HAPPY (BELATED) NEW YEAR :)

Hi All :)

HAPPY BELATED NEW YEAR :)

Long time no see, sorry about that, I have missed so much in the blogging world but Life has been CRAZY, the kind of CRAZY, where I didn't even get to send Christmas cards out (which I have NEVER, EVER not done before in my whole life, even if I was down with bronchitis or a CFS/Fibro relapse leading up to a Christmas, NEVER!!!

The kind of CRAZY where I only managed to produce 4 blog posts in 2015, WHAT!!!!!

It's been the kind of CRAZY year that I am seriously thinking about leaving my Christmas tree in the corner where it is, all dressed up and just unplugging the lights, leaving the ornaments in place and putting a sheet over it until next year, before you all panic, it is an artificial tree, lol :)

But CRAZY nearly had me defeated at several points, not good :(

I'm not the kind of Girl to be down for the count for long and it has been a long, long time but I'm back to my beloved blog and my lovely Blogger Buddies :) 
Even if it is the beginning of February 2016 already, WHAT!!!!
(Not sure where January went) :(

 And if you are interested I will tell you the tale of my CRAZY 2015 - I will try not to bore you with too much of the dross and it will most probably be in parts (oh joy, I hear you all groan, lots of narrative, lol :)

I promise I will include some pretty photos to break the monotony of my bitching :)

If this was a Tardis (I know it is the wrong type of phone box, I am a Brit, after all, I should know, lol :) I would beam (I know, it's a different show too, lol :) myself to a land where I had a personal assistant or better still, a Fairy Godmother or both and could get on and do everything I would like to do, possibly creating artwork again, rather than the boring things I have to deal with right now :(

Now, where would that land be??? 

Well, for now I "beamed" myself back to Oregon :)

This is what I posted about the start of the adventure in January 2015 :)

2015 was very challenging. :(

As I was in Oregon most of the organisational work on our house fell to me. I am a great planner and love to be organised :) I felt confident I could get the task done. So, with my notepad in hand I got planning, scheduling, calling people, etc., But there were definitely too many people involved in this move for it to go smoothly. 

To start with it was a corporate move; we were reassured that the assigned moving co. would work with us and it would all go smoothly and we had an ever so bubbly relocation "Expert" to help us navigate any problems, unfortunately, neither the Moving Co.'s go to person nor the bubbly relocation "Expert" had any idea of what our lives were like or how my health impacts our daily lives and how this was going to be a HUGE physical challenge for me, regardless of how much I tried to explain, they feigned understanding but it was just empty words. 

Anyway, based on how the real estate market seems to operate in our part of America, we decided to put our home on the market at the beginning of the "Selling" season which is Spring time. With the first week in April as our target time to list our home. Our real estate agent brought in a "Stager" to advise on how to "stage" our house for sale. Well, I spent nearly 2 hours going around our home and her telling me that I needed to paint everything neutral, I needed to neutralise the carpets, I needed to take down all the family photos, declutter areas, lose the personal items, basically turn our home into a show home. Seriously, I'm an Artist my walls are yellow & red & blue; I have red carpet & blue carpet in places, & tons of original artwork & photography on the walls, it all seemed like a load of nonsense to me. We LIVE in our house for goodness sake. But to sell a house in America that seems to be what it takes; it would have cost a fortune to do everything she and the realtor wanted us to do. Seriously, you would think that our house was a complete messy ramshackle hut the way they were talking :(

 1st clue  that we had the wrong realtor but did we realise it at the time, NOPE. :(  

Because my health is unpredictable, at best, I really do need to be extremely careful where I use my energy everyday. With so many people involved in our relocation, even my meticulous organising went out the window in a hurry.

People would show up unannounced to give me a bid on a job (oh we were in the area, GREAT (read "great" as sarcastically as you can), people would show up, out of the blue, to do work that couldn't be done that day because someone else had to do another job the next day BEFORE these peeps could do their work. You get the picture, like the guys who were scheduled to refinish the hardwood floors wanted to go hunting or something, so were going to put the final coat of varnish on the floor the next day, I told them we had agreed to get the job done that day and it needed to be done as the painters were coming in the next day, talk about an unhappy camper, (him not me) he grumpily agreed to finish the work that day but I watched as he and his buddy just slopped the last finishing coat on to the hardwood floors that were just sanded and no completely cleared of sawdust, yet again GREAT!!!!!. He also got the jab in that I should bring a check for the full amount with me when I came back to the house. (I was staying in a nearby hotel (sounds WAY more glamorous than it was) while these "workers" were doing the jobs on our Home. 

I'm just going to say here, that if I never have to organise people to work on my home ever again it will be too soon ;(

We had decided, because of the work that needed to be done to our house, that we would move everything into storage first. A word of advice to anyone thinking of selling a house, NEVER, EVER move everything out of your house to try and sell it, people will think you are desperate and will make low ball offers and that is exactly what happened to us. :(

But I digress................. I'm thinking you guys most probably have read enough so far, so here are a few new photos in my Etsy shop for you to enjoy :)

"SUMMER CALM"

"CATHEDRAL ARCHES"

"RED, RED AUTUMN"

"MYSTICAL BLUE WINTER"

"ST. JOHN'S BRIDGE"

"CRATER LAKE"

I Hope everyone has a wonderful Weekend :)

Here's to reconnecting :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.

A New Year, will it be any different?

Hi All :)

I Hope you are all well and enjoying life :)

So, I hadn't really thought I had given much thought to New Year resolutions until I realized that I had promised myself, some time last year, that in the New Year I would blog more, well.............um, I think I totally failed on that one already, LOL!!!

Then I thought I really see resolutions, for me these days, as more like wishes. So here are a few I have been wishing for a while.

I wish I could be well and healthy. (Totally accepting and grateful that I am still around to wish for that :)

I wish I could earn money. ( I totally feel guilty for being constantly challenged healthwise and therefore am not employable in the ordinary sense of the word and can't contribute to our family's income) 

I wish I could travel farther afield. (Haven't had the energy to travel to England for a very long time, which is rather depressing but am grateful I can at least tolerate 2 hrs flights)

I wish I could expand my business. (I am working on that, albeit slowly)

I wish I could keep everyone safe. (This is a bigger challenge but I wish all the crazies would hop on a jet and go to another planet) 

2012 was not such a good year for me in many respects, healthwise. A LOT of challenging testing and no conclusive results or some rather vague diagnoses, a  LOT of health repercussions because of those tests and also some out there treatments that left me completely wiped out for weeks. It truly doesn't make sense to do that over and over again to myself because some arrogant Neurologist has the attitude "it's my way or the byway :(.  
So, as 2013 started I had a chest infection, then a cold and then a relapse, (Woo Hoo!) I realized it was time to start again, to regroup and look at what my options are. I will keep you posted.

But.......

2012 definitely had its lovely moments. Time I got to spend with my amazing family all together; the trips I did get to take were awesome.
 And when I was able, I got to work on my Art and Photography which truly brings me great joy and being able to share that with others is so amazingly rewarding and uplifting.

This is one of my Favs. from last year :)

SOFT AND GENTLE (Peony)

The subtleness and beauty of nature blows me away all the time and gives me the strength to stay the course. :)

And Knowing that my supportive and amazing Blogger Buddies are there is totally incredible. :)

WHEW!!!!!

OK, then, moving on :)

I also wanted to share with you this beautiful giveaway from one of my Blogger Buddies :)

This wonderful piece of artwork is up for grabs, so amazing, her work is truly inspiring :) Check the giveaway out HERE :) (ends on Wed. so be quick :)

K. has also inspired me to do my own blog giveaway very soon, I haven't done one in forever, so come back soon and see, but don't hold your breathe as I seem to be only blogging every 10 days or so, LOL!!! :)

Have a lovely Monday :)

Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.