Long time no journal
(crossposted to tumblr)
I think the past year of my life has been one of the busiest that I've ever had. For those of you that have been keeping up, skip the next paragraph, for those that want a recap, feel free to check it out.
Mar- africa prep and kickstarter
April - Africa and Spectrum prep - begin pro dog training with duch
May - Spectrum and in a Wedding and start house hunting with Stu - continue pro dog training with duch
June - Prepping for SDCC and research pottery studio and still house hunting - continue pro dog training with duch
July - SDCC - offer accepted on house, 1 month trial at pottery studio - first friday with studio - continue pro dog training with duch
Aug - RMFC, start moving in with Stu - start working at studio - first friday with studio - continue pro dog training with duch
Sept - IlluxCon prep - Visit MN - finish moving in with Stu but only sort of because then in Oct... - continue pro dog training with duch
Oct - move into (basement) of house, and CPFC - begin "The Great Sanding of the Floors" which started as a 2-4 week job and stretched into Dec... (spoilers) - IlluxCon - rehome Duch
Nov - Sanding forever, hardly any work, at least set up a desk for me though then family in town. Trip to MN during MFF - TFF Prep
Dec - Still sanding - back a mess - can hardly work - FC Prep - TFF Prep - Christmas sale with the studio
Jan - MOVED UPSTAIRS - also FC - TFF Prep (goes on forever when you are both a guest and neurotic) - transfer collab kickstarter sketch
Feb - TFF prep - unpacking - trying to figure out where things live - TFF prep - finally feeling like I'm getting a handle on commissions again - craigslisting for house stuff - start painting collab kickstarter sketch
Mar - TFF FINALLY WOO! IT WAS AWESOME - short family visit - Start trip to MN - more craisgslisting/shopping for house stuff we didn't know we needed - researc and order chicken coop and chickens and get the license for them - painting collab kickstarter
Apr - finish trip to MN - mom in town, stu's fam in town, short recoup - finish collab kickstarter
In a couple days my dad and brother and their other halves come in town. But at least I'm finally starting to feel like this is my home. I started my seed babies this spring and set out the tomato seed babies last friday (where they were promptly hailed on) *shakes fist* and seeds are in the ground. Runner beans, garbanzo beans, lettuce mixes, fava beans, snap peas and sugar peas have stuck their little heads up. While my mom was in town we pulled the slide off the terrible busted old swing set in the back yard and repainted the metal frame (previously faded/rusting blue and yellow) to 'hammered copper' which looks really cool, and then I found an awesome rustic porch swing on cragslist and we hung it there. We also planted MANY things, including a pear tree, rhubarb, a raspberry plant and a ton of flowers, which are doing pretty well. I've got a lot of seeds in the ground, so told stu that I'm making us food, just very slowly. Which entertained him. we have two 5'x20' plots and one 7'x14' plot, plus a potato trench and another small area we are going to put sweet potatoes in. If even half of the crops come in its still gonna be 3x as much as I ever grew in the past. Which is exciting. We are planning on getting a drop freezer, hopefully sometime soon, at least by the end of the summer. We want to get a membership to a CSA preferably a meat one, and just use the farmers market until then for veg as we can, and have been very very busy still, but at least it is settling down. I've started doing some amazon reviews, I don't imagine I'll get as far into it as some friends, but it has certainly been interesting.
Through all of this I have been doing a lot at the ceramics studio as well as trying to keep up with commisison/con homework. I work at the studio 1x a week, plus I am slowly taking over their social media and design work, I've been loving being there and the environment and the fact that it is slowly taking the place of a lot of the commissioned work I was doing. I think as I get more efficient with this and get more time back I will be able to pull back from doing commissions unless they really appeal to me and work on really developing my own personal work, get more done with my various IPs, including Playing Cards, Broken Worlds, SkulKlan and a not yet discussable project. I hope this is true and really think it is. So fingers crossed in that regards.
Anyhow, I finally feel like I'm getting back on my feet, getting into the grove of things. Developing a rhthym and feel in my home, and it is definitely my home now. I don't think a day goes past that I don't just feel incredibly lucky to be here. I'm so happy with Stu, and we are getting in chickens, and I have the start to a great garden and our neighbors are lovely and it's finally starting to smooth out. There is a lot to do here, but also a lot that already makes it feel so happy and welcoming. I look forward to doing more art, to having people over, and to actually having a life again. It's pretty amazing and I'm so happy. So anyhow, yeah, I was regretting that LJ hasn't been active much, but I think most of us tweet and snapchat and everything but I like everyone's random LIFE UPDATE stuff so figured I'd contribute. I love you all. And Yay! Life may start slowing down!
I close with a picture of our living room, which I adore, with the buffet I craigslisted, art by Vantid on it (needs to be matted and hung still) mask my Missmonster on the wall, fossils, rocks, and claywork of my own on the hearth, a gifted painting from Michael Mentler on the hearth, a gifted plant from Tasha in the 'fireplace' (it needs to be fixed) yarn under the buffet, a happy muppet on our recent rug splurge and general happiness abounding. <3
I think the past year of my life has been one of the busiest that I've ever had. For those of you that have been keeping up, skip the next paragraph, for those that want a recap, feel free to check it out.
Mar- africa prep and kickstarter
April - Africa and Spectrum prep - begin pro dog training with duch
May - Spectrum and in a Wedding and start house hunting with Stu - continue pro dog training with duch
June - Prepping for SDCC and research pottery studio and still house hunting - continue pro dog training with duch
July - SDCC - offer accepted on house, 1 month trial at pottery studio - first friday with studio - continue pro dog training with duch
Aug - RMFC, start moving in with Stu - start working at studio - first friday with studio - continue pro dog training with duch
Sept - IlluxCon prep - Visit MN - finish moving in with Stu but only sort of because then in Oct... - continue pro dog training with duch
Oct - move into (basement) of house, and CPFC - begin "The Great Sanding of the Floors" which started as a 2-4 week job and stretched into Dec... (spoilers) - IlluxCon - rehome Duch
Nov - Sanding forever, hardly any work, at least set up a desk for me though then family in town. Trip to MN during MFF - TFF Prep
Dec - Still sanding - back a mess - can hardly work - FC Prep - TFF Prep - Christmas sale with the studio
Jan - MOVED UPSTAIRS - also FC - TFF Prep (goes on forever when you are both a guest and neurotic) - transfer collab kickstarter sketch
Feb - TFF prep - unpacking - trying to figure out where things live - TFF prep - finally feeling like I'm getting a handle on commissions again - craigslisting for house stuff - start painting collab kickstarter sketch
Mar - TFF FINALLY WOO! IT WAS AWESOME - short family visit - Start trip to MN - more craisgslisting/shopping for house stuff we didn't know we needed - researc and order chicken coop and chickens and get the license for them - painting collab kickstarter
Apr - finish trip to MN - mom in town, stu's fam in town, short recoup - finish collab kickstarter
In a couple days my dad and brother and their other halves come in town. But at least I'm finally starting to feel like this is my home. I started my seed babies this spring and set out the tomato seed babies last friday (where they were promptly hailed on) *shakes fist* and seeds are in the ground. Runner beans, garbanzo beans, lettuce mixes, fava beans, snap peas and sugar peas have stuck their little heads up. While my mom was in town we pulled the slide off the terrible busted old swing set in the back yard and repainted the metal frame (previously faded/rusting blue and yellow) to 'hammered copper' which looks really cool, and then I found an awesome rustic porch swing on cragslist and we hung it there. We also planted MANY things, including a pear tree, rhubarb, a raspberry plant and a ton of flowers, which are doing pretty well. I've got a lot of seeds in the ground, so told stu that I'm making us food, just very slowly. Which entertained him. we have two 5'x20' plots and one 7'x14' plot, plus a potato trench and another small area we are going to put sweet potatoes in. If even half of the crops come in its still gonna be 3x as much as I ever grew in the past. Which is exciting. We are planning on getting a drop freezer, hopefully sometime soon, at least by the end of the summer. We want to get a membership to a CSA preferably a meat one, and just use the farmers market until then for veg as we can, and have been very very busy still, but at least it is settling down. I've started doing some amazon reviews, I don't imagine I'll get as far into it as some friends, but it has certainly been interesting.
Through all of this I have been doing a lot at the ceramics studio as well as trying to keep up with commisison/con homework. I work at the studio 1x a week, plus I am slowly taking over their social media and design work, I've been loving being there and the environment and the fact that it is slowly taking the place of a lot of the commissioned work I was doing. I think as I get more efficient with this and get more time back I will be able to pull back from doing commissions unless they really appeal to me and work on really developing my own personal work, get more done with my various IPs, including Playing Cards, Broken Worlds, SkulKlan and a not yet discussable project. I hope this is true and really think it is. So fingers crossed in that regards.
Anyhow, I finally feel like I'm getting back on my feet, getting into the grove of things. Developing a rhthym and feel in my home, and it is definitely my home now. I don't think a day goes past that I don't just feel incredibly lucky to be here. I'm so happy with Stu, and we are getting in chickens, and I have the start to a great garden and our neighbors are lovely and it's finally starting to smooth out. There is a lot to do here, but also a lot that already makes it feel so happy and welcoming. I look forward to doing more art, to having people over, and to actually having a life again. It's pretty amazing and I'm so happy. So anyhow, yeah, I was regretting that LJ hasn't been active much, but I think most of us tweet and snapchat and everything but I like everyone's random LIFE UPDATE stuff so figured I'd contribute. I love you all. And Yay! Life may start slowing down!
I close with a picture of our living room, which I adore, with the buffet I craigslisted, art by Vantid on it (needs to be matted and hung still) mask my Missmonster on the wall, fossils, rocks, and claywork of my own on the hearth, a gifted painting from Michael Mentler on the hearth, a gifted plant from Tasha in the 'fireplace' (it needs to be fixed) yarn under the buffet, a happy muppet on our recent rug splurge and general happiness abounding. <3