What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

[Krystyna23040]

Thank you @Muddy Cyclist

It wasn't finished until those birds flew in

I agree - adding the birds was actually a stroke of genius.

 

[Krystyna23040]

It is so lovely and cool now. Much more comfortable.

 

[gennepher]

I agree - adding the birds was actually a stroke of genius.

Thank you @Krystyna23040

 

[SlimLizzy]

My daily painting challenge painting for today is in Procreate.
The problems is these kind of digital paintings me 3 to 4 hours. On the iPad. Some days I love doing it for this long. Other days, eg in this heat, I fall asleep doing them. The danger then is me or the cat accidentally deleting them, as I fall asleep holding the iPad. I am still holding it when I wake up...so far...

This one is similar to one I did earlier in the year but with real soft soft pastels on Ingres paper or card. I was trying to see if I could create something similar digitally. I didn't enjoy doing it as much. And didn't like it when I had finished. I had taken about 3 hours. (Cat woke me at 2 am, he was hungry, so bye bye sleep for me).

So I popped 3 silhouettes of birds on the sun. I think it looked better with that.

View attachment 43196

Think you were right to add the birds Gennepher .They give it a better focal point and contrast wonderfully against the sky

 

[Muddy Cyclist]

Good Morning and 5.8 for me today.

Dull flat light here today, we are walking from home across the ancient Wolseley Estate to meet our son and his family at the local Wild Life centre this morning, apparently they want to feed the ducks. There are usually some quiz trails but they may have stopped them because of Covid. Still we shall take a picnic for Mrs MC and I, small as I will be carrying it.

Spoke to daughter last night who is camping in Wales, she said the week had not been too bad numbers wise on the camp site but Friday saw a huge influx of campers, caravans and motorhomes all being rammed into any space, she says less than 1 meter between tents, and caravans being put into any space, she doubts that safe distance for fire risk is not even being adhered to, scary times. They are glad to becoming home today. Seems the figures for increased camping equipment sales during lockdown 500% were correct.

Do the best you can with your time today. Keep safe.

 

[karen8967]

6.2 for me enjoy whats left of the weekend everyone

 

[gennepher]

Good Morning and 5.8 for me today.

Dull flat light here today, we are walking from home across the ancient Wolseley Estate to meet our son and his family at the local Wild Life centre this morning, apparently they want to feed the ducks. There are usually some quiz trails but they may have stopped them because of Covid. Still we shall take a picnic for Mrs MC and I, small as I will be carrying it.

Spoke to daughter last night who is camping in Wales, she said the week had not been too bad numbers wise on the camp site but Friday saw a huge influx of campers, caravans and motorhomes all being rammed into any space, she says less than 1 meter between tents, and caravans being put into any space, she doubts that safe distance for fire risk is not even being adhered to, scary times. They are glad to becoming home today. Seems the figures for increased camping equipment sales during lockdown 500% were correct.

Do the best you can with your time today. Keep safe.

The great outdoors is good @Muddy Cyclist , but not when that cramped on the camping site, which your daughter couldn't have foreseen.

Enjoy your day feeding the ducks, who I suspect are not social distancing once food is produced.

 

[gennepher]

Think you were right to add the birds Gennepher .They give it a better focal point and contrast wonderfully against the sky

Thank you @SlimLizzy

 

[UserABC2021]

6.1 this morning and a dull but cool start.

Lawns and hedges will be done before 11am, drop her ladyship off later and the rest of the day is mine.

Enjoy the day

 

[gennepher]

Fbg 6.1

Temp 36.2

Between the different weather apps they suggest between 24 to 25 C for today here.
Still too hot for me. Popeye was struggling in the heat of the bungalow last night 24 C despite fans on. But the outside got cooler at dawn, so doors and windows open to try and let cold air in. It feels nice outside now.

I won every eBay bid yesterday (6 of them) despite having this other same person bidding also. And I paid the lower price I wanted. It is all about strategy, showing no interest until the last 59 seconds, having 2 devices open on different internet providers eg my phone, and iPad on my mobile wifi. And one other important strategy.

The person bidding against me had shown prior interest on all the items they were bidding on, i.e. making an initial bid as soon as the item came out a week earlier. I show no interest until the last 59 seconds. And I have the stages of my strategy, and bidding amounts etc worked out on paper step by step, so that I stop at my maximum bid. The person bidding against me worked out my strategy and used it against me with 15 seconds to go. That was actually a shock. I had one more trick up my sleeve, My finger was trembling. I pressed my amount with 1 second to go. I didn't think it had gone through, partly because eBay said initially I had lost the bid, and then a second later it said I had won the bid!!!!!

I think I have enough postcards to fill the empty boxes I have allocated. And enough postcards for my postcrossing activities for a few years now...

Now I need a new hobby. No more bidding on eBay or I will have that garage full of postcards as inheritance for my children...

Do you think I will bid next week?

 

[gennepher]

My digital painting for today in Procreate app.

It took me 2 hours to get that background. I did enjoy doing it. But what I wanted to do in the foreground would have taken me another two hours (and the iPad was already overheating), and I have other things to do today.

So I made a duplicate, so another day I can do the foreground I want.
And for today I chose two silhouettes which represented my emotional feelings on the foreground I had wanted to do. And that is all I am saying on that.

 

[Krystyna23040]

4.6 this morning. We have a 9am slot at Blickling Hall today. We are hoping the lake walk is open as it was closed last time we visited.

 

[Krystyna23040]

Do you think I will bid next week?

I bet you will.

 

[Krystyna23040]

My digital painting for today in Procreate app.

It took me 2 hours to get that background. I did enjoy doing it. But what I wanted to do in the foreground would have taken me another two hours (and the iPad was already overheating), and I have other things to do today.

So I made a duplicate, so another day I can do the foreground I want.
And for today I chose two silhouettes which represented my emotional feelings on the foreground I had wanted to do. And that is all I am saying on that.

View attachment 43214

Love this - especially the butterfly and the swan.

 

[gennepher]

I bet you will.

I think you know me too well @Krystyna23040

 

[gennepher]

Love this - especially the butterfly and the swan.

Thank you very much @Krystyna23040

I was disappointed initially that I couldn't do my original idea for the foreground today, but the more I am looking at this painting with the silhouettes, I think I much prefer it to my initial idea.

 

[gennepher]

4.6 this morning. We have a 9am slot at Blickling Hall today. We are hoping the lake walk is open as it was closed last time we visited.

You have a brilliant day @Krystyna23040
It should be a bit cooler this early in the morning.

 

[dunelm]

Here's one I did from a picture I took.View attachment 43202

Excellent - a great burst of colour

 

[dunelm]

good noontide all

4.3 today

Fortunately only about 18'C here
been reorganising my workspace this morning (to an extent ) so I can have a sort out of my art supplies
I'm rapidly coming to the realisation that art supplies are as addictive as any other craft stash

Latest aquisition are some watercolour pencils to replace the duff ones I got rid of. I already have a small set of 12 'inktense' pencils but they don't really handle the same as watercolour, being ink they are not liftable once dried. I like them, they are very vibrant - but also expensive

I know that @Muddy Cyclist uses Faber Castell polychromos but I haven't much experience using watercolour pencils yet so I decided to go for an intermediate level set and aquired some Arteza watercolour pencils. these will give me a chance to see how I get on with them.

Hope your day is treating you well

@lindisfel - I especially like the 'eyes', very effective

@dunelm - fluid drawing, I like the 'dry brush' effect on some of the stems and the lighter shades that give variety to the tonal level

@gennepher - Popeye looks fairly 'chill' with his custom cooler
Blending seems to be smoother in the app than it would be with 'real' pastels and I agree that the birds have given your picture a strong focus, it very much speaks to me of the heat most of us are getting just at the moment

art bit -
I agree with you @Muddy Cyclist I don't know whether yesterday's experiment is something I would incorporate with my usual style regularly

so I tried making more of a hybrid, and here it is
View attachment 43203

Thank you, I like the stormy clouds and that pebbly shore

 

[dunelm]

Today time took me down many unexpected paths.

Decided ,to sort all my FIL tools we took out of MILs bungalow, which in turn resulted in a shed tidy out, which was interrupted by my son dropping off our his two girls for 2 hours whilst he shod some horses, it was lovely to sit in the garden listening to their chatter, they never stopped. They poured out their problems, likes, dislikes, thoughts on gaining 3 stepbrothers through son's new partner, how they feel about their moms new partner, their new ponies, the haunted huge old farm their mom lives in, places they have been things they have done. Grandparents have such a part to play even if it's just to listen and of course we have been sworn to secretary, wonderful two hours.

So I have done some more on my Beech Tree Circle, painting outside but now I have come to another halt for G&T. So here it is, still on the fantasy side but going in the right direction. I feel I have the light source wrong but will see how it goes....
View attachment 43210
Still lots to do but hope to get it finished Sunday.

Being a grandparent is such a privilege and so many secrets to keep.
G&T’s are always a good point to pause and reflect - looking forward to your finished Beech Tree Circle.