Pain Management Using Art

I'm sorry, guys. I know I haven't been updating much lately, and when I do, my posts have been a bit lackluster. I'm in the middle of one heck of a fibro flare, so doing much of anything is rough.

But I learned something a few days ago that has helped me immensely, so I want to pass it on to all of you. I've recently stumbled across an interesting drawing program called Zentangles, and they've done absolute wonders for my pain!

They're well-named. There's something zen-like in the repetition of the strokes, in adding color and shading and texture to make these drawings come to life. Unfortunately, while my pain recedes while I'm drawing, it tends to rush back as soon as I stop, so I've been drawing quite a bit over the last few days. I've pulled some of my better pieces to share with you all. Keep in mind how much time it takes to create these, and you get an idea of what my time has been like lately!

Also, I'm putting the majority of the pictures under a jump so I don't spam your feeds. Never say I don't love ya! Here's a taste of what you'll find under the jumplll

So, wanna see more? Come on in!

Secret Message Nail Art- an understated approach to nail art?

I am a bad, bad blogger. I took this shot several weeks ago and meant to share it, but then I got totally sidetracked. It's a good thing I'm not a doctor or an air traffic controller or something, else people would be dying while I wondered what it was I'd needed to do...

So, today's nail art is sort of backwards, in that you do the nail art first and then cover it up with your base coat. I know, it sounds totally bizarre, but look at the end result!

This was a super easy look, and it will absolutely make people look at your nails. I started with a base coat of solid white, just a cheapie 99 cent white polish from Love My Nails. It works well enough, although it tends to streak a bit on the first coat. Still, for 99 cents I'll deal.

Once that had dried a bit, I used my Art Deco black striper to draw vertical stripes down my nails fairly evenly spaced. This is a cute look on its own, but I had something else in mind. I'd noticed that the Sally Hansen Purple Diamond Nail Prisms dries very translucent, and I wanted to experiment with it.

Once the black and white had dried, I brushed a layer of Purple Diamond over the stripes and sat back to watch it dry. I wish I had video capabilities, because this is an absolutely gorgeous look. It's subtle enough to not look like you're wearing circus tent stripes on your nails, but it's still striped enough to make people wonder how you managed it. I can't wait to wear this one as a full manicure.

So what do you think- do you want to try some hidden nail art? Does it look interesting to you?

Can holographic polishes really be called understated? Who knows?

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Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things

 Wow... I've actually managed to stay awake for more than three hours at a time! Siri is back to her independent, lovebucket self, and her tests all came back fine. I'm wondering if she got into something she shouldn't have. Unfortunately, there's no way to know, so we just have to watch her and hope for the best. But she's back to her old self, so I'm much less worried.

Also, since I've managed to be awake for more than a couple of hours I've got my nails painted and I've got a series of nail art nails in progress. I'm experimenting with a strict color scheme, and it's actually a lot of fun! We'll see how things come out... so far, I'm actually having fun!

I have to share something with you guys. I guess the stress of the last few days had me looking for ways to distract myself. I spent a heck of a long time on Instructables looking at things like how to make a wig like they wore in the musical Cats and how to make an embroidered felt hair clip. I looked at 9 things to stuff a baby into for Halloween, and laughed myself silly over it.

Then there are the online shopping sites. Oh man, it's probably a good thing I'm broke, because if not... well, I'd be broke from all the shopping sites! First off, Etsy... oh Etsy, how I love you! Hair thingies galore... an embroidered appliqued felt hedgehog barrette! Silk roses to clip into your hair! And as if that's not bad enough, my friend Din started sending me links to shoes and handbags... she's got a serious thing for marc by marc jacobs. When she sent me this link for marc jacobs handbags I'm not sure who squealed louder, me or her! These are so freaking sublime.

And see, I don't understand it. I'm a jeans and tee shirt girl. I wear my kitty shoes and a ponytail most of the year. What do I need with a bag like this? I carry lots of things... I couldn't put my art supplies and sketchbook in that bag! And yet...

... it's a thing of beauty, isn't it? It's probably a good thing I don't have money to spend right now. If I did, the neighbors might think I'm having an affair with the FedEx guy!

Til next time...

Wanna turn your girlfriend on? Show her this link... designer handbags are hot.

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A Quick Sirius Update

I am so tired. Apparently the doggy drama wore me out. I even ran from my mom's house to mine to get my address book so I could call my dad's cell phone. As a result, once we got home and calmed down, I absolutely collapsed.

I made it to my bed, but didn't manage to get completely undressed. Then I slept... and oh my goodness, did I sleep! The insomnia I've been fighting with for weeks was gone, thankfully. I slept from probably 11am until around 5pm, when I woke up long enough to eat a sandwich, drink a bottle of water, visit the restroom, and stagger back to the bedroom where I slept until around midnight. I woke up again, realized how achy I was, and asked my husband if he would take me to go walk. He said sure, get dressed and we'll go...

... and I promptly fell back asleep before I could get up and dressed. I woke up again around 3am when he came to bed and asked why we didn't go walk. He explained that I went back to sleep so he figured I needed the sleep more than the walk. I think he was right, since I went back to sleep and didn't wake up until around 7am the next morning, and spend most of that day sleeping!

I'm just now getting back to feeling somewhat awake, and I have no idea how much that's going to last. But I want you all to know how much my mom and I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Siri is acting more and more like herself, and the longer she goes without another seizure, the more relieved we all feel. She'll see the vet again tomorrow for bloodwork and probably to be spayed, and with any luck these seizures will be a very rare event.

Hopefully I'll be able to stay awake long enough to paint my nails soon!! As it is, they've been bare for three days now, and it feels weird! :D

Love y'all...

Wow... I had no idea I could sleep that much and STILL BE SLEEPY!

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Think Good Thoughts For Us, Please?

This is a very quick post to apologize for the lack of content for today and the next few days, as well as to let you know what's going on. If you follow me on Facebook,you'll know what I'm talking about already. For those of you who don't, I'll explain briefly.

My husband and I live next door to my mom. Early this morning she woke us up, knocking hysterically on our door, sobbing that she thought her dog was dying. We immediately threw some clothes on and ran over to see what we could do, trying to get the story from her as we did. It seems that Sirius (so named because she's a black dog with a tiny pinpoint of white on her chest, so she's the dog star) was sleeping on the sofa this morning and had a seizure. When she came to she was disoriented and didn't know mom or the other dog Champagne, even though they're the best of friends and often snuggle together. Siri growled at mom and was acting as if she might bite her, so mom quickly closed her into the living room and ran to get us, leaving Champagne in the kitchen.

When we got to her house, I tried to calm my mom down while my husband went to check on the dog. He quickly came back saying she'd growled at him, but that she seemed more scared than aggressive. He got her favorite squeaky ball and tried again, and apparently the squeak of the ball cut through the cloudiness in her head, because she immediately snapped back to herself and ran to him for snuggles and reassurance. They came in to see us and she made the rounds, giving all of us (even Champagne) kisses and doggy hugs.

She still didn't seem herself, totally, though- she wasn't focused, and she seemed very hyper. Mom was terrified, I was terrified... I didn't realize it until I spoke with him afterward but even my husband was terrified. That's one thing I love about him- he's my rock, my calm stable point in times of chaos. He managed to keep us from running in circles without knowing what to do.

Anyway, it was a very long stressful morning, including a rushed trip to the local vet and a very long wait trying to keep Siri from losing her mind at the vet's office. She's not used to other people and other dogs, and she's had to be muzzled at the vet before. It went surprisingly well, though, and now we're waiting to see what happens next.

We don't know why she had the seizure, we don't know if it's a late-onset epilepsy or a reaction to something she's eaten. It could even be a uterine infection, because she hasn't been spayed or had puppies, so that could be the cause. We just don't KNOW, and that's pretty stressful for all of us. I expect to be spending a lot of time at mom's trying to help keep her sane over the next few days, and I don't think that's going to leave a lot of time for blogging and nail art. I'll see if I have some stuff in the In Progress folder to post, but things might be kind of quiet for the next few days.

I'm sure you guys will understand, and I'll let y'all know if we hear anything, good or bad. Just... if you can, send some good thoughts our way? For all of us, my mom and the dogs and everyone. We all love her a lot, and want her to be the healthy, adorable devious little muttley who makes us all smile.

Til next time.

Nothing much to disclose, other than I'm worried sick!

See my disclosure statement for more information.

I am SUCH a slacker!

I have to apologize for something. I had uber plans for today, I was going to do a set of black and white nails with varying patterns, something fun to do, something to stretch my skills, and regardless of how it turned out, it'd be good. Sometimes the disastrous manicures are the most fun to write about!

Things started well. I got out my polishes, and I stuck a set of fake nails on bamboo skewers. I was totally ready to go, but then I checked email. In my email was a message from Nails Magazine's Nail Art Gallery, showing me all the recent activity on my photos, as well as currently popular designs. "Hmm... I'll just pop over and look at a couple of things," I thought to myself. "It won't take long. I'll have plenty of time to finish the blog stuff."

Yea. Right. I looked at a few designs, then found one that absolutely knocked my socks off. Guys, I don't even know what to say about this one. It's so interesting, it's so well done, and I didn't have a CLUE as to how to start it. I sat looking at it for a few minutes, and I bet you will too!

Once I realized there was a tutorial video, I immediately opened a new tab and headed to youtube. I was hoping it would be easy to find the tutorial, that maybe she'd only have a few videos to watch. I had a feeling her videos would be both interesting and educational, and if there were only a few I'd have more time to do my own thing.

Instead, I got to her youtube channel and realized she had a lot of videos. Like, 111 videos right now, and she uploads more every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They're all really good too, from what I could tell. I haven't watched them all, but I've watched enough that I'm having problems picking out a favorite, or one to suggest you watch as the best. However, I think the one that stands out the most is also the one with the most views. Robin has created a video showing how she paints a high-contrast black and white portrait of Marilyn Monroe on an accent finger, as well as a silhouette of Marilyn's iconic scene in "The Seven Year Itch." It's simply stunning.

As if that wasn't enough of a time-sucker, I then wandered over to Robin's Facebook page, where I found not just nail art photos (volume 1 and volume 2, among others), but canvases she's painted. I was right... she's got some serious skill with a paintbrush! I found myself really drawn to her art, and something about her paintings really drew me in. I spent entirely too long looking at everything, not counting the time we spent commenting back and forth. She's as nice a person as she is talented, so I just have to say that today's lack of a blog post is all her fault!

I strongly recommend you go to her page, friend/follow/subscribe to her, and tell her that I said it's all her fault I didn't have a blog for today, because her stuff was just too darned interesting. Afterward, you too can lose an entire evening's work while you oooh and aaah over her videos. :D

Why are elephants big and grey?
Because if they were small, white and round they'd be aspirins.

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Reader Feedback Part the First!

OMG, y'all, I got the best gift tonight! I saw that I'd gotten a Facebook comment, so I clicked over to see that one my my readers had left me a note and a photo. I can't lie. I got so excited I was actually applauding!



Tierney wrote:

your zebra nails inspired me so much I bought a nail pen & decided to try it out for myself!! I looooooooove zebra print!! Im really happy with the way it turned out, I def. need more practice. Thank you for your inspiration! :)

I was so excited I called my husband in to see, and then I immediately asked her if I could share this on the blog. Moments like this really make me feel like I'm connecting with people, and it really makes me feel like this blog is a positive thing. I can't even begin to tell y'all how much I appreciate each and every one of you- those who read, those who comment, those who subscribe and follow with GFC or my RSS feed. I just wanna hug you all!

So, keep an eye on this space. There will hopefully be Reader Feedback Part the Second, and the Third... etc.

Also, I've been feeling a strong urge to get back into animal prints. How would y'all feel about an animal print week, where I explore the things that can be done with them? If you don't say no, you may just be subjected to a week of crazy animal prints!

Til next time!

Sometimes I get so excited I burst into song. Sometimes this happens in public.
Sometimes it embarrasses me. Most of the time I sing anyway.

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