Friday-8:45am

It really is true what they say up here.  "Don't like the weather?  Just wait a few minutes."  LOL!  You can have a day that starts out with mostly sun and blue skies... 

...where you can catch a few rays...

...if somebody doesn't wake you up... 

...lurking around with a camera. 

Bird flew by the porch screen! 

Wait a while and you could have rain and thunderstorms...

...later on blue skies and fluffy white clouds... 

...have more rain...and then, by evening...well, it looks like the clouds can't decided whether to clear or gather for more rain. 

There was a beautiful, ominous orange cloud sunset.

Did it rain again?  Don't know.  I went to bed---LOL! 

I didn't see Dagan and Leah on Wednesday night for Sacred Circle.  A old college friend Dagan hadn't seen for a few years emailed him that he was driving up early for a class he had on Thursday and wondered if Dagan had the evening free.  So we postponed Sacred Circle until this coming Wednesday.  I'm sure they had a great time, so that was nice.  :)

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Me--I watched a touching movie (definitely was a nose-blower for me) called My Afternoons With Margueritte.  It has subtitles and Gerard Depardieu.  Just a lovely, lovely movie.  An accidental meeting in the park and a discussion about the pigeons...well, it changed both their lives.  One of my favorite movies I've seen for a while.  :)

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Well, I quit taking the Devil's Claw altogether (new herb trying for arthritis pain) last night.  Can't take the acid reflux anymore.  It does say if you have an ulcer you shouldn't take it.  I don't have an ulcer, but from the years I was prescribed high doses of Ibuprofen for my arm...well, I ended up with a very touchy stomach.  I put up with acid reflux problems for years and still had them when I went off the Ibuprofen.  Wasn't until I weaned myself off all my meds (for pain and acid reflux and IBS) that I finally was rid of the acid reflux 98% of the time!!  Oddly the IBS got a little better, too--but the pain got worse, of course.  They quit making the pain pill I could take, Darvocet, and I get sick from anything related to morphine/codeine, which is most of the rest of them.  Which is why I tried the Devil's Claw.

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The Devil's Claw had been bothering my acid reflux all along to some degree...and hadn't noticeably helped with the pain or flexibility.  When I went up to the full dose this week--well, it's been bad for me with the acid reflux.  Affecting my sleep (besides the panicky dreams over the fast doodling--LOLOL!) and bothering me all day long.  I put up with that for years!  But it has been so long now that I don't even have anything in the house for it anymore.  That is how much my life has changed since I weaned off all the meds.  ;)  Sure, I've been feeling less pain lately--but I always feel less pain when I am out of the humidity.  Hasn't felt any greater relief than I would normally have, so I can't tell if the Devil's Claw was doing anything or not as far as the pain goes.  But it is awful on my stomach, so that was the end of that.  I just couldn't take it anymore!!  Done.

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So, I can't really say whether it did anything at all.  Couldn't give it enough of a chance, really.  Oh, and I took them with food, too, as suggested.  If you have a touchy stomach, I wouldn't recommend it at all.    I would imagine that it will take a few days for me to get back to normal.  I didn't take it last night or this morning and I am still suffering right now.  Devil's Claw is not for me.

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But, I really try not to let how I physically feel put me in a bad mood or ruin my days.  :):)

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I've been playing with the watercolor journal page.  Hard to tell by looking at it, but this was five layers of misting, if I remember correctly.

First I tried misting the plastic paper plate holder with a blue color and it virtually disappeared into the background.  I didn't like that.  After that dried, I tried a gold mist.  Still too light.  Let that dry and tried a copper...whoohoo!  Can you see me now?!  LOL!  Darker than I expected, but I liked it.  Let that dry.  Then I did an overall misting of the page with the gold mister and let it dry.  Added another layer of gold and let that dry.  Was that five?  I think so.  ;)

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Here's another shot with the flash so you could get a better idea of the shimmer that's all over this page.   

In the meantime...I never got an email to tell me about that class starting.  So yesterday I went searching on Traci Bautista's website.  

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Okay, I admit it.  I can get overwhelmed with these complicated websites that have so much crammed onto a page with so many links...

Well, I guess (from the email I did get welcoming me to the class) I had signed up only to be a member of her website in general, but not for the Doodles Unleashed class specifically.  So, I am signed in as a member of her class for sure now (although it looked like my picture was already in the members list...and I still never got an email about the class starting).

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Anyways, I found the first class--and bookmarked the page!  Two videos to watch and a class file to download.  Got the pages printed off...but was disappointed that there is very little information and mostly just pages of her artwork.  ??  There was no supply list or schedule of what we'd be doing.

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Now, I knew I had seen a listing of what we'd generally be covering in each class someplace on her cluttered Doodles Unleashed class site...so I went back and I did find an actual schedule with dates off on a side link (hope I can find it again--LOL!) and I have till July 18th to finish this first class.  I didn't find a supply list.  I'll have to look again when I'm fresher.  

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But--in the video--we are doing the first class on "illustration board".  Which I do not have and wasn't even sure what it was.  I went on Dick Blick (pause so several of you can giggle at the name) and searched around.  Illustration board is thicker/sturdier and won't buckle with all the collage and such we are doing to it.  So, I'll have to order that in July before I can start the lesson.  And I hope I can find a supply list for the entire class in the meantime so that I can see what all I will need and won't have to buy something else each month, you know?  I really thought I would have almost anything we would need, but then...I didn't have illustration board--LOL!

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Funny.  Those girly faces that are so popular are really not my thing and that is what we are doing on the first class--LOL!  Well, stretch myself, right?  In the meantime while I wait until I can order the illustration board in July, I can look for scrap papers and tissue papers for collage...and maybe practice drawing girly faces?

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Another funny.  It actually got cooler last night--upper 50s, I think--I had the place closed up and the AC on very low...well, the AC partially iced up during the night.  So, it's been off and thawing out.  Tiny pieces of ice are falling off now and Karma thinks something is trying to get into the apartment through the air conditioner--ROFL!  She's watching the AC most intently.  Probably thinks it's swallows.  ;)  Anyways, I hope it works okay after the ice melts.  It happened before a few years ago and worked just fine after all the ice melted.  I really have to start paying closer attention to the weather when I have the place closed up.  ;)

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Goodness!  Time to get moving!  Time to begin the scribbling on top of the watercolor page.  I'm at the nightmare point--LOL!  Have a good one!  :):)

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"Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions."

Earl Gray Stevens