Category Archives: mixed media collage

Jul30

no more rehab

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no more rehab

Amy Winehouse Dead at 27! she had been in and out of drug and alcohol rehab since she hit the entertainment scene in 2007. Was this untimely end a total shock to anyone that followed her career? Unfortunately, not.

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…

Jul17

the hidden heart

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the hidden heart

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.

Jul17

time 2 change

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time 2 change

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.