21 Secrets

A few weeks back I decided to join the 21 Secrets Art Journal Playground. I'm soooo glad that I did. In summary it's a collection 21 classes by 21 different art journallers all in one happy Ning community site. Fabulous! I am going to record my experience of each class here.

Collage Paint and Soul (Tamara Laporte)

A great class, learnt so much about layering and handling papers in the correct way so that they don't crinkle when wet. I think I also learnt a lot about symbolism. Here I have a month, a lunar hare and the moon - all connected through spirals. I found this page to be quite healing for me. Actually created on a night when the moon was looking full and beautiful. Someone commented on the site that it has an oriental feel, I am feeling quite inspired by Japanese and Indian art/colours at the moment.

Urban Layer Cake (Tammy Garcia)

This was great for letting go and just not thinking too much. The idea wasn't to create anything pretty it was just to enjoy the process which I truly did.

Beautiful You, Radiant You (Ingrid Murray)

Through the use of mandalas and story boards we can gain an insight as to what is going on in our subconcious. Quite revealing and it will be interesting to come back to it in 6 months or so to see if the same images may recur, where my thought patterns are stuck, which bits of me still need healing/venting/release etc.

Home from hospital at last

... and it feels so good. You know what hospitals are like I'm sure, I didn't sleep a wink. I was on Norfolk ward at Derriford which, I have to say, was a nice ward and quieter than most but at night you are aware of every movement and I couldn't sleep no matter how hard I tried. The operation took place on Wednesday morning (6th April), I was the first on Mr Scott's list. I didn't have a normal laproscopy because the cyst was too big in the end (although he didn't say how big he intimated that it was about 15cms). Instead they made one larger cut on my bikini line. Unfortunately the cyst burst as they were trying to remove it so now I'm left hoping and praying that it wasn't cancerous. I think they get the pathology report back in two weeks but I don't see Mr Scott until 4 weeks time. The waiting is the pits, it's definitely the hardest bit. Still it's done now, at least I'm a step further down the road and hopefully I still stand a chance of sitting my final exam on 4th May. I'm still quite uncomfortable at the moment but I'm signed off work for a month so hopefully I'll soon start to feel more comfortable and able to revise. It will be so good to move on from this. I hope and pray that finally I'll be able to leave cancer behind me for good.