Progress

This is a *terrible* picture of my IS piece - *finally* in the works.

The ground cloth (painted weeks ago) is grey - for the neutral ground of my life. Superimposed on it are black and white squares and rectangles reflecting the good and difficult parts of my life healthwise - big white relatively healthy childhood, black brain infection, white recovery and rediscovery, black infertility. I've also added a mottled blue disk for my pregnancy, and a solid blue one for my own birth - blue being the color of potential for me... I'm madly cutting leaves now, to show the vine of my own growth through these phases, and I'm going to add smaller blue disks growing out of the vines, showing my personal creations - groups, ideas, etc, that have taken on lives of their own, as I have, and hopefully as my children will....

I'm really excited that this starting to come together - not in time for the judged bit of IS, but in time to make me happy, and the narcotics I'm on for the OHSS easier to deal with. All good.
This is an idea I was playing around with - not for my IS piece, but as a possible idea for future exploration. I do plan to use the 'frames' in my IS piece - I'm going to lay them over the vines to frame select portions of my life (maybe with tulle in them - not sure yet), but obviously not so that they cover the mottle blue disk representing my growing bean! (Gotta love having a blog to document the transient idea in though - more accurate and accessible than my plethora of disorganized sketch books).

And, last but not least, what I have been working on most of this week in the 20 minutes of lucidity afforded me by huge quantitites of oxycodone - Kira's quilt. It is the twins' (Kira and Amelia) 1st birthday tomorrow, and I want to at least have it 'envisionalbe' for then so I can send a picture to their mom, my dear friend Tra. I bought the really cool mottled peach fabric, and dyed the other salmon one to correspond, and I am very happy with it so far. I am also enjoying the ease of piecing with a 1/4" foot. A first for me, and WOW is it easier! Talk about doing things the hard way - never again!!!!

My visit to the Dr yesterday means that I am NOT being admitted for treatment of my OHSS, since it seems to be resolving on its own. Hurray! I have ovaries the size of saucers, and a 4" cyst in one, and they are floating around in lots of extraneous fluid, but I can actually see my waist today, so I'm happy. He said that he was sorry that I was feeling 'yucky', but I responded that I am pretty used to feeling that way, and I don't mind it nearly so much when it is actually accomplishing something - like growing my baby!!!!!!

I have an ultrasound in two weeks to see how many beans are growing, and where they are, then they officially kick me over to obstetrics. I am VERY excited! I'm also finally sleeping better (since it no longer hurts to rotate or bend at the waist), which always helps.

BTW - the IS exhibit is shaping up to be *awesome* - the work that I've seen so far is very moving - both artisically and psychologically. I love being part of a community where we can really *share* all of this stuff and feel supported in it... Thanks for being such a gracious and compassionate audience!