Luna's Baublebilities

A few months ago I bought Breakdown Printing, New Dimensions for Texture & Color  by Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan of Committed to Cloth.  Dharma had just got the book in and featured it in their monthly newsletter. In peeking at in online, it looked veeerrrry interesting.  I've been wanting to play with some real printmaking techniques and even went as far a buying a Yudu machine before Christmas, which I'm fairly certain I'm going to regret.  (The idea of setting up a screen prep site in my studio has seemed intimidating and having the whole shebang in a little box sounded like such a good idea but now I realize that the Yudu machine has a lot of limitations, not the least of which being that the mesh screens that fit the machine are 25 bucks a piece, not counting the $7.00 emulsion sheets that you have to use to make a design.    Maybe I'm wrong and will end up really liking the Yudu machine but I'm skeptical.  I am currently working on my first design for printing - I need to stop being so "precious" about the screen and emulsion sheet and just make something and put the blasted thing to use!)

Anyway, I bought Breakdown Printing around the same time as the machine because I'm actually very interested in non-traditional printing methods, too.  While I like the idea of being able to reproduce an image over and over onto fabric or paper, I'm more interested in organic design - what happens when dye bleeds over its boundaries, or when non-traditional materials are used to create color (like in rust dyeing - some of my most beautiful scarves have been rust dyed.)  The idea of working a single silk screen through multiple layers sounded intriguing. 

Dharma's pricetag of $25.00 felt a little steep for a book only 33 pages long so, being the cheapskate I am, I headed over to Amazon to find it.  Sadly, because this is a somewhat obscure Arts and Crafts book published in the UK and is not available from Amazon U.S.  In fact, Claire and Leslie have just a couple titles that are available through Amazon third party sellers - if you want to spend $100.00 or more.  That knowledge made spending $25.00 seem a lot less expensive.  Knowing that Claire and Leslie regularly collaborate with Jane Dunnewold was also encouraging.  I've never been disappointed with information from Jane.

Now that I have the book in my hands and have read through it a few times, I'm eager to start working with this process.  For breakdown printing, a blank or open silk screen is coated with thickened dyepaste which is allowed to dry on the screen.  A single layer of one color, multiple colors and layers of dye, designs squiggled on with clear or colored paste and/or distressed and patterned layers of paste may be used.   Once the paste is dry, clear or colored paste is pulled through the screen multiple times, leaving a series of constantly evolving prints.  I think it will fit in well with the way I work - messy, complicated but not rigidly organized, fabric and tools sitting "in process" for a long time, unpredictable results. 

The book contains very good basic information about working with color, how to prepare screens, fabric and a work area, batching (or setting) the dye and caring for tools.  Recipes for mixing dye, chemical water, soda ash soak and print paste are found at the end of the book.  This text is very comparable to Jane Dunnewold's Complex Cloth - just distilled and focused towards one technique instead of many.   The text is full of reassuring hand holding and encouragement.  After clear and specific instruction is given on tools, recipes and prep, the message seems to be - you can't really know where the process will lead you until you get there so just get going!

I'm going to try to prepare a screen today to use later on this week.  That is, if I can leave my new beads alone long enough to get to mixing up some paste!







.......

Well, kindergarten has begun.  Maxx has been surprisingly happy about it the last two mornings and has hopped onto the bus without complaint.  (Whew!)

Now I have to get to work in the studio - or rather, in the kitchen, as the stuff in my studio has finally and irrevocably reached critical mass.  No one can do anything in there anymore except maybe package orders for shipping and that is only after much rearrangement of boxes, bins and bags.  I'm so ready to move.  My new studio will be so huge.  There will be a separate area for every type of activity - probably even room for a little table or easel for Maxx to paint at. 

We have started a blog about the house and lifestyle renovations that will be taking place over at the Beorningstead.  We are all excited and impatient to get moved over there.  Soon, we hope.

In the meantime I have to dye and paint a whole bunch of scarves and experiment with the blank tee-shirts I ordered a couple of weeks ago.  I also bought a Yudu machine - they are still on sale at Dharma.  I hope it turns out to be worth the $$$! 

I also hope I have enough Ivory dye to complete an experiment that has been naging my mind for several days.  One of my Etsy customers requested a special order containing seeral different colors of ribbon and cord and mentioned that she would really like to see some cord in a Watermelon Tourmaline color palette.  So what have I been seeing in my sleep for the past 4 days?  You got it - scarves and ribbon and even lengths of velvet dyed up in purple, citrine and gemmy green. I think I've got the formula figured out in my head already But I'm about to find out for sure today.  Wish me luck!

Here are some photos of the scarves that I finished last week and a short how-to on stamp making.


Making a stamp for silk resist is very easy and requires only an idea, a piece of plexiglass, a plexiglass cutter (both should be available at your local hardware store), a sheet of fun foam and some glue - I use either super glue or rubber cement.

Your design should be fairly simple and read well as either positive or negative space. Transfer your design to the fun foam and cut it out with scissors. Scissors will create a smooth beveled edge that works well for gluing and stamping. If you have multiple shapes within your design, it is a good idea to draw a map of pieces onto your plexiglass with a sharpie marker so that you know where each small element is supposed to go once you start gluing. Use the plexiglass cutter to cut the plastic to the appropriate size for your stamp.

If you use super glue, apply tiny dots of glue at 1/8 inch intervals to the back of the fun foam and quickly stick the pieces onto the plexiglass. These should stick for just about forever. Try not to get your fingers too involved, you don't want to wear your new stamp all day.

Rubber cement allows for some adjustments after placement and is good for the accident prone. Apply a thin layer of glue to the plexiglass and to the fun foam. Allow it to dry until it is tacky on both surfaces and then press the foam pieces frimly onto the plexiglass. Lay the assembled stamp flat and place a heavy book on top for about an hour. This results in a sturdy stamp that can be removed in case you want to re-position the pieces or use the piece of plexiglass for something else.

Where to get a design motif?

Sometimes my design ideas come from my own drawings, sometimes they come from other design sources.

These carnation blossoms are two of my favorite stamps.


They are from a small study of carnation buds and blossoms I did about 8 years ago.
















I found the spear-like buds very intriguing so I made a stamp of that simple design and used it for a couple of years. then I wanted to add some variety to the designs I was stamping with that motif and created the blossom stamp to co-ordinate with it. They have ben very successful. I can create rigid, static upright motifs with these stamps or use them as a garden element, adding fern patterns, birds, insects or my signature moon stamp.



These fuschia blossoms were created in a similar fashion. I did a quick setch of a friend's hanging basket and later translated that into a set of fuschia blossom and bud stamps. These ae wonderful bcause in order to make the design read corectly, I stamp the flowers on, allow them to dry and then draw in stems and leaves with my fine line applicatr after the scarf is in the stretcher frame. This creates a scarf that can be painted in a groovy, 1970's stained glass window look.

The swallow image originated from a one of Graham Leslie McCallum's source books. I like these books because they are full of simple B&W line drawings of relatively simple design motifs. I like other souce books, too, but I find that I am often distracted & overwhelmed by the addition of colors or including complete designs on the page instead of simple elements.













I made the first stamp from a line drawing inspired by two or three of the swallow images in the book. I wanted another swallow, slightly larger and swooping in the opposite direction, so I simply traced the first foam swallow onto another piece of foam before gluing it to the plexiglass.

You can also get nice stamps at Michaels' and other shops that sell foam home decor and kid's craft stamps.
One your stamps are made, use a foam brush to apply Elmers School Glue Gel, diluted 2 to 1 with water and stamp the designs on the silk. Allow the resist to dry, stretch the silk and paint. Do not paint over the resisted image, as the glue is water soluble and will break down.

When the scarf is painted, cured and washed, you can embellish the resist design with textile paint or ink. I like Dahler Rowney's Acrylic inks - they are supple and shimmering and flow nicely onto the silk.

Wash the stamp with warm water after each use and allow to dry before storing it away and it will last for many years. You can also use the stamp for paper creations, for stamping paint or thickened inks to fabric or even for home decor.

First, Let me say that it is COLD.

And I am sick of it. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired and cold already. Doesn't bode well for the rest of he winter. :) I'm seriously considering putting the computer out by the woodstove and the TV in here where the computer sits. You can huddle with all of your extremities in a blanket when you watch TV - which we don't do much of, anyway - but your finger have to be thawed and mobile in order to type.

I'm sitting here wearing Bryan's fleece Balaclava, two sweaters, a pair of fleece pants and a thick, fuzzy blanket. All you can see of me are my glasses, my nose and my mouth. I look like Mrs. Who.

It will get better - we finally have all the insulation up in the living room, Bry is ready to hang sheetrock and we will be putting the windows back this weekend whether or not we get around to stripping them first. They can always come back out for painting in the spring and as soon as I get curtains, they will be covered most of the winter, anyway.

Anyway, here is a little of what I have been doing when I'm not huddled around the woodstove.

I started some silk painted scarves over Studio Tour and I have been comissiioned to make five of them for a friend before Christmas so I've been stealing a few moments here and there for painting up in my studio. (It stays pretty warm up there)

Above is a photo of my stretcher frame that Bry made me. It is not great for very wide pieces of silk but it can handle 1/2 to 3/4 of a yeard easily. The real genius of it is that its length is adjustable and the silk is held on the frame using rubber bands. I sew my silk to a dowel at each end, set my frame up to be about a foot longer than my scarf and attach the dowels with rubber bands. The rubber bands keep tension on the silk as it is being painted so that it does not sag and touch the table while it is wet.

In the photo you can also see my secret recipe resist. Elmer's school glue gel is great. I can brush it on a stamp and stamp designs onto my silk or apply it in lines with an applicator bottle. It is incredibly inexpensive, non toxic, no fumes, washes out easily if I make a goof, is sturdy enough to stand up to several layers of dye and can be tinted with silk dye to a pale pastel color should I want that option. Plus, if I run out, I don't have to special order it. When I cure my silk, it just disappears and leaves the resisted area just as soft as the rest of the scarf. I can then leave that area white or I can highlight it with metallic textile paint.

The scarf on the frame is a design that I call Thethuthinang - after the name of a rabbit in Watership Down. The name means "Movement of the Leaves" nd I think that describes this design well. I start with a series of flowing lines and simple leaf shapes drawn onto the silk with the applicator bottle and I paint the first layer of color on. I generally start with ver soft pastel shades in blues, greens & yellows or or pinks and oranges. It doesn't seem to work well with purples for some reason.


When the first layer of dye is dry, I apply another layer of resist in a similar lines and leaves motif.











I may paint up to three layers of resist and paint on a Thethuthinang scarf. This particular one has three but I wonder if I should have stopped at two. I use salt effects generously in this design and when it is completely dry and cured, I will iron it out and paint on some metallic highlights. I've tried using metallic gutta for the whole design but that looks terrible and I hate gutta. It actually has a greater tendency to fail than the Elmers' gel does. Plus it is expensive, stinky and usually impossible to remove.

I haven't got to the highlighting part on this scarf yet, but I will be sure to post photos when I do.


Here are some other scarves I'm working on for my friend. She requested one scarf each in blue, purple, green, orange and red. I've been taking the color schemes and developing my own designs for each one.

The first has a carnation bud & blossom motif with dragonflies and moons, painted in purples & violets.










The next one has a blossom motif painted in blues. One photo looks like there is a lot of purple there but it is really a deep indigo blue - my camera sometimes has trouble rendering blues well when there are aquas and indigos present.

The carnation, moon and dragonfly stams are handmade. Someday I will do a tutorial on making these stamps. It is very easy and they are great for aplying resist, thickened dye or paints to fabric and also handy for home decor. They are a bit big for card making but they would work well on paper if you had a large area you were working with.

I'll post photos of all the scarves when thy are cured and highlighted - but for now - it is time to go stoke thefire and get warmed up again!

Welcome to my tutorial on painting silk scarves using Fiber Reactive dyes!

This method works best for satin and velvet devore (burn out) scarves. These scarves are a blend of approximately 20% silk and 80% rayon with silk as the base weave of the scarf and the pile or satin part being rayon. Scarves like this have incredible softness & drape and take colors with an intensity and accuracy not expected of scarves with a higher silk content. (Rayon is a color glutton.)

FIBER CONTENT AND DYE
In fact, allow me to say something about fibers and dyes before we get into instructions here. Silk is a protein fiber, like your hair or wool from a sheep - they are all made by animals. Rayon, cotton, linen, bamboo & hemp are all cellulose fibers. They come from plants. These scarves are patterned by silk screening an acid on the back of the fabric that eats away the cellulose (rayon) fiber but leaves the protein (silk) fiber behind. You end up with a scarf that is partly sheer with a soft velvet or shiney satin pattern in it. Dyes formulated for protein fibers do not work on fabrics made from cellulose fibers. Dyes made for cellulose fibers, like the Procion Fiber Reactive dye that I will be using here, work on some protein fibers but the colors often shift on silk.

For instance, you may have a dye that makes a gorgeous, rich teal blue on cotton or rayon but when you put it on silk, the color shifts toward the green/brown spectrum and ends up looking muddy. You wouldn't want that on a 100% silk scarf but for this technique, that color may not end up being a disaster. You would get a bright clear teal blue in the rayon part and a more muted, sheer greenish color on the silk part. Quite lovely, actually.

SUPPLIES
Here is everything you will nee. You can get most of this from Dharma Trading Co.






- a silk/rayon scarf with a burn out pattern
- water, preferably warm
- salt (non-iodized)
- soda ash
- a bucket
- two or three containers for dye (those large Kool-aid mix conatiners are great as long as the mouth is not too narrow)
- Procion Fiber Reactive dye in 2 or 3 colors
- 2 or 3 sponge brushes that fit into your dye containers
- a large sheet of plastic or plastic shower curtain
- a wooden spoon never to be used for food again
- two or three teeny mixing containers for saturating the dye powder (old film canisters work great- make sure there are no ridges or bumps on the bottom)
- some bamboo skewers for stirring dye solution
- rubber gloves
- face mask for filtering particulates
- set of measuring cups and spoons dedicated to dyeing (not for food anymore!)
- synthrapol or dish detergent for washing
- some old towels for wiping up spills

First I mix my chemical water. I use the following recipe with my ultra filtered rural water. You may want to consult Dharma's techniqes pages if you have very hard water or urban water with lots of chemicals in it. In fact, when I teach classes in Potsdam, I always bring water with me from home. There is something in Potsdam's water that inhibits blues from fixing - your urban water supply may cause similar problems. If it does, find a friend with a rural supply or try bottled water or filtered water for the dye.

Chemical Water Recipe:
1/2 gallon warm water
1/4 cup soda ash
1/2 cup salt

Mix all of this in your large bucket until the salt and soda ash are dissolved. Some of it may remain in suspension - using warm water helps everything mix more quickly.

Put two cups of chemical water into each of your dye containers and put a few drops (maybe 1/4 tsp) of chemical water into each of your teeny mixing containers. You are about to mix your dye.

COLOR THEORY IN PRACTICE
A word about colors here: Dyes are transparent and blend like crazy. That is wonderful when you put the right colors next to each other - blue near green or fuschia will blend into beautiful shades of aqua or purple.

Fuschia next to green will turn into mud, and it might not be a nice mud.

While you are still new at blending colors, it is best to stick with two or three colors on the same side of the color wheel. Choosing a pale peach, a firey red and a red violet will give you a nice warm blend. Using blue, green and yellow will give you a mix of bright greens with blue and yellow "edges."

Never, never, never put yellow and purple, red and green or blue and orange next to each other unless you know what they are going to do or are prepared for a surprise.

MIXING
Put on your face mask (don't worry, you get to take it off soon) and add 1/2 to 1 tsp dye powder to each of your teeny mixing jars. (My recipe calls for 1/4 to 1/2 tsp dye powder per cup of chemical water. Using a full 1/2 tsp will give a deep, vibrant color, using less will result in soft, pastel shades. Dyes with an * after the color name on the bottle require twice s much dye powder.)

Allow the dye powder to sit for a few minutes in the film canisters to soak up the chemical water you dribbled in there earlier. They should soak up the water fairly quickly and start to look like a paste in the bottom of the jar. Some colors do this more readily than others.

The color I have here is fuchsia and it does not blend well. If this is the case with your dye, carefully dribble a few more drops of water along the side of the container but don't flood the dye. The dye will mix much more evenly and leave fewer "explosions" on the fabric if you turn it into a paste before adding more water. **Heads up! - any color with fucshia as a primary will leave explosions, no matter how careful you are. Using a blender might get around it, but I don't have a spare blender for dye. Just stir the paste really, really well, add water gradually and cross you fingers!**



Once your paste is well mixed, add more water, stir that well and pour it into the dye container. Once all of your dye powders are mixed with chemical water, your powder jars are capped and there is no more dye dust floating around, you may remove your mask. People who inhale dust from the dye can develop allergies to them and cannot use them anymore. That would make me sad so I'm very careful not to breathe my dye powders.




Did I mention that you will also want to be wearing gloves? Dye will stain your hands and possibly dry or irritate your skin. You'll want gloves when you're mixing the dye, applying the dye and washing the scarf out.


PAINTING
Now that you have your dye ready, you can lay your scarf out on a large piece of plastic. Stretch it right out full length with no wrinkles and start applying your dye.

I usually start by applying the lightest color in splotches near one end and work my way down to the other end of the scarf before I add another color. This allows the lighest colors have an opportunity to strike the fabric before the darker colors are added. It is easy to darken a lighter color or blend a darker color into a paler shade but it is almost impossible to dilute a darker color or blend it if the darker color goes on first.

I allow the design on the silk to guide me in color placement but I try not to be too rigid. I blend colors by brushing the second and third colors over into previous layers of dye. Make sure that you blend your colors well, especially if you have one color that is dramatically darker than the others. You can see in the last photo that I did not blend the colors well enough on those two scarves. They will still look pretty while being worn but look a bit splotchy or severe just hanging flat.










Once your scarf is completely dyed, fold the plastic over it and rub the plastic with your hands. This will eliminate air bubbles within the batching plastic and will assure that the dye is in full contact with the fabric.

Now fold the plastic up into a neat little package and let it sit somewhere warm - preferrabley 70-90 degrees for at least 4 hours and as long as over night.









RINSING
If it is summertime or at least warmish where you are, you can take your plastic outside and open it up. Spray the silk briefly with the hose (make sure the water is cold first) and place it in a bucket. Fill the bucket with icy cold water and allow the silk to sit for 1/2 an hour.

If you are winter bound, open the scarf up in the tub, rinse the scarf under cold water and place it in a bucket of icy cold water for 1/2 hour.

The icy cold water will shock the excess dye particles out of the fibers of the fabric. After the half hour has gone, dump the icy water and fill the bucket with warm sudsy water using Synthrapol, Dahrma's Synthrapol substitute or dish detergent.

Agitate and squeeze the silk gently so as not to tangle the fringe too much. You can even leave the scarf to soak in the warm sudsy water for another half hour. DO NOT throw a finged scarf into the washing machine! When you are done washing, dump the bucket and rinse the silk under lukewarm running water until the rinse water is clear or almost clear. Some very dark or bright colors will not totally rinse out with the first washing.

Hang the scarf to dry on a plastic hanger or a plastic rod on a drying rack. Wooden drying racks will accept dye so that the next time you dry something in that spot, you will get a pretty little colorful stripe on it. Metal may discolor the silk.

Take the time to gently untangle the fringe now while the scarf is still wet. It will take a good ten to twenty minutes but will look so much better and save you so much time and hassle later. Trust me!

When your scarf is dry (isn't it beautiful!) iron it face down, using a thick terry cloth towel under velvet to retain the plush pile. You can also use a wide toothed comb to gently comb the fringe as you iron, but if you took the time to untangle while it was wet, you may not need to. Now it is ready to wear or give as a gift!



Next time you wash your scarf, you can hand wash it in the sink using Woolite or shampoo to help retain those beautiful colors! Don't be alarmed by some color bleeding the first few times you wash, unless you have ultra chlorinated water, you shouldn't have serious color loss.

If you really want to try this but are uncertain about what you might need, the folks over at Dharma are very helpful and will answer your questions expertly. I will also be putting a few scarf dyeing kits in Goblin's Market in the next little while that will include a scarf, three colors of dye - enough for dyeing that scarf - and enough soda ash for one half gallon of chemical water. I will also be leading a Velvet Scarf DyeingWorkshop at the SLC Arts Council on December 6th.

So it's 10:30 on a Sunday morning and I should be in Church, coaching my son on how to be be reverent and avoid the "naughty room" during Sacrament meeting, but I'm simply not up to it. Bryan and Molly are off with Jonathan on a canoe/hiking trip up to Big Eddy and the Seward range. They left on Friday and I'm already exhausted. Turns out, both the dog and Maxx are more anxious than I am about their absence so Ziggy keeps waking me up during the night with his anxious prowling and Maxx clambers out of bed fairly early, full of his special brand of tense energy. Not a good prescription for beginning the Sabbath Marathon, so I've elected to stay home and maybe visit my brother later today. He has lots of crab apples he wants me to take away from his tree.

Since I'm sitting around the house with a really good Sabbath excuse to avoid "Luna" work, I took some time to browse around Sharon B's In a Minute Ago blog. I've really missed having the time to read her blog and explore the amazing links she provides. I've also missed participating in the Take It Further challenge. June and July were a total wash for me, which is too bad. I really liked the color scheme in June. The color scheme this month is here. It is quite nice.














Her blog took me to some interesting places, this morning. The latest edition of CQ Magazine (online) is really interesting. It has a short but well illustrated article about painting a quilt block prior to adding embroidery embellishment. It is a very nice effect. Maybe someday I'll have time to try it.

Then there was a reprint of an article from the World Ark Magazine published by Heifer International about sericulture, the raising of silkworms and production of silk. I have been feeling really unhappy about working with silk because virtually all of the silk I use comes from China and I have been wondering how my support of the textile industry in China affects the many human rights abuses and vast environmental degradation sponsored by the Chinese government. This article made me feel much better about working in silk. Turns out that real human beings with families benefit from the production of silk and that there are cooperatives and NGOs that are using sericulture as a means of eliminating poverty in China. So I can lay aside my guilt and just continue to purchase my supplies from companies who buy from and support cooperatives and businesses that treat their workers fairly.

That article led me to the Heifer International website where I read an article about the Carbon Hoofprint. Please go read the article and, if you haven't already, take a look at my blog entries about agricultural environmental contamination and our attempts to clean our water. I continue to look for ways to change my Family's consumption habits so that I do support these industries as little as possible. We really need to get a cow.

But that will have to wait until I find some balance, which brings me back to the Take It Further Challenge. The theme for this month is Balance. Sharon asks us to consider the following statement, "In my chaotic and hectic life I often admire people who are able to maintain balance in their lives. What is balance to you? Do you maintain a balanced life? How do you balance aspects of your life? That is the challenge this month - balance."

I'll tell you , I have had no balance this summer. It all started at a retirement party for Bry's uncle where Maxx hit me in the back of the head with a big, heavy, green playground ball while I was siting and chatting with family. My neck and shoulders immediately seized up and a friend spent several minutes working on those tight muscles and I iced and rested for several days and thought I was going to be O.K. But I soon developed a tightly knotted rope running down the right side of my spine, headaches, insomnia and exhaustion. I finally broke down and went to see the chiropractor when I began developing intermittent dizziness and an inability to focus my eyes. (I know, I should have gone sooner.) He immediately diagnosed whiplash and spent several weeks straightening me out again.

The lack of energy and range of motion really set me back again, which seems to be a recurring theme in my life with Maxx. He is so much bigger and stronger and physically demanding than Molly was at 4 and he is sick every two or three weeks with viruses that he passes on to me. (I'm not sure where he gets these viruses, I believe he manufactures them himself. He is a walking biological weapons factory. I understand this is common with preemies.) Bry recently remarked that I am never well anymore, I am either incapacitated with feminine issues, injured as a result of Maxx tackling me or throwing something at me from behind or I'm sick with a virus that Maxx mixed up just for me. I'm gaining more weight and beginning to feel very much older than I should. The house has been a total pit all summer because Bry has been too busy and I've been too unwell to really clean. All of the wonderful inventory I was going to produce over summer vacation sits undyed, unassembled and jumbled together in my studio. The garden, with its wonderful French Intensive, double dug beds, has produced an admirable crop of pigweed and nettle. It is a very frustrating situation.

Here are the positives: We did get the beets wed at the right time, and have proven that these double dug, intensive beds will do their trick if we can maintain weed-free status until the vegetables are big enough to shade out the bad guys. Mint spreads relentlessly and now I can have all the peppermint tea I want for the rest of my life. I have discovered that summer squash will grow even in the midst of six foot high clumps of stinging nettle if they are planted at the edge of the nettle patch. And finally, I am developing a really good horse stance for when I hear Maxx running at me from across the room. He hasn't actually knocked me over yet, but the bulk of his weight (head and upper torso) is right at pelvis level for me. Did I mention the the chiropractor has to adjust my lower back, as well?

So balance is an issue for me, both literally and figuratively. How can I stay well, how can I become stronger and healthier? How can I get all my work done? How should I prioritize all of my responsibilities?

Those are the questions that nag me every day. Sometimes I think that having a full time job where I go away every day to priorities set in place by someone else and a regular paycheck to validate my efficiency would be easier. Or maybe I should just become a bee? they have pretty simple lives - collect nectar, make honey, feed the grubs, vibrate to keep the hive warm. . . . . maybe it's not so simple.























Anybody have any wisdom to share here about balance?