an uneventful return

[Note: I have tried every possible way to flip this photo to the right orientation.  So frustrating.]  Hey, I'm back!  Once again, some sort of weird synchronicity has happened in my life.  I was doing some mindless adult tasks this morning, things I'd put off so long that I'd been digging my daily clothing choices out of a pile longer than I care to admit.  While I was doing these things and my brain was free to wander, I'd begun writing a blog post in my head.  I realized I hadn't blogged for over two years and I needed to get back on that horse.  Lo and behold, as I was having these exact thoughts, good friend A Little Leeway sent me a simultaneous message, asking if I would participate in an April blog challenge.  Coincidence, or the universe driving home the point that I should be blogging?  I generally come down on the side of these weird little synchronous things not being coincidence.  I do believe there is a higher power at work, and if not exactly "destiny speaking", then at least what Bob Ross called a "happy little accident." Maybe the best word is serendipity.

That quote from Bob Ross, which just popped into my head, serendipitously brings me back around to the very uneventful subject of my first blog post in years--painting.  In my case, since I have no real talent to exploit, unlike my mother and my brother who are legit artists, I have been doing paint-by-number.  I hit on this at the suggestion of my son and daughter-in-law who had been doing PBN with friends as a fun and cheap way of entertaining themselves on a Friday night. I thought that sounded splendid, and decided to do the same thing with some women friends last Fall. It was fun, and we mostly just drank wine and talked without accomplishing a lot of painting because we are best at drinking wine and talking.  But I sort of got the bug and finished the above painting (eventually) and found it to be a relaxing past time.  There are lots of very cheesy PBNs out there, but also some not so cheesy ones that interested me.  PBN for a new generation, so to speak.  I found this Mr. Pronghorn, for example, and I like him very much.

I am now doing a very retro 1950's sort of PBN--a lovely mountain scene. A bit cheesy, but on the tasteful side of cheesy.  More Greyere than Velveeta.  I've been working on it off and on for months.  I paint a little.  I put it away.  Ok, honestly, I don't put it away.  I paint a little and then I leave it on the dining table for weeks at a time.  I briefly put it away when I have guests over, and not even all guests.  I put it away only for those guests whom I have deemed "better housekeepers than me".  So if you have come over and considered my house to be very tidy, you have been judged to be a good housekeeper, and I would not wish you to see the extreme slacking I get up to. If you think, "This is not me, I'm a non-adulter much of the time," then, my friend, you hide it well and I am obliged to continue the charade.  If, on the other hand,  you have been here for dinner and there is still a PBN on the table (while we are eating at this same table), along with other non-eating type items that have collected there, then you are a person who, I know for a fact, slacks as much as I do, I have seen evidence of this slacking, and I'm comfortable with you seeing my own level of giving up.

Here are a couple of real facts about Paint By Number.  They were invented in 1951.  You can look at some vintage PBNs in an online museum here: https://www.paintbynumbermuseum.com/lobby

It's good to be back.  I should make this a regular thing.

Julie