 3.42 a.m. and I've been doing the social media thing and put another and hopefully final coat on one of the two resin glitter tumblers I'm working on right now. Mr. Fred is outside doing some maintenance and cleaning on the small pond and fountain that we have in the backyard. I don't think it's been cleaned or maintained in a really long time. Certainly not since we've been here in September bad on us but I think since long before then so he we went out yesterday and got a bunch of parts and things he needs and now he's out there pumping out the water and cleaning it and we borrowed my dad's pressure pressure washer so he could clean all the algae off and everything like that so anyway. It's Sunday ahead we need to go out and get some birthday cards so that Tuesday I can mail out some birthday presents but I think other than that we are just staying home and relaxing we have family coming over tomorrow we're gonna be barbecuing and some of them are helping us put in the last of the new outdoor lights we got some new landscape lighting which means Tuesday or Wednesday I'll also be making your trip to Habitat for Humanity with a donation because we'll be donating the old fixtures so if they're donateable so yeah it's a nice quiet Sunday but I think that's a good thing I did finally late last night replace my downstairs water brush I do like the Pentel Aquash water brushes I've liked them for a long time I have this one that's from downstairs can y'all see that I've trimmed it so many times I've dipped it in hot water to fix the bristles I think it's finally passed it so I grabbed another one from my stash this is the large size which is my preference generally at least for the daily drawing stuff that I do the large or the medium I happen to be really low on the large ones so I need to order some of those or go to Dick Blick and get some the kids got me a Dick Blick gift card for Christmas I'm for Christmas holy cow for Mother's Day so I might go over there at some point this weekend see if they have them before I order anything and I also could use a little more resin I think I'm just about out again so yeah exciting times I know it's all about avoiding paperwork and non-fun things right anyway I always have projects to do so I'm trying to do them I'm gonna be sitting later this afternoon I think while we have downtime because again I don't think we're doing too much so I'm gonna be working on some new stamp and stencil designs hopefully cross your fingers and I'm getting those done I do send out a couple emails and I need to do stencil inventory so I need to do that to maybe stamp stamp inventory so like I said non-fun things anyway that's it for the moment I'll be back Fred you're swackin Fred no algae smell bad power wash all the rocks got rid of all the old branches and dead leaves as much as I could yep it's Monday May 27th I think it is Memorial Day here in the United States a holiday in which we celebrate and honor those who have lost their lives in service to our country and our communities so all of you who have done that and especially those who have lost their lives or are doing that currently we thank you for your service anyway I'm out here checking on Bambi and Bambi hasn't been buying a while but I'm guessing it's because things are pretty green and there's probably a plentiful amount of food so they don't need to come over here that's what I'm choosing to hope is going on anyway I do think I'm gonna pick up some of these little white flowers you see these I think I'm gonna take a few of them upstairs and see if I can dry them so that's a thing all right I'll be back good morning everyone it is Tuesday morning May 28th I've already been crazy busy and active for a bit this morning it is just after 10 o'clock I've already been in and out of the house this morning posted to social media sent off a birthday present to somebody it's just been a crazy morning already it's only 10 o'clock quickest in and out of the grocery store I think I've ever done in and out 30 minutes and my list was not super small you know my butt and my back hurt from spending the day in the chair video editing I did get the other cup started the other tumbler I got it started last night and I put the second coat on it today after the cleaning lady left I do have somebody that helps me keep the house clean because this is a really big house anyway she was here the other cup I was just watching the vlog the other cup turned out okay this is it you can see there on camera can you see that upper edge right here there's a bump there I guess the spinner wasn't as level as I thought it was so it's got a rim around the upper edge like a bump my friend Karla McCants she does these she's a pro at these she's done a lot more of them than I have that's really the only thing wrong with the cup but you know what I don't think it bothers me enough to fix it so I'm gonna leave it it's up in the cabinet so I started the second one and we'll see how that goes I'm just playing with putting chunky glitter on the tumblers and I love the way it looks but it's a pain in the ass so you know but I love I love glitter so no don't send me a bunch of glitter I've got plenty it's not really good for the environment I love how sparkly it is but I wish they'd come up with a bio degradable art alternative but then if they did it wouldn't work for all of us mixed media artists who want to mix it with something wet because it would dissolve so you know catch 22 anyway I'm gonna stretch my knees a little bit walk around because yeah I'm gonna go check on Bambi's bowls I don't think I did today so I need to do that video is rendering I almost forgot to edit the vlog oops so video is editing rendering and then I'll get that one loaded to YouTube tonight too so it'll air in the morning and tomorrow I'm gonna work on some filming projects and try to get some of that done I think I'm gonna have something light for dinner I may either have salad or I'll have a egg salad sandwich which I notice it sound really light but the way I make it with just one egg and very little mayonnaise and lots of greens and whole grain seed bread with seeds in it it's actually pretty good for you and I've got plenty of calories left in the day for that I almost took all of that out of the vlog last week so if you're watching this if you haven't seen last week so you can go watch it but I almost took all that out but yeah so anyway obviously I'm not a thin girl I've never have been really not since I was like eight maybe but that doesn't mean I can't try to be healthier so I do want to work on that and I'm done with being stressed out because we moved ready for the next thing right all right so anyway I'm gonna go check on Bambi and then I'm gonna start laundry because that's a thing and we seem to always need laundry done I don't know all right I'll get morning it's Tuesday Tuesday hello holy cow Wednesday morning May 20 9th I think 9 25 a.m. I should know this because I did literally just check the com the phone the computer the phone well it is a computer anyway can you tell I'm scattered this morning I'm trying to avoid having a third cup of coffee it's really not good for me to drink that much coffee so I'm going to go out and run a couple of errands instead I need to get some more fruit I'm gonna go to new seasons I like their produce and fruit section and we need some fruit we need some tomatoes and things like that so I'm gonna go do that this morning I may pop a course pop into Michael's really quick it's like two doors down and I want to see if they have a particular art part so I want to see if they have that there and like just go get some steps in get out of the house a little bit I already did the social media thing and chatted with my friends this morning and yeah so let's go get to it shall we and maybe I can get some art journaling and or video filming done today and I have a cup upstairs that I turned off it needs another coat of resin and a little sanding this one isn't lumpy and bumpy like the other one anyway all right let's get to it I'll be back it's turning out to be a kind of a nice bright sunny yet overcast day can you be both of those things at the same time when it ran my errands and came back and had lunch and then I just wanted to take a nap anyway the Sun finally did come out we've got some beautiful blue skies going on birds are singing planes are flying got the vegetables watered so we're gonna go back inside hopefully I didn't lock myself out of the house again yeah cuz that's a thing yay I did too good morning it's a ridiculous hour of the morning 655 a.m. May 30th according to the iPad I'm working on my second cup of coffee and I have my protein bar out here in front of me I didn't think it was important this morning to get on the vlog early to share a video and channel I'm going to link in the description below the channel name is dots two lines and the name of the video is an initiative to encourage fellow artists and to foster a community spirit hashtag encourage fellow artists hashtag stop YouTube bullying for those of you who do YouTube and our subscribers to my channels and fellow YouTube creators you know exactly by reading the title what she's talking about we've all been there how many times have you had discussions with your fellow creators about what if anything we can do about it really we can't do anything except be a kinder community a more positive community and more constructive in our criticism when we do have it all good things and I love her message I agree with her that we need to be kinder to each other and to ourselves and I am not above criticism it helps me grow your suggestions help me grow and learn and move forward in my art and creativity and I love that but harsh unnecessarily mean comments serve no purpose and we need to stop and so I encourage you all to go over to her channel show her some love watch the video and share your own kindness towards your own fellow creatives your own fellow artists and your own youtubers if you're a youtuber share some of the love in your little YouTube community your circle of friends so anyway that's my little speech for this morning did it make any sense because I've only had one cup coffee so I'm not actually sure if it didn't go watch your video all right that's it for the moment I need to finish my coffee I'll be back so I'm in the car obviously I'm gonna go run a couple of errands I wanted to say really quick that in the old house in the old space both physically and in my head whatever it was about that place physically and emotionally and mentally I frequently didn't want to leave the house and it was really a struggle to make myself go out of the house and go do things and when I sort of half jokingly smile and say you know I'm probably you know borderline agoraphobic I'm not really kidding I do have to say in the new house and the new space mentally and physically it's not really that much of a struggle do the old emotions try to rear their ugly head well sure if you don't believe me look at today's social media post creative wanderings which is in a life of art and self expression along with art joy of sharing Leslie's creative studio and artsy endeavors all Facebook groups and it talks about not wanting to leave the house and being frustrated when you can't find what you want that is partially true and will always be true and some of that's just out of frustration because I'm usually looking for something specific that people don't have anyway it isn't anymore that much of a struggle for me to leave the house and go out into the world I don't know what it is about the new space but I look on that as a positive thing sometimes the old voice tries to be there and go no you should stay home today but it's not doesn't take that much for me to go you know I'm gonna get showered and dressed and I'm gonna get out of the house and so we're gonna do that today I do I am looking for resin and I went to the normal Michaels I usually go to which is near the two supermarkets I like to shop at new seasons and Fred Meyer and for whatever reason despite the fact that their website and inventory said they should have almost a whole case of it they had none so I'm gonna hit one more Michaels and which happens to be near Dick Blick I did get a gift card for Mother's Day from the kids for from Dick Blick thank you Rebecca and Paulias so we are gonna go to that Michaels in Beaverton which is actually not I don't think too far from their apartment and see if they have it and then stop at Dick Blick one of the two of them should have it I hesitate to use my gift card for resin but if I need to I need to I've got it if neither one of them has it I'll just order it but I don't have a problem with getting out of the house and going for a little drive this morning it's 9 0 8 a.m. by the way and I am going to go do that and then I'm gonna come home and I pulled out my husband's palm sander and we're gonna sand the cups because the two two glitter cups are very bumpy and the one that I put up in the cabinet I might try to sand it it's kind of bothering me I'm gonna have trouble leaving it bumpy so we'll see what happens and all of course depends on whether or not I can get resin because it's one thing to scratch it up and sand it if I can put resin over it and hide the scratches but if I can't that's another issue so yeah let's get to it turns out the Beaverton Michaels is near the Millend fabric store that I've been trying to get to can you say side tracked because yeah I might need to pop in Michaels really quick and then walk over to the Millend store if it's open all right I'll be back okay that Michaels store is easily there we have two or three times the size of the to Wallington store holy cow and did you see those pictures of the clearance section in the back of the store it was a gigantic it almost as big as my arts and crafts room holy moly all right so now we're gonna see if we can get into the Millend store don't know what to expect but we'll find out looks like they open at 10 o'clock we gotta wait like five minutes I can do that okay so the Millend fabric store that's a cool place I guess there's two of them I'll put the link to their website in the description below if you're in the Beaverton Oregon area and the other one was in Milwaukee Oregon I think she said really cool place they have a nice wide variety of fabric it's more of an old-fashioned fabric store which I love and it's not fabric and crafts it's just fabric and it's also just not quilting fabric it's dressmaking fabric which I love that they also are adjacent the one here in Beaverton is adjacent to a sewing machine sales and repair place which is great because if my husband has any difficulty replacing the dead light bulb in the serger or anything like that I can just bring them here and have them worked on that's wonderful so yeah I'll be back I did find four knits that I'm gonna make some more of the tank top undershirts out of I found a real pretty aqua blue two different colors of gray one is like a gray heather with the black streaks in it a sort of a purple heather and then a black which I've been looking for a good black one and so I didn't find any good stretch lace they did have some and they had a huge selection of stretch lace but most of it was this wide so I need like two inches not this so I did find a source on Amazon and it did already order white black and gray so we'll see what that looks like when it comes in and if it looks like it's something that might work then I will order a couple of other colors that might work with the other fabrics I got otherwise I'll just make them without and make them a little longer that'll work too yeah so let's head over to Dick Blick while we're in the area and I'll be back is Friday morning May 31st 9 14 a.m. according to the stove can you see how shiny my face is can you tell I just lotioned up my skin yeah that's a thing when I was younger I had oily skin and now I'm post-menopause and yeah dry skin yep we've had this discussion on YouTube before anyway there's an intervals of sanity broadcast where we discuss menopause in sort of semi graphic details so you can go over there I'll try to find it and link it below it's a funny episode anyway I am working on my last cup of coffee I already pulled today's positive affirmation cards downstairs and lit my incense today I'm going to go upstairs and empty trash cans and then go check on Bambi's food so I'll be back you hear that obnoxious sound yeah I'm making stickers so I was inspired to do some art and by creation CC and I'll link her channel in the description below if you haven't heard of her and I haven't seen any of her videos oops wait there we go anyway with her permission because I did ask first I told her I was inspired by her video to create some work and it was it okay to copy the work and create a PDF down digital download and some stickers from it and things for the Etsy shop she said of course I showed her what I did she said of course it was fine so that's what I'm doing today which is why that's going off of the background I also have a new or second stencil supplier and I don't know if all of the stencil inventory is going to come from there at this moment but as long as they're available to cut stencils I think a lot of it will the quality isn't a better or worse it's the same quality I think of stencil the difference is it's in the US so it's a little cheaper for me to get it with shipping and also the artist name and model is etched into the edge of the stencil I don't know about you guys but I love that so that's a cool thing I will be working on replacing inventory on some designs that are out of stock I also have some new prototypes coming and more modern atomic designs coming so cross your fingers they'll be here soon probably from the new supplier faster than the old one just because they're from overseas so I don't know we'll see what happens all right I'll be back because like that's noisy it's not just Bambi coming to eat there's one at the bowl now but he had a friend there a minute ago we got the squirrel family and they like to bury the kernels yeah oh do you see the other one he's there by the rock behind the bush yeah they're burying the kernels around that forest and yard so we have corn stalks coming good Saturday morning everyone it is June 1st it is 542 a.m. I've been up since the butt crack of dawn as we used to call it when I was still working as a retail merchandiser yeah so I just dropped my husband off at the airport he's headed back to California for the day for some actually a very dear friend's birthday party he's turning 60 and Andy his name is Andy and anyway Andy is one of the two people responsible for me meeting Bob and Bob meeting me in the first place so he's a dear friend so anyway he'll be back late tonight so I just dropped him off at the airport and we're gonna head home because I desperately need another cup of coffee before I do anything else today so let's get to it it's 942 a.m. and I'm headed over to Michaels to get a round little container of some sort so June is artist trading card month over in the Facebook group our joy of sharing so if you'd like to join us join us over there and I'll be making an ATC coin a day for the month of June it's artist trading card month but I'm gonna do artist trading coins why because I punched out a bunch of artist trading coin parts before I moved in September and never did anything with them so thank you sure thank you jeves so I think it's about time I do something with them don't you so I have the idea to do 30 days worth of coins and then put them in at like a tin container or something so in 1.5 miles turn left on to Southwest to Wallatin Road so I'm headed over to the Michaels into Wallatin by the way so anyway yep I'm gonna go get that done and then I don't know I'm on my own for the day so we'll see what happens I'll be back alright so it's been a pretty good first day of June it is 6 36 in the evening on Saturday June 1st I am headed back to the airport to go pick up my husband at the airport and you know I've had a pretty good day caught up on a few projects up in the art room I got my June 1st ATC done for art joy of sharing Facebook group we are all doing artist trading cards this month I will include the hashtag for the artist trading card project this month in the title and description and also the link for the art joy of sharing Facebook group it's a free place that we share creative inspiration and instruction there's a new mentorship program going on over there also which is it really fabulous and I'm actually thinking about doing it in a life of art and self expression and I want to talk to the girls about doing it in my creative year so if you have any opinions on the mentorship option that's now newly available at Facebook let us know let me know in the comments below and if you would like to join our joy of sharing the link is in the description below here's my picture for my first ATC card for June you'll notice it's round a normal ATC artist trading card is or otherwise known as an ATC is two and a half inches by three and a half inches rectangle I am doing an artist trading coin which is two and a half inches round I already had them punched out and cut from before I moved in September I intended to work on them during the move to keep me sane and I just never did so I've got them already punched out so we're gonna use them right anyway I think it turned out pretty good and I'm gonna fill up a jar this month with coins and we'll see how far I get here's a picture of the jar anyway it was a lot of fun today and I got cut up on a number of project with projects which was good and sort of got the table cleaned but not really yeah anyway so it's been a good day but now we're over for the week I'm gonna go get my husband at the airport and yeah that will be it for today and for this week if you have any questions comments or concerns of course leave them in the comments below on this video if you would like to support the free content here on YouTube or over in Facebook in my creative year in a life of art and self-expression I would certainly appreciate that although it's not required the links many links on where you can do that there's different options there's Amazon affiliate stores there's patreon there is merch over at Teespring in society 6 and spoon flour and my Etsy shop there's a PayPal tip jar there's a lot of different places you can do it there's also social media sites that you can just follow me on if that's all you wanted to follow me on Instagram all of those links and more are in my link tree list of links which isn't in the description below in the video along with my happy mail address if you'd like to send me happy mail go out and like share and subscribe this video and show and smaller youtuber some love this week if you have a small youtuber that you really enjoy this week and this month I would really appreciate you sharing their YouTube name in the comments below and let's see what we can do but about supporting our fellow youtubers and our fellow creatives that would be a great thing most important thing of course is to go out and have a great day do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you later bye guys I gotta hit the road