Where did I go?

Greetings friends! I cannot believe it has been SO LONG since I blogged. What happened and where did I go you ask? Including lots of traveling the short and simple story is this: Most of you I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes a couple years ago but I definitely felt I was not winning the battle. My health and weight took a turn for the worse and I wasn't happy with that. So I began to look in to making some big changes and doing things differently. What I found was changing the way I eat to a Low Carb High (Healthy) Fat (LCHF) and that meant I needed time to learn about that, more about my disease and how to do it in the best manner possible for me. The learning curve was steep! I think I have finally come through that and have a good handle on my diabetes and new way of eating. And now I am ready to get back to my art and creativity once again! 

Here's what I'm working on...
I started a weekly art journaling group that focuses on diabetes. I am enjoying the process of creating the prompts and the pages. I'm still trying to remember to take the step out photos for the instructions as I go along! It always amazes me how creative people get despite saying they aren't artistic and how cathartic these prompts end up being for people! Its so gratifying to provide this workshop for people. 

I just finished salvaging an old Japanese painting. This was an old punctured and torn up Japanese horizontal framed painting my mom found. I removed the layers of paper and salvaged chunks of the painting (for another project) only to find the wood grid underneath! I painted that black, then hand cut all the silhouettes from the antique black paper layer I found on the backside. I added layers of white shoji-like paper to it, attached hangers to it and voila! A beautiful new vertical Japanese screen. It will be available for purchase through a silent auction if you are interested! 

Today I started painting little kokeshi doll heads to use in a project I'm doing for a group my mom is involved with. Along with those I am hand writing inspirational words on stones for her to use in approximately 200 "goodie bags"

And of course, we've been doing everyday life and preparing fr the holidays as well. I hope that this finds you well and blessed beyond measure! Here's to more regular blog posting in 2016!