Merry Christmas and Thank You!

I just wanted to take a quick minute to tell everyone who has supported me in the last year with my painting and dreams to sell my paintings, etc THANK YOU from the bottom of my little heart.
I could never have done any of this without all of the love and support that I have had from my family and dearest friends.
Even when I've been at my worst, you all have always supported me in all that I did and pushed me to get better and move on, and I think in 2015 I really achieved some great things and would not have been able to without the help of my amazing parents, sisters, and best friend.

So this is Painting with Pain, signing off for 2015....thank you all so much and I look forward to see all of you in 2016 with lots of new things and ideas, etc!!!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Very Happy 2016 to everyone!

Custom ornaments

Soooo...I said that I would NEVER do custom work. Well, I lied. Maybe it's the Christmas spirit getting to me!!
my regular ornaments have just been made jut a touch more special with the option to add a NAME, the YEAR, a BIRTHDATE for new Baby or even a *short* phrase or saying!
I can also put the year on the back for no charge!

You can request colors, and I will do the best I possibly can to accommodate, but most of the personalization will be done in black, Unless otherwise indicated.
I can have these ready in 3-5 business days, with free delivery/pickup in Culpeper, Bealeton and Warrenton (or anywhere in between...Remington, Opal, Brandy Station etc.)
These will be $5 with no tax or shipping for local orders and $1 extra for shipping if needed. 

If you are interested in a ONE OF A KIND ornament for yourself, or a loved one, or a new baby in the family, etc etc etc please let me know ASAP because I don't think these will last long! You can Facebook message me, or email me at emilybriner8@gmail.com to order!


Becsuse my iPad is STILL not allowing me to post pics to the blog, you'll need to pop on over to Facebook to see the ornaments up close and personal.
It's www.facebook.com/paintingwithpain 

Amazon wish list

One thing that happens a lot when you have a chronic illness, is that the people who DO love you and care for you, are always asking what they can do to help.
Honestly, unless you can somehow find a cure, the answer is usually no...lol

I was recently asked by a very close friend who lives 1200 miles anyway to post an Amazon wish list so that she would know what I needed and waht she could help with from so far away.

I'll be honest, I'm still a little reluctant. I don't like asking for help. I'm in dire straights here and have been struggling just to keep my head above water for the last few months, so I finally agreed to post it.
In NO WAY am I asking for anything it expecting anything, I'm just posting this because I was asked to.
It has everything from art supplies, to items to make my pain a little more tolerable (heating bad, specialized neck ice packs, etc. to snacks and food, to dog food (which I added becsuse my friend became angry with me when I told her that I sometimes miss meals in order to make sure that my dogs were fed,) to every day, around the house type stuff like TP, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and toiletries.

So, if anyone cares, here we go....again. NO OBLIGATOINS, EXPECTATIONS, ETc!! Just doing this because someone asked me to.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/?ie=UTF8&cid=A3CCE5J1EL40RM

Or you can search by my email address emilybriner8@gmail.com

Thank you for all of your support :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

When you have a chronic illness, or chronic pain, it's very easy to get discouraged and not want to be thankful for anything.

Trust me. I've spent many a day and night being angry at anyone and everyone and being the most ungrateful person on the planet due to my illness.
I'm not saying that I'm exactly a peach to deal with these days, but I'm really trying to look at the positive in life.
I woke up this morning. I had to work. But I woke up, took a hot shower, and drove my car to my place of employment. All of those things are amazing and wonderful and reasons to be thankful!! So many people are without some of those things!!

I have an amazing cast of family, friends, boyfriend and two awesome little pups who keep me going every day. There are people who I know, who literally have no one. I am so thankful for each and every person in my life that loves me the way that I am and encourages me to keep getting better.

I am irritated daily about small stuff, but for today, it all gets swept under the rug and I am thankful!

Chronic illnesses SUCK...but for today, I will not dwell. I will just be thankful and be with my family (hopefully?!? Trying to get out of work early) and enjoy the time I have.

OK so who out there blogs with an iPad 2?!

I'm beyond frustrated with this damned thing. I can't figure out A way to upload pics onto my "Painting with Pain," blog!!!
It doesn't let me choose from photos that "live," on the iPad. I have a "dumb phone," not a smart phone....so I can't get them to sync...and the only other option is to upload from a URL.
Well I've tried that to the best of my abilities and it ain't happening either!!
It might be high time I trashed this piece of crap and purely use it to play music while I'm working and get a legit computer for blogging, etsy shop, Facebook sales, etc.
Can anyone shead any light on this stupid thing for me? Or am I doomed?

First public appearance!

Good Morning and happy Sunday to everyone.
Painting with pain is proud to announce it's FIRST public appearance!

That's right. I put all my fears and reservations aside and sat my big butt in a lawn chair all day at an outdoor craft show with my best friend and her little crafty business. Between the two of us, we are a hot mess trying to set things up because both of us suffer from chronic pain...we did it though! And our table looked amazing and I actually sold some paintings!

FIVE to be exact!!!

I have not been so proud of myself in a long time. My goal was to sell at least $22 of items so that I could buy a (small, 5 pound) bag of dog food on the way home to my starving babies!

I ended up being able to buy a 20 pound bag, a few toys/babies for Lucy, Chewies for night time, and a couple super cute clearance Halloween sweaters with skulls and monsters (Halloween is still two weeks away! Why are they almost sold out of costumes and have everything else on clearance??) I was very proud and excited to spend it on the babes.

I'm still working on posting photos to the blog from my sill iPad, but until then, please check me out on Facebook???
WWW.facebook.com/paintingwithpain

Paintings.

As it turns out, uploading photos from the ipad into blogger is pretty difficult.
While I figure that out, please feel free to check out some of my paintings on my Facebook page!
Www.facebook.com/Paintingwithpain

Painting with pain.

As most of my close friends and family know, I have suffered from chronic pain/chronic daily migraines (sometimes lasting days, weeks, months...with my longest episode being over 120 days,) for several years. 
About two years ago, I was so bad that I was unable to work, drive, or really even be functional as a human being. Everything hurt from sitting in the car just to ride to my doctors appointments, to eating, showering, etc. 
The pain in my head, eyes, neck, and other parts of my body was so intense that I would often pass out, vomit, loose vision in one eye, be unable to speak, among other things. 
I had really hit rock bottom when I was admitted to The University of Virginia hospital for one week to try a new drug therapy which I received IV since I could not keep anything down. It burned my veins going in and gave me horrible nightmares, sweats/chills, and muscle pains. 
The treatment was stopped and a member of the psych team was sent to see me since I was in such bad shape and nothing seemed to be working, to say I was depressed would be an understatement. She suggested finding something that made me happy, something to distract me. I honestly blew her off. I could hardly open my eyes most days, let alone find a new hobby!!
Three weeks later, I had passed out from another intensely painful migraine and was in the emergency room. They gave me a shot of steroids that not only didn't work, but gave me horrible side effects. I couldn't sit still, I paced the house because my legs just felt like they would explode if I didn't. I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't do anything. For fear that I was loosing control of my life once again, I sat at the kitchen table and cried...and then saw a paintbrush. I picked it up, and I never stopped painting after that. 
Since then I have used paint and different mediums mixed in with paint such as collage, printing, etc. to "Paint my pain," and show how I felt, what I saw when I closed my eyes during a migraine incident, the side effects of migraines, and much more. 
I've done over 20 paintings of all sizes now and have decided that after two years, I'd like to start showing them to the world. 
They are for sale through Facebook, as well as a few craft shows that I plan on doing this fall/winter.
Every cent that I make in doing this will go back into my treatment and paying for my medications, past hospital bills, doctors office co pays, etc...and eventually, when I have paid my bills and brought my accounts current, I will be donating 100% toward migraine research and helping others in my situation.
I realize that this type of art is not for everyone. It's very abstract and wildly colorful. I only ask that if you don't care for it, please keep your comments to yourself. I paint directly from what I see and feel, and I don't appreciate negative comments. 
Along those lines, please do not ask me to re create a painting for you, or do a custom piece, as that is impossible when you are using your pain and symptoms and side effects to create a piece of art. 
Thank you for taking the time to read and learn about my story, I can only hope that moving forward, "Painting with pain," will continue my own healing process, but also help others. 
Please feel free to contact me with any questions about my journey, or any of the art work which is listed, as most of it is for sale in order to help pay my bills.