All the Birds Came

This morning I looked out the patio door and there were all the birds! Sparrows on the square green feeder, Mourning Doves on the crook, a Goldfinch not changing color yet on another crook ...

 

and a Downy Woodpecker on the suet nuggets. It kept looking over at the square green feeder but there were Sparrows on both perches so it stayed on the nuggets. 

 

I didn't feel like doing much today but knew I'd feel guilty if I didn't do something so I spent some time sorting through watercolors and made a stack of them to cut up. After lunch and Zooming with some women friends, I grabbed about half the stack and started cutting. I got smart and carried the cutter into the kitchen to use the table which is a better height than the bed where I previously did the cutting. I've been sending out cards regularly, sent five of them this week, so inventory is running low. 

 

When I was done cutting I had a nice, big stack of rectangles. There were so many that it took two pictures to get the spread in but Blogger won't let me post two pictures side by side so you only get to see one.

 

Then I hauled out the embosser and ran all 40 of them through. At first, I tried to choose appropriate designs for the paintings but eventually just chose at random and cranked them through. I'll glue them onto cards tomorrow. I use a heavy cookbook to press them under while they dry so they glue to the cards and stay flat.

 

At Friday Night Knitting, I kept knitting on the Vienne cardigan back. In three hours I knitted 2 1/2 inches on my way to 11 1/2 inches. I reread the pattern instructions and it's very different. You knit the back, then put the stitches on a holder. Next you pick up stitches on the cast on edge and knit the fronts the other direction, so the back ends up upside down. We'll see how that works once I get there. All stockinette stitch rolls up so I had to hold the cast on edge so you can see how much I knitted.

 

I wasted a bunch of time scrolling on Facebook. I have to stop that. It's becoming a habit that I need to break.

I'm still doing battle with the business card template and my business card blanks. Evidently the blanks aren't created equal because they didn't print correctly, so I looked up the Avery number on the template and ordered some from Amazon. The ones I printed today have the top line above the perforations so the "Date" line is on the scrap edge on the top two, on the bottom on the middle six, and not on the bottom two. Why is this so hard? All I want is a nice, tidy card to use to tally sales. Is that too much to ask? Evidently.

--Barbara 

Yes, It Is

I knitted some more on the Vienne sweater swatch tonight, got within one stitch of gauge and
called it good. So I pulled out the swatch and cast on 94 stitches, putting markers where the pattern told me to, and knitted the first row. Only 11 1/2" more to go on the sweater back! This might be wearable next winter. Maybe. I'm a slow knitter but right now I want to work on it so I'll keep on keeping on.

 

Today's flower is Sweet William. It's another one with a lot of florets with lots of petals. It turned out okay, I think. I like the color of the leaves and stem and the tomato red of the petals with their white edges.

 

This afternoon I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to print some sales tally cards using a Word template. Unfortunately they don't have a blank one you can fill in, they only have preprinted ones you can sort of change but you can't delete the printing in the box and replace it with what you (or I) want. After trying to set margins and make a text box that's the right size, and printing my effort only to find it wasn't right (see attached photo), I got frustrated. Then I got smart. I googled "business card template" and found a downloadable one on the Avery site. Hooray! All I needed was the boxes the correct size so I could fill them in with my book titles so I can keep track of what I sell when. 

 

Today I went to lunch at a new-ish hotel restaurant with two former neighbors. DIL1 is the meeting and catering manager there and I was hoping to get to see her for a minute but she was busy with a 100-person meeting so I didn't try to find her. The food was good and the talk was constant. I think one of them might come to the watercolor class at The Clearing with me and the other one bought a copy of Anneke's Legacy. A couple of hours later I got a text from her with a picture of her husband reading the book, saying she might have to wait her turn. That might be the first picture I've seen of someone reading one of my books. Thrilling.

No birds or squirrels today. I miss them when I don't see them. Leaves have been blowing across the patio snow and I see them out of the corner of my eye and nearly give myself whiplash turning my head to see if it's a bird. No luck lately. Maybe tomorrow. It's supposed to get up to near 50 degrees tomorrow--and then cool back down over the weekend to "normal" temps, which means cold.

--Barbara 

Is the Third Time the Charm?

I switched needles on the swatch three times tonight. I went from size US10 needles to size US 10.5 to size US 11 needles while I swatched. I'd knit an inch or so then measure how many stitches in four inches. Gauge is 12 stitches per inch. I'm not there yet. But I'm close.

 

This morning I saw these tracks in the patio snow. I think they're rabbit tracks but the wind blew snow into them and distorted them. I like to think of a bunny hippity-hopping across the smooth new snow. 

 

 I went downstairs for something... oh yeah, a different front door decoration... and carried up my show supplies tote on the way upstairs so I could play with the display decorations for my LAUNCH EVENT on Saturday, March 7 from 10am - 2pm in Sturgeon Bay at OtherWorlds Books & More. I dug out an acrylic book stand so the book is more stable than the adjustable ones I have. Then I tried to figure out how to twine the fairy lights around it so it's "featured." And I got the palm tree out of its box and put together alongside. I think it'll be eye-catching and will draw interested customers. At least, I hope so. The tree alone is worth a look.

 

Today's flower is Forget-Me-Not. It turned out okay. The flowers might be too small for the space but they're a pretty little flower in real life. Forget-Me-Not is an invasive species in the woods of The Clearing in Door County so the volunteers spend hours pulling out vast patches of the pretty blue but non-native flowers.

 

I cut and pasted the next 20-ish pages of manuscript into a new document and sent it off to cda for critique on Monday. I don't have hers yet but I hope it comes soon-ish so I have a couple days to work through it. I like to go through once, let it sit overnight, and then go through again to catch anything I've missed.

 

I do the Wordle every morning and yesterday I barely made it in six guesses. Six is the maximum guesses for success. If you don't get it in six you get a big X for the day. Nobody wants that. Today I skated through with only three guesses. Very rarely I make it in two but I think four is my most frequent score. I always start with the same word. It serves me well most of the time.

--Barbara 

Not A Writing Day

It was a snowy day. Fortunately I completed my errands before the snow squall hit. I knew something was coming because there were brine marks on the streets. It snowed rather enthusiastically for a while and then quit. Even better, my neighbor shoveled off my driveway. I let him put some of their recycling in my bin so I guess that was payback. Whatever it was, I appreciate it.

 

It might not have been a writing day but it was an art day. First I drew the flower of the day, which was a Carnation. I am thrilled at the way it turned out. I was intimidated when I turned the page and saw it because it has so many petals and is complicated. But as with other flowers that made me pause, I took my time and copied what was on the page. I like it. I especially like the red edges on the petals. I think it looks like a real carnation.

 

Then I decided to try my hand at the next watercolor flower in the 31-day flower painting challenge. It was a Rose. Another intimidating flower to paint but again I took my time, watched the video twice, and did my best. Not bad.

 

After supper I ripped out the swatch I knitted last night, mostly because I hadn't cast on enough stitches to get a true measurement. I went down a needle size but realized pretty soon that I'd gone the wrong direction. So I went back to the original needle size and will knit an inch or so until I can estimate how many stitches are in 4" of knitting. If it still isn't right, I guess I'll go up a needle size and try that. 

 

First thing this morning I got online because it was registration day for Life Members of The Clearing. I signed up for watercolor in June and writing in October. I'm having lunch with my former neighbors on Thursday and hope that one or both of them decides to come along in June. That would be fun.

I was supposed to get a haircut today. I went to the salon but my stylist wasn't there. I waited a while, then I called her only to discover that she's in the hospital after having a seizure. Scary! I hope she'll be all right.

Every morning I check the Sales Report on Kindle Direct Publishing. In the last 30 days four eBooks of Christmas at Seaview have sold. It's February. I didn't expect a Christmas novella to sell in February. I also got all excited when an eBook copy of Anneke's Legacy sold until I realized that I was the buyer. Oh well, a sale is a sale, I guess. 

--Barbara 

Blue Sky & Sunshine

That's what we had this afternoon. It was overcast in the morning when these Sparrows showed up at the feeder. They stayed for a little while. You can see by the wing blur that the one on the left was making its escape.

 

There was a Junco on top of a crook too. I've never seen a Junco anywhere but on the ground. They're exclusively ground feeders as far as I know so this one must be a rebel or a daredevil.

 

Here's the shot of blue sky I couldn't resist. It just looks so nice and warm but it isn't. It was probably 24 degrees, this being the heat of the day when I snapped this photo. And it's supposed to snow again in the morning. Ugh.

 

I looked down after I took that sky shot and saw bird prints in the snow that's left on the patio. Then I noticed that there's a couple of what looks like cat prints too. Could the cat I see in summer still be living outside in winter? If it is, it's a tough cat.

 

Today's flower is Peony. I'm pretty pleased with this one. I managed to draw the petals facing the viewer so that they look foreshortened like they're supposed to.

 

After supper I sat down and cast on a few stitches to knit the swatch with the wool and linen yarn I want to knit a cardigan out of. The color is called Tuscan Tan but I think it leans toward a shade of yellow. Oh well, I like yellow too. The swatch is measuring a little off in stitch count. I'm trying to decide if I should go up a needle size. Or would a smaller needle be right? I need to think. Maybe I'll try again.

 

My financial advisor called today because I had a CD come due and she wanted to know what I wanted to do with the money. "Did I need the money?" she asked. "No, not right now," I said. She had some ideas about how to reinvest it and my contribution was to say, "that sounds good," when she laid out what she thought would be best. I'm no financial whiz, in fact I'm kind of a spendthrift, but I'm doing okay and even able to save some each month. It feels good to have an advisor I can trust. Thanks, Durwood!

--Barbara 

The Flowers I'm Drawing Look Like Spring

But outside my windows it looks like this. Snow flurries most of the day. Wind blowing the snow around. I stayed indoors today. When the wind blows the snow around like it did today there's no avoiding getting it in your face and down your neck. Not comfortable. Makes me hunch my shoulders just thinking about it.

 

I spent most of the day getting Anneke's Legacy signed up on ACX (the audiobook arm of Amazon) so that my Producer, TH, and I could get it started. I sent her the manuscript and the character list, and I just tried to upload the cover art onto ACX and it wouldn't load. I don't know what the problem is. I'll try again tomorrow. TH had room on her calendar to slot it in April and have it done by the end of May. Yay! 

 

Today's flower was Pansy. Another spring bloomer. Who am I kidding? There are no flowers that bloom this time of year. I like the way it turned out. I even like the leaves. 

 

Twice this week I got packages in good boxes. You know about good boxes, right? They're the ones that are just the right size and sturdiness so that you can't get rid of them. You have to keep them. Just in case. These went down the hall into the guest room to be ready for tosses when I find them. I haven't been as diligent finding tosses as I should be but I promise to try harder.

 

I'm determined to knit a cardigan sweater for myself. I have many skeins of tan wool and linen yarn that I've had since I restarted crocheting and knitting eons ago and they're starting to nag at me. I found a beautiful sweater pattern but it's just too complicated for knitting with friends. I need something simpler. So I just spent a couple of hours scrolling through the free cardigan patterns on Ravelry (the fiber-lovers website) and found one I think will do. It's plain with no fancy stitches, just a simple sweater. I need to swatch so I'm using the right size needles to get the size sweater I want and not one that's too big or too small. I don't like swatching but I've made one sweater that could have covered a Smart Car so I'll knuckle down and do it.

--Barbara 

Back to Icy

When I opened the drapes over the patio door this morning I wasn't surprised to see that the birdbath was iced over again. It's supposed to be highs in the 20s or 30s but barely above freezing and lows in the teens for the next week.

 

As I started to make my lunch, I noticed this lineup of Mourning Doves on the fence just outside the kitchen window. When I saw them, they were all four hunched up against the cold, but by the time I had the camera ready the one closest to the house had stood up and was stretching its wings. Goofball.

 

I noticed yesterday that the downspout from the corner of the house had blown down the lawn again. There are supposed to be screws holding the bottom part onto the part on the side of the house but, over time, first one and then the other screw has disappeared. I think the pest nerd (that's what they call themselves, really) tripped over it on his last inspection around the house and the last screw got lost. A few weeks ago my knitting pal MW stopped over and advised me to get a threaded rod to put through the screw holes and nuts for the ends. It's been on my mind but I didn't know how big a rod or how I'd cut it to fit so I cast that idea aside. Until this morning, when I thought about cutting out part of a wire hanger, bending one end, and then shoving it through the holes, and bending the other end to hold it in place. So that's what I did. It occurred to me that I'd done a Hank repair. My dad fixed things creatively. I think I take after him. I'm just glad it's fixed.

 

Today's flower was Daffodil. It was easy to draw and color and reminds me that eventually spring will come around again.

 

After the first critique run-through for Monday's Zoom, I spent an hour or so writing the March 1 writing progress email newsletter. It's very brag-y but I'm so excited about the things that happened in February I have to tell about them. My only regret is that I didn't do a special mailing to alert them about the Freebie Friday promo. Missed an opportunity there, didn't I?

I spent some phone time trying to get roommates organized for The Clearing in October. There are a couple people I'd like to room with but don't want to be in the large dorm where there's little room for writing. I think we got it ironed out. October's a long way off but registration is this coming week and places in the Women's Writing Retreat fill up fast.

 --Barbara