Bronchitis and Backgrounds

Started feeling really oogy on Friday; went home and straight to bed cuz The Oog had advanced. Woke up yesterday with what appears to be my once-per-annum case of bronchitus/sinus/cold/cough ... regular doses of Benadryl allowed me to stay upright for short periods of time, and I stood in the studio working on backgrounds. Then I coughed, sneezed, took a bath to knock out my body chills, and slept. Awakened to start over. I did find time to watch "You've Got Mail", and wrote in my journal. And Zoe got lots of lap-lovin' cuz I would run out of steam at my studio desk, plunk my keister down, and give her long stretches of pets and nuzzles. Overall, a good day, for all how bad I felt. Today, I'm couching under my green chenille blankie from My Lovely Mother and watching chick flicks, as I don't have the energy at all for making art. Melos, From the Greek: Just paper scraps, watercolor paint, a bird clip-art image with yarn tied thru, and an image I stamped LONG ago on an alcohol-ink treated sheet of glossy bond paper. I actually started my written journal entry on this page last night, so you can see I'm not actually 'ahead' of myself with backgrounds. Paris Angel. Homemade postage (Eiffel Tower), stamped over ... embossed star woman image, added wing, die-cut alcohol-inked leaf, sequins strip. Another sheet of homemade postage is tucked in the vellum envelope. I know I say this every time, but I love these little secret tucks and folds and folders and journaling hideaways. Fern leaf rubber-stamped around the edges. Next to a ginko leaf, I like fern images best when it comes to botanical images. Of course all these Paris pages mean I'm yearning for Paris now. At least that means I've managed to quell my yearnings for the ocean, for the time being! Winter Stream. Magazine image (probably Arizona Highways) and paisley paper scrap, gesso, paint. Of course, I haven't seen a winter vista personally, like this, in 20 odd years, but I remember how stunning, still, hushed they are. Passion. Vogue magazine image I adore, that lady stepping off a train, holding a bird cage. Beautiful. The embellishments are from a sheet of paper punch-outs. Gesso'd over, then pink acrylic paint. This is ... wow, how do I 'splain this? I fantasize a lot about living as a writer in Paris in the 20's ... (and 30's, and 40's, and NOW) ... anyway this image and now this page capture my internal atmosphere when I have those daydreams. Notes. Mulberry and silver paper a gift from Veronica. Black and white graphics from work. Lower left is a piece of wallpaper from Patty. I drew the woman profile then gray-gesso'd it in. Paper scraps. I LOVE this page: I do NOT want to write on it! Homestead. Tihs page is all about My Beloved Aunt Judy -- how I miss her! The prairie with farmhouse, the yellow flowers (she's a wicked gardener), the wreath -- she made the lemon wreath that hangs in my kitchen. I'm a little irritated cuz I went overboard with the gesso and obscured some of what I like about the magazine images I used, but the feel is still right -- for missing someone. Innocence Dancing. The dolls are actually ornaments I saw in the latest Anthropologie catalog -- I still think I could dupliate these using paper. Bird & flourish rub-ons are Basic Grey, as is the little file folder it's on. I order my rub-ons from The Tuscan Rose. And I told my buddy Patty, the proprietess of the Tuscan Rose, that I counted how many times I'd used the OTHER bird that comes on this sheet in this journal -- 62!!! I made photocopies of it, larger and smaller -- last time I ordered, though, I made myself NOT order another sheet of these rub-ons. I'm here to tell you: IT'S KILLING ME!!!!!! I may soon be photocopying a photocopy! Boundary 1. I purged several file cabinet drawers at work 2 years ago, and among the contents were loose sheets like these, "cut sheets' from outdated publications offering supplies related to my company's business. I LOVE them; I brought home all that I found, and dip into that Fence Graphics file fairly frequently. Acrylic paint, rubber stamp images, punched slide mounts. I'm still making every effort to incorporate my stashes of bits and pieces into all my backgrounds. Garden Stretch. Started with the cat statue, stretching just like Zoe does every time I relocate her from the center of whatever I'm working on. The images are square-punched from a gardening magazine, and I just stayed with the square thing with the painted boxes. I'm not feeling this acid green color on the turquoise, but I HAVE seen that color combination in the summer, when the sun is scorching tree leaves and the sky is that color of turquoise. Boundary 2. Another sheet of graphics from work -- I LOVE these pages. This one happened to be underneath as I made the first one and caught a lot of the ink color. I added rubber stamp images, and the corner pocket with the embossed heart. There's an insert for that, naturally, for more journaling.
Feeling Frida. This whole page was an ad for flip flops. I added some black and white graphics cut out of an old wrought iron brochure, along with the embossed Frida Kahlo rubber stamp image. Frida's life and attitude are a reminder to me to PURSUE originality and my own uniqueness. Have you ever had a chance to peruse her Diary? I highly recommend it -- go plunk your heinster on a stool in Borders and open a copy off their shelves. Six or seven years ago, I finally splurged and bought it, then read it so much the spine split and the pages all fell out. This might have been recoverable except I was reading, as I always do, in the bathtub, so of course all the book's contents landed in the bath bubbles and water.