Thank You, Mrs. Jones 🤗

I settled in on my plans for grandma's birthday celebration. I'm flying up to Indiana on Friday, March 7th. I'll be flying home the next evening. This will be a quick trip. But I hope to see my son and I'll be there to celebrate grandma's 90th birthday ❤️

I'd still like to plan a longer trip to spend more time with my son. I may go up for the week of my birthday a few weeks after this quick visit. If I do, it'll be a working trip. I'll avoid taking time off work and spend the evenings with Malachi. I might still take off my birthday and do something special with him. But I'm not sure yet. Work has been a bit busy this year. And it is only going to get busier until at least June. I can take single days off from time to time without feeling guilty or overwhelmed...hehehe

I did some work on my latest painting. I did three of the colors tonight. At least the first coat of each...LOL It's in that weird stage where some of the color is there. But it doesn't quite look right just yet...hehehe I used to be so discouraged at these beginning stages. I was always like this doesn't look right...I'm not doing a good job! But after a while, I realized those initial stages are far from the finished results. But they are still very important stages. I just need to be patient and wait for the painting to truly reveal itself over the course of the project. Like me, it is a work in progress...hehehe

This is what inspired me to think about doing a work in progress style of painting...where different parts of the whole painting are at various stages of development. Some parts will be complete...while others are only partially painted. And some parts will just be the pencil sketch. I may play around with this concept later this year...hehehe

I normally give my work a title before I begin. I named this one after I did the digital concept art. But now I'm second guessing the title...LOL So, even the title is a work in progress on this project...HAHAHA

There was a day when I couldn't start a project of any kind without first giving it a name or title. It didn't matter if it was a creative work or software project that I was building. I don't put that much pressure on it anymore. Names are important. But why stress over it? LOL Sometimes the work I do tells me what its name is after it is created. I just need to listen ❤️

I thought about naming my photos for the featured photo each day. I ended up settling on just dating them. If I were to put them in a book at the end of the year, having the date be the title seems appropriate. Imagine having a book with 365 photos and a small description of each one...hehehe The photo itself would be a page and the description would be another. That's a thick book! HAHAHA Of course, I'm basically talking about a coffee table book...HAHAHA

I'm very happy to be putting my creativity to work now. January wasn't creative for the most part. I did start some things last week. But those first few weeks of the year were occupied. I'm so glad to be expressing my creative side...hehehe I suppose my daily photo is a part of my creative side. But I'm more talking about writing and painting.

I had hoped to have this painting done by now. I wanted to mail it off by tomorrow. But it's okay to be a little late. In fact, I'm learning that things happen exactly when they are meant to. The original painting in this series arrived at just the perfect moment. I imagine the second one did as well. This third one will be no different. I'm smiling at this work in progress (the painting) as I type...HAHAHA

I just had some flashbacks to various moments in my life when I worked on paintings. One of those memories took me all the way back to elementary school art class...hehehe Mrs. Jones was my teacher. She was a great encouragement and the reason I fell in love with painting. I still use a lot of the techniques she taught me all those years ago. I suppose, in a way, she is a part of all the work I do. I'm grateful for the spark she ignited when I was a child. I'm grateful for the warm hugs I get to share with others because of what she did for me ❤️ Thank you, Mrs. Jones 🤗

Photo of the Day

Walking around a pond most days doesn't lend itself to a variety of sights. I most often see pleasant views of the sun, clouds, and birds. Occasionally an alligator will show up. But today, I saw a castle!

This photo is one of the reasons I decided I would take at least one photo each day. I don't have a clue how long this little castle has been sitting next to the pond. But I'm certain I've seen it down there before. And perhaps the low water level revealed its full form for the first time in ages. I had assumed it was the stump of an old tree that might have grown by the pond at one time.

Since I'm trying to see new things through my lens, I decided I'd go down and take a closer look at, and a photo of, this old tree stump by the pond. But when I got down to it, it wasn't a stump at all! Instead, it was a magical land of ✨ enchantment ✨ HAHAHA

It appears to be one of those castles you'd put in an aquarium to entertain fish...hehehe Based on the condition and the stuff growing on it, I'd say it has been part of this pond for a few years and hasn't been in an aquarium for quite some time...if ever...LOL