diagnostic results came back. gall stones. lots of them. too many to pulverise successfully and guarantee they’ll pass. so… this means surgery.

and too many stones means not just a de-gravelling of my gallbladder…they’re going to take out the whole kit and kaboodle. yay! not!

to tell the truth i’m a little freaked out. but it’ll be ok. <breathe deeply> it’s going to be ok… but i’ve never had surgery before. i’ve never even been unconscious. this is the main reason i’m freaking a little bit. the fear of the unknown and fear of what will happen. so… for the next 6-8 weeks until i have surgery i will be doing the following:

1. maintaining my bland, sucka$$ diet
2. learning breathing technique to regulate my stress and post-op recovery anxiety
3. trying to relax and not freak out about stuff i really can’t control

in the end this is a good thing. my gallbadder being taken out means no more painful attacks at 3am. no more back and side pain for days on end. no more nasty a$$ indigestion at the most inopportune times.

whew! it’s gonna be a long, uncomfortable summer…

i’ve been itching to create a collaborative book with other mixed media and paper artists. it’s an idea that has been swirling around in my noodle for a while now…

i’m thinking about a collaborative mixed media art publication. something fun… a little avant garde, a little altered, something fresh, and definitely something unique and exciting. are there any peeps out there who may be interested in contributing to this type of publication? the end result would be your artwork(s) in a beautifully printed edition of outstanding mixed media artwork.

the publication would be available for sale “at cost” through my website to collaboration participants only, and then would be made available to the public for a higher fee. my goal with this book is not to generate a ton of additional revenue [although a few bucks might be nice for all the design work i plan on putting into this publication]… my goal is to give individuals who have not had their artwork published in the past, an opportunity to do so; to expand creatively as an artist; and to be part of an exceptional collaborative project.

if you are interested, please post your comment below or email me.

i don’t have a limit/number of participants in mind at the moment, but depending on the level of interest, i may impose one when it comes time to finalize the process… in the meantime, i’m just trying to get a feel for who, if anyone, may be interested in participating in this project.

so i went to the doctor for the blasted ’stones… man those things are u-g-l-y! google gallstones and the wikipedia pictures tell quite a story. yuck! amazing what the body produces isn’t it?!?

bad news: it is definitely gallstones. yup. sucks big time.

good news: i’m in for an ultrasound on friday morning to determine size, type and number of stones in my gallbladder. nice. fasting for 12 hours ahead is making me hungry just thinking about it! but at least i’m getting into to the exam FAST [by bc medical standards - it’s usually a 2-3 week wait for ultrasounds. my g.p. had me scheduled in under 4 days… must be a record!] and once the exam is complete we’ll know what we’re dealing with.

results should be back by late mid-late next week and then we look at the treatment options…

1. if the stones are small enough and not too many of them, i can be treated as an outpatient with laser/ultrasound therapy where the blast the crap out of the stones. the literally pulverise them so that can pass them ‘naturally’. the doc is optimistic this will be the approach we take. fingers-crossed on this option!
2. if there are more stones than initially expected/hoped and if they are larger than expected, i’ll have to have lapiroscopic surgery to remove the damn things. again… an outpatient type surgery, but surgery nonetheless with about 7 days recovery time at home. i’d end up with a couple of small incisions and some discomfort but at least it’s not the old-school 8″ incision, hack and slash of years past like my mom had to endure. ick!

so that is the update… a number of my online/offline friends have emailed their concerns and i thought this would be the quickest, easiest way to keep everyone updated.

in other, happier news… i have 6 new mixed media collages in the works and will be posting them soon!

thanks for tuning in…
hugs to all of you who cared enough to email your well-wishes. i appreciate your concern more than you know. xoxoxo

hello!

portobello went well yesterday under the circumstances. very hot outside meant very very hot in the building. like ‘ewwww… i’m sweaty’ hot. not fun. but it’s always cool to hook up with the vendors and chat, trade and get to know new people. this time i traded a couple of reproduction canvasses for a super cool, eco-screenprinted and hemp fabric hoodie from mahadevi designs. love jules’ designs! you rock girl… chatted with another collage artist too and got great feedback on my artwork from fellow artists and buyers. nice!

other nice news… no major ouchies for 48 hours! yay!! gall bladder has temporarily settled down with my yogurt, skim milk and blandest of the bland diet. nice! no pain is good news.

this afternoon i’m off to see the doctor to get the prognosis and treatment options for my lovely gall stones. will report back later. did you know that people can sell gallstones?!? wtf? strange strange things on ebay…

in the meantime, have a great day peeps!

all canadians are celebrating one of our old-timey monarchs with a three-day long weekend this monday. the venerable queen victoria.

this is an especially celebrated holiday in bc canada because our provincial capital is named victoria [yes, after the queen] and it marks the first unofficial camping weekend in late spring/early summer for all those outdoorsy types. needless to say, this city-slicker and her hubby have no desire to camp, sleep on the ground or shower [if you’re lucky] in communal, cold showers at a regional campsite. so this weekend we’ll be hangin’ out at home doing city stuff. this girl doesn’t rough it. nope. i’m much happier doing this kind of outdoorsy stuff…

t and i took in the 23rd annual all british field meet - which is a really long title for cool classic and new brit cars. the event has been held for 22 years at van dusen gardens [a vancouver landmark for the botanical garden-set] on their ‘great lawn’ and is truly mecca for classic car enthuasiasts. over 600 cars and 50+ motor cycles are in attendance at this annual event, making it the largest event of it’s kind in western canada.

now we’re not big car buffs, but knowing that there would be a ton of vintage, classic cars at this event was enough of a photo op to drag me outta the house. think lots of chrome, curvy lines, gorgeous paint, burl walnut interiors and leather. yummy eye candy for sure! plus it was a spectacular day yesterday soaring to 30C/86F so being outdoors under some large trees was pretty much a neccessity =)

between the two of us, we shot over 500 photos of the most amazing chrome and enamel vehicles we’ve ever seen. yep t took some pics too… in his words “if you’re gonna drag me out to this thing, i better take a camera so i don’t get bored”. needless to say, he wasn’t bored LOL! he took a ton of photos himself, experimenting with the lens, dof, reflection, etc… i think he really enjoy himself actually and that was great fun to watch.

so many of vehicle were so cool looking with interesting reflections in the chrome and the gorgeous paint jobs that t has encouraged me to do a photobook. so yep… i’m publishing again and will have a 100 page book in my hot little hands in about 10 days. anyways… thought you might enjoy looking at a few of my favorites. there are more in my flickr collection here.

love this! so gorgeous in person. the detail of the figure and chromed gleam of the rolls royce hood ornament is something to behold. breathtaking!

i had no idea that the lotus esprit was a british car! i know the brits do luxury muscle cars [see bentley, jaguar and astin martin], but had no idea that they did exotics too. well done uk auto designers. well done. these new lotuses are truly remarkable. amazingly compact and full of personally [and a lot of vavoom!] if we sold off t’s star war fig collection we could go buy one today [yep, that is ALOT of star wars in plastic bubbles. but i’m not judging him lol!]. i’m partial to the bright orange one… it goes with my hair colour ;^)

to see the rest of the 25 images i uploaded to my flickr portfolio, click here…

have a great rest of the long weekend canucks!
happy early memorial day to my southern usa friends too =)

this is what my nutty hubby t does. makes face at me til i smile. even when my eye is puffed up like a little balloon on my face lol!

now that is love =)

south richmond in the evening at 8:20pm… gorgeous!

when we went to ironman last week, we saw the trailer for the new mike myers movie ‘love guru’. looks hilarious in typical myers fashion.

was poking around on the website, which graphically speaking is just kick ass. great colour, wicked graphics and so perfectly indian. love it! and this fun feature came up in one of the menu items *vacation with guru pitka* well, i couldn’t resist. i need a vacation, so here i am with the guru

funny huh? there are 6 different gurus to choose from… lots of time killing wasteful fun to be had with this gadget!

the trailer is pretty funny too, especially when mike myers looks like an awkward big-headed, prepubescent boy. it’s a good giggle… so happy monday and enjoy a little love guru =)

$104.8 million times domestically
$200+ million total including international ticket sales and
more than few women’s hearts!

staggering numbers considering the budget was $185 million. hmm… i smell hollywood gold and multiple sequels! yay!

FINALLY going to see this flick tonight. a bunch of unexpected events occured this weekend that impeded my rdj viewing <sniff>. but fear not my friends… i am going to see the amazingly talented [read HOT], oh so sarcastic [read HOT] rdj tonight in ironman. at 6:40pm PST to be exact. popcorn and koolaid in hand at riverport silvercity.

in the meantime, all you rdj fans have got to see this. it’s truly hilarious! a three-way [now get your heads of the smut gutter!] interview with rdj, terrence howard and jon favreau.

enjoy!

duran duran - red carpet massacre

more video!
yay for flip video cameras and shooting video footage in concerts lol!
enjoy =)

here are some of my favorite pics from the concert…

john taylor was always my favorite… so pretty =)

i took over 900 jpgs at the show! and have culled them down to about 375 really good shots [especially considering we were half an ice skating arena away from the stage and in the upper bowl!]. i’ve added a bunch of my favorites including these ones into my flickr account. just click on graphic for full-image views to have a peek.

now on to some video…

Duran Duran - Skin Trade [21.4mb file] click to open high-resolution video with quicktime

the distance in the video gives you a sense of how far away we actually were and you get an idea how good the photos i managed to get really are. it has a lot to do with a nice long lens [canon 55-250 IS telephoto] and using the right iso, shutter and aperture setting. and just shooting non-stop through 2 hours of amazing music.

enjoy!