IT IS DONE!

Here are the final results of my January Take It Further Challenge. I honestly finished it yesterday (31 Jan) but have not been able to do my posting until today. The picture at left shows some of the detail and you can see that I incorporated some pieces of jewelry in the piece as I had wanted, some special to me pieces that were broken or had lost pairs etc. I am really quite pleased with the result and I will hang it on my wall. It achieved a lot of what I wanted to say about my dad - like the upper right and lower left corners that are basically pieces of "found" things to remind me that he was the original recycler. He would constantly spot old bits of rubbish on the road, like a rusty old screw, pick it up and put it in his pocket saying that it would "come in handy" one day.
I feel sorry for my brother and sister who had to clean out his place - when he died - they said he had newspapers and stuff dating back to the 1930's, but those two being the blasphemous part of the family threw it all away!
Now the reason I have taken so long to post. I hate, absolutely HATE HATE talking about my own health. However, here's the story. I may even have mentioned before that I have the world's largest (according to my doctor) birthmark. It is on my right thigh and extends from hip to knee and is usually purple and mottly looking. It never bothered me much and I think it was mostly less obvious when I was younger and maybe more warmblooded (so it was paler). As I have aged, it seems every knock and bump results in what they call a varicose ulcer which are hereditary in my family. One caused my grandfather to die (at 98 mind you) when the crusty scab knocked off in his sleep and he bled to death. Great way to go, really, you wouldn't know much about it. Problem is, I am more than 40 yrs younger than that and they are excruciatingly painful and notoriously difficult to heal. /The current one I have occurred 2 years ago and it still looks like a bloody crater. I have had skin grafts on previous ones, but the problem is that the whole kit and caboodle, nerves, blood vessels and God knows what is apparently malformed so the skin grafting bizo sometimes doesn't work. Now the docs are saying that the whole birth mark needs to go - God am I dreading that. As I no longer can afford private health insurance, I am forced into the situation where this is deemed an elective procedure and I have to wait until I can see a specialist (maybe even for years). In the meantime, I have to go get this bastard properly cleaned out and dressed by the nurse twice a week (which makes me scream and frighten all the children in the waiting room!) I find it hurts so much now, it makes me limp constantly and I can't play with my grandsons like I used to. I can't "be" an excavator on the floor any more and that really shits me!!!! Also by the end of the day, the stupid leg starts collapsing under me, because I think the muscle is being affected it is so deep. All in all - intolerable and I am going to see yet another doctor next week for yet another opinion.
In the meantime, I love you all and I love what I do so life can't be all bad - can it>