the search for a new painting chair

or should i say..research?

since i broke my painting chair (and probably my ass too)
i haven't been able to paint,.....oh i've tried rigging stuff up
but i realize that after about 5 minutes, 'yeah it ain't gonna happen'
the strain on my knees and back is too much to let go and paint
and since i am already all banged up bad from the fall.....we're not going to aggravate things
so i have been researching

and this is where i'm at
three chairs.... one cheap but with arms and too big to fit in there
one small enough sort of to fit in there without arms, but too tall and needs extra cushioning on the seat...
and one that seems perfect but is out of my price range (well right now... a bandaid is out of my price range)

and i am also going to fix my little chair as a back up... cause i can't take the down time

i am trying to find the 'seems perfect' one for less then 200....
if i could i would have gotten it already

i can't paint without a rolling swiveling chair...i can't get close enough to the painting
i was going to try to stand to paint, but right now without a major reorganization and possibly building something. that's isn't about to happen, and i can't find my studio easel either...
but that takes up some serious floor space.....(it's been a while since i've used it so i don't remember how much floor space but i know it's a lot more then my drafting table)

i am trying to think outside the box (or the studio-if you know what i mean)
i am wondering ok..... what if i give up my drafting table (which would bother me but maybe huh?)
put my little easel on a tall stand and paint standing?
or put my little easel on something with wheels and move that in and out?

i don't really know what to do....
i do know i would like to finish my corn painting...some time this year..which is not going to happen without a painting chair (the other solutions would take a bit of time so since next year is like what? thursday? yeah ....not likely)

so there i am
meanwhile i got a very sore ischium bone... (it feels like it's also got a bad cut inside there)
two bad knees and a horrible shoulder which i am not entirely sure doesn't have a hairline fracture.....
i am also going out of my mind by not being able to knit, sit for long periods of time, walk or paint

oye
i think the knitting and the painting is the worse part of it

happy holidays

i wish all my friends all over the world the happiest of holidays (and if this isn't your holiday- i wish you wonderful memories and lots of hugs and icecream )

it really is so small a world these days, i talk to my friends from the usa, south america, europe, the middle east, africa, australia, and the far east........... all due to this wonderful magical thing called the internet- we can even skype! we can talk into what surely to a medieval person would have seemed a magic mirror and we see each other, hear each other and connect-- and i would imagine i would be extremely warm right now as the flames surrounding the stake would be leaping higher

my friends from all over, i am so lucky to know you all..... you all make my days so much brighter

and as i talk to all these amazing people so alike and yet all so different, i realize how important they are to me
suddenly people from far away aren't faceless, they are my friends, they are all the faces of my friends

i also realize how very empty my life would be without these wonderful people spread all over this tiny blue planet ..... we are all just a speck of dust in an infinitely huge universe- but here we are..... and it's amazing to me

i sit (well ok right now i am not able to sit due to the broken chair) in my studio and paint. then i can instantly share that image with all of you folks all over the entire world....... HOW COOL IS THAT?

it makes me think how petty that all the wars, the hate, the killing, the controlling is.....how insane the quest for ultimate riches and power is....
because we really are all in this soup of life together
we really do all interconnect...

it's not 'them' and us......it really is just all US

anyway..... happy happy holidays to you all...... my very best wishes for you all
freedom, peace, security, happiness. health, happy memory making.......
i wish it all to everyone
all without fear, without pain

bless you all no matter what if any religion you are...

dear santa claus

it's me violet
remember me?
of the pennsylvania violets?


i know i am sorta haphazard about things but i remembered my list this year

so here goes

i would really like to have some of my friends who are ill, made well.... i worry about them carrying on and being in pain, or worse..... having worry hanging over them like a dark dark rain cloud

folks who need not just jobs..but good jobs..... jobs that allow them to live not just survive
so they don't have to chose between do i get my meds........or heat or eat
they are working and making more then minimum but let's face it anything less then 50K for someone who has a house and mortgage and a job is just not going to make it
70K a year and they can actually save a bit for retirement

and can you do something about this world wide situation of fear..... fear of knowledge just got 141 people killed by extremists ...in GOD'S name (god's pr department must be having a meltdown about now)
cops killing folks out of fear.... folks in fear of their lives from cops
folks in fear ..just fear of all things
meanwhile you got folks telling everyone ..... ditch the fears
it ain't so easy
we're going to need a major miracle here
(maybe you and god's pr department can team up here?)

and the greed thing.. some folks ..enough is never enough.. the thing is.. we're all literally in this together...we ALL live on this earth, breath this air (and if nestle waters has it's way...we'll be paying for water too)
are interconnected by atoms and molecules.... so by that line of thinking ...maybe at one point enough is enough?? and we know all must be able to not only survive but live?
aren't we supposed to be above all the savagery ?
i mean if not.....wtf is the point of it all?
how insanely crazy can you allow things to get before stepping up and stepping in?

those are some of the major things
and if you have a bit left over...please take care of my little family
bernie and the animals
mrs quail is calling for her dead husband.... phoebe is slowly dying of age
my fawnie can't walk (also i suspect due to age)
bernie is doing ok so far .....can he stay healthy and happy please?

me i need to be mobile again, to take care of everyone, it's not working well that bernie has to step up with some of the stuff.....

and an agent for me....... i need one that can be an asset to me so very bad, it's getting into 'needed urgently' territory now

so santa that's my list
i know there really isn't anything you can wrap and put under the tree...(i am assuming an agent would object to being wrapped up and a bow stuck on her head..... ?)
but really that is my list

if the world gets better for everyone... that is the best gift of all.... and everyone will get part of it!

anyway i'm off now
i am gimping around so it's taking me forever to do anything and it's time for my ice
take good care santa
and really please try to get some of that stuff on my list..the fear and the greed ones i think are the biggest no?

your friend

vi

me and fawn

both immobilized
her with her slipped disk in her back
me and my knee that i mangled back in april in that fall

fawn we gotta stop meeting like this

the vet gave her a shot and did accupressure....she's walking better but not normal
he said..... (this morning) if she's not better by next week..accuPUNTURE
i was surprised he didn't do that in the first place
now fawn is anything like me she's going to stay crashed for a week then gradually get better
meanwhile between the two of us....we are NOT doing well

i have to keep icing
she has to keep a heating pad on
and both of us just want to lay down and sleep

bean soup and snow and ducks and wood stoves

i made a huge pot of bean and ham soup (diced onion, carrot, celery, added to the cooked to tender navy beans, then the remains of the ham.....simmer all day)
it was wonderful!
the beans broke down into a thickener, the veggies melted, and the ham added flavor
i was shocked when bernie went back for seconds (of course there was nothing else for him so he had no choice.....but he said it was alright)

hey he ate it so that's a plus
(i'm eating it for breakfast, i do love beans ....i have to get more navy beans)

today i woke up to snow on the ground
and more coughing....a lot of coughing actually
dr won't renew the zpack i am to use the inhalers
seriously they aren't helping with the coughing at all
the pulmonary dr won't be available until at least feb..(he'll be back jan but booked until feb)
i noticed that going outside or getting too upset, talking too long....or exertion makes me cough BAD

ok to sort of continue the light bulb thing from the other day (it's scary how my mind works) i have to rig up the shop lights for the seed starting very soon..... i have to start peppers EARLY, and i would like to start a few early things like cabbage and leeks if my leek seeds will germinate ( i have seeds that are kind of old and some stuff such as leeks don't always store well no matter how well you store them)
if i wait for bernie to help me with the shop lights i won't hit the window for the early seed starts
i had asked for a cold frame or tunnel but that didn't happen either as i was too sick to do it myself

bernie seems interested in the garden this time so i am going to hope he helps me as lately i'm not able to do it all myself

depending on weather, i am going to be calling for wood next week, not the full three cords i need but at least one cord at a time
i wish at this point i could have about 10 cords out there...... well we'll do what we can do
thank goodness we didn't wait for that old wood guy...he never EVER bothered to follow up on his promise....we'd have frozen already

and in ducks... phoebe seems to be ok today..so she's out with the flock
i don't know as she is going to have as long a life as she should... that was the nest i was raising when that jackass was next door with the methlab
so cleo and phoebe had never really been right and cleo died so young...
so that's our day so far
how's your week going?

as time goes on

today i am again cleaning in the studio....
my plague, with the help of a zpack and inhaler is down to a dull roar and so i'm back to cleaning my studio
have i mentioned how much i hate cleaning?
and how once it IS clean how i hate messing it up again
maybe that's why i don't clean much.. at least with the mess there i can just get to work
?
well ok that's my story
so i got my work surface cleared off and added two long shelves...... i made the mistake of putting out my half sheet bounty paper towels
bernie saw them
there may be a homicide happening if he touches them
i need them and i've stashed them for a while so i HAVE THEM
not just any rolls...BOUNTY half sheets
those are the best and that's what i have in the studio

now today it's a sort of half assed storm outside
although it's warm, and while it's slushy and all.... the ducks are ok
tomorrow we are to get about 3'' of snow and sleet and freezing rain and hale and the 7 plagues of hell and grasshoppers
maybe frogs

bernie got kero for the backup heaters but we won't be able to use them as he hasn't dry burnt them to service them... i can't get him to understand that if he doesn't do that...we can all die of carbon monoxide when there is incomplete combustion--

and i am also trying to protect my paper towels
homicide may happen......

just saying

meanwhile................ today is going to be a chicken curry for dinner day-
and i am hoping to get further on the studio
i need my second work surface brought up.... i found it and couldn't move it myself
i would like to also paint it with a semi gloss cream
(although my other one is minwax red- it used to be my niece's desk when they were little kidlets living in an apartment in Fairlawn .....i painted it for them)
so the back one is probably going to end up being painted with cream outdoor trim paint, which is fine as i am going to beat the crap out of the work surface anyway....
i have two other shelves to go over that work surface and i'll paint them cream as well

i am looking at lighting....and i think i am going to go with dimable LED ..... as i can afford them, they are brighter, and supposedly last much longer..... and use much less electricity.....
i desperately need to get light bulbs..... i need regular ones CFL at 40 w...and i need one really tough one for outside on the porch (about 100w equivalent)
and then the studio lights
i was looking at some under counter lights that are not too bad...like under 20.00 for 6' which is most likely what i'm going to use .....the cool white is 6500K so that is as bright as daylight
(i'm also going to need regular cool white and warm white 48'' floursecent tubes for the big fixtures... to start my garden seeds-- like i said...i am out of light bulbs)
i found a few of my smaller drafting lights........so i'm going to hook them up for the second easel as task lighting
i have two ott lights but i am afraid to use them as they got brown where the lightbulb plugs in
i wish i could
lighting is a huge problem in my studio, even with three walls of windows.... we had to cover (nosey neighbors from hell).... so we do rely on artifical lighting a fair amount...
i wish we could have replaced the windows when i was planning to but now we'll have to wait

so that is the state of the studio right now...... it's cleaner and almost rearranged
bernie didn't help
i did it all as i felt better
and now.... onto curry chicken

a sodden end to vacation

cause it's raining, foggy, dark, relatively warm (in the 40s but feels 30s) day.
bernie is sleeping i hope as he starts back to work tonight

and i am cleaning the studio ...
to install a new work surface across the back wall for my second easel...... i got it partly cleared out but now i need to move stuff and bernie's sleeping
(we agreed not to fight by not moving stuff the other day)

in addition to this i went for the adrenal supression test this morning----- they took my blood at 7:13 so i hope that was ok
i felt terrible as there was a guy there ( even though i was there first and had the first appointment) who'd had a liver transplant...... but i had to get this blood drawn
and i did have an appointment (he is a regular walk in)
i really could use a bit more sleep
i was going to go up then realized that bernie has to sleep today so i've stayed down
i really wish there was a way of me sleeping down here a bit- i asked bernie if we could put the spare bed up in the studio ......but really there is absolutely no space for it
so i have to come up with another idea- and some bookcases..... (cause part of the no space thing is the amazing amount of books i've got crammed in here- why yes i do read a LOT --- ahem why do you ask?)

i have a hair brain idea.... i want to buy those insulation panels and install them on the walls then face them with drywall, and replace all the windows with one large window on the north wall, two large windows on the west wall and patio doors on the deck wall......
i sort of priced it all and just for supplies would be about 6K--- i think however we could heat with less then 4 cords of wood a winter then...... maybe
so that would probably pay us back in about 6 years
considering ac costs ....maybe less!
oye

anyway today i am struggling to get the energy to do the painting corner
i need it done NOW
(i also could sure use a white board in there as well......)