Good mornin’! How are you today? (I say this as if everyone will answer me. LOL) I think I am finally caught up on things. No, not those things, the other things.

The lovely eye candy for the day is what you’d see if you were driving the distance between my house and the Chicago burbs. Oh fun! We do somewhat enjoy the trip though, and let me tell you why. We took a trip up this weekend to do some things, and I kept a tally on the drive of the wonderful wildlife we saw out in its natural environment. It is so cool, probably one of the coolest things I could ever hope to witness, to see these big beautiful creatures behaving as though we’re not around.

We are always aware of them and look for them, this time I kept count on a lil piece-a paper I stuck to the steering wheel:

9 Red Tailed Hawks
3 Eagles. Yes, eagles. Sitting on the ice of a small pond, fishing.
1 Doe, a young one, feeding under a tall pine tree.

I didn’t count the cows, horses, and other birds, just the ones that are a rare treat to see and made me gasp.

We got to visit Paige, my bestest buddy who is overseeing the care of her mom while she’s (still) in the hospital. We ate Maciano’s pizza, which has to be some of the best pizza I’ve ever laid my lips on, and we delivered Antoinette to its new home. (Insert mommy-like boo-hoo’s, I miss my baby!)

The drive back was (if you were paying attention to the photo) BORING. Add rain, and no visible wildlife eye-candies. Yawn. We got home, and I napped. Then I got up, and before long, I was sleeping again. I’ve been wondering if I have a case of the flu, only a really mild one, because since last Thursday I have not been able to keep my energy level up where it usually is. Today will be better, I can feel it!

I am going to be finishing The Horse this morning. I will start my next piece today as well, Luke and Ella. A dog and cat combo on 12×12 canvas panel. I’m going to attempt to get the sketch and underpainting both done today.

I also ran into another dear friend of mine who gave me a few minutes of her expertise to fix my “skin” selector (just above the calendar on the left), now it will be much easier to add new skin and not hog up a bunch of space. But if you defaulted back from your previous selection, this is why. Just pick again! Firefox users should also see an improvment on my stylesheet loading, and if you don’t give me a holler ok? Grazie.

So, I’m back, I’m alive, I’m still an artist, and I’ve gotta get painting!