Arrrgh!

It's a rainy day in Kittyville so far. Well, actually, I think the rain stopped a while ago but it's dampened my spirits enough today. I'm typing from my Monday hideout and I swear I better hone my selling skills quickly if I hope to close any sales at this coming weekend's event. There have been a bunch of people who have been drawn into the store by the Pirate Kitty shirt on the mannequin in the window and yet every one of them has resisted from buying it. I find I have an easier time selling other people's stuff, rather than my own. Why is that?!!!

My section is looking a tad bare now but the way things have been today, I don't think I need to worry about restocking until after the show. No sales at all so far for the store. That's Monday for you. At least grey, gloomy Mondays.

One positive note is that today is the 5-year anniversary of Matt's and my first date. He says that now we'll only celebrate our wedding anniversary (easier for him to remember... we'll see) but I like to commemmorate these special occasions anyway, even if it's just in cyberspace.

Relief

This is what I felt like doing Sunday night... Dex was lucky he wasn't in my shoes that day. The majority of Sunday was spent doing Matt's and my taxes though mine took 3 times as long as his. But I'm happy to report that ours are done and mailed out a week before they're due and if I've done them correctly (hopefully!) I will actually get money back this year! Heck, if I don't get a refund, as long as I don't owe any, I am happy. One of these days, I swear, I will hire an accountant but my records and receipts are not as organized as they'd have to be to just dump them onto someone else, so it was another year of doing them on my own.

If my kitty assistants could help me out every once in a while, they'd at least be earning their keep...


That's my new white desk that Suki has plopped herself on. No white walls were painted on the weekend, as Matt said it would be a time-consuming task. So that will be for another weekend when we can devote it all to painting. But here's a sneak peek of how great white on white would look:



The rest of this week will be spent preparing for this show and also getting stock sent to here.
It'll be my first show of the year and I'm hoping it'll be better than what I've heard about it from some sources. If you're in Toronto and looking for something to do that weekend, please come by.

No Jacket Required

Oh my, it's gorgeous outside. Just before leaving the house to run some errands, I checked the weather online and was amazed to see that it's 21 degrees out! It feels so different to be outside and seriously, I didn't need to don a jacket, though I did. (I tend to feel a bit naked without one, unless it is boiling hot).

So this new illustration is very fitting for a day like today. It will be making its way into my shop shortly, as a new print.

Matt has tomorrow and Monday off so we'll have a long weekend together and will hopefully be able to take advantage of the warm weather. Taxes are waiting to be done and I really want to paint the walls upstairs. We'll see how things go.

You gotta have some...

Faith, that is. In the words of George Michael (the faith part) and my mom (the soup part). This is a new personal piece that I've had floating around in my head for some time now. It stems from the past several months and what I think of as "my transitional period". Since my departure from Fresh Collective I've felt like I've been struggling to stay afloat, financially and emotionally and so this piece is a reminder to myself to stay positive and trust that things will be fine. When you're having soup for lunch (practically) everyday though, it's hard to believe sometimes.

Growing up, my parents had the hardest time getting me to eat my soup at dinner time. My mom would always say "it's good for you", like that would make me want to finish it faster. So go figure that in my adult years, I'm actually digging it as a meal, 1) because it's fairly cheap and 2) because it's fast and easy to make (out of a can or box). Campbell's makes some pretty tasty soups these days.

So yesterday, after almost resigning myself to living as a starving artist for who knows how much longer, I got a couple of possible painting commissions (one c/o my sweetheart) as well as another possible children's book. They are all still up in the air a bit but it's all about having faith, right? Keep your fingers crossed for me, please.

My new Ikea desk (c/o an unused wedding gift card, thankfully) is going to be delivered shortly, so I should go.

Something New for the Shop

I introduced some ACEO's into my shop last night. I've always been a fan of miniature things and have been trying to create some new illustrations both personally and professionally, so these were a great way to get the creative juices flowing. The one above is sort of a portrait of Dex, and probably my favorite of the bunch, but in real life Dex is usually much more chipper.

Here are all of them together:



While I don't usually like to make one-offs, I'm only offering these in the original form. So no prints will be made of them and well, they are a pretty affordable piece of original art.

Raining Cats

After a fitful night of sleep - I blame Dex, pictured above - it's nice to wake up and read something pleasant about yourself. Especially after being a bit unpleasant to said sleep disturber. I think he was acting up because of the rain, which is quite horrible today.

"It's a good day to stay inside", as Matt just said but unfortunately (or fortunately) I have to make a trip to the post office. He'll have to go in to work soon too, though a bit later than usual. It's moving day for them.

One good thing about not sleeping that well: I was busy brainstorming new illustration ideas, so look for new art in the shop in the next few weeks.

On the Catwalk...

A new print is in my shop.

And in honour of Spring Cleaning, I'm having an Art Sale to clear out original paintings that have been collecting dust in boxes since we moved in. I will be parting with some much loved artwork but then again, if I love it so much, why isn't it up on our walls yet?
So hopefully my art will find many new homes where it will be more appreciated.

Our little Birthday Girl

Our sun worshipper, Suki, turns four today. A fire sign indeed. Too bad it's actually kind of grey out this April morning... the photo above was taken several years ago in the first apartment Suki knew as home. I lived in a one bedroom/bachelor apartment back then and Suki certainly helped me get through some semi-scary nights when I heard strange noises and couldn't get to sleep. Life would certainly not be the same without our black and white munchkin. She has given us some scares in her brief time with us so far, but I'm hoping she's around for many more years to come.

After all, she is my main muse:

It's about time!

Spring seems to have sprung finally and that means I will be bringing my bike out of hiding very soon. All efforts to find our little bike pump today were futile though, and there are no gas stations with air close to us (at least according to Matt the last time he was out in search of one), so we're spending Sunday indoors.

We did enjoy the beautiful weather yesterday as we were given free tickets to the National Home Show by our very generous real estate agent. Unfortunately since we went on a Saturday, the place was a bit overcrowded to our liking and not really what we expected, though we both weren't sure what to expect there. Basically it was a lot of different vendors there trying to get you to spend money on their products. Great if you have a disposable income, but right now we don't. So it was more about generating ideas for us.

***Edit: I forgot to mention that the highlight of the trip for Matt was his 5 minutes in a $3400 massage chair. He couldn't stop talking about it after we left. I didn't want to sit in it for fear of what I'd be missing later on... and I'm sure the chair was very soothing, but if we ever spent that much on a chair it'd have to look darn good too. And well, massage chairs to me are an eyesore not a design piece ***

Lately I've been obsessing over my home office space as well as dreaming up ways of decorating our place. When we first moved in I was more than happy to stick with the colours the previous owners had painted the walls upstairs.


But I think with the new season, I'm ready for a new look, especially since my office faces the kitchen. I'm leaning towards white walls or at least brighter ones in my workspace. It would make it easier to photograph items for my shop too.

And I would really love to get this desk but it's a little out of my budget at the moment. So I will likely just make my own from the different table tops and legs that Ikea carries. It's amazing how much more they charge for adding a few drawers to a table.

Quick, someone hurry up and buy something!

I reached 666 items sold today! It was a moment I was sort of dreading though as that number has certain connotations associated with it. But really, I'm happy to have sold that many items on etsy.

I've sort of been in a creative funk of late and blame it on my less-than-perfect home office setup. So the past week has had me moving stuff around several times and I'm still not satisfied... so no photos yet. Other than that I've been putting together consignment shipments for a few new places and have been brainstorming ideas for new illustrations, etc, but no finished things to show off right now.

My stomach is calling for lunch. Soup's on!