Monday, Monday

I'm getting seriously frustrated with the weather. I'm trying to get into the jeans and long sleeved shirt thing and Mother Nature keeps upping the thermostat! What gives with that. It was 83º here yesterday and while I love a lovely warm day this time of year, I'm thinking more like 68º. I don't even like 83º in the summer time.

I've checked online to find out what the temps are expected to be in the Adirondack area of New York for this week and it looks lovely. Mostly in the upper 50s. Now that is sweatshirt weather. I'm hoping to get out and do some walking and sketching, so I think layers are in order. I am planning to bring some pencils, pens and a small watercolor kit and am hoping to get better at small sketches with just a touch of color.

I guess I will be packing this evening as today is pretty full. I am tutoring Calculus at 10:30, meeting my daughter and Miss 3 for lunch, and then tutoring Algebra at 3:00. There is also a good chance I will have a tutoring session around dinner time.

I do have a bit of art to show you from this past weekend. I have started on the Gazania and am getting a bit frustrated. I know how I want it to look, but somehow between the brain, arm, paintbrush and paper, it gets lost in translation. Here is my first two layers.

I'm wishing now that instead of letting the yellow layer dry before adding the orangey color that I had just dropped the orange/red into the bottom of the wet yellow and let it bleed up.

This morning I woke up at 5:00 and decided to take advantage of the time that HughesNet allows me to watch videos and looked at a couple of watercolor YouTube videos before trying to apply the background to my work in progress. I am afraid watching the videos did not help much.

I think this must be the awful/awkward stage.

I still have lots to do - there is a dark color closer in to the center and I need to lift out a few pistils or whatever those lovely little things in the center of the flower are. I also have to figure out how to get the flower to look 3D and how to make the petals look more individual. So much to figure out!

I do have a wonderful work of art to show you that the hubster finished this weekend. Have you ever seen anything like this before?

This is called a Jefferson Chair or Bachelor Chair.

Sorry the picture of the 3-position chair is not the best. I took them out on the deck and between the Adirondack chairs, the grill and the bird feeders, it was hard to get a good shot.

And of course I have a photo to share with you today.

I think it must be time for my first mug of coffee and then once the hubster arises I would like to get on the treadmill before I officially start my day.

What do you have planned for today? Did you do anything special for 10/10/10? I tried to zero in on 10:10 either am or pm, but somehow missed them both. Maybe I'll do better on 10/11/12?

I'll try to post from the road and hope to have lots of lovely photos and some artwork to show you. I am really excited about this trip and am hopeful we can keep it loose and spontaneous. I don't like to plan too much as it makes a vacation seem like work. I am hoping we can just "go with the flow" stopping wherever and whenever we choose.

Gotta go!

xoxo