I'm baaa-ack!

hold on....don't get toooooo excited! I'm only part time for now but I'm soooo excited to be colouring again! It is a challenge...somewhat painful and I HAVE to take it slow to allow plenty of time to stretch my hand before it really starts to cramp bad, but it still works!!!! and i'm colouring again and it makes me soooooooo happy! I've missed my markers and pencils more than you know!


I thought this week's challenge was the perfect time to try and jump in because the theme was a bella or a stella...nice and easy...i can do that! Like Jeannie, I LOVE Stella and I just happened to have one that had not seen ink yet....shocking...i think she is the ONLY one. This is Stella has her fix and I think she is drinking coffee...but i'll fess up, if this were me she would be holding a big fat wine glass in her left hand while icing the thumb on her right hand! I do like a coffee, but one or maybe two a day is all the coffee fix I can handle.

For you copic fans, these are the markers I used (but I did add some extra shading with prismacolor pencils):
E0000, 000, 00, 11, 13, 17, 18
E95, 97, 99, 42, 43, 44
Y00, 11, YR01, 02, 68
YG11, 06, R20, 24, 27, 29

Monday I may NEED the extra coffee fix to keep me going because I'm starting back to work on 3-4 hours a day, increasing by one hour a day until I work myself up to a full day again. I'll fess up, I'm a bit scared! I'm a programmer and work on a computer ALLLLL DAY and for the last couple months I have sent emails from time to time and the occasional blog post, but certainly not worked on a keyboard for any length of time! Quite honestly I have not done ANYTHING for any length of time since the accident except for watch the Today Show, Ellen, Rachael Ray and HGTV! Pretty sad eh! At least I did not get hooked on daytime soap opera's!

Thinking of the Today Show I did get to NYC last week because it was our last scheduled Dave Matthews concert of the season. However, once he said he would not be touring in 2011 and announced his last U.S. concert in Chicago we quickly put in our request for tickets so Chicago in September here we come!

Here is a pic from our second night of Dave at Citi Field in New York....we had VIP seats this night so we were pretty close, well as close as you get when you are at a ball diamond! grrrrrrr....I much prefer outdoor amphitheaters to sports venues....just sayin...


We spent 4 days in NYC and OMG........IT WAS HOT!!!!!!!!!!!! like DREADFULLY HOT! but since I have never been there I just sucked it up, bought a hair band (and other stuff {smiles})at J Crew, nixed any and all makeup and made the best of it! I will say that when we got back to our room the first thing I did was dunk my swollen thumb and wrist into a bucket of ice!

We walked MILES and toured our butt's off and now I have a NYC bucket list of things I still need to do:

• walk the Brooklyn bridge...weird I know, but it is truly an architectural masterpiece and I thought it was breathtaking!
• be at the plaza to see Matt, Meredeth, Ann and Al on the Today Show
• ride a bike through Central Park

The food lovers we are, Mark did some research before we left and we ate at some AMAZING restaurants including

• Lombardi's (in Little Italy, established as the first pizzaria in America)
• Gotham Bar and Grill (totally upscale but not stuffy)
• 2nd Ave Deli (recommended to us by a friendly Jewish resident who told us not to go to Katz!...I owe him!)
• Lupa (an amazing Italian Restaurant.....yummmmmmmmmmm!)

Finally, before I hit the pillow, these are some of my fav pics/places from NYC

the metropolitan museum of art, apparently Picasso was into art journalling before it was a fad!

statue of liberty...I only saw her from the ferry, and it was a hazy day but she is absolutely beautiful!

Chinatown...I LOVE cultural neighborhoods!


NYC from the top of the Empire State building at night. I'm a quiet sort of person, not much for being in crowds and noise and it was absolutely surreal up here. everyone was so quiet, concentrating on taking a still picture at night, you didn't hear the sounds of the city and I'm sure you could have heard a pin drop. I really LOVED it up here!


That's about it for today folks...join us next week for our next challenge...Christmas in July....ACK!...I don't know 'bout you, but I have not even thought about Christmas yet...I still have not had a chance to enjoy summer!