#3087 PDIN 7: yellow

 

Yellow leaf on a maple tree in my backyard

Happy Saturday! I am feeling happy because Utah football defeated Brigham Young University football this afternoon. I had some concerns, but it all worked out as needed for my satisfaction. 

I was writing in My Book just now, and a prompt I had for writing today was ways I recharge on the weekends. My first thought was that I don’t really need to recharge on the weekends, but that’s not entirely accurate. On Saturday and Sunday, I do things a bit differently than during the week. For one thing, I don’t really give myself any chores to do. I am washing my bedding today, but that’s mostly because I didn’t do it yesterday. (I wasn’t feeling great yesterday and gave myself permission to rest.) On the weekends, I eat a bit differently than I do during the week. I might not cook; we might get take-out or eat leftovers. I watch TV during the day, which I don’t usually do during the week. I think those are all ways to recharge. 

Today I got up around 8:00, then I fed the dogs and took them out to play and for a walk. I made myself a nice grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a lovely cup of coffee, then watched the football game. I finished a book. I went with T to Fiiz for a dirty soda - that’s usually a Saturday treat for us. MT isn’t home at the moment, but when he gets home, we will figure out what to have for dinner. I’m gonna vote for Chipotle because I saw a commercial during the football game and it looked really good. I think we will watch a couple of episodes of Game of Thrones. I’ll put the clean sheets on my bed. That’s a good Saturday, in my opinion. 

Yellow

Enjoy the rest of the weekend! 

Xo

#3086 PDIN 6: pet

 

Harley

Today’s prompt is pet. I have three to choose from, but Harley is the one who seems to hang out with me in The Sanctuary (that’s what I’ve decided to call the room with the desks and the computers.) Harley is also photogenic. Mac is pretty, but with her black fur, it’s hard to see definition. Stella is rarely still enough for me to take her photo, but she’s a cutie pie, too. I did get a sweet pic of the all three a week or so ago:

Three dogs!

Mama said she didn’t get a pic of the furry girls when she was visiting at the beginning of October and asked if I could send her a photo of them. I am holding treats in my hand which is why I have their attention. 

Harley is my dog who has some medical issues. She is taking digestive enzymes for the condition, and it seems to be working. The hair has grown back on her feet, face, and ears, and she doesn’t have any balding patches on her body, except for her tummy and rib cage which have always been nearly hairless. I like to think she is gaining some weight too. I can tell you that she is a lot stronger and way more playful than she’s been for a long time. I’m really thankful for Dr. B at West Lake Animal Hospital who seems to have hit on what was keeping Harley from living her best dog life. 

Before I show you my sketch of today’s pic, I want to tell you about an artist I am following on Instagram. her handle is @francheska_sketch. I’m not sure where she is from; she has a cute accent. I like her loose, flowy style. She says to sketch the shape, then she’ll say, “Does this looks like a _______?” She’ll then give it a little paint, and fill in the details with pen later. That’s the approach I took with my sketch of the photo of Harley:

Pet

Yeah, the eyes are wonky, but I still like it. One thing I am digging about Instagram right now is that I can follow a bunch of different artists and try to mimic their styles as I find what feels most comfortable and natural to me. Sometimes I like to draw and paint more “clean” but I also really like a loose skritch sometimes, too. There’s room for all kinds of art, right?

Have a great weekend! See you tomorrow?

Xo

#3085 PDIN 5: mid-day

 

Mid-day

Most of my days follow a loose schedule. I find it is better for me to have a plan for the day rather than wander around aimlessly. If I don’t have a plan, I tend to spend more time playing games on my beloved iPhone. Sometimes that’s all I want to do, but mostly I prefer to do some “thing”. 

Today’s plan included not leaving the house except to take T to and from work. I did stuff around the house, like sweeping and swiffering and mopping the floors, as well as dusting and taking out all the garbage. Typically I like to get the not-as-much-fun stuff (chores) done before lunch, so the afternoon is for stuff I really like: painting, writing, reading, and napping!

I took this photo after eating leftovers for lunch. You can see I bought myself some pretty mums from Trader Joe’s when I went there on Tuesday. I’m reading Shanghai Girls, and drinking some holiday creamy vanilla Coke Zero. 

Mid-day, artist’s version

The temperature was cool today, and I usually have the back door slightly open so the dogs can run in and out while I’m sitting there. It’s late in the year, but we still have lots of flies. GRR. We have fly swatters everywhere, and I am a fly-swatting ninja. I got several of the little buggers today, and a wasp that found his way in. Usually I try to shoo the wasps and bees back outside, but this wasp was just sitting on the counter, so he got swatted. 

Want to hear my big plans for tonight? After I take T to work, I’m going to take a nice warm shower and wash my hair, then I’m going to wrap myself in a cozy quilt and watch a movie. I think I’ll watch Voicemails for Isabelle. Have you seen it? It’s on Netflix.

Xoxo

#3084 PDIN 4 - in my cup

 

First Wednesday drink and sticker

Happy first Wednesday of the month, friends! This is one of my favorite days because Dutch Bros coffee has a sticker drop on the first Wednesday of each month, and sometimes bonus sticker drops throughout the month, as well, but always on the first Wednesday. I like the coffee and the friendly vibe at Dutch Bros. Today I got a small Golden Eagle iced latte. It is espresso, caramel and vanilla breve (half-and-half) with a caramel drizzle. The Golden Eagle is one of their signature drinks, and coincidentally the first drink I had there long ago. Their drinks do tend to be pretty sweet, so sometimes I will order them half sweet. Also, their mochas are made with chocolate milk, and I don’t like that very much, so when I do get a mocha, I order it with regular milk. 

The sticker this month is cute. It’s like Thanksgiving Day parade balloons. 

Day 4: in my cup

I intended to stay home today after the Dutch Bros run, but I had to handle a couple of errands, so I did go back out. It is a chuchurio kind of day: cloudy and cool. MT and I planted some tulip and crocus bulbs. I think tomorrow I will do a bit of puttering around in the yard. I want to plant the Russian sage in the flower bed. It’s also about time to prep the pots for the winter, although we haven’t had frost yet, so I’m still enjoying some geranium blooms. I think I’m going to bring the pot of lavender and the pot of rosemary in and put them on the window sill here in the sanctuary. They will get good light in the morning and into to the afternoon in that window.

MT has gone to Pocatello for a couple of days. I expect he will be back on Friday. I’m sure he and his mom will have a lot to talk about after the elections yesterday. T isn’t working tonight, so I’m about to head downstairs to make dinner. It’s pasta Wednesday, and we will be having chicken linguini alfredo. We prefer the linguini noodles. Also, Harley is here informing me that it is her dinner time as well, and I better get to prepping her meal.

Xo from SLC. 

#3083 PDIN 3 - sky/clouds

 

Sky

It was a nice day in Salt Lake City. The sky was a bright, flat, clear blue without clouds. It’s nice to be outside with a blue sky, but it’s not very nice for photos. I was at Red Butte Garden and Arboretum (RBGA) recording blooms in the Children’s Garden (CG). There isn’t much blooming, so it was more like a really pleasant stroll. Up at the top of the CG, I glanced up to see the snow-covered peaks of the Oquirrh Mountains to the west, and there are some clouds below the peaks. I love it when that happens. It is difficult to see in this photo. Maybe if you double tap on the pic it will enlarge and you can see the clouds a little better?

Here is my artistic rendition of the photo:

Sky

I hope you all had a lovely day!

Xo

#3082 PDIN 2 - flowers

 

flowers

Hello! Today the photo prompt I chose for myself is flowers. Here is a pic I took this morning of the large and beautiful salvia plant in the back flower bed. When we bought this plant, she was a small thing, and MT planted her smack up against the back fence with a different plant on either side of her. Now she is so big she is crowding out the poppy on the left and the pincushion flower on the right. 

Salvia is in the sage family, and her leaves smell really nice. In addition, the pollinators really love this plant, so there are always bees, butterflies, and in the summer, even hummingbirds buzzing around her. I learned about this plant at Red Butte Garden, of course. There are so many different varieties of salvia. This one might be Salvia nemorosa 'Mainacht' but I'm not totally sure. It's pretty, and we liked it so much we bought two more plants for the bed closer to the house. This is a perennial and thrives in full sun. They are also fairly water-wise, so they don't need a lot of water. 

Here is a different variety of salvia that is blooming in the Herb Garden at RBGA.

big red salvia plant

I don't remember what variety this one is, but it is HUGE! I was walking along the path closer to the red tree back there, and the tall, bright red flowers caught my eye and I had to take a look at it. Bees were buzzing all around it, and it was so pretty. Obviously it has lots of room to grow. I'm pretty sure next time I go to the Garden (probably tomorrow if it's not raining) this plant will likely be trimmed down. When I was at the Garden last week, the horticulture crew was working hard in the Children's Garden area to get the beds ready for winter. They were raking, pulling, and generally cleaning up. 

And yes, I am aware that certain types of salvia are illegal because of hallucinogenic properties. My plant and this red flowery plant are not in that category.

Maybe I have become a little bit of a plant nerd since volunteering at RBGA.

Here is my watercolor interpretation of the flowers in my yard:

my version of impressionism

You can see I painted today's art right under the painting from yesterday, which means I was looking at yesterday's painting quite a lot. I know it's not very good. I felt a little down about it, to tell you the truth. I started questioning myself, but then I thought,  "Don't worry about it! Sure, you might share your drawings here and there, and folks might scoff and think they could do better, but most folks don't even try." I pulled up some quotes on Pinterest to keep me going:

These are not art I made. They are pins from Pinterest and I think they are cute. 

There you have it. If you come back tomorrow, you'll probably see some more weird, imperfect art.

Have a great day!

#3081 PDIN 1 - post daily in November

 

This month’s wee calendar

Happy November! This month, I would like to post here every day. Last year I called it PDIN - Post Daily in November - so I will do that again because it feels right. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what to write every day, so this month I set up a challenge for myself: take a photo every day. I devised a list of prompts, and I figured I could post the photos and that would give me something to write about, too. For another level of fun, I will be drawing/painting/doodling from the photo, too. Some days will likely even have anecdotes from the day or random thoughts. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

My photo prompt for today is selfie. You might think I’m in my Red Riding Hood era, but I’m actually reppin’ the University of Utah, just ranked the #3 NCAA football team in the nation. Go Utes!

It’s me. Hi!

I took the photo in my backyard by my pretty maple tree that is showing off her autumn color. 

Here is the doodle - a partial blind drawing, meaning I only looked at the paper a couple of times while I was drawing. I am also using this painting for Jill Badonsky’s prompt today which is for a haunted face. I don’t know that this is drawing is a haunted face, but it is kind of scary. 

Scary face selfie

The best thing that happened today is that my BFF LA called! She was driving home to Poky from visiting her son and her grandkids for Halloween. We chatted for two hours! It was wonderful. You know you’ve got a good friend when you haven’t talked for a while, and you just fall into conversation like you’re picking up where you left off a couple of days ago. It’s the best. 

November is coming in chilly and wet here in SLC. It is gloomy and perfect for sitting at my desk, painting, writing, and reading. I also very much enjoy the “fall back” time change. I wish standard time was the norm. 

That’s all I’ve got for today. I hope you’ll come back tomorrow.

Xo