Busy and Tired

It's been a busy week. Our weekend was nice. Saturday, friends came and took the kid for the day, so my husband and I just took it easy. We did very little, other than enjoy each others company, take a nap and have a nice grilled dinner. It was the closest thing we've had to a date in a very long time.

Sunday we got down to business, though. We got a lot accomplished in a surprisingly short amount of time. We have plans to get a pair of Nigerian Dwarf does, so before we can go out and find those girls we need to get a place fixed up for them. We decided that our big shed would work for a goat barn, but there was a lot of stuff that needed to come out of it and either get burned, taken to the dump or put elsewhere. Long story short, we had to clean the garage so that we would have a place to put the crap that came out of the shed so that the goats will have a place to live in the house that jack built.... I mean , so that we can finish the inside so that it is goat worthy. What we got done so far is a pretty clean shed (could use a good sweep), a garage that has one table full of stuff still awaiting it's new destination, a tuck load of crap went to the dump, a big pile of old useless building supplies got burned and a truck full of stuff that has not yet made it to the thrift store.

I was whupped on Monday, but I forced myself to put together a place to do some painting. That required some furniture moving, dusting, vacuuming and sweating and swearing. But I got it done. My easel is up my pallet and brushes are out, my pens, pencils, tubes of paint, charcoal, sketch pads and all are OUT. IN MY FACE. I haven't done anything with them yet... hopefully I can make one small gesture to at least sketch tonight.

The past few days have been baking days. I had to wait for my Azure order to come in before I could get caught back up. I made granola, cookies, pudding, bread and crackers. I bought some virgin coconut oil and chipped coconut to use in my granola, it is soo good! Smells and tastes wonderful. Then I decided to use some of the coconut oil to replace half of the butter in my cookies, very tasty. Next, I think I will try making coconut tapioca pudding, using coconut milk instead of reg. milk, and topping with fresh pineapple. yummy.

I've been working on a post about our chicken tractor, it's about half done and is taking longer than I would have thought. My kid said she knew a goat that might be interested in seeing some pictures. Hopefully I should have that done in the next few days if all goes well.

That's it for tonight. I'm off to listen to an audio book, "The Little Giant of Aberdeen County", and sketch. Wish me luck!

Finally, the weekend!

This week has just drug on and on AND ON! I am so ready for the weekend. Seemed like we always had something to fix, somewhere to go, no pauses and only 1 nap for the whole week. Our schedule is kinda wonky lately and the only way we (by we, I mean my husband and I, the kids schedule is totally normal and she doesn't get our problem.) seem to be able to keep the slightest grip on our sanity is by grabbing a quick nap a few times a week. So, this weekend I think there will be a lot of this going on.

The poor guy can't stay awake unless he is standing up.... and I think he may be learning the art of sleep working.

In other news, I'm taking the small steps to pull out my painting gear and get motivated..... what to paint??? Thinking I should start small, do some quick paint sketches to get the rusty gears moving again. I know I have some unfinished work in that portfolio, but I have a feeling it won't be getting finished any time soon. I'm usually a pretty focused painter, once I start a painting it is really hard to stop and get other tasks done. I once completed a commissioned family portrait in 3 days. I'd like to get back into it like that again. I think the key was always having my easel, paints and brushes out and ready to go. Tomorrow, I hope I can get a spot set up for all that, I may have to tuck away the sewing gear for awhile. Baby steps.

Still a lot of work left on this baby. I just really lost interest in it, the still life is not my thing. I think I also started this with a purple under painting, and it is just such an anal technique (again, not my thing) and I couldn't just quit doing the under painting and start doing what I usually do without it being totally crappy..... at least this way it might kinda look cool unfinished or maybe go over my penciled in sketches with ink. We'll see, this is for a later date though. I need to get those brushes warmed up.

Getting My Hands Dirty

I'm starting this blog with the intention that it will help me be accountable. If I say I'm going to start painting one picture a month (or knitting project, or whatever), then I better be posting a new painting (or whatever) every month, and if I'm lucky, there will be people out there to cheer me on and be encouraging. I'm very new to this blog writing thing, but hopefully I'll catch on quickly and make things more interesting as time goes on. So bare with me as I figure out how to post pictures, put up a banner that fits the frame and all the other fun stuff that goes with blogging.

The banners on this blog will be of my art that I have painted in the past few years. I haven't painted in at least a year now and it is a down right miserable feeling. I met with my art group today; I haven't been in over a year. I forgot how weird it feels not having anything to show but critiquing others work anyway. If it's every once in awhile it isn't bad, but when you haven't been in a long time and you haven't shown any new work for what seems even longer it just feels weird. So the plan is to go to art group again next month and have at least one new painting to show for it.