All these years I considered what I do to be the height of frivolity: what's more unnecessary than hand painted needlepoint? Then the pandemic hit and it turns out I provide an essential service. The world owes me a thank you that thousands of middle aged women didn't go stark raving bonkers during the last 19 months. I've always known needlepoint was therapeutic, I just never thought the world would go so nuts that it became an essential need. Of course, I think that just highlights how nutso the world has gone. Needlepoint should never have been an essential need because we never should have shut the world down and consigned millions of people to house arrest. I can only hope and pray that when the history of the last two years is written, it's called "The Big Stupid".
Yes, I can't get canvas. I've got a dozen orders waiting on a certain size gauge and I can only suppose that canvas is sitting in a shipping container somewhere, waiting for the long shoremen to get back to work. Then the truckers can get back to work, the warehouses can be refilled, the store shelves can be restocked and life can go on. Unfortunately, the entire world in the hands of "experts" who are going to be the death of us all.
I've got plenty of things to do once I've used up the store of canvas I still have. In the meantime, I'm grinding out everything we think will sell on other size canvas. I'll be extremely lucky if my #13 shows up before I've run out of things to paint on #18 and #16. Oh, and the shop is having trouble stocking threads, too. Believe me, world: You don't want to find out what happens when the stitchers of the world have nothing left to stitch.
I still need to paint my kitchen. We had our new kitchen floor installed in August of '18. That's when I repainted the blue part of the walls but I never got around to touching up the white cupboards and trim. If I run out of canvas, I can get that done! I've let several other projects slide in the last two years. I just haven't been in the right head space to tackle them. They're just for fun, so it doesn't matter but they are things I was hoping to do.
I've been painting outside a lot. The plein air class I take is a ton of fun and I think I've had a minor breakthrough these last couple of months. I'm putting a lot more paint on the canvas and my value range is improving. These things probably don't sound like much but they are. I'm still a long way from where I'd like to be but I've taken a few steps. Even when I produce a big ugly mess, class is a blast. The only hard part for me is getting up in the morning. Left on my own, I usually wake around 8 but that's not early enough if I'm going to get out on location by 9. Not if I'm going to have two cups of coffee and a shower, which are absolutely necessary if I want my brain to work. Rick, my painting master, also offered a class on Sunday afternoons but trying to get somewhere mid-afternoon is a problem for me, too. The truth is, I don't do well with structured time. There's a large part of my brain that just rebels against anything scheduled.
I missed a class when I went to Bemidji to cheer on the girls and Rick let me join a Sunday afternoon class to make up for it. My painting of a barn turned out so badly I'm not going to post it. I've done a couple sketches that I do like, though.
Looking at these, I can see that I have a lot of work to do. My value range is about a quarter of what it should be. Progress is very slow since I only paint once a week. This is something that will change once I've paid off all my debt or Armageddon, whichever happens first.
I've had the pleasure of hanging out with some of my favorite grandkids lately. Wednesday after work, I went over to Josie's and helped her paint her bathroom. It's an old house with an ancient room that has a lot of old charm; wood trim and wainscoting. The vanity is new and they really need to get new lighting in there but a fresh coat of paint always helps. Josie's plan is to wallpaper one wall. It will look very pretty! We painted the wainscoting a deep, mossy green; the upper walls a fresh white and the trim between the two a mid green I mixed out of the two colors. As I was cleaning up, Katie called and asked if she could drop BoopityBoop at our house while she played volleyball. She, Josie and Nick are on a co-ed vallyball team. Of course, I said yes.
I got home before the girls arrived and Jay made us dinner. A friend had given me some eggplants out of her garden so Jay was making eggplant parmesan. BoopityBoop had already eaten and were not inclined to try any. Their loss! It was delicious. Katie was back from volleyball by 9:30 and we gave her the leftovers. She called the next morning to tell her Dad that he'd knocked it out of the park. We'll definitely have that again!
It's definitely getting more Autumnal by the day around here. I think we've hit peak color, even though a lot of trees are still pretty green. I don't think they're going to change much. It's three weeks later than peak normally hits and a few trees have lost their leaves but overall, it's been a pretty nice, late fall. Jay and I manage to walk the lake nearly every day.
I've been working on getting the needlepoint Christmas ornaments stitched for my family. I'll get them done. Most of them I can finish myself but a few I've had to drop at the shop because the gals who know what they're doing are so much better at it than I am. I've also been making a lot of rosaries and jewelry. They're gifts for people, too, so I'm not posting any pictures until they've been given. It's so much fun! I love making stuff and if I can make stuff while watching TV at night, that's even better.
I'm reading but not as much as I'd like. The problem with books is that you really can't do 2 things at once while reading. Right now, I'm reading Sprig Muslin, by Georgetter Heyer. She's the best. THE BEST. If you've never read her, do yourself a favor and start.
Jay just put together a home made pizza for us. I have to go help him eat it.