April Day 17

I've had a lot going on the past several days and I've not had much time for pleasurable things.  Lots of stress to deal with at work.  Anyway, I'm going to follow in the footsteps of a few others in my group and list 10 things about me some of you may not know.

I spent 9 years in the Army and had planned to stay for 20 but my body wouldn't hold up.

I did a painting in high school for my senior project in art and the principal of my school liked it so much he asked if he could keep it; I said yes.

I feel most at peace in a forest, preferably by a stream and in the mountains.

I love the beach but prefer the mountains and I'm glad I live in a state that has both.

My favorite colors are green and purple, pretty much any shade of either one.

I had what I was told was an "out of the body experience with full astral projection" when I was a teenager.  I've had a few other odd experiences that make me wonder, too!

I used to teach Copic Marker classes at a local stamp store.

I love all types of music and have a very eclectic library of music on my various Apple products.

I've had cancer and a stroke and I'm still here in spite of crashing twice when I had my stroke.  My doctor told me I was his miracle girl because I dissected my carotid artery and almost died.  I spent five days in a coma, best sleep ever!

I have a wicked sense of humor and it has probably kept me alive!

So, there you have it!  Ten things about me you now know with photos from the time frames to match!  LOL!  The bottom photo is what I look like now but I am starting to get some white hairs.  It's been a surprisingly slow process for which I'm secretly grateful.  So, have an awesome day!

peace and love,
leadonna

April Day 11

Here's a quick spread from my Quote Journal!  I'm feeling inspired by the sunshine and warmth of the day!  Daisies are my favorite flower!  I love their simple beauty.  They're so unassuming and happy and very much what I think of as the hippie of flowers.  

The background of this spread was done with Gelatos.  I love how they're so creamy with such delicious colors.  The head image is from Vera Lane Studios and colored with Prismacolor Pencils with the exception of the daisies.  All of the daisies are created with Uni Posca Paint Pens.  The quote is written with a Sakura Micron pen.  Hope you enjoy it!

peace and love,

leadonna

April Day 10

Today is my daughter's birthday!  Happy Birthday, Jessica!  Oh how I love this girl!  She is strong and brave and a warrior!  She lives in Portland, Oregon where she's in the Doctorate program at Oregon College of Oriental Medicine.  She graduated with her Masters this past August.  I'm super proud of this beautiful girl of mine.  She's not afraid to go after her dreams, instead she achieves them! I'm going to share a few of my favorite pictures of this amazing girl of mine.  Not that I'm proud or anything!  Heeheehee!

Jess and me as she's telling the world exactly what she thinks about it all!

(One of my all time favorite pictures!  She did that herself!)

What an adorable little lady!

 Goat kisses!

Lots of goat kisses!

Look at the beautiful face!

 One of the many falls around Oregon!

 My oldest and my youngest!

Flyfishing, nice catch!

 Masters Graduation at OCOM

Happy Birthday, Jess!  I love you!

peace and love,

leadonna

April Day 9

You know how things randomly pop into your head and you have those "ah-ha" moments?  I had one of those today!  When I was in the Army, there was a street light at Ft. Jackson, SC that I would walk under and it would always turn off.  Every. Single. Time.  My friends noticed this and pretty soon bets were being made on whether or not the light would go off.  Unsuspecting souls would have to buy my friends beers!  We could never figure out what it was about me that caused the light to go off.

Well, today, I was driving along and  it occurred to me why the light would turn off!  My friend, Hazel, that is clairvoyant once told me that she saw my mother around me all the time.  I think the light was turning off because of the energy from my mother!  This may also explain why my entire body tingles every time I have an MRI.  Things that make you go, hmmmmm...... What do you think?

The last picture taken of my mother and me before she passed away on July 4, 1965.  This was on Easter Sunday, she was pregnant with my sibling that passed away with her.  

I've always loved this picture of the the two of us, so I decided to share it with you all.  She looks so pretty here!  She was a petite woman but she was mighty!

peace and love,

leadonna

April Day 8

I went to the my hand surgeon today for a follow up on my wrist surgery.  I hurt it a couple of weeks ago turning a doorknob so I've been worried about it.  It was an interesting visit.  He thinks I've probably just strained my wrist and I'm back in a splint for two weeks and on steroids.  He pulled up my x-rays and he pointed out something interesting.  This part requires a little back story.

I was in the Army from 1983 to 1992.  While I was stationed in Hawaii, another soldier was horsing around and kicked my feet out from under me.  He thought I was holding on to something and I wasn't so I took a spill.  I extended my right arm to try to break my fall and fractured my ulnar.  I also landed with the back of my head pounding the ground and my right shoulder slamming pretty hard, too.  My head kind of hit in a ditch so my shoulder caught the edge.  It was very painful!  The soldier felt awful and was deeply apologetic, he even drove me to the hospital.

As it turned out, I tore some cartilage in my wrist and had the fracture.  Later on I discovered I also compacted a bone in my shoulder.  I ended up having an ulnar shortening done.  They go in, cut the bone in half, slice off a piece of bone, then put the two pieces back together with a steel plate.  It's left to heal for a year and then the plate is removed.  The Army hospitals are all pretty much teaching hospitals.  The hand surgeon that was in charge of my surgery allowed her resident to do my actual surgery.  He flubbed it.  I didn't know for sure at the time that he flubbed it, but, I strongly suspected he flubbed it.

My doctor yesterday pointed out that my ulnar looks really long, like it has never been shortened at all.  And, as he pointed out, he's done a lot of those surgeries.  I told him that I wasn't surprised because another Army ortho doctor had mentioned to me that my ulnar measures 1 mm longer than it did before I had it "shortened."  Of course, she was just a resident, so my doctor quickly dismissed her from the room.  Lord forbid someone tell the truth!  It would certainly explain why I've continued to have pain in my wrist for all of these years, this all started around 1988.  Can you imagine having pain in your dominant hand and wrist for thirty years and it could have been prevented?  I'm pissed!

I'm pissed enough that I've made the decision to seek the assistance of a lawyer.  I've never been a litigious sort, it's really not my nature, but, this was one of the pieces of the puzzle that ended my career in the military.  I was already at the 9 year mark.  I was almost halfway there.  I do receive disability from the Veteran's Administration, however, none of it is for my wrist.  Not one dime.  I think it's time I did something about it.  I think it's time I stand up for myself against the giant.  Instead of a rock and a slingshot, I've got a better plan, a lawyer!

wish me luck,
leadonna

April Day 7

I've procrastinated with my post for today.  I've mulled it around all afternoon and even more this evening.  I was reading about Jane Austen this afternoon after watching Becoming Jane for the umpteenth time on Netflix.  I really thought about how difficult it must have been to have lived in her lifetime.  How hard it would be to love someone but not be allowed to marry merely because of financial circumstances.

I'm so glad we don't live within those constrictions nowadays.  My heart breaks for her each time I watch the movie and know that she was never allowed to marry her true love.  Obviously it never hurt her writing skills!  If anything, her broken heart probably helped her write her books.  I just wish she could have had her happy ending with Mr. Tom LeFroy.  I love a happy ending.  Any other Jane-ites out there?

peace and love,

leadonna

April Day 6

I had a super busy day today, so, I'm going to keep this super short and just share photos of my grandson's 1st Birthday Party.  This is Matthew Gray Jones.  He actually turned one yesterday, however, his party was today.  He's my second grandchild, his sister, Emmaline Grace, is 10 and she's my first grandchild.  I love them both dearly.

 All tuckered out and ready for a nap!  Happy First Birthday, Matthew!  Nina loves you!!

peace and love,

leadonna

April Day 5

Just a quick post before the day is gone to share a spread from my Quote Journal.  I love this quote!

This page was a fun one to do!  I printed my head image, colored it with Prismacolor Pencils and cut it out.  I found a page in a catalog that matched it in size and cut that out.  For the background on the journal pages, I inked the background, stenciled a little, stamped a little and glued everything down.  It was really simple but is one of my favorite pages.  I find it peaceful.  See you tomorrow!

peace and love,

leadonna

April Day 4

It's a beautiful spring day here in North Carolina!  It's going to be in the mid 70's today and that makes me incredibly happy!  I plan to sit in the sun for a bit and soak up some natural vitamin D.  I need it after this past winter.  We've had a lot of rain here, far more than normal, and it has left me feeling drained. So, like the flowers popping up around me, I'm going to enjoy the sun and bloom a little!

This is from my Quote Journal.  (Did you know Jim Carrey paints?  He's really quite talented, a little out there at times, but, what else is new?)  This spread was super easy and fast.  I used Onyx Black Archival Ink and stamped the Stampendous Ranunculus Field stamp across the two pages to create my field of flowers.  Next I simply used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors to paint the page.  I printed out my quote, cut it up and inked the edges with some Memento Lady Bug Ink and glued them on.  Easy peasy!

Thanks for stopping by!

peace and love,

leadonna

April Day 3

Today I feel like sharing a simple little painting I did of the Bode Island Lighthouse.  I love the beach.  I feel so at peace there, like each wave is coming for a worry and taking it away.  The fresh smell of the salty air cleanses my soul.  The breeze whips my hair into a tangled mess and causes my baby hairs to curl into little tendrils around my face.  The sun warms my skin and removes all of the winter chill I dislike so much.  The sand between my toes alternates between warm and cool as I push my feet deeper digging a little hole.

When I look at this little painting, these are all of the feels that wash over me like a wave.  No, there's no actual beach shown.  No, you don't see the water.  Still, I know it's there.  I know what's on the other side of that marsh.  I've felt that sand and that breeze and that sun.  I've watched that water.  Isn't it amazing that one little painting can bring back so many wonderful feelings?  Isn't that why we create art?  To share our feelings.  To show the world visually what we can't always say with words.  Or maybe just to reminds ourselves of a beautiful experience or feeling, even if we don't share it with others.

I know it's not perfect but it reminds me of a perfect place and that's all that matters.   Maybe it will warm you up a little too!  Have a wonderful day!

peace and love,
leadonna

April Day 2

It's day 2 of Effy Wild's Artfully Wild Blog Along challenge.  I thought I would share a page from my Quote Journal.  This is just a small Dylusions journal that I started a short while back that I'm using for my favorite quotes that make me happy.  Something that when I'm feeling blue, I can pick it up and look through it and feel better.

I plan to leave my Quote Journal to my granddaughter, Emmaline.  When I've filled the pages, I want to write a special message just to her.  This way, she'll always have a bit of me with her and hopefully she'll cherish it as much as I cherish her.  I want her to always remember our times together creating art.

The head is a digital stamp from Vera Lane Studios (you can find her on Etsy) and the body is just paper I collaged into arms and a body shape.  The background is various inks from Memento and the circles were lids I used like stamps.  I printed the quote from the computer, cut it up, and inked it.  I added my flowers and some Stickles and, voilà!  Oh, and the head was colored with Prismacolor pencils.

This time of year, when the flowers start blooming, it always lifts my spirit and makes me happier.  There is a lot of truth to this quote!  I hope you have a wonderful day!  Thanks for stopping by!

peace and love,

leadonna

<3

April Fools

I've accepted a challenge by Effy Wild to blog every day in April.  How foolish of me!  I don't know what I was thinking because typing right now is quite painful.  I had wrist surgery on January 8th and everything was going fine until I turned a doorknob a couple of weeks ago and felt a very sharp pain. I don't know exactly what happened in my wrist, but, something ain't right!  It hurts!  I go to see my surgeon on April 8th and hopefully he can figure out what happened and fix it.  Preferably without another surgery!  Anyway, I've accepted the challenge, I will do my best to complete it.

The wrist issue has also interfered with my art.  It's hard to draw and paint right now but my soul is screaming at me to do it anyway.  It's like a damn Nike commercial playing in my head, "Just do it!"  So I sketch but I'm not painting.  I'm scared to mess up the sketch that I've fallen in love with.  How silly is that?  The "what ifs" have taken up residence in my brain.  What if I totally fuck it up?  What if I can't get the skin tones just right?  What if I can make the bubbles look the way I see them in my head?  What if it sucks?  I hate the "what ifs."  They suck!

I know it's only a journal page, but, it's a piece of me.  I put my heart into it.  I went back into my mind to my childhood for this journal spread.  I take ownership.  So, the perfectionist in me joins forces with the "what ifs" and it becomes a stalemate.  It sits and it mocks me because it's incomplete.  It is my "Circle of Art."  

How the hell do I break out of this vicious circle?  How do I abolish the "what ifs" for good?  I really want to learn to create and not worry about perfection.  I want to create for the sake of creating.  I want to get my hands all painty and messy and just enjoy the process.  I wish I could let my inner child come out to play, but, the truth is, she wasn't much fun.  That's a whole other story for another time.

love and peace,

leadonna