Tank the bulldog

I’m interrupting the presentation of my altered book for a short time.   I was up all night dealing with two pups who are terrified of thunderstorms so I got just about no sleep.  Then this morning I had an appointment with a neuro-opthalmologist that lasted over 3 hours.  I’m feeling raw and tired and not like sharing those personal pages. 

I am excited to share today’s project.  I am doing a pay-it-forward through facebook.  I met up with one of the friends on my list and finally got to share what I made for her.  It was a good time just to see some friends, but it was so much fun to be able to give her something I think is special.  She has a great dog and she spoils him rotten (as any dog owner should!)  I love seeing her photography that he stars in.  As soon as she signed up, I knew I wanted to try and paint her “Tank”.  I wasn’t sure it would turn out, but I was going to try.  I “stole” one of her pics to use as my reference (you can see she is a superb photographer as she took the photo you’re seeing.

I started with prismacolor pencils and was really happy with it, but it seemed really faint (I had started this on a piece of wood and the color of the wood just wasn’t allowing the pencils to really show well enough, so I started painting.  I used acrylics, mostly golden, and just took my time and enjoyed the process.  I had a great friend who I emailed my progress to so I could get some constructive feedback and that was really helpful.  She saw things that my eye just passed over and really helped me get it to the final stage. 

Anyways, I am very happy with how he turned out and I really think that my friend loves it which makes me feel good.  It is such a pleasure to make something special for someone.  My favorite projects are the ones I start off intending to gift away to someone in particular.  What are your favorite projects?  Thanks for stopping by.

Good news

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. We had beautiful weather and time to enjoy ourselves so I'm feeling refreshed.

Todays art is a mixed media piece I did for my neice. She has just gotten her own room and its all princessy. I drew the head and torso, painted it in and cut it out. Then drew some legs and did the same. I used acrylics to paint her name and the background colors. I glued scalloped pages from an old book to the top and bottom of the canvas, glued down the 2 parts to my "doll" and then used some lace I found laying around to make a precious ballerina type skirt. I'll wait and give this to her on her birthday in a few weeks.

The frog was discovered on my walk at the state park on Saturday. I love frogs, on our way home I stopped and got 6 fish and 10 tadpoles for our garden pond. I cant wait to have frogs in my backyard.

I had my dr. appt. for the most recent test results and it was all good news. My hormones are out of whack and my periods have stopped, but they're not off in the way to indicate an early menopause. Because of the history of the mini stroke, and a blood clotting factor I have, they cant give me hormones to restart anything. The gynecologist diagnosed me with PCOS after doing a vaginal ultrasound, but she wanted me to go back to the neurologist because there was a small cyst in my pituitary found after my mini stroke. They wanted to make sure it hasnt grown, or producing something to effect the hormone levels. Anyways, my MRI showed that the cyst is not in the pituitary like they said last year, its in the pineal gland, it hasnt grown and it is not producing anything. So, good news all around. I think that leaves it as just a case of PCOS, and right now I'm not suffering any of the common things that happen with that. I'll just need to keep getting ultrasounds every 6 months if my periods dont return. Fertility problems aren't an issue as Craig and I had decided long ago to not have children, so that takes away a big concern of those with PCOS. Thanks so much for the good thoughts and concern you all voiced, it made waiting for results easier.

OK, I've been tagged by Alberta, so here are the rules:

1. Each player answers questions about themselves.

2. At the end of the post, tag 5 people by posting their names.

3.Go to their site/blog and leave a comment telling them they've been tagged. Invite them to your site/blog so they can read the tagged post.

4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've completed your tagged post.

I have to answer these 6 questions:

1. What were you doing 10 years ago? Lets see, I started my piano studio out of the house in January. Back then I gave lessons year round, so I think I had about 12-15 students at this time. I was also enjoying our second spring in our house and was planting roses. An entire garden of English roses.

2. What are 5 things on your To Do list? Return my office to normal from the piano move (right now everything is moved so it can get out), clean the bathroom, finish painting the bathroom door, clean the inside of my kitchen cupboards, weed the garden.

3. What are 5 snacks you really enjoy (in no particular order)? Ice cream, dark chocolate, bananas and peanut butter, string cheese, raspberries.

4. Name some places where you've lived. OK, this is sad, I've never left Michigan. I have lived in Petersburg, Ida and LaSalle which are all within 15 miles of each other, and I lived in Marquette while in college (a 500 mile move, but still in the same state!)

5. Name some bad habits you have. Taking on more than is comfortable, saying no and not feeling guilty, inflexability, obsessive/compulsive to a degree.

6. Name some jobs you've had. piano teacher, Beaded Jewelry Designer and Instructor, organist, music director, bookkeeper, customer service, waitress,

Now, here's who I'm going to tag: No one in particular. If you're feeling inclined to answer them, please do.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful day. Hugs to you.