Follow your bliss...: August 2014

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Knots and Layers...

I've been learning Lightroom on a 30 day free trial...having fun with it...some were worked on through old Photoshop 6...half of which I still know nothing about so my digital potential is not yet explored, but I prefer to just dabble for now...

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Recording Bliss...

I can't help it, I love old rusty metal and peeling paint...all the things my Fred says when he sees it, only makes him think about the stuff he has to fix around here...true that, but I love the random patterns of cracked and peeling paint...our old barn is in need of a fresh coat of paint, so before we attack the decay and shedding, I pulled out my camera to capture some of the beauty that I see...

Me and Fibromyalgia...the good news is, it's not going to kill me.

I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2007 after years of being told my illness was all in my head. My Fibro is everyday fatigue with body aches, mostly tolerable, but when I have a flare-up, which can be triggered by stress, hormones, or being over tired from over-doing it, I get the full body pain, including chest pains (yes, these are scary, like an elephant standing on my chest.) Thankfully, it doesn't hurt to take a breath, but I feel breathless, I just do yoga and breathing exercises to stretch and breathe to ease through the worst of it, NSAIDs help to cut the pain, and naps are always a necessary thing when needed (but hard to do while at the day job!) It's a balancing act to manage, I take advantage of the good days, lay low on the bad ones, and very often, push through in spite of the bad days...some mornings I wish I could stay in bed, but I'm glad that I get up and about, very often 'the kinks' work themselves out. I refuse to take the recommended pharmaceutical band-aids on the market, I tried one once, and I don't like feeling like a zombie. I keep active with my creativity, I think that's the key to my overcoming this obstacle every day...and I have my Fred and our son, five cats, and one dog named Max.