 is Sunday morning December 4th and it's just before 11 a.m. and we are just getting our day started, hence the wet hair, but it's snowing outside. I'm not even sure you guys can pick it up on camera. I don't think it's gonna stick because I think it's too warm. It seems to be melting as soon as it hits, but I suppose if it snows enough, which it seems to be coming down at a very good clip, that might change. So we need to go run some errands. I guess we ought to do it sooner rather than later. Anyway, happy Sunday morning everybody. I would say good morning, but it's already a couple minutes after 12. So good afternoon. Anyway, hi guys. I have been up for quite a bit, um, sipping my tea with lemon and honey because whether it's asthma or whatever flu cold things going around, I'm still coughing and so yeah, it's one of the things that does help me a lot. So I've been doing that while I've been getting mail together. We've got about 90 plus Christmas cards that have to go out this week and I have two boxes, two patrons and supporters that have to go out this week. So I've been taking care of all that because I'm gonna get that dropped off tomorrow and get postage for the international Christmas cards done too. We don't have stamps for that. Anyway, I also have one more Christmas card I've got to write. My desk kind of is a little bit messy. It's not too bad, but anyway, gotta clean it up a little bit and do laundry. Gotta crop down laundry. You know, we're either very clean people or very dirty people because the laundry basket seems to constantly be full. I don't know. Good morning everybody. It's 10 32 a.m. December 6th, I think. Anyway, so a whole 39 degrees outside, but I've got my thick kidney sweater on so I'm good. I'm gonna obviously go run some errands. I've got to go to the post office because we've got Christmas mail that's got to go out. I'm sure there's gonna be a line that's gonna suck. Anyway, I'm gonna see if I can maybe use the kiosk. We'll see, but I have international cards that have to go out and I'm not sure I can get stamps for those at the kiosk. So I might have to wait in line. Anyway, I've also got to pick up a few things at the store. I need to try to find some stocking stuffers. I'm just like out of inspiration on that. It's been a busier day than I thought it was gonna be. It's 15 minutes to 5 p.m. and it's already getting dark outside. Bob is still working. He's in a meeting. I've gotten all my chores done for the day. I also got another storage container made and it's drying for my 2022 journals because we're nearing the end of the year and I needed another box. The other one was bulging. I got some stuff put away up there and I also went through all the in-process journals that are on my table and sorted some things out, pulled out some that I want to try to finish. Some that are like travel sketch related or urban sketch related. I brought downstairs. I have a basket in the bench where we sit to put our shoes down that was empty. I'm using it for my urban sketching stuff downstairs, so it's all in there. I brought one down here that I'm going to try to finish that I never did finish. I did an eyeball journal during COVID, I think. I started a lips journal and I never finished it, so it's just lips. Cat lips, dog lips, people lips, different kind of lips, vampire lips. So I'm going to try to finish that over the next few days or weeks and I've got some must film things I need to do before the end of the year. I'm going to try to get them actually filmed before the end of the week because that would be handy. I found a few Christmas presents, but not exactly what I was looking for, but that's okay. I've got a little bit of time. Anyway, I think that's it for the minute. I'm going to sit and relax for a bit and then I don't know what else. I'm not sure Bob is still up to going for a walk, but that being said, I already have like six or seven thousand steps in because I've been doing chores and shopping and running around like a crazy woman. Yeah. Anyway, all right, I'll be back. Morning, everybody. Is it still morning? Yes, 11 o'clock, 2 a.m. Wednesday, December 7th. Yay. Good counseling session this morning. Yay. I spent some time just now on Amazon ordering a couple of Christmas gifts to be delivered and also some stuff to come here. Let's see. I'm going to be working on some journal pages today. I have some journals that need to be finished and if they're not going to be finished, they need to just go. I'm not going to throw them out because I don't do that, but I'm just pulling them out of here. They need to just go into the other room and storage, although I do have an idea for one of them and I have to talk to a friend of mine to see if that idea will work. So that's a thing. All right, I'll be back. Tualatin Valley Wildlife Refuge. I think that's what it's called. Anyway, I did some artwork and let me switch the camera around. And that one. I have to do some journaling on them, but otherwise cool. I'm going to go put these in the car and then walk around for a little bit. And by the way, this is my view. Okay, I'll be back. We're going to go do some a little bit of walking. I went into the visitor's center to look around and the ladies were very nice. I didn't buy anything. Yes, I was tempted. They got some cute stuff in there and it supports a refuge, but I do not need any more stickers. Anyway, let's go get some steps in and see what we can see. I'll be back. We'll walk down to the first lookout and or first place. We can see the little lake that's here. And then we'll turn around because dang, it's cold. All right, I'll be back. I just want to get pictures of the birds. Like pretty pastel, please. Only where robotics are way too noisy and they can handle coming. Anyway, I'll keep trying. I gotta tell you, it's become a thing probably at least once a week. Where I walk the neighborhood, I go for a drive somewhere like here to the park and I do some urban sketching, outdoor sketching. It's not really urban because I'm usually in nature somewhere like this. Sometimes it's urban because I'm in a neighborhood, but anyway, you get the idea. Getting out of the art room, creating art outside of the art room. That includes going downstairs. I'm doing art downstairs. I love my art room, but it's not the be all end all. So if you don't have an art room, you're filled stifled in the art room and inspired in your creative space and get out of there and go find someplace else to be inspired. There's nothing wrong with that. Okay, I'll be back. Hopefully I'm not lost. I see the employee parking lot. Not sure if it's supposed to be back here, but yeah. Anyway, I'll be back. I did buy some stickers. I know. I'm gonna stick them inside my journal. I'm aware. Anyway, my face is freezing. Can you tell? So red. We're gonna go home, maybe make a cup of tea and I got a few steps in. Anyway, I'll be back. It is 10 o'clock 5 a.m. Thursday, December 8th. We're gonna head out to the store. I still need to get stocky stuffers for the girls and having trouble finding anything. So we are gonna head to Target this morning, but on our way over to go do that, I am going to... Sorry, I'm backing up. I'm going to go over to Goodwill on the small chance that they still have some of the Thurgle. I really did have all my coffee this morning. Thermal leggings in stock that I bought not long ago and I have a pair of them on today. They might not have any, but we're gonna like look and see. It is Friday, December 9th, 11.49 a.m. I have been upstairs in the art room sewing. I had to make a couple more stockings. I'll show you by the time you guys see this, the family will know about them. So anyway, we're celebrating early Christmas with the kids and my dad and grand pets and all that. So I took an empty stocking that we had and I machine embroidered grandpa for my dad and then I made a stocking for grand cat biscuit and so I did that this morning. And then I redid the pen holder and pockets on my plain air board, urban sketching board, whatever you want to call it. I can't call it a push-on box because it's not a box. Anyway, I took some tie-dye fabric that I had. Where'd I put the board? Oh, there it is. And I made a zipper pouch with a pen holder with elastics on the outside so I could get one or two more pens in here. They're held in by elastic, but there's this little like pocket to hold the bottoms. And that's all I did. I just made this new bag. Everything's held on the same way. So that was cool. I like it and it's big enough to put a second sketchbook in and or fit all these brushes and pens in it if I need to put everything away. Yeah, so that works really well. Sorry, itchy ears. I don't know why. Now I've made a big mess though and now I need to clean. I needed to clean off my desk anyway because that. So I guess I'm going to go make some bone broth and then I guess that's the next thing on the list. Cleaning. Oh joy. I'll be back. Okay, I know it probably doesn't look a whole lot different but I try really hard not to let the whole room and the table get out of hand because I cannot create in chaos. That's just something that I'm not capable of. So I just realized this doesn't go here. It goes over here. So anyway, it hadn't been that long since I did it. I just kind of, as per usual, am focusing on different things than when I was the last time I cleaned it. So I just needed to move a few things around, toss out some trash because I do have a habit of just piling stuff over here. And yeah, so we're all done with that. I'm going to go downstairs and have some lunch, take this off my head and I don't know what I'm going to do next. Probably chores. Maybe some drawing this afternoon before the kids come for dinner. That would be nice. So I'll be back. It is Saturday morning, 10.15 a.m. November 10th. December 10th. Can you tell I'm not quite awake despite the coffee? Yeah. We are headed out. We have a long list of errands to do, mostly Christmas errands and gift buying and stuff like that. Mr. Bob is finally feeling better, so we need to get it done. Get it done. Get it done. Yeah. So we are going to do that. I'll take you with me where I can. We've got cough drops and snacks and water in the car. All right, let's go get it done. I'll be back. Okay, we're having a good day so far except for the flooring girl at Lowe's not being on duty until after lunch. We got there a little early. Yeah, who knew? It's all right. We'll go back after we do grocery shopping and take everything home and stuff. But anyway, we got lucky because we went to the Bavaria deli where we get our German foods. For those that don't know, Bob is 100% German. His father was born in Hamburg and his mother is first generation. So anyway, we usually have Rladen and Spetzl, red cabbage, Stollen for Christmas dinner. If you don't know what those are, oh my goodness. So Google it. Spetzl is German noodles. That's all that Spetzl is. German pasta. Rladen is a meat dish. I will tag some recipes or descriptions down below. Stollen is the German version of fruit cake or Panettoni. Fun fact, I don't like American fruit cake or the Italian version. I like the German version. So there's that. Anyway, so we got lucky. They had the Rladen in stock already done and in the freezer. Usually we have to order it and they have to make it and we have to come back. That wasn't the case this time. So yay. I like that. So we got it taken care of. Yeah, now we're going to go get the rest of the food and then drop everything off at home in the freezer before we go out again and try to get everything else done. So wish us luck. We'll be back. Inquiring minds want to know what do you do for holiday dinners? We usually do two dinners. One with the children where we do like Rladen and then one usually it's just the two of us and on that one we find a new recipe we've been wanting to try and we experiment on each other. Last time we did it was beef wellington and man was it good. What do you guys do for holiday dinners? Do you do two like we do and what do you serve? Should we get gas? Probably. We'll get gas. Anyway, we're going to wait in line for gas and then finish the rest of our shopping. We'll be back. But yeah, what do you guys do for holiday dinners? Inquiring minds want to know. Hey guys, I know it's dark here. Wait, there we go. It's dark. It is only 4 57 p.m. but it's black outside. You'd think it was eight or nine o'clock at night and yes, we're still in the car and yes, we're still Christmas shopping. We're so so close. So close. Yeah, we're gonna head over to Target and Walmart. Hopefully we can find everything we need and then a quick stop at the liquor store for our stuff for my dad and guys, this is why I prefer to just do all my Christmas shopping on Amazon. You don't have to deal with the crowds. This is crazy. All right, I'll be back. You saw that right? It's 5 11 p.m. It's pitch black outside. Welcome to winter in the Pacific Northwest. Fun times.