I’ve fallen way behind on my Page A Days, but I haven’t given up. I realized this morning that I have time to do a page ever morning before I go to work. It takes a bit of time for me to switch from left to right brain thinking so we will see how it goes. The problem could be that once I get to right brained thinking I don’t want to stop creating.
The top right page which repeats the word “say” over and over was inspired by my friend Nikki, whom you might remember was diagnosed with cancer last summer. She is only 26. Well, as it turns out the cancer has returned and she is approaching treatment of high intensity chemo, where they basically take a person near death, killing almost everything and all immunity in the body. They first harvest white blood cells so that once the chemo is over they can re-inject it to protect her and grow more. Then she will go through it all over again, two times in a row. No one will be allowed to visit her unless they are completely scrubbed in and wearing full cover to protect her. With no immunity she could easily become susceptible to any virus or bacteria. The Dr.s have given a grim prognosis that the cancer will most likely return even after this, but we are all keeping our spirits high and more importantly, so is she. After informing us about the high intensity chemo, she confided that she wasn’t sure if she should tell people about this. I told her that I appreciated her sharing. I feel it is important to let people know, and not carry the weight all alone. I remember hearing about an acquaintance’s parent who was dying of cancer and decided to not tell anyone. I just think how horrible that people that knew her were not able to say goodbye, and she and her family must have felt incredibly isolated in their pain because they couldn’t talk to others about it. I believe communication is almost always a good thing. After talking with Nikki that day, the John Mayer song Say came on the radio:
“You better know that in the end, It’s better to say too much, than never to say what you need to say again. Say what you need to say.”
After that I was very happy to see that she shared the info on her Caring Bridges page. Please feel free to visit her site. And please, if you could, keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She will need it now more than ever.
Today I discovered that Google Street Maps has been updated for my city. So, what did I do today, other than spend a lot of time searching the streets of my city. Things I found:
- My little city has been covered, but much larger and seemingly more important suburbs of Chicago are not covered.
- My parents had their garage door open and you can see the mowed strip of lawn that became my dads method of letting me know it was time to mow their lawn for them.
- A coworker of mine is out mowing his lawn.
- I’m pretty sure you can see my car parked in my apartment parking lot.
- The shots must have occurred on a friday because the war protesters and government supporters were standing on their facing street corners that they occupy each friday evening.
This is such a fun item.
As I’ve been moving to the new house, I try to keep in mind that moving is the perfect opportunity to clean house and get rid of lots of the extras that just weigh me down. So, in that spirit I’ve decided to destash some of my VERY LARGE paper collection and share it with you. Did I say they are fun? I’ve done a couple different small sized paper swaps on Swap-bot and it was always so much fun to compile my envelopes so I’ve decided to offer some of them in my shop now. They are filled with cool decorative papers, vintage papers, and even some stickers. This thick stack-pack is actually small in size (6″x6″ ) so this item would be perfect for ATCs, ACEOs, collagers and even scrappers who are looking for an edge. Each pack has well over 100 items in it and each pack is relatively identical.
You can find it here in my shop. I’ve compiled six of these packs and will list one each day.
So now that the move is no longer looming, I have regained some freedom and decided to get some exercise in. I haven’t gone to the gym in a couple weeks and my body is feeling it. Our new home is located near a large track and so after work I headed over to use it. Just steps outside my front door I heard screaming and cheering and thought “I hope they aren’t having a track meet” and as soon as I rounded the corner I could see they were. I started heading back and debated on driving to the YMCA, but instead chose to do my old walk/job path that I used to do when I still lived at home with my folks. It was wonderful. The weather was great, the air was fresh and now I’m on a runners high. I really can’t wait to get back into longer distances again (for me that means ooooh, um, yeah… A WHOLE MILE!)
Thanks to my Sister, Sister In Law and Matt, I am all moved out of the apartment as of this past Saturday. A huge weight has been lifted. My studio is really coming together, but I need to get some major shelving in there. A place to store all my yarns, fibers, fabrics. All of my art supplies are already in 3 shelved storage units. I hope to take some pictures of my studio once I have it all put together soon.
In an attempt to destash I’ve been working on compiling some paper packs. More to come!
My apartment is almost empty. Matt and I stopped by to pick up mail and for the first time I had this little sadness that I was leaving it. It was all open and empty and less dungeon-like. Matt said “It’s just trying to trick you and get you back, but if you moved back in it would just be back to all it’s old ways.” Really, I think I just love how it is empty and doesn’t have any of the “stuff” that fills and weighs down the space. It’s still dark and I am amazed at how even when I turn on all the lights there, it is still so dark. The new place is so bright and cheery and for that I am in love.
I have been watching a LOT of TV. This sucks. I like to think of myself as more of the “kill your television” type of person. Normally, the only time I watch TV or DVDs is while working on other stuff. But, while I have been moving, I’ve felt too guilty working on artwork when I should be moving instead, so, I have been watching it. My new favorite show is Jon and Kate Plus Eight. If you aren’t familiar with this show it is a reality show on TLC about a family that has two 6 year old twins and six 3 year old sextuplets. I can watch this show back to back to back and often do. I love the dynamics of Jon and Kate’s relationship. My favorite kid is Maddy, she is so misunderstood. And even though she is one of the twins and should then have first born characteristics, she is SO a middle child and thus the Robyn of that family.
I was able to nab a treasury on etsy that will be around till Thursday. Please check it out and click away at the products. Can you tell I’m ready for spring.
I’ve had my heart jump twice this week so far. Once for fear and once for joy.
On Sunday in the process of moving car loads of stuff from my apartment to the house, I stopped to fill up on gas. As I maneuvered through the parking lot to an open pump a girl started backing up towards me. I hit the horn, but she continued and hit my car. The odd thing is, as I’ve been moving, I’ve had this fear and “feeling” that something was going to happen to my car. I even voiced my concern to Matt. Immediatly after it happened, my heart just jumped and continued to pound like crazy. I was prepared to see my car wrangled, but fortunately the damage was minimal. I was just so thankful that it wasn’t my fault.
The second thing that made my heart jump was earlier today when checking my bloglines and updates on 52projects. I found that not only did Jeffrey Yamaguchi cover Rosa’s Found Art Tuesday, but he also mentioned my website as a “site to check out”. How exciting!
