Michelle’s Art Blog

Yeah….oh wait, I homeschool my kids…drat! Summer went way too fast. We started school on Monday, and we still had yet to receive the schoolbooks. But today, finally, two big boxes of books come, not all of them mind you, but enough to do some additional schoolwork. We do the K12 program, an excellent online public school program. Of course, we still have to make sure they do the schoolwork…which is not so hard for my oldest, but a little rough on the next oldest. He’s a little ADHD, so doesn’t like to focus on any one thing for very long. But, he’s getting it done slowly but surely, which means a few late nights for him. 

My computer is still screwed after that coffee fiasco. I can’t print anything because that causes all programs to suddenly implode upon themselves. I thought it was just the internet connection that would crash while printing, but then a word processor program crashed. My husband has had to copy and reinstall the entire contents of the computer twice now. I still haven’t figured out if my photoshop has started to work again. I haven’t been able to get on it since the coffee spill. Maybe I’ll get a whole new computer out of that boo-boo if my old one doesn’t start acting right.

If you’ve never seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, you need to. It has been the number one download from iTunes for three weeks now. My whole family just loves it. We watch it over and over and over…my kids are watching it right now. They know the words to every song. I’ve never seen a show…a musical…that my kids will actually watch. It’s amazing, from my 4 year old to my 10 year old. 

Joss Whedon and his brothers really outdid themselves. The songs are absolutely marvelous, and so catchy you find yourself humming them day after day, driving you to want to watch the show again. I personally love it when songs break into shows, but I hate it if the songs are just stupid little mindless rhymes. Makes you feel like the writer doesn’t appreciate that you have a complex brain like so many of the kids shows nowadays assume. These songs are nothing like that. They are actually well thought out, and well written. So google Dr. Horrible and find out today! Or just click here.

I thought I’d never see the day when I had to buy $800 in groceries. I thought no family could ever eat that much, but never underestimate a hungry couple of boys. Thankfully, because of my savvy use of coupons, I only had to pay $500, but sheesh! That’s still more than I’d want to spend normally. Maybe that will last us a couple of weeks.

Well, I am thinking about teaching. Not teaching kids in school or anything, I don’t think I’d have the patience for a roomful of kids that aren’t my own. But I am thinking about teaching adults how to do portraits in pencil and colored pencil. There is an art store in the next town that accepts art instructors, and I’ve signed up to teach pencil and colored pencil portraits. Hopefully, I’ll get my website updated so that it will show a class schedule.

Toodles!

I have odd dreams, I’ve always had odd and very realistic dreams. I woke up this morning with a fresh dream in my mind that I knew how to fly. I didn’t have wings, but rather just held my arms out straight, and soared through the air like an eagle. Of course I had to take a run at it, usually off the top of something tall. I couldn’t gain very much altitude, because of the whole non-flapping issue, but it was fun to simply run off the edge of something and know that I could fly over the fences and treetops, circling down until I landed where I needed. My mother was also in the dream. She passed away of breast cancer almost 5 years ago. It’s not odd that she was in my dream, I dream about her often. But I was trying to find a beach to show her because I knew it was pretty. And, ironically it was a beach I had dreamed of in another dream I had not too long ago. Funny how dreams tie everything together like that. The only odd thing about this dream, was the fact that I could fly every time I tried. Most dreams of flight end with me flying a few times and then suddenly, the gift of flight is taken from me and I can no longer lift off the ground. I try and jump, and get nothing. This time though, that never happened. I hope that says something about my future.

You ever notice that when you are a kid, time goes so slow, that it seems like it will never pass, but as an adult it speeds by at the speed of a comet? I’m sure once I’m in my 80’s it will reach light speed. My grandparents are in the late 80’s, almost 90’s and they will be having their 70th wedding anniversary this weekend. 70. I can’t even imagine 70 years with one person. Our life expectancy is 70 years and they’ve managed to spend it all with one person. I salute them for that. 

But as time continues to move forward, I am forever thinking of everything I need to get done. Like the portraits for their party. Two black and white pencils and a combined oil pastel. Plus I have a soldier portrait I need to finish that has been on the back burner for a while. Then my kids homeschooling begins again in earnest this next week. Not to mention the 3Day that I still haven’t raised all the money for. I’m almost halfway there, but the time is ticking down and I don’t want to come up short. I’ve just got all these things I need to do and no time to do them. I need a simpler life. I need to get rid of some of these “hobbies” that get me nowhere, like the book writing. I write and I write, pouring my ideas down onto paper…well, my computer screen and get nothing for it but the satisfaction that I have written a book that will probably never be published. 

Time management. Maybe that’s what I need. Maybe I just won’t ever sleep again and be able to get all these things done. Instead of tossing and turning, I’ll get up and do something productive. I don’t like to waste time. I don’t like puzzles or games, because I could be doing something else with my time beside just passing it. 

Maybe next time, I’ll forgo the usual internet surfing that wastes hours of each day and get down to what I need to do, and just maybe I’ll send that book in to a publisher one day. Maybe.

I’ve had many a bad day in my life, but this day had to be the worst in a really long time. I don’t know really what happened, whether I had a cloud hanging over my head or something, or just maybe I’ve had so much good luck, that the bad luck was only too ready to find me.

I have to tell you that I’m a clutz by nature. If there is a crack or a hair on the sidewalk, I will trip over it. If something is in my hands, chances are I’ve dropped it a few times on my way to where ever I’m going with it. I should have known that when I woke up this particular morning with my little girl’s toes up my nose (she likes to sleep sideways) that it was going to be a bad day for me.

I work nights, so when I actually get to sleep, I sleep better in the day, like a vampire. But this morning, I had finished off the last of the Twighlight series books by Stephanie Meyer (excellent by the way) at about 5 a.m. then I tossed about trying to sleep until about 10 am when my little girl thrust her tiny toes into my face. I finally decided that sleep would keep evading me so I figured I would get up and do something productive. I had a story rolling around in my head so I thought that before I got to work on the portrait I needed to paint, I would hash out some of the elements of the story that had kept me awake. I made a small pot of coffee, set my computer on my art desk and looked longingly into the blank screen thinking about what to write. I had my coffee sitting next to me, an art light blaring into my face and suddenly, the sniffles. No big surprise, I have allergies. So I stand up and go for a tissue box.

When I get back to the table, I try to find a spot to put the box, the light is still blinding me, so I placed it on the edge, unknowingly pushing over my fresh, tall cup of coffee…all over my open laptop. The tissue box drops to the floor, I let fly some explicatives and quickly pick up my computer, and the pictures I was needing to work on later. (Thankfully they were in protective covers.) So much for my computer. I’m letting it drip into my chair while standing in a growing puddle of coffee as I’m desperately searching the room for the papertowels. No paper towels, but I have those damn tissues.

Needless to say, I freaked. Why, oh why did I have to get up so early? Why oh why did I have to work at my art desk, the one place I never put my computer?  Why oh why did I think I needed coffee that morning? (Well that one was obvious, because I hadn’t slept.) I went crawling onto my bed where my husband still lay snoring, poking him as I kneeled over him and with hesitation (would he be mad?) mixed with the knowledge that he probably might be able to fix my computer, I spoke softly, “I spilled coffee all over my computer and it turned itself off!”

His eyes were red as he stared at me for a moment. He hadn’t gotten a whole lot of sleep either. But graciously, he woke up enough to begin taking the computer apart while still in bed and soaking the coffee stained pieces in rubbing alcohol. Did I happen to mention I have a macbook and he is a mac expert, more or less. He was able to get it cleaned and put back together, but as soon as it started back up, it crashed…and then wouldn’t start back up again.  He quickly took the failing harddrive out, hooked it to his own mac and began copying all the recent changes on my desktop, trying to get everything important before the harddrive died out entirely.

Well, I am still without a computer, but he’s ordered me a new harddrive, so hopefully we’ll be back up to speed.

Did I mention how badly this ruined my weekend?

Well, here we go. I am writing while walking on the new treadmill desk my husband fashioned. He had read about them online but thought the expense for a new one was too much. About $5000. So, he bought a used treadmill for $135 and some wood from the hardware store, and viola, a working treadmill desk. It works pretty nicely. It isn’t really that difficult to walk and type at the same time. I thought it would be a might tricky and my husband still on occasion forgets to walk and knocks himself into the wall, but all in all it’s quite easy. Just don’t try to walk any faster than 1 mph. My husband has to walk a little faster because he causes the treadmill to lag a little at the lower speeds, so he gets a nice workout, which he needs in the worst way. 

Don’t think I’ll be able to do any art on this thing, but writing won’t be hard. I’ll have to beat him waking up in the morning so I can walk a little in preparation for the Breast Cancer 3 Day coming up in a few months. My sister has been able to walk up to 10 miles in one day in training for it, but I’ve been really lazy. It is just soooo hot outside, and because of my crazy night schedule, I don’t ever get up early enough to walk in the cool of the morning. This will definitely help. 

Just finishing up on a colored pencil I will post soon with some progressive shots and explanations. So, toodles for now.