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9 Things I Learned in April

  1. A stainless steel refrigerator makes a kitchen look darker than a white one. We never realized how much light that old white one was reflecting into the room.
  2. Someone wrote Easter words to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and it is stunning to hear it sung by 2 Canadian sisters, one age 10 and the other age 19.
  3. My painting called “Yokohl Oak” is actually a tree where bikeriders heading up the Yokohl Valley Road regularly stop to rest; they call it the Bike Oak.
  4. Amazon has a severe quality control problem in its instructions to sellers. Does this sentence make any sense to you? • “Starting July 1, 2021, Individual Sellers will longer need to do provide customers with a prepaid return shipping label for in-policy returns.” (No, I did not click on any links in that email!)
  5. Shutterfly, where I order photographic prints, has changed to the point that I think it might be time to find another photograph printing company. Why do so many web businesses have to keep changing, becoming less helpful, shrinking their offerings? Anyone know of a good place to get prints made? (No, I don’t belong to Costco).
  6. April has its charms, in spite of only being my 3rd favorite month.
  7. I found a new podcast to listen to: it is an artist interviewing other artists. Might not be your cup of tea, but if you like hyperrealistic paintings, you might enjoy seeing the podcaster’s art, Andrew Tischler, along with another artist that he interviewed, Renato Muccillo. (I’m getting a clue as to why I still feel like a beginning oil painter.)
  8. A friend from Kansas sent me a recipe for an orange cake several years ago. In spite of never having made a layer cake or having round pans, I made the cake. Apparently I am as much a rogue baker* as a rogue knitter, but the batter tasted great so I knew the cake would be decent, in spite of looking a bit wonky, as if it is covered in lumpy gravy.(Yes, eating sugar again. Wanna make somethin’ of it?)
  9. Sometimes people make an appointment to stop by my studio. What I learned is that sales do sometimes occur, so I need to stop viewing this as an interruption to work — it IS my work. These 4 paintings found new homes due to the in person visitations in April.
Pippin, AKA Orange-Bob-Square-Pants, is oblivious to the herd of giant plant-consuming rats behind him.

*Cut the sugar back by 1/3, tripled the amount of orange juice, substituted butter for margarine so skipped salt, used square pans, added about 3 times as much vanilla, doubled the nuts, added orange zest to the frosting, and had to guess how to duplicate mixer speeds with wooden spoons and wire whisks.

4 Comments

  1. Wow – is Hallelujah ever beautiful!

    • Nadine, that one definitely caused my eyes to spring a leak. Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it!

  2. 4. Take out the unnecessary “do” and it makes sense.
    5. I hear you! I use Shutterfly for my online galleries that people do not need to sign in to view, as well as order prints, mugs, calendars, etc. I’m open to alternatives, too.
    6. I’m still waiting for the poem-promised “April Showers” that we desperately need!

    • Sharon, there is a lot going on with Amazon; I can’t sell there anymore because my seller’s account has been “inactive” and in order to reactivate, they require either my CDL or my passport. Nope, not gonna.
      Snapfish used to be an alternative to S’fly, but now they are one and the same.
      I’m always up for rain – drought is a tiresome way to live.

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