Happy Snow Day!

[mousme]

I'm sorry, you say I got that wrong? That it's Valentine's Day? *peers out the window* Snow Day seems like a perfectly apt name for it. :P

Happy Valentine's Day for those who celebrate it, whether you're single, dating, married, shacked up, in a polyamorous relationship, whatever permutation of humanity floats your boat. Love is for everyone, and doesn't come purely in the form of romantic love, no matter what the greeting cards would like to have you believe.

The proof is in the pudding, after all. Lots of friends get together on Valentine's Day to do something special. My father always made sure that both my mother and I got a symbolic present on the day, too. It wasn't about being a couple, it was about love, and he loves both of us.

It'll be the same tonight. If I can get through all this snow, I need to run some errands in order to make tonight special. I haven't figured out what I want to make for dinner. It has to be something Bean will eat (hah), but I'd also like it to be a little fancier than our usual fare. I also need to wrap the tiny presents I got. I was going to knit little Valentine's hearts for the two of them, but I think I won't have time. Maybe next time. :)

I keep meaning to get back into knitting, but I haven't yet found a pattern that I like and that will use only the yarn I have in my stash. pdaughter seems to really like her Doctor Who scarf, so at least there's that. I should check my stash again, and see what I might be able to get away with.

Also, in my copious amount of spare time, I'm thinking of trying to learn to draw better than I do now. That's not hard, as I can't even manage basic drawing right now. If I ever manage to get myself out of the house today, I'm planning on a trip to Michael's for stitch holders and for a small drawing pad and pencils. I may borrow pdaughter's copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and do some of those exercises (I had my own copy, but a long time ago my cats peed all over it and ruined it. My cats are one of the numerous reasons I can't have nice things.). I wonder if april_drawing is still taking place? I've been out of the loop.

I miss a lot of the things I used to do before work ate my life. I miss dancing and learning languages. Dancing isn't feasible these days, schedule-wise, but I may look for some language books and see if I can't immerse myself back in German or Italian, or maybe start a new language. Spanish seems a pretty likely candidate. The last time I tried Mandarin was an unmitigated disaster, so I think holding off on that is a better plan.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Have fun tonight! We're doing shrimp and grits, but I doubt the kid would care for that :)

One of the runner ups was this recipe, looks pretty good: http://centercutcook.com/spicy-chicken-rigatoni-like-buca-di-beppo/

Spanish is easy, esp already knowing French!

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I have decided on breakfast for dinner. French toast with a heart shape cut out of the middle & filled with strawberries. I need to pick up whipped cream. :D

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds fun! I just picked up some strawberries, I hope they are better than the last batch we got.

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

You sound like you're really loving life right now! And THAT is chock full of awesome.

There was a 30-day art practice thing on tumblr a while ago; I'll see if I can track it down for you...

Happy VDay, Phnee!

[mousme.livejournal.com]

"Practice," implies that I have a skill to actually practice. :P

I blame fandom. All you artists are so wonderfully talented, and images perform a function that words can't begin to mimic. I know you're well beyond that, but do you have any beginner resources you can recommend to me?

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean; there are some times a visual paints that picture and there are times when a gorgeous turn-of-phrase will have me writhing with envy!

Lemme poke around for some drawing basics; I don't know of any off the top of my head but I know they're out there!

[ai731.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" I've never made it past Chapter 8, but the beginning chapters taught me to draw better than I had ever thought I could, while I was working on the exercises. The one stumbling block is the "Drawing Pane" (8x10ish piece of Plexiglass) that you really need to have in order to do the exercise properly, but maybe Pdaughter has one?

ETA: When I was doing Prop & Set Design at Lasalle College, my drawing teacher had us do several of the beginning exercises from "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" so it's got, y'know, actual academic cred and such.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I don't think we have Plexiglass. It may well be one of the few art supplies that pdaughter doesn't have, ironically enough. She has tons of stuff otherwise.

Is that something that can be found at Michael's or Omer de Serres, do you think?