Say Hello to My Little Friend

Dave and I don't really do Christmas, but we do like to donate gifts to children who would otherwise not have much of a Christmas. So on one of our toy-buying forays, I picked up that little toy for myself. It's about two and a half inches tall and when you flip a switch on its back, it grumbles and makes annoyed sounds. That's it. I thought it was hilarious, so I bought it.

I've enjoyed my post-semester week, have spent a lot of time painting actually. I've been working simultaneously to improve both my painting and drawing skills, but frankly, the painting is more fun.

In the morning, I did a few watercolor sky paintings in a new watercolor-specific sketchbook. In the afternoon, a set of 24 Portfolio water-soluble oil pastels arrived from Amazon, and I spent some time working with those. I like them--they're easy to use--but they have a peculiar smell (flowery, cheap, slightly rancid) to them. Dave said it reminded him of old lotion.

In the later afternoon, I had therapy.

After that, cooking was beyond me, so we ordered a pizza and wings and had that with some salad left over from last night's dinner. I was exhausted after dinner, so even though it was only about seven o'clock, I changed into my pajamas and went to bed. I woke up just after eleven, took my meds, and sat at the kitchen table to paint for awhile. I painted a sunflower on the last page of my mixed media sketchbook. (I have about five different sketchbooks going and one waiting in the wings to replace the one I just finished).

I couldn't get back to sleep after that--it's now almost 3:30 in the morning--so I had a snack (soy-nut butter on a whole wheat tortilla) and read a bit (Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls).