Tuesday-6:00pm

I am having a problem with Miss Gracie. She will not stay off of the bookcase. She poops all down the front of it and chews on the wood if she sneaks up there. First I removed the runner, thinking she was using that to climb up there--but she still flapped and jumped over. Then I stacked some things to keep her off--she still managed to get over to the bookcase!

I had to turn her cage away from the bookcase for now (she is clipped)--until I can think of something else. I can't leave it like this--makes it difficult to reach her water dish on the one side.

It was uncomfortably hot yesterday--88 degrees and wind gusts to 45 mph. Literally shook the floor of the apartment! I had three hours of sleep again and was just exhausted. Gracie started screeching and wouldn't stop until I got up. She doesn't usually do that, either. I was very fed up with her, to say the least, yesterday.

The story of Miss Gracie may explain a little of my frustration. I purchased a hand-fed baby cockatiel from a pet shop in north Moorhead. That baby was totally neurotic! I had never seen anything like it! (And I worked in pet shops for years.) It did nothing but pace and pace. Wouldn't eat. Screeched if you came near it. Screeched if you moved to get up out of a chair from across the room. Screeched for no reason. This went on for five days--I had called the pet shop twice--and finally took the bird back. I was afraid it would die from not eating hardly anything and stress. I have had a lot of birds--even abused and neglected birds--and had never had one that acted mentally ill like that baby bird. And it was supposed to be a hand-fed baby???

Birds can go kind of insane and pace all day and pluck their own feathers out, etc. I have tamed birds that bit the heck out of me at first. It is not like I don't have some knowledge about emotionally damaged birds--but this baby was beyond connecting with. I spent hours in the same room reading just to get it used to me just being there and not being a threat--nothing changed and the bird just paced and screamed. But--the baby got put back with its nest mates and it was content as could be. ??

I had to wait a couple of months for another batch of hand-fed babies--which the owner of the pet shop assured me was not from the same breeder. That is how I got Miss Gracie. But she has never been "right" either. I honestly have always believed that she probably came from the same breeder. She has never liked people. She has always threatened me and anyone who comes near her. After all these years--the only feriendly thing she will do is if people come up to her with their hands down at their sides and talk to her, she will come up and look at you and likes the attention for a few minutes. But make a move or try to put a hand near her--and she screeches and threatens to bite you and runs for the hills! She has never, ever been a sociable bird to humans. She prefers her mirrors and the company of her mirror "boyfriend". When she gets too nasty to me (biting), my only recourse is to remove her mirrors. That just makes her more insecure and less aggressive (biting) for a while. She gets highly stressed and nervous without her mirrors. But--the poor thing--her only happiness is her mirrors. She only really likes other birds.

And--no--I didn't always let her have a mirror from the beginning. I have never left mirrors with any of my other birds because they can get too attached to them. I didn't even have any around. But, because of the way the other strange little baby had acted--so relieved when it was finally back with other birds--I finally put up a wall mirror behind her cage to see what would happen to the miserable little bird. She was happy--for the first time since I had gotten her. It is her only joy in life.

Recently she has bitten me a couple of times. Usually she tolerates me picking her up to go to bed if she is really tired--gripping my finger in fear as I move her into the cage. Trying to get her into the cage at any other time--80% of the time you have to chase her off the cage and then she will let you pick her up off the floor or wherever she lands--gripping hard with her little feet. Many times she flies off one or two times before you get her to the cage, too. She SO dislikes hands. And you get her inside the cage and she turns with a little screech and a beak jab in the air in your finger's direction. That is my Miss Gracie. I have always felt very sorry for her and tried to make her life as pleasant as it can be--but when she starts the screeching and pacing.......she gets on my last nerve!

I have thought many times of buying another cockatiel for company for her--but I could be doubling my troubles. I sleep crazy hours and at least Gracie has usually been good about waiting till I got up--like all my birds have been--before she started hollering at me. She tends to be screechy all day. Every time I move--get up from a chair--she screeches. I have had cockatiels before--even hand-raised babies myself for a while. I have never had one that screeches in such a distressed manner--all the time--every day--for what is it now--six years? She occasionally chit-chats and sings to her boyfriend in the mirror--and it is such a joy to hear. She is such a basically unhappy little bird.

I am seriously thinking of searching for a place for her. Someplace where she can be with other birds all the time. She'd be in seventh heaven! Someplace where they don't plan on having a friendly bird--a pet, you know? I wish I could find a place that had an avairy -- like they have sometimes in senior buildings. Trouble is, they usually have finches in those (so much quieter--hehe!).

But--knowing the background--I don't think it would be a good idea to breed her...??? I'd be afraid she'd have neurotic little pacing, screeching, anti-social babies. :(

Miss Gracie. She is doing her constant, screechy, eeping behind me. She is confused as to why the cage is turned sideways. I have to keep telling her, "You're okay, Gracie. You're okay."

Monday-10:30am

It was too chilly to sit on the porch yesterday, but I got a lot of reading done. Still sunny today, so we'll see how it is this afternoon.

I was back to three hours of sleep last night and then couldn't sleep any more--just laid there. So, I got up about 3am and have been awake ever since. Menopause--*sigh*

As long as I was up, I did some sketching. Finished another EDM challenge. Long way to go to finish the page spread, tho. I also organized all the pictures I have taken for the challenges--got them labeled on the computer in a folder--finished printing them off and writing the numbers on them, etc. I probably have pictures for about 2/3rds of the rest of the challenges. Had to look for some of them online. I have 100 left to go--hehe!

I am sooo tired. Maybe I will try--again--to lie down and catch a few winks...?

Sunday-2:30pm

I haven't posted any angels for months, I don't think. I still have a few more to post. This little one is sleeping and I have it on the boom box on my headboard to keep me company. :)


I was working on the buttons off and on yesterday again and finally finished stringing them all!

I need to find something better to store them in--but here they are. This is an old shipping box for shoes. The little wooden box is holding the single buttons and little packets of thread--odds and ends.

Okay--I know Karma is the most eccentric cat I have ever had, but she has started something new that I have never even heard of a cat doing before. I was sleeping and heard this weird sound--hard to describe it. Here Karma was laying on the foot of the bed, half asleep--grinding her teeth! She did this for the first time just yesterday or the day before. She looked like she was chewing on something, but there was nothing there--just chewing and rubbing her teeth together. How odd! I assumed that maybe she really had been chewing on something and just swallowed it.

BUT--today--same thing! I hear that chewing, grinding noise as I was waking up. Good grief! She is only two years old. If she starts this habit now she will have ground away her teeth by the time she's middle aged! I have never heard of a cat that grinds it's teeth! Karma! Karma!

Not supposed to rain today. I think the carpet is dry on the porch.....:)

Saturday-2:30pm

I did manage to open up the little video I accidentally took in the car. Reminded me of the silent movies my dad took with his camera and the blinding lights that we used to watch on the projector.

Still dark and damp and drizzling off and on. I drug out all my drawing books yesterday--pencil, ink, and colored pencil. Just felt like going through them for hints and ideas and information.

I hadn't been sleeping much for the past three days--last night I finally collapsed and slept over 14 hours. My Shaklee menopause pills were backordered and I just got them yesterday finally. That may have had something to do with it--since I was back to the insomnia and exhaustion...? If it was, then I should be able to sleep better again within a week or so. Menopause--can be so annoying!

Just made up some tuna salad that is chilling in the refrigerator. Now am off to read art books. :)

Friday-5:30pm

Am on the fourth book right now in The Dark Tower series. Am praying that Mr. King can come up with a decent ending after I read all seven of these. The third book seemed to slow way down and not as much happened, so we'll see...

The biggest order so far for Dagan and Leah came yesterday--plus another package (backorder--just in time).

The white waste basket with handles is what I put my catalogs in for recycling now. So far I have just kept it by the door, but would like to find another place for it--in my packed little apartment--hehe! Leah brought over two of them so I can always be filling one. :)

Leah stopped by really late--like about 11:15pm, I think it was--to pick up the orders. She had her little brother, Aaron, with her. They were in and out quickly. I did get a chance to show her the Chinese brush technique videos on YouTube and showed her the Master Brush Set online, too. She is interested to try it with me. I sent her the links after she was here, too.

Leah also had some banana bread and some lemon bars for me!! She was baking away last night and that is why she came over so late. Some of the things in the orders were for presents, so she had to come by to get them. She and Dagan go to the lake with Leah's family for Memorial Day weekend every year. There are a bunch of birthdays close together, so they celebrate them at that time. Doesn't look like they are expecting the best weather for the holiday weekend this year. Still rainy and dark today here. another package was delivered today--so Dagan popped by to pick it up. they will be gone until Monday night, now.

Turned out I did something wrong and missed the Lost finale! It didn't tape. So, for the first time I watched a TV show on the computer last night. Was a very good and intriguing end to the season. First time they have flashed forward instead of backwards!!

Well, I may not be able to read out on the porch, but I have been getting a lot of reading done lately. I hadn't been reading for quite a while. I guess that was my silver lining to being out of commission there for a while--got my nose back in a book! hehe! :)

Thursday-1pm

I was washing a small load of clothes yesterday so that everything that needed to be in with the winter clothes would be clean and stored away for the summer--had the zipper open on the clothing rack. Couldn't find Karma.

I think she enjoys me searching for her. She stays silent and watches me walk around the apartment calling for her. Sometimes I am only here for her entertainment, I guess. hehe!


Dagan came by after work to pick me up. He helped me push the clothing racks back down the long hallway to the storage area. When we got to their apartment, he made me a brat on the grill--yummy! I brought a Netflix movie along and we emptied their big coffeetable so we could paint there and watch the movie. Painting ice cream pails with gesso is a mindless activity and didn't interfere much with our movie. Dagan painted two and I painted two.

We watched The Good Shepard:

Matt Damon and Robert De Niro (who also directs) star in this partially fact-based drama that examines the early history of the CIA as seen through the eyes of a dedicated agent. An upstanding, sharp-minded Yale student, Edward Wilson (Damon) is recruited to work for the fledgling CIA during World War II. Though loyal to his country, Wilson begins to feel the job eroding his ideals, filling him with distrust and destroying his personal life.

I am glad I watched it with Dagan. He got just as lost as I did at times, so it wasn't just me. Of course, neither of us have very devious minds so maybe that added to our difficulty in following the storyline? I think the editing and writing had something to do with it, too, tho. They would flip-flop in time and Matt Damon looked pretty much the same in 1939 as he did in 1961. You had to try to see which glasses he had on and if he walked stiffly--but half the time he was in semi-darkness and immobile--chuckle! His character was definitely the silent type, to say the least. If I were better at remembering names it would have helped, also.

Anyways, it was a long dry movie and we were glad to have something to do. We put two coats of gesso on the four pails. The gesso dried slowly, so we only got the undercoating done. We'll work on them again next week. We can go crazy with the colors. I have some really cheap tubes of acrylics and gouache (Marie's) that I want to use up--so we will just do whatever we want to and gob on all of the colors. We have a week to think about what we'd like to do--but I doubt we even will. These are going to be really wild looking, I think. And colorful! They're only temporary for a year or two, so I am not too concerned with how they turn out. I am figuring that they will make me smile. :)

On the way home I was noticing how pretty the sky looked. I remarked to Dagan how I would love to be able to paint a sky like that. He said--you've got your camera--take a picture! I tried to snap a picture of it thru the windshield. Didn't turn out too badly, actually.

He was telling me to do it without the flash--but I didn't know how to turn the flash off. I saw a button I could slide--and guess what? It can apparently take a video! I didn't even know this little camera could do that! How bizzare! I couldn't open the video when I got home--but I will work on that and hopefully figure it out. hehe! Who knows? Might figure out how to use it!

Obviously, did more than usual yesterday--so on R&R today, recovering, but not in too bad a shape after all that. I am definitely on the mend. Anyways, have a good day. I hope it is sunny where you are--dark day today in Fargo. :)

Wednesday- 3:00 pm

Here's what the flower pots look like. Chunks are peeling off the sides. Yuck! I don't really want to be buying half a dozen pots and transplanting plants this summer. I hope painting the ice cream pails works?

Caroline came today. (She had gum surgery yesterday--oh, to be young!) After she was finished I had her help me wheel down the two clothes racks I keep in the storage area (it's on this floor). The box is full of shoes. :)

Moving the winter stuff out and the summer stuff in. Finally! I just wasn't feeling up to it until now.

I finally decided to put all the stuff that is a size too small into one rack-duh! Don't want to get rid of them--in case I ever do lose weight, of course. They just got put in there all helter skelter when I moved and never took the time to reorganize them. When I got done, now I only have to roll one rack down here in the fall--hehe! And I am exhausted--but it feels so good to finally have gotten that task done after two years. Going to go put my feet up until Dagan comes after work.....

Tuesday-5:00pm

I couldn't leave the Twinkling H2Os alone last night and kept going back to paint. If you look on my www.Flickr.com account (Soulcomfort's Corner), you'll see that this painting of the wall plaque for "draw something you made" really doesn't look like it at all. I couldn't use the medium I had used on the polymer clay, so I didn't have the same colors to work with. I kind of just did what I could and changed it quite a bit. That's what I get for cheating and using a rubber stamp in my drawing book--hehe!

The top picture was "draw what you see out your window"--garages, field, and businesses. I am not too good at making the buildings seem as far away as they actually are. And I have never tried to draw a car! Bad! Well, that is why they call them challenges, eh?

Been raining here off and on--and supposed to be like this all week. Good sleeping and reading weather. :)

Caroline switched from Tuesday to Wednesday this week, so she'll be here tomorrow afternoon. Leah is busy, but Dagan and I are going to paint with acrylics tomorrow night. Been a long time! With painting sessions so far apart, don't know if I am ever going to get the hang of it? Just have to keep trying, right?

I have been pondering how to decorate the outside of an ice cream pail. Why, you may ask? I have these flower pots that I bought at WalMart several years ago that have literally been disintegrating before my eyes. I was thinking that I could set them inside of an ice cream pail--and then I wouldn't have to: (1) look at them and (2) worry about the watering overflow. I am wondering about painting them--might try acrylics tomorrow night--or covering them with paper or something since they wouldn't be getting wet on the outside? Hummm?? Will have to come up with something. Can't stand looking at them anymore, but don't want to buy new pots and repot plants. I'll try to remember to post a picture of what I am talking about tomorrow. TTYL.... :)

Monday-6:30pm

Didn't get much sleep--just been washing clothes today. Feeling better and was sketching yesterday while it rained. Warm today. Been puttering about most all day and now just want to sit and watch some TV and go to bed early. A quiet day. Hope I didn't overdo it--doesn't take much when I am on the borderline. It is so hard to be good--hehe! :)

Saturday-12:15pm

I moved the roses onto the bookcase to keep them safe from Karma.

The roses were safe--but for some unknown reason, Miss Gracie snuck over and chewed up the Mother's Day card!

Gracie hardly ever has hopped over to the top of the bookcase--maybe three times in the over two years we've lived here? The card must have been the temptation. She is very into chewing up her newspapers and kind of "nesting" lately. Little stinker! Chuckle! Boy! If it isn't one critter it's the next I have to keep an eye on--hehe!

We had a really wild lightning storm last night!! The sky was blinking off and on like spastic Christmas tree lights! There were tornado sightings reported west of here. Some places had hail, too. The thunderstorm was really cool to watch from my third floor apartment. I love watching storms, actually. :)

Quiet dark day so far today. Too wet to go sit on the porch to read--and it looks like more rain is coming. Very good for the frogs and toads out in the field across the way--all the big puddles are even bigger--and they sing their praises. :)

May you all be blessed with a good day!

Friday-3pm

Here's the book I drew from back when I was 11 years old in 1962. Does anybody else remember his drawing show?

I can remember waiting for his show to come on, but now I can't remember what days it was on or when. This was what started me drawing all the time, though, back then. I have kept the book all these years. The pages are yellowed, but I still remember how a whole new world opened up to me within the pages of this book. :)

I slept three nights in a row! I am definitely on the mend now. Hope to be back to my normal soon! :)

Thursday-4pm

I finally was able to sleep two nights in a row!! Hopefully on the upswing now. Dagan stopped by unexpectedly on Monday and was nice enough to take out the garbage I had sitting here all tied up and ready to go for three days. Just hadn't felt up to hauling it out--hadn't felt up to doing much of anything.

I took this picture a while ago. This was my first sketch, I guess. Done from a booklet by Jon Gnagy called Learn To Draw. He was the first television artist I remember. I begged my parents to buy this book for me. Tells the basics about shape, perspective, shadows, and shading--and then has step-by-step pictures for you to follow. Yes--I still have it. I was 11 years old when I drew this and my dad framed it for me (this is a new frame, tho--the old brown wood one started to come apart). I never forgot that Dad said he liked it and surprised me and had framed it. :)

I was getting restless basically doing nothing but read and watch TV--thought of something I could do sitting in my chair and still be good. I have a large button collection--my own from back in the days when I sewed Dagan a lot of his clothes, Grandma Ring's collection, some I bought up when Munsingwear was going out of business in Minneapolis, and I think maybe some from my mom. I saw in a magazine how you could sort the buttons by tying them together (I am using crochet thread). I had sorted them many years ago and had them in cheap fold-over sandwich bags (so you had to be careful they didn't fall out because the bags weren't closed) and it was impossible to find anything in the box. So, I dumped the bags into the plastic containers we just bought (that were still empty) and I have been slowly threading the matching buttons together. I rub beeswax on the end of the thread to keep it pointed and thin. Gives me something to do while I watch TV.

I also did my first attempt at drawing in my chair on my lap desk. I have always had to be seated at a table to draw. I was afraid my perspective would be off even more than usual--and it kind of was--note the thin violin--hehe! Anyways, I finished another page spread. :)

Well, I am not moving quickly and the timer is about to go off and I haven't finished checking my emails! So--got to go.... :) Another nice day--not too hot! Been a porch reading day!!

Monday-3pm

This is Karma's latest little quirk. Since I moved the furniture around in the living room, I wake up and find that she has occasionally pushed the lap desk out from beside the chair. She is used to spying from beside the chair--her hiding place to pounce from--as I tease her with her pole/string toys. Apparently she doesn't think I left her enough room. No matter which side I tuck the laptop, she has tried to push it out of her way. Silly girl!

Was 88 degrees yesterday--very warm in here by evening. Didn't want to close it up and put the AC on this early in the spring. Wow! I hope this is not an indication of how warm the summer is going to be! Only 74 degrees so far today, so it shouldn't be quite as bad tonight. :) Short and sweet today....

Mother's Day-Sunday-11:30am

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! I got roses from Dagan and Leah yesterday. I was surprised. Even though they have been getting me roses for the past few years--it always feels like a shocking one-time thing and I don't expect it to be repeated, I guess. It's Leah. She's the one who remembers me. :) Dagan at least remembers which month my birthday is if he is asked--chuckle! We never made a big deal over birthdays and such. Dagan quit remembering Mother's Day when he no longer had a grade school teacher having the kids make something--hehe! He has shocked me a couple of times since then and actually remembered Mother's Day--on his own before he got married, I mean--but I know he loves me. :)

Karma had her nose in the bouquet right off the bat, of course. I found out when she was a kitten a couple of years ago that she loves baby's breath. Woke up the next day and Karma had pulled as many of them as she could out of the vase and eaten them--stems and all! And then she had grazed around the bouquet and chewed off all the little white flowers she could reach. It was amazing she didn't tip the vase over! So the flowers went up on top of the bookcase--hehe!

This year Leah had a handmade card in with the roses. She had gone to the florist's shop, picked out the purple vase, and even did the arrangement herself! That Leah! She touches my heart in places I didn't know I had!

Well, confession time. For the past couple of months I have not been using my timer and limiting myself to an hour or less for activities--like being on the computer, especially. I have been trying to think positive and just believe that I am getting better--and figured that my body would catch up with my mind. And I am/was better than I had been--even a better trip to Minneapolis than I have had since the fibro got really bad...

Anyways, I have been trying to just ignore the pain and continue to do more and repeatedly push myself--for around two months or more. But ignoring it is not really physically possible any longer. I feel a little like I did when I was in school--not good. The pain level has risen 24/7 and I am having a lot more trouble sleeping because of it and that creates a bad cycle. Misery level--just plain too high. So, I am back to using the timer and back to my 3-4 hours total a day--starting today.

I have just missed being able to do what I want for as long as I want--soooo badly. I love being "lost in time" doing creative things like drawing or just surfing the net and reading posts or even playing solitare on the computer. It was so simple when I was healthy.....*sigh*....

I still believe I will improve. I just have to take it much slower than I have been. My enthusiasm and optimism kind of backfired on me and has put me out of commisson for a while here. It may take me a few weeks to get back to where I was, so if I am not answering emails as quickly--that is why. And I might not be blogging every day. All my own fault. I joyfully did this to myself--hehe! I promise I will be good and use the timer again. (Right now it is not even an issue--can't last an hour--hehe!)

From a cock-eyed optimist in Fargo....

Saturday-1:30pm

The bible organizer case came yesterday from Christianbook.com. I can see why it was only $19.99 for a leather case--had a lot of spots and also some glue or something in a few places that I had to try to scrub the most of it off. It will work fine for keeping all my sketching stuff together.

This is the front--has a zipper pouch that I can keep pencils and erasers in.

You flip it open from the front and it is the perfect size for a large Moleskine--could fit two or possibly even three.

The back side flips open...

...and there are compartments for pens and such. Can slide a 5 by 7 inch pad (small legal pad size) into the far right. I am actually using the organizer to store all my sketching stuff at home all the time so that Miss Karma doesn't chew the elastic band or the bookmark on my sketchbooks!

Late in the day the magazine holders arrived.

Of course, it didn't take Karma very long to make a racket hiding in the paper in the box.

I reorgainzed the magazines! Actually have some room to spare for future magazines--like Paper Creations, Card Maker, etc.

I was drawing another two EDM challenges last night and got one page done. Was actually sketching while I was watching a mini-series from PBS called North And South:

When her father uproots his family from their serene rural burg for an industrial mill town, parson's daughter Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) struggles to adapt to her harsh new surroundings in this BBC series based on Elizabeth Gaskell's novel. As her mother's health fails, Margaret throws herself into the fight for workers' rights and clashes with mill owner John Thornton (Richard Armitage). Sinead Cusack and Tim Pigott-Smith co-star.

It was made in 2004 and is another period piece like the Jane Austin movies. I really enjoyed it.

The rain passed through. Didn't see the weather report. Don't know what they are predicting. Hope you are all having nice weather and will continue to have nice weather for Mother's Day tomorrow. :)

Friday-5pm

I got the cell phone cover for my Katana yesterday and I love it. Literally fits like a snap on glove! This is the front...

...this is the back. I can snap on a clip if I want to.

I don't have to remove the cover to use the side buttons or charge it. Just feel sturdier and protected now. :)

I spent most of yesterday off and on taking pictures of different things around the apartment for the EDM challenges. I seem to have an easier time copying something that is already two dimensional--chuckle! So, it is easier for me to snap a digital picture and print it off. That way, too, I can draw the challenges anywhere, any time because I have the pictures with me.

Then I spent some time snooping around online to find pictures of things I don't have in my apartment. They did suggest you could go look on Flickr.com for pictures to draw for the challenges--so I did. Was very interesting to see what strange things people post--hehe! I probably have at least 80% of the pictures I need for the 1o4 challenges I have left to do--oh my! :)

Thursday-11am

My Mother's Day present arrived yesterday! The Thermos hydration bottle on the right--which Dagan and Leah have been using for months for carrying around their water. When I saw the Sigg bottle online with the flip top I thought it would have a similar top to the hydration bottle that Dagan and Leah use.

Nope! It has this strange top that you have to press down on to get the water out...

...not a nice big spout like the hydration bottle. The Thermos bottle also has a button that pops the top off one-handed and the little lock that you see to secure the top in case the button is accidentally pushed if you are carrying it in a bag or something.

They both taste a lot better!! I didn't realize how much my water had that plastic taste until it was gone. For traveling in my bag--I will take the Thermos. Of course, it will keep the water colder for a long time also. Has an opening large enough to allow ice cubes, too.

The Sigg bottle does have another top you can buy that is a screw on plug with a hole on top for carrying on your finger, I guess. But that would be even less convenient to use I would think? I think the red bottle will stay by my bed. The Thermos bottle will be my constant companion. :)

It's a gorgeous, sunny day!

Through the EDM group I have located a Sumi-e painting group. Something else I have always wanted to learn but has been impossible to grasp (for me) with just books. Was planning on buying a DVD one day so I could actually watch somebody doing it. There is a very different way to hold the brushes--upright--and I knew that you needed to practice strokes repeatedly, etc. Well, from that group I was directed to YouTube--where they have lots of art demonstrations! And quite a few are the Chinese painting!! Makes a world of difference to actually see it done because it is nothing like any other painting I have ever seen. I have heard that it can take years to learn and gain the confidence in your brush strokes. I can certainly see why! Now I have another challenge--something else to experiment with and try to learn how to do decently. I am reading all the posts and learning a lot already about brushes and ink and paper and technique! A whole new world of painting!! :)

Well, they say learning helps keep the old brain in shape. At least maybe my brain will stay in shape--hehe!

Tuesday-12:45pm

Busy day yesterday. The Noodler's Ink and the blue Lamy pen arrived...

,,,along with the Sigg water bottle.

Dagan and Leah borrowed her mom's truck last night and brought over the little dresser...

and the maroon chair!

I thought Karma would be afraid of it. She stayed away from it until I sat in it. After that she investigated and smelled and pawed it. I think she actually likes the bouncing around! Never thought she'd like that! hehe!

I was sketching off and on yesterday and finally am able to post another spread in my Moleskine.

And in a few minutes Caroline will be here to clean, so this will be short today. My porch is drying out. No rain today! Have a good one!

Monday-2pm

I went to a couple of the new houses with Dagan and Leah yesterday. This first house (first three photos) they liked the large entryway with the living room off to the left. They probably wouldn't have the half walls, though--and Leah doesn't want carpeting--just all wood on that floor. They like the bi-level homes the best.

The second home--they like the combination of light and dark wood in the entryway. And they loved the modern kitchen. Not my cup of tea--but they love that style. :)

Then we went to Hom Furniture. The maroon chair was a floor sample, so it is a little dirty and is broken in. The wobble isn't as bad as I expected--so, if Leah can't fix it, it is okay to live with. I was more comfortable to sit in that the sage one. Had more padding on the seat so you didn't feel the metal bar so much. Decided to go ahead and get it. They ordered the additional nightstand and Dagan and I got pillows.

Now that they have the new bedroom set, Dagan doesn't need the little dresser anymore. So, they are going to bring it over here when they borrow Leah's mother's truck to pick up the furniture (probably tonight). The little dresser was made by a carpenter who was doing my sister's kitchen cabinets many years ago. Dagan was little and he made the dresser out of waterproof malmine (??-I think I have the name wrong--can't remember now) so that I could have it in the bathroom and not worry about Dagan splashing the dresser when he was playing in the bathtub. :) It is a smaller dresser. The carpenter even put wooden stops inside so that the drawers wouldn't accidently fall out on Dagan, either. I always felt that dresser was made with such care and love for Mr. Dagan--hehe! It is really heavy!! Going to put it in my bathroom here now.

Anyways, that was yesterday's jaunt! Cloudy today, but it is not raining. Not going anyplace today! :)