I lost my father….

My Dad passed away on September 1st after a courageous battle with stage 4 cancer.  Once diagnosed, they gave him 2 weeks to 2 months.  He was gone in 2 weeks,almost to the day.

He was ready, he had put his house in order and he wanted to go.  My daughter and I flew back to be with him for whatever time he had left.  We had a couple of good days with him – we were able to visit with him and he was able to say all the things he needed to say, as did we. 

He was one of that older generation – he was 89 – who had come through a depression, a war and the loss of all his brothers and sisters.  He had hip replacement surgery a couple of years ago but he waited almost 8 months before he finally got the surgery.  My brother and I were concerned that he wouldn’t recover from the surgery.  Once they got him on the table they discovered that he had been walking and then limping around for almost 8 months with a broken hip.  The doctor said no worries with him recovering; anyone who could tolerate that pain was a tough old guy and he’d do just fine.  And he did.

My Dad was still living in his own home when he was finally admitted to hospital.  He was stoic and strong and when the doctor tried to soften the diagnosis he wouldn’t have it.  He told the doctor he was a soldier and he’d seen terrible things so just get to the point so he would know what he was dealing with.  Quite a man!

He wanted to die quickly and he really tried but God just wouldn’t take him.  Dad said he was devoting his energy to get the job done and he was frustrated and angry that he couldn’t make his plan work.  He was concerned about inconveniencing us and what it was costing us  for parking !  Can you believe it??

I can’t help but wonder if God didn’t take him more quickly because of all the love that surrounded him.  Dad had all his family with him during his last days – so when his time finally came he died peacefully.

He was very special and I loved him very much and I shall miss him. I know he’s up in heaven with my husband.  I asked Dad to give Garry a hug and tell him I loved him.

We love you Dad.  Rest in peace Dad, rest in peace

A quick update

The last several weeks have been challenging.

My dad, who is 89, has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung and spine cancer.
He was admitted to the hospital  3 weeks  ago and they've given him 2 weeks
to 2 months to live.

I'm now back in Ottawa with the rest of the family to spend what time he has
left with him.  He knows what's happening and all his affairs are in order. He
had a couple of good days when we first arrived, which is what usually
happens  just before the final decline.

He's getting the very best care available and the team caring for him
are wonderful.  There's nothing more that can be done for him except
make him as comfortable as possible. Thankfully they have his meds
managed correctly so he's not in any pain .  He's ready and he just wants
to get it over with!  It's hard on all of us, watching him get weaker and
weaker.  We just want him to pass quickly and peacefully.

Beautiful day

I' m not sure what 's going on but I seem to be missing at least one post.  WTF !  What's  up with that?

Anyway, today was a great day. Weather is fabulous, sunny and warm.  I was up early to finish up my order so I could deliver it to my customer in Fort Langley.  I'm so happy to get that order finished. I've been working on this for weeks and I should have had it finished and delivered weeks ago!

I've been surfing the net trying to get some inspiration for my journal.  I was looking for journaling challenges and I found several so I plan to use those prompts to get me journaling on a more regualar basis.  The bottom line is that I've got to stop looking and start doing !

Gotta run.  Caio!

Drawing faces

I’ve never felt that I had a talent for drawing.  For the most part I just didn’t go there as it was just awful.  However, I signed up for the “Painted Faces” on-line course being run by Christy over at Art Geeks.  I haven’t really had an opportunity to start the course until this last week.

While Christy is teaching how to paint faces, part of week one is devoted to discussing the composition of faces with Christy giving a tutorial on how she draws her whimsical faces.  Everything she says makes so much sense  and its all so do-able.  I’ve just completed week one and I feel so much more confident!

The first drawing is what I came up with after Christy’s week one tutorial.  I think the difference between the first and the other two faces is quite amazing.

The two faces  (bottom 2) are “before” tutorial faces.  I worked long and hard to come up with them, particularly the one on bottom right. I was quite proud of the end product…..now not so much!

Chaos in the workroom…

I swear that my workroom looks like someone broke in and tossed it.  Everything on the floor and piled on every available spot.  It makes it impossible to find anything and I spend all my time moving things from one pile to another looking for stuff.   Argh….it makes me crazy!!

This weekend when I should have been working on wedding cards and planting my garden, I worked at re-organizing, re-arranging and cleaning up my studio.  I’m actually embarrassed by how much “stuff” I’ve collected over the last several years.  It’s absolutely obscene !!  I really didn’t know how much I have until I started sorting through it! I’ve already purchased a few things that are being shipped to me and then the purchasing department is closed!  I have enough stuff to stock a store – I kid you not!  Enough said about that!!!

I managed to get some art done so I’m posting below.

Caio.

 

A mini holiday!

I went into work yesterday and started looking at the calendar.  HMMMMMM.  If I take 3 days off work, I end up with 9 days off.  Well that’s a no-brainer!  So,  I did and now I’m off until April 22nd.  WOOOOHOOOO!!!!

Even though I’ve only been back from holidays for about a month, work has been brutal  I think a time out is appropriate!

What am I going to do?  Get lots of sleep, play in my workroom and in my journal and get some of the projects that are incomplete finished.  I’m actually really looking forward to this little break. I need to put my brain on snooze for awhile.

Well, must run.  I have a spa appointment at 10:30 and I still need to grab a bite.

Caio!

Some days it just doesn’t pay to get up !

I’ve had one of “those” days!  Seems that no matter how hard you try, there is always someone or several someones who just aren’t happy unless they can complain about you.  Yeah, big surprise there!

I won’t go on a rant, suffice it to say I’m just a little down tonight.

I’m looking forward to a 3 day weekend.  I’m going to bottle some wine after work Friday and then home to put my feet up.  I booked myself a massage and a facial for Saturday and I’m going to enjoy it. Rather fortuitous that!

Hope to get more organizing done, work in my art journal, get caught up on some cards I owe and get some samples together for the store.  They say it’s going to be good weather here on the coast so I might also work in the garden for awhile. 

That’s it for now.  Caio!

Last round at Tahquitz today

We played our last round of golf in Palm Springs at our “home” club, Tahquitz Creek Resort today.  The weather was outstanding.  We played with two gay gentlemen – the nicest people you could ever want to meet.  We had soooo much fun today.  It was a wonderful end to our wonderful holiday.

This point in the trip is always bittersweet.  We’ve had a fabulous time, the weather has been outstanding and my daughter and I have had wonderful time together. We love, love, love Palm Springs and we hate to leave….On the other hand, we know we have to go home so we’re starting to wind down.  We’re ready to go home to our own beds and both of us miss “our girls” – our 3 fur-babies.  We love our cats and miss them – 33 days is a long time away from them!

Thank you Palm Springs for welcoming us to our second home.  You never let us down!!!

Fabulous weather

The weather down here in Palm Springs continues to be outstanding.  It's been warm and sunny every day.  We played golf at Tahquitz Creek Monday and we're playing there again Wednesday and Thursday.  The weather forecast for Friday and Saturday is rainy with possible thunderstorms though I'll believe that when I see it!

We went out for dinner at DiCarlos in Rancho Mirage again this evening.  Fabulous as usual.  Their early bird special is a great deal - a good sized salad, a choice of 5 entrees and garlic toast for $ 9.95.  What's not to like?

I've been working in my journal and trying to perfect some of my pen work.  Still lots of room for improvement.  I'm working on a journal page a la Teesha Moore.  Not sure how it's going to turn out.  I'm pushing my boundaries and working outside my comfort zone.  It should be interesting!

Gotta run.  Caio!

Return to paradise

I'm here in Palm Springs and loving every minute of it.  We arrived on Wednesday Feb 12th and the weather has been fabulous ever since.  Most days have been high 80's or low 90's.  I've been in the pool every day and I'm enjoying myself immensely.  We golfed on Thursday - only 9 holes because we got a late start.  That was fine though.  We finished our nine and had a beer at the clubhouse and watched the other golfers coming in to the 18th.

I brought my journal and some journalling supplies with me and I've worked in it a little.  Plan to do more tonight.

Must run, I have to make some phone calls and then off to bed.  Caio!

Last 7 days before blast off

We're down to the last few days before we head off to Palm Springs - the land of botox and bronzer.  Can hardly wait!!

Work is busy.  I'm training a new hire and trying to tie up loose ends before leaving.  Art has taken a back seat, yet again.  I'm working on some journals for a swap and hope to get them off in the mail by next Monday.  I have to make up a handful of swap cards and send them off as well.  Last but not least, I want to prep some pages in my journal - a la Teesha Moore - I want them ready to go so I can work on them when I'm in Palm Springs. Love, Love, Love her style!

Here's a spread I did to start off 2014.

Some people are just evil !!!

Well now.  There’s a warm cozy thought isn’t it?  Why is it that some people need to be soooo very hateful and selfish. Some days it takes all I have to not toss them out the 6th floor window – no need to open the window, I’ll just drop kick them out and watch them sail through the atmosphere.  Lovely thought, that is!!

Work is crazy busy – I’ve had a couple of issues that have been ongoing for a long time now.  It’s been both emotionally and physically exhausting, however, I think it’s over now so that’s a good thing !  I’m looking forward to starting fresh in 2014, putting all the bad stuff behind me.

Art and journaling were shoved on the back burner for a good bit of November and all of December.  I think that December should be 60 days instead of 31 – I never seem to have enough time!   I hate it when Christmas becomes “just another job” !  I’m looking forward to working in my journal again.  I have got to learn to manage that better.

The countdown for Palm Springs has started – 43 more sleeps.  I soooo need a holiday!

I looked back in the blog and was surprised to see that there is very little art posted for the last several months.  What’s up with that?  So here’s a couple of cards I made recently.

Hellooooooooooo

I’ve tried to post a couple of times, usually when I’m really tired, and had nothing but problems.   So now I”m back when I’m at least half way awake to try again.

Work has been really busy, and with all the interruptions, and new tasks, I don’t ever seem to get anything accomplished.  Add to that the Christmas season and problems with difficult people – well you get the picture.

My workroom look like it’s been vandalized!  I can’t find anything and I’m constantly moving things from one pile to another. I have way too many “treasures” – “treasures” translate to “stuff” – and trust me, I have way too much of it.  Right now I have other things I should be doing, however this place is such a mess that I can’t ignore it any longer.  I am making some headway, and I will purge a few things over the next several weeks.  I’ve waited too long -  I think it’s too close to Christmas?  Hmmm – will need to think about that! Anyway, I will eventually post some pictures of my re-vamped studio – If I can keep it clean long enough!!!

Here are a couple of my Christmas cards.

Caio!

And another.....

This one is from a swap I'm in with a journal partner in Ontario.  The one on the previous post

is also part of that swap.

I finished up both of those pages at the end of September and sent them off.

My challenge - progress report

Well, I must say that I am pleasantly surprised with the results so far.  I challenged myself to work in my journal every single day.  At this point, which is a little more than halfway through the month, I consider my challenge to be an unqualified success!!!!  I have missed a couple of days but, for the most part I've worked in my journal every day - and sometimes twice a day to make up for the few times that I missed.

I love journalling but I do struggle with it.   I think I've said before - for the most part I'm fine with the backgrounds.  I just seem to really struggle from that point on.  Anyway, I've been able to complete a couple of spreads that I'm reasonably pleased with and which I'm willing to share.

This one was completed at the end of September.   It really wasn't part of my challenge, however, I think it kind of planted the seed.   So, here we go..........

Challenging myself

It's a busy time for me.  Christmas is right around the corner and I'm busy designing samples and then making up product for the open house at the end of October.  I find it quite amazing that it takes me so long to come up with an idea, but then as soon as I have one, it leads to another and then to another.  Luckily this year I found some new images and they made up really nice so it has been been fun working with them.

I broke down and bought a new printer.  I went with a Canon Pixma.  So far I'm happy with it.  It was reasonably priced, it's fairly fast and is far less noisy than the HP which seemed to be constantly shuffling and bumping and raising a racket!  So far so good.

For the month of October, I've challenged myself to work in my journals every single day.  I don't need to complete a page every day, but my challenge is that I must work in my journal every day.  Today is October 2nd and I've managed to complete one page so I'm very pleased with myself.  Woohoo!  I'll post soon so you can see what I've accomplished.

For now, I'm off to bed.  I've had a busy couple of days and the rest of the week looks like it will be the same.

Caio!

SICK

I came home from work at lunch time with a nasty, nasty, sick headache.  I've had it for about 4 days now and I want it to go away.  Borderline migraine and painful!

I think I'm going to have to cut back on my internet time.  I'm spending waaaay too much time on-line looking at everyone's fabulous art and I'm getting nothing done!  I have two pages to finish in one journal and then 3 more journals waiting in the wings so I need to "git 'er done"!

DD is having some health issues, nothing too serious we hope. She has tentively disagnosed with psoriatic arthritis.  She went for blood tests to determine which type she has and they discovered that she has pernicious anemia.  Back in the day, that type of anemia killed you.  It's caused by an inability of the body to absorb B12. She had her blood tests on Friday morning and first thing Monday morning the doctor's office called to tell her the doc wanted to see her right away.  She went in and he explained what's going on and gave her a B12 shot.  She'll have to go back every week for the next month or so.  Somewhere during that month, the doc will re-run blood tests to see if this issue is temporary or whether she'll have to get shots for the rest of her life.  Kind of scary, however I have every confidence that this is not going to be a big issue.  This is me keeping my fingers crossed!

Anyway enough about illness.  Here's one of my journal pages.

Very quick update

• I've finally finished a couple of pages in my journal partner's journal  and I plan to send it off tomorrow. I had planned to send via expresspost, however I've had it way too long now so I'll send it off instead of keeping it until I finish working in my journal.  Heather has been soooooo patient so I can't keep her waiting any longer

(Not sure why I have a bullet up there, but I'm tired of putzing around trying to delete it so I just ignore it )

Last Thursday and Friday, I received 3 journals from a travelling journal swap I'm in.  I hope to work on some of them this weekend and then get them off asap - I know the others are getting impatient.

I also need to come up with some designs for the shops for this Christmas season.  I really need to get at that as the Open House will be in October some time and I'll need to have all the stock delivered well in advance.

On the home front,  I finally managed to get some housework done.  The scary part is that I really didn't realize how dirty my windows and such.  Really quite disturbing!  I hope to make some time in this next 3 day weekend to do some more cleaning.  Boring I know but it needs to be done!

Well, that's about it for me.  I will upload some pix of my latest work sometime over the next few days.  Caio!

OK - so I'm in a really nasty mood ! Rant follows! ... Just saying....

Have I told you lately how much I hate my HP printer?  What a useless piece of garbage that thing is!  If I could have, I would have opened my second floor window and dropped this piece of garbage onto my patio. There would have been a certain sense of payback had I been able to do that....but of course I couldn't so now I'm left to fume and curse!!

I spent over $ 400 on this thing more than 5 years ago.  I was very clear at the time that I wanted a 4 in 1 that had wireless printing capability.  The salesman (who by the way, was full of shit!) assured me  it was wireless enabled and went away with my hard earned money. After days of not being able to get the printer to work properly, buying an extended warranty and so on and so on, I find out from tech support that this "wireless" enabled printer is NOT and will not ever be a wireless enabled or compatible printer - not now, not ever, not even on Jupiter!  Now isn't that special  - it appears that I got screwed royally and I didn't even get kissed!  It's noisy, it's slow and it drives me crazy with the continuous rattling, clicking, humming and paper jamming.  Thanks a bunch, Staples!

I had a busy day at work and had to deal with one asshole and as well as people who feel the need to stick their noses into business that does not concern them.  It makes me laugh - everyone wants to tell you how to do it but nobody wants to actually do it!  I am so tired of the interference and nonsense that goes on there some days.  It's like an blessed circus and all the clowns are in town on the same day!

I can hardly wait for the weekend.  Monday August 5th is a holiday here in Canada and since its also my flex day, I get a 4 day weekend.  I so need it!  Woohoo.

OK, enough bitching.  Gotta run.  Caio!

Hit the road Nasty!

The nastiness is over - finally - I hope!  And I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  Hopefully this whole cluster fuck will just disappear.  Keeping my fingers crossed !!

I paid off some bills that were weighing me down and that exercise was totally liberating.  Free at last, free at last!  I have never done anything the easy way my entire life and this whole business is yet another case in point that proves I am a slow learner!  Needless to say, I have learned my lesson.  Enough said!

I finally have my studio organized in a way that works and that I am comfortable working in.  My daughter described it as 'very functional' and  I must admit that it feels right.  I'm able to find things most days which is very distinct improvement over months past so I'm a very happy camper.  I always seemed to gravitate to my window, regardless of what that station was supposed to be doing. So I decided to quit fighting that urge and  make it my stamping station.  I moved my computer to the other desk (which faces away from the window) and voila!  It works and it feels right.  I love, love, love the new layout.  I did have to move a few things around, namely I moved my printer to my computer station, which in turn freed up room on my stamping desk.  Who knew it would be so simple?

This is another 3 day weekend for me and I've had a lovely relaxing time.  Saturday I had my hair done and then swung over to Shopper's Drugs to take advantage of their special promo for Optimum points.  I had accumulated enough points to get $200.80 (before tax) worth of FREE products.  Wooo Hooo!! Ya gotta love when a plan comes together!

Well must run as I'm meeting a friend for an early supper.  Caio!