My Birthday-Wednesday-3:30pm

Now I won't forget which books I borrowed from Duane--hehe! Just kidding--I do put little post-it notes with his name inside each book and put them in a certain spot where I keep borrowed books. :)

We had a nice chat for about three hours. :) I didn't realize it had been 10 1/2 months since he was here last time! Always nice to visit with Duane. We met in Anthropology class at MSUM and he lives in Detroit Lakes. This is good incentive to get me back on the reading track. I used to read every night before I went to bed but have gotten out of the habit several months ago. Got to get back in the swing of things. And soon it will be nice enough to sit and read on the porch again, too! :)

Here are a few of the little pictures I did on the other end of the sketch book that I mentioned yesterday. All the same picture, a sunset over the ocean, but with different materials.

Holbein watercolors.

Prange oil pastel crayons.

Sennelier pastels.

Creatacolor pastel pencils.

Caran D'Arche watercolor crayons with watercolor brush (hard to control the amount of water with the watercolor brush and I didn't wait long enough for the sections to dry, either--hehe!)

Anyways, you get the drift. There are 12 of them--this is a sampling. The idea was to make them so I'd have an idea of what the different effects would be--but--this is not a good paper for that. It is lumpy, porus, and irregular in consistency and thickness. Very cool paper, but not for comparison purposes--hehe!

Well, it is my birthday today. I can't believe I am 56 years old. Where did the years go? Dagan and Leah wanted to take me out to dinner and it is our usual painting night--but I am having a real noodle of a day. Just been so busy of late--it has caught up with me. I can only push myself for so long any more and the body gets the better of me. So, Dagan and Leah are coming over after work and either bringing or ordering in dinner for all of us, they said. Leah will work on punching the leaf into her business cards--if she likes the look of it. It will be nice to have a little company for a while on my birthday--but I just wasn't up to being out and about today. Not that I am feeling bad--just a little extra sore and that noodle, weak-limbed feeling I get when I've been doing too much. It is a very good birthday, don't get me wrong. Just need it to be a restful one this year. I am very grateful for my wonderful life and all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me. Just plain happy to be alive!! :)