Good news and news you need

 Hi Everyone!

First I want to say that I have the best blogging family! All of you encourage me, wish the best for me, and give me hope. 

 

I met with the surgeon yesterday. What an amazing woman she is. I'm so thankful I was referred to her for my doctor.  

Right now I don't need surgery, thank the gods. However, the problem I'm having effects 56% of women by the time they reach 50 and a lessor percentage for men. The percentages are most likely higher because men and some women don't report it. Plus you can be asymptomatic. I'm talking about pelvic organ prolapse. It's something we DON'T talk about. We are taught to exercise, work our bodies to maintain muscles and stability all of our lives. 

 

We are NEVER told to maintain our pelvic floors. These muscles, and there are so many of them, are in layers and help keep everything in place. However, we are not taught how to properly breath, lift, or exercise those muscles. Why? The number one reason is stigma and embarrassment. Then there is lack of awareness, insufficient education from health care providers, dismissal and trivialization by medical professionals,

Misconceptions and miscommunication,

and finally, but not all, Obstacles like the cost of care, long waiting lists for specialized treatment, and the time and effort required to find knowledgeable providers also prevents people from seeking help.  

We must normalize the conversation around pelvic organ prolapse.  

That involves providing better education, promoting open dialogue, and finding healthcare providers that are trained to address these issues with sensitivity and expertise. In today's world on line groups and videos are more help and free.

So let me be the first to say it. I have pelvic organ prolapse stage 2. It goes to stage 4. I have been through physical therapy and learned a lot. 

The surgeon yesterday, explained to me that having surgery is not a total fix. If pelvic muscles are still weak and not strengthened in a few years surgery will be needed again. So, twice a day I'm doing PT at home and yoga to strengthen my muscles to keep my organs inside. 

Are you having problems with this? I have a lot of good information if you need it. 

Stay healthy and strong inside and out.

Nicole 

 

What I did on Sunday

 Hi Everyone!

I'm going to find out today if I have to have surgery, so I'm trying to get things done around the house and garden. I have so many cucumbers that I canned some dill pickles. Have lots of bread n butter and sweet pickles canned. It's time for some dills. 

First the cucs are cleaned and placed in cold water with some ice and set in the fridge for 24 hours. This makes them crisp.

I had to use two containers 

Some of you may know this, but when you cut the ends off cucumbers take the end of the round side and in a circular motion rub the cucumber. This is called milking the cucumber and removes any bitterness. My mom taught me this when I was a kid.

From here I cut these into spears while the brine was simmering. I filled the jars, put in the spices, and waterbathed for 15 minutes. Here are the results. 10 pints.

Are these beauties or what? 

I'm off to make some breakfast. Toast and applesauce for me today.

What are you having? 

Whatever it is enjoy and have a great day. 

 Nicole

Drawing

 Hi Everyone!

I started this post this AM. However, it got too long and too much info about my art life. I really just wanted to talk about drawing.

But first I do have to tell you that I am very dyslexic. My Nan always said draw what your see. Well, what I see is always moving. So over my life whenever I had to draw something it stressed me out. I had to be alone so I could concentrate, it's still that way. Fast forward 50 years or so LOL Lupus made it impossible for me to create what actually paid my bills. Long ago a friend encouraged me to join Paint Party Friday blog challenge.  Some of you remember how fun that was. I always created faces in my art so I started to draw. Believe me, they were pretty awful. And I knew they were awful. I remember my Nan (for those of you who don't know was a famous artist) always said "Anyone who can write there name, (cursive) can draw." Also, "Draw what you see, and draw a face every day for 100 days." Somewhere in there I did that and boy did my faces improve. I love showing this example.

I can't believe I showed this on PPF. 

These drawings are a year apart. 

Now back to the question of how I create a face. I am always looking at faces. Where ever I go I'm staring at people. I must look at hundreds of faces on line all week long too. I will find a face that I like and in my mind section it off.  I draw one line at a time moving all over the paper. I do the same for features until I get a rough sketch. This may seem difficult but for me it works, and may work for you.

I also look at how other people draw, on images and videos. There are so many ways to get started. My Nan always started with an egg shape, then 1/2 way down from the top of the head made the eys, 1/3 down the nose, 1/3 down the mouth. I don't remember her putting in circles and lines but this is a good guide. Oh I just realized it's in Spanish. LOL

This is the beginning of a commission piece I made. It looked all crooked so I put in the guide lines and fixed it. There is no set way on how to create. Mix it up.

I also look at features and the human face in medical books. It's important to know how the bone structure is. I guess that's why I draw skulls too. Ahh nooo I just like creepy art. LOL

It does help though.

 

I look at things like this to help me. If you remember that lips are not flat you can do it. Lips also wrap around the teeth.

Eyes can be tricky because they aren't flat either. Also the eye is not just the lids, and the eye ball that we see. It's a big socket under skin.

 

I actually love drawing ears. They are all so different, even though they all have the same structure.

 

I found this many years ago and I still go by it.  Every ear has a 9 a Y and a hook. The Y is what I look for in an ear. It might be small, large, thick, off to the side but there is always a Y in an ear. Also it's about shading. 
 

 

Then there is the nose. Again the same but different. Some are long, short, wide, thin, meaty, bony. Nose holes are the same as above. 

 

It is also important where it sits above the mouth. Some noses are close to the lips some way high. Start looking at faces.

 

Here is a guide for head direction.

 

Now don't get overwhelmed. Remember to draw one thing at a time. Or a little here and little there. 

Once you get your features in the fun really begins. Shading.

 All of this comes with practice.

OMG how bad is this? Early days. 

 

I did this one in 2017 and hangs on the wall in my living room. It's not perfect but it's way better than the first one. 

Practice, practice, practice. 

And challenge yourself. 

 

Ohhh yeah, the absolute most important thing to drawing, is to have fun doing it!

Looking forward to your faces next FFO. 

 Nicole
 

Friday Face OFF 9/12/25

 

 Welcome To Friday Face OFF (FFO)

This is the place to show off your face art.

 

Another reminder. If you don't see your blog on my sidebar please let me know. Blogger keeps deleting them. 

 

This weeks drawing was very difficult for me. I found this old man's face and was excited to draw him. So, I get it all sketched out and start shading things in.

Sorry no step by step photos this week.

I get everything in and I hate it! Something is wrong. I set it aside for a few days. When I bring it back out, I get a phone call from my daughter. As we are talking and laughing I'm looking at the image and then my drawing and I "see it" I drew the structure of the face smaller that the image. So when I trying to draw what I see, of course, it doesn't work. I mad a lot of changes and finally came up with this guy.

There is more I could have done to tweak this but I'm bored with it now. LOL I'll put it aside and look at it down the road.

As you know I play with AI art on 

Night Cafe.  It is SOOOOO much fun and takes care of my monster creativity.

Here are a few things I made. 

Some of them are in challenges.

I have some reallllly creepy monster art on Night Cafe and if you are into it please check it out. Also, if you sign up you get 20 free PRO creations. DVArtist Night Cafe 

Remember it's the art factor you are looking at. And these aren't really that scary anyway. LOL

Ohhhh come on in, it's not haunted.  

What happened to my doll?

Even skeletons need to read.

Dark Fairy. 

Now this is so much fun. It's called inpainting. You take an image and morph it into something else. I'm still learning the ins and outs of this. There is much one can do with it artistically. 

She used to look like this.

 

Let's see some features.

Louise. A very talented writer along with all the other wonderful things she does. She also takes us along on all of her excursions.

Maria has a very lovely blog. Talented in different venues and always has a tutorial youtube on her blog. Click on it and subscribe and like. 

Christine. I think we found each other with Paint Party Friday over a decade ago. She creates from her heart. She also shares recipes and some very funny memes.

Well that's it for me. 

Now it's time to show me you face. Remember, it can be any type of face. Human, alien, animal, floral and other faces that nature shows. It can even be the face design you see in your flooring. Come on we all see them. LOL

 Nicole

Wednesday

 Hi Everyone!

It's Wednesday already. We had a bit of rain yesterday but today looks very nice. 

Mr. M. and I have been craving something sweet. Something other than fruit. LOL

So I whipped up an applesauce spice cake for us. It is Kidney friendly but I did splurge and put a streusel on top. I have no recipe for you. I just threw ingredients in a bowl and baked it. OMG GOOD.

The garden is just about done. However, in the late month of Sept. I find, finally, Roma tomatoes. The first all year. I told you it was very cold this summer. They probably won't amount to anything, it's so late in the year for these.

also peppers popped up. Again to late in the year. I found 2. If they grow I'm sure they will be bitter. 

I planted some winter squash and it seems to be doing OK. This is butternut. Bigger than my hand. There are smaller ones growing too.

Also out of the blue yellow, summer, squash has taken off. We have eaten 4 of these and they just keep growing. 

So strange.

Also, cucumbers are growing like weeds.

I counted 14 on the vine that have to be harvested. 

The last batch of potatoes will be ready to harvest next week. I hope. They are still blooming, but starting to fall over. When the leaves start to turn brown I will harvest. However, it has been so wet at night and in the early AM that keep the leaves green. I may just have to go for it and harvest. 

Well, I think that is it for now. I have some P.T. to do and then I think I will draw today.

Have a great day and I hope your garden is still growing.

Nicole 

Sunday Evening

 Hi Everyone!

I've been trying to get onto my blog but life just wouldn't allow me until now. I have some health issues going on and I have to take it as easy as I can. That is so difficult for me. Anyway, I got all of my onions from the garden cured, bagged and put away. I only got about 20lbs of onions this year.

This is the last batch. I have white, red and walla wallas.   

I made applesauce to can.

It is so easy with my pealer.

It is fun to use and saves so much time.

 

It peals, cuts and cores all at once.  

 

 

After I chop the apples to smaller pieces, I cook them down, add cinnamon, allspice and cardamon. I don't add sugar. Then I mash them up leaving some chunks of apples.

Then I prepare my canning jar and caner.  I end up with 8 pints of oh so good applesauce. Yeah there was something in the background I didn't want all of your to see. LOL
 

I have been very lucky with my string beans this year. I got 10lbs of beans to can so far. It is a lot of beans.

 

Look how pretty these are.

After cleaning, cutting and preparing canning jars, I got 18 pints. They turned out perfectly.

I got a good lot of poblano peppers at the farmers market. I was going to can these too, but I decided to flash freeze them, bag them and the put them back in the freezer.

 I roasted and pealed them first. These are all cleaned.

Cut and the seeds removed. 

I don't have a grill so these go into the over on broil. These are perfect.

Then they go into a bag to steam. 

Once they have cooled a bit it's time to remove the skin. It comes off very easy. Yes, I should have gloved on. LOL

Darn I don't have any photos, but next you lay the peppers out on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer for about 3 hours. I take them out and vacuum seal for individual meals.

I did have one mishap. I started to pressure can the string beans when I noticed the gauge was all steamed up and steam was coming out of the bottom of the gauge. Uhhh not good.

  

I had to turn everything off and remove the top. I have several caners so another lid was no problem.  

When I was able to remove the gauge this is what happened. The compression washer broke. So weird it's rubber!

Mr. M. stopped by True Value on his walk the next day and got a washer for me. So it is now ready to go.

That's my last week in a nutshell.

Hope everyone is well.

Nicole