Hit for a loop with allergies lately!

I'm afraid I've done little painting lately, except for a lovely old Irish woman at a spinning wheel based on an image from the U.S. National Archives. To clarify, the photo is NOT my painting but the original photo, one of thousands of wonderful images uploaded by the LOC to an account they set up on Flickr which is searchable and, more importantly, lists whether the item has any copyright issues.  Fortunately for me and my love affair with this lovely image, there are no copyright issues. 

As for the allergies, I've been battling them first alone, then with the help of the steroid shot (see most recent post) and a nasal steroid spray but I'm not much better, so broke down and got the doctor to prescribe an antibiotic to help move things along.  We'll see.  One other thing I've been doing though is brewing this concoction each morning which really opens up my sinuses and gives me a kick in the clarity department.  I got the recipe from my dear Italian painter-friend Lucilla.  Here's my version:

Lucilla's Health Tea
Green Teabags (2 or 3)
2 -3 cups of water
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 or so whole cloves or 1/4 teaspoon
1 teaspoon sliced fresh ginger or 1/2 teasp ground
2 anise pods or similar ground
1 or 2 crushed dried red peppers or comparable
a pinch of cumin
2 or 3 cardamom pods or comparable

Like Lucilla, I just boil it up and pour myself a cup now and again during the day.  Since I feel worst first thing in the morning BEFORE I have a shot, I figure it does do some serious good.

Agh! Allergies are making the eyes go wonky!

OMG, I have so much painting to get done!  This restaurant where I am having my show is quite deep with lots of wall space and as I'm the solo artist, I really need to get a lot of big stuff painted!  Don't get me wrong, I love and am totally up to the challenge, attacking it all with analytical mind and photoshop filters to "trial" run some of what I plan on painting.  I've got the studio space and since I'm a small business owner, can set my own hours, more or less, to work around my painting.

The painting above was my first attempt at working with a palette knife.  It's ok I suppose, I mean the paint goes on in no time, but I prefer using paintbrushes.  Maybe it will lend itself to certain types of paintings but for detail work it was impossible and I grabbed my brushes.

The problem is, my allergies are so bad this year that my eyes are going all wonky!  Seriously!  Every time I look down with the eyes, I get this unfocused sensation one gets after riding a playground merry go round!  Dizzy somewhat, but just totally unfocused.  Painting under a deadline this will not do, so I've taken to steroids, allergy meds, and warm compresses on my face hoping to alleviate what I think is sinus swelling causing the damn spells.

Wish me luck!