Drawing Class

So, I'm taking a drawing class. I've never drawn a day in my life. But it turns out that if you take a drawing class, you actually learn how to draw!

My first tree:



Is it too egotistical to say that I am super proud of this tree? My professor liked the trunk very much but said the balls of leaves looked "too cartoon-y." I can see that. They are too regular.

Here's the tree I'm going to turn in for grading:



I'm not super crazy about it (other than, oh, yeah, I DREW A FRICKING TREE!!!!!!) -- the leaves look suspiciously like handkerchiefs, and I think the trunk could be more detailed, but over all, I DREW A FRICKING TREE!!!!!

Hi there!

I *know* -- it's been ages!

I've been so busy. I've gone back to college and, whew, it's kicking my ass. Stats, astronomy, drawing, basic programming, computer ethics, and art history - those are the classes I'm taking.

And, of course, the house is in shambles. I still haven't finished my craft room but at least it's almost all painted. We've decided to go with carpet instead of hardwood floor, since it's really supposed to be a bedroom. So I have to call the carpet people and get them in here sometime in the next couple of weeks.

But I go to school four days a week and I am studying my butt off the other three days, so who knows when the other room will really get finished. It's just paint, though! Four hours of work, at most!!! Ugh.

In the meantime, I've decided to take a more scholarly tack with this blog, for now. Short little fun fact updates.

Here's one:

You know how people say "it has a steep learning curve?" to mean something is hard to learn?

SO wrong.

A steep learning curve would mean that you learn a lot in a little bit of time. To wit:



Because I've learned a great deal -- bucketloads, in fact -- over a short period of time -- a week or so -- the line shoots up sharply.

On the other hand, when something takes a long time to master, it has a *long* learning curve, as seen in this graph:



So, if you want to indicate that something is difficult, be sure to say it has a long learning curve, rather than a sharp learning curve.

Then, of course, there are other kinds of learning curves:



In this graph of my schoolwork, which also roughly aligns with "Deirdre's Ego," we see that in the first week of school, I understood almost everything perfectly, then by about the third week, I realized I was in way over my head, and now, in the sixth week, I am desperately hoping to just hang on until the end of the semester.

Fatus Catus Alabamus

My cats are hard workers.

Here they are teaching a Mardi Gras necklace a lesson or two.


And of course, here's one making sure that the photography equipment is in full working order.


I, on the other hand, can't be bothered to do a lick of work.

i won a prize!

Jennifer at The Felt Mouse pulled my name in a drawing she had several weeks ago.

I feel like Little Miss Sunshine. "I won! I won! I won! I won! I won! I won! I won!"

Jennifer had a door prize for a little party she had, but the party didn't make and so she offered the door prize up to a reader of her blog.

The winner is me!

And what did I win? Why, ALL OF THIS:



Let's start on the right, shall we, and move our way left? That big tote, which is wonderful. Next to the tote is earth friendly window washing liquid. In front of that is a book about earth friendly cleaning tips, and a suet container for the birds, which they are going to love. Back row again, a scouring stick for getting the tub clean (THANK YOU FOR THAT!) and in front of that a microcloth for cleaning glass (not SHAMWOW but close!). To the right of the fauxSHAMWOW is four glass magnets with the sweetest designs. To the left of the scouring stick is a big bag of wildflower seeds which I will throw on the back lawn in the fall, when the weather here cools down enough for wildflowers to grow. In front of the flowers is a pad of paper for the fridge, and, not shown, is a tube of lip gloss.

All of that is MINE. Muhahahaha. Well, actually, I think my DH is taking the bag for the beach. He spied it and got all possessive.

So thank you so much Jennifer at The Felt Mouse! You tricked out a terrific door prize and I'm glad I won it.

new bath and bedroom

So I moved into this house a year and a half ago.

Some of the rooms were really nasty. Like this bathroom, for instance.



The pink rug, the circular tub, the nasty shower to the left that you can't, thankfully, see.

My sweet husband ripped it all out and put new stuff in. I painted it. Here's the same shot, after:



Here's the right side of the room.



We redid the master bedroom also. Here's the bedroom before makeover:



Same nasty pink rug as in the bathroom, and pink stripped wallpaper.

Here's the room after. Notice the window: I made the window frame and window seat myself!



I love how the room and bath turned out and how bright the colors are. The two rooms are cheerful and clean and relaxing.

Now for the old bedroom: demo the closet and rebuild it, paint the walls, lay down faux hardwood floors and turn it into my craft room. Yeah! Then I can sew the bag for Fashion Herald that I promised her months ago. Don't worry, Fashion Herald! I haven't forgotten!

My cat hasn't been too disturbed by the construction:







In health news, I am almost fully recovered. I still have weird pings in my belly region every now and then, and the scars from the surgery are still fresh, but I'm healing just fine and will be back to 100% activity in a couple of days. I can't wait to go swimming again!

seriously?

lol -- a little attack of appendicitis put me in the hospital last Friday. Emergency surgery kept me there until Monday.

And here I am today, still recovering.

The scar is the shape -- the exact shape -- of a pitchfork. Appropriate.

Lordy Help Me

Me, as reinacted by my cat
Oh guys I need to pull myself together!

I feel like I've spent the last six weeks sitting on the couch playing Scrabble on Facebook and watching television shows. I feel exhausted and bloated.

I need to get organized. Back to blogging every day.

looking for a job

Just lost my job.

Boo hiss bad economy and all that.

on the other hand,

MORE CRAFTING!

so let's see what develops over the next couple of weeks.

If you are an author, or publish craft books, call me! I'm an excellent editor!

craft stoppage

So I go and announce how I'm nearing 10,000 views, and the craft comes to a complete halt.

Sorry about that, folks. I don't have a craft room!

We are currently in renovations at the Craft Cabana, and two bedrooms are torn apart as we renovate and paint the joint.

Hopefully it won't take too long (read: less than one month) to get the one bedroom moved into the other bedroom, and the other bedroom (which is my craft room) moved into the old bedroom.

Maybe I'll post pics of the progress. That'll help motivate me.

In the meantime, feel free to visit the links to the right of the screen. These are great blogs and websites!

9000!

Only 1,000 hits to go. And when that day comes (this week?) ya'll can leave comments and I'll randomly pick a name and send them an awesome gift!