Debbie Overton Designs

First Day of Spring

On this first day of Spring I found these gorgeous Gerber Daisies in my shopping basket!  After a week of college kids on spring break had all left heading back, Steve and I found there was nothing to eat in the house, so we headed towards Winn Dixie....but my vehicle would not turn left....it headed straight for the beach!  After a few hours of enjoying the warm upper 70's, sun, sand and salty air we decided to try one more time for the grocery store.  I was busy working my way across the store when Steve disappeared and returned with these Daisies.  Back home while he cooked I worked on an art project with a deadline quickly approaching. 

Just realized it is after 12....and I have a busy day tomorrow. 

Debbie

Long Weekend Road Trip

Image Page 26 of Nature Notes

This post was created on Thursday AM and scheduled to post Friday afternoon while I am enjoying a LONG WEEKEND ROAD TRIP.  Steve told me Wednesday night to have a small bag packed no later than 2pm Thursday as he would be home and we were taking a road trip for our anniversary.  When I asked what to pack, he laughed and said something that can get wet!  I must have looked a little puzzled....then he said rain is in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, so just be prepared.   He also told me to make sure I had everything in the beach bag and not to forget my little vintage sand pail.  I do believe this was a clue.....I just don't know if we are headed south or north along the coast.  If I was a betting girl I would say, SOUTH as he knows how much I love going to St. Augustine Beach.  Rain or sun, the drive from our home to there is so laid back and wonderful if you take the scenic A1A along the Atlantic Coast.  Gorgeous beach front homes, ocean mist on the windshield, stopping to shop the historic Fernandina Beach, great shops all along the way and the Ferry at Mayport....oh I hope the older gentleman is there directing you on or off the ferry.  He is so much fun and enjoys his job more than you can imagine.

Well I better get with it or I might miss my weekend.  Be back Sunday night and should have a house full of spring break college kids for the week. 

Let the fun begin......

Debbie

Nature Notes ~ March

March 1 ~ March has come in like a lamb with a warm wind and rain from the South-west.  ~ Edith Holden, 1906

Thankfully March in SE Georgia has started with gorgeous blue skies with a few puffy white clouds floating here and there.  The rain is expected later tonight and tomorrow, so I better get busy so I can head over to the beach for my afternoon therapy of rest and de-stessing! 

I have some paint mixed with molding paste drying on one canvas and paint mixed with fiber paste drying on another so by the time I finish up with a few loose ends here I can head to the beach.  Will take care of a quick phone call on the way and then I am good for a few hours.  The fiber paste should be dry when I get back, but the molding paste will need to set a little longer in order to really get the true color I was working with.  I have found when you start mixing wet on wet with some colors you really get a yucky color which is good if that's what your goal was!

Welcome to March....enjoy the day!

Debbie

Nature Notes + Another Step Forward

Spring must be in the air as on Facebook and several blogs I visited early last week mentioned cleaning the studio...I too have been cleaning and packing and throwing things away.  Somewhere around the end of January I had a long talk with an artist that I have known and admired over many years.  She told me how she had removed things from her studio that were no longer a part of the path she was taking.  Although I had already started cleaning things out, I got serious about it and removed the things that were no longer a part of the plan and goals I have set for myself.  WOW, at the stuff a mixed media artist collects!  I know we think...I can use that or I will use that....and now as I have gone through all the drawers, baskets, suitcases and other things I use to hold all these "collections"...I caught myself saying what was I thinking when I saved this, bought that, kept this, and etc.  

I have now taken and completed yet another step towards removing stress and it feels good.  This same art friend reminded me, nothing is more important than taking care of myself and I am headed in the right direction.

I just found out I had a reason besides the ulcers to have very little energy and get-up-and-go.  Additional lab work showed I am severely deficient in iron, vitamin D and lots of other goodies that make our bodies function.  BINGO....we now know why the ulcers were not healing....the nutrients were not being absorbed by my body thanks to the ulcers and the ulcers were not healing thanks to the lack of nutrients.  Now that I am on mega doses of pharmaceutical grade supplements I am already starting to feel better.

I have been so distracted this past week, I forgot to schedule my "Nature Notes" blog posts and one of my readers emailed to asked about them.  She was worried I had decided not to continue them or that I had gotten worse as she has been very good to drop me a note to see how I was doing.  So I decided to catch up and do all of February in one post.  Each image can be clicked to enlarge for better viewing.

It has taken me two days to complete this post....things kept coming up and I would hit save in draft and pop back in as time permitted.  Well a couple trips to the beach also slowed me down!  My doctor knows I enjoy going to the beach, so he said every few days I need to do that or take a nap to rest and let my body heal.  Well you won't find this girl napping....I told him naps are for babies and old people and I am not even close to being either.  He agreed and said he would see me at the beach!

See you next month.....

Debbie 

Do You Have Control of Your Own Destiny?

We could not have asked for more beautiful weather here in SE Georgia this weekend....sunny, clear blue sky, low 70's....all I needed to pull out the rolled up jeans, gauzy shirt over a tank top and FLIP FLOPS!  And you know where I headed....straight to the beach with one of the novels I had picked up last summer that I never got around to reading. 

I have been a fan of Nancy Thayer's books for quiet some time.  She writes about the mysteries and romance of families and relationships....everything from marriage and friendships, divorce and love, independence and connections.  So last summer I picked up "moon shell beach" and "Summer House" with the intentions of reading them while I was recovering from surgery and de-stressing to help heal the ulcers.   

For the past 8 months I thought I was de-stressing allowing my back and the pesty stomach ulcers time to heal....I found out a few weeks ago, be ready....because they will flair up just when you think you have everything under control.  This time I was told, you either remove stress, responsiblities and obligations OR I will be seeing you in the hospital again.  If you have ever had any kind of stomach ulcer, then you know what it feels like to double over with excruciating pain, drink Mylanta from the bottle and eat Tums as if they were candy....all the while you are on prescribed meds. 

So with book in hand and a bottle of green tea, yes I actually drink green tea I headed over to the beach for a few hours.  It is amazing what a good book, sunshine, a breeze, sand and the salted air can do for the body.  I came home feeling like I could conquer the world or atleast my own destiny!

Off to fluff my wind blown hair....as we are headed to Pier Village on St. Simons Island to eat at Brogan's!

Debbie

Nature Notes for 1906

As promised....the last two pages for January's Nature Notes.

Click images to enlarge for reading and click on "Nature Notes" in categories to read past entries.

Until Next Time.....Happy Birthday Steve!  It is going to be a FUN day doing the things I love to do!  I mean the things you love to do! Glad we both agree the beach is the perfect way to end the day!

Debbie

Nurturing brings you earned Blooms

Where did summer go?  Is it really already September?  This summer was just a blur for me with so much going on, but the health problems I dealt with most of the summer are beginning to show signs of improvement.  De-stressing is easier said than done, but I am so happy to say I have let go of things that were sucking energy of me and replaced them with things I enjoy.  I have made it over to the beach atleast 3 or 4 days a week for the past month.  Spent some time on the road with Steve a few weeks ago and didn't even carry my laptop!  He has a few trips scheduled in the coming weeks and I am thinking I may just have to see what those trips have in store for me.  And our week at Myrtle Beach will be here before I know it or atleast I hope it is!

I have worked on some art projects for upcoming exhibits, delivered two mixed media works to St. Simons Glynn Art Juried Show to be on display until the end of the month.  Been playing with some new techniques and new mediums.  I made a list of projects and then broke those projects down into tasks.  It is amazing how quickly things go when you have a plan.  Yes, I went back to my tried and tested and works business knowledge.  The Student Artist program through the marketplace is coming together and hopefully will be  in full force very soon.  Changes are in the works for the Marketplace itself and I am working on some major updates to my website.  Funny how your own personal sites and obligations get put on the back burner while you take care of everyone else. 

Someone said to me this past week "one of the things that I admire about you is you are a leader and not a follower!  You always put others needs before yourself."   To me that was a great compliment and one that I have always been told and don't take lightly.  I was taught, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Well we all know sometimes you don't get back what you give, but that's okay as I am a true believer in payback.  You get what you deserve sooner or later, good or bad.

Today I hope I continue to receive a few more of those gorgeous red Gerber Daisies.  Each morning I look out my window as I work on the computer to see how many survived the night.

Creatively,

Lifestyle Changes

KC & I joined Steve this week for one of his business road trips to South Carolina.  While he has been in meetings with contractors, we have been hanging out by the pool.  KC spotted this little blue egg from our balcony a few days ago and we have been keeping an eye on it all week.  Before leaving home we loaded a u-haul top to bottom, back to front with everything KC thought she needed or would need back at school.  After a stop at Crispy Creme this morning we headed across north Georgia to move her back on campus in the morning.  After we get her settled and everything put together, Steve and I will be heading back towards home, but not before we make several stops along the way.  Okay they are along my way, but according to Steve and the GPS they are detours....some major ones off the route!  But what's a road trip without a few unplanned stops along the way?

That tiny blue egg represents a new beginning and that's just what I have ahead of me.

After two weeks of waiting for all the biopsy, lab and x-ray results to come in, my Dr's appt was not what I wanted to hear, but thankful as it could have been worse.  For the third time in my life I have been diagnosed with ulcers, only this time it is Severe Peptic Ulcer Disease which requires me to make a dramatic lifestyle change!  Don't know which is worse, the meds or having to deal with the pain.  Although stress and what I eat did not cause the 20+ ulcers, both contribute to them.  His prescription was 6 wks in the Bahamas or making some major changes in my life before one of several rupture.   Well with all the kids in college, 6 weeks in the Bahamas is not in the picture at this time.  Although more days at the beach will be forthcoming, they will be more relaxing once all the vacationer's head home for kids to start back to school.  Right now you can't park, walk or move without rubbing elbows with someone!

I have spent the past several weeks trying to make some changes in my hectic schedule and remove myself from things and those around me that I felt were causing more stress than they were worth.  As Steve put it, I am and have always been a giver, a do it yourself, don't ask for help and etc.....and that has got to change.  After leaving the doctors office, Steve and I headed over to the island for lunch and to talk about how we together were going to make changes. 

Just as soon as I get back home I will be heading here....more and more!

See you after our road trip!

Happy 4th Everyone!

 

March catch up.....

WOW...things have been happening around here and I have found myself going 24/7 and still can't keep up so this will be a catch up to a few things.

Let's start with finds from this morning.....It's not a Secret!.....

February 9th (HERE) I posted I was featured on Womenwise Marketing and I have received several emails and a few phone calls asking if I would share my secret to getting my name out there.  Girls it is no secret, anyone can do it.  You just have to do a little leg work or as some do keep tabs on other blogs to see what they are doing.  As for Womenwise Marketing, I have been receiving Kelly's newsletter for sometime now and she invites you to complete a questionnaire to be featured.  That's all there is to it.  So if you are a women in business visit Kelly Watson's website Womenwise Marketing and complete her questionnaire and you too could be featured.  I can't promise you will be featured, but if you don't try you will never know. I will even give you the direct link just as I did the girls that contacted me.  Good Luck and I look forward to hearing "You are featured" on Kelly's site soon.  Don't forget to sign up for her newsletter while you are there!

Marketing yourself just takes time and persistence.  It is not something you do for a few days or weeks and then move on to something else.  You work at it non-stop reaching for quality contacts, not quantity!  It will pay off not always right then, but somewhere along the way.

Exhibition....

I along with several of the MMCA Marketplace members were invited to participate in an exhibition at Arts on Union Gallery & Studio in Middletown, PA "Celebrating Women In History" during the month of March, featuring paintings, jewelry, photography & more by local, regional and national women artists.  Thanks Christine Goldbeck!

Gifts......

KC's boyfriend participated in an event on Ossabaw Island just south of Savannah during part of his Spring Break and while there he collected a few seashells for me.  Tell me he is not trying to stay on my good side!

MMCA.....

As most of you know MMCA has a new home and the neighborhood is growing.  To quote my friend and artist, Elaine Brady Smith..."The social networks are your front porch or your neighborhood. You can walk about and see what everyone is doing...what is going on in your community. You don't have to if you don't want to...you can just stay to yourself and be quiet if you choose...but if you want to...everyone is there and you can have a look-see at what they are up to and report on your own shenanigans, show your pictures and join in discussions whenever you want."  If you would like to be a part of MMCA's social network, we invite you to join us.

And until next time.....I leave you with just a small grouping of treasures I have collected since our move here.  The small jars are from special beach days at St. Simons Island, Fernandina Beach and Ponte Verde Beach.  Each jar in filled with shells collected and the tops have been labeled with the beach and date.