Halloween Update

We've had another couple of groups of kids at the door one group was not long after I wrote the last blog and we've just had another 3 kids...its 9.30 pm, I know I shouldn't be that shocked but I think its a bit crazy letting your kids out at that time and another to let them knock on peoples doors that late at night too. It gets on my nerves if the phone rings after 8pm, but then I am a little grumpy from time to time.

Happy Halloween

Using the Gothic font, just to get into the mood of Halloween just that little bit more, well I hope everyone has a good night whatever you decide to do.

Ours is a bit of a wash out weather wise as well as not.

The day really started at 3am...when our daughter decided that she didn't want to sleep any more, well at least it gave us plenty of time to get ready to going out to the shops...

So me and the kids took a trek to the supermarket this morning to get the sweeties for the kids and to get the fireworks in time for Guy Fawkes night. It takes an hour to get there walking and I was super tired by then too.

We got so wet. Daughter wanted to go in her sleeping beauty princess dress and then wanted to splash in puddles on the way home...So that was one costume change our daughter had. Good thing Grandma and Auntie Lil came to visit yesterday and brought her another 2 dressing up outfits.

Once home though we all went for a nap leaving hubby in peace to watch the news.

Once we got up again realised we had run out of milk so off me and the teeny weenie's went to the local shops for some milk. Saw a couple of houses with decorations up and passed a few kids in costume, they looked pretty good. I do prefer it when they make an effort whether store bought or home made, it makes me feel better about giving them the sweets when they've tried.

Feel a bit let down now its after 8pm and we missed one group of kids while we were getting the milk and we've just had a couple of kids from our daughters playgroup come T.O.Ting, they were by far the best dressed kids, 2 girls and one boy, the 2 girls were little witches aged almost 3 and almost 2 and the boy is about 4 or 5 and he looked like a zombie or a mummy, they've only just been at the door and I can't remember he he I think I need more sleep...

Right then better get some work done, gotta try to figure out how to save pictures to pdf documents and to make sure I put them in the right size. Sounds simple but ooh its not...

Crazy Days

Phew its been a crazy start to the week, been so busy. Hubby's had toothache and a swollen face from an infection so I've had to keep an eye on him hopefully the swelling will go down tomorrow then he can eat something. And because he's unwell the kids seem to want even more attention just to get me as burnt out as quickly as possible.

Managed to get a little bit of painting done last night in between making sure our daughter stayed on her bed and checking on my hubby asleep on the sofa. I just wish the paint I have would go on smoother than it does, I don't mind brush strokes on my work but the paint seems to be so thin and won't cover my pencil underneath unless I do about 30 coats... oh well, better get the stuff out to do some more. Might have to cancel my interview tomorrow and rebook it for another day once hubby's had his tooth out, its so much harder trying to sort out things like appointments when there's 3 other people in the mix, but I wouldn't change it for the world...

Black and White

Managed to start a painting last night but it was getting late and I was getting a little disillusioned with my paint mixing abilities, so I gave up and went to bed instead, feel a bit more confident that the paint will mix better for me tonight if I don't decide to just do the painting black and white instead.but going to wait til daughters asleep before I start because I'll have to keep running up and down the stairs to make sure she's still in her bed. I'm sure she only does it because she thinks I need the exercise.

But whilst I'm waiting for her to sleep I'm going to be putting some images into my sketchbook to show my greetings cards line at the interview on Wednesday.

I'm also going to put some songs onto my internet playlist so I have something to listen to to keep me working.

Mixing Paint

What is it everytime I mix up paint I always have to recoat it a lot of times just to get it right and a nice solid block of colour...

I think I'm going to make the effort and surf the net to find the exact colours I am after.

I really wish though I could be one of those people that manage to mix the paint to the perfect hue and paint as much as they need to and it to stay the same colour and to not run out and have to mix some more and end up with a totally different colour, but if I was one of those people if I did run out I'd be able to mix it up perfectly the second, third or even fourth time around.

there's a little bit of jealousy towards the elite mixers but a lot more awe at their skills.

Update To Rain Stopped Play

Well I've found some canvas board its for oils and I'm painting in acrylics but I need something to take with me on Wednesday so I thought I'll give it a whirl, it feels a bit sticky so I don't think I'll be able to sell them...

i was going to use them to paint oil paintings of the kids for the relatives but now we're going to get a family portrait done and I've been making some calenders and photo diaries on line. Should be able to buy them in a couple of weeks and if they're any good then that's what they'll get every xmas.

If not I can always make them little photo scrapbooks every year. Already get our daughter drawing and painting pictures for them to put in frames as like a little extra present. She's very good at it already, the other day I got her painting and one of them actually looked like a boat and another looked like a snail. Not bad for 2 and a half.

Rain Stopped Play

It's been one of those days when it doesn't matter what you needed to do it just doesn't get done.

I decided yesterday that because today was grandparents taking our daughter to the park day that I could sneak into town while they were out and get some greetings cards and plain card to start the greetings cards idea I had...

Well I should have known that today was not going to be the day for it when our daughter got up about midnight and wouldn't go back to sleep til about 3.30 am. Which is fine I could've had plenty of sleep until you remember that we have a 3 month old son who seems to want to get up between 5am and 6am...

By this time I'm feeling a little tired to say the least and I'd almost given up on the idea, but once the grandparents arrived and took our daughter to the park, realised I had to get some bits from the shops so why not put son in the chest carrier and hop on the bus so I can buy my card equipment...We step out the front door and oh no its raining, and I don't like to take him in his pushchair because its Saturday and the buses will be busy...

So in the end I just nipped up to the local shops for the few bits we needed and will either have to go to town with both the kids and the pushchair or wait to get the stuff when I go for the interview on Wednesday...which defeats the object because I wanted to get a couple done for then.

But I've just had a minor brainwave...I know there's some card making products somewhere upstairs but now I'm hoping they're in the cupboard but I've got a nasty feeling they've managed to make their way into the loft...And the torch has no batteries.....

Well for now I still have plenty of images to be manipulating in preparation of making them into cards and painting so at least I'm still keeping busy, busy, busy.

I hope it gets better after a good nights sleep.....

Jinx

Well it seems our daughter managed to decipher my previous typing and now she's woken up and watching a video in her room, hopefully she will be back asleep soon so I can get some much needed sleep myself...

but my guess is she's probably going to be up til about 5am and thats about the time our son will wake up, oh well at least it gives me more time with working on everything on here and maybe getting some ironing done....haha doubt the ironing will get done. But at least I'll be able to get some more digital images sorted out...

The New Project

As I've decided to give myself a kick up the bum and get working again, I've come up with a new project, which involves digital imagery, paintings and also greetings cards.

They are going to be a series of images of certain people, I have started the digital work on Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, Elvis, Adam Ant and to jump on the film release bandwagon, James Bond. I have a few other people to work on also which have been suggested to me and once I've got some progress on them I'll post them on here too. If anyone wants to suggest anyone in the meantime be my guest as I see this as quite a progressive project.

The only problem is I'm in a bit of a catch 22 situation due to lack of funds. I need the funding to buy the gear to get everything up and running but I need the products to show within my portfolio to get the funding...

No worries, I have some spare canvas and I will be getting the basic card making equipment tomorrow, so I will be ready for the two important meetings on 28th October and 3rd November.

Plus the great thing about having an etsy shop is that when the mood takes me to make something crafty like a knitted bear I won't clutter up the kid's bedroom, i'll be able to sell it instead. But I'll have to make sure our daughter doesn't see it or it will be like a banshee let loose in the house.

Deja Vu

Well...

Here we are again. It seems that I'm constantly rewriting, reposting, redoing everything at the moment.

I don't think I've ever been so busy, I've opened an account with flickr to upload my paintings, sketches, photos and digital images too. Although I still need to write out the descriptions on some of them and tag everything. I know tagging is very important I just wish I had a magic wand to put them in instead of racking my brain for the right word which I had thought of 10 minutes before I set about tagging the post/ image etc..

I've even managed to sort out my etsy shop, although it only has one item in it as of now but that will change in the next couple of days.

Now all I have to do to help me along is make sure the kids stay asleep once I decide I need to get some sleep to make sure I actually get some sleep.