What my Studio looks like these days

Having found those old photos of my studio back in 2008 and 9, I thought I should show what it has morphed into but first here's a link to the Largest Canvas I have ever painted, my studio floor https://artnomadix-meg.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-largest-canvas-ever.html

Reflections from my past. 2008 onwards, as I headed into my CFS Journey

Lately I have been sorting thru some old blogposts, having thought I was locked out of them a number of years ago, when I tried to migrate my first blog into a newer format. Trouble was it was in the midst of my quite extreme Brain Fog, which is so much better now, (I think? lol) I did make about 12 posts in the new one so today I thought I'd see if I could repost them into the old one. Tricky but do-able. In the process I realised I could screenshot some photos I once lost in laptop meltdowns. Now I wish I'd posted more photos back then as I have lost so many photos over the years. The most exciting ones for me at this point in time, are of my first days creating my studio here at Mystic Lakes. It is great to be able to look back in this visual diary. To read snippets relating to my declining health, when I knew nothing about CFS Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Or CFS/ME -Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: From March 2009 - "Things are beginning to look organised and ready for my new creative surge, which I am prepping up, pumping up, trying to zap myself into gear, after this year or more of depleted health, trying to drag me under...... .....But "I come from a Land Down Under............where women glow, and paint Rainbows....."

If only I'd known back then what was going on ...... !!!! https://artnomadix-meg.blogspot.com/2009/03/studio-nearly-sorted-ready-for-easy-use.html

From December 2009 "Aaaaaah I feel I have crawled out of the wilderness.....I have begun to paint again ! It has been sooooo long since I have had the energy and motivation to be creative.....which is quite unusual for me." From December 2009 "After the celebrations are done with again... Mum's birthday 22nd and christmas! ..I can get back to painting work...........that exhausted me!! Next day after birthday, I had to go shopping for forgotten items from previous shop, and forgot just as much, as my brain just didn't seem to be functioning, (low iron,anaemia!?). Got back, and felt totally stuffed." https://artnomadix-meg.blogspot.com/2009/12/aaaaaah-i-feel-i-have-crawled-out-of.html

From 27th March 2010 - "I recently learnt that the annual fibre exhibition at Blue Knob Hall Gallery is happening in April this year, so I have until April 11 to get my pieces ready, and since I haven't been being very productive lately, I must get working quickly." [ A deadline really helped me over-ride my fatigue, at the time. I managed to focus and got 9 new pieces done in time, and also had 7 hats in their shop area, in just 2 weeks!] Can't remember how I faired afterwards [PEM] https://artnomadix-meg.blogspot.com/2010/04/fibre-exhibition-pieces.html

From December 2010 - "Well ..... what has been happening in my artistic life lately ....? Not much in the way of creations, as I struggle to find energy within, to complete the re-organisation of my studio, which is much smaller than my old warehouse in North Melbourne....... aaaah ......(dreams of all that space .....!) Yet it is far bigger than a camper van or little bus ! So I can't complain. I am way behind on the last few finishing off jobs on the bus also" From April 2013 after 2 or 3 years of no posts!- Brain Fog! "Testing Testing Testing ..... I can finally post in here again !! after a long spell where none of my posts would publish ?? I had decided to overhaul my blog, or start a fresh one and saved all the old posts etc to copy the important ones to new blog.....then I also decided to try a new format with this one when I couldn't actually re-post into the new blog ( nothing would publish!) Then I couldn't access my blog ..... I had to make new passwords, forgot the new passwords? or they/something wouldn't work?? Aiiieeeh ! it was an online nightmare, nothing I tried worked, so I have just left it by the by..... Today a friend has returned to writing in her blog after along break after being 'blog bullied', and so I made a comment, went to post it,got directed to Log In, typed in new password, it 'Worked' this time ! ....lost the comment posted on friend's blog! ....... but found out I have access back in here ! ........(fingers crossed) " "Helena Post said... yay! Glad you're back :)" "ArtNomadix said... Yes so am I ....turns out my comment didn't get lost in the ether after all ..... weird hehe Still can't log in to my newer blog to see if that will allow me to post in there yet ..... will try some more trix" - Brain Fog! From 22nd April 2013 - " Artwork needs creative energy ...... Creative Energy needs vital life energy ......... and passion ! I am regaining my Energy ...... I 'Will' my Creative Energy, back into the Vibrancy of my younger self ...... I will conquer the Fatigue that has been sapping the life out of me for 4 years" April 29th 2013 - "Mad Beanieologist Books Tickets to Beaniefest !! Yay ! After a 4 year absence, I am once again heading out to Alice Springs this June for a week of Beanie Madness. " [Thankfully Beaniefest CEO put me up in a Hotel in town which really made it heaps easier than the next time I flew in in 2015(?) where I took overnight train to Sydney, flying to Alice and stayed in a Backpackers. I was so exhausted from lack of sleep, I had a terrible time, broke down in tears over silly things, and just didn't have enough energy to cope. Was almost a disaster.] Tuesday, April 30, 2013 30 Beanies to make in 3 weeks Challenge Right....... ....not in my usual style..... Friday, May 17, 2013 48 Hats in 17 Days !

29th January 2014 - " In my endeavours to focus more energy this year into my online shop, (as I get help with my health/energy/detoxing mercury) , I am making listings showcasing some of the many unique hats that I have made during my 25 year herstory of hat making, and suggesting people consider a Custom Order. [Not sure atm what year it was when I learnt I had CFS. I know it was after the full hysterectomy for massive fibroids that I had assumed was the cause. I felt good for two weeks, and then wham! I was back to Fatigue and brain fog etc.] Sunday, July 26, 2015 Aaaaaah ........ finally ....I have been able to work out how to gain access back into my original blog.... it has been over a year..... ( I made a new blog with a new email, then couldn't sign in to this one.... mustta been too fatigued to work it out...

Dreams and Realisations (From 2010. From another blog I set up during my heaviest Brain Fog period)

Friday, April 2, 2010 Dreams and Realisations Reposted from 2nd Blog Just woke up from a dream and realised I haven't been updating this second blog, I clicked on my name after posting a comment on another blog about blogging, only to find, firstly that I had an extra M in ArtNomadix link attached to my comment and then that it was directing people here rather than my other more utilised blog. http://www.artnomadix-meg.blogspot.com/ which is where I was heading to update my blog. ........Hmmm better update this one too Where to start .....? Here are some random photos from my favourites.....that I shall begin to write tales about randomly, of people I have met, and places I enjoyed living in for however long we were there...... Here is Claus, (the Camel Man), who we met when he camped just down the road one night, when we were 'enstalled' at Jim's Oasis (Jim's Place, Stuarts Well, Central Aust.)

Having been into to collect some wages owing, at the next door Camel Farm, he camped with his two camels and dog Nigel, across from their gateway. Spying something 'unusual' he shuffled up the road to check us out ! Enstalled beside the enclosure with 2 kangeroos, 4 emus, several ducks and a school of fish in the bore filled 'oasis', was an unusual sight. A very bright eclectic display of painted clothing, hung all around a small white bus, with a woman rugged up against the late afternoon chill winds, crocheting hats.

Over cups of tea we chatted and learnt about the life of this extraordinary man, who had set off 13 years earlier on a push bike, to travel the country. He occasionally gets work, hence coming by for his wages, which will last him for many months to come, despite being only a drop in the ocean. Claus, doesn't need money for very much......people who stop and meet him are always giving him food......so much at times, he then passes this on to many poorer folk who need it more. We were going to camp with him the next night, further up the road at the junction of where he was heading east, but as he dallied long with us, over morning cups of tea, he didn't get underway til quite late, and when we left, to make our way into Alice, for the Beaniefest, he was only just up the road 5 kms or so, and so after a quick chat we continued on our way. Here's a few more favourite places I love to camp/live at. Just outside Tennant Creek, Northern Territory

.... and further up north of Katherine ...

Nearly there .....

Well it's nearly the end of 2021 and I have had a much better year than the previous 10 or more years. I am so much better. 'Tho there is still a long way to go to regain my former energy, I have to admit that I am on-track towards my old self. I am able to get things done sometimes. Not all the time, but if I rest-up after different projects, I can usually regain myself after a few days. If it is a big project, like Spring Cleaning Liffy's house for her 90th Birthday celebrations and overhauling my studio/abode also, a 3 month slow project of quite a massive undertaking!; the crash/relapse can take 3 weeks or 3 months, til I really feel like getting back into it. But that in itself is a massive leap forward with my health affected by CFS. It started in April 2020, when I seriously began the LYG protocol, Love Ya Guts. Previously a couple of years before, I had gone down to Ocean Shores, to see Functional Medicine Dr Karel Hromek to try and chelate the Mercury from my system and changed my diet. (Re-introduced meat after being vegetarian since 1976). I did notice some improvements at first, but after awhile I was still feeling fatigued and the cost of the chelation wasn't covered by Medicare, so I discontinued. After 7 or 8 months of LYG I was feeling a lot better within myself and I went to see Jonathon Yang for Acupuncture on my Knee and decided to continue with weekly sessions, thanks to government assistance for pandemic lockdowns etc. Funny thing, for me the lockdowns have been nothing unusual. I have felt lockdowned since about 2008 or 09/10? I have been a virtual hermit, going to town once a fortnight, to market once a month (now once a week to town and to market not at all). CFS/ME is a strange disease. My recovery is a slow, nearly invisible process, just like my decline into fatigue was also a slow nearly invisible journey down a rabbit hole of Brain Fog.

At very least, I have re-found my way back in to my blogs. I hope this continues as it is a great means for me of a somewhat sporadic diary-journal. Very interesting to read back. One day these notes may be useful if I ever get a Round-Tuit for my book. Today I re-found a blogpost draft from 2019 which never got published for some now forgotten reason; I edited it and added to it, published it and then went back in to correct a hyper link in the text. Well after 3 or 4 attempts it has gone back into Drafts as the text kept changing colous and ceasing to show up correctly in the blog. These type of tech troubles are a real pain, and put me off, attempting to re-invigorate my online presence. Aggggghhhh! lol

Do you struggle with Brain Fog? Chronic Fatigue ?

Do you struggle with Brain Fog? Chronic Fatigue ? Since about 2008, as I first started loosing my energy, in a totally inexplicable fashion, my brain slowly became foggy. It did take a while for that part of my ME/CFS to really take effect. Luckily; as I was at the time, trying to teach myself all the ins and outs of using a computer (laptop) and working my way thru the process of setting up my online presence, with my Etsy Shop. Thanks to one of the first Australian etsy teams DUST (Down Under Street Team), I met a wonderful team who taught me a lot. Trouble was, I was slowly losing my once inexhaustible energy, and found I wasn't as creatively prolific, as I once was. You have to have heaps of energy and drive, working for yourself. I wasn't Listing enough products or Listing often enough. But I kept persisting with it and it is still online today, mainly with Custom Order ideas. I have sold about 25-28 items online since 2008, which I have been told is better than nothing. Most of my One Of A Kind listings were sold offline & de-activated from my Etsy shop. You can still find many of them in my listings as ideas for Custom Orders. First Blog 2nd Blog Flickr Photo Sets Anyway, back to Brain Fog. Sometime in 2014 I decided I needed a new look blog with pages etc so I tried to import this one into a new one, long story short, I only succeeded in creating a new blog, the importing part didn't work out. and all that I seemed to achieve was I had a new empty blog and thru my Brain Fog, found I was effectively locked out of my old blog. Here are a few screenshots I've just taken from 2015 & 2017 when I 'miraculously found the right email/password login, for two brief moments in time. I stupidly didn't write any notes, and 'foggy brain' couldn't remember the login, the next time I gained enough energy/drive to write a blogpost, the correct, hardly used, email login was a distant lost memory.

  

Finally here in October 2019 I am almost back to my old self.