52/365 - quickie

51/365 - paper airplane

Paper airplane:

Louisiana State Capitol :

 Louisiana State Capitol observation deck :

We tried to get a picture of the paper airplane flying down, but missed the shot.... oh well

50/365 - Decoupage

49/365 - paper & thread

48/365 - Chevron

More lino block....

I've been playing around with some linoleum blocks.
I've never made linoleum block prints. I did some printmaking when I was in college. But I did Intaglio, which is a very different process than block printing.
I'm just sort of experimenting with them right now, without worrying much with the result....just trying to get a feel for it.

47/365 - linoleum block print

46/365 - pecans

45/365 - pearls

44/365 - bookmark birdies

Prompt : Make a unique bookmark. Bonus : Leave it in a book at a library or bookstore for someone to find.

I'm in an artists' swap, and the theme of the current swap is bookmarks. I was cutting out some bookmarks to make for the swap and made a couple of Flamingo bookmarks for this prompt.

They don't show well in the photo.... I used all metallic inks and made one flamingo gold and the other one silver. The metallic sparkle looks pretty cool.

I had a neurologist appointment today, so I left one of them there. I left the other one in a book in Barnes & Nobles.

43/365 - hammered

Hammered wire:

Hammered finger :

string of curse words, Aleve, and ice for hammered finger:

Hammered wire flamingos embellished with beads, stones, and more wire:

I think I like the smaller one better without the extra wire.... 

42/365 - sweet peppers

41/365 -Quilling

Prompt: Work with shredded paper. Use an actual paper shredder or simply cut paper into thin strips. Maybe even give quilling a try.

I've never done quilling, so I thought I'd give it a shot. 

I am trying to get used to my new prism glasses..... one of the lenses has a prism film over it. This brings the two images that I see together. It is a temporary fix for my double vision.

It is also a very strange thing to get used to. It warps shapes a bit, when viewed close up. Nothing looks quite right. I was grocery shopping yesterday, and I picked up a frozen dinner (yeah.... cooking? No thanks, not yet... ). My first thought was, how peculiar that they changed the packaging to this..... not sure I like this new packaging. It makes no sense. It was square, but not quite. It was warped in a strange way. I took off the glasses and realized the prisms were distorting the shape. 

Good to know, when I start wondering why everything is a bit lopsided. :/

Another weird thing - the reflection of the light on the lense with the prism film creates small rainbows on white objects. It adds a bit of an aura of some color around most objects, it is just more noticeable on white objects. And at night....... wow, do things look odd. Try looking at a light through a prism.... 

My positive spin on the strange rainbow effect ~ my world is a bit more colorful. 

How can that be a bad thing, right?

I haven't come up with a positive spin for the odd warping effect, yet. Perhaps just knowing that the glasses are creating it is enough....... 

another one of those 'mind over matter' things...

Thankfully, this is not a new normal. It is a temporary new normal. And it's a hell of a lot better than double vision. And I can drive now, hallelujah. Until my vision improves, or I have surgery to fix this to the extent possible, I'll just have to adjust to an odd new way of looking at the world. 

At least I can see, although what I see is a bit skewed.. 

I was thinking about how people sometimes say "God will never give me more than I can handle". Or.... the well intentioned, attempting to comfort version - "God will never give you more than you can handle". If that gives a person comfort when they are faced with difficult situations, great. More power to them. But personally, religious beliefs aside, I don't buy that. I don't believe that a Higher Power, whatever power that may be, would 'give' difficulties to anyone.

"Hmmmm.... she seems like a strong person, let me slam her with some tough shit. She can handle it". 

Nope, I don't buy it.

 Shit happens. Period. That is life. 

Anyone can handle anything that they are confronted with.

Where the focus should be is not if we can handle it, but rather how we handle it....

People handle everything, in one way or another.

We choose how we handle difficult situations. 

Life goes on, regardless. 

anyway..... that's my cyborg thought for the day.

I took my glasses off to try this. I could see it well enough up close to pass on the warping & flickering rainbow effect. 

It was kinda fun... I might play around with paper a little bit this evening.

40/365 Oolong

Tea time

39/365 - Buttons

Prompt : Quantity over quality. Work with a lot of something. It could be dried grains from the kitchen, a jar of buttons you have in the closet, or all of your t-shirts.

38/365 - eye exam

I had an appointment with the eye doctor today....

Apparently, I have 6th nerve palsy now, which is a complication from my surgery. This is what is causing my double vision. She said that it's possible that it will improve on it's own, but It's also possible that I may need surgery for it. I go back in two months to monitor any changes & if there is no improvement I would need surgery. I am hoping that it improves enough on it's own that I won't need that. There is something about the thought of surgery to fix a complication/injury from surgery that rubs me the wrong way.
Either way, it will never be completely back to normal. Even with surgery.
I can hope for improvement..... another new normal.

The nurse who called me from the waiting room, chart in hand, gave me a greeting that kinda threw me for a loop... She said "Hi Miss Wyatt! I bet you're happy to be alive!".
I found that very strange, but it gave me something to be grateful for as my fears that this was more than just a normal side effect that would go away were confirmed.

Things could always be worse.

I got this.
I'll deal with it.
Not exactly happy about it, but it is what it is.

I left today's flamingo in the exam room.

I love doing weird stuff like that, especially if it involves any kind of medical tests because I dread all of this stuff. It adds a little bit of fun for me....

37/365 - bye bye birdie

Tackling unfinished projects at home.....

Prime

Paint

Out with the old, in with the new

36/365 - puzzle bird

prompt- Make a puzzle or make something using pieces from a puzzle.

35/365 - Life is good

Playing with paint while nursing a nasty cold.

I did my own version of a Life Is Good design.

34/365 - Wire

prompt ~ work with wire.

33/365 - Shadow bird

Shadow of my balcony bird. Happy happy joy joy

32/365 - Carved Soap

Prompt from 365: A Daily Creativity Journal:

"Keep it clean. Use a bar of soap to make something new. You can carve it with a knife, use it to draw, break it into pieces, or even make bubbles - just have fun.".

I decided to carve it. This is a new one for me.

I've been in a grumpy funk today. Bitch potential - high. The cracks and holes in my skull hurt and my left eye is bothering me today. Ibuprofen takes it down to an annoyingly uncomfortable but tolerable level.

Nothing like carving a bar of soap to cure a funky mood. This one was fun to do. My head still hurts & my eye is still bothering me. But my mood is much improved. Getting into the creative zone is always so uplifting!

Maybe I should stock up on bars of soap.
"Go away, I'm grumpy.... gotta go carve some soap..."