February Stitch in Time

[DrDebby]

Sorry Margo, I had to. My married name is Turner.

Woke up to snow falling this morning. Not for long and not much on the ground. Don't even have to shovel the sidewalk. I made gluten free brownies last night. Blech! DH, of course, said they were fine. Then I started feeling really lousy. We had gone out for Mexican for dinner. I think there was some contamination in my food. I should be able to eat the corn tortillas, the meat, the rice, the beans, even the salsa and guacamole. Just leave off the sour cream and cheese. Either I got some cross contamination or I've become more sensitive since I've stopped eating the stuff. *sigh* It was so good too. I was looking forward to the leftovers for lunch today. But, decided it was prudent to avoid that. DH cleaned it up. I'm just going to have to cook at home. I've been tentatively experimenting with recipes. But so far there is only one I like well enough to add to our food list. *sigh* This is going to take some work.

[EvaJ]

Spent only 2 hours at the dermatology office this morning. The doctor put a ton of stitches in John's forehead. The hole was the size of a silver dollar and 2 or 3mm deep. They had enough skin to be able to close it up with stitches, even though it is tight, and not have to have a skin graft. John was afraid they were going to have to do a skin graft. He goes back tomorrow for the bandage change and from then on I will change the bandages. His stitches come out in 12 days. Then he will have to see the doctor every 3 months for the next year. As this is a very aggressive type of cancer and because he had to take so much to get it all, it could come back so the appointments and checks will continue. He is doing pretty good right now with some pain which the doctor said he would have for the next few days. Then they gave him antibiotics too so no infection will set in. OTC pain killers he will and has been taking should do the trick.

Debby, sorry you got sick from the food. We don't eat out hardly at all any more because it seems every time we do, one of us don't feel well after, so I just fix something at home.

I don't paint but I do like what you have done with your water colors painting. Have you done more on it?

We never recovered from being tired from working the show all weekend and the rest of the week with some one doctor or another every day this week, we are both exhausted. Maybe come of the weekend we can rest as the doctor's are all closed

[poochemio]

Eva, glad John didn't have to have a skin graft, and sure if you give yourself a bit of a break you will feel better soon. Feet up tv on or book in your hands.

So Debby you have a Turner seascape, just not a JMW Turner seascape, and I'm pretty sure we won't see his early ones anyway, probably washed them off the paper and used it again as paper was dreadfully expensive back then.

Took a ride in a new direction today. Turned out to be up in another set of mountains, twas beautiful! I finally did a quick watercolor sketch on the way back, nope not going to post it, still learning how to use a waterbrush, they totally suck compared to sable and I may toss them all off the side of the mountain before I get done (and no I didn't litter before it became pic not to do so). So I will be doing much more daily practice to see if it can become a habit before my Jazz Fest sketching extravaganza. Wish me luck I really need it, I hate these brushes, even a cheapy crappy squirrel would be better!

Had a long walk this morning and collected a bunch of branches off of the Cottonwood/quaking aspen trees. Not only are they beautiful to stick in an old pot but I think they will make cool marks with ink. Decided this has been an inhabited area for a long time and maybe I should carry a bucket for the cool things I find, as well as the rusty nails that could go into our feet of poor Beatrice who has 4 of them. I actually found a couple of rather cool things so I shall be on the lookout for more, who knows what I might find!

Nightey night all.

[Granola Girl]

Good morning!
Eva... so glad John's procedure went well! Sounds like you both could use a relaxing weekend though

Hi Margo, we haven't met yet... where's the land of enchantment? Sounds beautiful.

We finally got some decent snow this week. It's been such a weird winter, almost no snow and rarely below -10C, so wrong. But it looks like March is hitting us with a blast of the real thing... the snow part, at least. I had to wade through about a foot of it this morning walking Coco to the end of the drive. I don't normally do that anymore, btw, since Alida is nearly 10 now, but since big sis spent the night with about 200 kids at Manipogo up in St. Laurent, Coco was feeling a little lost this morning. She's not used to sleeping in a room by herself, and the house was just too quiet, I think, even though I tried to make up for it by singing the good morning song really loudly to wake her up. She didn't even want to go to school today, and that's never happened before. Poor thing. Anyway, Alida will be back from her adventure this afternoon, so all will be right in her little world again then.

Hi Debby... oh you're brave... waves are tough! Gel pens work quite well, or a bit of acrylic, to get your whites back. Another thing I'd suggest is to experiment with a craft blade, just lightly scrap the paper to lift the top layer off a little here and there (works best on heavier paper and non-staining pigments, but it's worth trying). You might also try strategically adding a little white paint splatter by tapping a loaded brush on your finger (practise first, and don't forget to mask off areas you want to protect! ) Sounds like you got some good critiques there already. The only thing I'd add is that the rocks could use a shadow to ground them a little more. We did this exercise last year at Arts West artist retreat where we painted a handful of pebbles. Later on at home I painted them again pointing strong light from different angles at them and painting the different shadow lengths. It's really cool, the interesting shapes you get... completely changes your empty space shapes too.

I have to watch my internet time closely these days, but I'll try to check in a little more regularly so I don't shock you so much when I do pop up

Have a great day all!