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Cleaning the stainless steel water bottle. Ugh. For a LONG time I would put a sponge in the bottom of the water bottle and then jam it with the end of a wooden spoon and twist the sponge to clean the bottom. Then I would spend a few minutes trying to get the sponge OUT of the bottle. Repeat said process for the line of dirty bottles lined up by the sink. Then I got my bottle brush. It’s a brush. Meant for the water bottle. Angels singing.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I was desperately trying to find something heart shaped to draw for today when I saw the red cardboard box on the dining room table, overflowing with the valentines and trinkets my daughter got from her class Valentine’s Day party. A Minecraft pencil, llama eraser, heart shaped jar of slime, squishy balls, a slap-it bracelet, tiny generic Lego set, stickers, still looking…. erasers, beaded bracelet, duck shaped fidget pop-it….. A HA! A teal colored heart shaped pop it fidget key chain. Done.

I cannot get over how this looks like a cute little robot. But there is nothing robotic about this opener. It uses the basic premise of leverage to effortlessly open a bottle of wine every single time. I’ve tried the Rabbit, the battery operated ones and even the simple wine key corkscrew but nothing compares to the one with the arms. Every time you open a new bottle and twist the screw into the cork, he raises his arms in triumph as if to say “HOORAY!” Tonight we cheer together!

Every time I say the word broccoli in my head, I hear Dana Carvey singing the “Chopping Broccoli” song from an old Saturday Night Live skit. Anyway, it’s snowing, the kids are home “e-learning” (which should have gone away with the pandemic but it didn’t) and I am drawing broccoli before I chop it up for dinner tonight. My measuring cup is full of snow sitting in front of the fireplace as part of an asynchronous science project. Asynchronous is another word I had hoped would never return. And my son is coaxing the dog with Cheerios to get her on screen during his math class. What an odd day….

42 days ago I started this process of drawing one everyday object, every day of the year. I wanted to draw but knew that I needed to improve and I wanted to show my kids that with practice we can all get better. I’ve always wanted to do the Trader Joe’s paper bag because I go there weekly and they are everywhere around the house. Finally sat down last night to do it and my kids said “wow, this practice is paying off.” YES! That’s the message! Daily practice does pay off! And then I felt like it was all worth it. Thank you Trader Joe’s bag for not only holding my groceries or schlepping things to school or being the container for porch drop offs or hauling donations to Goodwill…. thank you for teaching my kids that daily practice actually does make us better.

I should really double check with my daughter who is the resident piano player, but I think I have captured middle C on her piano keyboard. The sketchpad was not big enough to capture all 88 keys. If you have ever taken a piano lesson you must remember FACE and EGBDF… “Every Good Boy Does Fine”. However, the mnemonic that popped into my head was “Every Good Boy Eats Cake” which is probably why I can’t play 🙂

This is one of my daughter’s molded plastic unicorns and this one certainly shows better in person. The body is a lovely lilac color, lower legs are deep purple and the hooves are silver. But the real show stopper is the mane and tail. Made from translucent purple plastic with silver glitter, they capture movement and speed. Well done China.

I got an email from a retailer declaring that “butter yellow” was the color of the moment. Hmmm. Mind starts thinking. Wheels turning. Do I buy a chunky cable knit sweater in butter yellow? No. Do I draw a stick of butter? Yes. Grade AA, salted.

Such a simple structure yet very tricky to draw as it should be perfectly symmetrical. It left me with this question….What kind of person are you? When you hang an article of clothing do you insert the hanger from the bottom of the garment? Or do you spend twice as much time trying to go through the neck hole at the top contorting the hanger at the most severe angle thinking, “Yep, this works”.