Maranda Russell's Blog, page 73
March 3, 2018
Spring Come Quickly! Cute Bunny Collage
Today I’m looking forward to spring! Warmer weather, sunshine, flowers, bunnies…I love it all and am ready to see winter slip into the past! I find that when springtime comes it always does wonders for my mental health, probably due to seasonal affective disorder, which always seems to be an issue in the wintertime. I thought that since I’m feeling it so strongly today, I would share a spring inspired ACEO mixed media collage artwork I made a while ago:
[image error]
March 2, 2018
Almost 500 Followers! And My PO Box Info!
[image error]
I’m only 2 away from 500 blog followers! That is so cool and makes me really happy! I am always astonished to see that many people who care about what I have to say and who enjoy my art!
By the way, in case any of you were unaware, I do actually have a PO Box which I originally set up for my YouTube channels, but if anyone who reads my blog wishes to send me a note, letter, fan art, supportive donations, a book or other product to consider featuring on my blog, etc., you can send it to me at:
Maranda Russell
PO Box 14
Englewood, OH 45322
Please keep in mind that if you do send a book or product for consideration, I am most likely to feature ones that go along with the themes of my blog (art, writing, mental health/mental illness, chronic illness/pain, autism, etc). I am also a sucker for anything sweet (like candy) or cute and fluffy lol.
If you send something you DO NOT want featured on the blog or you wish to remain anonymous, make sure to let me know by enclosing a note expressing your wishes. I will be adding the pertinent information on this post to a separate blog page so that it will be easy to locate in the future if anyone wants to support this blog in that way.
March 1, 2018
New Artistic Inspirations!
It has been a few days since I shared some art. Honestly, the past week I have kind of taken a break and haven’t created much. I tend to go in spurts and phases. Here are a couple new ACEO alcohol marker drawings/paintings though. I really like the way both turned out. For the first one, someone told me it looked like a map to them. To me, it looks more like a cut paper collage, even though it was actually done with markers:
[image error]
For this second artwork, at first it didn’t have the white embellishments on it and I felt like it was rather plain. I am so glad I had the inspiration to add the white lines using a white gel pen. I think it really made the picture have character and more visual interest:
[image error]
As always, you can find my art for sale on my Ebay store!
February 28, 2018
Hypomanic Night
Maybe I should have suspected yesterday that when I was feeling so good, it might be me slipping into hypomania a bit. As the evening wore on, I could tell that the good mood was going a little bit off the rails. I started feeling extremely antsy and a bit hyper. I may have started driving my husband a bit nuts by constantly asking him silly questions and yelling across the house to him.
Suddenly, I found myself with too many thoughts and plans in my head to concentrate on any of them. I felt pressure to get lots of stuff done, even though there was really no need to do them all right now. By the time bedtime rolled around, I really didn’t want to take my medicine (Seroquel) because I knew it would make me go to sleep and I didn’t feel like sleeping, I felt like staying up all night to clean out and reorganize the spare bedroom.
Fortunately, I listened to the little voice of warning in my head that told me that if I didn’t take the medicine, it might feel good to stay up all night right now, but that this could easily spin out of control again like it has in the past when I have gone days without sleep and even ended up hospitalized. So I DID take the medicine and went to sleep. However, even today I can feel the traces of hypomania hanging around, trying to convince me to just throw caution to the wind and enjoy the high.
February 27, 2018
A Really Good Day!
Today was a good day. For the first time in a long while, I actually felt like going out by myself and having some fun. The weather is really nice (which always affects my mood as well), hopefully it is a sign that spring is right around the corner!
So I went to the library (where I found my first frog of the season in their outdoor pond) and saw a cool display they had about developmental disorders, which included information about a local art center that offers services and artistic vocational training for those with autism and other developmental disorders. I’m definitely going to check into that, it sounds pretty cool!
For lunch, I went to a local diner and had a big ice cream sundae (vanilla soft serve with Reese’s peanut butter cups and peanut butter syrup). Maybe not the healthiest lunch, but it was good! Luckily, I did remember to take my IBS pill before eating it, so it hasn’t had me doubled over in pain like that kind of food normally does.
I also did a bit of shopping at Goodwill and Walmart. I love seeing all the cute Easter stuff, but I might be developing a slight candy problem here at home:
[image error]
February 26, 2018
Gun Arguments & Mental Illness
I try to not be overly political on my blog, because I don’t want to chase off readers who may have different views, but this whole gun regulations argument that is raging is really wearing me down. I’m not going to go into exact specifics of what I personally believe, although I will say that I both support the American right to protect yourself and your family, while also believing that some regulations and societal protections are not at odds with the spirit of the 2nd Amendment as written.
What I really want to talk about today though is how horrible some of the gun arguments being thrown around right now really are. So many of them totally lack any sense of logic or consistency. So many people are digging their heels in and refusing to give an inch or even consider an alternate point of view for even a second. On one side you have those who may honestly over-vilify all guns, but on the other side you have those who practically worship at the altar of firearms.
On the more personal side, as the wife of a teacher, the whole “arm teachers” idea is one that horrifies me. There is so very much that could go horribly, tragically wrong with that game plan. I also feel like those who suffer from any form of mental illness (like myself) are all collectively being thrown under the bus as violent, evil creatures by some of the media. There is a huge difference in my opinion between immaturity combined with selfish or narcissistic rage and true mental illness. Plus, many of these shooters just seem to buy into violent ideologies, which isn’t in itself a mental illness.
February 25, 2018
Brown Scottie Dog Drawing
This ACEO alcohol marker drawing reminds me of a Scottie dog. When I first showed it to my husband, he thought it was a horse, and I guess I can kind of see that too. What do you see?
[image error]
As always, you can find my art for sale on my Ebay store!
February 24, 2018
Say Hello to Peter Rabbit :)
I suck at taking selfies, but wanted to share this adorable Peter Rabbit I made today at Build A Bear!
[image error]
Arguing on the Internet, Should I Disengage?
I really should know better by now. I really should learn to just disengage with ignorant or narrow-minded people who refuse to even consider any viewpoint but their own. I should learn that it takes away from my happiness and peaceful life by wandering into pointless debates with people who I know I’m never going to get to even consider an idea that has any nuance or depth to it.
My therapist today encouraged me to disengage from these people, to stop letting them level personal attacks at me over simple differences of opinion. If I want to stop being bullied or pushed around, I have to stop allowing it. Of course, none of this applies to you guys (my blog followers), but more has to do with people on other social media who I happen to be acquaintances with in my real life. Even if they are distant familial relations, I have no obligation to let them project their crazy, illogical, rigid way of thinking onto me.
If you are going to tell me that I am evil, immoral, or dishonest just because I don’t believe what you believe, I really don’t need you in my life.
February 23, 2018
My Weird Psychiatrist Makes Me Laugh
Everything went fine yesterday with the psychiatrist. I tried to bring up everything that I mentioned yesterday in my post, although to be honest, my psychiatrist is a little bit of a weirdo (but in a good way), so often what he says kind of throws me for loop and has me wondering “what the heck”? We also often get off subject, and may have spent part of the session talking about “Black Mirror” (the Netflix show), Dante’s Inferno, Fight Club, Josef Mengele, and menstrual cycles (that last one was definitely not my choice of topic lol).
One humorous part of the session consisted of him trying to convince me I should consider having children of my own if able, because I would make a great mom and there are so many “stupid people” procreating that we need more intelligent ones to do so more (his words, not mine). Like I said, he can be an oddball.
We also talked about aspergery stuff, like social deficits I had as a child. When I told him a story about how I got in huge trouble in first grade for laughing at a kid who couldn’t read (because I honestly didn’t understand that something that was so easy for me could be hard for others), he burst out laughing and thought that was hilarious. His reply to that story was, “tell the truth, you just thought that kid was stupid”. Like I said, he sometimes throws me for a loop, but he does make me laugh.
