Tag Archives: Art

Hoping for Sleep

Posted on by Gertie

Hello, World!!! It is just barely past two o’clock in the morning Seattle time. I really wish I could get some sleep as I cannot miss any more work since I have missed so much. I’m sure I will get some sleep even if it is for another hour or two since I have had some sleep tonight.

Since I am unable to sleep I have decided to start one of the diamond art kits, I bought from Amazon. As of right now it appears to be a daunting yet fun task. I am looking forward to continuing to do diamond art and seeing what the end result looks like even though I already know what the picture is supposed to be. I hope to take pictures of the diamond art throughout this artistic process.

After getting somewhat frustrated and slightly overwhelmed with starting the diamond art kit, I am doing, I decided to read. I am reading a book on a tarot cards that is meant for beginners. I am happy that I am reading it as I am understanding tarot cards a lot more. I am hoping as I continue reading the book, I will be reading my own tarot cards soon. Hopefully sooner than later especially since I have three tarot decks to choose from. I most likely will choose my very first tarot deck which happens to be a cat deck.

I do not have much more to say in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is very much appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it wasn’t for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be continuing to write my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Good Night and Peace Out, World!!!

Home Sick from Work but Staying Busy w/Billie’s Help

Posted on by Gertie

Good Afternoon, World!!! Right now, I normally would be at work. Sadly, I am at home sick. I am not sure why I am not feeling very well and I think part of it has to do with a slight case of depression. Depression that is most likely due to the amount of people I have known that have passed away in a short period of time.

Since I am home sick, I am keeping myself busy. I am staying busy by doing various types of art work. The first type of art work that I am doing is coloring. I am coloring the posters that I showed you via pictures in my last two blog posts. The other type of art work I am doing is something called diamond art. I’m not sure how to explain it but it looks like a lot of fun that will take a lot of time as well as a lot of patients. I am looking forward to this new art adventure with diamond art as well as my continued love of the art of coloring. I also hope to be able to take photos of the diamond art to post them here on my blog as well as my continued progress of coloring the posters to show you how well they progressing.

Besides doing two types of art, I have been reading. Specifically, I have been reading the second edition of “Tarot for Beginners.” As of right now it is an easy read. A book that a fifth grader can comprehend which is a good thing for me because it makes it easier for me to comprehend. The best part is I haven’t picked up to read in roughly a month and am able to read it without having to reread what I have already read. I am hoping that reading this book will help me continue with my journey of mental health recovery as well as another coping skill. I hope that after reading this book that I can share what I have learned with you my reader as well as some of the spreads I do on myself as well as other people’s spread if they give permission of course.

Now it is time to get going so I can cuddle with my cat, Billie and read. Before I end this post I want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you read my blog. If it weren’t for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Another piece of a poster being colored

Posted on by Gertie

This piece has taken about three months to work on and is easier than some other posters. I am going to be giving this poster to my mom as she likes this type of stuff. I love my mom so much. I tend to do my best art work during sleepless nights.

A Middle of the Night New Challenge to Coloring This

Posted on by Gertie
A giant color picture I just started due to not being able to sleep. Not much is colored but I did color some. It is going to take awhile and hope to update you all as it progresses.

Good Morning, World!!! Or maybe I could say, Happy Middle of the Night to those of us who are currently able to sleep. Many times coloring helps me with both my anxiety and my insomnia. I am not sure if I am going to work on more tonight or not as I am hoping my anxiety meds and sleeping meds will kick in and help tonight. I just hope I get enough sleep to get into work tomorrow. I really love my job and don’t want to miss too much of being out. But I least coloring helps me grounding and a form or coping skills from. I hope everyone has a great time doing will help to keep your self from burnout.

Thank you for following my blog and hope that I can continue with his a comple of coloring picture come along.

A Challenging few Weeks w/New & Refreshed Lessons Learned Along the Way

Posted on by Gertie

Happy Caturday Saturday. It has been quite a couple of weeks of being challenging for me for various reasons and many of them I have had to deal with some eighth deaths in a matter of a two week period. Some of the folks I have never met but really admired in the animal welfare community especially locally here in the Seattle area who touched the life of many humans and cats. Sadly this person took her own life and wish I would have been given to meet her in person. She will be greatly missed especially in the animal welfare community.

On the continuation of discussing death. I can’t really discuss much about it due to HiPAA law but many of the client I work with overdose on drugs and alcohol. Sadly some pass away to drug and/or alcohol overdoses and It is challenging to deal with. Thankfully I have the support of my colleagues with this especially when people have been trying to get off drugs so they don’t have to have a stigma with an addiction.

Dealing with so many deaths is the last couple of weeks I have been reaching out to my support system such as my friends, family and my colleagues as well as my therapist. I am just beyond grateful that I have supportive people in my life to be there for me. Not many people have a good support system and I have a great support system.

Now on to what I do to help with my self care. One way I do self care is due at least two mindful meditations daily; once in the morning and another one before bed time. I am also trying to put in third mindful mediation in the middle of a work day to help me refocus during work. Another way I have been doing self care is spending time with my cat as well as walking two times a day; once in the morning and once the evening. Of course another self care act is going to volunteer at PAWS Cat City a least once a week. Of course working at my job helps as well. I have been reading a lot of books that I find helpful to help with my recovery journey. I also have been doing some art work and hope to show sometime soon.

As this post comes to an end just know there is always hope along the way. I want to thank you for reading my blog. If it was not for you reading and/or following my blog, I most likely would be continuing to writing my blog. Again thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out World!!!!

What Day is Today?….It’s Hump Day

Posted on by Gertie

As I stated in my last blog post I was having some high anxiety over money that the bank did. I learned it was mostly not my fault. The bank manager will be helping with setting a budget for my monthly bills. He really didn’t have to do this but he did. I will be doing monthly budgets within one month and then do a check in to see how things are going. The branch manager at the bank I go to is beyond awesome. So the money situation should be fixed for now.

On the plus side, I set up a veterinarian appointment for my precious cat, Billie Dean. I love Billie so very much. I love him to the moon and back. Billie doesn’t mind going just as long as there are treats for him. He also loves the extra love he gets from everyone. They treat him very well there and that makes me happy.

Something else that makes me happy is I got some art and crafty stuff from Amazon. I would really like to start them now but I really need to create a schedule so I can clean my apartment the way it needs to be not just for me but for my precious cat, Billie as well. I am planning on purging some things in my life and of course getting more creative stuff within reason of course.

Of course, I will be doing some workbooks for my own recovery so when I present a group on a certain workbook, I can let clients know that I did do the workbooks. I hope what I am planning on doing works well for me, my cat, my current home and my job.

I do not have much more to say. Thank you for reading my blog. I am grateful for you because you read my blog. Peace Out, World!!

Sleepless in Seattle Once Again

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! I am having a challenging time being able to sleep and it sucks shit. My grandma did five years ago and Valentines Day. Even though I never liked Valentines Day before my grandma passing away, her death just made me hate it even more. I just want one more hug from my grandpa however my cat Billie Dean gives me great hugs.

On to the hugs from my cat, Billie, he is helping with some art work. He is choosing what coloring book to color from and then the picture. So, I am hoping the picture I color that Billie chose comes out well.

On to a similar topic I ordered some crafty stuff. I ordered latch hook and cross stitching stuff to help ease my mind and do something with my hands. I figured I can learn new things like latch hook and cross stitching.

Something else I am learning is tarot cards. I am reading two books about tarot cards as well as the little bookletts in tarot boxes. I know I must sound nuts about learning tarot but if it can help with my recovery then I am all for it.

I do not have much more to say in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog post. I greatly appreciated it. I hope every has better sleep than I did. Peace Out, World!!!

Plans to Get Back in the Swing of Things Regarding Blogging

Posted on by Gertie

Good Evening, World!!! I know I have done this quite often and have either never started or have started but not finished but I am going to attempt to get back in the swing of blogging on a more regular basis. There are many ways I can do this and hope to follow through with what I plan on doing to get back in the swing of things in regards to blogging.

In fact, I have already started two different ways of getting back in the swing of things regarding blog. The first thing I’ve been doing is Weekly Plans every Sunday morning. Weekly Plans happen to be the plans I have for the week. The second thing I have been doing is Weekly Check-Ins every Saturday evening. Weekly Check-Ins on Saturday evening is just doing a check in about how the week went especially if I don’t blog at all during the week.

A thing that I am thinking about doing is doing a book review after reading a book. I thought about maybe blogging after every chapter but then I feel like that both reading and blogging would end up becoming a chore and I don’t want that. I don’t want that because reading and blogging is a form of self care for me. So, that means I decided to do a book review after each book I read. I’m thinking about maybe doing some form of review as I read a book but it won’t be after each chapter.

So the next idea I have is something that I worry about actually doing and completing. I am planning on doing free courses that WordPress offers through Blogging University. I plan on doing Finding Everyday Inspiration first as it is the longest course I am doing. It is twenty days and I am not sure when I am going to start this. I hope to start it within the next week or two. The next course I am planning on doing is Developing Your Eye I and it is a ten day course. After doing the course Developing Your Eye I, I plan on doing Intro to Poetry. It is also a ten day course. After doing Intro to Poetry, I plan on doing Developing Your Eye II. It too, is a ten day course. I want to do these four course to not only help me get back in the swing of blogging but to help you stay interested in reading my blog.

Hell, the whole reason, I am wanting to do everything I have mentioned is to keep you the reader interested in continuing to read my blog. I know it might be somewhat selfish on my end to be doing this so I don’t lose any readers. Not only that, I know what it is like to read a blog on the regular basis and then the blogger just stops or has big gaps which has me not having any interest in that blog.

Before ending this blog post, I do plan on continue to blog about everyday stuff. Everyday stuff such as something similar to this post or post regarding my sleep or work and other such stuff.

Well, that is all I have to say in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. I greatly appreciate you reading my blog. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. Peace Out, World!!!

Weekly Plans

Posted on by Gertie

Sunday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Twenty to thirty minute walk while listening to a podcast
  • Volunteer at PAWS Cat City
  • Play the flute for at least thirty minutes
  • Read
  • Artwork (color)
  • As always spend time with my cat, Billie

Monday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Twenty to thirty minute walk while listening to a podcast
  • Work
  • Read
  • Artwork (color)
  • As always spend time with my cat, Billie

Tuesday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Twenty to thirty minute walk while listening to a podcast
  • Work
  • Read
  • Play the flute at least thirty minutes
  • As always spend time with my cat, Billie

Wednesday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Twenty to thirty minute walk while listening to a podcast
  • Work
  • Read
  • Artwork (color)
  • As always spend time with my cat, Billie

Thursday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Twenty to thirty minute walk while listening to a podcast
  • Work
  • Read
  • Play the flute at least thirty minutes
  • As always spend time with my cat, Billie

Friday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Twenty to thirty minute while listening to a podcast
  • Work
  • Read
  • Artwork (color)
  • As always spend time with my cat, Billie

Saturday

  • Mindfulness meditation practice through the Calm App
  • Twenty to thirty minute walk while listening to a podcast
  • Read
  • Artwork (color)
  • Play the flute for at least thirty minutes
  • As always spend time with my cat, Billie

Up Too Early On A Sunday Morning!!!

Posted on by Gertie

Good Morning, World!!! It is just before six in the morning Seattle time. I have been up since just before four in the morning Seattle time. So, I have been up for barely two hours and I don’t have to be up for about another hour to get ready to go and volunteer at PAWS Cat City.

Anyway, since I am unable to go back to sleep, I decided to turn on some music and do some art. The type of art I did was color. I am coloring a giant poster. A giant poster, I hope to give it to my mom when I am done coloring it. As I colored this giant poster, I listened to music on Spotify. The music I listened to was my childhood play list. A play list that reminds me of good parts of my childhood. I’m glad to have started my day listening to music while coloring. Now it’s time to do my mindfulness meditation practice while my cat, Billie sits on my lap.

I do not have much more to write about in this particular blog post. I do want to thank you for reading my blog. It is greatly appreciated from my end of things that you the reader, read my blog. If it wasn’t for you the reader, reading my blog, I would not be writing my blog. Again, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog. I hope you all have a great Sunday ahead of you. Peace Out, World!!!