Trials, Tribulations, And A Lack Of Guacamole

It's been a week, let me tell you! On Monday Connor got rear ended in a three car accident. We are thankful that he wasn't hurt, the car still moves, and the guy who caused the accident took fault. Then on Wednesday we learned that we were the victims of credit card fraud. We are thankful that it was caught early, we aren't on the hook for any fraudulent charges, and the very nice customer service man had a new card sent to us faster than their usual time frame. But the worst was yet to come! Yesterday we went to Chipotle and they were out of guacamole! There is no upside to that.

Ok, all kidding aside, it's been a little rough. In between the trials, I've been doing my best to insert some fun into each day. For example, last week I learned how to film a time-lapse of myself painting. I posted it on my @audrynicklin instagram page.

A post shared by Audry (@audrynicklin) on Apr 28, 2018 at 11:55am PDT

After stressing over what new paints to get, I bought a silly amount in order to redo my travel painting palette. (As I mentioned in my previous post, my current palette won't dry, so it doesn't transport well. I've switched the travel palette from M Graham to Daniel Smith watercolors.) It all arrived and I made a new swatch rainbow.

Bottom left is the new pallet, the top right is the old

Then Connor and I went to the ocean and I challenged myself to paint (with my new palette) the seals that like to sleep under the wharf. I'm not sure how successful I was as it turns out brown seals on brown wood looks a lot like indistinguishable brown lumps. I still had fun. And better yet, I was able to figure out some things that work about my new palette and some things that need to be tweaked.

Seal or lump? In a way, seals are just brown lumps.

I've also continued to knit on my socks.

Both of these are second socks. Yay!

Even though it's been rough, I'm thankful that my creative mojo isn't gone and that I've had snippets of time to indulge my interests.

Bear-ears-tagram

Two years ago I started an instagram account, and for two years I've had "Make instagram logo for blog" on the list. I don't know why it took me so long to do it. I'm certain I've spent more time thinking about it than it took me to finish. Such is life, right? The logo is now in the side bar. And while I was at it, I removed some social media buttons to places I don't really use.

Fun fact: My father is pretty awesome. He developed the Qwikcards app. I use it to keep my to-do lists in order.

I've found myself wanting to put more time into my Instagram account recently. I started becoming more inspired after reading Angela's 2016 goal list on her blog Pans and Needles. #8 on the list resonated with me. I find myself working to take pictures of my projects in progress, but I don't get around to putting up a blog post because I want to write more than, "This is how far I am in my sock." Then I knit more and the photo feels like it is irrelevant. This led to a cascade effect where I found myself not wanting to work so hard to take nice knit pictures because I wouldn't get around to writing a blog post on it. And because I felt most images wouldn't be used, I stopped challenging myself to take better pictures. Instagram seems like the better place to put up the images that would otherwise not make it to the blog and I hope that helps me to challenge myself. Although, there may be the odd repeat between the blog and the instagram account... especially because I'm fond of the Mr. Bear Ears photos.

My account can be found at bear_ears for those who are curious.

On a slightly different topic, I'd like to call attention to the sock in the top left corner of the above picture. It is my newest pattern and I'll be releasing it on Friday. Keep an eye out for the Whiskey And Rye socks.