 I feel like my jiggly chin. Good Sunday morning people. It is 10.34 a.m. Sunday February 21st. I want to keep saying March. I don't know. It's February. We are headed out to go try to run some errands. We didn't get them done yesterday because if you watched last week's vlog, you know, we got epically distracted by a dog sitting for the kids while they went to go buy a new car. So we got nothing done yesterday. Well, Bob got a few things done on the new car. I got nothing done. His hot rod. His barracuda. Anyway, I got nothing done. So we're going to go try to get it done today. And we've got our list and our coupon binder and we'll see how far we can. I don't know. All right, I will take you with us where I can and we will be back. By the way, happy Sunday morning. Okay, so I don't know. It's about two 30 years or something. We are headed out for a walk before it rains again and before it gets dark. Try to get some more steps in. We haven't gotten a lot done today except for the errands that needed doing. I've gotten no art done, no art chats this whole weekend. Like it's just a thing. I don't know. I don't know if you're able to see that but the ducks are here. They're just very quiet. I don't know if I can get any closer today. We'll see. There they are. And then you'd think is they're awful quiet today. Probably because it's cold. Good morning, people. We are obviously in the car. So it is Monday morning. February 22nd, I think. I think it's the 22nd. Anyway, the deer are just in front of my car eating. One is scared of the car but she thinks she's too hungry to be too overly concerned about it. Anyway, I am headed out to the paint store. I need to get pickups and paint chips for a couple projects. Upcoming in the house. House projects, not art projects. Anyway, it is, what day is it? Tuesday? February 20 something. Hold on. I don't know. February 23rd. I had a live broadcast today. I did a cute little painting on one of the oval rounds. I got it dollar tree yesterday that I covered with watercolor paper. I'll put a picture here. I need a couple things. Situated, getting situated. I need a couple things. So I'm going to head over to Walmart. I think they might have what I need without running all over town during COVID. I don't like running around town to begin with much less during COVID. So we're going to go to Walmart and see if we can just get everything in one shot because that would be handy. Unlikely, but handy. All right, I'll be back before I leave. I do want to say, or as I'm driving, I enjoy watching videos from the off-grid living community. The tiny home communities and the frugal communities, including dumpster divers. It's illegal in Oregon as far as I'm aware, but I do find the whole process interesting and fascinating. And one channel in particular, freaking frugal. I love their channel. I love their attitude and everything. Anyway, Amy, aka frugal mommy, had an accident at home recently. And I'll include their link where her husband Dwayne talks about the accident down below. But she now has second and third degree burns on the back of her legs and her behind. And she's going to need treatment. It's expensive. I think she's home from the hospital now. But they're full-time YouTubers. They don't have insurance. They have a GoFundMe. And so even if you can't help with the GoFundMe, if you can go watch their channels and just don't skip through the ads, that helps them out with ad revenue. It helps any of your favorite YouTubers out with ad revenue, to be honest. But if you could just go do that. But if you can donate to their GoFundMe and you feel so inclined, do that. We as a YouTube community need to stand up for our fellows and support when we can. I do find their channel endlessly entertaining. Also, BreathCast and StevenSeph... StevenSeph... Blah! StevenSeph resale killers. Why can I not say that? Anyway, they're all three Dumpster Diving Channels and I love them all. They're all fabulous. So anyway, if you can show some love and support to freaking Frugal, I know they can use it right now. And yeah, that's it. We're going to go see what we can get done and see if we can find parts for what I need. I wrapped things up here for the day and actually physically went downstairs with my tablet and had a snack of some Reduced Fat Wheat Thins. Fun fact, it's my favorite snack. And I forgot I wanted to show you all. I hung a bulletin board up here. And this is my little painting corner cubby. If you're watching this clip, you've seen the clips of me working on the beginning stages of this. It's nowhere near done, but it's got a lot of paint on it right now. So before I add anything else to it, I want this layer to completely dry. So if those first few times I put any new paint on there, if I don't like what I do, I can wipe it off if this is completely dry. It's got to dry for a couple days. You can see it's like thick with texture right here and here. Yeah, so it's kind of dry. But anyway, this was my husband's idea. Great idea. It cost me less than $8 at Walmart. I just ran out. I checked their online inventory on their store and they had it in stock and so I went down and picked it up. And I was talking in the live broadcast yesterday about the homemade mark making tools. Some of which I used to do that. This is one of my homemade paint brushes. And I cannot for the life of me remember the artist that inspired me to make these. I have a whole bunch of them. There we go. And I'm thoroughly enjoying using them. I'm kind of trying to figure out I might need to collect some more sticks and I might need to make some for my watercolor paints because I think that might be fun. And I might just need more sticks because I might want to make more of them just because. And then the other thing I wanted to tell you all is these. So these are coffee filters. Hold on. These are coffee filters. So I strain my dirty paint water through a coffee filter and a strainer into a bucket. This gets out some of the paint solids. And then I have a process I use with some golden chemicals from golden that actually remove the rest of the paint solids from the water. And turn it back into just plain clear water that then is safe to dump down the drain. I can't remember what the name of it is, but I will link it in the video description and like put the name here somewhere. Anyway, these are the dried coffee filters. Usually just throw them away, but I did this one. I was like, that's kind of interesting. And then I did this one. I like that one too. I'm kind of thinking I should laminate them. It'd be interesting journal covers. The only problem is I don't have the ability to cut a bigger circle of watercolor paper than this, which is too small. But I might have to figure it out because that is cool. I might message my friend Mike Deacon and see if he has any ideas because I think they need to be laminated. Good morning, happy people, as they say on summers in Alaska. I'll link the channel down below. Anyway, it is three quarters of the way to lunch because it's almost 11 o'clock, it's 20 to 11 o'clock. And I'm just kind of getting going. It's just, yeah. So anyway, I... Okay, I had no idea what I was going to do with my day this morning when I got up, but I got kind of a lot done. I made some more homemade brushes or mark making tools inspired by Lorna Crane. If you don't know who she is, I will include a link to her website below. A very talented, innovative artist. She does a lot of in-person workshops, but they're in like New Zealand. They are not in my budget. There's a few videos of her on YouTube. I'll try to find one or two and link them. Anyway, I find her brushes fascinating and I saw her do an interview where she talked about them and then I just went crazy making them and I just made a new batch. I started using them recently. Hey guys, it is Thursday, February 25th. 3.36pm, I know, right? I've got an excuse for not vlogging before now though. It's been kind of a busy day because the cleaning lady was here. So I was getting projects done. I was just doing a little reading. I'm going to finish that book in a minute. I got, hold on, a lock while we talk and the bell going off is our sweet Letty taking all her stuff back to her car, I think. Anyway, while I was trying to stay out of her way she does work masked up and we try to stay out of her way or mask up if we have to. I made some more brushes and mark making tools. I think I left this last night in the vlog. The lady, the inspiration artist's name is Lorna Crane. I now have all of these but I love them. I just love using them, love making them. As you can see, lots of them in the front at least are very clean because they haven't been used yet. You do kind of like pounce them off onto paper or maybe give them a little light rinse but they're not really meant to be like washed, washed. Anyway, so that's done. And I was taking care of social media stuff and things today planning the March newsletter with my daughter which I got done. That reminds me I need to put another photo in the drop box for her. She's doing the advertising and marketing for us this year. And we need to plan the ads coming out for a colorful art journey. The class I'm teaching is Begg Rob. Chelsea, Peg Robinson, Petra. I just wrote the names down a minute ago. Hold the phone. Petra Fuchs, Marie Linder, Fiona Cabral. Talented artists all in their own right. Most of them have done short videos like a series of short videos. I of course chose to just do a one long video with time stamps. But I do think you'll find it very interesting and I have some still images of work I've done during the video but also with what I create in the video after the video. I know that makes no sense to you right now unless you take the class. So some of those pictures will be what's shared and think in the ads. And that reminds me I need to get into the drop box. Anyway, I was telling some friends how much fun I'm having making these brushes to get back to the brushes. Now I'm out of driftwood. I have some sticks that I've picked up in the forest outside that are well and dry because I picked them up last year but they're covered in bark and moss and need a good sanding and cleaning before I use them for something like that. So I'm kind of tempted to go get a $3 bag of driftwood at Hobby Lobby if they have any left. You know, broken supply chains. So who knows? I don't know. Anyway, it is a cold and slightly damp yet beautiful evening for a walk. I guess. So since I started the 10,000 steps a day challenge, fun fact, I think I've only missed two days. I was only initially going to do it for a week and it's just sort of continued. So yeah, I find most days if I start out before our walk getting about 3,000-ish steps, then by the time we get back, I usually have about 10,000. So I don't know. Anyway, we're going to go see what we can see and then I think we're going to have some ravioli for dinner. So it's quick, it's easy. Yeah. All right, I'll be back. Good morning, people. It is 9.55 a.m. Friday, February 26, I think. Obviously I'm in the car. I'm going to go run some errands. Now that Bob's got his new sort of hot rod car, he would prefer to spend the weekends, I think, working on the car rather than running around to get groceries and stuff, which is fine. So I'm going to start, I think, doing most of that kind of shopping by myself again, which is fine. Sort of semi-getting back to normal, right? The holiday house has their St. Paddy's Day stuff out. You've got a St. Paddy's Day toilet-sourced rice. Yeah, down there at the bottom. Oops, sorry, right there. And then they have leprechaun and his pot of gold. And they're also playing a movie. So cool. All right, we're going to go walking. I'll be back. Hey, guys. It is Saturday morning, February 27. I almost said December. It's not December. Hey, guys. It is, I don't know what time it is, 8.56 p.m. It's still Saturday, the 27th. It's been kind of a busy day. I have somewhere between 13, 14,000 steps, something like that. I don't know, a lot of steps. I need to put these Valentine's Day cards with my box of stuff for the year. Because, you know, I got to document crazy COVID. Someday I'm going to get asked questions about it, you know? Anyway, and I'm going to probably not remember without looking at the letters and notes. Anyway, it's been a crazy day. I've got a lot of steps in. I got some a little bunch of errands run. If you're watching this clip, you saw the clip of me that I, or clips of me. I turned them into a YouTube short. So you might have already seen that. This vlog will contain a slightly extended version. I will explain some of what I did here. So I went to Target today to pick up a few things that I checked ahead of time. I knew they had in stock. I did check. It is COVID. So when I can, I check inventory because I don't want to just be running around town. Like a crazy woman. And then they had to have anything like exposing myself for no reason. Anyway, while I was there, I checked the clearance aisle, which I always do. And they had a really pretty frame that's a metal frame. And it has two paints of glass so you can see straight through the frame. And I've seen them before from a bunch of different YouTubers and they really fascinate me. And I actually nearly ordered one on Amazon actually not long ago. Because I have a habit when we're out walking of picking up things are falling because I'm moving things around picking up leaves and flowers, foliage. And the girls often when they come for dinner, Jenny in particular will bring me a few flowers and things when they come for a Friday night dinner, which is great. And I like to press things to use them in art and to use them in my journal. That's the intention always. And I discovered a while back from another YouTuber here who I don't remember her name. She likes to do the same thing. And I have a flower press, but I always have way too much stuff for the flower press. She just uses an old book and then puts a bunch of heavy stuff on top of it. That's a great idea. I had this old dictionary and so when I get foliage and leaves and things, I just flatten them and shove them in the book. So I saw this picture frame, which you saw me clean the adhesive and things off of and have a lot of different stickers on it that I had to clean the adhesive off and then get the fingerprints off. And then I picked a collection of things from my book and it framed them and it turned out so pretty. I almost wish they had another frame. It was so pretty. Anyway, so I did that today. That was the creative things I think I've done. I have to do today's daily drawing and stuff, which is downstairs, which I'll do in a minute. But Bob got some stuff done on the car and we got a couple of small DIY things done here around the house. He had a loose hinge and one kitchen cabinet that Bob fixed and did a lot of walking and we have to go visit my parents tomorrow. To check up on them and make sure they're doing okay. So we have some things we went and picked up to bring with us to bring to them. If you don't know, my mom fell and hurt herself. And she's been having some physical health issues. Bob's mom too at the same, like within a few weeks of each other. So we are going to mask up and drive to see them there a couple hours away. It'll be interesting. My mom's doing better, but it'll be interesting. We're not going to see the nieces or anything because they're all coming down with the sniffles and things. I do not want to get sick, even if it's a cold, much less anything else. So we are doing this safely. I know one of my dad's friends isn't going to be there, but we're not going to hang out long. And then we're going to just turn and burn and come home. We'll be up there for about an hour or so, I think. So anyway, I'll waste something. Seems like we may have COVID and things may be shut down, but I seem to be busier than I was before. Is it just me? Anyway, I hope you've all had a great week that you've stayed productive and engaged and that when you've needed it, you've done something for yourself and for self-care, whether it's just going for a walk or doing some art or listening to music or whatever it is, do that. When you need to make the time and do that. If you would, I appreciate you like sharing and subscribing. Don't forget if you have any questions, comments or concerns, or if I forget to put a promised link to something. Put the thing down below and I'll make sure I fix an ASAP. You can also DM me if you're attached to me with social media. I don't think you could do that on YouTube anymore, but you can DM me if we're friends over on Facebook or over on Instagram if you're following me over there. I do reply to all of them. Yeah, all of them. You'll find my social media links down in the link tree list and links in the video description. There also you'll find my Etsy shop and the PayPal tip jar and affiliate links if there is any. The email newsletter. I do have one of those. We send out a monthly newsletter. We're getting ready to send the March one out on Monday. So if you want advance notice of things like the announcement when it becomes available about a colorful art during the class I'm teaching with a bunch of other artists and you want to know who those artists are, you'll be in the newsletter. It comes out Monday. What else? Let's see. I know I'm forgetting a whole bunch of stuff. I'd appreciate the support of the free content here on YouTube and over in the Facebook art groups. If you can do that, that would be wonderful. You can of course shop in the Etsy shop. I send little thank yous and gifts with every single order. Have for a long time now. And you can also become a patron over on Patreon and they get direct contact with me along with occasional snail mail for me and all kinds of stuff. So yeah, I'd appreciate that too. However, you can support the free content and not just for me. If you have a favorite content creator either here on YouTube or over on Facebook, I know they'd appreciate the support. I know it. I'm positive of it. So check out their video descriptions and see if they have a way to support that, whether it's buying merch or it's a Patreon or whatever it is. And if you can't find out a way to support them, ask them. Maybe they're teaching a class and you can take the class. That would be great. All right. I think that's it for right now. Please stay safe, stay healthy, stay creative. Please wear a mask. Go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it and I'll see you all next week. Hopefully it'll be just as active but a little less weird. That'll be good. All right. I'll be back.