Shakin' It Up!

For some unknown reason, I let my husband and two co-workers talk me into joining them on Dr. Oz's 3-day Detox diet.  I guess I thought it might get me feeling more healthy and kickstart my attempts to trim down and firm up this spring.  It mainly consists of smoothies made from fruits and veggies, along with some vitamin supplements and green tea.  Above is the breakfast drink, which was my favorite of all three.  It's got raspberries, a banana, some flax seed, spinach, and almond butter.  Bottoms up!

The lunch one is not bad either, with cucumber, celery, almond milk, pineapple, kale, some lime and a little coconut oil, which give it a little tropical twist.  It makes a huge amount, so much that it took me all afternoon to finish it yesterday!

I didn't feel hungry really, but I got a splitting headache, probably from skipping my "All-Day-Energy" multivitamin (which unfortunately contains a good bit of caffeine!).  This morning I decided to take the vitamin (and in order to avoid nausea, also had some cereal with milk and fruit!) and did the smoothies for lunch and dinner.  Can I survive another day on this?  I don't know...

In the meantime, I've been making some slow progress on the piece due next week.  The hand stitching is getting tedious!  I guess that's why I prefer mixed-media art - you get to switch materials and techniques instead of doing the same thing all the time.  To give myself a break, I painted a background sunrise for the trees using acrylic inks on a scrap piece of silk.  My first attempt came out kind of blotchy.  

Luckily, I had another piece of silk about the right size and was able to make a second attempt.  Things always go better for me the second time around!  I learn so much from my mistakes!

I may add some machine stitching or sparkle tulle or both to this before I put the trees on as an overlay. Then I need to add two side pieces, which will also be trees, to make a triptych.   Will it all be finished by next Thursday?  We'll see...