also finally be going up for sale. I hope by the end of the year to have finished another painting in the Alice in Wonderland series which will also go up for sale on my etsy store. I just need to finally decide on which character I will be doing next.

As you can see the rest of the year is going to be pretty busy and hopefully lots of fun.