Standoff

There I was watching the squirrel in the feeder when it started making a weird grunting sound. Turned out there was another squirrel perched on top of a patio chair looking like it wanted to leap over to the feeder. The squirrel in the feeder was letting the other one know that the feeder was its turf. The second squirrel faced off for a few minutes and then jumped down and scampered away. 

 

The next items in Drawing Cute were a Guitar & Violin. Those weren't as easy to draw as I thought they'd be, especially the long straight lines of the strings. I confess I used a ruler to draw them with a fineliner pen because my pencil lines were all over the place. Maybe I need to find something else to draw. I'm not very inspired by these things. Or maybe it's just this section of the book? 

 

I sat down before lunch to write. Today I gave Rose her first grandchild and her regrets at not being closer to hold it. But she has a plan. She's put out the word that she's available to hold and rock fussy babies and figures she'll have lots of takers. I managed 1,494 words which means I'm over 40k words for the challenge. Fewer than 10k words to go. (Not that the story will be finished at 50k, of course, but it's a goal.) Woohoo! This is my character notebook which is so handy for reminding me of people's names, especially people who've been in earlier Seaview Series books.

 

I even made myself draw a gratitude journal page today. The first item is a weather report. It isn't that I was grateful for an overcast day but I couldn't think of many things to put on the page so the clouds got included. I should have put on that I finished an audiobook but I didn't think of that until just now.

 

While I was writing this morning my computer chimed and I had a new message on FB Messenger. It was from a friend of a friend. My friend had given her friend my first two Seaview books and she really liked them That made me feel great but now I wonder if it wasn't a scammer. Man, I hate being so suspicious but I get two or more fake complimentary emails a day offering to help advertise my book or have their book club read my book if only I'd pay them to do it. I've already fallen for that once and now I'm skittish about it.

I also had a webinar about the Amazon Ad changes for 2026. There was a bit of good info at the beginning of the hour and then a very long, very insistent plea to get you to add a year to your ad school membership for a very good price. He went on and on about what you get and how much he enjoys helping us and I finally bailed. Info I want, commercials I don't need.

--Barbara 

I Might Have a Problem

I went to the grocery this afternoon for ingredients to make onion bread for Thanksgiving and I might have gone into the makeup aisle and I might have bought two more lipsticks. For someone who hasn't bought makeup in 25 years I don't seem to be able to stop. I think this might be the end of my buying spree. I haven't been thrilled with my lipstick choices. They've all been not red enough. I don't want a real deep red but a reddish rather than coral shade. I think these may be it. They'd better be, that stuff isn't cheap.

 

When I opened the drapes over the patio door this morning something was staring at me. The squirrel was in the square green feeder, propping up the lid, and staring right at the patio door. It didn't scamper off immediately and I didn't chase it. It was still really frosty out there so I wasn't going to go out to chase it away.

 

I was late to sit down to write this morning and only had a little over an hour before I had to stop for lunch and then haul in the trash and recycle bins before time to leave for the school run. I made it to 1417 words in that time and when I got home I tried to pick up and add more but not much happened so I quit. I'm up to 39,869 words so far so if I'm short some days I'm not worried. There are eleven days until the end of the month and I need to write only 10,131 words to meet the goal. Woo!

 

The next sports things to draw were Croquet and Darts. I lost my way a little drawing the circles for the dart board but as my friend, BF, says it's not a graded course. I think they look okay.

 

After supper I sat down to watch Jeopardy! (didn't get the Final, it was Chewbaca) then I knitted a few rounds on the Landscapes Leftovers Hat. I went downstairs to see if I could find any more Landscapes leftovers to add to the hat since I'm nervous about having enough yarn, but couldn't find any more. I weighed the last hat I made with that yarn and it weighs less than the yarn I'm working with so I should have enough. I know I'll be playing yarn chicken at the top of the hat. Fingers crossed.

When I sat down to write a check and address an envelope to the lawn mowing guys, I heard a loud leaf blower outside. It was them and it was getting dark, really dark. I went out to clip the envelope to the mailbox and he was right there and I asked if he'd get done before dark and he said, "Maybe." Well, I was on the inside where it was light and he was on the outside and I sure hope he could see out there better than I could see him. If I'd tried to take a picture, the frame would have been black with an orange blur when the mower went by. I was glad for the streetlight on the corner of my yard and for the motion detector lights on the front and back. On the bill, I discovered that I'm paying extra for leaf collection but I don't care. I am so happy that I don't have to deal with raking. My hamstring is still not 100% and I don't want to risk the progress I've made by stepping in a hole in the yard again.

--Barbara 

Worms

I went over to Michaels this morning and found some yarn that I thought might be like the yarn of the original fidget worm I bought on Saturday. It kind of is. I think it's thicker than the purple stuff but it was the closest I found. I bought some fiberfill too. It's not as nice as I thought it'd be. It's kind of scratchy. I crocheted a couple worms tonight. I forgot about eyes in the first one so it's a blind worm and I didn't put any fiberfill in so it's kind of flat. The second one has a single eye because the ones I have are too big for the project so it's a cyclops. I managed to shove in some fiberfill but it's kind of bunched up in the middle. I'll keep working on it. I won't run out of bendy hair clips for a while.

 

The flock of Sparrows was all over the feeders this afternoon at lunchtime. They were on all the feeders and a bunch of them were on the ground too. I'm guessing the squirrel tosses out seed when it's in there so the birds reap the rewards.

 

On the next page of Drawing Cute were Badminton & Hopscotch. I was disappointed in myself when I drew the badminton racquet. Evidently I've forgotten how to draw a circle. Today mine's all wonky.

 

I passed the morning playing with my ring light and tripod. Here's a picture of the box. I set it up in here with my desk as the background and practiced making videos about The Seaview. I even put on makeup! Most of the videos are pretty darned terrible and I don't know how to put text on them which it seems most of the author videos have. I'll keep practicing.

 

Words were hard to come by this afternoon. I didn't have a clear idea of what to write so I just blabbered along for 1,690 words in over three hours. I wonder if they make any sense.

--Barbara 

Mostly Writing Stuff

That's what I did today. Mostly writing stuff. I spent the morning after my shower working on today's writing goal. I hit 1,620 words before I ran out of words and ideas so that's where I stopped for the day. By then it was lunchtime anyway.

 

The squirrel in the feeder didn't notice the Sparrow on the perch sharing the square green feeder with it. I was hoping a whole flock of birds would come and swarm over the feeder but this little lone Sparrow was the only one.

 

At the Holiday Extravaganza on Saturday, the booth across from us had all sorts of crocheted softies. Very cute. Very popular. One thing she had was a basket of what she called fidget worms. They looked interesting so I bought one figuring that LC and I could work out the pattern and make some. The cool thing is they have those bendy hair clips in them for the fidget element. I have a bunch of those so I got one out and, starting with the tater tot monster pattern, tried making one. First, my acrylic worsted weight yarn is too thin and makes a too stiff worm. Second, the fiberfill I have is little balls instead of the regular stuff I could wrap around the hair clip. I finished one but want to go to Michaels to see if they have the right yarn and the kind of fiberfill I need. Maybe tomorrow. Besides I have a $5 voucher that's burning a hole in my pocket.

 

I did something crazy yesterday. I went on Amazon and bought a ring light with a "selfie" stand because I want to explore making TikTok videos about writing and my books. It may not work out and I might be terrible at it but it's worth trying and the light and tripod weren't very expensive. I can use better lighting for Zooms anyway.

I had an afternoon critique Zoom with cda. She liked my short story and wanted more. I liked her poems and only had a few comments.

The only other thing I did was the after school run. I love doing it because I get to spend a few minutes with LC and OJ. LC gave me some cookies they're trying out for a cookie-off with friends. LC made peppermint brownie cookies. I'm saving that one for tomorrow. She also gave me two Moose Farts no-bake cookies that DS made. They were okay, a little crumbly. Despite their awesome name, I don't think they'd win any prizes. They sure are a fun family.

While I was driving around this afternoon I noticed that the city had brined the streets. When snow or ice is expected they spray some kind of brine on the streets to keep them clearer. I guess we're near where a rain and snow mix is supposed to pass through tomorrow. I hope it misses us. 

--Barbara 

It Was Sunday All Day

Not Monday like I thought it was when I was writing in my Bullet Journal this morning. But I figured it out soon enough. I was happy to see this pair of Mourning Doves on the birdbath. I like seeing these birds, I like their cooing, and the crazy sound they make when they get scared away. 

 

And the squirrel was back in the feeder. At first all I could see was the end of its bushy tail, but then it turned around and peeked out. I can't figure out if it's looking for marauders or just having a breather between bites. Whatever the reason, it's making inroads in the seed. I only have enough seed for a couple more feeder fills and then I'll be down to just the suets for the winter.

 

First thing first today, I sat down (once CBS Sunday Morning was over) to write today's words. It took me longer than my usual two hours today, but I wrote 1,715 words. Then I copied and pasted all of the days' pages into one document because I seem to be writing in chronological order this time instead of bouncing around all over the place. It was a good thing I did that because my total word count was almost 3,000 words more than what I had posted on my Novel November page. I scrolled through the postings and discovered that I'd forgotten to log two days' worth of words. Since I'm writing every day I want credit for it, dang it.

 

After finishing my writing work, I drew the next two figures out of Drawing Cute--Fishing & Kayak. I like the way they turned out. I think the light shading behind each figure makes them look better than if they're just on plain paper.

 

I got out my favorite pen (thanks, SND!) and signed, "Autographed Copy" stickered, and bookmarked the copies of Christmas at Seaview that came yesterday. It's a Pilot Precise V7RT pen with black ink and it just glides across the paper. Love it! I use a blue ink one for my list of characters in my little notebook. It's so handy to have that list. The character lists of the previous two Seaview Series books are in there too so I can page back to find names I can't remember. Very handy.

 

I even made time to draw a gratitude journal page after supper. I should do that more often. I don't know why I don't.

 

This afternoon I carried up last week's clean laundry. I had to leave it downstairs because a whole bunch of socks were on the line and I wanted them to be dry before I hauled it all up. I'll fold it--eventually.

I made a phone call this morning to find out what was keeping Aunt B from commenting on the blog the last few days. I was having all sorts of dire imaginings. Turns out her husband had surgery so she's been with him in the hospital but hopes to be home soon. Whew.

--Barbara 

Not So Extravaganza

I was really kind of nervous about today. After all 15,000 people had said on Facebook that they were interested in going to the Holiday Extravaganza. GBB and I sorta panicked about having enough books to sell. We needn't have worried. I took both of my rolling backpacks crammed with books including all of the copies of Christmas at Seaview I had. I was sure I'd sell out of my $10 Christmas novella. This was a Christmas show, after all. Most of the people were definitely not looking for books. I sold 8 books which was not enough to recoup my investment in the show fee. That's okay, though. All of these fairs and vendor shows this fall are an experiment to see if it's worthwhile to do again. Maybe yes, maybe no. Depends on the day. I did get smart and wore my favorite cotton cardigan instead of my red cashmere sweater. I would have roasted in the cashmere.

 

When I pulled into the driveway after the show, there was a carton on my front porch. It was the 20 copies of Christmas at Seaview that I'd ordered on October 28th. They weren't supposed to arrive until Monday so that was good but I was fretting about them not being here for today's sale. Turns out I needn't have worried.

 

As I made my lunch this morning, I saw that the Christmas cactus has a bud, and not a small one either. How'd that sneak up on me?

 

After supper I went over to the grocery because I was out of bananas and wanted a new color of lipstick. So I went out in the dark evening and got a terrific parking place and the store wasn't crowded. I might have enjoyed it if I wasn't so darned tired.

And after putting all the groceries away (because I couldn't just buy bananas and lipstick) I came back here to write some words for the day. I'm happy to report that I managed to eke out 277 words, one whole page, of words before I was just too tired to go on. I had to write at least a little today so I wouldn't break my streak in Novel November. Those few words took me over 30,000 words for the challenge. Yippee!

--Barbara 

Set Up

And ready as I'll ever be. I'm so glad we went this afternoon to set up for tomorrow's Holiday Extravaganza out at the Oneida Hotel & Casino complex. We found our table and got our things arranged. I'm going to take my poster tomorrow and try to attach it to the tablecloth like GBB's hubby J did today. I knew there wouldn't be room for it on the table tomorrow so I left it home but J managed to clip hers to the table so I'll try in the morning.

 

I had active squirrels today. First one climbed up the crook with the cob corn feeders on it and dangled there picking off kernels. It doesn't take them long to denude the cobs. Not long at all.

 

Then one leapt from a patio chair to the square green feeder and made its way inside for a snack. First it hung outside for a minute or so before turning around and digging for peanut halves.

 

At breakfast, the Red-bellied Woodpecker visited the suet nuggets but was just visible on the side. If it had moved just a bit to its right I could have gotten a better picture.

 

Today's offerings from Drawing Cute are a Skateboard and Tennis Ball & Racquet. They're okay. Sports stuff isn't my favorite subject. I'd do better with food or flowers but, like I said, they're okay.

 

At Friday Night Knitting I finished the Pastel Meadow Hat. It's a little short. I should have knitted a few more rounds on the hat body before starting the crown decreases.

 

Then I cast on the Landscapes Leftovers hat. I'm making it with small amounts of Landscapes yarn that's left over from various hat projects. I might need to dig around in the used yarns bin to find more. Maybe. I hope there's more somewhere.

 

I got busy writing this morning after breakfast and my shower. I had a lot on my schedule today so I had to squeeze writing in between showering and Women's Spirit group Zoom at 1 o'clock. From 10:30 to noon, I wrote 1,765 words. And I wrote a character I love to hate that I'm really proud of. *pats self on back*

I just checked the predicted weather for tomorrow and it'll be 59 for a high so I should probably change what I plan to wear. Not a cashmere sweater and long sleeved tee, but a long sleeved tee and a cotton cardi. Much better. Also there's a snowflake on the long range prediction for Tuesday. Ack! Guess that means I should swap the lawnmower for the snowblower on Sunday. 

--Barbara