The Sun Is Shining!

Hello darlings! It’s March and the sun is shining and the air is sweet and LOOK!

I planted lots and lots of daffodil and crocus bulbs last fall. I felt like I was burying a little promise with each planting hole, and now my first little promise is blooming! I also have other little promises poking their little green noses up into the air, making further promises of future blooms.

And these brave pansies are beginning to pick up their optimistic little heads again, after a brutal winter.

Oh I do love spring – but then, who doesn’t?

So in my last post I mentioned that I had been drawing and/or painting every single day, and was planning to take my watercolors along with me on an upcoming vacation. Oh, darlings, I did! I carefully packed them up (and it was the real ones, not the student set I had been experimenting with!) and I lovingly laid them in my suitcase and I made very definite plans to spend a little bit of time every day working with them. Oh yes, I did. (You know what’s coming, don’t you?) Yeah. This was Dearly Beloved’s and my annual marriage-insurance trip and . . . .

Embed from Getty Images

Well, what would YOU have done? The weather was absolutely PERFECT for almost the entire trip. Okay, well really — in my defense — this was when the east coast was getting totally socked with ice and snow and deep-freeze temperatures. I felt like I had a responsibility to all of you to soak up as much sun as possible. I mean, SOMEONE had to enjoy it, right? (Oops. Yeah, I agree. That was obnoxious. Please forgive me and say you’ll still be my friend. I won’t do it again.) But anyway, you can probably see how I did kinda lose my incentive to work every day.

There was one rainy morning when I spent a little bit of time on a graphite piece – here’s a sneak peek (I’ll show you the whole thing when it’s finished) —

But mostly I just vacationed. I don’t regret it, but it did break my momentum. I’ve been working since we got home, but not every day. Partly because I’ve just allowed errands and housekeeping and other uninteresting little details to take over, and partly because I have been doing some sewing again. Nothing especially thrilling – a new fleece bathrobe (Soft! Cosy!) and a couple of spring blouses now that the weather is warming up.

But I have managed to finish the watercolor I started before we left town. It was meant for the Daily Paintworks “The Relaxation Station” weekly challenge, but it was more ambitious than the ones I had been submitting and I didn’t get it done in a week. No matter. I finally did finish it and here it is:

That’s Dearly Beloved, of course, having a martini beside the firepit in our gazebo. Definitely one of my very favorite relaxation stations.

I’m still working away at the graphite piece, and I’m also working on another (even more) ambitious watercolor, and I’ve had a request from a friend to do a couple of portraits, so I have plenty of artwork to keep me busy. I’m also probably going to make a dress for another upcoming trip. Every year I go with Dearly Beloved to his annual work convention, and every year people ask whether I’ve made the dress I wear to the big cocktail party. It’s always more fun to say yes. (I’m thinking sequins this year – why do I DO these things to myself???)

Oh heavens – look at all that! I’d better get back to work now. Ta-ta darlings!