Good very early morning as long as I am still up! ;)
You know I couldn't resist a couple pictures of the arctic hares getting along with the cottontail. First one...
...and then another one joined the feast. The cottontail is still under the table behind the first hare.
I forgot to tell you last week that I did hear from Kathy (SIL) that they are interested in Grandpa's desk! I am so happy! I wanted it to stay in the family. Plus she said my sister, Renee, has beaten the infection and was going to have surgery soon to replace the missing piece of her skull with something artificial. Her brain will be protected again...has just had skin over it. AND that Renee is more back to her old self again!! Hurray! Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes. :)
Okay...what I purchased from Dick Blick.
Well, I have to go all the way back to a adult night class back in the 90s that I took on how to use pastels. I had bought a set of hard pastels. Couldn't imagine being loose and free with my art...not me. Well, I learned in that class that hard pastels and pastel pencils are used for more control and smaller details. But there was no way I was buying soft pastels, to be honest. I wanted control and detail--lol!
Jump forward to college in about 2002...an art class where we had an assignment to do a picture in pastels. All I had was the same hard pastels I had never really used again. (So messy--chalk dust all over the place.) Was told again that the soft pastels were better--made for blending and looser more expressive work.
The few art classes I had in college I always heard that I should loosen up--lol!
Then came years of being housebound and watching artists and all kinds of people on youtube who used soft pastels and something called oil pastels. I discovered mixed media and art journaling...and so began the desire to learn how to be a looser woman--lol! ;) Then the past two years of Wanderlust videos I have seen people using soft pastels and oil pastels regularly in their mixed media. So...I have been tempted so many times to buy some. They have been in my cart at Dick Blick numerous times...and in my Amazon cart, too...but I never could take the plunge.
As you know I have been getting the year-long Wanderlust weekly videos now for a couple of years...and just started my third year. Last year they started having six weeks of videos at a time on a certain type of medium...which is fun. And this year what do you suppose the first six weeks are covering? Of course--pastels!
So I really took the plunge. Ordered a better quality set and a cheaper set of oil pastels...
...and a set of half-size better quality soft pastels...
...with a set of Woody pencils thrown in for good measure.
I know! Sounds ridiculous. I haven't even been able to participate in forever...but I am hoping to get to at least one of the six classes on pastels. If not--I now have the supplies for when I can do the classes later on. I own all the class videos so I can do them whenever I am able. Forever the optimist, eh? Wish me luck.
Anyways, Keanna came on Tuesday to clean...and could tell I was in much better spirits and feeling better. (I actually had pants on for the first time in 6 1/2 weeks--lol!)
Leah and the boys stopped by to grab some bird seed from my garage for me...and the garage door keypad wouldn't work. They stopped in briefly to pick up some things I had for her. I called and left a message with the office about the garage door. (There is seldom anyone actually in the office.)
On Wednesday the maintenance man, Gerald, fixed the garage door. We were chatting and I mentioned to him that I had been too sick to deal with selling the sauna this last fall like we had planned so we were going to sell it in the spring. (He had seemed interested in it last summer.) Well, he even asked if he could come in and take some pictures. Sure! He wanted to see the information so he could get the model number and such--but I told him all my desk paperwork was piled in a box and I didn't know when I would get to it...but when I did I would let him know.
He used to work at a company that sold saunas so he knew it was quality when he first saw it and knows it wasn't cheap. He's tempted, I know...but it's a lot of money. Anyways, I told Leah and she said she had the paperwork (they have the same exact sauna) and would drop it off when she came to bring in bird seed for me. And we discussed that since it was Gerald he could borrow the info packet and she and Dagan would be there to help take it apart...and also that since it is him that he could always make payments. Great idea! He would probably trust me, too, since he's been here since I moved in. Plus he wouldn't have to rush arranging pickup like you do on Facebook Marketplace, etc.
So, I will get a hold of him this week and give him the info to borrow and tell him about possibly making payments and Dagan and Leah helping him move it. Then he can think about it and make a decision. I really hope he will buy it. He knows it is really nice and appreciates it already...always has since he saw it the first time. He's such a nice man. Again--fingers crossed. ;)
On Thursday Leah and the boys stopped by and brought in the bird seed and some more packing boxes from the garage. We also rearranged things in my freezer because Leah is picking up 1/2 a cow's worth of beef this Wednesday. So I have a lot of things thawing out in my frig--LOL! Been baking something every day...fish, chicken. Tomorrow will be cooking up some ground beef.
I showed Leah this cupboard of cups and glasses. Chaos!
She didn't want anything and has been paring down her collection, too. I plan to get rid of most of it. Get down to a few cups and glasses that I really do love and will use. (Been re-watching Marie Kondo this weekend, too, for motivation--lol!) This pretty tea mug arrived while they were here! It's a poppy tea mug...
...with an infuser and a lid.
Could also just use the cup by itself...but I prefer my Yeti thermal cups for my coffee. I tend to sip coffee off and on all day long. When I drink tea it is one cup and much more deliberate--lol!
On Friday this lotus tea cup came...
...with infuser and lid.
What's funny is I ordered two sets of two pretty tea cups on sale...and every single one of them is coming on a different day--lol! I'll show you the other two when they arrive. Each set had a mug and a cup version...all different designs. Whoohoo!! These two are each actually from the opposite "sets"--LOL!
I already have my Yeti cups for coffee and one Yeti cup I only use for plain water. But for all other drinks (carbonated, vitamin waters, etc) I have been using those plastic cups with the straws. I want to replace them with some nice thermal ones that I will actually like to use. Ones that give me joy! And I will need a few so I have cups for the boys when they come down to visit me. Planning ahead.
I may be downsizing in certain areas where I get rid of things and replace with things that bring me joy--yes. Like I did with my white dishes. (Every time I take down one of my new colored plates or bowls it makes me smile.) Fewer things, but things I love. ;)
Marie Kondo would be proud.
Allie and I have had some quiet days.
Sunday...was the first day we have been above freezing in 31 days!!! The Critter Cafe wasn't as busy as it has been with such a heat wave--lol!
Okay--Leah sent some pictures!
The boys up in the school room busy with some craft projects.
They had told me when they were here that they had been to the zoo this week...
...in the cold...
...and that they saw more animals than they did in the summer.
The fox was racing around, they told me.
Even the otters were out playing.
So they had a good time.
And the exciting thing this week...
Dagan and Leah finished emptying the basement for the guys to come and work on the cement floor tomorrow morning! Leah made the Naked Basement Video...but couldn't move it over to my computer for some reason. So I did include a link at the end here--which I really, really hope works so you can see the whole tour where Leah explains everything. Let me know if it works. Fingers crossed.
In case it doesn't I will include a few pictures...
When you come down the stairs to the right is a storage area--long and narrow--that is underneath their entryway upstairs. Will be shelves in there for general storage.
This is under the stairs aiming toward the maintenance room.
To the left when you come down the stairs will be my apartment with a pocket door.
This is where my kitchenette will be--kind of on the side on the stairwell. To the left is where that long storage area is. To the right will be the door to the maintenance room. My washer and dryer will be tucked under the stairs in there.
This is the side wall and window in the big room that will have my living room and kitchenette.
On the opposite side will be the studio and bathroom. Boy--I really hope this link works so you can get the tour and a better idea of my little future apartment.
Okay--I think it finally came through and might work! Let's see!
We'll have pics and a video of it when the floors are done, I think. Going to be a walnut brown stain. Can hardly wait to see what it looks like.
Allie likes to be able to hang out in the empty packing boxes. Well, you know...cats.
Not expected to get above freezing again in the near future. 25 today and then back into the teens and probably snowing some more, I guess. Good thing I have lots of bird seed. ;)
Well, I am going to post this and see if the link works for me. Let me know if it works for you.
Till next time...
Have a marvelous week!! :) :)
