Frugal Brushes

Journaling:

Found the brush I wanted in a "value pack" at Wal-Mart. 25 brushes for $4.67. That's about 18¢ per brush...and my kind of price.

Yes, I'm a tightwad.

The one I wanted was a 1/2" camel wash brush. I thought I was looking for a shader. Hummm.....

I'm finishing up Journal #4 (4 x 6) and will be going to a larger format with Journal #5 (6 x 9). I figured I needed a larger brush to cover a little more territory. I currently use a 1/4" flat shader (or I thought it was a shader) and a little tiny microscopic liner brush for the fine lines. Even in the 4x6 the 1/4" brush was a bit too little.

My search began.

Pondered on all the brushes at DickBlick.com for a long time. The cheapest brush I found was in the $8-$9 range. Since I don't know beans about brushes I didn't want to spend that kind of money and have it be a crappy brush. I've done that before.

Hubby says I shouldn't say tightwad, I should say frugal. Meh. Same difference. I loath parting with money. I couldn't see spending at least $8.oo for a single brush, plus the shipping (even if I was buying more than just the brush.) I abuse brushes so I don't need shouldn't have expensive brushes.

I know, I know, $8.00 is not an expensive brush. I'm a tightwad, remember?

Went to Wal-Mart and pondered the selection there. Bags o' brushes for $4-$5. Love that kind of pricing. And it looked like the brush I wanted was in there plus several alternatives. Woot! Into the cart.

The other 24 brushes won't go to waste. Hubby will get the bristle brushes for his grease and industrial adhesives. They, hopefully, will keep him out of my "good" brushes. The big nylon brushes will go in the wall painting box because sometimes I need a little bitty brush to get into tight spaces.

I already have a set of small nylon brushes I use for calligraphy so the new ones are duplicates. They will get get gooed up with masking fluid and hit the trash after one use. At 18¢ per brush they aren't worth trying to clean.

All in all, Momma is happy.

And, if you are up surfing the Internet in your jammies at this hour instead of out partying, Happy New Year!

Moo Moo Moo

Journaling:

Hubby got this goofy thing as a Secret Santa gift at work. He moos a chorus of Jingle Bells then poops a piece of candy into the snowdrift.

Um, OK....

Hubby has gone to play with his brothers for the day so I have a kitchen pass today. Still in my jammies at 5:00 p.m. looking at paints and brushes on dickblick.com.

I'm sure this thing makes a statement about American culture today. I'm just not sure what that statement would be exactly.

Church Plate

Journaling:

A souvenir plate from the church I grew up in. Many memories are associated with this church, but not the plate. I'm recording the memories and the plate is going to live with my niece.

The Rest of the Story

These church plates were once a hot commodity. Everybody wanted one and there were few to go around. One hung in my grandmother's kitchen since the beginning of time. Her daughters and granddaughters all said they wanted to have it when she died. Decades later, after she passed away, the granddaughters all got to go through her house and take whatever mementos we wanted.

Mammaw always said she didn't want her family fighting over her stuff when she died. We did, but not in the way she imagined. We argued over who *had* to take things, not who *got* to take things.

"You take it."
"No, *you* take it."
"No *YOU* have to take it."

In the end the church plate was still left hanging on the wall to go in the massive yard sale. I ended up with it since I was the only grandkid who hadn't found one by then.

This church building was built in 1909 and by the early 1970s was literally crumbling to the ground. All the three-story portions were razed and a new building erected on the same site. The six gorgeous stained glass windows were taken apart piece by piece, cleaned, re-leaded and reinstalled in the new building. Daddy was on the building committee for the new church and his name is on the new cornerstone.

The old building was dark and musty and creepy. Doorways had been sealed shut, passageways blocked, rooms were hidden by renovation, and the basement held all kinds of imaginary monsters. It was a child explorer's delight. I can still remember the light (or lack of it), the smell, the creaky back stairs, and the way sounds echoed in various parts of the building.

Kiddo choir practice was Wednesday afternoons right after school. If we behaved we got a soda from the old hump-shouldered Coca-Cola chest cooler. Nu-Grape was my favorite. Then we got to roller skate.

There was a cabinet full of old metal skates, the kind that clamped down to your shoe toe and had a leather strap around the ankle. There was always a wild search for the lone skate key to get them tightened down. I broke my arm skating at church, the only broken bone I've ever had.

On Sunday nights we had MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship). It was the place to be on Sunday nights if you were a teenager in our little bitty town. Years later I realized some of the kids were Catholic, Jewish and Presbyterian. I thought at the time their families were members of our church. (shrug) I had no idea.

My parents were married in this church, my oldest sister was the first baby baptized in the current baptistry, and she was married in this church as well. There are lots more memories, but that's plenty of ancient history to chew on for the time being.

After Christmas Dinner

Journaling:

After Christmas Dinner at Sissy's House

Brother-in-laws sitting around the table after dinner discussing man-stuff. Sisters are in the kitchen discussing girl stuff. Pie has not yet been eaten.

Prissy Sister after pie. She'll get a kick out of the Madonna halo. (The swirls on the shirt are pale blue. They scanned gray. Grrrrr!)

Sister Nana after pie. She doesn't look like a women's prison matron in real life. Ugh! Sorry Nana!

Note to self:
Need to practice drawing and painting lips!

Christmas Eve - 11:30 PM

I got up this morning and got right to work. Unusual for me. I wrapped the last of the presents, stowed the Christmas wrap for another year, did all the laundry, and cleaned the office. I was finished by 4:00 p.m. and didn't know what to do with myself after that. Usually I don't get started on this stuff until late at night.

Cooked supper, then fell asleep watching "It's a Wonderful Life." Woke up as the credits were rolling so now I'm wide awake. Realized I still needed to draw some family tchochke so I could drop it off with my sisters on Christmas.

Journaling:

I got this old can and ruler from Daddy's workshop back when I was a teenager. I thought they were cool because they were old.

I've been lugging them around for three decades. Not it's time for them to go. Taking them to Prissy Sister to decorate the antique bedroom in her new "old farmhouse."

Journaling:

Daddy's Navy Signal Flags flashcard deck. I'm guessing these are from the Korean War era.

I played with them as a child and must have chewed up a few. Some are missing and some have teeth marks. They are going to live at Nana's house now.

What's on the other side:

1.) E - ECHO - EASY
Hoisted singly means: "I am directing course to starboard"
Morse Code Symbol: (dot)

2.) G - GOLF - GEORGE
Hoisted singly means: "I require a pilot"
Morse Code Symbol: (dash-dash-dot)

3.) Z - ZULU - ZEBRA
To be used to address or call shore stations
Morse Code Symbol: (dash-dash-dot-dot)

4.) EMERGENCY (U.S. Nave Special Pennant)
Means: "Signal (S) Flying are to be obeyed as soon as understood"
Written: EMERG

5.) International Code Two Flag Hoist
NECTAR - NAN
COCA - CHARLIE
Means: "I am in distress and require immediate assistance"

6.) NEGATIVE (U.S. Navy Special Pennant)
Means: "In reply to a signal - "No" or permission not granted"
Written: NEGAT

There are many more than just these six. I just picked the most colorful ones to draw. There were also six vessel identification cards. The front had an actual black and white photo and the reverse had the silhouette and ship specifications.

It is now 2:15 a.m. Christmas morning. I'm going to bed while watching A Christmas Story. "You'll shoot yer eye out kid!" I love this movie.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Presents 2009

These are the Christmas presents I made for my side of the family. I wanted to give them gift cards to restaurants because they are all chow hounds and don't need any more tchochke cluttering up their homes. However, I wasn't sure which restaurants would be appropriate, so I decided green cash always works. That seemed so impersonal so I thought up this cheesecake card and Eat Me® moneyholder.

The inside of the cheesecake card says:

Nobody wants an ugly sweater in the wrong size, another doo-dad to sit around the house and collect dust, or (heaven forbid) any form of underwear for Christmas. Everybody likes to eat but the Post Office smooshes cheesecakes, so the "Eat Me" card was our solution. Let the feasting begin! (OK, so maybe you can feast in January.)

Merry Christmas,

Love,
Hubby & Speck

All the parts were individually hand-cut, hand-drawn, and hand-painted. (I was really sick of drawing cheesecake by the time I was finished.)

The only thing that didn't start out life as a piece of watercolor paper is the purple envelope. Purple is Christmassy, isn't it???

I started these at 11:30 p.m. on December 22 - NOT a good idea to wait to the last minute. I had the whole concept planned in my head for over a month, but procrastination got the better of me.

I worked all night, finished up at 6:00 a.m. Dec. 23, and headed for the Post Office as soon as it opened. The P.O. said the three to be delivered in Arkansas should arrive the next day, Christmas Eve. The one to the Left Coast might make it by Valentine's Day.

I drew the big bow on the purple envelope to convey to the recipients that this part was their present...like a box wrapped with a bow...so they would wait until Christmas Day to open it. Nobody got the concept and opened them as soon as they arrived. Sigh.

I guess I should have drawn a "Do Not Open 'Til Christmas!" sticker on the purple envelope too.


===============================================

Footnote:
The Left Coast one finally was delivered so I can post this now on January 23, 2010.

Her Very Own Personal Summer

Don't mess with Momma when she's havin' a hot flash.

Campground Christmas - Process

I'm a big Process Junkie. I like to see the process of making artwork. I don't think I've ever shown any before and after pics of my sketches, mainly because it doesn't occur to me to to scan them at the beginning.

I admire people who can paint on location, really I do. Not my cup of tea though. I'm usually doing good just to get the foundations of the sketch drawn. I lay down a few basic lines, try to remember details, maybe take a few reference photos. Then I come home and add a liberal dose of paint and imagination.

I didn't get a good look at the sketches I had drawn at the campground until I got home. It was *very* dark out there, plus I am getting old and need lots of light to see well these days.

The "before" sketches are just as I drew them on-site. The "after" sketches are after much pondering on how to portray lights in blackness without using masking fluid, and several hours hunkered over a paint palette.

I didn't draw their feet because I couldn't *see* their feet. It was complete inky blackness from the waist down even with the campfire.

Christmas at the Campground

Mr. Hotdog and Cindy Lou were camping this weekend and the campground had a Christmas lights decoration contest. They invited us to come see, eat a hotdog, take a hayride, and vote for their decorations.

They also invited dozens of friends and I kept bumping into people in the dark. It was very hard to see and almost impossible to draw. But I brought my itty-bitty booklight so I could see my journal, because, ya know, I have to draw stuff.

This is Jimmy, Tommy and Mr. Hotdog around the campfire. It was bitter cold, lots of cammo hunting clothes were layered on, and everybody had a silly hat. Except me.
The campfire flames were blue and green from a copper pipe in the fire. It makes the fire look really cool.

Cindy Lou has an addiction to kitschy lights. The last set had little cars with Airstream trailers. This set just has the Airstreams.


The neighbors across the road had Christmas light globes made of clear plastic cups. Hubby loved the blue one. I think they're tacky. Hubby wants me to make one for next year. I don't think so.

These neighbors also had an annoying electronic beepything beeping out Christmas carols. After listening to that crap for an hour I was ready to get out the shotgun and put either the beepything or me out of commission.



At the end of the road in the campground was every inflatable Christmas googah known to man. I'm not a big fan of these things either. At least they didn't beep music.


I didn't draw The Hotdog's campsite. There were way too many people in it. They had Santa's Workshop with Santa inside surrounded by big lollipops, life-sized white plywood reindeer, Mr. & Mrs. Claus next to a giant toy sack (the 55-gal trashcan, wrapped appropriately), a dozen lighted Christmas presents, two dozen candy canes, a Christmas tree made entirely of lights, and a lighted Santa emerging from a chimney on top of the camper. This was all in addition to miles and miles and miles of regular Christmas lights festooning every available edge, including the edge of the ground around the campsite. It looked awesome.

They won FIRST PLACE!!!! WOOT! Congratulations!

Cindy Lou was stunned and didn't believe it at first, but when the shock wore off she broke out in a grin. And what a grin! I didn't know her little bitty face could grin that big. She probably grinned herself to sleep that night.

More Craptabulous Doodles

The She Journal

I claim I don't want to do bookbinding, but let me watch a how-to video and out come the paper, needle and dental floss.

Teesha Moore - How To Make a 16-Page Journal - Easy-peezy one-stitch, one signature binding that takes about three minutes to complete. Momma likes easy-peezy.

Made this cute little 24-page, 4" x 6" landscape journal out of three pages of Academie 65 lb, 9" x 12" watercolor paper. My original thought was to fold three sheets in half and have a 12-page, 6" x 9" booklet. But once the pages were folded I got a wild hair and cut them in half. I didn't have a journal in landscape format, plus more pages are better.

Why "She"? I don't know. Maybe this journal will be a tribute to the awesomeness of womanhood or something like that.

Barf.

Not likely.

Anyway, I don't know why "She", it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.

Moon Bank

Journaling:

Saw a sketch today that brought back a memory of a childhood toy, a moon bank. The coin was loaded on the little rocket ship and when the firing button was pushed the coin would shoot up into the moon.

The bank was made of metal and the moon was about the size of a softball. You could kill somebody if you whacked them on the head with this thing. Probably why they aren't produced anymore.

I lost the plug that held in the coins and the spring finally broke so mine got trashed in just a year or two. I almost wish I still had this. It was too cool. But I would only want to fondle it for an afternoon, then it would be off to Goodwill.

---

After I had drawn this I thought, "Duh, I should have looked for a photo first!"

MOON ROCKET MECHANICAL BANK.
MODEL 1000 DESTINATION-MOON BANK
DURO MOLD AND MFG INC. DETROIT. 1962.
1st U.S. direct April 26, 1962.

Silver toned coin bank, given away by banks and savings and loans as a gift for opening an account. "Save for your future". With bluetone satellite ring reading "Commemorating Lt. Col John H. Glenn, Jr.'s triumphant triple orbit of the earth February 20, 1962". On other side, "Shepard + Grissom + Glenn + Carpenter + Schirra + Cooper" The satellite ring is fragile and seldom found intact.

---

I don't think I did to bad with the sketch considering it was a forty-year-old memory. Left out the big rocket ship entirely, but oh well. Got the shape of the little coin shooter right, and the shape and location of the firing button.

I don't remember mine ever having a satellite ring, but I do remember the bumps the ring should have rested on. I always wondered what those were for.

Craptastic Doodles

Journaling:

Decided I hate the paper in my square Hand*book journal. Also detest PITT brush pens. Both are now living by my TV watching spot where the only things to sketch are Hubby, cat or TV. Will sketch them over and over until ink and paper are used up.

First sketch of Hubby. Looks nothing like him but bears an amazing resemblance to old college philosophy professor...

Hubby got up to get ready for work so I drew his abandoned newspaper and specs.

Looked up the professor in old college yearbook because Hubby didn't remember him. Got lost in a trip down memory lane.

Sorority girls all dressed in high collar white blouses with little ribbon bow at neck, tweed blazers and long plaid skirts. Hairdos for girls = Farrah Fawcett; for guys = David Cassidy. Glad those styles are gone.

Found a pic of two girls in a skit and drew one. She actually came out recognizable.

Scanned and printed the craptastic doodles and pasted them in my journal. The journal page came out pretty nice considering the meager topic.

Daddy's Penny Can

Journaling: (edited out of scan because it was tiny and unreadable and continued on for two more pages)

Daddy's penny can lived in the front right corner of Daddy's underwear drawer. He punched a coin slot in the top and dropped his pennies in there each night. Sometimes I would steal a few pennies to buy candy at the corner store...back in the day when you could buy candy for a few pennies.

Once or twice a year Daddy and I would get out the can and roll pennies. They were dumped on the coffee table and turned to the tails side to look for wheat pennies. The wheat pennies would go in Daddy's coin collection because they were "valuable" and the regular pennies would be rolled and cashed in.

My hands were too little to hold fifty pennies, so my job was to stack them in little stacks of five with five stacks in a row. That way Daddy could see quickly the correct amount of pennies were there for a roll. He would scrape off ten stacks, position them in his hand, then roll them in flat coin wrappers. (I was so happy when tube coin wrappers were finally invented.)

This usually took us a couple of hours and we would end up with about $5.00 of rolled coins. It was a simpler time, a cheap evening's entertainment, and I got my Daddy's undivided attention the whole time.

KC Foods in North Little Rock was bought out by competitor Clabber Girl in 1950 and operations were moved to the Terre Haute, Indiana plant. That gives some idea of how old this can is. Wheat pennies were last minted in 1958.

Daddy's penny can is now going to live with niece R'bie so she can cherish this memory of her grandfather.

I have preserved this memory without having to preserve the can. Yay! One more thing out of my house!


Stuff written around the can:

Coin slot punched in top.
On back {"Superior Quality for Over Seventy Years" and Reg. S.S.A. No. 24699 "A"
Composed of sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum sulfate, calcium carbonate, corn starch, calcium acid phosphate
KC Foods, North Little Rock, Arkansas

Stuff written on the coin wrapper:

All denomination coin wrapper. The denomination and value would show through the little windows based on the diameter of the coin.

I think that should be circumference of the coin. I ain't so gud at gemometryness.

Hot Pink Ladybugs

Journaling:

Made Cindy Lou a fleece camping blanket tonight. Not used to working with stretchy fabric and it morphed out of shape as I worked with it.

It was HUGE! Didn't have enough floor space anywhere in the house to lay it out for pinning together. Had to pin and fold, pin and fold. That probably added to the stretching problem.

Cindy Lou squealed with delight when she got it. Guess that means she liked it. :)

She said it was perfect for the girls-only campout where they deck out the campsite in hot pink and lime green. It would match her pink rope lights. I'm guessing that's a good thing.

Crap be Gone

Journaling:

Dehoarding tchochke that has been packed away in the storage unit since June 2006.

Sheesh! Why am I hanging on to this junk???

Found a file on my computer last night "Knickknacks in Storage 6/30/2006" that itemized junk in three big boxes stored in a rental storage unit. HOLY COW! I've been paying to store this crap for 3 1/2 years!

Found another file of "Family Mementos" (one box) that was stored at least a year before that. I know there is another huge box of stuff that I didn't bother to itemize that got dumped in there 18 months ago.

THIS. IS. STUPID.

With the exception of one or two things, all of this crap is leaving my house/storage unit. We retrieved three boxes today and went through them. Family has been notified of pending Goodwill donation and they must speak up if anything has sentimental value to them or forever hold their peace.

A few things are sentimental to me: things from my childhood, Mom and Dad's stuff, or my grandmother's things. Those I will draw in the coming days and tell their story, then out they go. I am keeping the memories but chucking the stuff.

I have watched far too many episodes of "Hoarders" and "Clean Sweep."

Happy Birthday

Journaling:

Clan Speck descended on the farm today to celebrate Mammaw Speck's birthday. The farmhouse was full of friends, family and well-wishers.

We (all the guests) swooped in bearing food, gifts and flowers, and swooped out again five hours later.

Since I was doing kitchen clean-up, Hubby and I were the last to swoop out and got stuck taking home the leftover cake. Sigh.

Said leftover cake is now sitting on my dining table taunting me..."Eat me, eat me, you know you want toooooooo...."

Christmas Parade in a Small Town

Tonight Cindy Lou, Mr. Hotdog and I went to the Christmas Parade. We started the evening with some Chinese food then bopped out into the parking lot to see the show.

It was freezing cold (nippley!) and I had on so many clothes I could barely move. While we were waiting for the parade to start I decided it was too cold to sketch. There was no way I was going to remove my gloves.

Then the big bicycle came by....


Yep, those tires were about 10 feet tall. It was tooooo cool. Then there was Elvis, complete with spangly white jumpsuit singing "Blue Christmas", a teeny tiny beauty queen with a crown bigger than she was, and a float with a huge yellow sun that I didn't understand.


Michael Jackson lives! He was moonwalking down Main Street tonight. Even had on his signature glove. There were about six marching bands and I spied the tiniest girl playing a big ol' tuba. She had on the coolest deep purple beret. Want, want, want.

Lots and lots of little bitty kids on floats wearing Santa hats. I saw two little cuties in a little red wagon with Christmas lights being pulled by their momma.
There was a group of dancing packages (wearing Santa hats), Mr. Tacohead (wearing a big Santa hat), and a Christmas blood drop (wearing a springy Santa hat). I would have liked to have been in the meeting where it was decided that this year's parade entry would be an enormous blood drop. Hummm....what were they thinking???

And no Christmas parade would be complete without at least one white-tailed deer and an outhouse. Heaven forbid we leave out the outhouse. The cackle factor of having an outhouse in the parade made the cold all worthwhile.



There were a bunch of cool antique fire trucks. They may have been the current working fire trucks for some of the rural volunteer fire departments. One of these little fire departments had a hook and ladder truck.

Mr. Hotdog turned to me and asked, "Why would they need a hook and ladder truck? There aren't any two-story structures out there."

"To get cats out of trees," says I.

Then there was a fleet of old Willis Jeeps. I drew one special for Capt. Elaine.

Then came the Budweiser Clydesdales. MAGNIFICENT! They are why I wanted to brave the cold and crowds and see this parade. Ohhhhh...I loves me some Clydesdales. The dalmatian on the beer wagon was wrapped up tight in a blanket against the cold. He sat very still and didn't try to wiggle out. He knew he had a good thing going. Good dog!

And those were the highlights of the parade, drawn in the dark as it was going by at 3-4 MPH. Lasted about an hour, took about that long to get out of the parking lot when it was over.

A good time was had by all.

Alien Zombies

Steve 1

Painting the baby shower invitation Wednesday sapped me of all my creative energy. Didn't feel like drawing or doing much else these past two days.

It was cold, gray and nasty outside - below freezing temps and snow forecast for tonight.

Process notes:
Practicing people sketching from Flickr photos again. Unfortunately I aged this poor guy by 15 years and gave him a huge Burt Lancaster chin and jaw. Everything around the mouth is just too heavy. His nose really doesn't have that big bump either. Bless his heart, he really is a cute guy.

Would like to try him again to see if I can get closer to reality. This sketch was done with a PITT brush pen which was probably my first mistake. Don't know if I'll ever get comfortable with brush pens. Think I might go to the opposite extreme on the next attempt with a Pigma Micron 005.

What went right:
His hair. The shape and color of the hair came out great. That's about it.


----------------------------
Photo used with permission, courtesy of Stephanie E. Amesse, "seamesse" on Flickr, and Steve.

With sincerest apologies to Steve.

==================================
Update 12-6-09:
(big sigh) Attempted drawing Steve four more times and each drawing was worse than the last. A portraitist I am not.

Finally glued a copy of the photo over the last attempt and wrote an acerbic note about the process underneath. I must admit defeat and move on.

Baby Shower Invitation

My sister comissioned me to do original artwork for a baby shower invitation. She wanted it 8.5" x 11" and "soft." Eeek! That meant I couldn't have any of my beloved ink lines. I'd have to do it on watercolor paper (Eeek!) which I fight with every time I use it.

Sigh.

It was major stress for me.

The design concept was stuffed animals on a baby blanket. Most of the page was a field of pink for the text. The blanket hem showed a little bit in the upper corners and the full way across the bottom. The bear and puppy were on the left margin and the bunny was on the right margin near the bottom.

I fought with the bear. He just didn't want to be the way I wanted him to be. Arrggghhh! The puppy came out rather cute. I love, love, love the bunny.

The bear and puppy are about 2" tall and the bunny is 2.5" tall.

Total size 8.5" x 11"
Watercolors on 90 lb (185 gsm) Canson cold-press watercolor paper

A Very Old Memory

The first, last, and only time my mother took me to the movin' pitcher show we saw "Gone with the Wind." I was only nine or ten years old.

This is the closing scene right before intermission. (Yes, kiddies, they had intermissions in the middle of movies back in the Dark Ages.) Scarlett is roaming around in the fields bemoaning her fate. She spies a carrot that the Yankees haven't stolen and digs it up.

At this point the shot goes into silhouette and you see Scarlett's hands go to her mouth, then she quickly leans over and her head bobs and shoulders shake.

My nine-year-old brain couldn't quite process what exactly was going on and I was confused. I knew it would take longer than a quarter second to gnaw down a whole carrot. Then it looked like she was spitting it back out so the whole scene made no sense to me. Thus my question.

So, when the scene ends and the lights come up for intermission, I asked Mom, "I don't get it Momma. Did she eat the carrot?"

My mom, still staring ahead at the now blank screen, replied tersely, "She ate it hungrily." And that was all. Nothing else.

Hungrily. She distinctly enunciated each syllable like a caller at a spelling bee. Hungrily.

I thought that was a rather odd response to a nine-year-old.

That moment, frozen in time, has been lollygagging around in the back of my brain for lo these many years. On the rare occasion when the word 'hungrily' might have a reason to fire across my synapses, this scene flashes in my head.

Today was one of those days.

---

Process notes:
Found a clip of this scene on-line. Discovered when Scarlett delivers her line she is not holding the carrot, she is facing the camera in close-up (not looking away in a long shot as I remember), and the gnarly old tree is on the other side of her. Oh well, so my memory isn't so good. I am old and decrepit.

5 at 5

Journaling:

Hubby is afraid of sleeping through his alarm so he has five clocks set to go off at 5:00 am - three in the bedroom, one in the living room, and this wind-up one in the bathroom. All this in addition to a cat dancing on his chest wanting breakfast.

He claims he can't hear the alarms because his ears are buried in a fluffy pillow.

I think he's just getting old and deaf.

I try to get him to make going-to-bed noises about 8:00 pm, but oh no, he won't have any of that. He was up watching Hoarders at 9:30 last night.