WOYWW 381

Better late than never! 10.00 p.m. still qualifies to show What’s On My Workdesk Wednesday!

I’ve finally managed to find some studio time today, and began working on some Zentangle tracings for the mini-album I’m making about our recent walk in the woods with our friends.

This week you can see the far side of my studio, which is my drawing area. The shelves above on the far right are where I store all my pens and other drawing stuff, and my Zentangle album, which is on the left on the picture so that I can pull the cards out, for the designs I want for this project.

The book is resting on the pull-out unit that usually lives under the drawing area, but I pulled it out today so that I could sit there more comfortably.

You can see that I am working on my light panel, which makes tracing a doddle. For years I held off buying a light box and I’m glad I did – this is so much better – a flat panel illuminated by LEDs, a lot more comfortable and more natural to draw on, and it also doesn’t get as hot as a regular light box. I work on a translucent cutting mat which is laid on top – this cuts out the light a bit, which is more comfortable on the yes, and gives a slightly softer surface to work on, too.

Beside the light panel you can see some of the photos I printed out for this project. I am going to do several Zentangle tracings over these photos, working with my regular Zentangle pens on parchment paper, and these pages will be bound on top of their respective photos in the album.

Here are some detail shots.

Sorting the photos a few weeks ago after I’d printed them out.

Here is the beginning of the tracing. The photo I’m working on at the moment is one that I manipulated – it’s quite an edgy black-and-white posterised picture – I thought this treatment suited the rather stark view of the isolated tree trunks.

Completing the tracing.

The tracing completed.

Here is the tracing peeled back to reveal the photo underneath.

Hopefully I’ll get some more time over the coming weeks to spend in the studio working on this project.

Health Update

I had my CT scan a fortnight ago and have been trying to chase up the results and of course no-one will tell me anything over the phone. It appears that it was my surgeon, and not the oncologist, who ordered it, and I had a letter a couple of days ago, with an appointment to see him in mid-October – this put me into a bit of a flat spin for a day, as I started to think the worst – if it was OK, surely they would have written to tell me? I was in touch with several friends from the cancer support centre and a couple of them immediately rallied round, emailing me to reassure me that this is the normal way they do things, and if it was bad news, they would have scheduled an earlier appointment than mid-Oct. I love it that we all support each other! I have had very few wobbles throughout my cancer journey but this did throw me a bit – which only goes to prove how unpredictable one’s emotions can be. I have been so strong throughout and it shook me a bit to be thrown so off balance by this! After these emails, though, I was immediately back on track again and feeling fine about everything.

I have been overdoing things lately, and this past week I have had three bad days with my ME which isn’t too clever… However, I did manage to do some baking the other day, in time for our first informal get-together for friends at the cancer support centre – several of us from the relaxation group and also the Moving On After Cancer course have become friends. We had the biggest laugh ever, last Friday at our first informal meeting! I can’t believe how many lovely people I have met, and new friends I have made, through having cancer!

Other News

My Bible study group has now been running for two weeks, and although the numbers have started off small, several people are expecting to attend in coming weeks – they have prior commitments at present – and I’ve got the material uploaded to my Dropbox for group members to download, including recordings of the sessions, so nobody needs to miss anything! I am thrilled with how technology has moved on since I last did this over ten years ago. I have spent a lot of time over recent weeks, updating my old material and redoing visual aids etc. so that they can now be viewed on the TV screen – the TV is connected to the laptop. Amazing when you think that when I did this before, I was using acetates on an OHP!

The biggest question of the moment is, “What on earth am I going to do with myself now the Paralympics are over?”!! I feel quite bereft! I have enjoyed it so much, and the Olympics beforehand… Definitely more studio time, I think!!