Tears

           Oh gosh!

          I’m afraid I’m going to bore you to tears!

          “Why do you say that, Peg?” you ask.

          It’s winter. And we’ve been sticking pretty close to home. Not much is going on here these days.

          One morning we woke to a skim of ice on everything! From my kitchen window it sparkled and looked magical, especially with the light being all weird as the sun came up.

          One of the Facebook groups that I follow said Michaels has gel plates on clearance sale.

“At my Michaels, too,” someone else posted.

Now, just to be clear, I already own a set and haven’t played with them very much. Many of the gel print artists have multiples so they can work on one project while another is drying. There’s a technique I want to try where you transfer your photo and reverse paint it. I have so many photos! I’m sure I could come up with some neat stuff — when I get around to playing with it. Here’s a couple of examples of what I’m talking about.

“Can we go to Michaels in Dickson City?” I asked my personal driver.

“Sure. We’ll go at lunchtime and try that Chinese restaurant,” Mike said.

That morning, on my morning love call, Miss Rosie mentioned, “I saw a cardinal on the ice looking for a place to get a drink of water.”

          Crossing the creek, I can see why. There’s only a little patch without ice.

          I didn’t take many pictures until we hit Clarks Summit.

“How do you say that name?” Mike asked.

“What name?”

“There on that delivery truck.”

“Pasquale — la chio?” I tried.

Clarks Summit had their annual ice carving festival. I never saw them use color before.

          Our first stop was for lunch at the Chinese buffet. We were there once before but it was so very long ago that neither of us remembered if we liked it or not.

          It wasn’t very busy. There were a few people there, scattered around in the different dining areas. The hostess took us into a large room where two other tables were occupied. She seated us and took our drink order. Water for Mike. Hot tea for me. I didn’t want to leave my purse unattended, so Mike let me go first.

          I took a picture of my food. Not because I wanted to show you what I ate, but to be a reminder of where we went and what we did.

          It wasn’t long until the hostess brought in another guest and seated him at the table right next to us.

          I chuckled. This whole, big, empty dining room and she seats him right next to us.

          There were at least as many empty tables behind me, too, but I didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself taking a photo.

          “The seating capacity (posted clearly on the wall) was 133!” I told Miss Rosie.

          “I guess that makes it easy for the waitress.”

          When we left, I saw someone took out the retaining wall in front of Home Depot.

          They had one lane of Commerce Boulevard closed. They had a big trench dug across one lane and there were six guys and one gal standing around.

          “I don’t see a girl,” you say.

          I know, right! In the next picture I can see her and one of the other guys disappears.

          People on Facebook can be from ANYWHERE! I didn’t know if my Michaels would have the gel plates on clearance but I wanted to check. If they did, then it would be a substantial savings. Besides being able to have more than one project going at a time, gel plates do wear out. Even if they didn’t have them, we had a reason to get out of the house and we had a nice lunch to boot. And I got a few shots of the ice sculptures for you.

          Michaels did have them on clearance! I got an 8x10 and 5x7 for fifteen dollars. You can get both of those on Amazon as a set and it’s almost forty dollars.

          Right now, I’m focused on learning portrait painting. I spent more than a few hours watching YouTube videos of different artists painting portraits. They make it look so easy!

          A body could get overwhelmed! Not only with the amount of videos but with the amount of information they share with you.

          I’m not trying to copy anyone’s style; I want my own. My goal is to learn the tips and tricks and maybe, along the way, find out what mistakes to avoid — even though I’ll probably still make plenty of those.

          After hours of watching, here’s what I learned.

          Without shit you can’t grow roses.

          Take a risk. Without mistakes you can’t make a good thing.

          Lights are cool — that means blue, green, and purple.

          Shadows are warm — red, orange, and yellow.

          Deep shadows are hot!

I don’t actually know what colors on the color wheel are hot since I’ve only seen it divided into warm and cool colors. I asked Copilot.

“What are hot colors?”

"Hot colors are essentially an extension of warm colors. They are particularly intense and vibrant, often evoking a sense of heat and high energy. These colors are even more stimulating and attention-grabbing than typical warm colors.

Fiery Red: An even more intense version of red, symbolizing extreme passion, energy, and urgency.

Blazing Orange: A vivid, bright orange that exudes enthusiasm, excitement, and creativity.

Radiant Yellow: An even more striking yellow, representing intense happiness, optimism, and warmth.

These colors are great for creating bold and dramatic effects in various applications, from fashion and interior design to advertising and art. They can instantly draw attention and create a sense of vibrancy and dynamism.”

I also learned from an artist that trying to plan everything can make you get stuck in rules. “Find your own way,” he said. “Give yourself the freedom to just paint!”

It all sounds like, “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.”

I don’t really like making mistakes, but what I dislike even more is waste. I need to change my thinking and not think of it as wasting paint or wasting paper or even wasting my time. It’s an investment into something I really want to do.

Practice. It’s all about practice.

I had to chuckle when one professional portrait artist said, “Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m doing!”

I guess if it’s okay for him to not know what he’s doing all the time, then it’s okay for me to not know what I’m doing, too!

I could do these fun little paintings all day long, like the Valentine I did for my Miss Rosie. She likes cats and her favorite colors are green and orange. Did I nail it?

Something I did do different with my Valentine cards that I didn’t do with the Christmas cards was I waxed them. That seals it so water won’t ruin it, keeps the colors in place, and even adds a little vibrancy to the colors.

I made something else this week, too.

“What did you make?” I know you wanna know.

I made an onion soup bread with a recipe from 1968. It was easy enough to make. It was flour, dry onion soup mix, baking soda, buttermilk, and cheese. It makes one loaf but because Momma’s old tins are on the smallish side, I divided it into two and took a loaf down to the Kipps.

“What did you think of it?” I asked the Lamar.

“It was good. We ate it with soup.”

“Is it worth making again, do you think?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “But it sounds like you didn’t care for it.”

“It was... interesting,” I told him. I think I ate two pieces and put the rest in the freezer. Mike ate one little crumb and decided he didn’t like it at all.

We have “Soup-er” Sunday coming up next Sunday after our regular church service and I’m thinking I’ll make it for that or maybe I’ll make a cheese bread. We’ll see.

 

I’ve always heard that honey doesn’t mold. Have you heard that?

Well, I’m here to tell you that that isn’t true. Under certain conditions, it will mold. If it’s exposed to moisture or contaminated it can.

I opened a container of honey that I had in my cupboard for a long time and it had spots on it. It wasn't in its original container anymore and there's no telling what's happened to it. Is it mold? Or is it crystallization, which happens and is harmless?

I don’t know, but I’m not taking any chances. Foodborne illnesses are not fun and you’ll spend a lot of time on or leaning over the toilet. I took a picture and tossed it.

The only other thing we did this past week was get haircuts. Well, Mike got a haircut, I just got a trim. And I made an appointment to have my hair permed, something I haven’t done in more than thirty years!

“After that long, why now?” you ask.

I just felt like I wanted a change. Valentine’s is coming so I asked for a perm and dinner at the Hotel. Mike is a good husband and simply acquiesced.

I took a few pictures on the way to Paula’s.

A frozen waterfall. It was right beside the road so I had a hard time getting the whole thing in the picture.

All the ice chunks from dumping the calves water tubs.

          The equipment barn.

          Lastly, Sunday sunrise.

     

          Let’s call this one done!