YAY Good News

 Hi Everyone!

I just got home from seeing the ophthalmologist for my 2 month follow up on how the retina in my eye is doing.  

YAY !!!!! No tears or rips on the retina and I'm good to start my yoga and other exercises back. 

Finally some good news.

Thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes for me..... it all worked.

Have a great evening

Nicole 

 

Monster Monday

 Hi Everyone!

It's Monster Monday! One of my favorite blog days. 😆

All of my monsters are made with AI. The program I use is NightCafe. I have tried others and for me this is the best. It's free and you can create just about anything. As soon as you sign up there are things to do to earn credits. Right now I have almost 2,000 credits to create with.

On with the show.

I really haven't made too much monster art this week. But here are a few.

 

 

These are just weird. That's ok too. 

I've been winning some daily challenge events too. Not first place but for every type of win there are credits added. 

I'm cutting this short today. My brother and his wife are on there way over for the day. 

Have a great Monday.

Nicole 

Sunday in the Art Room

Welcome to  

 

Above made by me with NightCafe. 

Today is Sunday in the Art Room. 

As mentioned in previous posts, I'm opening up this day for artists that create in ANY medium to come on by and just talk art. Write a post about what's on your mind in the art world. It's a place to ask questions on your blog where other's can hopefully answer. Or share your videos, your techniques, tools or even what type of camera you use. So, you say you can't draw but you can write.... that's art baby! AI creations are welcome as well. Since this type of art is taking off to main stream. Let's say you think you are in no way artsy. But you love art. Show murals, historical, art, your friends or kids art and talk about it.  

I would like this to be an all inclusive way for artist to share, whatever. 

My only rule? Criticism with kindness. 

If someone asks to have their art critiqued it must be done with the generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of encouragement and inspiration. 

Last week I mentioned showing off your art space. Since my art room has become a place to store yard sale items. I don't work in there very often anymore. I have set up a drawing area in my TV room.

As I walk. 

 On the opposite wall. I have cleaned out a lot of art supplies that will be in the yard sale. Mr. M. made these selves for me when we first moved in here.

 

Yeah, I kinda hoard brushes.

I now draw here.

Here is what I'm working on right now. Just getting started.

That's it for me.
Now, it's time to show yours!

 Nicole 

Saturday food

 Hi everyone!

I went through my camera trying to get rid of photos I have used and those that are blurry. I discovered meals that I have made over the last few weeks that I haven't shared. So here goes in no particular order. Honestly I don't know if I showed this before or not. We have roasted veggies quite often.  For Mr. M's kidney.

Pork roast, potatoes from my garden and veggies. I found a gravy that is pretty kidney friendly. 

Not exactly kidney friendly but I did use no salt spices and egg free noodles.

A month or so ago, I wrote how I found stalks and stalks of celery in my garden. Of course I harvested it all and part of it was used to make cream of celery soup. 

 

It was so good. I added feta cheese. I know it doesn't melt but sure tastes good. 

We have to have tacos and tostadas in our house every few weeks.
 

OK, my brother, who is a professional baker and chef, was bragging about his pie crust. Well I can't let that go. LOL Yes, the pie has fallen because I cut it when it was hot, hot, hot. But it was so darn good.

Homemade yeast rolls for a turkey dinner I made last week. There is a reason I made the turkey. 

For the life of me I can't remember who posted that they went somewhere and had a turkey, bacon club sandwich. Ya know, I told myself to write it down, but then told myself, oh I will remember. Seriously! I thought it was Jeanie? Whomever it was leave a note in the comments please so I don't go crazy trying to remember. Ever since I saw the post and showed it to MR. M. we have been craving a turkey bacon club. 

Here is my homemade turkey, bacon club on sour dough bread with avocado on the side. 

Last, I wanted to make some lemon curd. However, that would mean buying lemons. I already had oranges so I made orange curd this afternoon. 

My house smells so good.

That's it for now. 

Nicole
 

 

 

Nicole

Friday Face OFF 1/8/2026

 

 Welcome To Friday Face OFF (FFO)

This is the place to show off your face art.

You know, ANY type of face, nature, the face of a flower, Photography, drawings, paintings. There just needs to be a face in your blog post.

 

Two notices. 

The first, 

FFO Challenge

The new challenge is to create a portrait of anyone you want. It can be your family, friends, actors, faces you find on the internet, or a perfect stranger that will allow you a photo to work from and to show with your portrait. You can work in any medium, except photography and you have until Friday January 30, 2026.  Make it fun and let's see what you come up with. 

Remember this is optional. I still want to see all of your wonderful faces. 

The second,

Starting this Sunday I'm changing Sunday in the Art Room. It will be open to anyone who wants to just talk and create art. To start it off I did suggest showing off your art space. Click here for more details.  

 

Now for my art this week.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this piece.

These are the images I used, changing the colored photo to black n white. 

  

 

She starts like this. 

Then this. I did change her hair a bit.

The start of her freckles.

Working on the face.

Blending the freckles into her skin and making her teeth smaller. Like in the photo.

 

Then I decided to color her blouse. I really like this effect.

I'm happy with the likeness.

 

Here are some new AI I've created. If you would like to give AI a try then check out NightCafe 

No monsters today. More surreal and fantasy. 

It's time for some features.

 

Mia, she is very generous with her AI pieces. They are lovely too. 

 

Roentare Melbourne Street Photography.
Great photos every time. 

 

Michelle It's a Small Town Life. Always interesting post and beautiful photos.

Thank you all for sharing your magnificent art with FFO. 

That's it for me. Now it's time to show me your face. 

 

Do you drink sparkling water?

 Hi Everyone!

I learned something very interesting. First, my preferred beverage is water. I have a Zerowater filtering system that has been a money saver and the best tasting water. It has a gauge to tell me when the filter needs to be change. I have had this going on 2 years and have only had to change the filters one time. So much cheaper than buying bottled water.

2 filters that last us over a year and we use this water for everything.

 Which brings me to my question. Do you drink sparkling water? Before it was popular with all the flavors I bought sparkling water in a liter bottle. I don't know why I stopped. This was years ago.

Forward to last year. With Mr. M's kidney cancer and now only have one kidney that is stage 4 we have made a lot of changes to our diet. Drinking water has always been difficult for Mr. M. so he went to the sparkling water with a bit of flavor. No sugar. I didn't like the flavor kind. Just seemed a waist because there isn't much flavor. I drink just plain old sparkling water. I love the cold bubble fizz flowing over my tongue and down my throat. OK, so I could have left that part out. 😜

My point being, it is very refreshing. 

However, we all have a peptide hormone produced in our stomach called, gherlin, also referred to as the hunger hormone. 

I'm not going to get into the Leptin part of this. I just wanted you to have a visual.  

 The ghrelin hormone was discovered in 1999  by Masayasu Kojima, Kenji Kangawa and a "some" research has gone into understanding this puppet master behind hunger signals  pushing the “FEED ME” button before meals, and the “FULL” switch afterwards. 

A study published by the International Institute of Anticancer Research showed that Ghrelin levels are usually lower in people who have a higher body weight compared to those with a normal body mass index (BMI).

This suggests that Ghrelin is not a cause of obesity. Still, there is some research to suggest that people who are of a higher weight may actually be more sensitive to the hunger hormone which could account for why you may feel hungry even if you have lower levels of the ghrelin. Yeah it's complicated. 

  I know I'm getting carried away with my research. Let me get back to my original question. Even though I'm on a heavy dose of prednisone right now, I have gained about 5lbs of my 25lb lose back. 😩 My thought was is the sparkling water making me add the extra pounds? Or water weight gain?

Research in rats. 

It turned out that drinking either the plain or the artificially sweetened carbonated water was causing the rats to secrete increased levels  ghrelin.  This actually led to ghrelin hormone being known as the “hunger hormone.” 

So, I wrote all of that to say, A 2017 study found that carbonated water (both sweetened and unsweetened) significantly increased ghrelin levels in humans and rats compared to plain water, leading to increased food intake and weight gain.

I'm backing off the sparkling water to see if there is a difference.

Note:

As in all things there are contradictions, and some feel that sparkling water makes people feel fuller and able to manage their weight. 

I will soon see.

Thanks for staying to the end and reading all of this. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Have a great day

Nicole