Lots Accomplished (Lots of Pictures)

I didn't set out to have a busy day but I had one despite myself. Once I got dressed I went out and mowed the lawn, hosed off the mower, and hosed the cottonwood fluff off of the air conditioner vents. Then I had lunch and took a shower. That should have been enough for a day in Retirementland. But I couldn't stop. I gathered up what I had on hand and shopped for more items so I could make a half-birthday package for my littlest grandchild. I'll mail it on Monday so it gets there in time. 

Then I got out my drawing things and got that done for the day. First I turned to the next page in 365 Days of Drawing to find the assignment was to draw where you like to sit so I drew the table where I sit and draw. I'm especially happy with the way the chair turned out.

 

I heard splashing and looked out to see this quartet of baby Starlings having a bath. They were really enjoying it and I was glad that I'd cleaned the birdbath while I was outside this afternoon.

The next lesson in You Can Draw It In 30 Minutes was clouds. I didn't do very well with this one the last time I went through this eBook so I was a little tentative but I followed the directions and peered closely at the examples and I'm much happier with these clouds. They look a little stormy but his did too so it's okay.

While I was drawing, Investment Cooking was on my mind. I had thought that I'd cram it all into Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday but I have my second book sorting training on Tuesday so I thought I'd better make one of the recipes today. (I want to be done on Tuesday because that's the night I take out the trash and I want to take out all of the raw meat packaging.) Chicken Breasts Pierre is the easiest one, no chopping, just flouring, browning, and simmering. Luckily I remembered to make brown rice so I could get it all portioned out and into the freezer.

Then after supper I thought that I could make the next fastest and easiest recipe--Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls. So I did. It has a moderate amount of chopping, some browning, and then simmering. Now I have one slow cooker meal and one other meal to make for each of the next three days and I'll have 50 suppers in the freezer. Hooray!

My watercolor didn't turn out so great. It's supposed to be spiderwort and the flowers are okay but the leaves and blurry greenery behind them is messy and just wrong. I'll keep trying and I'll get it one of these days.

Here's the blooming spiderwort that was the inspiration, but I used a picture from last year to paint from. Maybe that was the problem.

I think I'll keep the rest of the pictures for tomorrow.

I tossed a handful of CD sleeves that fell off a shelf in the basement when I pulled down a box. Volunteers!

--Barbara