Saturday, January 21, 2017

Yes, It's Been Awhile

Let's see, where have I been and what's happening. I finally got an appointment with an orthapedic Doctor for my hip. I brought my MRI and entered his patient room. He's a nice man,late 40's, but his first sentence was "SURGERY" . He said my MRI showed bone on bone and what pain meds did I take and how often.  Tylenol for some burning at night? I'm a very curious person so I googled MRI's and how to read them and found one similar to mine. I saw that I still have some cartilage. I said I have a tough time straightening my leg and he explained that the hip's muscles tighten around it. OK, may I have muscle relaxers then? OK and pain meds, which I don't need. Yet.

Calling my Doctor on Monday to see if I can go to PT and learn to stretch properly to straighten the muscles. I don't have time for hip surgery at this time. No pain getting up and down the coach steps so I'm good to go. I'm also waiting for Stem Cell Therapy to be mainstream and be covered by insurance.


Oh Oh, what's this? When we bought CiCiBlue we had a bubble that went across the area that the awning arm was attached too. Then I noticed it moving a bit.



Our friend Bob who helped us with our floors last winter season.  We found the water has been leaking slowly in through the weep hole. I covered it with electric tape last year, bought the covers but never put them on. Duh. Water in a coach..DANGER! 


Bob brought up a fan that we have in the bathroom now drying the damp and wet. We also need to get behind the steel beam to get that part dried too. Another thing we noticed is when we had our awning arm plan is in a few days to replace the insulation and cover the entire wall rather than try and get a perfect form. I'm fine with that and then I'll paint the bathroom with color! Goodbye beige wall paper. I'm actually excited and more excited we found out about the leak. I'll keep you posted on the repair. 


Last night was Friday Fest in Cocoa Beach, and we were there with our lights and planters.  Night venues are perfect for us. We turn them all on and people love them and we actually had returning customers!


Not sure If I showed you this one. Watercolor and Gouache on 300LB paper.  It sold and I was thrilled! Going to a new home! 

Well tomorrow a storm is predicted to come in with threats of tornadoes. I'll be putting things away in the am then painting the rest of the day to catch up with my commissions. So, with that, I'll end and wish you all a great evening.

Warmly,
Sheila

P.S., see you tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

They Are Coming

Who?? Why the RV Repair guys!! Oh sure they are Sheila...no, really, they said so. The wait is on. The last of the house repairs will be finished. The tv antenna will get a new mechanism so that it will actually turn and come down when we take off.  The antenna for Sirius radio will be installed without breaking the wire, it will, fingers crossed.  After that we tackle battery cage, wiring for the tow dolly, the ABS light and a couple of other items.

So I'm keeping to my painting schedule. I could use a few more hours in the day but I make due. Let's see what I finished today.


The initial sketch. Some things were "off" to me so I redid some of the lines to lengthen or in some places straighten. The next step was to block in some color.


A quick wash then I left it til this morning when I had fresh eyes.


The final piece. At first both ears were prominent but they fought for attention so I decided to fade the ear on the eye side into the background. Then the background. I started out with a pale red then went into blues and purples. Since purple is the compliment of yellow I felt it would bring more attention to that famous ball of his!  Voila'.  "Mine"

                                                                                MINE

It's 1:35 P.M. now. I had a quick lunch joined by Sammy and Lola, so now off to work in oils, and oh, take down our Christmas lights in the coach and finish laundry! The look on my face is "deer in headlights".

Have a great rest of your day and see you tomorrow!

Warmly,
Sheila

Monday, January 2, 2017

The Year Has Started

What do you do on January 1st of a new year? I took a few aspirin, yes we were partying til after 1:00 P.M. and thought..I have this new freedom back again so I better just start. I painted!


This is how it started. My girl Lola, a brown and white Newfoundland and the apple of my eye.  I did the sketch on a 300 lb watercolor block then got ready to paint.


My first wash. The Patriots football game was on at 1:00 P.M. and we were all going over to our friend Arnie's coach to watch it outside. My plan was to come back at half time and continue the piece.


I had been drinking my coffee earlier and totally forgot to remove the cup and totally forgot to cover up my painting. What could happen? Well, Ozzie gets crazed if he can't see where Roger has gone and looks out every window. He actually can push up the blinds with his nose making it look like everyone in the coach had been drinking way too much. Then I saw the painting covered with coffee spots. UGH. And who knew coffee really stains the paper and nothing on this earth, as far as I know, will remove them.


I just cant redo it. Most would but I loved the energy that it already had so I kept going. Hopefully I may come up with a solution.  One person mentioned snowflakes. I have long loved bubbles so I thought, hmmm, maybe.


A wash of orange, of all colors, all over her fur. In the light some days I can see a bit and she sparkles.


The finished painting. "Make Life Magic"  My lesson was just to keep going when you have a "wall" in front of you and make magic happen. In this case in the magic was in the bubbles. This piece is much freer then a lot of my other paintings, maybe a new adventure for 2017, and I had fun adding pinks, blues and violets. Why not?


Day 2. Roger and I go with our bottle lights and self watering planters to the local Farmers Market on Mondays. I did start a sketch so tomorrow I can paint that and get back to my commission work. Busy, busy bee me. Show and tell tomorrow!


Cuddling with the kids and sipping on an Apple Pie Martini. Celebrating another great day!!

Wishing you all a prosperous and happy New Year!

Warmly,
Sheila