Family Portraits - Saturday, October 14, 2023

I woke up at 4 o'clock this morning and finally got up and turned on the coffee pot about a quarter to five.  My brain is fidgety today.  I over-worked it, and frustrated myself, yesterday and the day before, and the day before that.  And maybe even the day before that.

Monday, I decided to start a new drawing/painting that I've been pondering.  Back in the summer, when all the kids and grandkids were here, we had an impromptu concert on the back porch.  One of the daughters-in-law snapped a picture of me, The Husband, and our two sons playing our instruments, and from the moment I saw the picture, I wanted to paint it.  So I decided to give it a go.  

I did a #2 pencil drawing on an 11" x 14" sheet of mixed media paper.  The plan was to ink over the pencil lines and then paint with watercolors.  By the end of the day, the sketch was mostly finished, but I wasn't quite satisfied with it.  The reference picture did not show our legs and feet, so I'd had to imagine them, and something about them in the drawing was "off."  Also, Son #1's face (mostly in shadow and harder to see in the reference picture) would not cooperate.  

This was supposed to be a preliminary study that I would re-do on watercolor paper.  After spending so much time on the sketch, though, I dreaded re-drawing the whole thing.  Watercolor paper has a lot more texture, which is harder to draw on than the smoother mixed media paper.  I thought I might just paint the sketch, but I was worried that the mixed media paper would buckle when wet.  It seemed like a good idea to scan the sketch, print it on mixed media paper, and test-paint the copy to see how the paper held up.  

Well, guess what?  My scanner/printer isn't large enough to scan an 11 x 14 picture.  

The Husband said he believed the copy machine at his office would scan and print something that large, so Tuesday morning, I sent him to work with my original drawing and two sheets of mixed media paper.  I spent the rest of the day trying to fix the faces on the sketch I drew some time ago of my brother and father.  

The Husband had issues with copying the other sketch.  He used all 4 sides of those two sheets of paper and did not end up with one complete copy.  I took the sketch and two sheets of mixed media paper to work on Wednesday and managed to come home with one decent copy.  

Thursday, I discovered that the mixed media paper isn't ideal for the large, wet background washes I'd planned to do.  The painting either needs to be done on watercolor paper, or I need to use another medium.  I got out the light box and traced the sketch on watercolor paper.  Son #1's face still wasn't quite right.  I tried to amend it as I traced it, but it didn't work.  By Thursday night, I'd re-traced it again, but still wasn't quite happy with the faces.  And I'd decided there needed to be a dancing baby in an empty spot in the foreground.  (There was one running around here when the reference picture was taken.)  And perhaps something on the wall behind us instead of the tacky cabinet that actually sits there.  I did these experiments on the tracings to keep from ruining the original.

I ended up with a sketch and four unusable copies.  On one of the watercolor tracings, I tried to fix faces and ended up rubbing the surface off the paper.  And with each revision, I aged myself 10 years.  By the time I looked 90, I thought I'd better quit before I turned myself into a corpse.

The faces are still not right.  I got frustrated with the back porch pickers and set them aside and went back to work on Daddy and my brother.  Still haven't gotten them right.

MEANWHILE, next weekend is the charity event that inspired me to do animal drawings for greeting cards.  As of today, I do not have ONE usable card ready to go (though I do have some ready to print).  If I am to follow through with my plan, I will have to spend next week in high gear. 

If I had not already ordered a card rack, I might just ditch the card project.

I might ditch it, anyway.

Smokin' - Tuesday, October 10, 2023

For years, The Husband and I have planned to buy an electric smoker grill.  We say, "Let's get ourselves one for Christmas," and we shop online or in a store, and end up not making a decision.  A month or two ago, Son #2 gave us his old one.  Saturday, we put it to the test for the first time by grilling a pork butt.  It turned out great.  

Before the meat came off the grill, I texted The Sons and invited them and their families for dinner Sunday night.  When the allotted grilling time passed, we opened the smoker and discovered that the butt had seriously shrunk and would never feed as many people as I had invited.  So Sunday morning, I started a pot of bean soup, thawed some tamales, and made some slaw, then I went to the grocery store and bought some chicken strips for the kids who would likely not eat anything on the menu.  It was a bizarre smorgasbord, but we all got full, with enough leftovers that I won't have to cook for a night or two.

* * * * * * * *

Today (Tuesday) is my paint class day, but the shop owner is on vacation this week and cancelled the classes.  

Today is also the second Tuesday of the month, my former boss and I have a standing date to meet for lunch at noon on the second Tuesday of each month, but she is at the beach.

Got stood up twice in one day!

Since I had nowhere to go and nothing to do, I spent most of the day working on my brother's face.  A couple of months ago, I tried to recreate (in ink and watercolor) a black and white photograph of my brother and my dad holding a stringer of fish between them.  My dad was probably in his early 40s, and my brother was in his mid-teens.  My first attempt at drawing them failed pitifully.  Daddy looked like Daddy, but when he was 80, not when he was 40.  My brother looked like some random 10-year-old.  I re-drew the picture, scanned it, and tried to edit the scan on my computer.  I successfully younged-up Daddy, but the brother gave me fits.  In the original picture, he's not quite a kid, and not quite an adult.  Each new version of his face looked like someone in the family (particularly my Aunt Janice), but not him.  I kept trying.  At one point, Judd Hirsch appeared (erase), then PeeWee Herman (erase), then Dash Riprock (erase).   I finally hit on something that looks *remotely* like the original picture and am gonna roll with it.  Maybe.

Cool Spell - Friday, October 6, 2023

When I staggered through the living room this morning on my way to the coffee pot, I heard the weatherman say, "...so don't call me when you're out tonight and it turns cold all of a sudden."  People in a local garden chat group are asking if they should bring their plants in tonight.  

I am not mentally ready for cold weather, and I don't know what to do with the two plants - a cyclamen and a mother-in-law tongue - that have lived on the back porch this summer.

We have been fighting gnats in the house all summer, catching them in bowls of apple cider vinegar mixed with dish detergent, a tiny bit of sugar, and water.  I understand that there is a gnat that feeds on soil fungus, and I am worried that when I bring the porch plants inside, more gnats will come inside with them.  

I raked my first wagonload of leaves this week.  The tulip poplar in the front yard is shedding leaves, and they collect along the edges of the driveway.  I raked them up and put them in the compost bin, which is almost empty since we moved its contents to the vegetable garden a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday's rain should help the decomposition process.  

I am keeping a close eye on the sweet gum trees this year.  In March, a tornado took out the giant sweet gum tree in our side yard, and while the tree cutters were here, we had them take out five other ones that were growing around it.  The removal of these trees should put a serious dent in the number of sweet gumballs that we contend with each spring, but there are still sweet gums growing on the other side of the yard, and they drop a lot of gumballs, too.  The Husband and I don't agree on how to deal with them.  I think we ought to clean them up as they fall; he thinks we should wait until spring and get them all at once, since they don't all drop at once.  I'm watching them this year to see what they do as the fall progresses.  They're still green and hanging tight to the trees for now.  If they suddenly dump a big batch of gumballs at once, I'm going after them before they get pounded into the ground by rain and snow.

* * * * * * * * 

This week, I spent some time analyzing where I am on the greeting card project.  So far, I've printed, like, TWO suitable cards but have used up most of my cardstock.  In my defense, there are more cards ready to print, but I'm waiting to print them until all of the test-printing is done using the off-brand ink in the printer.  This morning, I ordered more cardstock.  When everything is in final form and my new cardstock arrives, I'll install the new ink cartridges and have a print-a-thon.

After thinking about how they might be displayed, I ordered a 24-card tabletop display rack.  

See how this charity project is draining my craft funds?

But I am thinking that if the cards go over well, I might try to actually sell some at other venues.  This will at least give me something to do over the winter.  

Rain - Thursday, October 5, 2023

Yesterday was a busy day.  I left the house at 6 a.m. to pick up my daughter-in-law and drive her to a doctors appointment.  After a bit of unexpected detouring because of construction, we arrived at the doctor's office on time.  I sat in the waiting room, planning to read my Kindle book, while she met with the doctor.  A few minutes later, more people began streaming in.  

As I sat there reading, I heard a big snore from behind me.  I tried not to turn around and gawk, but all over the room, people's heads raised and looked in my direction.  I turned around, too, so they'd know it wasn't I who had made the noise.  Behind me, a man wearing a baseball cap with the brim pulled down over his eyes, was slumped in his chair with his chin on his chest.  

All of us on-lookers smiled at each other and went back to our books and magazines.  The guy continued to snore.  Big, gurgling snorky sounds that wo uld embarrass you in church.  I felt sorry for the guy, for he had not been there more than five minutes; he had to have been exhausted to have fallen asleep that fast.

After a while, a nurse came out and called, "Mr. Rogers?"  (Seriously.)  No one answered.  She called his name again.  Still no answer.  When it looked like she was about to give up, I waved to catch her attention, and when she noticed me, I hooked my thumb out and motioned behind me.  I mouthed, "He's asleep."  The nurse smiled and came over, touched him on the knee, and woke him up.  He startled and said, "I work nights!" and followed her to an office.  I hope he made it home okay.

The Daughter-in-Law got a good report (and was cleared to drive).  Before we left the big city, we made a quick stop by the hobby store.  I just needed one tube potters pink watercolor paint.  The store did not have that color - in fact, their watercolor paint selection (a store brand, I think) was pretty unimpressive - but - well, you know how it is.  A person like me doesn't walk into a store like that a come out empty-handed.  I got a pen, some nice hot-press watercolor paper, and a tube of olive green paint.

Yesterday was to have been my regular "office day," and I had expected to go to the office after returning from the doctor visit.  I'd left my office laptop at home so that it wouldn't get stolen from my car, so after I took my daughter-in-law to her house, I had to come home to gather my work materials.  Before I could get out the door, my phone rang with some business calls, and I ended up setting my stuff down and just working from home for the rest of the day.  

Toward the end of the day, I swatched. It was the new olive green tube of paint that started it.  I wanted to see what color it was on paper.  This led me to dig out all of my olive greens to compare them.  They were each a different color and texture.  This led me to do the same comparison with all of the colors in my tube paint stash, and then I added some from the paint pan sets.  I even did the swatches on a nice chart, labeling each color and brand.  It was good exercise, good practice.  

* * * * * * * * 

A nice, gentle rain is falling this morning.  We need it.  Last week when I went to the vegetable garden to get dirt for a soil test, the dirt was dry as a bone.  The mustard greens I'd planted a week or two ago were starting to come up, but not as thickly as I had expected.  Also sprouting were purple hull peas from the dried pea vines that The Husband had tilled into the soil when we cleaned up the garden.  Maybe this rain will bring the mustard on up.  Unless we have a r-e-a-l-l-y long, really warm autumn, the peas won't have time to make; we'll just till them and the mustard back into the soil, come spring. 

As I was roaming around the yard yesterday, I noticed that there was a large brown section of limbs in our pink spirea bush, and for probably the first time in the 20 years since the bush was first planted, I watered it, well and deeply.  

I'd just been pulling weeds from the flower bed along the north side of the back porch and noted how dry the soil was, and since I was standing nearby with the water hose in my hand, I decided to give that bed a good soaking.  When the water hit the soil, a little pencil-sized snake slithered out from under the leaves of that bed and into the bed of monkey grass that edges the patio.  The snake was too quick for me to get a good look at it, but it was tan, with some sort of pattern on its back.  It was likely either a rat snake or a copperhead.  

I HAD JUST BEEN TROMPING AROUND IN THAT BED.  In sandals.  

I turned the hose on full blast and aimed a jet at the monkey grass, trying to run the snake off, but if he left the vicinity to escape the pounding, I did not see it.  

For the rest of the season, I shall not be working in the yard without my boots.  

Horsemanship - October 2, 2023

Our weekend road trip to watch Granddaughter #1 ride a horse was fun, certainly something outside of our regular routine.  

We were on the road by 4:45 Saturday morning.  It was a 4-hour drive.  We followed our daughter-in-law and Granddaughters 2, 3, and 4 to Bowling Green.  Granddaughter #1 came from college with her equestrian club.

Earlier in the week, #1 discovered that she needed chaps to dress properly for the event.  She ordered some online and they arrived in time but were a tad too small.  We stuffed her in them, anyway.  After Saturday's event was over, we learned that a strap - one that holds the chaps together - had broken.  Since it was a 2-day event and #1 would need the chaps again the next day, I decided that I would try to fix them.

We went to a hobby store and bought leather needles, hand-quilting thread, and a thimble.  The chaps are black; the store did not have black quilting thread, but I had a black Sharpie in my bag and figured I could disguise the repair with it.  It took a bit of elbow grease, but I sewed (and glued) the strap back on and colored the thread with the Sharpie so that the repair was invisible.  

The chaps held together for Sunday's event.  When it was #1's turn to ride, we stuffed her into them again, and she won her first ribbon for horsemanship.

We pulled in our driveway at 6 p.m. Sunday.  After having sat all weekend long, either in the truck or on the hard, dust-covered bleachers in the arena, and having climbed those bleachers multiple times in pursuit of an energetic 2-year-old, we both groaned in pain as we slid out of the truck.  

It was a fun and interesting weekend.  The Husband grew up with horses, and he knew a little bit about riding etiquette, but I did not, and so I learned something.  And getting to hang out with The Granddaughters all weekend was fun.

I think there's another event coming up this weekend, one that's maybe only 2 hours away.  We will probably go to that one, too, in case another strap breaks.  ;)

  

Weekend Getaway - September 29, 2023

You know you're getting old when you plan your weekend getaways around watching the grandchildren compete in sports.

Granddaughter #1, who went off to college six weeks ago, loves animals and wants to be a veterinarian.  Her college advisor told her that participating in some campus clubs could help her get in vet school when the time comes.  Loving horses, she chose to join an equestrian group.  This weekend, the club will be going to Bowling Green, KY for a riding event.  We are planning to drive up there tomorrow to watch her ride.  Her first event is at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, so we have to get moving early to make it to Bowling Green in time for the event.  

I have a few things to do before we go.  Two weeks ago, #1 sent me a picture from her telephone and asked if I could put it on a sweatshirt for her (her roommate wants one, too).  From a local shop, I ordered two sweatshirts in the school color (a putrid orange).  From another shop, I ordered a heat-press transfer for the design.  The shirt shop ordered long-sleeved t-shirts instead of sweatshirts.  <sigh>  They have ordered the correct shirts, which MIGHT be here today.  If the shirts don't come in today, I will buy the t-shirts, use the transfers on them, take them to her tomorrow, and order more transfers for when the sweatshirts arrive.

Anything for a grandchild, right?

* * * * * * * * 

A couple of months ago, I joined a Facebook group for watercolor artists.  In late August, the moderator issued a challenge:  sketch something - anything - every day during the month of September to improve skills and post the sketches in the forum.  I took on the challenge and am pleased to report that, so far, I have sketched every day.  Several of my sketches even turned into finished paintings that I might be able to use for my greeting card project (which is currently getting nowhere when it comes to actually printing the cards).  

Last night I discovered "Inktober."  Same deal as sketchtember, only with ink.  AND the Inktober challenge comes with daily prompt words, such as "dream," "wander," and "scratchy."  I will probably take on this challenge, too, because I can see that the sketchtember challenge improved my skills and self-discipline (a trait I lack).  

As I was reading through the list of prompts, I began to relate them to a drawing/painting I did yesterday, a picture of a raccoon, sitting up on his hind legs, holding a persimmon.  I decided to create a story around the drawing, using the words from the Inktober prompts.  

Talk about a rabbit hole.

Within minutes of the idea, I was searching Latin names for the critters in my story.  (My raccoon is a procyon lotor, in case you're interested.)  Link-hopping led me to creation stories involving all sorts of animals.  My brain is exploding with ideas, which is not necessarily a good thing, because it side-tracks me from my mission to . . . .

What is it I'm supposed to be doing?

 

Wednesday - blah - September 27, 2023

Yesterday did not turn out like I planned.  

I had gathered up my stuff for the painting class and was about to head out the door when my telephone rang.  It was my daughter-in-law, asking if I would take her to the doctor.  I dropped my art stuff on the table and headed to her house.  It was not a 5-alarm crisis (more like a 3), but we spent the biggest part of the day at the doctor's office as they worked her in.  

It was nearly suppertime when I got home.  I warmed up some leftovers and piddled around with pencils and papers until bedtime.

Today was office day.  I took an early lunch and went to the local agricultural extension office to get a soil test kit.  We have tilled so much stuff into the vegetable garden soil - cardboard, pine needles, compost - that there's no telling what the nutrient situation is like.  Tomorrow after work I will go dig dirt for the soil test and try to get it in the mail Friday.