60,000 mile tune-up

Welcome to middle-age, and thank goodness for health insurance!

Well, I'm feeling fine, and everything seems the same as ever, but within the past 48 days following my routine annual physical I have...

been to that certain doctor because I'm a girl for a checkup,
seen the dentist for a cleaning,
cracked a tooth and saw the dentist again for so he could make my first crown (temporary right now),
taken my dog to the vet twice,
had ultrasound scans of 3 separate body parts,
been to another doctor so she could look at everything (where the sun don't shine...),
seen the urologist 4 times for a humiliating scope and tests that I hope I never have to repeat,
taken my son to the pediatrician and two ear specialists prior to ear tube surgery,
taken my son to the hospital for outpatient surgery to have ear tubes put in,
been to the gastroenterologist for a consult,
swallowed a radioactive pill,
had 3 separate appointments for a scan of some other body part,
had blood drawn twice.

I am still looking forward to...

getting my permanent crown,
having a preventative scope of another of my body parts,
having two more of my body parts squished and scanned,
taking my son for a follow-up check on his ear tubes,
taking my dog for a follow-up procedure at the vet.

I am thankful to live in the age of modern medicine, and I am REALLY thankful that I can say "so far, so good!"

today i made a treasury

Whoo-hoo!

Today I was lucky and for the first time secured a spot in the treasury pages of Etsy.com . The curator of the treasury may select twelve items from various sellers and showcase them on a treasury page. The treasury shows a photo of each item, and links the viewer to each vendor's shop. Viewers may post comments.

My treasury has a forest theme, and features mostly paintings and prints filled with beautiful trees, birds, flowers, and various animals.

Here is the link so that you can go and take a look. Enjoy!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=42562

This treasury will expire at 10:57am on Tuesday, 2/10/2009. If you don't get a chance to see it before it expires, here are the links to the featured artists:
http://www.Sascalia.etsy.com/
http://www.SavageArtworks.etsy.com/
http://www.libertylove.etsy.com/
http://www.artiryna.etsy.com/
http://www.shelleyroze.etsy.com/
http://www.vedaarts.etsy.com/
http://www.gallerialufrano.etsy.com/
http://www.artofandrewdaniel.etsy.com/
http://www.chickory.etsy.com/
http://www.karenfieldsgallery.etsy.com/
http://www.rozart.etsy.com/
http://www.lesliemacon.etsy.com/

can you see me now?

Yesterday I changed the template of this blog from "minima stretch" to what you see now after feedback in the forums that informed me that my blog was s-o-o-o wide it couldn't be read all at once, and the reader had to keep turning her head to the left to read it all, and that my little green border outlines weren't lined up. Hmmm...strange. It all looked great on my screen (PC operating MS Windows XP software). I had gone to the stretch format because that allowed me more room to post photos within my blog entries, and made the sidebar...well...to the side.

I'm glad to live and learn. It's all trial and error by the self-taught method over here, so I REALLY appreciate the feedback. Hopefully this looks cool.

Now...if only I could figure out how to get my little captions under my pictures to go where I want to place them. The best solution I have come up with so far is to underscore a line in front of my caption long enough to push my words out far enough so they are lined up under the image, then change the color of the underscore to match the background color of my blog so it becomes invisible and leaves only the caption showing. Sometimes it works fine, but heaven forbid if I try to move things around later. Even at that, when I view my blog from someone else's computer it doesn't always look the same as what I see from my monitor at home.

Hopefully, I'll look back on this an laugh at my own inexperince. In the meantime, if things look out of whack....well, it's me...not you!

spring cleaning for the soul

I have been doing housecleaning of sorts, trying to evaluate how I am spending my time creatively, and looking ahead to what I want to be achieve in the next 5, 10, and 50 (if I'm lucky) years.

Maybe it's my age or my hormones or who knows what, but I feel so much like I'm spinning my wheels, not doing what I SHOULD be doing, in terms of living a life worthy of all I have been given...my health, family, artistic talent, an absolutely idyllic childhood, supportive family and friends. I told my mom the other day that I don't feel like I am doing my "best" at anything anymore.

Balance those thoughts with the little voice inside my head that tells me that, of course, I am doing largely what I envisioned and hoped for long ago every time I do chores and cook dinner, help the kids with homework and field trips, take the pets to the vet, pay bills, do laundry, grocery shop, and all the other occupations that fill my time. Mom bolstered my spirits by saying that I was doing my best at raising two nice kids!

So...


Can I paint and draw more?
Make more interesting and beautiful jewelry?
Go to bed earlier?
Improve my metalworking skills?
Market myself to sell better?
Be more patient and kind?
Exercize more (way more)?
Maintain genuine friendships?
Pray more?
Spend less time on the computer, and more time in the studio?




...I am trying, and I am trying to "do my BEST."