Staying stable

Last night was calm for Lee. Kim had a bit of a fight concerning one thing that happened, but this morning he seems alright. He’s coherent, asking about pertinent things happening today: my dropping Dave off at PDX for a flight to China, his granddaughters job interview this morning, and even a request for two boning knives from IKEA (which happens to be right by the airport).

He has a low temp this morning, fairly stable on his feet, taking his pills as directed, getting the morning coffee on his own. He has no interest in food but realizes he needs to eat. That could be a minor fight today. Maybe I’ll pick up some frozen meatballs at Ikea and bring them to Eugene before heading home. Bland…. kind of what he might like.

Hopefully more lab results will surface today.

More sobering information

So my dad’s situation is very critical right now. Bacterial tests came back positive for his blood. The antibiotics started yesterday have decreased his temp to basically normal. The oncologist started him on one additional antibiotic (a triple dose) to work hard at the bad stuff attacking his blood. It will take another day to determine what specific strain we’re dealing with. Lee’s job right now is to drink lots of fluids. Lots and lots. Plus take his pills when we tell him. And no flack back at the caretakers… like that will happen.

We’re watching for changes in body temperature, dizziness, disorientation/coherence. His coughing has increased but that’s a good thing, according to the nurse, since it’s helping to move things out of his lungs. The nurse from his primary doctor called to check in and provided a wealth of additional information and phone #’s for late evening questions. Basically, if anything changes he needs to get taken directly to ER. Sepsis of the blood really doesn’t sound like a fun route to take. We would all like to avoid that one!

Maybe tomorrow we’ll learn all the info about the bacteria.

the sickie

How does one reason with an elderly sick parent? I guess as diplomatically as possible without crushing all their sense of self. I had the Sunday shift with my dad and kind of dreaded it because I knew I would probably be wrangling him over to hospital. When I got to the house at 9am, I had him take his temp to see how our day would head. 100 degrees. Yep, time for the ER! Enough with sitting back and waiting, I need to know what’s going on with his body. With very firm determination, and the help that he thought it was his day to see the oncologist, we slowly made it to the car. Lee has had a temp since Thursday, coughing, labored breathing, disorientation, not hungry and a shift in personality (mainly due to feeling super cruddy). A recipe for a bad bug.

Fast forward 5 hrs and a diagnosis of pneumonia had been issued. 5 hrs…. is it even possible to get out of ER in under that time? He’s back at home, pumped full of extra fluids and an antibiotic. He had a  raised heart rate due to dehydration and probably the fever too, but the saline really helped drop that down. It wasn’t fun. He might admit in a few days that it was a good thing to do. He still thinks, as of Sunday night, that he’ll be going into the oncologist today. Wrong! The only distance he’ll be going is to the trusty old couch that’s well over 30 yrs old. I think it’s time to do something about that, at least get the cushions re-stuffed or something! No visit with Dr Fiorello today. Maybe next week when everything has settled down…. and I hope it does!

Now if we can just figure out how to de-stress my sister…. she’s wrapped up rather tight these days due to all the medical stuff going on!

Oh, I did get to see the first fawn of the year. The little tyke was still wobbly on it’s legs and uncertain about walking up wood stairs. It camped out in the back yard with mom not too far away. It must have been under 24 hrs old. Cute!

Not a happy camper!

For those family & friends keeping up with my dad’s cancer progress, well, he’s not feeling very good right now. Tuesday he received two pints of blood for his very very anemic body. Red blood cells were at an all time low of 7. We’re all amazed he didn’t go into heart problems. After receiving the two lovely pints, he headed over to Yachats the next day. Bad move buddy! His body wasn’t able to cope with that sort of stress and he’s now sporting a high temp and feeling awful. Triage nurse thinks the extra stress has allowed something to jump on his body (bacteria or viral). We’ll see how this weekend goes. Possibly a trip in to the ER. The weekend on-call oncologist has been notified. How did he get back from the coast… well, he drove himself home. Bad move on our part but we just didn’t realize how off he was. Never again will this happen!

Also on a sad note,Dave’s uncle Dick Stahlke died at noon today. At least it went quickly and he didn’t have to suffer for long. We’ll miss him greatly.

Sorry about all the family health stuff. More art stuff in the works and will be surfacing soon!

Saying goodbye

A few weeks ago Dave’s uncle Dick received a diagnosis of esophageal cancer and might survive 5 to 9 months. On Sunday he was taken to the hospital due to liver failure. Today, we learned Dick will only live for another 3 to 5 days. My husband’s father also has the same cancer but has responded well with radiation and chemo treatments.

Dave is hoping to meet up with his father in San Francisco to help him get out to see his brother before he leaves our world.

The above photo is of Dick & his wife Shirley (plus Dave) on a trip to Oregon back in 2006. Silver Falls was beautiful that day. It was our pleasure to take them to such a beautiful place.

We love you so much Dick.

Triangle Accordion Book Tutorial

I’m not a real book artist but have fun creating them from time to time. I also don’t use the proper terminology in explanations.  LT in the UK inquired about some of the accordion book processes and I thought it was a great time to re-explore a past book design. Not every step is fully explained. You’ll have to do some figuring on your own…

Two years ago, I learned how to create a Triangle book. Measurements are all in inches.  Below is the list of materials and cut dimensions one needs to start this book:

Triangle Accordion Book Supply List:

Book binding board, cover paper, inner cover paper, interior paper (nice drawing paper in a 22″x 30″ sheet), x-acto blades, glue (PVA with Methyl cellulose preferred), pencil, metal ruler, awl, paint brush for glue, waxed paper to prevent glue leaks, heavy stack of books or a book press, self healing cutting mat.

Boards: Height= 4.5″, Width=5.25″ ( two boards needed)

Cover Paper: Height= 6″,  Width= 6.75″ (two needed)

Inner Cover Triangle: Height= 4 3/8″ , Width= 5″ (two needed) *OPTIONAL*

Interior Paper for “pages”: This one involves 3 strips of paper total; first 2 strip dimension: Height= 4 3/8″, Width= approx. 20″. Third strip length approx. 15″. In my images I only used 2 strips.

To start:

Figure out the “grain” of your paper & boards and mark. You want to keep the grain running in the same direction (top down) during assembly or parts will warp. In the below demo I over emphasized my marks. You should use a pencil and keep it light and easy to erase. The orange paper is strictly for demo purpose!

Measure out 5.25″ width & 4.5″ height of your board & cut. Then find half of the width (2 5/8″) and mark at the top of the board. Cut from that mark down to a corner creating the side of an equilateral triangle (all sides have the same length of 5.25″) Proceed with the next side. See the below demo to help sort things out.

Cut out boards, cover paper & inner triangles.   Cover paper (H=6″, W=6.75″) and Inner Triangle paper ( 4 3/8″ x 5″)

Cut interior pages from a heavier weight drawing paper. I used Somerset Satin and only cut two strips rather than three. BFK Rives or Arches are also good choices.

 

 

Finished Book Images!

Thanks for taking a look!

Coming down to the wire…. and it’s moved!

For the past week, on and off, I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around a working concept for a call to artists. Actually, the contemplation has been ruminating for the past several months. The artwork, a site specific installation, would be shown in an empty storefront of one of our local rural towns. My ideas have jumped all over the board from kinetic sculptures to twig & wire stalactites/ stalagmites. In just the past 24 hrs I finally landed on a subject that just might be interesting to a couple of towns, well, at least I found it kind of interesting. Oh, if you’re not from Oregon, I’ll let you know that this part of the valley is known as the “grass seed capitol of the world”. I’m not kidding. Are you irritated by pollen? Well, you’ll probably want to stay away for the next few months while the grasses dump yellow clouds of pollen into the air. If it’s not grasses, then it’s trees or mold spores (bad for da lungs!). Anyway, I digress. So the valley is filled with thousands of acres of agriculture with a strong focus on grass seed. Recently, OSU fish & wildlife researchers did a study looking into the drainage ditches around the agriculture fields during our wet winter months. Low and behold they discovered that they hosted a lot of juvenile native fish. Hmmm, so grass seed farmers grow grass during the summer and act as a fish hatchery during the muddy soggy winter months? Very interesting! So I’m proposing a sculptural work that blends this connection between farmer and fish.

The proposal deadline has been set at June 1. Today, it shifted to the 15! I’m not certain if this is a good thing or not. ( I did work at the front desk today so I made a few inquires about submission levels.) Will I continue to procrastinate more or actually craft a stronger letter of interest? Well….. All I know is that I might actually enjoy getting ready for our Austin TX flight tomorrow rather than pulling out my hair struggling to get the to-do list completed.

If you’re interested in the video that peaked my interest, here’s the link: Ditch Fish by Oregon Field Guide

 

Almost finished & dealing with dad

Oh, it’s soooo close to completion!  The book itself was completed last week, but I’m still editing photos and text for showing the demo. That portion has surprised me. There are a lot of steps involved and little tricks for keeping corners from being exposed and not lumpy, keeping track of paper/board grain and other things. Kind of the stuff I’ve learned but just take for granted. It’s in my brain, so isn’t it in everyone else? Ha!

So what am I talking about, you might be wondering? I received a nice message from a gal in the UK wondering about some of the books shown in a previous posting from several years ago. I passed along the cut dimensions and started thinking ” Why not create another tutorial?” Of course, I don’t want to just show some of the process, but actually teach it so someone else MIGHT be able to create one at home.  The finished book will go up for sale on my ETSY site later on.

On the home front, I think my dad needs another blood transfusion. He received a chemo treatment on Monday when his hemoglobin count was only 8.4. What was the doctor thinking? My dad doesn’t like going in for additional treatment, we’re heading into a LONG weekend (memorial weekend) and he’s already fatigued. Will we all have to wait until Tuesday to get him in? Will we drag his old, bony ass in to the Emergency room? He gets so stubborn. He’s been at the coast for the past couple of days and I think he’s coming home to the valley today.  Guess its always something!

Maybe this weekend we will finish the garden boxes (filling) and put up the deer/moby fence.  The little tomato plants are longing to get those roots in the ground!

She Protected Them

The She Project rolled into action Friday night. This happened to be perfect, since I’d spent the day outside working in the yard, enjoying all the sunshine and colors. Dave didn’t get home until around 8:30 and by that time it was finished. This year my phrase was “She Protected Them”. This is what I came up with…

I surprised myself by pulling out colored paper and soft pastels to create the image. Colors didn’t matter much so I used a bunch. This was the first time I’ve worked on colored paper. My friend Debby Sundbaum-Sommers had given me the sketch pad as a thank you gift for helping out at her open studio a few years back. She often uses colored paper with her drawings.

If you’re wondering what The She Project might be, please click on the name to find out more. A huge thanks to Lauren Ohlgren for doing yet another year! We are so lucky to have her in our community!!!

Happy May Day!

As a child, May Day was always special. My mother helped me cut flowers & assemble little cone baskets to deliver to the neighbors. After assembly,  I ran up to our neighbors homes, hung the baskets on the door, rang the bell and ran away! Today, the lilacs are blooming and I’ve assembled a cone for my neighbor Gail. Hopefully she’ll see it when returning from work. This is probably the first basket created in over 35 years!  I took the photo at my house because I thought it would look silly taking a photo at her front door.  🙂

Lee, my father, is doing better. His blood count went up to a level he could take on more chemo this week. Hmmm, kind of a double edged sword. It will inevitably drop his blood production and make him feel tired and unspunky. Hopefully, on this round, it won’t make such a big drop in his energy levels as round #1. Time will tell.

With the last couple of weeks of home instability, I decided to drop out of the Plankton show. Probably just as well since Hester let me know she had an overabundance of participants. I’m still planning on submitting for the  Rural Arts Installation project and creating some fun work for the ArtShop during the Plankton show. A kinetic sculpture is in the works for the installation… I hope! More sea squirts and screen printed objects to come.

Dave did return from his 9 day adventure to India. I was super happy to have another dog walker back in the house! 5 miles a day is too much for me, but about right for Moby! Saudi Arabia is the next possible county to receive a visit from Dave, but I’m not letting him go for at least 6 months!

Right when Dave left, I started a gluten free diet after a mysterious intestinal incident. The doctor thought it might have been food poisoning, but I’m not so certain. My mother had a major history with food allergies, but wouldn’t admit it. Needless to say, I’ve inherited the dreaded lactose/casein intolerance and possibly the gluten issue too. My brother Mike has the same problem…. I hate it when I’m like him!

Both of the cats received the dreaded vet trip this morning. Nigel happens to be a cat at ease where ever he goes. Once you open the kennel, he saunters out and rubs his cheeks on anything not moving. He also flops down and just enjoys all the activity & attention. MeMe is the opposite. She wants to hide in your arms. If you leave her on the table, she freezes. An entirely different personality than at home. Unfortunately, she has a grade 4 heart murmur and a joint issue. Those darn valves! George had the same problem. Fortunately, she has been chosen to participate in a training session for vet techs! In a couple of weeks, she’ll spend a Sunday hanging out at the vet getting checked over… for FREE! Yippee!!! One less diagnostics test to pay for!

Moby the magnificent is certainly getting me out for serious daily walks. We’ve been managing 3+ miles daily. Jogging might become possible in the next few weeks if my feet & knees hold up. That’s still a dream of mine, to be able to get back into jogging a 5K. Seems like most races have moved to 1/2 marathon or marathon modes. One of my friend’s husband just won the Eugene Marathon last weekend. Way to go Mike!

My dad and I are still at work on genealogy stuff. He’s wanting all the family crest images to create a cool screen print or embroidered sweatshirt. I’m trying to gather as much info as possible prior to his kicking the bucket, which isn’t expected any time soon! He’s got years to go in my book! Plus we’re still in the design mode for creating a shaman rattle for his oncologist. Life with my dad is never dull… he’s always moving on to new projects even before the others are settled! That must be the secret to life, always having many irons in the fire to keep things moving.  🙂

Thanks for checking in! Artwork images to come for the September show….

Voting is still open for the Corvallis Fall Festival Poster Image! Please click on the highlighted words to connect! Closing date is May 2 @ midnight!