Green!

This morning I leaned out the front door when I was putting out a birthday card for the postman to pick up, looked down and saw... GREEN! Despite the bitter cold we've had and the snow, sleet, and freezing rain that has arrived this last week, look at these hyacinths. They're sprouting. Woohoo!

Not three feet away is a daylily plant and it's sprouting too. Go, lily, go! I hope that we don't have an arctic blast or a polar vortex come screaming in out of the north and freeze these two signs of life. Fingers crossed.

 

The diggers were back behind the neighbor's house this morning. I know that they had a lot of snow to move before they got to the hole they made with the wires running through it. I think that they put some sort of door in the ground so that they could access it more easily. I didn't stick around to watch because I had a snowblower emergency.

 

I went out to clear the driveway and the plow drift and realized that the auger, the blades that feed the snow to the chute that spits it out, only half of it was turning, the other half was freewheeling. Something was broken. So I texted my small engine fixit guy neighbor and he told me that a shear bolt had broken but that was easily fixed. So I chugged up to his house with the snowblower, he took out the remains of the broken bolt, then took out the unbroken one so I had one to show the parts people, and sent me off to the hardware store to get some shear bolts. They had them! And they weren't a zillion dollars! I brought them home, he installed them, and the snowblower works. Whew. And I have two more bolts in the cabinet for when it happens again. He assures me that it will happen again.

 

It was sunny this morning and the House Finches and Sparrows enjoyed breakfast at the feeders. The Cardinals came too but didn't stick around for a photo op.

The Daily Art prompt said to use your fingers as a viewfinder to frame something in your house, something that you wouldn't normally draw and put the focus off center and just draw it. I looked across the table at the sappy sign on the wall and then at the chair in front of it with a bag hanging from it. My eye was drawn to my watercolor sketchbook in front of the chair so I decided to try drawing the chair, bag, and sketchbook. I did it. It turned out way better than I anticipated. Maybe I am improving after all.

Today was the last day of the Daily Practice class I've been taking on Creativebug. We were to take the tiny still life studies that we did yesterday and paint a bigger picture using them as inspiration. This didn't turn out too badly. I'd like to do it again with something bigger as the center focus but all in all I'm happy with it. (Although I think that the leaf at the bottom looks like a pickle.)

Then I paged back in the month's lessons to the first flower painting day. I have eight pages of sketchbook left blank so I thought that I'd just go back and do the things that I really enjoyed the first time around. Here's the ranunculus, a tulip, and a sunflower. I like 'em.

I spent more time this afternoon reading through The Seaview2 and I have to say that it's pretty dull. Maybe it'll perk up in a few pages when the hurricane arrives. I sure hope so. I got an email this afternoon telling me that the roundtable I signed up for is a go so I copied and pasted the first seven pages of that manuscript and sent it "reply all" to the group for Thursday's meeting. I'm nervous and excited. It's been a while since I was in a critique group and I feel like my listening skills have deteriorated. I hope I don't disgrace myself.

--Barbara

I've Got The Fever

I can't stop working on writing. I tried today, I really did, but every time I finished a drawing or a painting I had to come back here, boot up the laptop, and work on the sequel to The Seaview. I signed up for an online roundtable which is like a critique group so I need something to submit and what better than my newest manuscript. Of course three sessions isn't nearly long enough to submit all that I have (over 72k words or 185 pages) but it'll get me started on a rewrite or point me in a direction to take the story since I suspect that it's all over the place. And I don't have a title yet either.

I got an email from Kindle Direct Publishing this afternoon telling me that the paperback version of Better Than Mom's was live so I went online and bought one. It's supposed to come on Wednesday and I can't wait to get my hands on it. It'll be a few more days before I can order author copies and then it'll take a couple weeks to get them but that's okay, I'm just excited to be able to get a copy right now. I've been smiling all day.

When I opened my sketchbook to a blank page I realized that it has been five days since I drew anything. Horrors! So I buckled down and drew this interesting page from Seuss-isms. The wise man is telling the kid how lucky he is. If I was sitting on a cactus I'd think that the kid on the rock pillar was lucky too.

Today I woke up to big flakes of falling snow. It snowed or rained or sleeted all day and just stopped about half an hour ago. I was sitting on the couch finishing OJ's mitts when I heard a snowblower right outside my door. My neighbor decided that he needed something to do this afternoon so he did his driveway, snowblowed my driveway and plow drift, and then went across the street and cleared that driveway. He must have really been bored! Thanks, LJ, I really appreciate it!

Speaking of OJ's mitts here they are. All I had to do was bind off the top of the second mitt and then knit the thumb ribbing, with a whole yard of yarn leftover. Easy peasy. Now let's hope they fit him and he isn't expecting mittens.

Here's today's Daily Practice, two tiny still life studies painted in preparation for tomorrow's finale painting. Dang it. I'm going to miss this class. I've really enjoyed it and she doesn't have another watercolor class on Creativebug.

Then I tried my hand at the last painting in Intermediate Watercolor. That
wasn't nearly as successful as my tiny studies. There were moments when I thought I was doing all right and then in the end I think it's pretty darned terrible. Oh well, I knew that I didn't qualify as intermediate when I took the class so I'm not surprised. I still enjoyed it and got to try different things. I liked painting the flowers last week.

After all was said and done and my eyes got tired of staring at a manuscript on the computer screen, I sat and watched Maine Cabin Masters for an hour and knitted a few rounds onto the Trekking Sock. I need to add about an inch before starting the heel but I've got the pattern memorized so it goes pretty smoothly.

It's supposed to get below freezing overnight so the thin layer of snow that's on the driveway should be solid as concrete by morning. I won't try to chisel it off. I thought about going out to shovel it earlier but then decided that crunchy snow would be less slick than freezing rain on concrete. I love winter in Wisconsin.

--Barbara

Number Three

I've spent the last week working almost exclusively on getting Better Than Mom's whipped into shape for publication. I reread it on Word, I read it aloud to myself over a few days which really taxed my throat, I read it again on Word, then transferred it to Kindle Create where I read it again making minor tweaks each time...

... and finally this evening I crafted a cover on Kindle Cover Creator and hit "publish." The eBook is live now on Amazon and the paperback is pending. They have different covers because the photo I used for the eBook didn't translate well into the design templates for the paperback but that's okay. This is the cover for the paperback but I like them both.

The Cardinal came back to the feeder this morning when I was eating breakfast. He didn't look very happy.

When I opened the curtains this morning there were amazing icicles hanging from the gutter. It was sunny all day yesterday and again today and even though it's only in the mid-20s the sun is warm enough to melt the snow on the edge of the roof and make icicles. No sun predicted for tomorrow. They're saying we're going to have freezing rain and sleet instead. Oh goodie. Guess who's staying home tomorrow.

In the morning I got out the paints and tackled the still life Daily Practice. I like the bright colors and I like the way it turned out. No real artist need worry about competition from me but I sure am having a good time. I'll be sorry when this 30-day Daily Practice class is finished.

Then after lunch, having left the paints out on the table, I opened the new book I got yesterday, Watercolor Flowers the Easy Way, and tried out the first flower which is Agapanthus. It didn't turn out too badly, if I do say so myself, and it gave my eyes a short break from the computer screen and the endless manuscript reading.

This afternoon the doorbell rang and I looked out to see a FedEx driver walking away from the house. I couldn't figure out what he could be delivering but went out and retrieved the box. Inside was a set of Tupperware measuring cups and spoons, and a Minion water bottle (for my littlest grandson) that I ordered online ON JANUARY 1 and it just arrived today. I've been in touch with the Tupperware dealer in California who's account was the one that came up and she's been tracking the package. Seems it went from South Carolina to Canada where it rattled around in Quebec for a while before crossing the border again and finally landing on my porch. Don't think I'll be ordering anything from Tupperware again anytime soon.

I can't wait to get the email from Kindle Direct Publishing saying that my next book is live so I can order some. I wrote the initial manuscript of the novel in 2007 so it's about time to get it published. There's only one manuscript that's older than this one, it's the first writing I ever did, and I don't know if it'll ever see the light of day. I reread it about once a year and still think it has possibilities, so maybe.

--Barbara

Reading To Myself

I don't know how those audiobook narrators do it. I've spent the last day and a half reading Better Than Mom's aloud to myself and my throat is scratchy and I have a dry tickle. Maybe they don't read it all in one go? Anyway, I spent most of today (when I wasn't piloting the snowblower around the driveway and then the plow drift) reading almost 200 pages of manuscript to myself. I have to say that I'm enjoying the story (whew!) but I look forward to being done with it. Only about 20 pages to go. Tomorrow.

I saw a flash of red out the patio door and there was the Cardinal at the platform feeder. If you look at the right side of the roof of the feeder you can see the little icicle that grew there in today's sunshine.

Tonight I met some knitting friends at DM's new house for a lot of snacks, a bowl of soup, and a little knitting. I almost got the top ribbing done on OJ's second mitt, all that's left to do is bind off, then there's just the thumb left and there'll be a pair. Fast!

One of the knitters sells greeting cards and she always has a lot of samples to share. We took turns sorting through a box of cards. I found a few. Thanks, CS!

The only art I did today was a gratitude journal page. It felt weird not to paint or draw but I was laser focused on getting through that manuscript. I'll try to do better tomorrow.

This morning I took the tosses to Goodwill and stopped at Michaels to replace a pen that is running low on ink and found a cool-looking watercolor flowers book that I spent my latest voucher on. The pages of the book are watercolor paper so you can paint right in the book. What an interesting idea!

--Barbara

Sunshine & Red Birds

As dreary as it was yesterday, all overcast and blustery, today was all sunshine and mostly calm winds, a real refreshing change even though the temperature went from the high twenties to a high of nineteen today. When I went out to tackle the plow drift at the end of the driveways it was a balmy ten degrees. Brr. 

 

But the birds were out in force this morning. First a pair of House Finches were on the platform feeder pecking at the safflower seeds.

Then a male Cardinal came and shooed them away. He's such a bully.

While he was there the female Cardinal was on the ground under the round feeder where the Sparrows toss the seed that they don't want.

I took another run at yesterday's Daily Practice still life. I'm happier with the way the cherries turned out but wish that the background was a color rather than just the white of the paper. Looks unfinished to me.

Instead of the next big Intermediate Watercolor challenge (which looks to me like a real challenge) I taped a couple postcards to a board and painted the clementine and lemon from the other day. They both turned out okay. Here's the clementine, I like the way it looks a little better than the lemon.

This afternoon I finished knitting the thumb of the first of O's fingerless mitts and then cast on the second mitt at Friday Night Knitting. I got the cuff knitted and the hand and thumb gusset. Next the thumb stitches go on a holder while I knit the rest of the hand and the top ribbing, then the thumb ribbing and it's done.

Also this afternoon I started reading Better Than Mom's aloud to myself. I'm about 50 pages in and have already found a couple booboos to fix and a whole lot of contractions to add. Reading it aloud is a revelation. I've never done that before and I'm finding lots of things to ponder. I'm determined to get it done, formatted, covered, and published yet this winter so I can concentrate on writing the sequel to The Seaview which is proving to be more of a challenge than I anticipated.

And we're supposed to get a couple more inches of snow overnight. Just what we need. Yippee!

--Barbara

I'm So Over Delilah

Including the snow that we got on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, Green Bay got 10.1 inches of snow from Snowstorm Delilah. With the crazy wind that blew from the north and then dropped the snow in the front of my house there was a lot more than 10 inches for me and my big red snowblower to tackle this morning. Happily it wasn't deeper than the mouth of the snowblower so I didn't have to go over it and over it.

Because of the snow and wind schools were closed today so I got to entertain two small people for the day. That made pursuing my usual schedule of drawing and painting all day difficult. LC and I painted but OJ wasn't interested. She painted the dawn.

 

The three of us collaborated on the Daily Art page which said to "turn the splodges into animals." They did a few and left the rest for me. I did most of them but quickly ran out of ideas.

I tried to paint the Daily Practice of a bowl of cherries but had trouble concentrating. I think I'll take another run at it tomorrow.

While I was digging around for some knitting the other day I ran across
a pair of fingerless mitts that are way too small for me so I left them out for LC to try on. They fit! So I gave them to her. That made OJ say, "aw" so I dug out some red yarn and cast on mitts for him. I got all but the thumb done of the first one this afternoon and evening. That may be the fastest that I've knitted something in a long time.

The kids had a lot of fun in the deep snow in the backyard and even more fun on the parking lot mountain behind the neighbor's house. I had to dissuade OJ from digging a burrow into the side of the mountain. All I could think of was it collapsing on him and trapping him under hundreds of pounds of snow. Nightmare!

--Barbara

Snowstorm!

It had snowed a few inches overnight so I went out this morning and fired up the snowblower to clear the driveway. It wasn't too cold and it wasn't too windy.

Once I was done with the driveway I went down to Zambaldi Beer to visit DS and learn even more about brewing beer. And I got to taste the Hazy IPA called Don't Haze Me Because I'm Beautiful. It was very tasty, lots of citrus aroma and flavor. Unfortunately it's about to run out so DS was brewing a new batch with a different grain bill and different hops. How does he keep all that stuff in his head? Maybe he writes lots of notes. I know that he has a clipboard for each batch of beer he makes.

When I got home I got out my paints and today's Daily Practice was to paint two tiny still lifes, a clementine and a lemon. I really like the way they turned out.

Not so much for the Intermediate Watercolor lesson for the day. It was to paint layered shapes in pale colors so that they showed through the ones layered on top. I had a lot of trouble making my corners sharp and the shapes symmetrical or at least have straight sides. I might try this again. Maybe.

The next bird in Draw Like an Artist was a Crow. I really wasn't in the mood to draw a bird but that's what there was so I just knuckled down and did it pretty fast. I think that speed worked in my favor today or maybe I'm getting better at birds.

By the time the afternoon was winding down and I had folded and put away the basket of clean laundry (yay, socks!) the wind had picked up and the snow was flying. It seems to have gotten worse as the night has worn on. They had an early release from school this afternoon and tomorrow is cancelled. I'm for sure not going anywhere tomorrow, it's supposed to be bad out there.

I have to get up early tomorrow morning because it's the day to register for the fall Clearing classes. In the fall is when I take the Women's Writing Retreat with my friend cda so I need to get us signed up. Good thing I learned from my mistake yesterday so I'll be able to get the job done since I suspect that the Clearing staff will have trouble making it into the office tomorrow morning to answer the phones. Great timing, Snowstorm Delilah!

--Barbara

I Can Paint That

Today was one of those days when the only real productive thing I did all day was get dressed and go to the polls to vote in the State Supreme Court Justice and City Mayoral primaries. Getting dressed was a big one because to be honest I could put on socks and shoes to go out and no one would be the wiser that I wasn't "dressed" because my loungewear is yoga pants and a hoodie.

The rest of the day I played with paints and worked on a manuscript. My first foray into painting was the Daily Practice which was a still life with pompoms. What a silly but interesting painting subject. She suggested doing the painting on "craft" paper by which she meant tan mixed media paper. I tried that the other day and didn't like the way the paint felt on the too slick paper so I just painted in my watercolor sketchbook. I'm such a rebel.

The next lesson in Intermediate Watercolor was a floral page. Once again I painted a big one and a postcard. Today the big one gets shown because I like the way it turned out. I wasn't so sure about the centers in the pink anemones but I think that the circle of purple lines with dots at the ends looks okay, suggesting the center of a flower. My only complaint about the course is that she paints too fast and doesn't explain her strokes. I have to keep rewinding and stopping but I eventually get it.

After I put all the paints and paraphernalia away I went back to reading Better Than Mom's on the Kindle and finished taking notes. Then I rearranged a few paragraphs, sorted the last quarter of the manuscript into chapters, and penned a sort of ending. At least I think it's an ending. I have to let it marinate for a few days and go back to see if I still like it. 

And that was my day. I even waited until the evening to take my shower since I spent the morning dialing into The Clearing because I goofed up the online attempt by not rereading the instructions. I was so frustrated with myself but I eventually got through, registered for the class I wanted, and the room I wanted. I'll do better on Thursday when it's time to register for the Women's Writing Retreat in October. I'm spending my children's inheritance on art supplies and classes. And author's copies of my novels.

--Barbara

I Didn't Order It

But when I looked out the patio door at about 4 o'clock it was snowing big flakes and a lot of them. Ewwww. We weren't predicted to get snow until Wednesday night so evidently this is a little amuse bouche of the coming storm. Naturally I have places to go on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Maybe the roads won't be too slick.

I saw a female Cardinal sharing the platform feeder today with a House Finch. She's fine with sharing, not a bully like her male counterpart. Lots of birds came to the feeders today and even to the partially melted birdbath. I went out and filled it so that there was a bit of open water at least for a little while.

Today's Daily Practice was a no-peeking sketch of a cup and saucer filled with pompoms first, then another sketch of the same cup and saucer only this time you could look, and then a quick watercolor-ing of the sketch. I think tomorrow there will be an "official" painting of the same.

In Intermediate Watercolor I got brave and painted the next lesson. Today the postcard version which I painted second turned out better so that's the one you get to see but the first one isn't bad only the tulip's paint bled into the zinnia or whatever that flower on the left is supposed to be so it's a little messy looking. The postcard's better, I think.

Then because Aunt B expressed a desire for me to publish Better Than Mom's sooner rather than later, I uploaded the manuscript to my Kindle and sat down at the table to read through it and make notes of what needs to change to make it publishable. I find it so much easier to read through the manuscript on the Kindle; it's like reading a book and I can make quick notes of changes that are then easy to find on Word. I read for so long that I ran the Kindle battery down so I had to quit and plug the thing in. I'm working on it, Aunt B, I'll put it at the head of the line.

 

After supper I pulled out Dr. Seuss's Book of Animals and drew a boy looking at turtles sleeping in trees. I remember the turtles in trees from one of the books I used to read to the kids, Yertle the Turtle maybe. 

And then while I watched Antiques Roadshow and Maine Cabin Masters I added rounds to the Trekking Sock. I have to be able to talk and knit on it because I'm knitting with friends on Wednesday evening.

Tomorrow morning is the great online registration experiment of The Clearing's new system. Hopefully it'll work the way they say it will and keep me from having to dial and redial their number over 400 times to get registered for a May watercolor class. And then I'll have to do it all over again on Thursday morning to register for the Women's Writing Retreat in October. So I hope that it works because dialing and redialing is a real pain. Wish me luck.

--Barbara