It’s been a very long time since my last post–almost 15 months, to be exact.  A lot has happened in my life in those 15 months.  An issue at work was finally resolved, new responsibilities in my job due to added regulations that affect my job, the hubby bought us a camper, finally dealing with annoying allergies which have caused me some chronic health issues, I’ve taken several online mixed media classes and have even attended several more “live” and in person (which was awesome!), and last but not least, we evacuated our home to flee TWO hurricanes (MATTHEW 2016 & IRMA 2017) occurring less 12 months apart.  I’m a bit weary but blessed in all of these circumstances. The job issue HAD to be resolved or my health was going to completely fail–mental and physical.  And it was.  And it still took more than 6 months for lives and attitudes to return more to normal.  We were all exhausted, I think, from the impact of it all.  But the added job activities help bring normalcy to my working life again so even this was not bad at the time and are now no longer new so have been worked into the “routine” of things.  This, too, is good. The hubby bought a 24″ pull-behind (not a 5th wheel) camper with a push out.  We had had some fun with it.  The dogs even seem to be getting used to it and enjoy traveling with us.  It came in extremely handy when IRMA decided to rudely visit our area this year.  It was great to have something to hang out in that didn’t cost us nightly as much as a hotel and I didn’t have to worry about finding a hotel that would allow dogs or impose again on my stepdaughter and son-in-law, who is allergic to dogs but took us in during MATTHEW last year and sacrificed his comfort to give us a place to hang out for several days.  The camper is a good thing. I have finally started down the road of allergy injections.  I have suffered with chronic sinus infections–honestly, I don’t know if I’ve been without one for several years up until the past few weeks.  Wow.  I have been working with a good local doctor and we have changed most of my medication, eliminated some of it and are working on getting rid of some more as the injection start to make an impact in coming months.  It will be a long road but I’m tired of being tired and it effects my ability to enjoy my life to the full. So, it had to be done.  Although I loath taking them with a passion, the injection process is overall good for me in the end so I persist. And of course all of the art-related classes–online and in person–are ALWAYS good!  I kept trying to be creative despite the obstacles that were stealing my energy.  I didn’t accomplish much but at least I felt like I wasn’t falling completely out of circulation.  I stuck it out with Wanderlust 2017 and am signed up for 2018.  Same for Life Book 2017 and 2018.  I became a “Founders Club” member with Traci Bautista’s Mixed Media Lab and bought lifetime access to her flagship course Floral Delight-Freestyle Blooms.  It is a fantastic course if you like freeform floral painting and color mixing.  I am currently enrolled in her Inspiration Sketchbook online class.  It is great for inspiring creativity and just paying in your journal with watercolors, markers and water-resisting media.  Here are a few photos from some of the play inspired by this class: Traci is always encouraging us to leverage our art by photographing it and using even portion of our pieces for other pieces of art or other projects.  These are some of my favorite “vignettes” from the journal page above. We have been encouraged in the recent class to play with different medias and create mini palettes to learn the interactions between both the colors and the medias we use.  The one below only used water color (I used Golden QoR watercolor) with the purple color having some Ken Oliver Crafts Liquid Metals added to it to give it a little glitz. And, of course, any type of outdoor pursuit has Zivah’s attention.  She had to insert herself into the session.  I could hardly get a clean photo without at least her shadow in it!  LOL  Yes.  She is a very happy little Australian Cattle Dog.  A stark white one.  Different but definitely 100% cattle dog.  Just get a ball or a frisbee out and she’ll show you!  🙂 Thank you for hanging out with me.  It’s been a long 15 months.  I don’t plan on it being that long again before my next post!