Sketching, Surgery and FOOD

Hello again.  Life is rumbling along.  This morning we are off to the hospital for him to have foot surgery.  He has a cyst/bulge/bunion/something on the side of his foot that has been bothering him for some time.  It makes the dancing painful.  Weirdly enough his middle brother had the same thing a few years ago.  So today, I am packed up for hurry-up-and-wait day.  I've got counted-cross stitch ornament, journal, sketching journal and pencils, my Kindle, I am ready for sitting and waiting.  We have to be there at 9:15 and surgery is 11:30.  They also said it will be a 4-6 hour surgery!  What the heck.  I also packed a lunch and a few munchies for me to make it through the day.  He said he will be ready to eat a bear when done but who knows.  I'm expecting to be out about dinner time and I'm also ready to cook.  

FYI, I am down 11 pounds today!  That is pretty exciting.  I've been stuck at 10 pounds for nearly 2 weeks but suddenly the scale shifted.  I've really, REALLY been trying to be dedicated to what I am eating and it's been pretty easy.  

Last week I cooked a pork butt in the crock pot and we got three meals out of it, with one of the meals with three other people.  It was $10 and stretched nicely. I made pulled pork over mashed cauliflower which was so tasty.  He loved it.  A couple days later I made pozole verde for 5, another home run.  The Friday evening I made pork and cheese quesadillas.  The verde part of the last two meals was my favorite find of Herdez Salsa Verde!  OMG, my new favorite salsa.  

I used it in the pozole and to dip the quesadillas in.

Last night I had shrimp, a half package of grape tomatoes, "j"arlic, 2 sad stalks of celery, 1/4 cup of white wine, salt & pepper.  I served it over mashed riced cauliflower with lemon, adding a splash of cream and butter, S&P.  OMG, this was tasty too.  So, this low carb thing is really working.  

A Lighter Post

 Sketching continued:

Still Remodel Hell

MORNING!  It is a glorious morning of STILL IN REMODEL MODE!  The painters will soon arrive to continue taping and prepping the windows for paint.  We're afraid that the may leave to finish up a job at OSU they came from.  The Hubby said that they are here only because that job is waiting for the electricians to finish their work and when they do they are OFF!  NOOooooooooo!!!!  They can't leave us hanging with no way to hang curtains and living with a sheet on the window.  I'm so fearful this is going to drag out forever and I at the point of blowing.  Yesterday the brother-in-law and his hubby popped in the help measure and decide which drapes and hardware to order.  I was so happy to see them as it's been since Easter that we laid eyes on them.  I miss them so much.  They helped us measure and find the perfect drapes for the front bedroom and our bedroom.  I am so glad to get that done and just wait for it all to be delivered. 

I have been sketching a little sketch every day so yesterday was my Daddy.  I love it.  Today is the rooster.  He was so much fun.  I was up again at 4:30 today so by 6:30 I was sketching.  It's funny, there is a couple of old guy on FB who are quite happy to share their opinion on my sketches.  Good grief!

 

This and That Monday

Good morning all.  Lots to chat about.  First is the sketch for the day.  I did it at 6:30 this morning because I was awake at 4 AM!!!  Honestly I dozed off about 10:30 last night and didn't wake up till 4 so I guess that's good, not even to pee!  My first thought as my eyes opened was, yes it is still dark outside but my there is an awful lot of light streaming through that damn sheet!  We have a fairly thin sheet over the newly installed window until we get something else to cover it.  I took him to task yesterday about why he says that the shutters are too expensive over what we've already spent on everything we've done plus more to come. I fessed up he really does not like shutters, but I said I DO and that is really what I want.  I've thought about it and thought about it, and I've looked at drapes but I really want shutters.  If I go ahead and let him win and have to look at the drapes for the rest of my life I will be sad and unhappy about the decision.  He has had his way on so much other stuff, the windows, the garage, which I had no say so about.  These shutters are what I need to make a decision on.  

And to be clear, most of the time this man of mine is absolutely oblivious to most of his surroundings.  He would not have made a good cop because he is not observant.  I mean I walked out of the house this morning and I can tell you that as I walked past him he didn't even notice what I was even wearing. If I went missing and they asked him to describe what I was wearing he would be at a loss.  I sat next to him for a couple of hours a few days ago and sketched and he never, NEVER saw me do it later when I showed it to him, asking when I did it.  GOOD GRIEF CHARLIE BROWN!  Yet he obsesses over how the forks and spoons in the silverware drawer are laying, spending an inordinate amount of time making them perfect.  He notices if I move his chair in the slightest.  He notices if we run low on toilet paper, paper towels, mustard not even LOOKING IN THE PANTRY.  I have to get up and look for him because if I give him directions: "third shelf down on the long shelves in the basket," he still can't see it.  After nearly 49 years sometimes it just makes me a bit crazy, but I love him and endure it all, even the snoring and kicking feet and legs every single night when he comes to bed before I can fall asleep. 

Another thing, different subject.  In November I wrote about an incident that happened with my friend, my best friend.  It is still taking a toll on me and I am still angry.  Angry at her, angry at the situation, just angry and not feeling being a friend anymore.  She stood me up and not for the first time.  There have been lots and lots of other stuff that has set my teeth on edge but basically, I'm done.  At least done in the bestie department, but still a friend.  We just do not run in the same circles anymore, we haven't even spoken, SPOKEN to each other in nearly two years and we live miles from each other, but I digress.  Saturday was her birthday and I wanted to just say Happy Birthday to her and wasn't sure how to do it so I just posted on FB HB, knowing that she would respond.  All along she has sent me weird texts, maybe comment on a FB post but that's all after nearly a year.  I have been waiting for at least a phone call to apologize but it never happened.  So I posted HB and she responded with  " Thank you, dear one. Lunch next week? I will pick you up at your preferred location. I promise to grovel. I miss you."  Well, that kind of sent me into a bit of a quandary in my head.  I didn't know how to respond.  I do not want to see her.  I'm still angry and not sure I want to make her cry and see it and that is what would happen if I did.  So I reached out to my girls for assistance and they were great help.  So yesterday I wrote her a note.  A note you ask.  Well, for one thing she never EVER reads her email and text messages can go for days without a reply and frankly, I think that would be tacky to do a sort of "Dear John" letter via tex.  So I sat down an wrote to her explaining I needed a break, I needed to heal, that my expectations of her in this friendship are just not something she is capable of, nor does she know that I have them, which is unfair to her.  We have just grown too far apart and that is quite sad but it is what it is and I am not really sad about it.  We had a great friendship while it lasted but sometimes they can run their course and sometimes find their way back, much like my bestie from high school.  We've reconnected and it's like we were never apart, but it took time, time I need again from this other friend.  I certainly hope she understands. 

Renovation and Sketching

Good morning.  It's been a minute for sure.  Just seems like it is just one thing after another lately.  The saga that is our home rejuvenation is still ongoing.  The last post was the water in the offices and it was the day we had our new garage door installed.  By the way, the office flooding, all is good.  The computer and printer are all up and running fine.  Thank goodness.  This week it has been the installation of all new windows mostly in the front of the house and some side windows.  That was an entire week process and I was not entirely happy about it, still aren't in some aspects.  I'm not happy because I have to come up with window coverings, my most unfavorite thing to do.  AND, it means that I lose my beloved plantation shutters, maybe. We were able to keep the ones in the front room, his office, even though he says they don't let enough light in.  Bull.  He just doesn't like them.  I do, they are like a white picket fence for me and I want them.  In our bedroom we had a full window of them but now it is a sheet.  When I said I really wanted them he said they were too expensive.  After I've slept on this I was like, "HEY, wait a minute..."  After all this expense of new garage door, new windows, and this next week new awning curtains and awning over porch AND a new A/C-Heater unit, plantation shutters are too expensive and that is what YOU wanted...No F....king Way!!!  I'm getting ready to do battle.  Watch me.  Also, the painter still has to come in and paint the trim and the outside areas like over the garage door to match.

Old

New

New doors too.  He wanted just plain clear class, all of it.  I put the brakes on that idea and it's got texture.

See how nice these shutters look, and all the LIGHT!  

It really does look pretty now.

I've also spent the past couple of weeks doing a lot of just plain sketching and really enjoying it.  

My Greatgranny, and yes she had that kind of big nose, I have it too.

Daddy and Susie

Today I am preparing to write a letter to my friend.  She calls me her best friend but she and I need to talk, via letter.  More later.

I'm Back...Again - Maybe

I'm going to try this "I'm Back" thing again.  I shut my blog down after getting over 600 likes on one post and this happened because I asked a question about you know, that highway kind of word.  It scared the crap out of me to think bots or something nefarious was out there watching me.  I'm just a regular ole' joe just tip-tapping away on my keyboard with my own life, my own opinions.  

So, yes, I've been absent since the first of June sometime.  Life has rambled on with not much happening except the usual summer stuff, grandkiddos, food, painting, cabin life and the world happenings.  I'll try to update a bit here I hope.  

It's hot, but what can you expect, it's summer and it's Oklahoma.  I'm okay with the hot but the weather people are ridiculous in their reporting like it's doomsday.  IT'S SUMMER you numb-nuts!  Global warming and all that but what can we do except keep working on the emissions and what not, our fine government in action or at least trying.  If we let the Orange-Slice in and his Orange-peel factions, we might be more doomed sooner than later.  (Soapbox opinions!)

Painting, yes I have been back to painting again and a lot of sketching.  I'm working on a project so the sketching is where I'm spending most of my artistic time as of late.  It's really fun and takes me back to some roots that I have needed to hone again.  

I took a three day drawing class at the Garden Center which was where the push has helped me to get back to it.  I sort of learned some stuff but really it was there, just needed to be pulled out of my brain again, and that helped.  I've also been doing the occasional Thursday live model (nudes) drawing and did an all day Saturday one, a long pose.  Those Thursday night things are fantastic and really push me to make marks on the paper that really count.  

Then this past week I did a three day landscape oil painting workshop with the fabulous (very young) Kyle Ma.  He stuff is fantastic but honestly, he's too young.  I really didn't learn a whit from him but it was fun to watch him paint, and it goes on my art resume!  I started this hay bale painting in the workshop.  Yesterday I went back to the easel and reworked the whole thing.  I love it now.  He touched it, but only one swipe and I've already painted over the swipe in a direction I wanted to go in.

"Field of Dreams"

9x12 oil

I did finish this one a few weeks ago after the drawing class.  We went outside to take photos of flowers and I found this little area I fell in love with and had to paint it.  

That painting workshop was difficult and finally Sunday when everyone left for lunch, I went home.  Honestly the lady that sat next to me, PTO, was in a pickle.  She is so sweet, a bit dingy, and a horrible painter, just HORRIBLE!  She cannot see value, nor can she draw.  I watched her the first day trying to recreate a Monet painting of lavender fields.  The painting was all muted so it was hard to see value, especially for someone who can't.  PTO took from the same instructor I took from at Ziegler's for years and that instructor basically only taught retired ladies (some men) who wanted to paint in their free time.  He didn't really teach the stuff you need to know so when the students got stuck he would sit down and paint on their paintings.  They would then take the finished paintings home and present them to their family and friends art that THEY CREATED!  In fact, it was all the instructors paintings.  PTO was one of those people.  The whole workshop Kyle would sit at her easel and just look at it, confused.  He would try to make marks but there was no helping it.  By Saturday afternoon he just sat there and then said she needed to learn values, to draw.  She proceeded to show him all kinds of "her" paintings (privately telling me one was a BLUE RIBBON painting!)  He finally said, "I don't know what you want me to say."  He got up and walked away.  

You see, our previous instructor did a disservice to PTO and all of his students who couldn't paint.  I know he is just trying to make a living but it is lying and then you end up with PTO just devastated and humiliated but what happened Saturday to her.  She was embarrassed and mortified by the whole thing and I could hardly sit and watch it.  Then my friend, who NOW teaches since our former instructor has moved to Florida, is perpetuating these lies so she can make a buck.  I have a hard time with that kind of lying.  It's just not fair and has really made my heart hurt for PTO and the others. 

Okay, enough already of my venting.  I've been away too long.  

Sketching (and that nagging SORE THROAT)

Thursday night I took my first life drawing class.  I've been in a class that painted from real life but not something like this!  I will tell you as time drew near to go I was almost in the flight stage of just skipping it and losing the $20 but I knew I HAD to go.  I wanted to go.  I NEEDED to go.  I packed up my stuff and headed out to an old house in the south part of downtown.  Out of the car, up the steps and into a whole new world for me.  The first person I saw was a guy named Randy O. that I knew from another art group.  Nice guy. There was another much older guy who I was introduced to but immediately forgot his name.  In fact I barely remembered anyone's name because I was so nervous.  The lady whose art house this was popped around the corner and immediately welcomed me by name and got me all set up to begin.  There were I think 6 or 7 of us set up in a two room area and in the middle a lady, in a robe was getting all ready for us to draw.  I heard some mumbling in the front room about 3 minutes, 10 poses but it did not register in my brain and all of a sudden at exactly 6:30, the lady in the robe, dropped her robe and we were on.  I knew it was a nude model life drawing class but it is still a shock to be in mixed company and have that happen.  She posed and I started slowly to try and make some marks on my paper.  I guess 3 minutes had passed in that short time and I had barely made a mark on the paper when I heard a beep and she changed poses.  CRAP, I quickly shifted to the other corner of the paper and started again but was met with the beep I would imagine was 3 minutes.  Paper shuffling I changed paper and my determination to get more than a few marks on the paper.  I started drawing quick marks to just get the bare minimum of marks on the paper to look like the pose.  This continued for another 7 poses at 3 minutes each.  Every time she changed and I started another one I got better and better and faster and faster till the end of that part of the session I actually had forms on the paper.  Then we had 3 sessions of 10 minutes each.  There I got better again with a bit more time to fine tune the figure on paper.  Then we 2 sessions of 20 minutes and it was so much better but you know I felt like I was better at the mark making at the 3 minute times.  All in all I LOVED IT, absolutely LOVED IT!  I cannot wait to go next week.  I'll miss the week after that but I hope to make this my weekly drawing class.  It was such fun and a great drawing exercise.

The few days before the class I worked on these in my sketchbook/watercolor journal.

And this one at the studio, yes I got some time at my actual easel!

This sketch is from a photo I’ve loved forever. It’s me at the sink doing dishes for the first time as a wife (47 years ago) after cooking my first meal as a wife. I know, I know, little did I know what that meant at the time. Still I was blissfully happy here. It was also in our first apartment that we loved so much.

Now on to my body.  I am STILL battling this sore throat thing and it has really got me in my head with worry, to the point my blood pressure is up.  All kinds of things are going through my head, throat cancer, leukemia (bloody noses-2), who knows, but I am DAMN TIRED OF HURTING!  Every night is a struggle to swallow because of the pain.  My doctor last week said lets see how it goes but over the weekend I decided I'm done with this pain.  Yes it is a tad better but not enough to ignore it.  My glands a swollen a bit too and there is sinus drainage.  I think I still have a sinus infection and unfortunately think I NEED another antibiotic and maybe a steroid, but who am I, not a doctor!  But I know my body and I need something.  It has been since June 8 that I have been sick and fighting off something.  It is time to get serious and stop the pain.