One fish two fish...

I finished these guys last week. I'm pretty happy with them. I absolutely love betas. They have so much personality packed into such tiny colorful bodies. To all those little guys I've had over the years, thank for you making me smile.

Here are a few "in progress" shots. Note to self: remember to actually take photos when working.

Pear shaped

Things have gone a bit pear shaped lately.

This makes me feel better.



So, in the interest of trying to make my little world a better place, I could use some good thoughts, prayer, juju, vibes, luck (whichever you fancy) sent this way. Any and all thoughts of goodness are much loved and appreciated.

Heaven

My apologies for my extended absence.



But I was in the most beautiful place in the world.

More soon...

Tour guides are people too.

At the end of a weekend all I can ever muster the energy to do is lay on the floor, beer in hand, and scream incoherent babble, laced with obscenities, at the ceiling. At least that's all I want to do.

You see, I work in tourism. It's my "real job" except that it's not a "real job" according to most "real job" standards. It's what I do to make money while I pretend to be an artist. One day it will be the other way around. Anyway, the point of all this is that working in tourism in August in the south SUCKS.

So as we launch into another weekend, please play nice and tip your guide, for the sake of my sanity.

A few things

Sorry I sort of fell off the wagon last week. It was sort of crazy and I took a minor vacation from life (and did nothing).

My Silversun Pickups station is my favorite station on Pandora, ever. Until they play Vampire Weekend. I was listening to it with my phone while I was riding yesterday, and their song Oxford Comma came on. It was extremely aggravating, and my ride promptly went downhill from there. Thanks Vampire Weekend.

Finn has been weird lately. 99% of the time I can blame this on me, so it looks like we need to go do some no stirrup work. And we need to work on stopping off my seat. Again. He was doing really well with it, until Vampire Weekend came on and I guess he fed through my tension and forgot he knew how to stop like a nice pony, and not like an inverted, gaping mouth camel. It's ok Finn, we all have bad days.

Anyway.

Here is something I'm working on! I'm not all grumpy today I swear. I've been doing stuff.



I'm not sure where to go from here. I have some ideas. I want the birds to be red, even though I know there are no red swallows. I just need some red. The background will stay white & gray. Note to self: never stain blocks with crappy IKEA stain before you draw on them. Because drawing over that crap is annoying. Then I realized I was going to paint oils over water based stain, so I may have to start this over from scratch. Oh well, it's an experiment anyway.

Man... Modest Mouse - One Chance just came on. Damn that's an awesome song.

Finneversary #5

Late July 2005 (as a two year old), the first time I saw him.


The end of May 2009. He was coming back from his "fence accident" when this was taken. He had been out of regular work for close to 4 months.


August 2, 2010

My horse is a beast.

Happy Finneversary to us, to us.


Those massive shoulders. Awful to fit a saddle to, but so great to nestle behind.












Our favorite summer activity.
(I am fully aware of the dangers of this photo... and I don't really care. For the sake of a nice picture)


To many more Pretty Boy. <3

Sketchbook Sunday

I've always been so in love with the live oaks here.

Night riders

Last night was the kind of night that I wish would happen more often. I had an absolutely lovely ride with friends. It was sort of a last minute thing, and by the time we got on the sun had mostly set. My barn owner is an incredibly gracious person. She's always said I could use her horses for any friends that want to ride. My former barrel racing friend hadn't ridden in a long time, so she rode the western pleasure lesson horse. My other friend, a fellow SCAD Equestrian dropout, had never ridden a gaited horse. My barn owner has a little Tennessee Walker mare who is such an odd ride if you're not used to gaited things. It was hilarious on both counts. I rode Finn, and let everyone have a turn on him. We laughed, and played, had a beer or two, and sweated our butts off. Yes, even light riding after dark and I still came home soaked to the bone.

Anyway.

The latter of the two friends, has known Finn since I got him. Our horses are two months apart in age, so they both just turned 7. We've had them both since they were babies. We have decided that 7 is quite a good year. All of a sudden our babies have become "real horses". It's kind of hard to describe what we mean by that, but it's like all of a sudden they have come into themselves. Suddenly I have A Real Horse, and not a dimwit baby. He stands still, he travels in a straight line, he is polite. It's amazing. I mean, he still has his moments, but he's 99% better than he was even 6 months ago. He has just been blossoming and being all sorts of amazing lately (knock on wood). I'm so proud!!!!

Also... I have had the Finn-monster for 5 years this week. I plan on doing an anniversary post this weekend, after I take new conformation shots of him. Finn and I have quite a history in only 5 years together.

Tonight I am working on art stuff, but man... I lost a sketch I did for something and it's driving me crazy!!!! I had this great image in my head, I sketched it out so I wouldn't forget it, and I lost it. Crap.

Mine all mine

I'll love you forever
I'll like you for always





As long as I'm living
My babies you'll be.

want vs. need and the story of Ewok

I don't need to go to the Humane Society. Ever.



Because I will inevitably find one I want. This one though. She's my picture perfect dog. I have always wanted a small, female, bat eared pit. It doesn't help that she's a gorgeous color, and already house trained. I want. SO badly. I mean LOOK at her! She's is everything I've ever wanted in a dog, at least in physical appearance. Uhg.

The other two would not approve of a new addition. They hardly spoke to me when we took in a stray a few weeks ago. They got so offended.



That was Ewok.

One night after work, I got out of my car and there was a small furry dog by the curb in front of the house. I walked up to him, expecting him to run away, but he politely wagged his tail instead. I picked him up and we walked up & down the street looking for any potential owners. Of course he had no collar or tags. I put him down and he followed me back to the house. Ken came out, and little dog greeted him just as politely as he had to me. We decided we couldn't just leave him out there. He was obviously someone's dog. He had been groomed at some point, though he was thin and flea infested. So, we got the big dogs. I was worried. We introduced them one at a time. Surprisingly, both Papu & Jet sniffed the little guy and went "Ew... it's little, and insignificant." We walked up and down the street, letting everyone get acquainted. Little dog followed along with no leash. When we got back to the house I said "Well everyone gets along, lets go inside". Little dog bolted up the steps, to the front door, and wagged his tail.

Ewok was a Shih-tzu. He was perfectly housebroken, trained not to get on furniture, and he was in love with me. He followed me everywhere. He even slept on the floor next to my side of the bed. I took him to the vet to get scanned for a chip with no luck. We plastered the neighborhood with fliers. Even though I began to think that maybe he was dumped. He was very thin, not fixed, he had a bad eye, fur missing on his back with black skin patches, and those damn fleas. I bathed him and it didn't help that much. Papu and Jet were tolerant of him, but extremely put out. They did not enjoy his presence, and ignored him most of the time. Ewok didn't know how to play with them either. Though, towards the end of his time here, they were all starting to come around.

Sadly, it was not meant to be. I was falling in love with him, but because I didn't need the extra vet bills, I had a few homes lined up just in case. As soon as I thought his owner wouldn't come forward, I got a phone call. She had been out of town. Her sister had been watching him. Apparently they let him out all the time (with no collar or tags) and "he always comes back." I really wanted to bitch her out and tell her I thought he'd been severely neglected. But I didn't... I did tell her he was too skinny, and she didn't say anything. I miss him. Poor Ewok.

Should Ewok ever wander back over here... I'm not calling her, or putting up fliers again.

I wonder about a third dog. I don't need the extra vet bills, or the food bills. However, my two are getting older. I would love to have a younger dog around to keep them moving. We play and we walk a lot, but Jet would LOVE another dog with his energy level. That is, if he liked said dog. Jet is very opinionated about these things. Papu is MY dog. I want that gorgeous pittie girl, but Papu would be depressed for weeks. She might get over it eventually, but if Ewok showed me anything, it's that Papu can't handle it.

I'll continue to tell myself what I've always told myself. The right dog will come along at the right time. When it does, I'll know. Just like I did with these two. I hope. Because... you know... I can't her out of my head.



The 3 brief, almost amigos. The perception is a big wonky. Papu's not that big. For size reference Jet is 63 lbs, Papu is 43, Ewok is 10. Pretty pittie girl is 7 months old would top out at less than 50 lbs.

Adventures in gardening

I wonder what would happen if you could purify sweat. Could you bottle it all up and reuse it? I doubt it, but somehow I wish it was possible considering the amount of it that came off of me today.

Ken and I worked in the yard all day. I checked weather.com at one point, considering I was on my 3rd set of dry clothes, and it said the heat index was 122. Wunderground.com said it was 105. I'll just average the two together and call it even.

We got a lot done. Ken worked on the arbor that we started, oh... over a year ago. We had to meticulously unwrap the wisteria from around the support poles. Some of the new vine got broken in the process, but I think it'll be ok. He put lattice along the sides, evened the poles out, re-wrapped the wisteria around them, and now all that's left is the top.

Meanwhile, I was playing in the dirt. This spring, I had the grand idea to remove all these old lillies and crocosmia that had taken over the west side of the house. They were probably planted by someone that meant well, many moons ago. Then the house got sold to some SCAD boy's parent to provide his son & his friends with a place to live. Something tells me college boys aren't into gardening. The flowers were left to grow wild, and oh did they. When I removed them, there wasn't much soil there. It was one huge mass of bulbs, roots, bulbs, roots, and more bulbs. I was moderately successful. Except that I didn't really have a plan of what I was going to do with that side of the house after that.

Later on I realized that I really liked those flowers after all. Of course. When I moved the flowers, I didn't believe that I could throw a perfectly good (nonpoisonous) plant away, so I threw them all in pots together. Miraculously they survived in the pots, with no soil, only sun and water. Today, I put them all back. However, this time I did what that good old house inspector told us to do when we bought the place. I pulled the plants away from the house with a good layer of rocks & weed blocker to deter them. They seem happy to be home so far. I did have to throw away some of the bad ones, so I guess I successfully thinned out a flower bed... in a very roundabout way.

I also planted some new hosta and some siam tulips in my other beds. I will have to take pictures, because I just adore them both.

So... success! In one way or another.

Sketchbook Sunday

Some things I drew...



Hey it's 7-11 today! Awesome!

Perpetually indecisive.

To write about my horse, or to not write about my horse? I go back and forth a lot. A good 75% of the blogs I read are horse related, so it makes sense to write about him. On the other hand, he means the world to me. I don't want someone to say we're doing it wrong. If it's one thing I've learned from the internet, everyone has an opinion, especially if it comes to horses. Finn is almost sacred to me. I adore him. He's mine and no one can touch him. He is my happy place. Almost my sanctuary, of sorts. Maybe I don't want the internet to tarnish him.

Then what about the other side of it? Having a support system would be nice, since we are very trainer-less at the moment. It would be cool to have a place to share our adventures.

I don't know yet. I haven't decided where I want this to go. It's supposed to be about art, but there's not enough of that happening right now (lame). In all honesty I want my life outside of my family (husband and dogs) to be equal parts horses and art. Maybe I'll just talk about both and see what happens.

What would you like to hear about?

Adulthood

This is why I'll never be an adult.

Brought to you by Sudafed PE

Horse pirates! YAR!!!!
I thought this up while brainstorming for new tattoo ideas. I don't know that I would actually get this tattooed... but you never know. I want to mess around with it some more.



Also... I finished this, but I forgot about it.

I have been severely lacking in the productivity department lately. Mostly because this time of year, every year, my sinuses want me to die a horrible, slow, agonizing death. It's not fun. I will awaken from this fog and get back to my life one of these days. I love the summer. I truly do. But it's like my body has to break into it every year.

Oh well. Until then, I'll (legally) drug myself profusely and see what happens.

Things that are not a good idea

Holding an ear candle for yourself while you're home alone.

This seemed like a perfectly logical thing to do at the time. My ear hurt, and the candles worked before. It seemed easy enough. That is until I lit the thing while sitting indian style in front of my floor length mirror on my hardwood floor. That flame was a lot bigger than I remembered it being. That's when I realized it was not the brightest thing to do, which of course I didn't think of until after I was in the midst of it all. As per usual.

BUT!!! I did not set my head or the house on fire. However, my ear still hurts. I have one more candle, but I suppose I could make my husband hold it for me.

Feng Shui

I live in a perpetual state of organized chaos. Most of the time when I try to "organize" I end up loosing something. This means that I tried to find a place to put said thing, and wherever I put it made perfectly logical sense at the time. However, it does not make sense whenever I go looking for it again, therefore I can't find it. When you live this way, stuff tends to pile up. Especially if you are also a professional procrastinator.

Ken and I had a rough weekend. There has been a lot of stress in the house. and I really couldn't put my finger on why. Then Sunday night, as I tried to get to sleep, it dawned on me: if I controlled the chaos in the house I could control the chaos in our minds. If your place of comfort and sanctuary is always a mess, then it has to mess something up psychologically. Unless you're perfectly fine with it that way. For us (especially my OCD husband), it wasn't working. I was trying to ignore the mess. I didn't think it bothered me, but deep down, it did. For example, by the front door there were clothes that needed to go to the cleaners, a socket kit, containers of unused motor oil, stuff to go to Goodwill, a radiator (in a box), and lots of dust bunnies. It was visual chaos as soon as we walked in the door.

So yesterday I gave up my whole day to clean and put stuff away. Put stuff where it goes! Where I will remember where it is! Because it's where it always goes (except for the radiator), I was just too lazy to put it away in the first place! And I did. I took stuff to the cleaners, and I organized. I matted, framed, and hung a poster on the wall that had been sitting on an easel in an awkward location for a year. I also hung a mirror on the wall that had been in an odd spot. I cleaned out my closet and gave a lot of my old office clothes away (good riddance!).

Now when I walk in the house, it's instant calm. The entire visual aesthetic of the house is so much nicer. All I had to do was put stuff away. In its right place. And it worked. It's amazing what de-cluttering can do. Home feels so much better.

time after time

Some days I just sort of float along in my own little world. Always have. I've been this way since I was a kid. My Mom would send me to clean my room and I'd end up reading all the magazines I was supposed to be putting away, or playing with the toys on the floor. Hours later my room would still be a disaster.

I would love to be able to get up at 6am and be all ready to go say hello to the world. I could eat a nice breakfast, workout, walk my dogs, maybe go ride my horse. It would be so nice. I could get so much done. In theory anyway.

Instead I just kind of float along until it's time to make dinner. I feel like I'm getting more focused. Maybe that's why I've always sucked at time management. Lack of focus. I'm always off daydreaming in some distant land. It makes life hard sometimes, but that's ok. I'm getting there.

What do I daydream about? All sorts of stuff. And then sometimes I go and do the things I daydream about.

Like taking my horse for "nature walks" like a giant dog. We discovered a network of trails that lead to a huge field by our barn. Man, he was stoked.



Now we just have to go ride out there. I have a lot of courage issues with riding. Maybe if I daydream about it enough, I can make it a reality. I mean, it's worked for me so far.

I'll call him lucky

I bought this guy after St. Patrick's Day. I figured if shamrock plants were going to be on sale, that would be the appropriate time. I've always wanted one. The fact that it came in purple was a huge bonus! I got a green one too, but it's not doing too well for some reason. Also, my wisteria bloomed and it made me swoon with joy. I didn't get pictures except for with my phone. Epic fail!

I am working insane amounts right now. I forgot how much giving tours 5 days a week SUCKS. Despite that, I seem to be making great amounts of progress on art. Yay!!! It's riding that's suffered this time. I haven't been on my horse in almost 2 weeks. :( The other day I was out there and the owner's daughter showed me that there are trails behind our place!!! My barn is tiny and in a totally urban area, but apparently there are trails!!! That lead to a field!!!!! OMG!!!! Urban trail rider I shall be. Someday.

And a question...
How do you guys organize your photos on your computers? At the moment, I have everything in folders by date uploaded. Except that I've been doing it this way for like 4 years now and it takes a lot to remember where anything is. Also, prior to this I organized things by what they were pictures of, but it totally didn't work. Everything older than 4 years ago was in folders that way, and anything newer is by date. Confusing? Yes. Is there a better way?

the vines

Here is something I've been working on lately. I'm not sure where to go from here, but I like it so far. It needs color of some sort. It's also very small, but small is ok. I like it anyway. I'm still working on remnants of wood from deck building.



At the moment I have so many ideas, and so many thoughts I want to get out. Things I want to paint. Things I want to share with the world. Things like that. But oh have we slammed head first with ours eyes closed into "the busy season" at work. The weather has also been LOVELY. When I'm not at work, I've been walking the dogs (with much rejoicing on their part), or making vain attempts to ride. That's the curse of an outdoor person I guess.

I've decided I need a hammock. Mmmmm yes.

Something different

I've been chugging along on this for the past 2 weeks or so. It's something a little different for me, but I like how she turned out.



I didn't like her hair the first time so I changed it.



She was done in oils & graphite on recycled wood. I still have several pieces of 1x6 leftover from our deck. I think I need to experiment with gluing them together or cutting them into smaller pieces, so I don't get sick of working in a narrow format. It worked well for her though.



Now... to open that Etsy store!

What a week

I don't think this has been a good week for anyone. My life and the problems within it feel so trivial after reading the news. My prayers and thoughts are with the people of Haiti.

I'm working on a painting at the moment. Well... I'm on my couch with Papu curled up next to me while I wait on a layer of matte medium to dry. That totally counts.

I'd rather not elaborate in this wide world of the internet as to why my week was so horrible. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Let's just say that if zoning laws weren't they way they are, I'd have my horse in my back yard by now. The dogs would probably not be cool with that.



Oh, Finn. What we go through for you and your kind.

Ichiban

Ichiban means "first one" in Japanese, or so I've been told.



Ichiban is my first painting of the new year, my first painting in oils, and our friend's very awesome dog.



This was painted on a leftover piece of wood from our new deck. We finished building it after Thanksgiving. Our friends helped us build and dedicate it before they moved away. I don't think I've ever made anything more fitting.

And I should give a shout out to my new friend...



Hello baby.

This post has been brought to you by Artograph, courtesy of the great and wonderful Kenneth. This was my Christmas present from my husband. Previously, transferring sketches to be painted was a huge pain in the ass, not to mention a several hour endeavor. Thanks to you Arty, my life is 10,000 times easier.

Have a good weekend!

my girl

You see that girl? That pretty little face in my header? That's my girl.

Her full name is Paposauki. She was named by a shelter worker. Supposedly that means "slippers" in greek. We call her Papu. She's some kind of who-knows-what hound cross. I've had her for longer than my husband, Ken, and almost everything else. I got her at the beginning of my senior year in college. That was a really bad idea, but it most certainly was not a mistake. She was in the shelter from 8 weeks old to 8 months old, so I like to say it happened on purpose. She means everything to me. The entire rest of my life happened the way it did because of her. She's even the reason I met my husband, which is another story for another day.

She is my sweet girl, my baby dog, my shadow, and my absolute best friend. She's 6 years old this year.



My Silly Girl.

new ventures

Today I painted in oils for the first time in my life. How I got through 4 years of art school without painting in oils is beyond me. Today, however, I tried and it actually wasn't a disaster. I'd known I wanted to do it for ages, I just never made the plunge. Perhaps... this is a new direction. We'll see. I'll post it when it's all done and mostly dry.

I've been in the house painting all day. It was pretty cool, but I'm going a little stir crazy. I didn't ride today or yesterday because of The Cold. The high in this part of country today was 45. While that may seem tropical to most people, for Savannah it might as well be the north pole. No one else at my barn wants to ride in this, and I hate riding alone, so sitting at home painting under the glow of the space heater it is.

I did brave The Cold and walked the dogs yesterday. They were most grateful, but really dogs... despite your persistent begging it's not happening again this soon. You have a wimpy southerner for a mom.