 I'm sorry about the weird lighting but yeah it's alternately dark yet bright because of the snow so yeah morning everybody we have this outside it's actively snowing been snowing we got I don't know about an inch or so overnight not a whole lot and it looks like it started to melt and then mother nature was just sort of uh-huh it's can you even see that I don't know if you can yeah actively snowy again so anyway bob is taking a shower and when he's done we will put our cleats on and go for a walk no I'm not afraid to walk on the snow driving in the snow different issue walking it's not a problem um okay so this is what we're walking in it's about 30 what was it 33 degrees probably coyote or wiley wiley coyote no I bet it was wiley coming from the uh ocean coming from the so anyway mr bob's got his big boots on I've got the cleats on my shoes we're gonna go get some steps in it's about I don't know 33 degrees or so I'll watch this 30 30 no well it's cold anyway we're gonna get some steps in and then go back in the house and get under blankets and yeah so anyway we'll see what we can see it's awful pretty outside all right I'll be back Monday morning December 27th yes I wanted to say March but it's not March it is do I know what time it is 10 58 a.m I have been upstairs listening to my friend Lensley's new video that she posted where she's working on a journal and chatting to the camera about where she's been off of youtube for a couple years um and working on finishing my 2021 sketch book it's my goal this week to get it finished I already have prepped a new one for next year already done um and I already finished my daily doodle sketchbooks and they're already done and filed in the boxes in the other room uh for those that don't know what I'm talking about all my finished sketchbooks and reference books I want to keep but don't refer to all the time are in one of our guest rooms upstairs and there you go like yeah that whole thing is full of art stuff I know right oh and in case you see that over my shoulder does that bring back memories for anybody yes it's not plugged in although as far as we're aware it probably works but it's probably full of dust money so it's not being plugged in unless somebody can come clean it out I don't want to start a fire anyway um upstairs working on that and so some media stuff finished my copy tatted with dad forgot to tell him some funny stories which I might call him back to tell him uh anyway my brother and his new wife will be here at about two I think they're spending the night we have instructions to call dad when they get here not sure why but okay bob is outside setting off the ring every two minutes because he is de-icing de-snowing the car and driveway again um oh crap I have to do dishes yeah anyway um gotta do dishes need to do something with this uh anyway I'm gonna take care of all that I'll be back yeah you see that it's snowing it's just after 9 p.m my brother and his wife grace are here they're spending at least the night with us maybe more than that um it is snowy again uh the street looks like that yeah anyway grace and mike are early risers early to bed early to rise right so uh grace is a teacher so anyway they are headed off to bed bob and i're gonna stay up a couple more hours because we are not early risers but it's snowing again and I wanted to come out and get some pictures it's just like see that yeah we're we're in for a few days of this so it's gonna be interesting anyway all right I'm gonna go see what I can see in the backyard take a few pictures and then I need to post today's artwork to social media so I did it early so gotta get that done I'll be back morning everybody it's Tuesday morning December 28th yes I wanted to say March again I don't know what the deal is anyway it is a winter wonderland outside as you can see I'm kind of walking slow because I'm a little worried it's a little icy and it is um gotta get the mail though yesterday we didn't get the mail and we didn't get any garbage delivery our pickup yeah we brought ours in late last night anyway my brother and his wife are so here and Grace my sister in law wants to do some shopping today so I think we're gonna go do that we might get some breakfast I think we're gonna go no mail I'm guessing he couldn't get down here so I'll mark it no mail um anyway um I think we're gonna go get breakfast while we're out I do think we're gonna go do dinner while we're out a dad is coming down and they are taking him with them back to California um which was all gonna happen tomorrow but I think they're doing it a day early because of this stuff on the road so anyway that's what I know at the moment I need to go check on where my mail is at my guess is too much of the black ice on the road they couldn't get down here yesterday that's what I'm thinking anyways it's why we didn't get garbage pickup yesterday so all right I'll be back Wednesday morning December 29th 9 a.m. straight up don't get excited I'm in front of the computer it's the only way I know anyway my dad and brother and his wife and my and Bob are all off at the local mom and pop donut shop picking up some donuts for breakfast I stayed home to get some stuff done I started a little laundry called the post office where's my mail so it was a combination of weather and staffing shortages I'm guessing COVID right so anyway they said they got it all cleared up and the mail should be here today I'll cut it we'll see if that actually happens I'm not going to hold my breath anyway after everybody gets back and they have their donut and some more coffee those who want to will go walking and I think this morning dad is here overnight and my brother and his wife are here for a few more hours and I think they're going to try to work on Bob's barracuda and get the steering column in this morning so I think that's a thing so it might just be Grace and I that go walking we'll see and uh yeah I have two I thought I thought last night because I had one of those just menopausal nights where you can't sleep because your brain won't turn off y'all know what I mean I know you do anyway I'm gonna make myself a little reference card with um pen and ink shading ideas like just basics nothing too involved because I get it you get into the habit of just doing say cross hatching and then you forget about any of the other ways to shade your pen and ink drawings before you watercolor I have this really good book called pen and ink um and it's by Walter Foster and there's a lot of different ways in the book of shading drawings I'm gonna make myself a little like um reference card this morning I'm probably gonna make make one and then photocopy it on my printer and then um have one up here and one downstairs so yeah because you know you get in the habit of something oh maybe I'll just copy this page so you get in the habit of just doing say the line work and you forget about all the other ways there is to shade something so I want to make myself a little reference card um yeah so I'm going to do that this morning this is a good book to pull ideas out of so I'm going to do that that's on my project that's my main project today because we're not going anywhere we need to go grocery shopping at some point so that'll be a thing but it won't be until after Mike and Grace leaves for sure and I think if we can get by with what we have until tomorrow after they're going to be back to pick dad up tomorrow and they're taking dad to California so I think if we can get by until all that gets done we'll just wait but we'll see all right that's it for the minute I'll be back it's been a busy morning so I was upstairs I almost forgot I had a second video call live this morning so by sharing that all over my socials Grace is having problems with her macbook and so she's gonna go to the gym and take a little break from it and then she's gonna probably have to call apple support when she gets back meanwhile the guys are working on bob's barracuda so I'm going to sneak my way into the garage I was thinking they had the garage door open but they don't so let me sneak my way into the garage and get some footage and or photos because bob's barracuda has her own instagram so anyway let's get some stuff for that and his wife Grace are off to just see some friends about a half an hour away they're going to spend the night there they'll be back in the morning to pick up my dad and they're going to take him to california with them for about a week or so in the meantime hi we're just eating up leftovers and we do need to go grocery shopping but we're gonna try to wait and do it tomorrow after everybody leaves I have to do a load of laundry I'm gonna finish my sketchbook you know what I'm okay to just relax on the couch it's been a busy two weeks with Christmas and family stuff and and stuff I can't talk about it's okay I'm fine but just stuff lots of stuff so anyway hopefully my mail's here maybe I don't know all right I'll be back still no mail although the postmaster said that we would get mail today we still have no mail I'll be back morning everybody it is Thursday morning December 30th I almost said January it's not January not yet um it's 10 o'clock a.m. straight up we are headed out carefully and slowly to the shops this part looks icy a little bit a little slushy um but we have to go to the grocery store so we got all our errands done sort of yeah thanks to the broken supply chain and stuff and it being the holidays there were a few things we couldn't find so we had to make substitutions at the store and or just give up the ghost and order from amazon when we got back so we did that we had some lunch got everything put away now we're gonna try to catch up on our lack of step count in the last week or so and go do some walking because yeah we haven't done a lot of that it's not snowing it's also not icy I don't know if you all could hear what he said but it's not raining out it's not snowing and uh yeah it's also not icy so we're gonna go carefully because it is a bit slippery but we're gonna go get some steps in and see what we can see I'll be back guys it is new year's eve December 31st it is 11 21 a.m the kids are all coming over tonight for dinner and we'll stay up until probably just past midnight try to print a wish list from mouseloft now mouseloft is a uk-based company that does mini cross stitch kits that's what they specialize in I usually order them from them in California I had a couple of stitching shops that carried their products but in Oregon since we moved I was just starting to investigate stores that might have it um when the pandemic hit and I didn't order some things directly from mouseloft and I'm working on those I did the one last night at the little vw bus hold on I'll get it um this one isn't that cute they're really little see and I've done uh in the drawer have a seahorse from them which is I think an older one um I don't know if there's there's other embroidery kits in here but I don't think there's any more of the mouseloft ones anyway I'm looking to um not only work on the ones I have but maybe order a few more only I'm having trouble getting any uk companies that will ship this way because of the pandemic so if y'all have any ideas or you're watching it on the year in the uk and you have a retailer that carries mouseloft and you are willing to go pick some up for me I'll send you my wish list uh anyway so um and I'll put their website address down below y'all can check it out it's nice to just have a little sort of mini art project you can take with you that you know you've got all the parts for the kits are really literally only this big it has everything included except scissors yeah anyway all right so and I've already wrapped up a at the order that I'll deliver I'll take to the post office on Monday for delivery um and the house is ready to go otherwise so I think we're gonna just stay at home and be quiet and I'm gonna have some lunch in a bit and yeah celebrate New Year's I'll be back I got one of these gigantic blanket things for Christmas I ordered it for myself anyway hold on I don't think it's supposed to touch the floor unless you're what is my new sister-in-law call me oh yeah tiny aka short my friend Leslie McGrath she's really tall this wouldn't touch the floor on her but hold on I'll show you there we go so can you even see the floor like it's big like this it has a tie there's loops right here I didn't put the tie on it's like wearing a blanket hold on you still can't see hold on so yeah so I don't think it but that's okay so we have the cold snowy days I'm gonna be nice and toasty warm but right now we're gonna be having New Year's Eve with the family later probably isn't a good way to greet guests so I'm gonna go downstairs and like fix this up and take this off I'll be back okay oh my god I got another bag alteration done a drawing bag I got a second one of my black bags in a different print to use for my gel pen drawings and I need to sew an elastic pocket on the outside and so I did that I'll show you in a minute when we go downstairs I also did filmed a journal flip through of my two main 2021 sketchbooks and that is going up on both the public channel and the patreon channel the patrons get a talky blathering version and you all over on the public channel only get this sped through version sorry I also took my sort of year of my life journal that I used to do a lot more of these this is what I used to do to document my journey in things now I'm really mainly drawing but anyway I had bits and pieces stuffed in there and so I pulled them all out and sorted them um is it everything no but it's most things and you know what um anyway so I got one of my so two sewing projects was done which was the bag I got this laid out so I can catch up on that next week if not this weekend I've also got some more classes to do for the shine burger course I'm doing which is what that stack is there and in the meantime I'm going to finish and at the editing these videos and get them loaded to the two youtube channels and um then we'll see where I am after that and yes I curled my hair and like did a little bit of makeup and things so anyway all right that's it for the minute I'll be about right so there's a particular bag from amazon that I'm really enjoying for my daily art stuff well there's a couple bags but the one in particular you've all seen it looks like this and I attach some elastic to the outside to hold my sketchbook and then all my parts fit inside the bag so I have a second one in a different color and that would be this so I got some out to elastic this one because the sketchbooks are thinner we'll hold two and now we're all good yeah the other bag I like is a little bit bigger because it holds my other daily drawing stuff which is significantly bulkier and at least at the moment it won't fit in here so that's okay also a little small my favorite cosmetic bag which I've shown on the channel before it has all my downstairs stitching stuff and a little small cross stitch kits and stuff like that anyway I'm gonna put the lunch dishes away and I think Bob's working on the barracuda getting some stuff done before um the new year celebration and yeah anyway I'll be back hey everybody yes I'm still on my pajamas yes I'm not very awake yes I just found a glaringly obvious huge editing error in the messy journal or video that just went live so I guess I'm starting my morning off fixing that happy new year okay I think we maybe have the house back together so we are now going to take crazy pants for a walk um so she's all ready to go for a w alk it's 28 degrees outside so we're layered up and we're gonna get that done but the house is all clean and caught up and I think we're gonna let the Christmas decorations go until tomorrow and then tomorrow we'll start taking everything down I'll be back it is 11 30 and I'm making sure things are turned off locked up all the stuff because we are gonna go to bed it's late it has been a busy week as it always is for the holidays and well while we love seeing everybody I also enjoy the peace and quiet I sat and did a few sketches today in my new journals for the new year and that was great and we got a few things done we also baby sat lily so there's if you're watching this you saw the footage of that so it's been a fun time but we're ready to get back to regular life and yeah stuff so anyway I'm gonna go to bed I hope you fall had a great week and happy new year a wonderful holidays whichever ones you celebrate don't forget to stay safe stay healthy stay creative go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you next week bye guys