Not Another Art!

I saw a blog post a few months ago about cutting rubber stamps. It looked like fun so I put the needed supplies on my wishlist to see if Santa would bring any of it. Well, he brought the Speedball cutting tools so I bought the box of Pink Pearl erasers and the fancy ink pad after the holidays. The stuff sat there on the art shelves for a couple months and today turned out to be the day to play with it. In true Barbara Sue (daughter of Hank) fashion, I played with the stuff and then I watched a couple YouTube videos about it. Don't want to have too much instruction before just diving in! I drew a seashell and a fish on two of the erasers and got busy digging out all the parts I didn't want. It wasn't as messy as I thought it'd be and I didn't get black ink all over myself. I count that as a win.

 

There were a few Sparrows around this morning and this one flew over to get a drink so I snapped a picture. Makes a change from a bird sitting on the square green feeder picture. I keep hoping to see some kind of Woodpecker but so far, no luck.

 

A squirrel leaped up onto the roof of the suet cakes feeder and then up onto the suet nuggets crook. It had a nice time nibbling there for a quite a while.

 

Look at what I bought today. It's a spring bulb planter. Isn't it pretty? And you wouldn't believe the fragrance of the hyacinths. I want it to last a long time so I put it out in the garage where it's cool after supper. I'll bring it in during the day and then let it spend the night in the garage. I figured that florists keep flowers in a cooler to help them last so my cool garage might do the same thing. Maybe. As long as we don't get prolonged freezing temps.

 

When I flipped through the drawing book today, I found this page of Bugs & Such with six lovely bugs to draw. I like drawing bugs so I dived right in. The slender gray insect did not have the firefly glow around its back portion in the example but I thought it looked like a lightning bug and added it.

 

I saw the sun setting out my bedroom window and took a picture. It's not a very clear picture because it's taken through the plastic, a not very clean window, and the screen. But it was pretty so you get to see it. I thought about going outside to take the picture but I'd just gotten out of the shower and didn't want to terrorize the neighbors.

 

When I came back from errands it was just starting to rain like it meant it and when I got into the house I saw hail on the patio. I took a picture of the birdbath and you can see the little white balls of hail around that too.

 

Tomorrow's the first session of the Novel Intensive Critique group I signed up for with Wisconsin Writers Association. I got an email from the leader today asking if I'd be willing to go first because two of the other three aren't experienced with group critiques. I said okay.

Then I sat down and made some notes about publishing and marketing for a workshop that some writers are organizing. They invited me to be on a couple panels so I thought it'd be a good idea to plan a bit beforehand. It helped to organize my thoughts on the subjects. Made me less nervous about the whole thing.

--Barbara 

One Sign of Not Spring Yet

It was a sunny day today, a little breezy, but it got up to 55 degrees so it felt like spring. However. I looked out the patio door and spied this little black and gray bird there and knew that while the calendar says spring but birds don't. Not yet. This is a Junco, a bird that migrates from the arctic down here where it's warmer in the winter. Warmer, yeah, no. Although I suppose it is warmer here than up near the Arctic Circle. As long as the Juncos are here I figure winter's not really over.

 

Robins showed up today. A pair of them were tussling around but I couldn't take their picture. I managed to take this one's picture near the crooks but not behind them.

 

Here's the last Christmas cactus flower blooming. The other tiny nubbins aren't growing so I guess the splash of flowers is pretty much done. It was a lovely surprise to have that many blossoms on this old plant.

 

The mail carrier delivered a box of new bookmarks today. All eight book covers are on the front. I can't imagine being able to cram another cover on there. Because there will be another book. I'm working on it right now.

 

I drew a Dragonfly today. It turned out okay.

 

The pest nerds visited today while I was Zooming with cda. They refilled the bait boxes that are around the foundation to make sure that the mousies don't try to move into my house again. I don't want mice or rats or voles around. No thank you.

They're predicting thunderstorms after 11 tonight. That should really melt more of the snow that's hanging around after the blizzard a couple weeks ago. I don't mind if it rains as long as it isn't cold enough to freeze afterward. I do not want to have to deal with ice.

--Barbara 

One Bird at a Time

Birds visited today. One at a time. First this Sparrow landed on the square green feeder and spent a little time pecking away at the seed, first facing the feeder and then with its back turned so it had to turn to the side every time.

 

Then this Robin scurried across the lawn looking like it was listening for worms or something. When it wasn't behind the crooks its back was to me so I waited and got this partially obscured photo of it. Right after I snapped the picture the Robin pounced on a peanut half in the grass and ran off with it.

 

When I was having supper a Chickadee landed on the square green feeder and stayed long enough so I could take its picture too. It also spent part of the time facing the feeder and part of the time facing away pounding a seed on the perch.

 

I went out to refill the birdbath and checked the rhubarb. It's sprouting! Even though it's on the north side of the house and never gets sunshine this early in the year, little pink rhubarb sprouts are peeking out. Hooray! That means in a month or so I'll be able to make rhubarb sauce to put on my breakfast yogurt. It's my favorite.

 

Today was an artsy day. First off, I drew a Sea Turtle out of the new drawing book. I can't remember the name of the book but it says it has over 1200 pictures to draw. Maybe she's counting all of the steps to draw each one? I'm not counting but there aren't 600 pages in the book so that's my guess.

 

Then I decided to paint the next flower in the 31-day course on Creativebug. It's a Pincushion Protea. I'm surprised at how well it turned out. The leaves along the left side of the paper are messy looking but I like the flower.

 

And after supper I sketched another Sea Turtle from a watercolor painting that the watercolor teacher gifted me last spring. I keep wanting to try to copy it in a painting but then I lose my nerve. Maybe someday I'll get brave.

 

Once again the end of the month has sneaked up on me so I spent most of the afternoon writing my monthly writing progress newsletter email, finding a picture to put on it, and sending it off by email to KM to upload to MailerLite to be sent on the 1st. Then I spent some time posting event advertisements on both my Facebook page and my author Facebook page. Marketing is never ending.

--Barbara 

This Is The Day We Wash Our Clothes

I gave in and did the laundry today. My excuse for waiting the last two weeks was that I wanted to wait until any snow built up in the window well where the dryer vent is melted. I am absolutely certain that it had melted at least a week ago, if there was much snow in there at all. But I didn't want to rush into anything. There are no pictures of a basket full of clean clothes or shirts on hangers or hand-knit socks clothespinned to the wash lines in the basement.

 

Last week I ran out of Jello so I made more. This time I went off my usual flavors and made black cherry. It's okay. I think regular cherry is better and I still like lime or orange the best. 

 

Here are more daffodils showing up to enliven my March. I smile when I see them. I'll smile even more when the flowers bloom. There will be lots of pictures, I can assure you.

 

Today's drawing is a penguin. This is not the best penguin ever but it was simple to draw and color so I kind of like it. I wanted to draw a bird but the other birds looked too complicated so I'm starting with simple. There's nowhere to go but up.

 

The last two Christmas cactus flowers are in full bloom. This one is open the most with its parts dangling out to be admired. Stamen and pistils? Maybe. I know the words but I'm not sure what's what.

 

I copied and pasted the next chunk of my manuscript ready to send it for critique once we're through Wednesday's session. Tomorrow I'll reread cda's manuscript piece for our session on Monday morning just to make sure I didn't miss anything. And I have to remember to send the Zoom link for Monday too.

I just got an email from one of the people I contacted about helping me get my last book off Extended Distribution. I'll reply tomorrow and maybe we can meet online to solve the problem. That would be good.

And I just heard the dryer buzz telling me that the last load is dry. I don't have to hurry down to hang anything up because it's towels and undies. They can sit in the dryer overnight.

I drove out to Howard (a nearby village/suburb) to deliver a copy of Anneke's Legacy to a knitting friend. She's going to be out of town next week and wanted something new to read. Another knitting friend needs that title and Island Dreams. She was going to order them from Amazon but asked if I make more if she gets it from me. The answer is yes! I'll double check with her before I mail them but I'd rather she bought them from me than Amazon because I get almost twice the payback with direct purchases. Amazon has a confusing system of expenses vs. royalties which works out with them getting more. *shrug*

--Barbara 

And a Tiny Squall of Snow

We had a peek of sunshine this afternoon but mostly it was a cloudy day, chilly and breezy. And in the afternoon there was a little snow squall that blew through. It didn't amount to anything but it was an unhappy thing to see. 

 

I went out to the front of the house to photograph the green sprouts there. The ones I'm happiest to see are the oldest daffodils. I planted them in the fall of 1978 when I was pregnant with DS. He'll turn 48 this November so the daffodil flowers will be 47. They're pushing up a mat of mulch that I scraped off after I took the picture so they didn't have to bear the weight of the wood chips and soil. And the yellow ends are buds. Pretty soon there'll be beautiful yellow flowers.

 

All by itself away from all the other bulbs, this hyacinth is poking its nose out to see what's happening in the spring. It's leaves are a pretty spring green color and I was happy to see the flower bud peeking out.

 

The rabbits haven't found all of the crocus leaves yet. Some of these are crocus leaves and some are grape hyacinths which are tiny little flowers about the size of my pinkie. Usually at least a few of them escape the rabbits' notice and survive to bloom.

 

I got kicked off the internet again this afternoon so I called Spectrum and had them reboot it. It worked for a while but then it flickered and went out so I called again and this time I asked to speak to a representative. She checked the records of the last week or so and noticed a problem so she sent a tech out this afternoon to fix it. George worked for over an hour installing a new router and removing a splitter in the basement that was put in when we had three televisions hooked up in the house. Now I'm down to one so I don't need it. George said it slowed down the internet speed and my old router was obsolete. As long as I don't keep getting kicked off the internet I'm happy. Also there's no charge for service calls. Yay!

 

Today I drew a seahorse. Then I drew another one. I probably should have colored the second one different from the first one. Maybe orange like the last one I saw in the wild? Next time.

 

I thought I had enough inches of the Vienne cardi back knitted when I measured it toward the end of Friday Night Knitting but I'm half an inch short. So I'll have to add a couple rows, maybe four, before it's time to do something different. It's so difficult to measure because stockinette stitch rolls up from both ends so I have to hold it down to measure it or take its picture.

 

I went through the critiques again today and made remarks on them. I was sure I'd have to struggle to get them done by Wednesday but, look at me, I'm already done. Which means I can keep doing cda's manuscript critique too.

Tomorrow will be laundry day. I'm getting short of socks again.

--Barbara 

Dreary Drizzling

It was dim when I got up this morning and it wasn't very early. The clouds were thick and it was drizzling. All day it was dreary but I don't think it rained much after the morning.

 

I lost interest in the rest of the flower drawings. They looked too complicated and I was getting tired of them so I picked out a different drawing book and paged through it instead of starting at the beginning. I landed on this picture of a bee. I think of bees as my spirit animal because it's my initial. 

 

This evening we met at CS's house to eat and knit. We never got around to knitting but we managed to eat like champs. CS made Reuben sandwiches with the leftover corned beef from St. Patrick's Day, KE brought fruit, I brought veggies & dip, and DM brought apple pie with vanilla ice cream. And as we were leaving CS gave each of us a small loaf of Irish soda bread. I confess I broke off a bite of mine when I got home. It's good.

 

I spent most of the day reading and critiquing the pages for next Wednesday. I was sure I wouldn't have time to tackle all of the pages but I got through all three of them at least once today. I hardly did anything else but that's okay. I don't have to do anything. I'm retired.

The only other thing I accomplished today was to hand wash my support stockings. I discovered that my knee feels better when I wear them so I've been wearing them every few days. I don't like to put them in the washer so I rinse them out in the sink and hang them over the shower rod to dry overnight. Like the old days of hand washing dainties.

--Barbara 

More Springing

There are lots of green sprouts springing up at the front of the house. Some are daffodils and tulips.

 

Some are just daffodils. And I can see buds forming in the midst of the leaves. Exciting!

 

And these look like hyacinths. Lots of sturdy green that survived being buried by way too many inches of snow less than 10 days ago. Now they're standing proud and there are even a few crocus leaves that survive the rabbit depredation.

 

The botanical of the day is Aloe Vera. This was interesting to draw and color. I like the flower stalk and the coloring of the leaves. 

 

The funny thing is we saw them in Bonaire and they were about the size of a Smart Car with flower stalks over twice as tall as Durwood. I dug around in the photo archives and found this picture of him from 2008 standing next to an aloe plant in bloom. That's not a telephone pole, it's the flower stalk. Amazing. For reference, he was about 5'10" tall.

 

I spent most of the day working on writing stuff on Zoom and just on the computer. I received two of the three submissions for next Wednesday's novel intensive group so I started reading them. Then I dived into the next 20+ pages of cda's manuscript for next Monday. I confess, I'm not sure I'm up to reading and commenting on 75-100 pages in a week. cda and I might have to put our Monday meetings on hiatus while my novel intensive group meets. Today was only the first day. I'll see how it goes.

I saw two Robins scurrying across the lawn this afternoon but they were too fast for me to catch their picture. 

My visit to the dentist went well. I don't have anything to deal with that's new, just the same old same old stuff. I got a new toothbrush and bought some fancy toothpaste for extra sensitive teeth. I look forward to trying it tonight.

-- Barbara

Look

I haven't seen a bird in days and am kind of bummed about it, but early this evening when I was fixing supper I looked out and saw a Robin in the yard. A Robin! The harbinger of spring! It was scurrying along not pecking at anything, just checking things out. Yay!

 

This morning I took a picture of the remains of Blizzard Elsa on the patio. Eight days ago there was 27.7 inches of snow on the ground when it stopped snowing so there's been a lot of melting between then and now. I especially like that the individual leaves are being heated by the sun and melting into the snow.

 

Also this morning I went to visit DS at Zambaldi Beer and he was cleaning the "small" kettle he uses for Brewer For a Day brews. Small being a relative term as you can see how big it is compared to him. It's a mere 75 gallons compared to the 650 gallons of his regular kettle.

 

I made some more small edits, small refinements of the manuscript this afternoon. And I integrated the small scene I wrote about someone being arrested for the murder of a guest after searching for the right place to put it so that I didn't have to rewrite a whole great whack of the thing. That's a relief.

 

Today's flower/plant is a Jade plant. I remember in the olden, uninformed days, Mom called it a rubber plant. That was wrong but it was a difficult transition to calling it by its proper name. It was fun to draw and the coloring is okay.

 

Right after I saw the Robin, a Sparrow landed on the square green feeder for a snack. At first it was standing with its back to the feeder and craning around to peck at the seed before figuring out how much easier it was to turn around and just have to bend down a little.

 

 

My cleaner came today so now my house smells nice and clean and my living room carpet has vacuum tracks in it. I'm not very dirty but it's nice to have MB come once a month to dust, vacuum, and clean the bathroom and kitchen. Plus knowing she's coming keeps me tidier than I'd normally be.

--Barbara 

So That's What That Was

For this last week I've been catching movement out of the corner of my eye when I'm sitting at the table but when I look out the patio door there's nothing there. Today I found out what it was. A bunny. Today it stopped on the patio step and posed for a moment so I could take a picture. 

 

I felt bad that I hadn't drawn for a couple days so today I drew. This is a Desert Rose. Never heard of it. Never saw it before. But it wasn't too hard to draw. I might have to look it up to find out about the weird trunk stem thing. It looks like some alien life form. And I have no idea what those toenail-looking things are at the base but they were on the directions so I put them on.

 

Then I thought I'd paint too. So I booted up the iPad to the next flower in the 31-day challenge and it was Carnations. When I was walking out of the grocery this morning I walked past the flower display and smelled carnations so it was appropriate that I paint some today. They were fun to paint although I didn't plan my space well since the red/orange one is kind of smooshed on the left edge. Oh well, I can try again. As BF used to say, this is not a graded course.

 

I turned the Christmas cactus pot around and was able to get almost all of the flowers and buds in one picture. It's never had this many on at once in its whole life with me. I'm glad I gave it a new pot, etc. It's happier now. 

 

I got the information today about the Novel Intensive I've signed up for. We're having a meet-and-greet on Wednesday afternoon on Zoom and then we'll send out our first submission. I had a brainstorm. I saved my manuscript version 2 in a new file and took out all of the chapter headings then moved the text up close to the previous text so there's only a few spaces between chapters. That way I'll be able to send more words on 20 pages and get feedback on more of the manuscript. Pretty smart, eh?

It was so luxurious to wake up naturally, not to the buzzing of my cell phone. I don't have to set an alarm for at least a week. If I get up between 7 and 8, I'm happy. That gives me time to eat, play Wordle, do yoga, and get dressed way before noon when it would be embarrassing to still be in my jammies.

--Barbara 

A Not Quite As Satisfying Day

I had another vendor fair today. It wasn't the success that yesterday was. My grand total of books sold today was.... (drum roll)... 2. That's right. We sat there for five hours and I sold 2 books and GBB sold 0. Not very satisfying. We had such high hopes for today's fair. It was at Pulaski Middle School so we thought there'd be middle schoolers in the crowd who would buy GBB's books. Nope. Traffic was light and none of the kids we managed to snag wanted her books. Disappointing. And the batteries in my fairy lights around the new release book are fading. The lights just aren't as bright anymore. Good thing they came in a 6-pack. Now if I could just remember where I put the other 5.

 

The only other thing I did today was read through the critique pages for tomorrow and then keep reading version 2 of my current manuscript because that's what I'll submit to the Novel Intensive Group I've signed up for that begins April 1. I want to have things as tidy as possible. The big thing I did today was slot in this half-page of a scene where Rose finds out that the police have a suspect in the murder of one of her guests. It was a challenge to figure out where to put it. I didn't want it too early or after the original suspect left the island since, just like on TV, she was told not to leave the island.

 

Because I didn't paint or draw or knit today, I'm posting another one of the ChatGPT images that KM sent me last week. Like I said, I'm not sure what to do with them but I like them. Even though they were made by AI, which I'm very suspicious of.

 

I am thrilled that I don't have to set an alarm to get up before it's light in the morning. That was the hardest part of the past two mornings, that annoying musical phrase that passes for an alarm on my phone. Also getting up in the dark. Ugh. I'm so spoiled by not having to get up early anymore.

--Barbara