Art Unraveled

As most of you know, I will be teaching again this year at Art Unraveled held here in Phoenix in August. I'll be teaching a class learning Dimensional Watercolor. However, a new development has occurred in the past couple of days and I'm so pleased to announce I will now be teaching an additional class! Many of you are familiar with the work of Tracie Lyn Huskamp and her mother-in-law Marilyn Huskamp. They have team taught at AU several years now as well as many other venues. Unfortunately, they are not able to come teach at AU this year as expected and I have been asked to step in and teach one of the classes they were to teach so the class won't have to be canceled and students disappointed. I am incredible honored and excited to be teaching their workshop titled :Pressed Botanical Journal. I'm so sad for them that they cannot come out to teach after all but am very grateful for the opportunity to be their substitute. If you have not checked out the website for the retreat, I invite you to do so. There are so many classes to choose from!

On another note, just a quick catch up before I hit the sack for the night..... if you haven't seen the new Karate Kid movie, go see it! Jaden Smith is great in it! This kid's got a serious future ahead. He even did some of the music for the movie! I loved this one better than the originals. Loved the setting being in China. Marmaduke is pretty cute too.

Been trying to focus on things I have to get done. Spent some time yesterday pricing things to sell at Art Unraveled's Vendor day. I also taught two 4th grade girls a private painting class three mornings this week.... so I got to paint too! :) Ahhhhhh.....

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got new hearing aids. My others were my first ever and the life expectancy for a pair is about 10 years. I have had mine for 13. I was afraid if I didn't get new ones before the others completely died on me, I'd be up a creek. These new ones are definitely taking some time of adjustment. I've hated them. The new technology for them actually converts the high pitch sounds I no longer hear, into lower tones so that I can hear them. Well, it took at least a week for me to not be jumping out of my skin at the sound of my own voice. And it sounded like everyone was talking into a microphone... Breaker, Breaker 1-9..... I was hatin' these things and determined to return them and exchange them for different ones. However, I went back today and the audiologist was able to adjust the sounds to make them more tolerable for me to get use to as well as some other things bothering me about them. They feel better. I will give them another couple of weeks to see if I adjust to them. They are a major purchase as insurance does not cover them, and it's something you wear every day, all day, for years...so you better be in love, I'm tellin' ya'. I'm not in love yet. Not quite in like yet either. But moving out of outright hate. Hey, I'm not crying over them anymore. That's progress.

I also FINALLY got my glasses adjusted so I can wear them now! All the time! I can see, people! I do find, however, that I'd actually prefer just reading glasses for my computer. I have a large computer screen and the bifocals either make me need to get too close or back up too far... no in between. I also find that doing art work, I'd rather have on reading glasses as well because I have a bigger, magnified lense. I'm learning what works for me. But, at least right now, I'm wearing my glasses all day and getting use to them.

In the next couple of weeks, I have a ton of stuff going on. One of which is Sam will be going into braces. We have several preliminary appts. for x-rays, spacers, molds, etc... and putting in a palette expander. In about 3-6 months, he will then move to head gear to be worn only at night for quite a while. Then, we'll be on hold for all the rest of his permanent teeth to come in to go into full braces. Right now, it will just be bands on the back teeth and braces on the front four on top. Eventually, it will be the whole mouth but the Dr. estimated that he'd probably be about 14. Geez, by then, it may be time to be doing preliminary work on Max's. EEK! Two in braces at once! That bites! However, I don't think Max will require two different phases of treatment as Sam does. Sam has such a severe overbite. It's gonna' take some commitment and real work on both his and the Dr.'s part to get his teeth moved. And even then, there is no guarantee that they will be able to get a really ideal bite for him without surgery. I'm praying it will be enough movement that we can all be pleased and his bite will allow for better function. I'm not expecting perfection.

I haven't shared any pictures in a long time so I'll leave you with a couple I snapped this past week. One of Max and Kenzy and one I love of just Kenzy. I need to get some new ones of Bob and Marvin! I love my fur boys... my human ones too!