August 23, 2026 Sunday

Greetings!

Dagan and the boys hauled all the bookcase top pieces outside last Sunday.  Ian and Liam got to take a hammer to them to break them apart.  It was so exciting that it lured over a couple of the neighbor boys to join in the fun.  Once they were broken own into pieces they all fit into the trash bin--whoohoo!  So we didn't have to pay to drop them off at the recycling place.  Win-win.  Especially for the boys--lol!

I was able to move in the art roillie carts!  Win for me, too!  :)

Last week I finally started organizing in the studio again.  This was the mess halfway through the three pen drawers.

I suppose many would find it tedious and boring...yawn!

Who?  Not me.  I like it when you are busy.

I emptied the box full of ink bottles and figured it looked like it might make another good donation box.

All the ink bottles were organized and are now filling three levels of the wall shelf unit.  Eight bins are regular fountain pen inks and one bin is for dip pens or art use.

The three small drawers of pen supplies.

Hadn't felt good enough to do much until Thursday but that is what I got done last week and I am so happy to be back doing some unpacking!  KNOCK ON WOOD...I think I may finally be on the mend.

Changed the shower curtain.  More summer flowers.

Had my virtual appointment with my rheumatologist on Friday.  (Dagan brought me over his lunch break to the lab on Tuesday.)  My inflammation markers have continued to go up.  Normally she would have somebody on at least 5 or 6 pills every week (I am on 3) but because of how I can react to medications she wants to take it slow with me.  (So glad!)  I will be taking 4 weekly starting on Wednesday.  Then she wants me to message her in two weeks and let me know how I am doing.  If I have any reactions, message earlier of course. Then we will decide if I can go up to 5 after the two weeks.  In  month she wants another blood draw and for us to have another virtual appointment.  That's the plan

She is concerned because my inflammation is increasing.  Could be just because steroids had been doing a better job and because I've been sick for a month.  She's worried it might pick up speed and spike up badly again because she worries about my other eye getting inflamed.  I am glad to have someone who listens and cares I don't go blind--lol!

Anyways, see that stack on the right hand side of the top of the dresser?  

That's a lot of large papers and a couple other things...but mostly paper.  I woke up at 3am Thursday night (technically Friday morning) from a bad dream about spiders crawling on my bare feet.  Not a fan of spiders...or several bugs, actually.  Trying to get back to sleep, thinking about spiders, and suddenly I get this thought...you can trim down the papers to fit in a drawer.  I always know when I get knowledge suddenly out of the blue when it was the last thing on my mind it is a GA message--lol!  I was thinking about spiders.  Paper was the very last thing on my mind.

So, I'm lying there trying to remember what the large sheet dimensions are for watercolor paper.  Next thing you know I turn on the light and am looking up Dick Blick online (22" X 30")...get out the tape measure and am all over the apartment measuring the insides of drawers--lol!  Trouble is they are 14.5inches deep...not 15 inches.  But if I tear off or cut off 2 inches on the 30 inch side and then tear or cut them in half they should fit easily in any of the drawers in the living room!  I was so excited!  Making the sheets smaller and getting them out of those boxes...they will take up so much less room!  They were going to take up a big chunk of shelving in the storage room after we get it all back together...and I will be sharing that storage room with McFamily.

I thought years ago that I could work up to doing watercolors or mixed media in larger journals, but I never did like them.  The largest journal I made was 11" X 15" and that was just too large for me.  It was the last journal in the pile of them I made that I actually used...but couldn't get past a couple of pages in that one.  Too big for me.  I ended up taking it apart, if I recall correctly.  So I will never need to make a journal or use a page larger than 11" X 14" anyways.  I can trim the pages down...and then use them any way I want.  Make any size smaller journals or pages to paint on.  They have been really diffcult to get to inside all those boxes.  There's pretty papers for book cover inside pages, mixed media paper, different kinds of watercolor paper...and probably quite a few I don't remember.  Will be like Christmas!

I told Leah all about it and she said when it comes time to trim them she will help me.  It will be hard for me with my bum hand.  I do have a special big heavy ruler hanging on the wall in the studio that is specifically good for tearing watercolor paper.  It will get a lot of use in the near future.  Nearish?  LOL!  Makes me very happy.

My next project for this coming week (if I continue to feel better--knock on wood) is to sort through all the ink pads and organize them on some of the red trays in the paper storage shelves that are in the bookcase by the door.  Then continue on finding homes for what I have out on the tables right now...so I can empty more boxes--lol!

Note: 

Best money I ever spent.  Just ask Allie.  Looks like I need to dust again--lol!

Wild Card for the week.

Cosmic?  The only think I can think of is when I was a teenager staring out my bedroom window one night I watched a super bright "star" start moving to the right very slowly.  Confused me because if it has been a plane why hadn't it moved before because I had been looking at the sky for some time.  Oh well, has to be a plane, I thought.  Watched it creep along for a couple inches from my perspective and then it suddenly shot straight off to the left!  Darted across the sky and disappeared in a second!  Well, I'll be darned, I thought quite casually--it was a UFO.  I just accepted it as a fact.  Didn't surprise me or anything.  I certainly wasn't obsessed over UFOs or aliens.  I just always thought there very likely was life elsewhere.  Seemed kind of arrogant of us to believe we are so unique, I guess.  That's the only cosmic thing I can think of.  What about you?

Well, that is it from here for this week.  I think I may be finally getting better.  Haven't had a bad coughing jag but twice in the past four days--whoohoo!  Fingers crossed and thinking positive.  I do so want to get back to working on the studio!  Sidetracked by body weakness for weeks.  Time for things to change.  Yes, about time.  Till next week, my friends.  :) :)

P.S. Something happened to that paragraph about the rheumatologist.  I swear I didn't do it.  I also swear because Blogger will not let me fix it--lol!  ;)