Art and the beach save the terrible, truly bad, day.

Drawing for a painting I'm thinking about

Work in progress (more as I do more)

Charcoal on bond paper

14 x 18 inches

Barbara Muir © 2016

If you are the labeling kind of person, and
I can be, this was a pretty bad day.
My title references a children's book I
read to my kids: Alexander and the Terrible,
Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

1.When I was making my breakfast, and about to serve
it, I knocked the pot off the counter getting my
bowl down from the cupboard, and covered the
kitchen floor with oatmeal.  (Okay the dog
had a go at it, and Steven helped me clean it up,
and I made more oatmeal -- problem solved.) I
thought.

An arrangement of stones left close to the water's edge

2. I was trying to make a Facebook photo album,
spent about an hour on it, and was putting the
last photo in, when the computer froze, and no
matter what I tried would not let me do a thing.
I stayed calm, and decided to stop.

3. Unloading the dishwasher while my eggs cooked for
lunch,  I stacked a set of glass containers on the counter
getting ready to put them away when. SMASH!  They fell
on the floor, and exploded sending flying glass all over
the kitchen, plus several of the tiny shards shot into
my legs, and one foot. Freak out.  Yes.  Broken glass is
incredibly upsetting when you have three animals underfoot,
and you have bleeding cuts!  After I cleaned up the bigger
 pieces all over the room (that glass flew easily 10 feet), Steven
helped me clean my wounds, got the vacuum for me, and I soldiered
on.

4.  At this point I could have given up, but Steven
suggested getting out of here (Oh fabulous idea!).
Did I mention that it was incredibly hot today?
Hot, sticky and unpleasant.  So we drove
down to Lake Ontario, and guess what it was
cool enough there that I could wear a jacket.
After my multiple messes I felt so happy seeing people
relaxing, playing ball, and picnicking. Couples
snuggled on blankets, and kissed on the benches under
the trees.

Pieces of brick gathered and arranged  next to a stick

5. But best of all as we walked along the shore
searching for treasure like little children, I saw art
-- little collections of stones arranged in an artistic way.
Those gestures of creativity made me completely happy,
and when we left the beach I felt uplifted.
Steven and I say, "open your hands and close
your eyes," and then put the treasure we've
gathered into each others' hands.  Done.
I even found a piece of the rarest treasure --blue
glass. (Ironically most of our finds are pieces of
glass!)

Tonight I started this drawing in preparation for
a painting I'm thinking of.  I'll show you more
as I get farther along.  Meanwhile stay happy.

Have a getting through to the art day. 
Check out the links to sites I could have
used in the midst of this saga.