December 31, 2011

2011 was bullshit.

So it’s New Year’s Eve weekend and bloggers all around the world are writing up their year-end posts so I thought I’d do one too…except if I did one that was exclusively that, it would be a very short post. 2011 sucked balls.

To recap:

  1. I got sick and almost died.
  2. I got sick and spent 6+months (so far) still sick and deformed, with a gaping wound across my abdomen.
  3. I had to regrow my abdominal wall.
  4. I lost most of my hair.
  5. I lost my job. My really really good job. My first job.
  6.  I hardly made any art.
  7. I spent my anniversary in a medically-induced coma instead of eating ribs and strawberry pie.
  8. I put Blake and my mom through hell.
  9. I get to look forward to 2 more surgeries.
  10. We have no money and we’re slowly going into more and more debt.
  11. My gardens went to shit while I was sick.

So that’s the bad.I don’t think I’ll be able to come up with 10 good things, but here goes:

  1. I got into Touched By Fire this year and sold my painting to a complete stranger for a lot of money.*
  2. All my sources indicate that once my surgeries are over and done with, I can probably get my job back.
  3. My surgeon is awesome. She is basically the woman I wish I was.
  4. I am married to the most amazing person on the face of the Earth.
  5. My mom loves the shit out of me.
  6. My kids are still pretty great, despite Madison turning 13 and becoming a bit more of a challenge.
  7. I’M NOT DEAD.
  8. I am extremely grateful for the friends we have, all around the world, who pitched in and helped us this summer.
  9. TBA
  10. TBA

That’s all I can come up with without repeating myself.

I’m not very optimistic about 2012 either. I know that’s a pessimist thing to say, but it’s true. I’m going to start the year with a big, painful surgery that I’m going to spend weeks recovering from, then I have to suffer through S.A.D. for another harsh winter, we’re still going to be going further into debt until I get my job back (and I’m not sure what we’re going to do if I don’t get it back)…that’s just off the top of my head. A *good* thing going into 2012 is that we still have to call that lady from Touched By Fire to get my stuff in a gallery, so hopefully I can sell some paintings and gain some self-esteem in the new year. If I’m not working a 9-5, I might as well be painting my ass off right? That’s the way I see it. Once I get Argent’s painting finished, it’s time to start painting for profit again. Unfortunately though, I signed up for the Sketchbook Project Limited Edition, which I really shouldn’t have because I don’t have the time to really do a good job on it, so that’s going to be a thorn in my side until I mail it off in April. Truthfully, I’m thinking I may only do a few spreads rather than the whole book, and they can use those in the Limited Edition art book.

OH! Speaking of Art House Co-Op, my Fiction Project submission is now available in their online gallery! You can check it out HERE, it’s called “Eight Arms To Hold You” and it’s a children’s story about hugs. My favourite picture is the one with the sloth. We had a lot of fun doing it but it was also a lot of work, especially because I lost track of the due date and had to scramble, with the help of Blake and Madison, to get it in the mail on time.

So I know I’m a little obsessed with Pinterest and you guys are probably sick of hearing about it, but I thought I’d point out a couple of good finds from there anyway. The first thing is this, which I found about an hour ago:

Is that not an excellent idea? After I’m finished making this post, if I can’t get back to sleep, I’m going to make some of these and get Blake to put them up in the grocery store and the post office and then the grocery stores in Barrie too. Except mine are going to be prettier. I don’t know how I’m going to make them prettier yet, I just am. I’ll probably post the results when they’re finished because that’s just what I do.

The next thing I stumbled upon were crayon hearts. I *love* crayon hearts. No idea what crayon hearts are? These are crayon hearts, as done by Martha Stewart:

In 2004, I made a TON of these and used them for a photo shoot, as well as a mobile for Madison’s bedroom window.

Click the pic for the rest of the shoot. NSFW.

After seeing Martha’s hearts today I decided that our kitchen window, which has been in need of some kind of covering for a while now,  could use some crayon hearts. At first I was thinking crayon circles but then Blake and I decided that was much too “mod” for our country-ish kitchen, so hearts were the way to go. Since our kitchen is blue, the hearts will be blue, green, yellow and a bit of purple. Blake went to Wal*Mart tonight to get crumpets (our grocery store doesn’t stock them anymore, booooo!) so I got him to pick me up a curtain rod and a couple of boxes of CRAYOLA crayons. Store brand crayons are absolutely out of the question!

Well, they didn’t have boxes of 48, so Blake brought home two boxes of 96!

I know that everyone likes crayons. I think that’s a given. But I really REALLY love crayons and I spent an hour and a half, with Wes, freaking out over colours and crayon names. One box I’m going to leave intact for future art projects, but the other box I took apart, giving Wes all of them except the blues, purples, reds, pinks and some greens and a yellow. The reds and pinks I’ll use for future crayon hearts (you can do a lot with them, not just mobiles/curtains) and the rest I’ll use for the kitchen. Of course there will be pics when I’m finished. Aren’t there always? ;o)

Blake also brought home peanut butter cups, fresh ones, that I spent all evening devouring.

And now I think I’m going to go back to bed. I’ve had a terrible sleep schedule over the past month, getting up at 3am, then again at 5am and I’m just absolutely sick of it. I slept all night the last two nights so I thought maybe I’d gotten over it, but no…tonight I got up at 3:30am and now here I am writing a post.

Anyway, goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite!

(*Haylie: I didn’t get into Touched By Fire last year but I did get in the year before. Sorry I missed your text, I don’t use my phone much these days.)

Posted at 7:07 am in: Art , Crafts , Creativity , DIY , gallbladder , Health , hernia , Hospital , Life , Money , pancreatitis , pinterest , S.A.D. , Sleep , Sunnyland , The Sketchbook Project , winter , Work

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