OK, now there are two different videos

For some reason I posted two of the same video. I fixed it, so there's two different versions.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

a sunflower in December and crying over spilled (or is it spilt?) water...

You all know by now that I'm not a watercolorist and that I don't like to paint flowers (you should know it anyway as I say these words every time I post one of these paintings), but every once in awhile I do paint a watercolor flower. I'm never quite happy with the results, but people do like watercolors and people do like flowers, so if I'm thinking about gifts, I sometimes think about watercolor flowers. Yes, flowers are pretty, but I'm so much more interested in animals. Flowers just sit there and look pretty, but animals actually do things and have character. They're just much more fun for me. And as for watercolors, my results are always muddy. Mud mud mud. I might as well let one of my rhinos or elephants wallow in my watercolors.

And speaking of water and wallowing, I am wallowing in self pity and crying over spilled water because while I was painting, a little splash of light blue water made its way to my elephant drawing. I was happy with how my elephant drawing was progressing and it was quite possibly going to be a gift for someone, but now it has that splash of blue water. It is not even as visible in the scan as it is in real life. Had it been clear water, it would have created a little flaw that I could have probably worked with, but it is light blue in a black and white drawing! Wah! *wallows* If it was a whimsical drawing, I could have maybe turned the blue spot into a flower or something, but it is a serious and somewhat realistic drawing, so
no blue flower... The blue spot is between the mama elephant's leg and trunk, but as I said, it is not very visible in the scan.




I actually was able to keep the t.v. on for the entire game today. I was painting while watching, so I just listened and I did use some purple paint. Would I have used purple paint had I not been watching the Vikings? Probably, but we can pretend I used purple paint because they were winning.

Just popping in to say "hi"

I haven't been around since Sunday, so just thought I'd pop in to say "hi," just as the title says. So, "hi." I have been working on a Christmas present this week and it has been a frustrating experience. I started with one drawing earlier this week and then started over yesterday. I thought that the new drawing was looking good, but then I scanned it and could see the mistakes. I may have to start over again. I hate starting over! Anyway, I can't post it here, just in case the recipient pops in and sees it. Just so I have some sort of illustration for this post, here is a drawing from my rhino sketch book. I don't know why I cut off her speech bubble. She is saying "Calgon, take me away." That is how I feel this morning as I really really do not feel like going to work. It is cold and I am tired and I really would like to stay home and continue to be frustrated by my drawing. Adios for now.

Sunday Night

It is Sunday night and where is Anne? Sitting on the couch, leaning on a heating pad. And no, I'm not watching the Vikings game. I turned that off long ago. Yes, say it: Anne is a fair weather fan. I would rather be blogging anyway. So, why am I leaning on a heating pad? I pulled something in my back this morning. I think it probably happened when I was scraping my car windows and cursing Jack Frost before going to work, but it didn't hit my until a little bit later. I do, fortunately, have a co-worker that is a massage therapist and she "worked on" my back during break and made it feel quite a bit better. She kept asking if I felt the crunching and yes, I did. I never knew that backs could crunch like that. You'd almost think that it was eating Fritos. Anyway, it is still painful, hence the heating pad. I'm kind of attached to the heating pad at this point and I think I would like to have it permanently fused to my back.

Earlier today, right before my back started hurting, I took the photo below. This delicious looking piece of food was sitting on the floor in front of our express check-outs. It looks like someone took a few bites (well, if it was a mouse, several bites)and decided that it wasn't what they were craving after all. So, let's just toss it on the floor in the library. Really, who needs garbage cans anyway? It looks so lovely on the floor.

Fishnet Stockings and Spiked Collars

At first I thought the little guy wore the spiked collar because he doesn't yet have a horn and he wanted to be a bit menacing, but then I saw that his mom wears fishnets, so I figure they have a theme to their family look. They like things black and they like things tough, as if rhinos, especially Indian rhinos don't already look tough.

I may be back to add to this very condensed blog post later, but for now, I have no more text in my brain.

Bad Bad Blogger...

Yes, I have been a bad bad blogger. I haven't posted since November and we're already on the fourth day of December. Bad bad blogger.... *slaps hand with a ruler*

What have I been doing instead of blogging? Well, lots of reading. I am on a bit of a reading kick. In fact, that's what I'm going to do when I'm done with this bit of blogging. And a bit of blogging it will be unless inspiration strikes within the next few seconds, I don't think I have much to say. I'll just have to let my fingers do the work and see what they can come up with as my brain doesn't have much on its mind. Sometimes fingers can have brains of their own and there's 10 of them (well, technically only 8 as two are thumbs and they don't do much thinking of their own), so they're at an advantage. This idea was really reinforced when I was working on my NaNoWriMo "novel" as sometimes my brain would not have any ideas, so my fingers would have to come up with 1000 words on their own. They can get pretty full of themselves when that happens. And speaking of fingers, they are called "dedos" (pronounced daydoughs) in Spanish. Did you know that? It is one of those Spanish words I'll never forget. Toes are actually "dedos de los pies" which translates to fingers of the foot. A little Spanish lesson for today.

Now I'll move on to say yes, I drew more elephants, but these are more developed elephants as, even though they are still unfinished, I've been working on them here and there for a couple of days rather than just posting after a drawing session. That's all I have for you today. Yes, kind of a measly post after 4 days off.