Create Art Everyday!

Everyday in one way or another I do create art.  Either in the meals I create-ha ha-, drawing, painting, and all the other arts/crafts I dabble in.
Here are a few of my Creating Aloha pieces:

Prismacolor pencils drawing from a class taken at Michael's in La Verne

a mixed media self portrait on canvas

Underwater sea creature from the "Steampunkery" book by Christi Friesen

a chameleon inspired from the same book

First attempt with art quilts: Dragonfly flying over a pond

Yin and Yang betta fish art quilt

my polymer clay dragonfly necklace

My Migraines polymer art creation from Christi Friesen's Steampunkery book

My steampunk metal art butterfly

My creation of a Steampunk pendant necklace

I will be posting more of my Creating Aloha pieces soon!  Tell me what you think and give me suggestions for things you want to see.  I do personalized pieces for clients all the time....I am in the process of creating my CreatingAloha web site coming soon!!

Another one of my goals:  Create a web site to sell my "Creating Aloha" pieces

A Promise to take care of myself

I have always taken care of others before myself and I need to get to the point of not forgetting to care for myself first so I can be there for others and not be so depleted all the time.  I am not talking "It's all about me, me, me"....I am starting with me and making time to take care of the business of caring for my physical/mental/spiritual health everyday:)

My wonderful doctors and family have been after me to lose the weight I have gained ever since I had my first child.  It has gradually increased over the years and I want it to go down and stay down.  I have diabetes, severe osteo-arthritis in my knees ( I've already had one total knee replacement and heading toward another-ugh), high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, all of which will improve--to normal once I do.  

What spurred me on and made me realize I am not invinsible was this latest health issue with an abnormal result from a cardiac stress test.  I want to be around to enjoy my grandchildren.  When my 5 year old grandson, Landon said, "Bachan (grandma) I don't want you to die!" It just about (excuse the pun) killed me when his eyes welled up with tears!

MY GOAL--LOSE 50 LB IN FIFTY WEEKS
According to my doctor this should be a safe amount to lose in the amount of time given.
Todays weight according to my health o meter scale--dredding dredding= 173.8 and 43% body fat O.M.G.!
I can't have anything to eat until after my second cardiac stress test with isotope injection at 0830 this morning...wish me luck:}!

Creating Aloha one day at a time

Well this is day one of starting "Creating Aloha" one day at a time.   I have never blogged before so forgive me if I am not "blog" savvy! Punctuation and such is not a strong suit so please don't judge me.

About me... I am a multi-talented (Jackie of all trades), fun loving, DIYer who loves to dabble in just about anything!  You name it and I have probably done it!  I love being creative and learning any new technique and can add to my tool belt!! So far my Art/Craft life includes sewing, quilting, drawing, painting, scrap-booking, paper crafting, jewelry making, steam-punkery, anything mixed media, art journaling just to name a few. I am a fan of all things "Sommerset" !!

I grew up in a crazy, loving and strict-to-a-point family.  I inherited both my parents good and some bad assets!  I am the youngest of 4.  Two brothers and one sister. They all had the pleasure of caring for me (lol)  when I was young  But really... I love all of you and appreciate all you sacraficed for me and my well being..xoxo!!

I met the love of my life right after I graduated and passed my state RN boards  (He was one of my patients).  I know it's a big NO-NO! We've been married for 28 years!  I really am lucky to have him... He puts up with all my flaws and still loves me anyway!

We raised our kids in a nice southern California town and lived there for over 23yrs, when without warning we were told they sold our home from under us when we working on a loan modification.  YES, we were one of the thousands of homeowners who lost their homes.  What really cut me, was we had just about finished remodeling and decorating our house into our "dream home"!  I still have not recovered from losing the all american dream.

We are renting a nice home from some very nice and understanding couple. We are hoping to be able to get back on our feet and back  into a home of our own in a few years.

My life as I knew and loved it changed drastically over the last 12 years.  I was working as a Registered Nurse for most of my adult life in the maternal/child health area.  I dabbled in several different aspects of nursing hoping to find a niche I could continue to work in without having to leave the profession I thought I would retire as a happy fat old nurse.  I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Migraines, chronic fatigue and chronic pain..which did me in back in 2001.  I also lost my mother to complications from surgery, my 23yr old nephew from a motorcycle crash the day before he was to open up his own performance garage and my dad from a major heart attack..then to top things off we lost our home in 2010 before the holidays!!

So you see I made a promise to myself today that I would turn my life around and get back on my feet..creating aloha one-day-at-a-time!!