I've Got The Fever

I can't stop working on writing. I tried today, I really did, but every time I finished a drawing or a painting I had to come back here, boot up the laptop, and work on the sequel to The Seaview. I signed up for an online roundtable which is like a critique group so I need something to submit and what better than my newest manuscript. Of course three sessions isn't nearly long enough to submit all that I have (over 72k words or 185 pages) but it'll get me started on a rewrite or point me in a direction to take the story since I suspect that it's all over the place. And I don't have a title yet either.

I got an email from Kindle Direct Publishing this afternoon telling me that the paperback version of Better Than Mom's was live so I went online and bought one. It's supposed to come on Wednesday and I can't wait to get my hands on it. It'll be a few more days before I can order author copies and then it'll take a couple weeks to get them but that's okay, I'm just excited to be able to get a copy right now. I've been smiling all day.

When I opened my sketchbook to a blank page I realized that it has been five days since I drew anything. Horrors! So I buckled down and drew this interesting page from Seuss-isms. The wise man is telling the kid how lucky he is. If I was sitting on a cactus I'd think that the kid on the rock pillar was lucky too.

Today I woke up to big flakes of falling snow. It snowed or rained or sleeted all day and just stopped about half an hour ago. I was sitting on the couch finishing OJ's mitts when I heard a snowblower right outside my door. My neighbor decided that he needed something to do this afternoon so he did his driveway, snowblowed my driveway and plow drift, and then went across the street and cleared that driveway. He must have really been bored! Thanks, LJ, I really appreciate it!

Speaking of OJ's mitts here they are. All I had to do was bind off the top of the second mitt and then knit the thumb ribbing, with a whole yard of yarn leftover. Easy peasy. Now let's hope they fit him and he isn't expecting mittens.

Here's today's Daily Practice, two tiny still life studies painted in preparation for tomorrow's finale painting. Dang it. I'm going to miss this class. I've really enjoyed it and she doesn't have another watercolor class on Creativebug.

Then I tried my hand at the last painting in Intermediate Watercolor. That
wasn't nearly as successful as my tiny studies. There were moments when I thought I was doing all right and then in the end I think it's pretty darned terrible. Oh well, I knew that I didn't qualify as intermediate when I took the class so I'm not surprised. I still enjoyed it and got to try different things. I liked painting the flowers last week.

After all was said and done and my eyes got tired of staring at a manuscript on the computer screen, I sat and watched Maine Cabin Masters for an hour and knitted a few rounds onto the Trekking Sock. I need to add about an inch before starting the heel but I've got the pattern memorized so it goes pretty smoothly.

It's supposed to get below freezing overnight so the thin layer of snow that's on the driveway should be solid as concrete by morning. I won't try to chisel it off. I thought about going out to shovel it earlier but then decided that crunchy snow would be less slick than freezing rain on concrete. I love winter in Wisconsin.

--Barbara