OK, so my artists pens came and I was able to outline the designs. I intentionally left some small edges unpainted as highlights.
For the next one, the workbook offered two options. Leave the leaves and stems unpainted:
Or wash them with three different colors (slate, sage and stone):
My husband says the first one looks unfinished, but I kind of like it better. Do you really need to have every bit of the surface painted to give the vibe of a certain plant?
It is currently 4 degrees Fahrenheit in Minneapolis and both the current and former ministers of my Unitarian Universalist Church in Massachusetts are there to answer a call to clergy.
I hope the media will cover their act of courage.
I’d like to say that what we’re seeing in Minnesota—and now Maine—is not America, except it is. This is what Trump voters wanted. He was perfectly clear on this.
He’s even got the coat.
I somewhat resisted the whole Fuck ICE thing. I haven’t been to any protests specifically targeting ICE. I’ve been more concerned about women’s rights, abortion, democracy and healthcare.
But what I’m seeing now has pushed me right over the edge.
FUCK ICE
This is not the America our grandparents fought for.
I’ve run into a bit of a problem with my Watercolors Workbook. The book is designed to have you ink the outlines of the various botanicals before painting. I did that with my pen and ink set, but too late discovered that my ink is not waterproof! The ink went everywhere once I hit it with the watercolor paint. I decided to try inking AFTER painting but I don’t love the result:
I then tried one without inking at all. It’s OK, but I decided to go ahead and order some waterproof black artists pens, as the author suggested.
I like some of the techniques I learned doing the eucalyptus and the dahlia: leaving some areas white to highlight; darkening petal bases with wet in wet color (dark into light); and layering over dry paint with a different color for a cool, translucent effect.
Hopefully my new pens arrive today.
Playlist:
When you were Mine – Prince
Alison – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
These are Days – 10,000 Maniacs
My Life – Billy Joel
REM – (forgot which song)
The Cars – (forgot which song)
Pearl Jam – Better Man
In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel
Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
These are songs Alexa plays for you when you start by asking for a Prince song you like to dance to.
Any other GenX Grandparents out there? What songs/bands are you gonna make sure your grandkids hear?
Beatles (obviously)
What else??
It’s 26 degrees Fahrenheit. We got about two inches of snow yesterday.
Posted for John’s Cellpic Sunday
As I posted about (a lot), I took a watercolors class last semester and really enjoyed it. I got a lot of nice feedback, both in person and from the very supportive readers of my blog. I put a couple of my paintings in frames (frames that I already owned—not new ones), and my daughter even hung one set of 5x7s on the wall in her living room.
I decided to register for another watercolors class this semester, with a different teacher. Even though I liked my teacher last semester, I wanted to try someone else because I feel like you learn different things from different teachers—especially in the arts. But, lo and behold, the class I chose was canceled due to under-enrollment. So, lesson learned: some arts teachers have followings. If you choose one who doesn’t have regulars (people who re-enroll each term), your class might get canceled.
Rather than scrambling to find another class, I took the refund.
But, I do want to keep going so I’m doing a watercolor “workbook” that my very thoughtful daughter gave me for Christmas.
It focuses on botanicals (which is a sub genre of watercolors, like landscapes) and is fairly structured, compared to the free spirit teacher I had last semester. I’m sure I’ll learn some new things. First step was to swatch out all my colors and then mix new colors according to the author’s recipes.
If you’re an older GenX American woman like me, you have feelings about Martha Stewart.
Maybe you liked her in the 80s and had a few linen skirts that looked just like hers. In the 90s, maybe you started to find her annoying when your friends threw over-the-top wedding showers that made you feel inadequate. Then maybe you were indignant that authorities had the GALL to put Martha in JAIL in 2004 on ridiculous charges and she took it like a champ and helped the other women she met in the slammer.
And maybe after that, you found Martha & Snoop an amusing duo and realized that no matter what she does, you will pay attention because she is Martha Stewart. And you are not.
On that note, I made Martha Stewart’s Cacio E Pepe With Lemon last night. Yes, I was annoyed that the “Grana Padano” cheese she uses is not readily available in stores. The Whole Foods cheese guy hadn’t even heard of it. How very Martha! (I substituted Parmigiano-Reggiano and it was fine.) And yes, I was irritated that I had to grind 4 teaspoons of pepper by hand, because everyone knows that when Martha calls for “freshly cracked pepper” she means it. And finally, NO I did not happen to have a MEYER lemon on hand, but thankfully Martha made it clear that any lemon would do.
The result was good. Very good.
I doubled the recipe so I could use the whole package of spaghetti, rather than half.
I’m still getting over the high drama of last week which was a major paradigm shift in my family of origin, although it harkens back to something I recently reflected on as part of a Thursday Doors post (of all things).
I went to online guided meditation on Friday and it did help calm me, as I had hoped. I keep thinking of the last thing my minister said as she led us into our breathing:
“A present moment is a happy moment.”
It’s a great sentence to return you to your inhale. And then I find I just sort of naturally smile a bit on the exhale when I think of that sentence. It’s been helpful this week.
And then that same minister gave a great sermon on Sunday entitled “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” She is so smart and funny and very GenX in all her cultural references. I love Rev Lara! Her sermon starts at minute 26:30 in this video, if you want to check it out.
I felt so grateful to be in my church community on Sunday.
The other MAJOR good thing is that my husband really seems to have turned the corner in his knee replacement recovery. It’s been SEVEN long weeks, but he can actually walk around Costco with me now. We’ve been out to movies and restaurants a few times. He still keeps the knee elevated and on ice a LOT, but needs the pain drugs way less. (Sadly, he needs to have the other knee replaced in March, but at least he’ll know what he’s getting into next time.)
Another good thing is that we had a fun family Zoom with my husband’s side of the family on Sunday, with three new additions on the screen (my granddaughter and two other toddlers). My in-laws are a very good group overall. By no means perfect, but a solid family. No MAGA. No Trumpers. We’re spread all the way down the East Coast from Boston to NYC to DC to Orlando, so we don’t get to see each other much, but they are THERE and I’m grateful.
Also, I get to see BOTH my son and my daughter and my granddaughter this week…AND possibly all of us together on Saturday for a trip to the Aquarium, which would be a Grandma dream come true. 🤞🏼
I’m so grateful for my husband, my son, my daughter and her family, my in-laws, and my church family.
AND I’m also extremely grateful for the support from my WordPressBlog Community. I really can feel it, which is wild. Stephanie, May, CJ, Edward, Andrea, Liz, Shelly & MyGenExerLife and anyone who sent me silent good vibes—thank you 🫶
Oh. My. God. I have undergone the most incredible, emotional family drama over the past five days, I can’t even tell you!
Thankfully I have two awesome friends, a supportive husband, and two wonderful children, who helped me make it through to its dramatic conclusion today.
Someday, I will write a post about what happened, but not today.
Please send calming vibes my way. I need to get my heart rate back to normal and start sleeping and eating again.
The fact of that matter is that the personal situation I’ve been alluding to is very serious emotionally.
My boundary setting over the holidays has resulted in the ending of relationships that I thought were unbreakable.
I’m grieving people who are still alive. I’m very upset. I can’t move on quickly from this. And it comes at a challenging time with my husband still struggling with pain from his surgery. It feels like people chose to kick me when I was down.
It sucks.
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