 It's always good when you start the week off remembering you forgot to close last week's vlog. Hey guys, it is Sunday. It's almost lunchtime. It's like 10 minutes to noon. February 12th I think. I need to go downstairs and make some cornbread. It's Super Bowl Sunday and Bob bought some chili. We didn't make it this year because when I make the chili, we'll have enough chili for about 12 people and that's a lot of chili. So he just bought a little bit of chili. Anyway, but I'll make him some cornbread and I think we're gonna just hang out around the house. We've had a lazy lay-in Sunday morning, just sleeping in, drinking coffee, relaxing, that sort of thing. And you know what? Nothing wrong with that. I'll probably do some painting and sketching and yeah, I'm all right with that. We'll try to get a walk in before the game starts. I think the game starts at like three o'clock. Try to get a walk in before then. And I have my Fitbit. I forgot to plug it in last night so it's downstairs charging. Anyway, how are you guys planning on spending your Sunday? I would love to know. I just opened some happy meal, happy meal. I really did have my coffee this morning I swear. I just opened some happy mail on camera from my friend Cathy Whitney and then I forgot to open yesterday and film for her last week's vlog. But anyway, she sent me a couple of pieces of artwork made with art foams. They are so cute and a beautiful cut of fabric. If you don't know, I love skulls and I love skull prints. And a beautiful note, Cathy, I love you too and I appreciate you and I thank you so much. And the envelope is even pretty so you know, I'm not throwing that away because I have to do something like that. Guys, before we have lunch and before the football game, Bob and I are going to go for a walk. His motivation is so he can eat more food. So we're going to go get some steps in. It is cold out here in the mid 40s. And it's a little bit windy, which is making it feel colder. But anyway, we're going to go get it done and I'll be back. Bob's downstairs watching football. I'm going to go down there in just a minute, but I came up to do a painting. Yes, I did. Another abstract-ish painting. I love the way it turned out. I also wasn't going to do this over again, but after sharing the new urban sketching boxes I did last week, I realized on the wooden one, I put the pen loops the wrong way because if you put pens in there, it won't close because it's, the space isn't long enough in the lid. So I really should have put the pen holders the other way. So I really made it. So I'll show you what I mean. So if you put this on, so if you saw the, in case you haven't seen the video last week, I have this piece I made for the lid. It's held in with magnets. There's a little extra space behind it, like a secret compartment. And if you put the brushes or pens in the lid this way, the way I made it, you can see it's too long. The box is not going to close. I should have made it so that the pens and brushes sit this way. Or pens or brushes, I should say. So I remade it. I have more of this wood and I made it so the loops go the other way. So the pens and or brushes will fit this way. So it is drying right now. And I did the stain and now in here is dry. It is a little bit patchy, but this is an urban sketching box. So is it going to get dirty? It's going to get messy. Does that mean I won't maybe put a piece of paper back there? No, that's not what that means. I haven't decided yet. So I didn't get asked recently if I'm going to sell any of these. I didn't even think about it, to be honest with you. I also made myself a pencil paintbrush roll. I was thinking that maybe I would use the roll in here, which actually I could. But then I just decided to remade the board. That doesn't mean I'm going to get rid of this. I'll save it because I'm sure I'm going to use it for something. But anyway, one is over here drying and ready to go. It only has three loops to hold things on the other side. I'm sorry, it has one, two, three, it has four loops instead of five. Yeah, but that should still be plenty anyway. I think it's time to let things dry, let things be and maybe go downstairs. I don't know if this is going to work and I don't know if it's going to stick, but I'm going to try putting some green. I have this really pretty. Green is a color for me this year. I don't know why. Anyway, I'm going to try putting this green contact paper. Geez, my hair's a mess. In the inside of some parts of the inside of this wooden box. Let's see if it'll work. Worst case scenario, it doesn't work. Let's see. 6,000 things together and it's drying, but oh my god. Look, some of the green contact paper on the flat surfaces. I found some trim in my stash of like a million things I have. And I ate 6,000 around the edge of the contact paper, but also glued the trim in. How nice is that? And then once the new board dries, that'll fit in there and it'll be a really pretty, I'm thinking more of a drawing box than a paint box, but I mean, I love it. Oh, I think maybe we're done. Maybe. No guarantees. I'll give you guys. I decided to make the cardboard cigar box prettier too. I took off the pen holder that was inside of it that I glued to the lid because it didn't like the way it looked and we're going to use the pen roll in this box and then I mean, how do you not like that? You open it up to get your stuff out to do some art and I mean, right? Just makes you smile. All right, so that one is done and this is the outside. If you didn't see last week's video and the other one is drying and then we'll put it together. But of course, you know, new table bigger than the old one. It's a good thing because it's covered with stuff. I'll be back. That's not something you see on my street every day. I live on a little tiny street. So I'm not sure how far we're going to get, but I'm going to put my hood up and put my gloves on and we're going to go try to at least get a few steps in even if it means we only go around the block. Video is rendering and all that. I know I haven't vlogged before this morning, but it's been hectic. It's Monday. I got a painting done. I got the two new art boxes fine tuned and actually set up with supplies in them, which I will share a little later. And yeah, it's been a good morning. Little ones came by to visit. I love the painting that I did. Anyway, let's go get some steps in before we get rained on. I'll be back. Maybe drizzly, but I'm hot. Trying to keep up a pace. We try to do about a 19 minute mile. So anyway, it's easier with Bob here because he just naturally walks super fast. So I have to just keep reminding myself to not slow down. Anyway, maybe drizzly, but I'm warm. All right, let's go buy the duck pond and then take a little bit of a cut through to get home. I would say shortcut, but it's not really a shortcut and it's going to start dumping in a minute. So I better put the phone away. I must come here when it's storming out. Guys, it is just after three o'clock on Tuesday, February 14th, Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's Day. I was filming a video for Archie Trio back there on the table. I've been having battery problems with my camera. My old batteries are really old and don't want to stay charged anymore. So I did get a new battery, but in the meantime, I've got two boxes of camera stuff up here and I'm not going to film this for our fixing the flow video, but I do think I'm going to go through it right now. So let's get it down and put it on the desk. A lot of stuff. Okay, I do use this. So I'm going to keep that. These are from my battery. I don't know why I saved the box. They do come with one has a lens cloth in it. I don't know why. They do come with like car charger things and European plugs. I guess I'll hang on to those, but I don't think they need to be in the box. Let's see if we can save some room. Camera, I guess for now we better hang on to. We do have a GoPro. It's fairly new. My husband said recently, maybe it's time to switch to the GoPro. He's not wrong, but not super excited about that. Oh, that's good. So I have a case for my headphones, but are they in here? What if we just put things away? That might like be handy. I'm going to dump this out. Yeah, what is in here? Okay, first let's put the headphones away to their charger in there, which is great. It's another box of parts. More tripods. I made you fall over. Sorry. I have another cleaning cloth, another cleaning cloth. How many of those do I have? Cleaning solution? I don't even know what that is. Does anybody know? What is in here? Oh, yeah, this is urban sketching and tripod parts. So this is one of these. Okay, so you know what? We're going to make this box tripod part. So extra plates, extra screws, extra bits and pieces. What is this one? Oh, cleaning stuff. The cleaning stuff should be in here. Cleaning stuff? How many? How much cleaning stuff do I have? At least I know what's up there now. I mean, you know, I hate to have to dig for stuff. It really drives me crazy. I went to go get the mail today and Laura, what did you do? My friend and a subscriber and a patron and patreon. Thank you all of you patrons so much, but she sent me happy mail, which I love. Wasn't expecting. Oh my goodness. Okay. Look at the paper this card is written on. Look at this. I love that. Okay, let's see. Laura, you're most welcome. You are very much more welcome. And I will for sure make something wonderful out of the bits and pieces. I mean, I love the card. Okay. And I've been getting, you know, notes and things from you all lately, which I appreciate. And I have kind of enough life stuff and happy mail stuff together to do a journal page maybe or something. I don't know. I don't know. We'll find out. But oh my goodness, you guys, look at this trim. That is a collar. It was a collar of something. Another of this in here. I should really have my glasses on, but I don't know where that is. Look at this one. I love that with the little spots of blue, blueish gray there. There's more. The box is full. It's jammed. Look at this trim. It's another handmade that looks like a tatted trim. Maybe that's beautiful. Ooh, a vintage scarf. Look at that. That's gorgeous. Another vintage scarf. Boy, I better not show these to my daughter or someone might disappear. Look at that. She has a thing for vintage fashion, y'all. And yeah, it's really, she's a fashionista. I never was. It is funny that she's a fashionista because when I was her age, I wanted to go to design school. Anyway, I don't even know if she knows that. Look at this fabric. This would be a great journal cover. And it's like, I don't know what the content is, but it feels like a thick silk fabric. We're not, we're not done yet. Look at this. Another scarf. Laura, you sent me so much. I appreciate it so much. Look at that. That's a sleeve off of something, but the fabric, this feels like silk. So does this one. This is like, you know, not a tie. Well, like a women's tie, like you tie a bow around your neck. Oh, here's some more of what feels like some silk, a little bit thicker than the other one. Similar color. One more piece. Look at this one. I love this. Thank you so much, Laura. I appreciate it. If you all want to send me happy mail, you don't have to. But if you want to, I do appreciate it. My happy mail address is down in the video description. I did just clean out my fabric bins, but I hope I left enough room to put this in because these are going, I do have a, a bin for vintage fabrics and trims. You know, these do spurs some ideas. We'll see. Window treatment. I mean, can you see some of these hanging in front of the art room windows with afternoon light shining through them? I mean, come on. Yeah, we might have to do someone cry. All right. That's it for the minute. I'm going to go back to watching some YouTube. I'll be back late. It's almost 6 30. Bob just got off of work and it is freezing outside, but we're going to go walking anyway. I know it's probably a big mistake. It's dark out and I'm, and it's very cold, but I'm going to, and I'm going to have gloves on. So I'm probably not doing much filming, but yeah. All right. Let's go get some steps in. I'll be back. Okay, everybody. Good morning. The loud side to here is the heater because it is all of 34 degrees outside. It is cold. I am going to go out, obviously, run the car. I'm going to go out, run a few errands. I'm going to start with checking the PO box. I got word this morning from the Sketchbook Project people. I mentioned in another video that they are closing. If you're unfamiliar with the Sketchbook Project, it was a situation out of New York where they had artists create different Sketchbooks full of drawings and they went into a free library, traveling library around the country. People could check the Sketchbooks out and admire them, get inspired by them. Anyway, I had two Sketchbooks in the project. They had a fire. I don't know exactly how long ago. I don't remember a year ago, maybe a little more. They're closing up the project and they're sending all surviving Sketchbooks to someone else who has a similar project in Florida. And if you wanted, you could request to get your books back, which I think you can see where this is going. Yeah, my Sketchbooks that were destroyed in the fire. So I did download digital copies of both books and I am going to edit set images for Patreon and the patrons will get copies of both books. I'm considering recreating one or both. Let me know what you all think. The Sketchbooks are available, so at the time of filming this, the digital library is left. I don't know how long it's going to stay up, but if I can find the link when I'm editing the video when it's still active, I will put the link down below. If the link doesn't work anymore, I'm sorry. Wednesday, February 15th, 4.30 in the afternoon, not in the morning. I forgot to vlog today. It's just been a busy day. I went out early this morning to pick up some medication and run some errands and then I came back and was editing video and I've been doing and scheduling all the posts I need to do for March 1st. I realized, like it's right around the corner, sort of. I've got two baby showers to take care of for my grandson to be between now and then and things are going to get a little crazy. So I'm going to do them while I have a minute. So I did. I also got the artsy trio edited and uploaded and it's scheduled ready to go. I did get a painting done. I have a lot of paintings I've done recently and they're all matted. They're not framed, but they are in matte board, most of them. If I have shared something on social media recently that you really like and you're interested in buying, please message me. I share all of my artwork on Instagram and most of it on Facebook. So check me out over on one of those and yeah. All right. So the computer is doing its thing. I need to pull out some sketchbooks for next month because daily for my daily drawing because I'm done that yet either. So I might as well do while I have a free five minutes because yeah, it's going to get crazy. I'll be done today. I not only got the Patreon post for March 1st done. My journal is decorated for March 1st and done and the word list printed and glued inside of them. By the way, that's what I do. I also have a monthly post I do in my Facebook group which is done. The artsy trio video is done and scheduled and the post that I'm supposed to do over there is done and scheduled. Yeah, I'm pretty happy about all the stuff, plus all the errands and I've got a plant prodded and random stuff around the house. So we're going to go for a walk now. It's not quite dark outside but the sun is setting so I have a flashlight in my pocket and we'll get some steps in before we have dinner and I'll be back today. I don't think I have. It is Thursday February 16th, I think. It's I think it's after two o'clock in the afternoon. Let's see. Got a lot of stuff to do today. Yeah, it's almost two thirty. I have a lot of stuff to do today. We leave for California in the morning. We are driving down with Jenny and Brian adopted kids and because we need to be at the California baby shower, evidently my daughter's getting two showers. Go figure. So we need to be at the California one which is on Saturday. So we're driving down tomorrow. We will be down there for the party on Saturday and then we're driving home Sunday. I'll wait you guys. Like many of us I think when Google bought YouTube we weren't sure exactly what to think and then the hotel protective laws and things came up and since then there's been changes that I think those of us who have been on YouTube for a while weren't exactly sure what to think of. I just got well recently they changed how they're doing their music which I haven't quite figured out yet but the music I'm using is from their free audio library so I haven't paid for any music. It's from their free library. It's supposed to be copyright free so I haven't checked out any of the new music or looked at it or or anything but one of my videos just got a potential copyright strike because they thought the music was copyrighted and that I'm like no and it wasn't showing up in my YouTube studio which is where we edit and load videos and all that. There was in the old days no way to contact YouTube when these things would happen. There was nobody unless you were you know a channel with you know five million followers there was no way. Now it's Google so they have a messenger thing so I can talk to the messenger thing and it's not an automated messenger thing it's a human and I told him what happened told him I got this email and I told him that you know first what is a legit email because you worry if it's just spam he said no it's legit our system thought you were using copyrighted music but I see now that it is something from our free old free library. Anyway he straightened out he was super nice I'm glad that Google is doing that because in the old days there would be nothing I could do until somebody figured out their computer system screwed up so thank you Google thank you YouTube appreciate you so much all right on to the next thing something a little less stressful let's hope. Hey guys good morning it is very early for me anyway it's 7 44 a.m we are waiting for Jenny and Brian adopted kids to come pick us up and then we're all four of us drive into California for the first of the two baby showers which is tomorrow and Bob and I are packed and ready to go and I've had our coffee and all that stuff so we're just waiting to get picked up. I have a couple of friends who are pretty both pretty seriously ill I'm not going to name names because that's a violation of privacy but some good thoughts send out there into the universe for them would be much appreciated and if you have any people close to you who are likewise suffering my good thoughts go back to them so anyway okay now we just need the kids to get here to come pick us up so yeah I'll be back. Hey guys we are at exit 99 I think somewhere around there the sign here says cow creek treaty I don't know where we are but anyway we're at the rest stop stretching our legs we'll are taking a potty break so anyway cool I'm walking around getting some steps in it's been good so far so yeah we'll stop for lunch in a little bit and then keep going I'll be back and something a.m I think like 10 16 a.m we are in Healdsburg California I didn't close the vlog last night because distracted by baby showers for the grand baby I did get one really pretty sunset picture here in California I will insert it here and it was a really beautiful party we got to reconnect with some friends and family we haven't seen in a while so that was really wonderful as you can see it's travel home day and I'm kind of a hot mess but yeah anyway we stopped in Healdsburg because um adopted daughter Jenny needs to stop and see her grandmother who is in senior care she's not doing well and yeah so we are here she's doing that we are going to call a friend of ours who's also not doing well um and check in on her and um maybe get some more coffee and then hit the road we are going to take our time getting home um but yeah it ought to be a fun trip I will take some pictures but that's for next week's vlog anyway it's been a fun week interesting we have one more baby shower to go at my house but yeah I hope you've all had a great time this week I hope you found something interesting in the vlog something inspiring in the vlog if you have questions comments or concerns please leave them down below um don't forget to check out the video description for relevant links my social media my patreon all of that stuff it's down there my happy mail address and above all go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it I'll see you later bye guys