No Ice

It was spitting little snowflakes when I went to the hairdresser this morning, not freezing drizzle. Whew. When I got up I opened the garage door and spread a bit of salt on the top of the driveway just in case it decided to ice up while I was gone. It didn't but I was ready. And we haven't gotten the 1-2 inches of snow they threatened us with either. It stayed just above freezing so stuff kind of melted a little.

I painted the next lesson video this afternoon. I was supposed to use gouache but decided to use watercolor instead. I think it turned out okay. You can barely see the white-ish flowers with the yellow brown centers in the middle and at the bottom but in person they're kind of visible. In some lights. At certain angles.

I got an email from the WI Department of Revenue billing me for my business license which also mentioned paying Sales & Use Tax which I didn't know about last year so I ended up paying it late and a penalty so I sat down and totaled up my sales and purchases and filled in the online form and got it all taken care of before the due date. There are no photos.

In the evening I sat down to watch back-to-back episodes of Maine Cabin Masters (all reruns) and knitted on the second Alpaca Mitten. I finished it except for weaving in some of the ends. I'll do that when I get back.

Speaking of going away and getting back, I worked on packing better today and figuring out how to take my little knitting bag on the plane with me. I dug out a cross-body pack I bought in Bozeman, MT a few years back and it'll hold my knitting, some dried apple slices for a snack, and my N95 masks.

I'm not taking my laptop along so there will be no blogging until I return. I'll miss you.

--Barbara

An Interesting Sunday

There wasn't an in-town football game today (it's tomorrow night) so DS finally had time to come over this afternoon with his old-but-mighty sewing machine to make a gift for his beloved. I have no pictures of this event because it's a secret but we spent an enjoyable and productive few hours of measuring, cutting, pressing, and stitching. I was just the advisor, he did the work. It was so special to spend time working on a project together.

This is the first pair of the flock of Sparrows that came around this morning. They didn't waste much time emptying the feeder over the last couple days so there wasn't so much for them to throw down to the waiting horde on the ground.

While I waited for DS to arrive I started the day's art project. It's drawing with markers and fine liner pen. She calls it flower doodles. I think they turned out pretty well.

I worked on the second mitten this afternoon and evening. I'm at the decreases for the mitten top. Then I'll pick up the thumb stitches and knit those, weave in the tails and it'll be finished. I probably could have knitted the six rounds of the top before coming back here but my eyes and hands got tired so I quit for the night.

They're talking about freezing drizzle tomorrow and I have a 10am haircut across town. I hope they're wrong about the freezing part. Snow I could handle but I'm afraid of ice. Wish me luck.

--Barbara

Just One

Today could have gone either way. Either people would be eager to find a gift for someone or they wouldn't be. Turned out people weren't looking for books, that's for sure. I sold one book, another of the authors sold three, and the other two didn't sell any. It was a long, disheartening day. But I said when I started selling at the market that my goal would be to sell one book which would pay for the booth for the day so I met my goal today. It's difficult to tell in this picture but my hat is a green felt Christmas tree with glitter pompoms on it and a yellow felt star on top. It was comfy and festive.

A Cardinal visited the platform feeder this morning before I went off to the market. It posed nicely and then flew away.

The video today was to paint "ugly birds." That's what she said and then we did this. I don't think the birds are ugly. I like the gray and brown watercolor that we started with, then we used a black brush pen to roughly outline them, then used colored pencils to "flesh" them out. I like the way they turned out.

And before coming back here I drew a gratitude page. I took a shower when I got home to wash off the grease smell; that was nice. Now I have a pile of clothes in the corner of my bedroom that smell a little like french fries. I think I should throw them down the chute. I'll go do that right now. There, that's better.

That's it. I thought more about packing, what to take, what I might need. It's been so long since I've flown that I'm a little nervous about it but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Oh, remember last week I ordered new bookmarks and business cards and I selected a shipping option that would deliver them after I got back on the 30th? Well, I got an email the other day and the business cards are coming on Tuesday and the bookmarks are coming on Thursday. Both of those days are before the 30th. Grr. Luckily I can ask my neighbor to come over and nab the boxes and just hold onto them until I get back. Just when you think you have things figured out life slaps you in the face.

--Barbara

I Moved the Snow

I didn't hurry out to blow the 5" of snow off the driveway. I waited until the plow had been by so I didn't have to go out twice. It didn't take long and it wasn't too hard. The snow wasn't as wet as they'd said it would be so it was easy to snowblow and it wasn't too windy so it only blew back on me a little when I was downwind.

As I predicted there was a flock of Sparrows under and on the round feeder when I opened the drapes this morning. You can see them much more clearly on the white snow. They kind of blend in with the brownish, greenish grass and birdseed.

It's hard to tell but this is a nice Red-bellied Woodpecker that visited the round feeder right after all of the Sparrows flew away. It was too shady to really see his beautiful red head and striped wings and I couldn't use the flash because it would have glared on the glass. Trust me, it's a Woodpecker.

The second last bud on the Christmas cactus is blooming. There's one more pretty small bud that looks like it might open into a flower but I'm not holding my breath. Too often buds that size shrivel up and drop off.

The next video in From Beginner to Full Sketchbook was what she called a line landscape. We used watered down gouache and just made lines with a pretty big brush across the taped rectangle. Once it was all dry then we used markers and colored pencils to add the details. I kind of like it.

Before Friday Night Knitting I cast on the cuff of the second Alpaca Mitten and knitted the first couple rounds when I have to pay the most attention then I could knit the cuff and start the thumb gusset during FNK. I'm almost done with the gusset stitches. Three more rounds and it'll be time to put those stitches on waste yarn and get on with knitting the hand of the mitten. I won't be taking it along to KY with me because, well, because it's not something I can knit without having the pattern in front of me and the pattern's on my iPad and I'm not taking that along either. I'll take along a dishcloth project just in case I have some knitting time.

I even managed to draw a gratitude journal page for today. It's only three items but the second one is such a big grateful item that it deserves its own page all alone. It would have taken me at least an hour to shovel the driveway by hand and I did it with the snowblower in less than half that.

Time to hit the hay. Tomorrow's the last Market on Military before Christmas so I have to be there bright eyed and bushy tailed before the doors open at 9am. I usually get there around 8:30am so I have plenty of time to set up my display. I hope people are shopping for last minute gifts and some of them choose books. Fingers crossed.

--Barbara

It Snowed Almost All Day

I thought about going out to refill the birdfeeders when it started snowing around lunchtime but didn't manage to get out there until it had been snowing most of the day. I brought up my big clunky men's snow boots, got my coat on, and my winter-filling-the-feeders gloves and got out there. Even though it was pretty late in the afternoon when I filled them a couple birds showed up almost right away. I'm sure there'll be a crowd in the morning when I open the drapes. You can see the path I tromped in the snow walking up to refill the cob corn behind the feeders.

But before it started snowing I happened to notice a Nuthatch on the birdbath. They hardly ever land there and they for sure don't stay long enough for me to take three pictures. None of them are perfectly sharp but this one is the best of the three. I like seeing Nuthatches and I don't know why. I guess I like their streamlined shape and their focus when they're digging in the feeder for what they want.

In between doing loads of laundry and talking to my brother TW on his new flip phone, I painted, marker-ed, and colored pencil-ed this picture of lemons. She drew, painted, marker-ed, and colored pencil-ed figs but I like lemons. They're a shape that I'm familiar with and I like yellow so that's what I did. See? I don't have to exactly copy what the teacher does all the time. I have my moments of creativity. Some days.

I enjoyed watching this squirrel digging around in the snow looking for seeds and seeing the snow collecting on its fur.

This evening I finished the thumb of the first Alpaca Mitten while I watched Bette Midler in Gypsy on Prime. It was the TV version and I didn't recognize the young girl who played Louise but it was pretty good and I got to sing along on all the songs that I knew. I got so distracted that I didn't manage to cast on the next mitten. I'll do that tomorrow night at Friday Night Knitting... tomorrow IS Friday, right?

 

Just before I came back here I looked out the front door to see if it was still snowing. It was and I thought it looked peaceful out there all covered in white so I thought you'd like to see it too. Nobody's shoveled or plowed yet so it looks nice and clean. I wonder if it's good snowman snow.

Tomorrow morning I get to go out and shovel or snowblow the snow off the driveway. I'm sure the plow will come by and make a drift at the ends of the driveways that I'll have to move too. 

Like I said, I did laundry today. Three big loads. I like to save up until I have nice size loads, until I'm running out of either socks or undies. This time it's socks. That means I'll have to fold soon too.

I brought up a medium-size suitcase and have been thinking about what clothes to pack. Maybe I should make a packing list.

--Barbara

A New Place to Have a Beer

I stopped at Zambaldi Beer this morning to return the howlers (half-gallon beer bottles) from last week's knitting night and found DS rigging an extension cord to one of the igloos they've put on their patio. They were given two of these clear igloos, bought some comfy furniture on FB Marketplace, and are getting electric blankets (because the fire marshal says no space heaters) to keep people warm so that their patio gets used in the winter.

I saw a trio of House Finches flitting around the platform feeder and took their picture. It wasn't until I cropped the photo that I noticed the giant Mourning Dove sitting on the roof of the feeder.

I had another eye appointment today because yesterday's eye doc didn't check my vision he just checks my eye health so if I want new glasses (which I do) I had to make an appointment with an optometrist. I had a hard time picking out which frames I wanted--red or multicolored--so I picked both when I found out I got a nice discount if I bought 2 pairs. As usual, I asked that my bifocals be as high on the lenses as possible and it seems like for once that happened. I'm wearing the multicolored ones and I can see better without craning my neck.

This afternoon when I got home from my errands and appointments I spotted this male Downy Woodpecker on the suet cakes. I hope all of the birds have eaten their fill today because they're predicting a major snowstorm tomorrow that's supposed to bring 6" of wet, heavy snow. Ugh. I will be so grateful that I have a snowblower when it comes time to move the stuff.

The next video in the art course started with a page of tree blobs. She had us use markers to make shapeless blobs on the paper and then use a thin black marker to turn the blobs into trees. Not bad. "Pause" is my favorite button on the iPad.

Then the second half of the video was a page of monochromatic flowers and leaves with gouache paint, which is an opaque water soluble paint. She said to thin it at first with a lot of water and paint more floral and leaf shapes, then once they were dry to come back with a smaller brush and darker paint to make more details. It turned out okay. I'm not such a fan of blue and I suppose I could have used red but I was too chicken to stray from her color palette.

Tonight after supper I finished the hand of the first Alpaca Mitten. I put the thumb stitches back on the needles and will work on knitting the thumb tomorrow night. That way I'll have the second one all ready to knit on when Friday Night Knitting rolls around.

I wasn't the only one running around doing errands, having appointments, and getting gas today. A lot of people, especially people my age, were out and about so we can stay home tomorrow and not drive in the snow as it's coming down like crazy. It's supposed to start snowing late tonight and continue all day until Friday morning. Like I said, I'm grateful for the snowblower or I will be on Friday when it's time to move the darned stuff. I know that LC and OJ will be thrilled that we've got snow because they love to play in it, build snowmen, and ski but I'm so over snow.

I haven't been doing any writing this week. I finished rereading the manuscript on the Kindle and am letting it marinate until after the holidays. I sat down the other day to try writing a Seaview Christmas story (for next year), got about a page into it, and stalled out completely. Lots more thinking needs to happen.

--Barbara

I Almost Got It

I looked up this morning to see a squirrel balanced on top of the crook with the suet nuggets feeder just looking around so I decided to take its picture. I picked up the camera, turned it on, removed the lens cap, and focused. Just as I pressed the shutter button the little rascal decided to run down the crook so you get to look at a picture of a squirrel belly instead.

The next video in the Total Beginner to Full Sketchbook course was about patterns. I think I'm supposed to be doing these on the watercolor sketchbook pages instead of the vellum drawing pages because some of the markers bleed through the vellum paper. I confess I didn't make my patterns as big as hers. I am not enamored of this kind of art and for some reason I'm feeling like I'm backsliding instead of getting better.

Almost at the end of the video she switched to something she called Icons & Logos. She had us draw a simple shape that communicates the idea, like the swooping V for a bird or a heart for love. It was okay. I pre-watched the next video and it's another painting one. I'll give that one a try tomorrow. Or maybe Thursday when we're supposed to have a snowstorm.

I sat watching Jeopardy! after supper (and knew Final Jeopardy) and Midsomer Murders on PBS while knitting on the Alpaca Mitten #1. It says to knit even for 4" for the hand of the mitten and then start the top decreases. I'll have to try it on to make sure that it'll be long enough. Once that's done I'll knit the thumb. And then have to make another one--or three.

DS texted me before the crack of dawn but I didn't get it because Do Not Disturb is on until 7 but he called me around 8:30 to make sure I saw it because today was LC and OJ's winter concert at school. The concert was at 8:15 and 1:15. Well, I'd already missed the morning one and I had an eye doc appointment at 2:10 so I managed to sneak in part of the concert and still make my appointment. He promised that next time he'd let me know more than 6 hours ahead so I could make sure my schedule is clear. I only got to hear one song from LC's grade and I knew that she had a big part in the last song. DS promised to record it for me.

Time is whizzing by! I need to start packing.

I listened to Whoopi Goldberg's memoir, Bits and Pieces, last week and really enjoyed it. It's about growing up in NY and her mom and brother. There's a little bit about her career but it's mostly about her relationship with her mom. She reads it herself and I liked it.

--Barbara