I am going to rehab for my back,hip and now knee. Is this a shock to anyone? No. I am almost 55 with too much weight on my joints and blessed with the loveliest syndrome: degenerative joint disease. I do not want to be in rehab. I do not want to use a cane. I do not want to end up in a power chair.

Yesterday I got an injection of synvisc in my knee to help with the pain of protruding meniscus and joint effusion. I haven’t noticed an improvement yet…

guess i will go to the pool now and get some exercise…

]]> http://briedah.com/2011/07/30/no-more-rehab/feed/ 0 http://briedah.com/2011/07/17/the-hidden-heart/ http://briedah.com/2011/07/17/the-hidden-heart/#comments Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:21:33 +0000 briedah http://briedah.com/?p=911

My friend constancet2009 on Flickr mentioned an artist named Junelle Jacobsen whose blog had some fabulous ideas for art journaling with paper crafts. This above 6×6 collage is based on her own journal page called ‘little beating heart’. I took a piece of brown journal paper (Darice Paper Mache Journal) and crunched it up into a ball. I stained the ball with distress ink then unraveled the paper and smoothed it out. I stamped images with various rubber stamps, cut out the heart, and glued a distressed page of text to the back (so text shows thru heart) I then glued down images culled from the stash and wrote text and added stickers. Page then was glued to larger square sheet 6.5 inches from pad of My Mind’s Eye  Stella & Rose cardstock. Punched ring holes thru all sheets.

About two years ago I was urged by my primary care doctor that I needed to lose weight as I had serious co-morbidities that would ultimately shorten my life. My health issues were complicated by the fact that I needed to have a cervical laminectomy to repair a herniated disc in my neck. Those of you who follow my blog here may recall that my pain was blinding and constant. I used art as way of coping. Now that I am recovered from the neck surgery I am free to pursue further improvement of health issues that stem from being morbidly obese. I learned about  Dr. Emma Patterson  through an article in the news about weight loss surgery. Her clinic, Oregon Weight Loss Surgery, (OWLS for short) is a center of excellence, first of it’s kind in the Portland metro area.

I have chosen gastric banding as a tool to assist in my weight loss journey. Here is my visual journal that will document my hopes, fears and affirmations as I cope with life without sugar and unhealthy eating behavior.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I prefer Halloween over Christmas. I love orange and red and black and purple; the fall colors: gold leaves against a crisp blue sky. October light is magical to me….I made almost all these collages digitally. The 3rd one down Live Life is cut and paste on 8×11 paper.

You can get lots of Halloween card ideas at www.Deviantscrap.com! go the the shoppe and check out Crowabout Studio B. Nancy’s stuff rocks!

I am getting much better in my neck dept. But now I have the cold that turned into the croup….I sound like a barking walrus with my asthma cough. Today I forgot to bring my Ventolin inhaler to work and by two o’clock I could hardly breathe!

Got me some steroids and Casero rub…I think eucalyptus is lovely this time of year…all I need now is some pumpkin pie…

paper doll with moveable legs on back ground cardstock from Ciao Bella.  legs, face and partial arm from Vogue. body parts painted or embellished with watercolor or pen. used six images from mixiepixies rad sheet for week 70 Collage Play with Crowabout. border bevel by artist on computer. some digital paint programing including the quote from the fabulous French bon vivant and writer, Colette, who sported the en vogue pear shape at the of the turn of the century. Her scandalous bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colette
crown embellished with scraps and rhinestones by artist; coffee cup from paperscraps.
size is approximately 10×12

It has a bit of green in it but since she is a coffee drinker you can assume she is on the wagon today….Have a grand day in parade or what ever you do today-and unless you enjoy being pinched you’ll be wearin’ the green, I hope!

as much as I would love to go to friends and family this year-I have chosen to create ART for paying customers. Here is my gift to you all: Lady GaGa as a turkey pilgrim….enjoy the holidays!

week 43 was really hard for me…it took about five tries before i gave up and came out with this…so now everyone wants a BOOK/zine with the stories on the inside….I need a manager. i am up too late…had to wait for the frieworks to stop…

here is the collage sheet from Nancy; I used almost all the elements. I am seriously considering a small 12 page zine for my flickr crowabout friends.  maybe magcloud?

Cade, Avery & Aric had a great time on Grandpa’s boat up on Frog Lake last summer. The original photo was lacking the postcard quality background so I cut that out and superimposed them on this great shot of Mt Hood. (Frog Lake). Each child’s paper doll template contained between 8 and  12 pieces! This one took two week-ends to complete. I am going submit the before and after shot to K&Co’s editor and show her that their cardstock pads can be used more creatively than just scrapbooking!

Once I had the kid’s outfits glued into place and their skin colored in with pencil I decided on the background. The image was digitally enhanced in Photo Impression and then printed on a clear transparency. Then the transparency was placed over another *blue* sheet from the K&Co collection. Mount Hood was printed on plain paper and colored over with oil pastel and pencil. This was slipped between the transparency and the cardstock.

I rearranged the kid’s for balance, putting Avery in the center. The dragonfly hairclips were the last embellishment. Vellum, pencil  and OPI glitter top coat (Paris Couture For Sure) gave her some sparkle (since you can’t seen her fairy wings under the safety vest).

Crowabout Collage Play Week 39 featured some vintage ads and a rooster head I could not resist playing with. Here are the details on this 12×12 collage.

“The Wigwam Villages went out of business in 1939 after their award winning White Rooster “Big Daddy” collapsed under the weight of yet another insatiable female patron. The owner’s put up a sign explaining what ”happened” and why they had to close their teepees and lucrative side show entertainment featuring the 10 cent rooster rides and the Talking Tuxedos, two cats that did vaudeville schtick and who peed on command. The Most Unique Tourist Haven in America was truly an example of what my father called: High Weirdness. It has been rumoured that Big Daddy is still alive and living with Zibelline in Minnesota. The cats are still roaming about Cave City looking for handouts and clean litter boxes.”

Thanks, Nancy B for the collage sheet. *Rider* courtesy of Lunagirl Images. Cat heads are from NYPL digital image collection.

The body of the rooster is cut out of cardstock from K&Co’s fabulous dual sided Que Sera Sera collection. It was made out of  ten different pieces; four wing parts, one body part, two thighs, two legs and of course, the rooster’s head, which was enlarged and cropped from the collage sheet. Rider body was copied off of Lunagirl CD from ‘bathing beauties’ section and then hand colored to match the lady head on the collage sheet that Nancy sent.  Her bathing costume (and shoes) was created by making a vellum template of the orignal and then pasting pieces from the collage sheet onto the vellum. The patchwork was sealed with  clear tape and cut out and placed over the orignal. Hat was made from enlarged dahlia and embellished with adhesive gems. Pop dots, glue and doubled sided tape were used to put the rooster and rider together.

Columns and banner header were digitally manipulated from collage sheet. Banner was hand colored with pen and and ink to add more contrast.

Cat bodies/heads were reversed before construction. Text ‘yourself’  & ’10cents’ from collage sheet; the rest from my computer printed on yellowing design scrapbook paper and then hand colored and cut out. Arrangement was difficult as my scanner only takes an 8×11 photo.  the 12×12 background is a cardstock page by basic grey.com (wassail/olive branch)

I will do some reserach on the Wigwam Villages…I would not be surprised if a Walmart has permanently replaced this property. The term “High Weirdness” was coined by Ivan Stang, founder (publisher) of the Church of the Sub-Genius, a compendium of oddball culture of which America is famous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Stang