Those Were Snowflakes

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I looked out and saw a few snowflakes blowing by. There weren't a lot of them but they persisted for a few hours. Just a little reminder that winter could come screaming back if it wanted to. I went to the grocery this afternoon and it occurred to me that it's near the end of April and I'm still wearing my winter coat. Gah.

Despite the continuing cold and windy days the bulbs are showing off across the front of the house. The yellow of the daffodils makes me stop and smile every time I catch sight of it.

While I was glaring at the snowflakes a Red-bellied Woodpecker came to the platform feeder but only stayed long enough for me to see it. I got the camera up and on, took off the lens cap, and the danged bird flew away. Just an other couple seconds and I'd have had a picture. I was frustrated enough that I'm digging back in the files to find a picture from a previous visit. Just because I can.

Remember when the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" was big? No? It was in the 70s. Well, one of their tricks to drawing success was having you draw something upside down, to draw someone upside down. Today's daily art page said to find a picture of someone, turn it upside down, and draw it saying that way you'd draw shapes instead of a preconceived view of what a person is supposed to look like. I did it. It doesn't look all that much like the picture but it's a better face than I'd be able to draw right side up so I guess it's a success.

 

The next figure in the 3-D book was Jolly Tamales. These look suspiciously like the Twinkie people or hot dog people from the Draw Squad book. They were fun and easy to draw.

 

Then I pulled out the 10-Step Nature book and turned to the next page which was clover. I was sure that I'd suck at the putzy flower heads but I actually liked drawing them and I like the way the coloring turned out. Colored pencils for the win!

 

Last night OJ asked me to bring some yellow fabric to his house because he wanted to make a Knuffle Bunny which is a character in one of the books I gave him for his birthday. He and I drew the Bunny and I promised to see if I couldn't make one. I had some yellow fleece so I drew one, cut it out, and sewed it together. This is not a triumph of the sewing art but it's way better than a paper and staples version that he tried. It's kind of ugly and goofy looking, I hope he likes it. Part of me says it's good enough and part of me wants to go find a pattern, buy fabric, and make a better one. *sigh* I wonder which part will win.

 

Today's toss was a small stack of patterns that I sorted out of my files, things I will never sew again.

I went to the Dollar Tree today and discovered that it's now the $1.25 Tree. They've upped their prices by a quarter. I have to say that I'm not surprised. I needed some spray bottles for my watercolor class and found a few other items too, of course.  Then I went to the grocery for salsa and chips to take to knitting on Thursday night and the last ingredient that I need to make more WW Hot Chocolate Mix. It's been so darned cold this Spring that I've been drinking the stuff every couple days. It's great when I get chilled and only 2 points per serving. What a bargain.

--Barbara