A Long and Slow Recovery

It has been a long and painful recovery since I had my shoulder surgery. And what made matters worse was that I also had another unrelated health problem that cropped up after my surgery which caused me to be bedridden for about a month. So the first four weeks, I was camped out in the bedroom. My two little 'boyz' were always eager to visit me, but when I wasn't up to having them playing on top of the bed, they were resigned to watching me from the doorway, where I had a baby gate placed to keep them out.
Kim Nugent came over to visit me many times during the course of my recovery. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful friend.

She even brought me some cool gifts while I was recuperating. I got a nice assortment of found objects, including odd dental items she scored during one of her rummaging excursions.

Over Labor Day weekend, I felt well enough to go to Valley Ridge Art Studio, where I had signed up for a soldering workshop with Thomas Mann. I knew I was going to be unable to do any sawing or pounding, but I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would at least be able to attempt a little soldering. At that time, I was still wearing that huge sling that I came home from the hospital with, but I took it off when I tried to solder.

Tom was great, and had metal pieces sawed out for me ahead of time, since he was aware that I would be unable to do it myself. I tried very hard to solder the little pieces together like everyone else in the class, but my shoulder just couldn't handle it. So Tom cut out and formed a much simpler "handicapped" version for me to do.

I managed to get half of it soldered, but that was it. My shoulder was too weak and terribly painful, so I reluctantly had to give up. And that was sooo difficult for me, because I wanted so badly to be able to fully participate in the class. The tears were in my eyes many times when I couldn't do what everyone else was doing, and I became quite frustrated at my inability to do something that I was looking forward to for months.

Fortunately, I have signed up for several other workshops in October and November that I am looking forward to. I am still somewhat limited in what I will be able to do, but I am in much better shape than I was a month ago.

A few weeks ago, I stopped at a rummage sale on the way to a doctor's appointment. It was an assemblage artist's dream-come-true! Junk, junk, and more junk!!! Three big hay wagons heaped with knobs, antique tools, old castors, and gadgets galore! Karl, an old antique collector/dealer that I knew from years ago along with a friend of his, had set up this array of goodies behind Karl's barn. I hadn't seen Karl in years, so he was tickled to see me. There was sooo much to see, but I was pressed for time. I quickly scanned over each wagon, and picked out a few things I wanted. Karl told me not to worry, he would set my stuff aside, and I could come back later when I had more time to look.

When I got home from my appointment, I immediately called up Kim, the rummage 'queen,' to see if she wanted to go back to the sale with me. She didn't have to think twice, and before I knew it, she was already at my house, ready to go. We had sooo much fun there. Karl is quite a character!

Kim was thrilled to find a box filled with old castors. She's been using them in some projects recently.

Karl took us on a special tour of his 'war room,' where he has a collection of old memorabilia from world war II and the Korean war.

Finally, it was time to pay for our purchased and say goodbye to Karl. I came home with a bunch of treasures, but Kim found even more stuff than I did! We both almost peed our pants laughing when we realized that we were there for 2 hours!!!

Yes... This Is Me...(ugh!!!)

yes, this is me at my worst. i had my surgery this past wednesday and now starts the healing process. i am left-handed, so i feel really helpless. i can't even wear a normal shirt. i was having a lot of pain in my left shoulder for about the last 3 or 4 months, and cortisone shots weren't working. i had an mri done on it, and it showed my collarbone was irritating my ac joint, so the doctor trimmed away a little of my collarbone. when he was working on my shoulder, he found something he wasn't expecting. there was an unusual tear in my rotator cuff. it was torn lengthwise, right down the middle, so he stitched that up too. that's why it didn't show up on the mri. anyhow...i must now wear this huge contraption of a sling for he thought about a month. i will probably find out more specifics from him when i see him on monday, so he can change the thick dressing covering my shoulder. this sling is really bulky, and my arm is so restricted in it, that all i can do is wiggle my fingers. i can't even wear a shirt without pulling it over that arm, because it is also strapped around my waist.

here are several of the unflattering photos my husband took of the sling, i told him to only email them to my sister, but i think he emailed them to everyone in his address book. because when i would talk on the phone to people, they would say, yeah...he sent them to me. so i figured i might as well post them here too.
see how there's all that cushioning between my arm and my body? it sticks way out in front of me like a big cast. so, needless to say, i can't work on any art projects for a while, and that really sucks. it's even hard for me to type this, because i have to hunt-and-peck every letter. i'm signed up for some art workshops beginning labor day weekend, and i'm really hoping i'll be able to do them.

I Know I Should've Posted Something Sooner....

Artwork Zine and Auction to Benefit

"A Place to Bark"

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Jill Beninato, an Artist/Pet Photographer, who was putting together a project to support Bernie Berlin's "A Place To Bark" animal rescue. Jill invited myself, along with 20 other artists to create an original piece of artwork based on the "Party Animals" theme, using any medium we wanted. I was thrilled to be able to be a part of this project, because 2 of my little pugs came from there. Jill photographed each piece and created a zine featuring everyone’s work, along with other fun articles and info about A Place To Bark. The finished zine is full color, 43 pages, and printed professionally by Lulu Printing. You can get your very own copy by clicking here. You will also be able to view a loop of all the artwork by clicking on that link. ALL of the proceeds go directly to helping the animals at A Place To Bark! All the original artwork from this zine will be auctioned off on Ebay on October 15th, 2009. I will post info about the auction as the date gets closer.

This is the cover of the zine...

and this is the artwork I contributed. It is done on a 12" x 12" stretched canvas.

This is (from left to right) Sophie, Junior, Mugsy, Popeye, and Otis.

Mugsy and Popeye were both rescued by Bernie, and when she found each of them, they were very ill, starved, and near death. I wrote a short article about them in the zine, on the page opposite of the picture. Sophie and Otis both have passed away a while back, and tragically my sweet Mugsy died very unexpectedly since I finished this piece.

Kim came over several weeks ago for a 'play day' in my studio, and this time she came bearing gifts! She is such a sweet person. She gave me a giftbox, which was an old cigar box tied up with vintage lace ribbon. Inside, she had about a dozen items, each carefully wrapped up in brown tissue paper. It was all little 'junque'... cool little stuff to use in jewelry/assemblage art...surplus items from one of her finds at an auction. I was thrilled with the gift, and she was tickled to be able to give the doo-dads to someone who loved junque as much as she did!

After receiving my gift, she unveiled her huge 'find' from the auction...

Over 130 valve knobs!!!!! They were all sizes, shapes, and colors!!!!

And if you knew how good of a deal she got on these babies, you'd pee in your pants!

She let me pick out any 3 of the handles that I wanted, so these are the ones I finally chose. It was soooo hard to pick just 3. I asked her if I could buy a few more, but she said no. She then added that she'll give me some more, after I make something with the ones I have.

She then added, "and you can't just string some wire through them and call it a pendant, either!!!!"

So I made her put these 4 away 'on reserve' for me, until I get something made with the other ones.

I did made a few pins recently. I am planning on selling them. I guess I'll have to get a store open on Etsy soon, so I can list them.

This one is my favorite. I will even make one like this on special order if you have an old family photo you would like in it. I love how the etched metal looks!~

Oh yeah...I'm not going to be able to do much posting in the next few weeks (so what else is new, right??) I'm having arthroscopic surgery done tomorrow morning on my left shoulder (and I'm left-handed), and I will be unable to move it for at least a month. I have to wear some big, oversized shirts, because I was told I cannot even move my arm to get a sleeve on it...everything I wear has to be worn over the arm. I'm going to look like a freak, because I can't do anything with my right hand. My makeup will look like bozo the clown, and we won't even discuss the hair! I had my husband try to use a curling iron on it the other morning for a 'dry run', and...well...it was a disaster! Hopefully I won't be laid up for too long!!!!!

My Latest Disaster...

"So always look for the silver lining

And try to find the sunny side of life."

~ P. G. Wodehouse

This morning I woke up bright and early and let my little boyz, Popeye and Junior, out for their morning "pee". I then fed them, and went outside to sit on our deck, enjoying the peacefulness and beauty of the river. I have a number of bird feeders hanging out there, and love to watch the pretty birds come and go throughout the day. It's especially nice to see the orioles come to get their fill of the grape jelly I put out for them. Of course there's always the larger, pesky birds which like to swoop in and scare the pretty little finches away, but usually a rap on the patio door will be enough to send them flying away from the feeders for a while. When I came back inside, I baked 5 small loaves of homemade blueberry bread. It's a favorite of my daughter's, and when she knows I made a batch, she makes sure to stop by and take several loaves back home with her to enjoy later. I then started cooking up some chicken, to make some chicken noodle soup for later.

I've been working on a pair of matching pendants. My sister found yet a different army portrait of our dad, and we both decided it was our favorite pose of all. She was hoping that I would make her a simple pendant using the photograph, so I began working on it last week. While I was etching the metal, I decided to make two identical pendants ~ one for her, and the other for myself. I thought it would be something truly special for each of us...something only us sisters would have...which would be a wonderful remembrance of our very special dad. I finished the body of both pendants, but now have to fashion them both into neckpieces. So, to you MB, this is what I was working on for us...I know you check my blog regularly...I hope you like it!

My friend Kim was planning on spending the day with me in my studio, but she called to let me know she had a bunch of paperwork that she needed to work on for her upcoming art retreat this Fall. So we decided that we'll get together tomorrow instead.

While I was on my computer this morning, I heard a loud noise like something fell, so I went upstairs to see what it was. I didn't find anything out of the ordinary in the livingroom or the kitchen, so I decided to go upstairs just to see if there was anything that fell up there. What could possibly have fell up there??? Nobody was even up there.

This is what I found! Our bedroom has a walk-in closet. The long wall of the room has a pole which runs the length of it, with a shelf that was on top of the brackets. The opposite wall has a much smaller pole and shelf. Of course, I took possession of the larger area when we moved here, leaving the little token-side for Mike's clothes. My side was absolutely packed with jackets and other items...


Winter clothes... summer clothes...clothes that fit... clothes that used to fit...clothes that I don't wear, but don't want to part with...clothes that I spent a lot of money on but don't want to give to Goodwill...you get the picture. And there it all was laying...in one big, pathetic heap on the floor. The weight of all my stuff took its toll on the poor brackets, and they ripped right out of the wall! I knew it wasn't a good situation in there for quite a while, but I didn't think this would happen! And these photos are taken after I had already taken out the shelf and some of the clothes!



Here's the board that I had mounds of 'stuff' on top of...it's longer than what the picture shows. And that storage bag on top of it...that has about 15 pair of jeans that are too tight for me to even get over my thighs! So you know what I'll be up to now.............