April Reflections of My Life
Today, I’m sharing with you the Reflections of My Life in April. Let me start by prefacing my catalog of events by saying I didn’t fully commit to the A to Z blogfest until early March and for many of my 9-years that’s the way I did it. I eventually figured out the best way to handle this challenge is to get everything done before April. That makes the blogfest more relaxing and fun for me. Unfortunately because I was slow to get onboard this year, I lost that luxury.
Two things I’d like to say about the A2Z host/hostess. I totally appreciate the dedication each of you put into this shindig. I’m happy that you picked out a great artist to fill Jeremy’s shoes. I have to believe he smiled down on us last month. An improvement to the master sign up this year giving me the option to tell other A2Zers my intent to only visit those who first visited me was an especially nice touch and it removed some of my stress. I devised a pretty good system in recent years to reply to commenters before making each return visit and I figured I’d do the same process this year. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped.
The first full week of the challenge I had two doctor appointments. Although I had several posts scheduled, my time to spend responding and visiting suffered, not to mention working on my art. I wasn’t going to sweat it, I knew somehow everything would fall into place.
Fall into place? Did I ever get that one wrong! That’s when the junk began to happen toppling my house of sketches. The commode fill valve broke. Anxiety hit and an emergency trip to Home Depot to buy parts before we could fix it. Home repairs always take longer than you think. Plumbing is always a headache. With the disaster resolved, stress was soon relieved. Still there was something wrong. DH said he’d been hearing running water and had hoped it was the commode fill valve that he was hearing but it wasn’t. His worry was the water heater. Crisis not over yet!
Our water heater is 22 years old. It’s done wonderful but old appliances can go at anytime with little to no warning. My new mission was to find a replacement water heater. In between research, I took time to destress by working on my Procreate recreations. In my search, I found no one had the water heater that we wanted on display to look at. We ordered online. The expected delivery date was set for today or tomorrow. We ordered the other necessary supplies needed to change out the old unit for the new. A few things we couldn’t decide on, so we figured we had plenty of time to make a trip to Home Depot to buy those things before the heater arrived. Guess what? The heater delivered April 22nd. That was DH off-Friday, so went on to Home Depot to get the remaining items for the DIY project. We figured we could get the water heater replaced on Saturday and if needed we could finish up on Sunday. That sounded reasonable.
Reasonable? Anything but reasonable is how it turned out. We got everything out of our garage which holds everything except our car. It contains all the overflow of stuff one accumulates over 43 years of marriage because our place is too small. There we were with a pathway to the old water heater. Now to figure out where the water leak was coming from, was it the heater or plumbing? It was the plumbing and no we did not have the supplies to take care of that job. With everything out of the garage now blocking our driveway, we could not go anyway to buy the parts and we knew by the time we got stuff back into place it would be too late to go out. For some reason putting stuff back always takes longer than getting stuff out. Why is that? We were super exhausted and it was dark by the time we got indoors. Needless to say, we knew tomorrow wouldn’t work to go to out being not only tired but sore.
In addition to the incoming plumbing line leaking, we discovered the outdoor facet won’t shut off. Hopefully, it just needs the washer replaced. With two plumbing problems to fix and too pooped to go out on Sunday, we figured out what we needed to buy online. We were pleased to find everything saving a ton of time. With this temporary behind me I was able to resume working on my art sketches.
I worked diligently on my Procreate illustrations every free second that I had. I was amazed how much detail I had in my early pencil sketches, especially consider how new I felt doodling. Discounting my two years of high school art classes, I really consider myself a self-taught artist. An average redesign takes between 1-3 days to finish but some pieces took more than a week. My eye has grown more critical so when something doesn’t look right, then I have to fix it the best I can. I did learn a lot as I dabbled with the various Procreate brushes to give each of my drawings the right feel needed and still I know there’s more room for improvement.
A little more than half-way through the challenge I switched from referencing readers to the original pencil sketch post to using the WordPress image compare feature. At a glance, you can see the difference between the then and now illustration. I struggled doing my own thing so I figured others had to struggle, too. There was no sense to force a reader to go back when this was an easy thing to do. I probably will use this feature more in the future.
The last few days of the last week of the challenge, we had another crisis. Our 26-year old upright freezer died. That thing is stocked full, too. The good thing is I now had all of my posts done but precious A2Z time to catch up with others was now being spent once more on something else. I had to cram everything possible into the refrigerator freezer and the bottom of the refrigerator.
I felt bad mostly for my faithful bloggy friends. I am thankful for each of you who showed up frequently, sometimes daily to check out my newest sketch and leaving encouraging words. I didn’t deserve it and yet you continued to be loyal. Thank you! Thank you! Mentally, I’m thinking “Okay, I can use the Road Trip to right the wrongs.” But, I know I will eventually get side track like I’ve done in years past so I am not going to commit to doing that to myself but more importantly to you. I figure, I will just do what I can when I can and look to learn from everything that went wrong and right in April. I’m very happy that I managed to keep at this to the end with 26 fully colorized illustrations done which I can now cross off my art rework projects to-do list.
The question hanging in the back of your mind might be, “Will you do this again next April?” The probability of my involvement in 2023 is 99.9999% if the good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise like my daddy might say. That’s an old southern saying in which I just learned what it means.
One last time for the year, I’m heading over to the A2Z headquarters. The challenge is through but you’ll find more artwork, great music, and casual musings on CAAC any time, so drop by any time. A friend is always welcome!
I created a slide show of my Procreate recreated art sketches, as well as a list of links to each post.
Do you have a favorite?
- A Weeping Angel
- Weathered Barn
- Clearing the field
- Diddies
- Elk
- Picket Fence
- My Once Little Girls
- A Brown Horse with a Star Forehead
- As Sweet as an Iris Dancing Across a Breeze
- Jack and Jill
- Kanga and Roo
- A Beacon of Hope – The Lighthouse
- A Sunbathing Mermaid
- Nightingale Sings Her Song
- An Owl Snuggled in a Tree Ready for some Zzz
- Puppy Love
- The Evil Queen from Snow White
- Realistic Rabbit
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Treehouse
- Unicorn
- Victorian Woman
- Waves
- Xena Warrior Princess
- A Yawning Baby
- The African Plaines Home to This Pair of Zebra
22 Comments
Alana Mautone (@RamblinGarden)
It took two visits over a few days to finish this post so I didn’t want you to think I forgot about you. I didn’t visit you during A to Z often enough but enjoyed the posts I did see.What a cluster of problems you worked through! So that compare screen is a WordPress feature; it was perfect for your theme. And you picking music in addition to updating sketches. For today’s music, I haven’t heard this particular version of Reflections; maybe this was an album version and I only knew the single? At any rate, please accept my apologies and I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend. Alana ramblinwitham
Nicole/DVArtist
Congrats on making it all the way through. Love the light house. Also the slide show is awesome. Have a great day in spite of all the issues.
lissa
I’m sorry to hear about your plumbing issues. I think those are a bit stressful. It certainly sound a lot was going on.
I guess you’re doing the challenge again next year. For me I’m probably 80% sure I won’t do it but fickle minds will do their thing so I may end up participating again.
I like your slideshow idea showing all the drawings.
Congratulations on finishing this challenge.
Have a lovely day.
John Holton
Things like that usually happens in 1’s and 3’s, but it sounds like you had a few more. WHen it rains it pours, huh?
I enjoyed your drawings and I can honestly say you’ve improved since you did the original pencil sketches. Thanks for participating!
preservetwinmom
It sounds like you have had a really rought month! I love the picket fence and I love Kanga and Roo!
moondustwriter
I have always appreciated the dedication you put into each post. Im a self-taught artist and only did my art one year. I hope things are sorted out in your homebase now and look forward to seeing your inspiring work again 2023 9if that creek would only behave) Cheers
Moonie
Eugenia
You poor thing! This too shall pass and hopefully things will go back to normal soon. Did you consider adding on to your existing house? I remember you were house hunting a while back but the price of houses went sky high. My favorite is Victorian Woman. 😘
Cathy Kennedy
Adding on isn’t an option because of limited space. What we need is an unfinished basement as well a two car garage. 😊 Maybe, we’ll get both in our next place.🤞🏻
Brian
My goodness, what a bunch of ordeals. Our Dad would have pulled his hair out, oh, two late for that one. I sure hope you have a calm month.
Cathy Kennedy
Brian,
I hope this month is much calmer, too. We still have one big hurdle to get over yet but the end is in sight. 🙂
messymimi's meanderings
Gracious what a month! As i have always said, real life comes first so visit me when you can and i’ll do the same and we’ll stay friends with no demands or expectations, just sharing the blog fun.
Praying your plumbing woes are over and done!
Cathy Kennedy
Mimi,
It’s so nice to have such good, caring, and understanding bloggy buds such as you. Thanks, my dear!
Nicole/DVArtist
Ahhh a great song for sure and to reflect…..have a nice day.
Cathy Kennedy
Thanks for dropping by, Nicole. It’s always nice getting your visits. 😉
Sandee
Love Reflections of my life. Not heard that in a very long time. Beautiful.
I love the color you’ve added to your sketches. It was a fun month of showcasing your artwork.
Have a fabulous day, Cathy. Love and hugs. ♥
Cathy Kennedy
Sandee,
Despite the craziness, I enjoyed working through my artwork. Hopefully, I won’t make the same mistake next year. I appreciate that you came by when you could to see my work.
Ronel Janse van Vuuren
Oh, wow! You had quite a month. Congrats on finishing the A-Z. When things start to break, I always wait for the next thing to fail — because they always seem to do so in batches. For me, May started with my computer and scanner going on the fritz… we’ll see what else wants to die before I start panicking. LOL.
Ronel visiting for A-Z Challenge Reflections 2022
mjgolch
love this tune, especially when it was done showing Vietnam Veterans. There is one Veteran in civilian clothes that is holding a purple Heart and I swear looks Like my Brother in Law Allan. He was a Vietnam Veteran.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE9TNG8IQNI&ab_channel=joltinjack
Kinga K.
Nice thoughts ❤
Crackerberries
Cathy!♥ I did not realize you had so much going on. I’m so sorry about all of that and your water and OH MYLANTA!!!! I did not get a chance to visit all of your posts so I am glad that you included them all here in this one little spot for me to jump to easily. I do intend to catch up (road trip…? Okay I will try.) Life gets in the way sometimes. I know we all have it. Any hoot, I’ve yet to do my reflection but I will I promise. I was hoping to comment first but dang if Thomas ANDERSON beats me every time. I wonder if he is a relative. Ha ha. As always, I love your creativity and am looking forward to keeping up with you throughout the year via here and your mailbox! ♥
Cheers,
Barbie
Thomas Anderson
Hi, Cathy!
Happy Tickle Me Tuesday, dear friend! Once again I salute you for rising to the occasion and participating in the A to Z Challenge. Heck, you didn’t just participate – you excelled, you nailed it with a series of full color art sketches suitable for framing. Given all the plumbing and appliance problems that cropped up along the way, it is nothing short of remarkable that you were able to complete the Challenge and present such high quality art for every letter of the alphabet. With all you and DH had going on around the house, I don’t know how you kept your head from exploding. Simply put, you defied and conquered Murphy’s Law. You prioritized, handled one crisis at a time, tackled one task at a time, and finished the 2022 race in a blaze of glory.
I agree that it was a great idea to use the before and after instant comparison tool, making visits to CAAC more convenient for readers. I am also thankful that you posted your whole series again today so that I can step through each entry and review your work. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but I would first single out the sketch of the pink bicycle by the Picket Fence. That one says “home” to me, takes me back to happy years of childhood when I spent hours every day riding my bike. In my opinion, the painting is perfect as is. It would not have been as great, as evocative, If you had, for instance, added a child to the scene riding or pushing the bike. I think that would have detracted. In this case, I think it was a better idea for you to call upon the viewer’s imagination to place himself or herself in the picture and let childhood memories flow. The Beacon of Hope – The Lighthouse is another standout. It is dramatic, powerful and inspiring. The Sunbathing Mermaid chatting with her siren sister is another wonderful piece of art, so very pleasing to me because I love nautical themes and have always been fascinated by the legend and lore surrounding mermaids. The curious Nightingale is another excellent painting, Cathy. It makes me ask questions and use my imagination to fill in answers. Having viewed Mrs. Shady’s Victorian portraiture over the years, I can tell you that your Victorian Woman is also superb. Waves is another piece that takes me back to my youth and all those happy times body surfing at beach towns along the Atlantic coastline.
So, as you can see, I have several top favorites in your series.
Congratulations again on doing such a splendid job on the 2022 A to Z Challenge, especially since you needed to deal with one calamity after another behind the scenes. I never would have guessed, given the quality of your work.
Have a happy Tuesday and enjoy the rest of your week, dear friend Cathy!
Cathy Kennedy
Tom,
You always leave the best comments. My goodness, you really know how to make a girl feel good. I don’t feel like I’ve defied Murphy’s Law, though. After the month we’ve had, I think Murphy’s Law is just laugh its head off at us. Oh well, things are bound to happen and you gotta roll with the punches even when you’re getting the tare beat out of you. I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I think of the sketches you mentioned, the lighthouse might be my favorite. I made a huge change in my nightingale drawing. I love how the revamped birdie much more over the original. The siren beauty on the rock with her mermaid friend and my crashing ocean waves against the sandy shore turned out nice. I like the effect of the water in both images leading the imagination of the waves moving. Last month’s challenge allowed me the opportunity to pay close attention to how the various Procreate brushes work. This was very exciting and rewarding. Doing this causes a stirring within to try painting with real medium someday. Ask Mrs. Shady if you can snap a picture of one of her Victorian ladies to share with me. I would love to see her work. 🙂 Thank you for the congrats and for every single visit you made. Your time invested to see me through the blogfest was a challenge for you, too. I don’t know how you stay on top of your visits and lovely comments. You must be incredibly organized. That’s something I aspire to be better at and slowly I’m getting there. Have a terrific evening, dear friend!