Teresa Robeson's Blog, page 10

Genna Blackburn 30-Day Drawing Challenge part 2

Here are the next 10 doodles I drew for this challenge (see part 1 for an explanation). And, hey! Did I mention that I had so much fun, I’m running my own challenge in August? The theme is Creative Fun in the Sun. It will span 2 weeks and the goal is to create 7 pieces of art or writing total, so I will email you with a prompt every other day. I’ll also share what I created for each prompt. It’s a low-stress challenge meant to inspire you to be creative, so no masterpieces are expected. But if you happen to love what you created, great! You can also go back to revise and edit to make it a finished work.

If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, please join me! Just fill out the pop-up on my site’s News & Events page and you’re in.

Genna Blackburn 30-Day Drawing Challenge

Artist Genna Blackburn has a super fun Skillshare class to get you doodling daily. I took the challenge in June because I felt like I wasn’t drawing enough. I think what was holding me back is that I always overthink things and want to get things right. Sometimes I can overcome that handicap by myself; other times, I need a shove in the right direction. Genna’s joyful course was just the push I needed!

I’ll share what I did in the class 10 pieces at a time over the next couple of weeks.

I limited myself to 5 minutes max for each drawing, and I only used this very old set of markers that I wanted to get rid of (2 of them were already dried up. And when I say old, I mean probably older than my kids. I think I got this set 30 years ago.

Here are the first ten days of prompts…

Hope this brings you a smile!

Can you handle the truth?

And even if you could handle the truth (anyone else picturing Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men right now?), the truth can be hard to find.

Take these two texts about the first wheels for example.

One says the first wheels were made of hard clay and the other says they were made entire of wood. These books were published in 2015 and 2019 respectively. So who do you believe?

This is what makes writing nonfiction so hard. Even if you think you’ve gotten to primary sources for the answer, those sources may still disagree. The authors of each of these books likely found very different research articles, both of which seemed to be authorities.

Makes me want to give up and write speculative fiction set in made-up worlds.

Is counting butterflies like counting sheep?

Amidst my wildflower jungle of a backyard (which in the spring was a canvas of lyreleaf sage), butterflies flutter by. I don’t know about sheep, but certainly counting butterflies is a very zen, almost soporific, effect.

One Spicebush Swallowtail…

Two Spicebush Swallowtails…

Three Spicebush Swallowtails…

Zzzzzz…

Designs for nature lovers!

I’ve been taking a class on surface design partly because I have always loved fabrics. #FabricHoarder But, I was also looking for ways to inspire others to get into native landscaping and to help preserve endangered species. I thought that a great way to do it would be to offer products as tangible reminders of the flora and fauna that need appreciation and protection.

One tree native to North America that grows close to our house is the Juniperus virginiana, a member of the cypress family, which we’re fond of. (I had named our homeschool “Cypress Center for Natural Learning.” ) Juniperus virginiana goes by the more common names of Eastern red-cedar, Eastern redcedar, and Eastern red cedar. You can read a bit more about it on the Morton Arboretum site.

I created my very first pattern with the leaves of the Eastern redcedar. I’m very pleased with how it turned out! Above is a mock-up of a pillowcase with that design. I bought some of the fabric to make my own cover for a throw pillow. If you’re interested in this pattern, you can get it either as fabric or wallpaper at my shop on Spoonflower!

The cute, but poopy, neighbors

No, not our human neighbors, although some of them are cute, too. But I don’t want to know how poopy or not, they are, though I would recommend more fiber to everybody.

Every spring, for the past…hmmm…20 years, maybe? Eastern Phoebes migrate back to our area and build a nest over the back door light.

This is this year’s…FIRST brood. Those busy parents always rear at least 2 broods, if not 3.

We don’t know if it’s the same breeding pair since they first started raising their family next to our house or several generations of them because we don’t know their life span. But the parents always seem tireless and patient. More so than I ever was.

Poop not withstanding, they make lovely neighbors.

Straggler in a strange land

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks migrate through our area in spring, usually in the month of April.

Males, like the one in the above photo, come in first with females showing up a week or so afterwards. The last one that stopped at our feeder was in early May. And we thought, well, that’s it for the spring migration crew.

But then just this past week, a female showed up to our complete surprise. Was she blown off course or is she just a slowpoke (like our Kid1)? We really wanted to know.

But all she said in reply was, “Kiss my avian *ss.”

So rude! Have you seen any unusual birds lately? (I can’t seem to find the “allow comment” option…again…so I will just have to read your mind.)

Foraged deliciousness

I’ve mentioned in a previous post that my family likes to forage for food in addition to growing our own. One of my favorite foraged items is the nut from our native hazel.

They’re itty-bitty compared to the commercially grown European variety. This means that they’re much cuter, but also means that it takes more work to extract a decent amount to eat…both in foraging and in cracking/picking the meat.

And most years, we have to fight the wildlife for what little harvest there is. But, still…totally worth all the effort and showdowns with critters. Heh!

I ended up using this tiny amount in a carrot cake but forgot to take a photo of it. So, here’s a random photo of an apple cake I recently baked instead.

Yes, this was delicious!

Do you forage? If so, what’s your favorite foraged food?

Poultry slam

We currently have eight hens and they keep us well-stocked with eggs most of the year (the exception being in the fall/winter when they’re molting–I know; what a stupid time to molt, right?–and daylight hours are low).

We also have one rooster. Roosters are generally useless, unless…you want to hatch out chicks. And Kid1 does, for no good reason, really.

On May 3rd, our incubator (because we don’t currently have a broody hen) hatched out 7 chicks. Last time we hatched out 7 chicks, 6 of them turned out to be roosters, and we ended up eating them–see the aforementioned comment about uselessness.

Here they are 24 hours after hatching. The one in Kid1’s hand is still rather damp.

The heat lamp makes everything look red.

And here they are again, 2 weeks + 2 days old. They’ve grown a lot, and are proficient poopers. Hey, everyone needs a skill, right?

They’ve also started to perch on things, so the Spousal Unit put in sticks. But a couple of the more precocious ones (they’re precocial but some are more advanced than others) like to leap up to the edge of the cardboard enclosure and perch on that.

Not this one though. Greta Garbo here just wants to be alone.

On the one hand, we’d like them to be all hens instead of roosters. On the other hand, we will be slammed with an avalanche of eggs once they are all laying. We give away a lot of eggs, but we should start selling them, too.

What am I up to these days?

Sometimes, it feels like I’m running non-stop on the hamster wheel. When that happens, I like to make a list of the things I’m doing or working on to see if the feeling is justified. Spoiler: it usually is. Here’s my current list.

Friends and family understand why I’m so pressed for time, but there will occasionally be some who unthinkingly ask this valuable commodity of me, and it stresses me out because I’m bad at saying no and then I feel resentful for saying yes.

I do offer my time as a service: I officially mentor other writers for free; I’ve donated Ask Me Anythings to fundraisers; and I volunteer for many organizations without compensation.

In fact, speaking of donating my time, here’s a fundraising auction for an invaluable organization, We Need Diverse Books:

Interested in writing children’s literature? You can bid on this item at the WNDB auction and help a good cause at the same time!