 Could the lighting be any worse? Hold on a second. Hey guys, welcome to Monday morning. I don't think I have any footage from yesterday. We had a post-wedding open house here and it was just insane craziness. It was great to see everybody. It was great to finally be able to have a COVID safe event with all our friends and family and celebrate the kids' wedding and relationship. But I'm tired. We have some dear old friends who are still here in Oregon visiting for one more day. So I think we're gonna meet up with them for lunch today and we're gonna go get some grocery shopping for a few groceries that we're completely out of now. We're running very low on that we need to get through the week. And also my nephew as his girlfriend, who I just love, I met her, I just met her for the first time yesterday but she just seems like such a sweetheart. Anyway, she had a little bit of work to do while they've been up here. So she brought her work backpack and she came and borrowed my office so she could do that, which was fine. But she left her work backpack here. So they have to drive back up this way. They're in Salem and we're north of Salem. So they've got to drive back up this way to get the backpack because all her work stuff is still in my house. Anyway, so we have all that to do today. Last minute, wrapping up of stuff. Our new patio door comes in tomorrow or Wednesday, the cleaning lady will be by Wednesday. Plan that a couple of days after the events were over and the new patio door will be installed at the end of the week. So that's good. And I think Saturday we're gonna go up and help my dad with some stuff. So it's gonna be kind of a busy week but less hectic, maybe. I can get rid of these maybe, maybe, no guarantees. All right. So we are trying to get our lives back to our normal routine. Post wedding, holy cow. Anyway, holy moly, yeah. It's just after six o'clock and we are headed out for a walk. We were gonna go earlier but we were waiting for our nephew and his girlfriend to come by because she left her work backpack with her laptop and everything at our house. So anyway, but they're gonna be a little while yet. So we are headed out for a walk and we should be back in plenty of time. So anyway, all right. That's it for the minute. Not a house for sale in our neighborhood. Interesting to see for how much. Anyway, all right. We're gonna go see what we can see. I'll see if I can take some pictures and I'm still exhausted. Can you tell? My bags are extra big. I didn't know that was a thing but yeah, all right. I'll be back. It is Tuesday morning. I wanna say March. It's not March, June 8th, I think. I think it's the eight. I still haven't caught up with my daily drawing. I think I'm still physically just recovering from the exhaustion of the wedding but it is on my agenda to do this afternoon. So that's a thing. But first I need to run to Walmart. I'm gonna go to the one in Sherwood. We have an organizing project to do at my dad's. Let's see how do I word this. Okay. For those that don't know, my mother has been ill and she is in full-time care. I am gonna be going up to my parent's house to visit with her at the nursing home on Saturday. I, you know, I'd like to say half expect but I actually fully expect it might be my last time I see her. Yes, it's that bad. In the meantime, my father is getting used to or trying to get used to living at home alone and getting the space to be something he can manage and is organized the way he prefer. She's never coming home. So it's time he does that. He's asked for my help. I helped him along with my sister Karen with his pantry closet. So I am headed to Walmart to get some more bins. Let's be honest, my sister Elizabeth and I both love organizing and it's not that I don't have bins but I wanna make sure I have enough bins and we'll be bringing some bins and label making materials for said bins up to my dad's house and helping him with a couple of different new categories. And I think every time we go up we'll be doing something similar. So we got the blog edited and scheduled and the weekly writing done and caught up on and some of those are scheduled. Some of them had to be posted yesterday they didn't have them so they got posted now and then the one for today got posted now. Anyway, I got my car loaded with some bins and things for my dad's on Saturday. I got a blessing and organization bag. Oops, there behind my purse, ready to go for Saturday. I have to do the garbage, I've got to do the dishes. Pretty much we're all cut up. I just have to do the daily drawings just tell them cut up on but I'm gonna actually refill my water. I'm going to do the dishes and then I'm gonna sit down and put YouTube in one ear and my journals and notebooks in the other hand and I'm gonna, done. We've got a couple of hours until Bob gets off the work so we're gonna get it done. My daughter even called me and asked me about DIY ways to press flowers and she wants to do some resin work with some of her wedding bouquet stuff. She doesn't do crafts often. And yeah, so that was great, great surprise. Don't get me wrong, really great surprise. I told her don't buy any more resin stuff because I have so much. So anyway, all right, I'll be back everybody. It's Wednesday, June 9th, 915 a.m. Our dear friend and cleaning lady buddy is downstairs helping us out getting the house back to rights and I am going to put some shoes on and go out and pull a few weeds out in the front yard. Yes, I said pull weeds. I really do hate yard work but it's gotta be done. I probably should get on that and check on social media but after family discussions last night where that went, I am not excited to go then. Hey guys, all right, so the cleaning lady is done. She helped us get the house back to rights post-wedding. Yay, thank you, Letty, you are the best. We love you. Our new patio door was going to be installed tomorrow but it is a two-day project and our contractor is worried about leaving the trim and wall inside and out, well mostly out exposed to the elements overnight. And in normal circumstances, it wouldn't be a problem but we're gonna get some rain on Friday. So he said he won't have time to put flashing or anything up before the rain hits and he's worried about that. So we're supposed to have a big stretch of sunshine next week so he's gonna wait and do it next week which is good anyway because the company, the door was purchased from, it is a Millgaard door but they have misplaced the screen which is the main reason for putting the door in is so we can open it and get some fresh air. Kids are out to hear that. Anyway, so hopefully by the time he gets here to put the door in, they'll have found the screen, let's hope. I got this big giant sewing spool pin cushion thing at Hobby Lobby last week in the midst of all the chaos. I was like, ooh, that's interesting because I definitely have a pin cushion like the addiction now at this point. I knew that I liked it as it was but I wanted to do some things to it, just boost it up and I'll put a picture of it like here somewhere I think I have a photo of it after I stuck pins in the top but other than the pins that are in the top the way you see it is as is. And then today, I created, let's see if I can grab it, it's heavy, it is solid wood. This slow stitch part to it. So it has a little pocket and a pair of scissors, couple of sewing needles, it's real cute. Here's my Instagram sort of video, I'll put it right here. Anyway, so yes, I do now have family drama regarding my parents is not getting any better, it's getting worse and mom is in care full time but now we're all trying to figure out how to best to get dad to take care of himself. It's the best I can say about that. Anyway, and of course it's a disagreement and nobody thinks to like, I don't know, ask dad. Anyway, it's a thing. I'm gonna go downstairs now, watch a little YouTube while I am waiting for Bob to get off of work and then I think we're gonna go walking and we'll see what happens after that. I'll be back. You have a tag on. Look who you belong to, let me see. What's that, what's your name? Is this something, is that a? It's a number. Full number. Yeah. Well, we'll keep walking. We haven't seen the ducks in quite a while. Looks like we just found where they're hanging out. Cool. Could the lighting be any worse? Hold on a second. That's marginally better but you can only do so much with this face. And no makeup, anyway. I don't know that makeup would help. Anyway, we digress. So I have this journal here that I actually made and I have a few of them for sale in my Etsy shop. They are made with this super thick mixed media paper and watercolor paper with chipboard covers spiral bound. And in it, I have been creating compositions and practicing with different color palettes. If you wanna see why I'm doing that and what I'm doing exactly, I'll get an idea of how I got to this place. You need to take my class and I'm teaching with Bayard Grom and Chelsea and all of that because it's over there and that's where I teach that. Anyway, that's not why we're here today right now. I am using this as a way to experiment and play with composition and things and I'm gonna try something different. So I am currently fascinated with Felix Scheinberger. I think that's how you pronounce his name. There are, yeah, Scheinberger. That's how you say it if you don't speak German. I'm pretty sure he's German. Anyway, I love the way he sketches and paints watercolors and there are a few videos on YouTube featuring him mostly it looks like they're at the sketchbook school channel but Studio 56 for Creatives has one from him and looking to see. There's a few channels that have reviewed his book. He has a couple of books. So I would definitely recommend checking him out. I will leave his name, spelling of his name in the video description. Anyway, I'm gonna watch some of the videos with him. I have an idea for doing a composition inspired by him and a picture I took at the kids wedding venue. I will insert said picture here and I'm gonna try it on two different color of paper gray and traditional white watercolor paper. We're gonna use the Schminke watercolor palette and we're gonna see what happens. I don't know. It's gonna be a fun experiment I think. So let's get to it. My question is, do I wanna do this other side with the Schminke watercolors? See what it looks like on gray. Oh, do I wanna try the gouache? It was a lot of fun. I really liked the way both of them turned out. Do I like one better than the other? I think so. I think I like them both equally. The gouache of course was more challenging to keep the pen lines showing because this gouache is very opaque as gouache usually is, is opaque matte water-soluble paint. So I think we're both really good. I love it. If you're gonna do painting experiments like this, I recommend doing them in a book where you can make notes in the margin and figure out what you like and what you don't. And then when you go on to do future projects for clients, customers, or yourself that you're gonna hang on the wall, you have sort of a DIY reference guide of what's gonna work for you and what's not. So anyway, that was a lot of fun. Nice. All right, so this is the lesson in what not to do. Read your labels, read your labels, read your labels. Most of the products we use in our art room have some sort of basis in chemicals. There's just no way to avoid that but limiting the exposure to harmful chemicals as you can when you can is always a good idea. And I know better now and I know I should read labels now more than I do because in my interest in having the occasional medium around, in the interest of having some medium around that I can create my own DIY fabric paints with, I purchased GAC 900 a while back. I didn't thankfully get a huge bottle but as you can see, I have used about, I don't know, half ish of it, it's right about there. I didn't read the label on the back, I should have. And you know what? This product contains formaldehyde. I'm okay with a lot of things but not this. Yeah, so this is gonna have to go away and I don't know how exactly that's gonna happen because it is containing formaldehyde and there's probably no safe way to do that. I don't know. If you have any ideas, leave them down below and let me know. I, yeah, I mean, listen, in a former profession was a licensed dispensing optician. I was a lab tech who was licensed to make and measure you for eyeglasses. I worked with a lot of chemicals and unbeknownst to me, lots of them contained carcinogens and we in those days didn't wear gloves. We weren't told we had to wear gloves. We didn't have gloves on site in most of the places I worked and this isn't just one office, it's more than one office. And since then, I'm kind of usually more careful about things, making sure at least when I'm doing like resin projects, I've got gloves on and that I'm protected. Now I could use this up by just making sure I wear gloves that I'm in a well-ventilated area and all that stuff. Do I want to be bothered? Do I like it enough to be bothered? The answer to that's no. It's expensive, I'm glad I didn't buy a bigger container. I like golden products, don't get me wrong, but I don't necessarily think this is worth it. So there you have it. Anyway, I don't know what to do with it now. If you all have some ideas, let me know. Yeah, that's disappointing. All right, hey guys. Oh my God, I got so much painting done today. It was such a nice change of pace from what my normal routine has been lately. I am back to work on the lips journal right here. I will insert the three pictures I got done today right about here. Some are good, some not so much, but that's okay. This lips journal is all about picking a particular item or body, in this case, body part, and practicing painting it in different positions, different colors, different techniques. With the eyeball journal, there's a series on that. I did some doodly eyeballs, some painted eyeballs, different colored eyeballs, different shaped eyeballs. You get the idea. You could pick flowers, you could do anything. Anyway, I'm doing lips right now. And that was really nice to get all of that done. And the three other journal pages I got done this morning. So it's only three o'clock. I think I'm gonna turn the devices up here off. And I think I'm gonna go for a walk. I've still got two and a half hours or so before the husband is off work and we go for a walk together. But in the meantime, I can go for a short walk by myself. And I think I'm gonna do that. It sounds like a great plan. I'll be back. Hey guys, so it's, what time is it? It's before lunch. I don't know, 11.30 a.m. Friday, June 11th. I'm looking at the computer. So I don't know if I mentioned or not, but we're having some weirdness going on right now. So evidently, our insurance company thinks that this house I'm currently standing in is not our primary residence. And the agents called to confirm that because they got a letter from the underwriters and I thought that was a little weird. And I said, no, that's inaccurate. I'm standing in the house right now. Yes, we do live here. So that's still not being taken care of. Hopefully that's resolved today. And then I'm getting a letter from the franchise tax board of California. It's only addressed to me. So it must be regarding the art business. I'm not sure if it's related to the homeowner's insurance issue or not. I don't know what the letter says and I can't get through to the state of California because of course not. I'm waiting for a callback, which could take an hour or more. It's just starting off to be a weird day. So yeah, so that's a thing. There are many phone calls and much paperwork. And yeah, I think we have today's weirdness taken care of. I think State Farm really knows I actually live here, maybe. And the state of California has the idea now. I don't do business in California. Really hard to do YouTube videos in California when you live in Oregon. Just saying. Anyway, I'm printing out paperwork right now for that and I'm gonna be sending that in the snail mail. I filled their forms out that the state wants and holy cow. In the meantime, in the midst of all that, I painted the rest of the rocks I had. Some of them turned out better than others I think. I'm not so sure about my turtle's face, but I think they're all kind of cute. One of them was kind of house-like, so I painted a house. There's a couple I'm gonna have trouble letting go of like the rainbow rock. So yeah, they were a lot of fun. So I got them done and I got some painting papers done trying to use up some stuff. So yeah, that part was good. Now, if I can just get my printer to cooperate, we're gonna be great. Cause you know, yeah. Oh, I also got a new book in the mail that I'm dying to read. I'm gonna sit this week and I think I'd read it. It's from a German artist and I love his style. His name is Felix Scheinberger and this is one of his books. He's got a new one, but it's not been translated to English yet. Not a read German, so. But I love his loose, expressive style of watercoloring and drawing. Makes me wanna go down to Washington Park, which is, no, the King City Park, which is not far from my house and go sit on one of the benches and go just do some drawing and sit there. Not today, cause it's raining, but anyway. All right, I'm gonna see if I can get this to print so I can get this in the mail. And yeah, maybe do something else with my time other than trying to get ahold of people that work in the government in California, cause that was a nightmare. I swear, my printer, yeah, anyway. I'll do that. There goes this right here under the tree because she is not budging an inch. Nope. Good morning, everybody. It is 8.33 or so a.m., whatever time it says back there. I'm finishing up my morning coffee and we are headed up today to my dad's house to help him out with some things and cleaning out closets and stuff like that, organizing things and spending the day with him and then we'll be checking in on my mom. Is it weird that I'm already calling it his house? Feels a little weird, but she's never gonna live there again, so I don't know. Anyway, we're gonna discuss some legal things that have to happen now going forward and some things he needs to do for himself, paperwork-wise and all that stuff. All right, I've got my chicken broth, put in a go cup, my bone broth and all the organizing stuff is gathered. We just have to transfer the baskets out of my car into the kid's car cause I think we're bringing their car not mine. And yeah, we'll put it to go, we'll hit the road. I'll be back. She drooled over, that's okay, I'll be right back. I don't know, that's funny. It's a Pappuccino evidently, it's just a cup of whipped cream. I gotta be honest, this has been a tough day today. So the fact that we can watch that, that we're all smiling and laughing, that's great. Take it away from me. She is covered in whipped cream. Hey guys, it is, what time is it? 10 o'clock on Saturday, June 12th. We've been home for a little bit. So we've got home for my dad's. About nine o'clock, I think we did something bad. We stopped and got Taco Bell on the way home. I didn't have much, but I had a Taco Supreme. I know it was bad, but it was just that kind of day. Anyway, we helped dad with what he needed help with today and what he was ready to have help with today. I did make sure to print out the Medicaid application for him to fill out for himself. There's no rush on that, but I do want him to get it filled out. And I told him, if he has any trouble with it, he's I think gonna come down on Friday and spend the night down here. And I told him to bring the form with him if he has any trouble with it and we'll help him get it filled out in the mail before he goes back home. And I am gonna try to get him to come down and spend the night or the weekend here, I think periodically. I'm gonna shoot for once a month. Let's see how he likes doing that. We'll see. Yeah, so my mom is being, so my mom is being. My mom is in a condition where the only help and aid they can offer her is to make her comfortable. And there really isn't any treatment that is going to make her better. Yes, there are things that could do, but the risk really outweighs any possible benefits. So for that reason, she is going to have a couple of blood tests and probably they started on some antibiotics because she does have another UTI, I think. Sorry, I'm getting a text message from Rebecca. Okay, so anyway, I'll check on that in a minute. I'll tell you what that's about in a minute. So she's gonna be starting on some antibiotics and they're pretty sure that her urinary tract infection is back. So they're gonna start around some antibiotics to treat that, but only in the sense to make her comfortable. She has some other issues and not the least of which is the dementia, lesions on her brain and a problem with spinal fluid draining, which it should as part of your natural normal process and her spine, the drain in her spine is blocked and it's fixing that is too risky. As I'm very fond lately of saying, the juice is not worth a squeeze and she is at the end stage of life and what we are more focused on is keeping her comfortable. So she will be transferring to hospice. I don't think she's got long. I don't think the doctors think she's got long and it's very sad, but I think my dad is resigned and ready to do what's needed to keep her comfortable, but I don't think she's long for this world and it's tough. So we're doing what we can for my dad and to make the transition as easy as we can for him and encouraging him when he's ready to do what he needs to as far as making changes in his life and living situation. And so yeah, inviting him to come down and I told him, look, we have family dinner at every single Friday night and you are always welcome and usually it's Becca and Polly's, but sometimes it's Rebecca Polly's, Jenny and Brian and I know they would all welcome you and so I think he's gonna come down this weekend. So yeah, so that was that. And then my daughter, now that she's married is into drying her flowers from Hubukai and she is having fun doing that and asking me about doing things with resin and she's getting crafty. I don't know where this is gonna lead but I'm very excited about that. And yeah, I think it's gonna be a good thing. So anyway, lots of stuff going on and yeah, never boring around here, that's for sure. Anyway, it's been an interesting week and we're just gathering together as a family as one does and supporting each other as you know, as you should and that's all we can do, right? So anyway, I hope you all have made it through the week safe and healthy. Please wear a mask if you're still required to do so and take care of each other, have some fun, go out and breathe the fresh air. It's beautiful weather outside right now. Most importantly, please besides doing the obvious, check the video description, like, share and subscribe, hit the little bell icon for notifications about new videos when they come out, support that channel as you can by shopping in the Etsy shop or joining Patreon or something like that. I will be restarting Patreon live soon. And soon as things settle down a bit with my parents and yeah, all of that stuff. Anyway, the most important thing of course, go out and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. We'll see you next week. Bye guys.