Yay - Friday! I've been looking forward to this day all week. Pilot and I got everything on our list done yesterday AND TWO TOTAL BONUS IDEAS that made my whole month. MAYBE EVEN MY WHOLE SUMMER. BONUS NUMBER ONE: She was in such a good mood all day that I could not believe my lucky stars. AND she even decided to wake up at 6:15am yesterday AND TODAY. BOTH DAYS, OH MY GOD. Somebody loves her mama. THANK YOU PILOT. Watch the happiness (and disregard my totally annoying voice).
And she was THAT HAPPY all frickin' day. Total sweet goodness. BONUS.
BONUS NUMBER TWO was a total Ebay score. You may remember a particular bathing suit I posted on my July Bulletin Board - it was sold out across the board and I had given up hope. I thought this would be the perfect suit for hiding the most imperfect body... in any colour I could get my hands on. I tried one last google search and that SUCKER CAME UP ON EBAY IN EVERY SIZE AND COLOUR IMAGINABLE. Thank you very much - I'm set FOR LIFE NOW! I'm going to prace around in my new bikini for the rest of the summer. Sweet deal and thank you Universe. I just like how that sounds... "if you build it - they will come". I didn't build anything yesterday but a makeshift table so I could work on my Tiny Art Ladies today without being in Pilot's sight OR HER BEING IN MY EAR SHOT. It's an incredibly busy day - but, I have some high hopes for getting SHIT ACCOMPLISHED.
Hey, hey, hey. It's a busy day because WE HAVE A WEDDING TO GO TO TONIGHT. Actually, at 4:30pm. Man, I love a Friday night wedding. Now THAT IS BEING CONSIDERATE. I mean that, too. I don't have to give up a whole weekend and we still get to be part of history in the making. I love the couple. I haven't been to a wedding since I started boycotting them somewhere around 2005. BUT TODAY IS A DAY FOR LOVE. We're even dressing up Pilot so she can get a taste of wedding bliss (and shouting out in a church!!). Hurray for Mike & Leah and every single other instance of love out there. Make it a love day.
Today: I'm PAINTING again. I have a nanny for 6 hours. SWEET. Painting is the main focus today. BUT. I'm also running to the post office, Starbucks, E&J's to get the mail while they are away, the photo store, the grocery store (for our weekend at the cottage snacks), and then maybe back to Starbucks if I'm losing steam. I have to wrap a lovely gift. I need to get Pilot cleaned up and into a pretty AND VERY GIRL DRESS (!) and I really, really need a few moments to get myself prettified, too. I'm running a TIGHT SHIP ON THIS END.
Hello Love. Hello Friday. Hello beach time tomorrow and goodness all around. WHooo HOooo and GO!
Aloha Thursday jollies. Let's be frank: yesterday was good but hard. I had a nanny-half-day and a small epiphany that I HAVE THINGS TO DO and OPPORTUNITIES TO DO THEM IN. So I did. The day came too early - but, I got a personal painting done AND A BUNCH OF TINY ART LADIES. Yes. I bet there was money on whether I'd get them all done - and it's definitely taken me longer than I anticipated - but, they are one their way. I did a LOT of lady prep work today and Friday is gearing up to be a KILLER Lady day. NEXT UP: Michelle, Jennifer, Audrey, Marianne, Kathryn, Chrissy, Maureen, Susan, Adeana. Your ladies are waiting for text and magazine pages and then they are all yours. That leaves me with 28 + 16 to go. I'm on it! The HARD part about yesterday was a trial-and-error thing on my part. When I'm writing the words for the Ladies - it takes me LONGER than the painting because I want the words to be just right and in order to do that I spend a lot of time thinking and feeling for whomever I'm painting for. That takes a lot out of me. And if we're being frank - sometimes it's makes me really sad. And it's hard to do when I can hear noisy Miss Pilot. So - it was harder than usual and I was definitely getting frustrated... BUT - headphones are my friend and I pushed through MOSTLY BECAUSE DAN WAS GIVING ME THE GEARS ABOUT GETTING THEM DONE and having the time and space to do that right now. Touché. It was also really hard because Pilot was out of sorts and she was upset and she could SEE ME and I could feel her questioning look that said: DUDE WHY AREN'T YOU HELPING ME? And the truthful part was that it was ripping up my heart, but I need this boundary and it was obvious to me that she was not injured - just tired and working the nanny over a little bit. It felt like a lot going on in my brain at once... but, I made it through.
Three STUPID mistakes I made this week:
Dan, Pilot & I ventured out to the baseball game last night EVEN THOUGH it was starting to rain. For some reason I had this vision of the rest of the ball park sitting in their seats and us wandering around under the canopy enjoying the delicious food and letting Pilot be entertained by the action. I don't know why I figured the rest of the crowd would be sitting in the rain... THAT WAS A MISTAKE because everyone and their babies and grandparents in wheelchairs and office parties and youth groups and minor league ball teams were crowded around under the awning eating their food and we had no where to go and no where to sit and one squirmy, over-tired baby to contend with. We left before we got to enjoy any of my ball park favourites... so Pilot was not the only grouchy baby in the car on the way home.
I had a photoshoot that was scheduled for the morning time because there were small kids involved. That's not my thing - the morning time... I like to shoot in the evening, but I understand that small kids aren't always onboard with what I say. The morning turned out to be an extra, extra ultra sunny morning and the location was under some big leafy shadow-causing trees. I tried to shoot in the shade as much as possible, BUT that's not always possible when you're chasing around an adorable 18 month old. I didn't take my lens hood AND THAT WAS A MISTAKE so now I have an entire collection of family photos with lens flares and HARSH shadows. ALSO when I got low to the ground the dew/moisture from the grass fogged up my lens and the photos resulting from that are SPOOKY. It was an absolute WHAT-NOT-TO-DO day. There are some terrific ARTSY shots - but, I'm willing to bet that it's the OPPOSITE of what my client was hoping for and I'm a little bit up sh*t creek on that one.
OH. This one really gets my goat... I left a Starbucks cup on my window sill with my "open" pencil crayons. I refer to my "open set" as the colours I'm using most. My favourites. My GO-TOs. If I'm working on pencil crayon pieces I keep these ones out of my pencil bag so that I don't have to search for them. The only "open" colour that wasn't in my cup set was DECO BLUE because I have so many of those beauties that I keep them in a special place. ANYWAYS. These poor pencil crayons have been on the sill for a few weeks and OH MY GOD THAT WAS A MISTAKE because the summer sun melted the pigment and caused it to MELT and ESCAPE a bit OUT THE BOTTOM OF THE WOOD CASING. I didn't lose a TON of pigment and on a few of the annoying broken pencils it has appeared to have reformed the "lead". BUT HOW MUCH OF A BONE HEAD MOVE WAS THAT???? I'm off to the art store today to replace the colours because although they are not completely-completely-completely ruined I'm nervous about what kind of damage I caused to their consistency. Bummer. DON'T BE LIKE ME.
Today: besides a trip to the art store - we have a bunch of nothing and a little online window shopping planned. I'm going to attempt to give myself a pedicure - which has never been a success in the past. I should probably just get Pilot to do it. I'm hoping to sneak in a little more Tiny Art Lady writing so that I'm ready to go HARD CORE on Friday (during Nanny time!). Pilot and I are going to get Crash out of the house while the cleaning lady is here this morning and the best way to do that is to hit a dog park (after hitting a Starbucks first). We didn't make it to the mall yesterday - so we're off there, too. And to Costco for a mega-giant box of Cheerios. And beach toys because we're taking Pilot to Victoria Beach cottage country this weekend and I'm hoping she enjoys her first trip to the sand and surf! BECAUSE WE HAVE MORE OF THAT PLANNED. Oh, and I'm exhausted so if I can get in a nap this afternoon I'm jumping on the chance. Sweet.
Keep that yummy coffee coming, Dan. Three cheers for the second last day of the week! Have a wonderful day. Woot. Go!
This week is unseasonally speedy. I'd call it a peppery pace. I can't keep up!! It might have something to do with the fact that I'm getting less sleep as Pilot gets up a wee bit earlier each day and it might have something to do with the fact that my BRAIN IS FIRING AGAIN because I'm so happy. Okay, it's like one of those erratic sparkler-type-fireworks-firing and I'm pretty sure that's whistling I hear as I go down in flames BUT GO DOWN IN FLAMES I WILL if it means I'm painting again.
****** Dear Mom/BabaLuba, I KNOW it is your birthday today. Happy birthday to you!! Your birthday is the only birthday that I never forget. Only this year I forgot to mail the card... I know this because I found it under Crash's blanket in the Honda. I'm sorry. I would like to blame it on someone, but I am too tired to think of someone to blame. Okay, Crash. I really did not forget that this is your first birthday as a baba and your first birthday without my Baba - your mom. I have thought a lot about this and the day's importance for you and Pilot and I have not yet figured out what to send you that would be special enough... except for our lovely card that did not leave the car. Again, I'm sorry. No, you cannot have Pilot for your present. I am, however, willing to send you Tammy or perhaps a budgie indefinitely. At this time, your granddaughter Pilot and I would like you to know that we will be hand delivering your gift - but, you will have to wait till the middle of August when we get there. Happy Birthday!! We love you.
****** Today: I am hitting the ground running because I have a halfday of nanny-heaven. Gotta go. Since I got the commissioned piece finished and out the door - I'm going to try to work on a few pieces just for fun before I dig my heels in and get busy on the Tiny Art Ladies next week. I'll give you a hint that I'm not painting fish. Think colour! I'll post something more interesting than nothing tomorrow. Pilot and I have to make a short run to the mall to exchange a few things and see about finding her some shoes... we have a wedding to go to on Friday! Yay love!
Life's about to get more interesting - I SWEAR. I'm going to trade Pilot in for a rooster SO I CAN SLEEP IN A LITTLE. JEeeez. Good coffee today, Dan. GO!
People ask me all the time how I feel about having a dog like Crash around our baby... and that question can easily be summed up by the above photo. He's a great dog - quite likely the greatest dog I have ever known. I could go on for days and days about all the things I like about him and I could also make a fairly decent list of the things he has done over the course of his 5 year life that have TOTALLY PISSED ME OFF. The where-did-I-get-him-story: He found me. I had a boxer puppy years before that had died suddenly. Three years later - I did YET ANOTHER Google search for a black faced brindle boxer and a link came up from a farm north of my home town. Two farmers had pure bred boxers and now they had puppies without papers. I called to see if they had any male black faced brindle boxers left and I bought him over the phone RIGHT THEN. Sight unseen. A week later I flew 800 miles, drove for two hours and picked him up from our designated meeting spot on the side of the highway. (In retrospect that was ridiculous. I could have ended up with a POODLE!) That's why I say the he found me. (PHOTO NOTE: THE OCTOPUS TO THE RIGHT OF CRASH IS OLLIE - our new reading chair! Thanks Hannah!)
From the very first day - Crash and I had a deal: if he made me laugh more than he made me angry - I'd make sure he had food and a wickedly designer dog bed (in every room of the house). He's still here so I guess it worked out good for ALL OF US. Crash can usually be found where ever the sunbeams are moving throughout the house. Good dog.
OKAY. Enough about DOGS!! I hear ya. Dan is complaining that all I do is blog about Crash & Pilot. Boo hoo. I think he is feeling left out.
YESTERDAY was awesome. Another full day of painting and I got the commissioned piece done and another one started. VERY GOOD. I will post those when I have approval. Pilot had a great day, too. I have no other words than to say that the all-day-uninterupted-painting-sessions are better for me THAN A MONTH AT THE SPA. They are definitely better for me than TEQUILA. They are certainly better than running away from home - which was what I was going to try next. They are better for me than I can properly express... I needed that time to paint and those hours without anyone needing me. Because I needed me. (IT ROCKED SO HARD.) Today: I'm not painting. I'm going to hang out and do errands and bask in a little bit of the afterglow still here from yesterday. I'm going to visit. I'm going to totally and thoroughly enjoy this life of mine. I have a bounce in my step. I didn't even grumble about getting up at 5:02am with Pilot. Good morning baby! I am busy planning my next art-moves on my next nanny-day and I'm nearly BREATHLESS ABOUT THAT. I'm enjoying the pink gladiolas I bought myself yesterday. I'm LOVING the freshly washed duvets. I'm happy as a bug to sing Three Green and Speckled Frogs OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again - or at least until nap time. Sweet deal - bring it on.
I'm not sure if I have mentioned how great Dan is lately? I should. Alright, alright. Let's get this day started.Go!
Hello Monday. We had a great weekend. We did a whole lot of hanging out as a family... Eating together. Walking together. Laughing together. Napping together. It was nice. Pilot's growing like a weed. I took some time to go through her mountains of clothes that are too small. Oh my goodness, child. Crawling is old news, too. Now she's pulling herself up and standing. WHAT?! That crawling phase didn't last long at all. It's been half a WEEK. Sheesh. Any bets on when she'll walk AND DON'T SAY THIS WEEK, PLEASE. Either way - great, busy, full, fun weekend. Nice.
Last week - I walked by this sign on this post... HOW ODD. But, I liked it. SHAKE IT! Sounds good to me. The posts in our neighbourhood are probably as old as the houses... 100+ years. Based on the thousands and thousands of staples - I could just imagine all of the concerts and lost dogs that had been advertised over the last century... Wow. SHAKE IT!
I ended last week experimenting with a nanny for Pilot... I needed to get some stuff done - but I wasn't quite ready to ship her off. IT WAS BRILLIANT. I got so much done. I PAINTED. I had a photoshoot. I got groceries. I did 6 loads of laundry. I REMEMBERED TO EAT LUNCH. I FELT LIKE A HAPPIER VERSION OF MY CURRENT SELF. And I knew where that sweet Pilot of mine was at all times. It was terrific. It was good medicine for me... So terrific - that I want to do it at least two times this week - maybe three if I can swing it because I have some HAVE-TO-DO's to get off my plate before I can do the WANT-TO-DO's. And really, it's the WANT-TO-DO's that give me back my wings.
Today: SHAKE IT! Short post because there's lots to do. I had SUCH I GOOD EXPERIENCE with the nanny last week - I have arranged for ANOTHER nanny to come in today (Nanny K is busy today - HELLO Nanny S). YES. I found two great girls that I love. Wow - that feels so good. I have a commissioned painting that's gotta get done today. HAS TO. I'll post it at the end of the week because it's a gift and I have to keep it on the downlow for a while. I have a couple of WANT-TO paintings that are formulating themselves in my brain. I have photo editting to get on top of. I have a football team's worth of Tiny Art Ladies that are waiting to get done and I might even GET AMBITIOUS and multi-task by washing some duvets, comforters and CURTAINS. (Get serious WHO AM I?)
Good coffee today, Dan. Good idea about the yummy Cheerios, Pilot (not the part about putting them in your ears). Good GRIEF I'm going to make this a great day. Let's GO
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