bethsblog

Unstitched

This morning I got the three stitches removed from my right index finger. Honestly, that hurt more than the incision did the day after the operation.  But it's a relief to have them gone. They were cramping my style quite a bit... like I've had to keep the darned thing clean and dry for 10 days, which required showering, cooking, and doing dishes with a vinyl glove taped at the wrist. 

The pebbly little annoyance that my orthopedic surgeon removed was simply a thrombosed vein... in other words a tiny chunk of dried up blood... a scabby little mass... are you grossed out yet? Just be glad I didn't take a picture!

The sore places where the nurse gouged out the stitches are feeling better by the hour. Tomorrow I can take a normal shower and go band aid free if I want.

It's so good to have my finger back!

"Keep it simple."

Things I don't understand...and don't necessarily need to...

Seth Godin's post from Tuesday, Things you don't understand got me thinking. There's a lot of things I really don't understand. Take the economy, for instance. There's no understanding it. And don't make the mistake of thinking the "experts" understand it. And brain surgery... I don't understand that either... but if I went to school for enough years I probably could learn it. I feel the same way about HTML.

But then there are those things that I don't understand, won't ever understand, and maybe don't need to understand... Here's my short list:

• What came first, the chicken or the egg?

• Is my glass half full or half empty?

• What happens after we die?

While pondering these questions I Googled Unanswerable Questions of the Universe and found the following hilarious site, which provided me with some interesting answers. (Warning: link at your own risk... this site may contains items inappropriate for younger audiences and things that may be offensive to those who are easily offended.)

"Keep it simple."

Last night I dreamed...

...That I gave birth to a baby boy. It was a painless labor... a month before my due date. The baby weighed 7 lbs. It fed vigorously right away and also was able to speak a few key words like 'hungry', 'tired' and 'wet'. This was one very helpful baby. The location of this dream was my grandparents home... they are both gone now, but back in the day, their home was a mecca for food, fun and fine arts expressions like writing, painting and dancing.

One weird thing about this dream, was that the baby was comically aggressive, throwing a punch or two with it's newborn fists at my cheeks or his father's cheeks, while giggling hysterically, to which I would laugh and declare: "Boys!"

Oh, and the baby's father was a handsome black man... the same guy who was one of the actors in an episode of Extras that I watched last night.

One weird thing... toward the end of the dream, I was feeding the baby, and at a certain point he made this disgusted face and pulled away from my breast. Instead of milk flowing forth, there was bright red blood.

Looking for an interpretation, naturally the first place I went was the Internet. Found this fun site: The Curious Dreamer. I looked up a few words in their Dream Dictionary and here are my results:

Baby: A new beginning or a new phase in life, relationship, career, etc.

Bleeding: you are feeling weakened or tired (emotionally, mentally, or physically), or you feel something is sapping your energy or time or attention.

Being punched:  you feel or fear your boundaries being crossed or your integrity compromised by someone else.

Laughing: Happiness, joy, fun, humor, compassion, or many positive feelings somewhere in your life.

So I pieced this all together and I guess the baby represents my latest creative ventures, with which I am obsessed... making my "stained glass" watercolor paintings, designing for Zazzle, blogging, and setting up an online art gallery.  Yesterday was a banner day. I think I landed a local venue for my work... I made a wonderful connection with a local artist who has a gorgeous gallery that I have always admired and wished to be a part of, but until now the style of my work just didn't fit.

The blood... well I have been rather weak and tired of late... recovering from hand surgery and all, but I am also reminded that during the dream I was worrying about how I was going to get all my creative stuff done while taking care of a new baby... even the most helpful baby in the world is a heckluva' lot of work. On the other hand, I am thinking that I need to avoid letting the new baby... all these new creative ventures, sap all my time and energy to the exclusion of other important things like eating, sleeping, moving, and spending time with the people I love.

I guess being punched by a psycho baby fits with the bleeding... but I also know that I battle fear... fear comes with each new venture. Normal fear. Not the paralyzing kind of fear... just the natural fear of failure or not being accepted. Perhaps I need to read
'Art and Fear' again.

And the handsome black man... well I don't need a dream analyzer to figure that one out. When I was a teenager I had a hopeless crush on one of my art teachers... a handsome black man. In the foolishness of youth I got a little over-involved with him... wanted to marry him... enough about that... except, let's not forget, it was the hippi-fied tie-dyed 70's. Still, he was a major factor in what influenced me toward my current career as an art maker.

Well that got a lot longer than I expected. More details about the new gallery opportunity will be coming in future posts. Now I've got to get to work making art... and please... no more babies!

"Keep it simple."
 

Fragile

One wrong move and life is forever changed. 

On Halloween night the beloved 13-year-old granddaughter of a friend of mine accidentally stepped out in front of a moving car while crossing a neighborhood street, incurring many serious injuries including devastating brain damage. Erin has spent the last 4 months in a rehabilitation facility and went home last week. Now she will continue her physical, occupational, speech and every other kind of therapy you can think of, (since she basically has to relearn to do everything,) on an outpatient basis. Her family home is being remodeled to create a barrier-free existence for her currently wheel-chair-bound life. Heaven only knows if she will ever walk or talk or feed herself again.

Last November the 25 year-old daughter of another friend suffered a series of strokes, resulting from a rare reaction to migraine medication. Gilana fell to the floor in the bathroom of her apartment, hitting her head. There she lay, unconscious, for many hours until found by her concerned coworkers. Barely breathing, she was rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that she had no brain function. Three days later, after harvesting her organs, the doctors removed Gilana from life support.

On Easter Sunday, my 86-year-old father-in-law slipped on some ice in his front yard while refilling a bird feeder. Later in the day his hip seemed a little sore. All the king's horses and all the king's men and all the middle-aged offspring finally convinced him to go to the ER. Turns out he cracked his pelvis. He was one of the lucky ones. With rest, rehabilitation, and patience, he should be good as new in about 6 weeks. But when it happens like this you feel like you dodged a bullet.

Like several weeks ago when our daughter Sara turned left into traffic out of her workplace driveway... she thought the coast was clear... except it wasn't. She got smacked. Totaled her car... but escaped with only a few minor bumps and bruises.

Or 4 years ago when I fell headfirst down the stairs... (those d*mned Birkenstocks!) as my family looked helplessly on. Could have broken my neck, I guess. Got away with a couple of bruises, and a sore hip, knee and shoulder.

Thinking about all this reminds me of one of my favorite songs
by Sting, Fragile:

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star...
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are

"Keep it simple."

Simple Easter

This year Gary and I opted out of the Traditional Easter.. well we did give-in to one teensy bag of chocolate eggs... It was a wonderful make-it-up-as-you-go-along day, perhaps by default, because the rest of the extended family had other plans in distant cities. No church, no ham dinner, no crowds, no schedule. We started our Sunday in the usual way with omelets, and smoothies. Gary buried himself in the newspaper for the requisite hour. I enjoyed the special music on our local public radio station. Mid-morning I packed pastrami sandwiches and we headed north, up the scenic lake shore drive with camera, binoculars and no particular destination in mind.

Beach Ice

Gary at Duck Lake State Park Beach

Duck Lake Outlet

Undermine

Photographer with Footprint

Why "It's still too cold for swimming, Sophia."

Feathered Friends

Great Blue on the Hunt

Random Longhorn Sunbath

We took our sweet time and traveled about 60 miles in 4 hours. Made it as far north as Pentwater, Michigan, a nostalgic little village where my family vacationed during my childhood. Then we express-wayed home, stopping at a local Chinese buffet for an early dinner. (The sushi was particularly good!)

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful way to celebrate the new life that Easter and Spring always brings.

"Keep it Simple."

Finger Stone

Friday, I went under the knife. Unlike my favorite blogger Dooce, who photographed and published her basal cell carcinoma excisions, I'll spare you the gruesome images. Suffice to say, I have a really cool Frankenstein finger with 3 stitches. After two days the pain and swelling is minimal, and mobility is about 75%. 

Today, I'm happily back at the computer, but I will need my handsome, strapping husband to open the pickle jar for a few more days.

What the Doc found was not... thankfully... a tumor on the tendon. It was a small, brownish, hardish mass... probably old blood from an old injury... sort of free floating right under the skin. Nothing exotic, like my lost twin. Imagine having a small annoying pebble in your shoe, except in your finger, right where it bends.

In about 4 seconds, out it popped. The Doc said he was glad that he didn't have to do a massive excavation for a tumor, which will often be wrapped around the tendon... a messy business at best. They dropped my little finger stone into a jar and held it up for my to see... (I asked) and off to the lab it went. That's that.

"Keep it simple."

Happy Easter

Happy Spring!

                                                  "Spring Lilacs" 
                                                          10 x 10"

"Keep it Simple"

Spring has Sprung!

Winter's grip has finally slipped.
Crocus shoots emerge where snow once was.
Birds sing sunny songs.
Hooray!
It's Spring!

"Keep it Simple."

Mouse-itis

I have this weird lump on my index finger. Right where the second joint is. Right where my finger bends lovingly to caress my mouse. It hurts a little and makes my finger go numb. It makes it hard to type, write, hold my tea cup, do dishes, you name it... life revolves around my right index finger. . It's about the size of a split pea and it's a funny blueish green color under skin.

Last week my kids teased me that I could use it next fall for my Halloween costume.

I've been noticing this lump for about the last month.  Monday I saw my orthopedist. He said it's a small tumor on the tendon. Friday I'm going to have a local anesthesia and it's going bye-bye.

As for Halloween, I still have my marvelous rock star mask.

"Keep it simple."

Caramel Coffee Cake

Caramel rolls are a family tradition at the holidays around here. Here's a decadently delicious and SCD legal version that's well worth the fuss. 

Caramel Upside-Down Coffee Cake

For the topping:
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. honey
3/4 c. chopped pecans

For the dough:
1/4 c. melted butter
1/4 c. honey
3 eggs
1/4 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3 cups almond flour

Spice mixture:
1/2 c almond flour
1 tsp. cinnamon

Generously butter a  9" round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. To make the topping, melt 1/2 c. butter and 1/2 c. honey together in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes or until a candy thermometer reads 249 degrees. Pour caramel into cake pan. Scatter pecans over caramel.  Set aside.

In a small bowl combine ingredients for spice mixture and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine dough ingredients in order listed to make a stiff dough. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls into the palm of your hand and quickly roll into a ball. If dough seems overly sticky, wet your hands a bit.  Roll dough ball in the spice mixture to coat evenly. Arrange dough balls in cake pan on top of caramel.  They will be fairly closely spaced and you will end up with 12 or so. Flatten the tops a bit when all are arranged in the pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean and the center seems firm.  Loosen edges and invert immediately onto serving plate. Let cool to room temperature and serve. This freezes well.

Click here for information on how you can get a copy of this beautiful Turtle Soup Cookbook Cover and a set of printer-friendly recipes.

"Keep it simple."

Ann Arbor Photolog

I'm back from a beautiful week in Ann Arbor with Amy, Stephen and the kiddies. Sophia was dizzy with eager anticipation for her
3rd birthday which was last Friday. We made birthday cupcakes, princess crowns, and paper Easter Eggs painted with her new set of watercolors paints... she's a crafty little gal! Cassidy is growing like a proverbial weed... chubby and adorable... and becoming more alert and convivial every day. We joked that considering the low carb, high fat and high protein SCD diet that Amy eats to control her Crohn's disease, Cassidy is probably getting 1/2 and 1/2 when she nurses!

Here's a buncha' cute pics.

Cassidy: "I'm not so sure I like it here."

Cassidy: "I'm really not so sure I like it here."
Sophia: "Take her, mom."

Sophia the tent maker.

"Inside my tent."


"Banana breakfast cupcakes with peanut butter frosting."
Hat, courtesy of the Ann Arbor Fire Department.

Happy Birthday sewing cards.

Dimple

"Keep it simple."

Random thoughts and what about next week?

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been doing lots of typing and mousing and have developed quite a lot of soreness in my right wrist and index finger. Wednesday night I ventured into Office Max and bought these really cool bean-bag wrist rests... one for my mouse and one for my keyboard. Wow! What a difference. And my typing accuracy has improved remarkably, now that my wrists are anchored. They're called ergobeads by IMAK. Also they're my favorite shade of dark gray so they go with my overall look, or "identity system", as my designer daughter Sara says.

And about my walk day before yesterday: in spite of the 28 degree cold, the birds were chirping it up, I heard an energetic woodpecker pounding-away somewhere, and my beloved mourning dove is back, scoping out the neighborhood from his favorite telephone wire.

I'll be taking a blog break next week... off to Ann Arbor for several days of hilarity with Amy, Stephen and the grandkids. If you need something sensational to look at while I'm gone, check out this shot of the Large Hadron Collider from Astronomy Picture of the Day, one of my favorite sites. Also here's an adorable shot of my son-in-law with his chilly friend.

And if after all that, you're still wondering how to kill some time, check out MyZazzle.  I've added several new products this week. (That note card in the sidebar, for example.)

And don't forget to:

"Keep it simple."

creativity

Posted on my studio wall is this list of options that I use when I'm stuck in a creative rut.

Distort
Embellish
Reverse
Invert
Reduce
Enlarge
Fade
Brighten
Soften
Sharpen
Substitute
Juxtapose
Superimpose
Add
Subtract
Multiply
Simplify

 

"Keep it simple."

Dumb

I wrote a post yesterday with the intention of publishing it today. It rambled on about the marvelousness of the ballroom dance championships I watched on Sunday... how the dancers made the extremely difficult choreography appear easy... how things that look easy, are often quite difficult... but the post looked really dumb to me today.

Delete key. 

Today my hand hurts from too much arting and typing and mousing. So I'm going to suit-up and take a walk on this rare sunny West Michigan winter morning and air my brain.

"Keep it simple."

I've been a little frantic...

...what with redesigning bethsblog and bethsart and setting up MyZazzle product line, I've been a crazed, hyper-adrenalized insomniac with a serious case of mouseitis in my right index finger. 

Decisions, decisions...I didn't want too many colors, or too many categories, or too much stuff cluttering up my sidebar. We all know how stuff, if allowed to, will expand to fill the available space. I didn't want my sites it to look like a hodgepodge or a 3-ring circus.

So now that things are how I want 'em webwise, maybe I can get back to writing, painting, and sleeping. After all the hullabaloo I caused myself, I have an even greater respect for the real web designers like my son-in-law Stephen, who spends tireless hours building websites like this one from scratch every day. (He can actually write that scary foreign language called HTML.)

This little gem, that I picked up in a painting workshop re-reminds me what I need to be about in art, in life, in general:

"Simplicity is knowing when less is too little and more is too much."  Linda Baker


"Keep it Simple."

Bucket List

Today I'm going out to lunch with the ladies... a monthly birthday club that I was invited to join last summer. It's a great time with a great gaggle of gals and best of all it gets me out of my cave for a few hours.

This month we had an assignment. To write and then share our Bucket List. Inspired by the popular current film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, it's a list of the 10 things you want to do before you die.

So here's mine:

1. Quit making lists.
2. Quit doing what I'm told.
3. Drive across the USA.
4. Spend a night in the Ice Hotel.
5. Manage to avoid knee replacement.
6. Manage to not die of pancreatic cancer (like Mom and Dad did).
7. Spend a whole day reading and watching classic movie DVD's when I'm not sick.
8. Complete a 6 hat New York Times Crossword Puzzle without cheating.
9. Go snorkeling in the Caribbean.
10. Sell a coffee mug, or maybe even a painting.

There. That was fun.

I have yet to see the film... waiting for it to be released on DVD so I can order it on netflix.  (I told you, I don't get out much.) It seems that they have an exclusive on the term Bucket List.  The best site I could find that was anywhere close was this one.  Scary!

"Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be sorry."
-Mark Twain

"Keep it simple."