Noooooo!

Look at what I saw on my way home from my walk--an autumn leaf. I wasn't ready to see a fallen leaf that's red and yellow just yet. Fortunately it was alone.

 

I was going to fill the bird feeders this morning but this squirrel was working so hard on emptying the suet nuggets that I didn't want to disturb it. I'll fill the feeders tomorrow. Or maybe Saturday.

 

This morning I was looking at my birthday flowers and noticed that some of them have an interesting center that's a lovely shade of green so I decided to try my hand at painting them. It turned out okay. I'm not thrilled with the background color I chose. It's too close to the color of the flowers. Live and learn.

 

I spent at least an hour on Fiverr which is a website where you can get a cover design. It also has artists who will illustrate a children's book. I've always wanted to publish Dodger & Betsey, this week's Substack post, as a children's book and never found an illustrator. I have to do more research, it can be very expensive, but it's a possibility. Worth looking into.

Then I was looking in my Junk email folder for something and noticed that last week I got emails from a couple book clubs through my website email. I shot them back to my Inbox and read them. One is from London, England and wants to feature The Seaview in their newsletter to members. Yes, please! I looked them up online and watched an interview with the woman who sent the email so I know it's not from a scammer. We've been emailing back and forth all afternoon and I have secured a place in their September 15th publication.

The other book club seems to be in Baltimore, if what I found on the web is right, and they want to offer Christmas at Seaview to their members in November. Okay then! I emailed back and forth with her and that one too offers a lot of exposure to readers I'd never reach otherwise.

There was another email from a woman asking about Christmas at Seaview and it sounded like she was an interested reader wanting to know if it was in Kindle Unlimited. I emailed her back but it turns out she wants to sell herself as an advertising advisor. No thanks. 

I was on school pickup duty this afternoon and then I went to the farmers market to get more Roma tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers and potatoes. (I might have gotten some cookies too. They're hard to resist.) I want to make a layered veggie bake I invented years ago and needed ingredients. I got a Vidalia onion at the store yesterday and have a zucchini I got from a friend that needs cooking. It's the end of the summer, everybody's got too much zucchini. I'll make the veggie bake over the weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

Do you realize that tomorrow's Friday already? Wasn't yesterday Monday? No wait, that's three days ago. These holiday weeks really goof me up. 

--Barbara 

A Flock

In big bird news, I just happened to walk into the kitchen and glance out the patio door to see the flock of turkeys coming through. I almost missed them but was able to squeeze a view of them between the door jamb and the patio umbrella. I didn't count them but there had to be at least a dozen. I love seeing them.

 

In smaller bird news, a Downy Woodpecker flew in, took a short ride on a Slinky, and then had a snack at the suet cakes. I took a shot of it on the Slinky but managed to snap it just as the bird flapped its wings to fly to the feeder so it's all blurry. Dang it.

 

We had a little thunderstorm this morning around 7 o'clock. Then a little later on it rained again and I tried to get a picture of the birdbath because the drops were big enough that they made a bubble on top of the water. That didn't work so all you get is raindrops on the water. Happily it didn't rain for too long so I was able to take a walk before lunch and then go get bread, bananas, and grapes at the grocery stores. ALDI has the kind of bread I like but Meijer has better bananas, etc. so I go there too.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Famous Landmark. I had a hard time thinking of a local landmark and then I thought of Lambeau Field where the Packers play. It's right in my old neighborhood, kind of in the middle of everything on the west side of Green Bay. Years ago, I went up to a Mobil station on the corner across the street from the stadium to visit with a friend who worked there most mornings and tourists, having just come off the highway, would stop at the station to ask how to get to Lambeau and she'd turn around and point across the street. The look on their faces was priceless. (It was pre-GPS.) I'm not a football fan but it was all I could think of to draw.

 

I'm going to post yesterday's drawing again because I worked on it more this afternoon. I outlined everything with a black fine liner and finished coloring in the background. SO much better. Now I like it even more.

 

And I managed to make myself draw a gratitude journal page for today on today. 

 

This morning, even before I showered etc., I sat here and went through the last 25 Amazon Ads to make sure I had paused all of the "book" and "ebooks" keywords in them. Then in the afternoon I worked some on a couple short stories after I read through all of the emails that I've been skipping the last few days. I get too many emails some days. Don't we all?

--Barbara 

Not Much

That's what I did today--not much. I spent too much time scrolling on Facebook for no reason I can discover. I read posts on the Ad School FB page and commented on a few of them. Then I turned to the Campaign Manager on my Amazon Ads page and got busy removing "book" from the keyword ads. It was interesting to see that "book" got a lot of Impressions but very few Clicks and no Sales so it was a distraction. I also went into Better Than Mom's and Horizon ads to look for "book" and to remove "romance" because although there is romance in the books they don't match the expectations of Romance book readers. And I just discovered that I've got 25 more ads to search through because only 50 were on the page and I have 75 ads. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow.

 

I drew a gratitude page for yesterday this morning. I was mostly grateful for the calls and visits from my kids and grandkids for my birthday. It made all the mom-ing and meemaw-ing I do worthwhile.

 

Once I got finished going through ads this afternoon I looked up today's drawing prompt which was Famous Painting. Not having any famous paintings lying around the house I dug out a book from The Art Institute in Chicago and found a Picasso I liked. I ran out of time coloring it so the background didn't get filled in but I'm not unhappy with the way it turned out.

 

Tonight was the Writers' Guild meeting. I didn't take anything to read but enjoyed hearing some of the others read and hearing the comments people offered.

I'll try to do better tomorrow. Maybe do some writing. Maybe see a nice looking bird.

--Barbara 

Happy Labor Day! Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is both a national holiday and a personal one. Today I'm 74 which is a much bigger number some days than others. Most of the time I don't feel my age but lately I do, probably because of my injured knee. 

 

I got presents from DD today. It's watercolor paints in pans and a pack of sheets of watercolor paper. I've heard of the paints. I think in one of the online painting classes I took the teacher mentioned that she likes this brand of paints. There are round sheets of watercolor paper in addition to squares and rectangles. Painting on the circles should be interesting. I'm trying to figure out how I'll tape the paper to the plexiglass board so it stays flat and stays in place.

 

As soon as I could I taped a piece of the paper to a board and tried out the paints. I painted a sunflower. It isn't bad.

 

The drawing prompt today was Woods, Trees & Forests so I drew a tree. Trees are hard for me so I'm kind of satisfied with this one.

 

DS and his family invited me over for chicken fajitas, Mexican rice, and corn on the cob. There was chocolate pie for dessert. Every bite was delicious. The kids made cards for me and they got me a bouquet of mums. Aren't they pretty?

 

I saw a bigger bird on the birdbath this morning and wasn't sure what kind of bird it was. Then it turned around and I saw that it was a juvenile Robin. You can tell because of its speckled breast.

 

And the lawn mowers came today. That surprised me, not only because they were just here five days ago, but also because it's a holiday. Again they were quick and thorough.

 

I spent most of the afternoon going into my Amazon Ads and turning off "book" as a keyword. I learned in my coaching session a couple weeks ago that "book" is too broad a search term so it doesn't position my ad in front of the right people. Makes sense. So I downloaded this Search Terms Report and scrolled down to see which ads had "book" as a search term, then I went into each ad and turned the term off. I got a lot done but will probably look through it again tomorrow to make sure I've got them all paused.

 

And that's it for my exciting holiday/birthday. I took a little walk again. It seems like I'm getting more winded the more I do it rather than getting better at it. I'll keep walking and hope things change.

--Barbara 

Even Quieter

It was a real day of rest today. I took a walk which was just about the extent of me doing things. I thought about doing laundry then thought about going up and down the stairs a bunch of times and decided to give my knee a couple more days to get better. I'm down to only taking Aleve in the morning and before bed, which is progress.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday this morning. As it was the days before, taking a walk was what I was most grateful for.

 

Instead of drawing I painted another watercolor today. This time I used another one of KA's note cards as a jumping off place. I didn't jump too far but like the way it turned out. We all know that red's my favorite color so that was the motivation for choosing this one.

 

 The blank cards and envelopes were delivered this afternoon so I was able to emboss and glue the last five cards. I'll let them dry under a big, heavy cookbook overnight and then slip them into clear sleeves with their envelopes tomorrow. I put my initials in the corner of this batch of cards before I put them in the sleeves because I don't want to get another scolding phone call from my sister-in-law that I hadn't signed my artwork. She said hers would be less valuable when I become famous because her birthday card wasn't signed on the painting. I could send her another one, I suppose, signed this time.

 

Now that it's tomato season and actual fresh ones are available at the farmers' market I've had BLTs for supper the last two nights. I bought some turkey bacon that isn't half bad. It tastes more bacon-y than the chicken bacon I had last year but it's raw and needs to be fried. Maybe I'll think of a way to cook it all at once and get it over with. Maybe under the broiler?

 

I managed to drip tomato juice on my white shirt tonight at supper. The last bite, naturally, but I quickly scrubbed it and got it out. No matter how careful I am I usually manage to get food on me. Mom used to say I look good in everything I eat.

Yesterday Mom would have been 97. She's been gone since 2011. Has it really been that long? I miss talking to her and showing off my kids and grandkids.

-- Barbara

A Quiet Day

Today was a quiet day. I didn't have much to do. Didn't go anywhere. I watched this squirrel hang there on the suet nuggets feeder for a long time then climb back down and scamper off.

 

As soon as the squirrel left a Chickadee landed on the suet nuggets. It didn't stay long enough for a photo but I managed to snap one when it landed on the crook for a half minute.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Machines and the only machine I had handy was the toaster. It's a single slot toaster with a wide slot for things like bagels. For some reason I like the single opening toaster. They're not easy to find but I think they're worth it.

 

I drew gratitude journal pages for Thursday and Friday this afternoon but I'm only posting Friday's page. I took a walk those two days and another one today. My knee is tolerating walking just fine but I'm still huffing and puffing by the time I get back home. I know that'll get better but wish it would happen faster.

 

I decided to paint today and shuffled through the notecards that KA gives us in watercolor class and picked the one with pansies. It's okay. I don't think the shapes are right. I'll try drawing pansies again to see if I can't do better. I like the colors though.

 

And that's all. I did a little, very little, writing this afternoon but couldn't find any inspiration so I quit. Sometimes the words just don't come.

--Barbara 

Two at Once

 I've been watching the squirrels lately running along the top of the fence across the retaining wall. Most of them are carrying two black walnuts in their mouth. I've tried to get a picture but they're so fast I haven't managed. Until today. I snapped this one almost out of range and you can't see both walnuts but, trust me, there are two in there. I keep finding pieces of shell on the patio table. Evidently they sit there at night and tear them apart. They have to taste vile because they stain everything and they're just yucky looking.

 

Dad's rose is still blooming. Here's a flower I saw when I returned from my walk this morning. I was more winded afterwards today but I'll get better at this. I'm sure of it.

 

I was surprised to see a Downy Woodpecker on the round feeder today. Usually they go right for one of the suet feeders but this one pecked around, found a peanut, and flew off.

 

At the same time this Chickadee landed on the top of the crook and then flew over to the suet nuggets. Every bird likes the suet nuggets--Sparrows, Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Starlings. Not Mourning Doves or Cardinals, but it seems all the rest are eager suet eaters. 

Today's drawing prompt was Cables & Wires. And it's nothing to write home about. I threw down a cable and drew it, badly. I was going to do more but ran out of time.

 

The Sunset Doublethick Cloth is getting longer. I worked on it exclusively at Friday Night Knitting. I need to finish it in a couple weeks because I want to give it to someone.

 

Last night I watched The Thursday Murder Club movie on Netflix. I've been eagerly awaiting it and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't exactly like the book but movies never are. It's pretty good though. I'll watch it again, right after I finish listening to the book again for the third or fourth time. 

--Barbara