54 Degrees!

In Wisconsin! In January! It isn't going to last long. They're talking about 38 for a high tomorrow and snow on the weekend but today was amazing. I saved some errands for this afternoon when it was the warmest so I had to throw on a fleece vest and head outside. I just went to Michaels to spend an expiring $5 voucher (bought a couple sketchbooks) and then to Office Depot to drop off the bag of year-end receipts to be shredded but I was glad to be out breathing air that didn't freeze my lungs.

 

The Red-bellied Woodpecker showed up at the round feeder this morning and stayed just long enough for a picture. I was lucky that a Sparrow landed on a perch that made the feeder spin a little farther so the Red-bellied came into view. See? It has a peanut in its beak. Snap! Gotcha.

 

A Cardinal landed on the platform feeder and spent quite a bit of time prospecting for just the right seeds to eat. He hopped around from side to side, in and out of the sunshine, until he flew away. You can see by the angle of the feeder that it was still a little windy. As soon as he was gone a House Finch landed on the feeder but in deep shade so all that showed in the picture was a silhouette.

 

I spent some time re-republishing the paperback copy of Horizon because when I republished the eBook yesterday KDP told me that there were two typos and it let me fix them. Not so when I went to republish the paperback but I was stuck in the process so I republished it with the typos, but as soon as it was approved, I went back in, fixed the booboos, and re-republished it so now it's typo-free. As far as I can tell. I really enjoyed revisiting the story when I went through it last week. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The flower of today's watercolor is a Hibiscus. I wish I'd painted the petals a little higher on the paper so that the lower petals weren't squished against the stem but I like the colors, I like the leaves, and I'm not too unhappy with the way it turned out.

I drew today's gratitude journal page after supper. What I was most grateful for was 54 degrees!

While watching TV I added a few rounds to the Deep Sea 2 Hat. I've got about 6' of yarn left from the first, partial skein but I've got another skein in readiness. I know I have leftovers of other colors of this same yarn so maybe I can make one hat out of all of those leftovers. That'd be kind of cool looking, I think.

I attended a webinar about Book Launches and how to be better at them. He talked a lot about building your email list and Advanced Reader Copies and list swaps. I know what those words mean but I'm not at all sure how to implement them. Fortunately I'll get a recording of it so I can watch again and I've got KM my assistant to ask questions of. I know I have to get better at posting on Facebook and Instagram so that I stay in front of people who follow me. KM is helping me with that. There's so much more to this author thing than just writing books. That's the part I know how to do, the rest of it escapes me.

Also since I got this new laptop and downloaded the printer driver I've found a little pile of printed sheets that I didn't make when I come into the room. It's happened twice now so I turned off the printer and will turn it on when I need it but it's kind of creeping me out.

--Barbara