Steampunk Beetle #1. A Zentangle Inspired Artist Trading Card.

The one in the middle is the actual card. The other two are the practice runs in my journal. Already working on #2 which when done will be winging its way to Finland! Kinda cool that. There will be more in this series!

This was inspired by tangles from Molussus (this one and this one), Christi Friesen’s Steampunk Beetle tutorial (click here for PDF) and the “june bugs” that are out early this year. Used a teeny-tiny Micron pen in brown to draw it all out. Then used the same only in black to re-draw some details. Colored pencils for shading. Gold and silver gel pens for accent.

Next card will hopefully use watercolor instead of colored pencils. Oooh! Or maybe even a strong tea wash!

Hrm… being that this was inspired by things around me… think I’ll submit it to APR’s Challenge #3. Woot!

Okay. Playtime over. Must listen to J read now…

Steampunk Turtle in progress

Look who’s on my work-table today! He is based on instructions from Christi Friesen’s “Under the Sea” booklet. Poor guy has had a hard life but he’s still chugging along! Trying to think of a name. All I’ve come up with is Seymour. Not sure it fits.

He still needs some mica and/or chalks, baking, patina, finish. LOL! Just realized I need to give him a mouth! Eventually he’ll have a couple of friends. Their shells are already made but that is it. I need get them finished, and fast… because …

Halloween is only 7 months away!!! Ack! Must. Start. Sewing.

My first Fengl-ation! With some Pokeleaf, Paradox and others thrown in.

When I saw the Diva’s Challenge#63 I was pretty excited! Coz I had been playing with that very tangle over the weekend. I like this tangle but it is going to take a bit more playing to get comfy with it. My S-curves could use gentling.

Some of the ends came out looking like squid tentacles… or maybe that is just me. (ICST flare-up )

I did another page with a few Fengl-ations on it. My favorite is the one int he lower left with Paradox.

So I started making calls. Orthopedic office made appt for another ESI (epidural steroid injection) and told me to go back on Neurontin and take oxycodone for pian. I made a long overdue appt with a new family doc too.

Thursday I went in for the ESI. The staff and doctors at Advanced Radiology really are wonderful. The injection hurt and really did feel like they had poked “Steve” in the eye.

After the numbing wore off though, things got worse. I had a horrible headache, my leg hurt even more and my back was aching. Friday I was able to get to the Amish and to the Planetarium but I was crashing… on a Friday (visions of another ER trip going through my head).

After a few phone conversations, and the help of a friend, I was back at Advanced Radiology with the diagnosis of a spinal headache. The doc was wonderful at explaining things.

I agreed to go with a “blood patch” to cover the spinal leak caused by the ESI. Basically they draw some of your blood and inject it into the same space the ESI went into. Wholly beejeebers!!! The blood draw didn’t go well and the injecting… That was nearly more pain than I could take!

It’s now Saturday. I felt pretty good when I woke up. Pain at a 2. But after about 5 minutes of being up that pain was at a 5 and didn’t go away when I lay down. essentially I am back where I started pain wise. Frustration.

With a little luck, the ESI will kick in this afternoon. Barring that the increasing Neurontin should start helping. Barring that the Oxycodone should knock me out. Depressing.

I hate to end on a downer note so here are a couple really great things that happened this week:

The kids are still loving the yoga so there is some great good coming from it. They are getting really good at arm balances and backbends. It is cute to see their faces light up at doing things they thought beyond their level.

At tea time this week, Jessie read poetry aloud for the first time. Very cool! Afterwards she even wrote her own.

And if that isn’t enough goodness, I’ll close this post with a quote from Jessie: “Thank goodness you have family and friends to take care of you. ”

Indeed!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Took Sam to get his hair cut, stopped by Petco, took us out to lunch, took the kids skating. Afterwhich I was took-ered out.

Came home and got the kids going on their lessons for the afternoon.

Sam is zooming through the first few assignments in Singapore Math 6a. This is his first open foray into Algebra. Though I pointed out to him that he’s really been doing algebra for a while. it is only that no one called it that until now.

Jessie did another sight word lesson. We took time to review yesterday’s words by gluing the paper strips onto a sheet of paper. She remembered all of them. Then she continued drawing new words. Tomorrow I think we’ll do a word building exercise.

All their lessons and chores were finished I’m time for electronics hour. Yay!

By dinnertime I was completely wiped. Thank goodness for homemade soups in the freezer!

My upper back is now in a yelling match with the ruptured disc in my lower back. But meds are all onboard and I’m waiting for them to take effect.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Okay. Trying posting from my iPhone thru Posterous to my WordPress blog…

If the picture shows up, you’ll see a picture of Jess who was very proud of the words she spelled today.

We’ll do more tomorrow. By way of review I was thinking to have her glue the word strips to a paper.

Okay, here goes… Hrm… The app crashed when I hit send. Gonna try once more…

Posted via email from The Sinister Scribe

Beyond that leme tell ya briefly about something I’m gonna try with J tomorrow for reading… Got the idea from a recent SCM newsletter (Simply Charlotte Mason).

So I’m gonna take the first paragraph of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” poem by Nancy Willard. It is a story that J and I both like. The inside flap has a shorter poem form of the story. Sort of a prelog.

I’ve printed it out using StartWrite. Two copes. One is cut into individual words. The other left complete. First activity will also use the Banamagram tiles too.

First I’m going to pull out a cut word and ask her to read it. I don’t expect her to have much trouble with this group. Assuming she can, I will then hide it and ask her to spell it with tiles. If she has trouble I’ll show her the card and have her spell it while looking. Third part of this exercise will be to find the word in the complete passage. We’ll go until she finishes or until 15 minutes is up.

I’d really like to add pictures and links but it isdifficult or impossible with the iPhone and this interface. And I am outta time.

Off to take the evenings pain meds and hope for a good night’s sleep. Tonight will hopefully be the third in a row. Tomorrow I meet with the orthopedic doc to see what the next step is now that I’ve had the MRI and epidural steroid injection.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

1. basics/drills
2. kata
3. sparring drills
4. weapon
5. kicks

I’ll admit #5 was a grasp for straws but it is an area I need to work on.

Okay so there’s your random thought for the day.