2/3/2014: #Dartday #forDean

Tomorrow, Monday February 3rd is Diabetes Art Day - And you still have time to embrace your inner Modigliani & Picasso and use diabetes as your muse & medium~

You piece of D art doesn't have to be complex or fancy - Just straight from your heart!

Diabetes Art Day - 

Tomorrow, Lee Ann Thill, the founder and creator of Diabetes Art Day is also taking Diabetes Art Day 2014 to remember an amazing member of the Diabetes Online Community, Dean Devalerio, who passed away on Saturday, February 1st, 2014. 

  Lee Ann wrote this late last night on the Diabetes Art Day Facebook Page: 

"The DOC and Diabetes Art Day lost a great friend and enthusiastic supporter today. After the first Diabetes Art Day in 2010, Dean Devalerio said:

"it was a 'fun' thing to do! and it really was therapeutic in its own way. it was something i had never done before.i loved it.lee ann had no boundaries in what or how you could create.
lmao if though it was 'diabetes' i was released from diabetes in the time i was doing what i did."
#dartday #forDean

Dean was a tremendous DOC Cheerleader. 

He was always cheering others on via Facebook and blog comments and his passing comes as quite a shock to all who loved him. 

Please keep Dean & his loved ones (including his DOC Minnesota crew) in your hearts and prayers - And honor him tomorrow 

with the hashtag #forDean on your facebook, twitter & blog posts - As well as your 

#dartday posts. 

This one's #forDean!! 

Diabetes Art Day #StripSafely Edition: Navigation

Diabetes Art Day - StripSafely Edition:

A sea  of glucose test strips in the ocean of my diabetes life~

A sea of glucose test strips in the ocean of my diabetes life,

Spindrift's of swirling numbers that never stop  -

Continuous swirling test strips and bg numbers that leave me spinning like a top. 

Numbers generated directly from my blood and the diabetes technology that are the tools to live this diabetes life.

Tools that are my blood sugar compass, Diabetes GPS, and life preserver, all rolled into one - 

Telling me how to navigate with insulin, in order to keep this diabetes life from coming undone. 

Navigation demands accuracy in all dimensions, be it by land or air or sea - 

But especially in glucose test strips and meters, accurate blood sugar coordinates are key.

And Right now glucose test strips are  anywhere between 10, 20 and some say as much as 40% off their marks - 

And that leaves people living with diabetes to navigate the Diabetes Ocean in the dark. 

AND THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE.

Kelly Kunik~

Diabetes navigation tools~

Diabetes Art Day 2013: Arrows

Diabetes Art Day

The more obstinately you try to learn how to shoot the arrow for the sake of hitting the goal, the less you will succeed in the one and the further the other will recede.
 Eugen HerrigelIf you would hit the mark, you must aim a little above it;
every arrow that flies feels the attraction of earth.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
My scar is beautiful. It looks like an arrow. 
Carly Simon
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My 2013 Diabetes Art Day Project~
Click on the image for a much more detailed view. 

OK, I wan't sure where I was going to go with my 2013 Diabetes Art Day Project - I really didn't.
 So on Sunday Morning I poured myself a second cup of coffee, set out a piece of blank paper on my work table and dumped a portion of the contents of my diabetes Bio Hazard Container out.

And it kind of felt like I was looking down at an unfinished puzzle - even though it was just a blank piece of paper.

And as I stared at the blank paper I stopped thinking about puzzle pieces.
Instead I started grabbing test strips and making arrows out of them.

At first those arrows represented the directions that my blood sugars were going - A la CGM.
And I started writing words and numbers about the direction of those arrows  - And how I feel when my diabetes arrows are going in either direction.

Then I took a picture of what I'd made.. And as I looked at the picture I began to think of the arrows as shooting arrows  - And about being BRAVE and never giving up.

As a Diabetes Markswoman, my arrows don't always land exactly where I want them to.
 Sometimes my arrows are way off target, other times they are right on the mark - And for all sorts of reasons that make sense and even more reasons that don't make any sense at all.

But no matter what, I still have to keep aiming my arrows.... And shooting in all directions - Because my diabetes targets are always moving... and changing..... and they  will never stop.


As a Diabetes Markswoman I am always taking aim -  And that task is never ending~