Practice makes…well, passable? I will have to keep working at it. Maybe in ten years, I’ll be good at this. lol
So I’m spending the morning with my granddaughter and daughter, last time and then she’s back to regular hours and I have little one on Tues and Wed this coming week. No wonder I get some mixed up on my days. I’ll take her Friday morning for about 3 hours too, but then it’s writing time for me. So is today.
I can’t figure out what to do on the story. I still don’t have any real mystery. I’m trying to keep murder and mayhem out of the Christmas story. It’s really hard for me to do. lol
Okay, I’m off to get ready. Did my walk, it was nice out. Yay! But it’s going to be another scorcher today.
So this morning, I was getting the garbage out, killing fire ants getting into my house with boiling water, and then here comes little one, early. lol So I switched gears and had to find something for her to eat since her daddy didn’t feed her. She’s having a granola bar and I fixed eggs for her because, even though she didn’t want any, as soon as I fix myself one, she wants two. I top them with shredded cheese and mine had mushrooms. Add some orange tomatoes and it’s great!
Then she wants a towel. Her hands are a mess. She knows how to use a fork, but she wasn’t. While I’m wiping off her hands, I said, “Do you know how little hands get messy like this?”
She looks up at me, waiting to hear how.
“When you don’t use your fork to eat your food. Humans use forks.”
She laughs. I don’t think she has the concept of humans down pat yet. There are wolf shifters and there are humans. That should be known from birth.
Okay, I’m back to getting stuff done. I had been getting edits done and I did do several lessons on the oil painting last night. I have to say I’m lousy at it. But, I am still trying to figure out the Wacom. I swear I tell my hand to curve the strokes one way and it goes straight, curve another way and it goes in the opposite direction.
I know that practice makes perfect, so I did all the original samples we were supposed to do again before going on to the next lesson. Then I started the new lessons. I love the background one. At least for yesterday’s, I did really good on it. And when I can do that, it encourages me to practice more backgrounds and I’ll get better. I have 3 more practice ones to go.
The background I did and the tulip abstract. I’m sure if they were critiqued, still haven’t figured out how to send them in for them, they will be torn apart, but I didn’t think they were too bad! For trying to master the unmasterable Wacom pen and doing painting at the same time, none of which I’ve done before. 🙂 And I’ve never tried an abstract before, that was fun.
I’m going to try and set up a “preschool” of sorts for little one since she’s three and the kids will be doing virtual school at home for a few weeks. I just need to get more organized and do it in more of consistent manner. I homeschooled both my kids, so it’s fun.
Have a great and safe day! We’re off to get ready for some fun!
I captured this picture of the eel at Omaha zoo. Isn’t it beautiful? It’s art in and of itself.
Little one will be here soon and I’ll be busy today, but I’m hoping to finally get back to doing a little of the “oil” painting techniques I haven’t been able to do. Instead, I’ve been writing–5,000 words on Sunday, 5,000 on Monday and 4,000 words on Tuesday. Since today isn’t a writing day, surely I can get in a few paint strokes. Though I still hope to get about 500 words in tonight after she goes home. We shall see. I finally caught up from all the days I missed in the beginning and the extra babysitting days that were unplanned. Yay!
We had more rain! We are supposed to have more today late this afternoon. Yay! It helps to break up the miserably hot, sunny days. The temperature is going back up again by Friday, so I’m enjoying the cooler days. I need to weed more, but I’ve got to run an errand first thing this morning, so I’ve taken my walk, put out the garbage, fed the dogs, all that routine stuff, and oh, yeah, I did pull up some spent sunflowers.
I wrote 5,000 words yesterday! Yay! I’m over halfway done. Like by 2,000. Not like near the end. But when I started, I have to remind myself, I didn’t have anything close to 42,000, so I’ve come a long way, baby.
I was so behind on writing last week–had little one on Monday and Wednesday and Friday and Saturday. I had planned to get my 3,000 on Saturday after she went home. I only managed a 1,000 words after taking care of little one until 10 and then we all got together and they took her home at 11. I was so tired, I didn’t get much done. Even so, on Sunday I ended up filling a 40 gal bag of weeds before I really sat down to write 5,000 words yesterday.
Which proves to me that I can do both and still get a lot of writing done. So no excuses!
Well, it cooled down a little, which gave me the bright idea of weeding first thing this morning when it’s light enough to see. It also had rained yesterday a couple of times–yay! Which makes it easier–kind of–to pull out weeds. Before long, the sun was bearing down on me, no breeze, fire ants all over the place, and though I filled up a 40 gal bag with weeds and grass, I still need to do a lot more. But I figured if I expired on the spot, I wouldn’t get any more done either.
Hyacinth Bean Flowers I Discovered the Hummingbirds Love
So I’m back inside trying to cool off, drinking tons of water. I check the weather. Feels like 86 degrees and we have mostly cloudy. NO WAY. It’s more like fully sunny with a hint of cloud if you look really hard to find them.
Hot. Hot. Hot. And Muggy.
Okay, I’m back to my regularly scheduled writing. Have a great day and don’t believe everything the weatherman says!
So I told my daughter I’d take little one overnight next Friday night, but she changed the days I was going to have her from Monday and Wednesday to Wednesday and Thursday. Then I’d have her Friday and Saturday and wouldn’t get any writing done for 3 1/2 days. So I took her yesterday afternoon through today instead.
“Do you want to sleep on your mat in the living room?” I asked little one at 8:30 last night.
“Yes.”
Everything is set up. I know how this goes. She wants to be in there until she doesn’t. And then I have to move her mat into my bedroom. So yep, next thing I know, she’s tried to move her mat on her own, gets it hung up on the coffee table, and she’s stuck. So Grandma goes out, grabs her mat, all her stuffed toys, her blankets, sets her up near the bed.
I bring in my laptop, hoping I can work a little later on the story. It’s already 9 pm.
“I want to come in bed with you,” she says.
“In just a few minutes. Let me finish this.” I hope she’ll sleep on her mat. I am a super light sleeper and she’ll keep me awake. I hope she falls asleep while I’m working on the story.
I don’t get anywhere, can’t concentrate and close up my laptop. She’s sound asleep on the carpet next to her mat. I have pillows next to the mat so she doesn’t roll off, even though it’s only a few inches high, so I suspect she was sitting next to it waiting for me to allow her into bed with me and fell asleep. I’m afraid to move her and wake her. So I turn off her lullaby machine, yay! No wonder I couldn’t write. And then hope I can sleep with her stars and moon lights racing across the ceiling over and over and over again.
I can’t. But I know if she wakes and it’s not on, she’ll be scared. I try to sleep. I can’t. It doesn’t matter. I’ll hand her off today after her parents have time to sleep in. And then I’ll take a nap. Can’t sleep. Can’t sleep. 11 pm, she cries out with a nightmare.
“I’m right here.” And I reach out my arms and she’s in bed with me for the rest of the night. I think I slept for about 2 hours. Then I hear this whale like sound. I’ve been listening for the rain that never comes. Didn’t come yesterday. Didn’t come Thursday. Is the whale like sound Tanner? How could a little Havanese sound like a whale?
I don’t want to get up yet. Little one is still sleeping. I want one of us well rested at least. And I’m just resting my eyes.
Whale sound again. Little whimper from Max. I know they need to go out, but they won’t go and do their business outside without me. It all has to do with when they were puppies and I didn’t have a fenced-in yard.
But if I get up, it will wake little one, and then she needs to go to the bathroom, be fed, then the dogs taken out, and fed, and taken out. I just want everyone–but me–to sleep a little longer.
Whale sound.
Little one stretches a couple of times. Looks over at me. Okay, it’s time to get up, let the dogs out, though they just come right back in waiting for me to come out with them.
This is going to be a long morning, but we had fun yesterday, and after I feed the dogs, get her dressed, let the dogs out again, I hope to take her for a walk because…there’s no rain.
Have a super great day!!! Mine is off to a tired start!
Sun, sun, go away, come again another day. It’s so nice to have clouds that help to cool it down just a wee bit. I love clouds and can stop whatever I’m doing when some interesting clouds appear and take pictures. All blue skies? Whatever. Add some clouds and you’ve added some interest.
Yesterday, we had Florida clouds. No, they didn’t come from Florida, but they reminded me of them when I lived there. Big white fluffy clouds and big blue skies. Really pretty. We would wish for rain, and sometimes they would turn dark and we would have a major storm. Then they would evaporate and it was steamier than before.
Most of these are pictures I’ve taken in my neighborhood. The one over the water I think was in Scotland.
Capture the clouds at sunset or sunrise, and even prettier.
Captured at Disney World a few years back.
Okay, I’m doing stuff with my daughter and granddaughter this morning. Two more weeks of my daughter having off and then working long days during the week to make up for it. After that, she’s back to working 5 days a week and shorter days, so no more Friday play days. We didn’t used to get together every Friday over the summer like this. She had things to do. With COVID-19, the whole world has changed.
Have a great day and we’re supposed to be getting storms in from the Gulf. More clouds! Right now, it’s sunny, sunny, sunny.
Giant yellow swallowtail. Pelicans? I included the before of the bird picture also to show what a difference it made. The swallowtail is recent, the pelicans were at a zoo in Omaha and no, I haven’t been going to zoos of late. These are all old pictures I’ve never shared. It’s fun taking a ho-hum picture and making something new and interesting out of it.
We were supposed to have 80% rain yesterday, we had none. So today, no rain. Tomorrow, rain. A system in the Gulf might bring us rain. We’ll see. I didn’t get to capture them, but we had some beautiful thunderheads.
I couldn’t write yesterday because of little one. I went over and had dinner with them, so I only managed 349 words on the book. Today, I will have to do better!
I have a hummingbird visiting the hyacinth bean flowers. Who would ever have thought! I haven’t been able to capture it either. I was about a foot away from it the other day, camera in the house. lol
I’ve been pulling dead holly, 🙁 , and pulling some of my milkweed that’s grown into a jungle and lots of grass and weeds since it was cooler yesterday and we had an inch of rain, yay!
But I was thinking about what someone said to me about trying to help others with creating photo art and she really appreciated that I would do that. I thought everyone would do it! I really just started using the textures with success this past March, but before that, I had been doing a couple of years of composites and learning how to really take better photos. I’ve been offering how I do it and several thanked me for my tips.
I’ve watched a ton of Youtube tutorials to learn how to do some things, but through trial and error, and lots and lots and lots of practice, I found what works for me. It’s like with writing, I’ve offered lots of advice to writers over the years. I don’t feel it’s something I have to worry about being in competition with anyone over. When I have time, I like being able to help others. I have noticed when someone asks someone how they did something on their photo art, some either don’t answer, or give such a vague answer, no one would be able to figure out how to do it with their own pictures. It’s like a secret recipe for success and they don’t want to share. But even if they shared, which I was hopeful one would, lol, what I did with it wouldn’t look anything like what they did with it because our base pictures and any textures we added would make them completely different.
Like with stories, photos and creating photo art, we all have a different “spin” on it. We have different life experiences. We have different ways of seeing things. When we create our works–no matter the media–it will still be our own. No competition. Different. And that is what makes each and every one of us special.
Okay, little one will be over here soon and when she is I will totally forget to post this!
Have a beautiful day and hope you are staying safe.
That’s the way I feel when going out in this heat!
So I was pondering something the other day when I was with my granddaughter–mixed messages. I still call her baby sometimes. I try not to. It just slips out. She’s officially the age of a pre-schooler now, no longer a toddler. Sometimes she’s a little girl. “You’re too little to do that. You’re a little girl.” Then at other times, “You’re not a baby. You don’t do that any longer.” Then, “You’re a big girl. See how you can do that?”
lol
I was out pulling up some milkweed that had taken over. One of my rosebushes looks pretty sad. I want to cut it way back, but I don’t think this is the right time to do it. We were supposed to have rain yesterday, then no chance of rain, then it rained. Yay! 80% chance of rain today. It was sprinkling while I was out.
Okay, I’m off to write. I managed to get 1200 words after little one left–49,000 to go. Sounds much better than 80K, which is the minimum.
