Work in progress

First, I want to jump for joy over the fact that when I got on Blogger this morning I saw that you guys have made me hit 4,000 page views while I was not looking!!!  It was 4,046 when I looked at it!  You made my day first thing this morning!  I am trying to think of a giveaway for when I hit 5,000 and if I don't come up with something soon, I'll run out of time!  You all are making this happen REALLY fast, so THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 

Because I'm scared I'll go to the dentist today and get all drugged up and forget to post, I figured I better do something before I head off for the day...  And since I don't have anything finished to share just yet, I thought I'd share a work in progress that I've got going on.  This is my paint over collage that we learned about in Book of Days with Effy Wild.  I am using it for my next Inner Excavations spread, so instead of a picture from a magazine, the picture I started with is one of me:

Gratuitous bathroom picture...also, I totally crocheted that cowl!  

And here's what I've got so far:

My nose is giving me fits...and the hair...I ALWAYS have trouble with hair...

I really like the face overall!  And for some reason, I am LOVING the really strong colors!  They make me super happy, and they're not colors I'd pick usually I think...especially that background color...but I like it a lot...

I'm trying to think of some kind of quote or journaling to put in the background...something about being determined maybe...I think the face looks very determined/set on a goal of some kind.  So if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!  

All right, now I've got to run or I'll be late...  When you hear from me again, it will be from a mouth with one less tooth and, hopefully, a mouth with 1/4 less pain than when I started!  Yay!!!

On and on...

Words can't really express my gratitude for all the kind and beautiful comments from yesterday's post.  Every single on of them made my heart swell  with love.  You can't imagine how much you all lift me up and make me want to just give you gigantic smooches and squishes.  Thank you all so very much.

I was thinking about all the kind comments I received yesterday while I was trying to work on the spread for my BOD (Book of Days) journal.  I also had some music going on in the background, as I always do.  There was this serendipitous moment where I stopped working and looked up at the computer, still having the comments from yesterday's post on the screen, and my eyes landed on my lovely Pamikins comment where she wrote: "please understand, your legacy will live on Your art speaks volumes, it will always live on" (What a HUGE compliment!)  and the song in the background was playing and the lyrics were "She's still got infinity ahead of her".  And I stopped in my tracks, poured some gesso over the page I had originally started and began working on this:

"She's still got infinity ahead of her..."  napkin, Dylusions, stencils, die cuts, Silks acrylic glazes, glittery border stickers, Aquamarkers, and shimmery (I wanted to call it pearlescent...but spell check is telling me that's either not a word or REALLY not spelled right) acrylic paint

Also a moment of awesomeness is that I used a napkin that my darling Pamikins had sent me in a care package...I didn't realize it till after I'd glued it down, but I do believe that paisley napkin came from her!  So Paminkins, you get a whole heap of credit today!

And, to a lesser extent, this song also gets some credit:

Really, all the comments from yesterday and every day before share the credit.  I know I wouldn't be where I'm at know if it weren't for the loving and the encouragement and the keep-at-it's that folks have been kind enough to bestow on me.  I guess what I'm saying is that it takes a village to raise a Sweet Red Clover...and you all are my village.