dejablu503's Xanga

Waking up to 8 inches of water in your yard....

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:03:40 GMT

...is NOT fun. That's what I woke to on friday. I woke at 530am, got a drink and remembered they were finally coming to get our garbage (it had not been picked up since the first Thursday in Dec due to our snow and ice storm). I ran out to drag the cans and extra bags from the carport to the curb. As I stepped off the porch step in the dark, I discovered my feet submerged in water. Immediately a voice in my head said...Um, what the hell? Back up the stairs to flip on the porch light.... this was when I discovered I suddenly had river front property!

This is what happens when you get 5.2 inches of rain in under 4 hours.... it has gone down, but more rain is coming. We are moving what we care about to higher ground before it hits.

This has been one exciting winter for Portland.... I am ready for spring.... this is not longer amusing.

Portland is under attack.... by snow

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:30:54 GMT

2 or three days of this is normal for us, we are now 2 weeks into it and more on the way, the most snow and ice Portland has seen since 1964, the city is at a standstill. Our area of the metro area got 14 inches in the last week. I suspect the novelty has worn off for more than just me, I'd like our usual 24/7 downpour back please...

This is so cool! Mine is a work in progress...

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:04:39 GMT

This and that...

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 21:02:14 GMT

My daughter Ramie posted some pics of Universal Studios on her web site:
Pic from before the fire:
http://www.delusionalangel.com/gallery2/d/3356-1/universal.jpg
Pic taken after the fire:
http://www.delusionalangel.com/gallery2/d/3534-1/UniversalStudiosFire04.jpg
A gallery of pics if you are interested:
http://www.delusionalangel.com/gallery2/v/california/universalstudios/

I survived another birthday, in my loot was a $50 gift card from Amazon from my brother, which I promptly spent this morning, so new books are in route, yay! I got some really great bargains by buying used.... I tried posting them here but ran into problems so if you are interested, they are pictured and listed with links to them over on my live journal: http://dejablu503.livejournal.com/556026.html

Vi ( my 84 year old Alzheimer's client) and I took a ride yesterday, in route home we were driving down Powell and passed an "exotic dancer" place, the sign out front said "free prime rib dinner" and that caught Vi's eye. Vi was questioning how they could give away prime rib dinners, so I suggested maybe the cover charge included the cost of it. She started laughing, uncontrollably... and without blinking she said, "oh Andee, that is just silly why would anyone going into a place like that want anything covered?" We laughed all the way to her house... she amuses me no end. The things she comes up with just slay me....

I pulled a great one on my 7 year old grandson Keegan on my birthday... he was bugging me to go shopping, I am battling with a low B12 level and was too tired but he would not let up so I held a small flashlight to his ear and he asked me what I was doing.... I said "Look at that! The light goes right through your head and out the other side, obviously your head is empty and that is why you will not listen to me". He called me a liar, grabbed the flashlight and held it to his own ear, but tilted his head to see if the light indeed came out the other side and showed up on his little cookstove his uncle Pat bought him to play chef on... when he saw no light he proclaimed me a naughty grandmother. Straight faced I told him his head was not tilted enough for him to see the light coming through but I had seen it.... ( I figure any time I can get him to act dumb twice in a row is more fun for me so I stuck to my story). Of course he tried it again but this time a car was going by outside at just the right time, and the headlights reflected on his stove as he was doing it... his eyes got REALLY big and he ran to his mom crying because his brain was missing...... I am a MEAN GRANDMA. Karina lectured me accordingly... I gotta say it was my best gift of the day though.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thu, 22 May 2008 15:45:52 GMT

For mother's day Ramie and Brian sent me this Genius MousePen Drawing pad. I finally got around to getting it out of the box and looking it over last night... see, I told you all I was too tired to do even things I wanted to do!

I have not played with it much yet, I just dabbled with it last night a bit ( and I liked what it did ) but I am taking it and my laptop to Vi's house this weekend for some extensive playtime since I am staying there Fri-Mon while her live-in goes camping.... so it gets a MAJOR test run this weekend. Looks like the reviewers on Amazon like it well enough, one even said for the money it was as good or better than their Wacom drawing pad. I can hardly wait to really play with it.

After MUCH trial and error ( and some creative cursing) I was doing okay drawing with my wireless mouse until it died, but I have to say as much as I used it, the darn thing was killing off a ton of batteries. One thing for sure, this drawing pad is going to simply the process and give me much more control if last night's trial and error was any indicator. The learning curse is fairly short, and in my book $45 is a whole lot more justifiable if you are an artist on a budget than ripping almost $200 from the budget is if you have a use for a drawing pad.

There will be an update on how the weekend playtime goes on Tuesday.

In case anyone is interested I did come up with my own design for a wire quilt:

Okay so there are sun faces in it, I confess, no big surprise there eh? The small circles are beads, to add glitter. Still working out the fine details and need to make a few more blocks for it.... for the most part I am happy with it, now I need to find some wire to make it out of.... I think I even know where my soldering iron is from my stained glass experiments. I have not yet gone to Home Depot to find the wire to make it from but I am doing that today and I hope to get started on one this weekend. I'll crosspost the results from my main blog over on livejournal at http://dejablu503.livejournal.com

I am off to inhale some coffee, and then I'll do a web surf and treasure find post before I start in on my day.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Sat, 17 May 2008 09:49:31 GMT

I'm off in a new direction once again, I saw this "quilt" made of wire while surfing the web the other day and fell in love with it;

Of course I decided I needed to make one something like it when I saw the price tag of $6000. Not saying it is not worth it but I sure don't have it to spend. I was going to play around with it this weekend but couldn't wait so I came up with the following rough sketch of my own design at work today:

Okay so there are sun faces in it, I confess, no big surprise there eh? The small circles are beads, to add glitter. Still working out the fine details and need to make a few more blocks for it.... for the most part I am happy with it, now I need to find some wire to make it out of.... I think I even know where my soldering iron is from my stained glass experiments.

I picked up my B12 shots today, and my cholesterol medication. (it's hell getting old). The needle is rather impressive. I get my first lesson in sticking myself with it tomorrow. I hope all of you are doing something more fun than this over the weekend.

Portland hit 90+ today, out by us it hit 95 outside, the house is still like at oven at 3am.... heavy sigh...... I have changed my clothes 3 times since I got home from Vi's at 930pm, even the cats are sweating like pigs. Sadly that somehow amuses me. I offered to hose them down, but they ran like rioters eluding the police. I brought them the left over Tilapia from dinner, the least they could do in return is humor me.

This and that....

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:57:54 GMT

I am having cravings:
For Knowledge I do not have (mostly mechanical and alt power in nature)
For salads of all kinds
For hot rice smothered in butter, with cheese and green onions sprinkled on top
For more uninterrupted art time
For more order in my life

I want:
To design a human powered pedal car that holds 2 people and that has eco-friendly back-up power (prompted by our gas prices jumping from $3.49 to $3.65 over night)
To be done with the down sizing/decluttering
To figure out how to insure a brighter for myself
To stabilize my life
To lose some weight

Thursday was fairly productive, I at least did not sleep through it. I have been battling fatigue lately on a major level.

I did in fact cook:
Crock Pot Roast Beef Ala Oopsie ( I really AM a good cook, but I had lots on my mind and this turned into a comedy of errors, hense the name I gave it. I forgot to brown the roast before dropping it into the crockpot with the 3/4 cup of Safeway Cuban Lime Garlic marinade, but I added the sliced onions anyway and let it cook. When it was almost done and I was siphoning off juice to make gravy with in a separate pan, I accidentally grabbed the cup I had just poured fresh coffee into and did not realize it until it was too late.... not to be beaten I added more flour to some of the actual broth in the other cup and dumped it into the thickened coffee, for pizazz I added 1/4 cup red wine, then I sliced up the roast and put it and the gravy into the crockpot for the last hour of cooking).
I gotta say it was the best roast I ever cooked...honestly, the flavor and tenderness was amazing, and I mean, how could it taste bad.... it had coffee and wine in it. Keegan ate 3 servings so did my duaghter, out of over 5 pounds of roast we only have enough left for a couple of sandwiches.

I also made a marinated salad of pinto beans, diced baby corn, butter beans, peas, olives, bulgar wheat, cauliflower, diced tomato, fresh parsley and onion.....YUM!

I cleaned house. I did laundry and the dishes. I talked the garbage guy into taking the 3 extra bags that resulted from my recent attempts at decluttering. I discussed a new hospice client with the agency that I might be taking on much closer to home. I did some sorting and decluttering, and I played space rangers with Keegan and his pal Mikey since they did not have school today. You will all be happy to know 7 year old boys buy into a pressed paper cup holder from McDonald's being an alien force field generator that makes you un-killable. They didn't like it but they bought it.

I did not get any art done nor did I get the yard mowed, it kept raining... but they are promising a clearing in the wet by the weekend. Hoping to tame the jungle Saturday morning.

I've been reading up on the Orphan Works panic, lot's of useful, rational info can be found here: http://maradydd.livejournal.com/

I am not a great info person when it comes to political panic. Whenever I hear a politician say "But it's for the public good", my eyes immediately roll back into my head and my head spins, then I develop a seizure sized twitch, (ask my kids).... So when this stuff hits I start reading the input of other people and pick the one I think makes the most sense when they dissect it. The take of the blogger above makes sense to me, and I am looking forward to the final tally from her once the text is released.

I could have gotten more done today but being a space ranger took longer than expected... so all in all the day was good and productive.

Links to share.... and keep track of, and what I've been up to

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:23:43 GMT

One amazing clay tutorial for doll making, I sure wish it was a PDF file!:
http://www.emilysfairies.com/hints/EF_Tutorial.swf

Also very cool if you are into trying dolls a new way:
http://www2d.biglobe.ne.jp/~dhnoah/make_00.htm

Great tutorial on making a wire armature:
http://themagicbean.typepad.com/the_magic_bean/files/wire_armature_tutorial.pdf

Great tutorial on doing sashiko:
http://www.purlbee.com/sashiko-tutorial/

If you need new artsy software to play with, and who doesn't? ArtRage is one of my favorites and they have a new free version out:
http://www.download.com/ArtRage/3000-2191_4-10309276.html?part=rb-watchlist&tag=watchmail_sc_name

Busy, busy week... hoping things slow down next week.

Because my oldest daughter Ramie has MS my grandson Keegan announced he wants to do the April 12th MS Walk For A Cure here in Portland on behalf of his aunt, and he would not take no for an answer, even passed on having his own birthday party in order to do the walk, so I have been fund raising for him and his mom (my youngest daughter, Karina) since she is doing it with him. They decided to try to raise $500 a piece, Keegan has almost gathered $500 worth of sponsors thanks largely to quilters all over the world, he seems to have stolen all the donations away from his mommy and she is feeling a tad sad about how little she has raised so far. WE have until next friday to get their sponsors signed up online, so if anyone chancing onto my blog wants to sponsor her, (it all goes to the same place she simply is just not as charming as Keegan is)... her donation page is here:
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=4652035&pg=personal&fr_id=8131

I cannot say enough good things about the National MS Society, without their help Ramie would not be seeing doctors or be medicated. Seems people with MS are not insurable... without the MS folks she would be facing MS untreated since one neuro exam alone is over $300.... her pain meds are another $400+ a month and the Copaxone she is on runs $1800 a month if we had to pay for it. Don't even get me started on the cost of MRIs.
This is one nonprofit that does what they say they will do, and they need your support, so do thousands of uninsured people with MS like my daughter. It's a good cause and tax deductible. Minimum pledge is $5, you set the amount you want to give when you sponsor them in the walk as a one time donation. If you cannot donate yourself, please share the link with friends who might be able to, Keegan got this inspiration late in the game and it has limited the time we had to dig up sponsors compared to the amount of time the other walkers had.

Anyway, that's what I have been up to.... working tonight and tomorrow and then I get 2 whole days off! Might even get some art done...

Up to the minute

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:56:21 GMT

The 2 art collages are done for Collage Mania2 ( and 2 more are in the works for the shop I am opening on etsy in April:

Sale of the 150 original art collages that have been donated is to raise money for Cancer Research. The sale takes place May 5th and 6th. More info can be found here: http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageManiaII.html

I am into the home stretch on my quilt art challenge doll who took off in a different direction on me last week, and I am finishing up the stitching on a fiber Postcard and ATC for Sue Lenz so I can get them into the mail on monday, ( these took way longer than I intended).
I have one of my 13x13" baker's dozen art quilts designed, and I have a rough draft for the other one.

Then I get to play with paper beads some more this coming week between doing 3 orders for art purses and making a healing doll for Dave. I still need to get some packages into the mail, I am such a lamer... but the $218 van repair today set that back until monday after I get paid again.

I have an order for baby clothes, 6 more outfits as soon as I can get them done, but I am going to play a little and finish the challenge doll this weekend before I start them.

I have a full day tomorrow with my private home health client, and I work a 12 hour night shift for the agency both Friday and Saturday (I picked up an extra shift because the job is ending all together in Mid April). The next week is gonna be busy.....

Hillary Clinton gave me a major headache today, to get even I registered as a Democrat so I can vote in the primary.

Artists are the best people in the world & if you are one, I need your help!

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:37:17 GMT

To bring everyone up to speed... my brother-in-law Dave had a stroke... mid 50's, no warning, lives an extremely healthy life and had no major health issues that he knew of. He threw a clot, causing a major stroke. He is paralyzed on his right side, and cannot speak. He works for Adobe Software so his employment has always been very mental, reclaiming everything that he can is vital, the window for doing so is limited. Of course his frustration and depression levels are through the roof. His therapist said his extensive therapy would include PT, speech therapy, plus intense visual, sensory and tactile stimulation. He has a rough road ahead of him. I immediately thought of art, and the healing potential of it. I also thought of fiber and fabric, because you cannot get more tactile or stimulating that that in my book. I have to say here that Dave is the most loving, kind, sweet man you would ever meet, he has always done for others who needed help and now I want to help him all that I can, but I have limits on what I can accomplish alone.

Knowing my limits means I have also asked not only close friends, but also total strangers in yahoo groups I am a member of, and any artists who stumble onto my blog to please send any small art pieces they have laying around doing nothing to be used in his therapy and to help cheer him up (he loves textiles and fiber and art made from them, he is a collector of ATCs, he adores funky multimedia art, collages and assemblages). Things like this can provide great visual and tactile stimulation. We want to stimulate his brain so he can reclaim as much of his pre-stroke life as we can. It does not have to be a huge effort for anyone to do something special but special is nice if you want to take it to the next level. I want to surround him with color, texture and hope. Art heals, and I know if you get artists working together we can prove that it does.

So if you do miniature paintings, small water color pieces, fiber art cards, ATCs, make funky pocket shrines, small whimsical assemblages or art dolls, or anything that can used in his therapy, things he can keep in a small rehab room, I want your help... I am asking you to add to the effort....and I am asking you to ask your friends to help out too. Please share this call for art with everyone you know, no matter where they live. For a little bit of effort, and very little postage we can all help Dave... and encourage him at the same time.

Most of us never know if the world notices we are here or that we struggle. I want Dave to know lots of people are pulling for him to recover by sending small pieces of artistic stimulation to help encourage his recovery efforts. Those who send art, please be sure your return address is on it, Dave may not be able to thank you himself for awhile, but if he can't someone will send you a thank you and acknowledgment so you know your art contribution got to him okay.

My personal thanks in advance to all of you who decide you are willing to take time out for a total stranger, who care enough to send him art stimulation and well wishes for a speedy recovery.

Dave's mailing info for at least the next 2 months is:
David Valiulis
Room 933
c/o Palomar Medical Center
555 East Valley Parkway
Escondido, CA 92025

Can you even imagine what it would be like to wake one day unable to do what you have always done, without warning.... and unable to say what you want to say? I can't...

Please help me fill Dave's room with art, encouragement and hope! (And spread the word).... I want to make his therapist speechless....

EDIT:
Virginia Spiegel just emailed me and she is very kindly asking those on her Fiber Art For Cure list (http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/NewFiles/ACS/FAQ.html ) to help out. Virginia has raised a ton of money for cancer research with the help of fiber artists worldwide donating their work to her auctions and art sales. Her Collage Mania II sale (http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageManiaDetails.html ) is the one I am donating my sun face collages to. So a HUGE thank you to Virginia....and if you love collages you want to watch her sale, every piece is a fine art bargain at only $40.