Taking Care of Business

It's been almost a month since I've updated. Crazy how when you go from unemployed to working full time you spend much less time blogging and tweeting than you used to! I need to work on that.

The super secret project is plodding along. I've finally forced myself to complete a concrete summary/strip-by-strip outline of the story, because bits keep evolving in my head, and if I just let it go on I will never finish this. Most of the summary is complete; I'm just fidding with how things will go during the climax, as there are many threads to tie in and I might need a short flashback to lead up to it (and I'm not sure how to integrate that yet without disturbing the flow of the narrative). I'm also looking at comic books and artists I enjoy in order to nail down the overall look. I have some ideas (and all the characters but one are nailed down), but I'll need to experiment a bit before I find what fits. Normally my style is fairly static, but I would love to put much more energy into my lines and images, like Dave McKean, Craig Thompson, and a few others I can't quite remember off the top of my head.

Michael and I ended up watching a show about Picasso on BBC1 last night, and it was amazing and inspiring. His paintings are another reason I want to try to capture more emotion and energy in my work. I also now have a really strong desire to paint again, on large canvases; maybe even try oils. And learning that Picasso worked in so many varied mediums (more than I knew he had) makes me worry less about the fact that I like to create so many different kinds of things. It made me want to work with fimo clay again, too, and get my Etsy store back up and running with new products. I'll be working towards that over the next few weeks.

We're heading off to a wedding in Glasgow next weekend (volcanic ash permitting). It'll be my first trip to Scotland! Yay! And I met a good chunk of people that are going to be there this past weekend at a housewarming party, so I won't feel as awkward as I could have. This is good.

The weekend after the wedding, we're having a party of our own for Eurovision! It's my first one ever. I still don't quite get it, but it seems like good, awful fun. There will also be much Rock Band and SingStar and crazy board games and (of course) Doctor Who. Because we're all nerds.

So that's how things are going at the moment. I've got to go, as my lunch hour is ending, but I'll be sure to post about the trip up for the wedding.

Health, weight loss, oh, and arty stuff too.

Let's talk about the art stuff first. I've been working on a buffer for a webcomic I want to launch in February. That's really where I've been lately and why I haven't blogged much. I'm about half way to my goal of halving two months completed, which I'm happy with. I'm in the middle of a painting for the Etsy shop at the moment, involving Goldilocks and the Three Bears. And I've started playing around with some fimo, so there will be magnets up in the shop soonish as well.

But that's not really what I wanted to post about. After my appointment with the doctor today, it has become abundantly clear that I need to do something about my weight. I'd already started eating a bit healthier, but I need to go a step further. I'm only about 10 pounds shy of what I weighed at my heaviest (though it may be more than that, as I'm taking it from the only time I remember looking at a scale when I was that big), and that scares the shit out of me. I knew I'd put on weight since I moved here (partially owing to a few bouts of depression), but I didn't realize just how bad the situation had gotten.

I've had enough, and finding out how much I weighed (plus the doc really sort of sticking it to me this morning) was the last straw.

So begins my current venture into a healthier lifestyle. I have a "lifestyle" appointment with a nurse next week, as suggested by the doc, about nutrition and exercise and the like. We'll see how that goes. In the mean time, I'm eating more healthy foods and smaller portions.

Projects and other things

I was able to start knitting again recently, which makes me happy. I couldn't for a while because I had tennis elbow. I'm still just learning, but I'm doing surprisingly well! I'm making a scarf just to practice doing different types of stitches. Next I want to try my hand at making little knitted stuffed toys.

I'm working on a ghosty painting trio now, and this will be my first attempt at embroidery on paper... I really hope it goes well, because I think it could look awesome! I'll post pictures when I'm done.

I also put up a new painting trio on Etsy... mermaids! Check it out at the shop.

I'm actually really jazzed about doing some work. It's still not perfect, but I know it'll get a bit better once I get enough stuff in the shop to legitimize spending some money on advertising. And once we move next month, I'll have a lot more space to work in. Things are looking up!

Two new products in the Esty shop: trios of mini paintings!

Today I've put up two sets of three mini paintings in my Etsy shop. One set is hairy monsters, and the other is robots. Check out the listings here!

Teeny paintings and old photographs from Ken's

I'd been eyeing some tiny frames at the pound shop for a while now. Yesterday I say they were on sale, buy one get two free! Bargain! So I picked up a load of them. I'm going to make some little paintings to go in them and put them up in the shop. Michael had the great idea of doing them in sets of three, so I think I'm going to do that with most of them. I'm just sketching loads now, to decide what to put in them. One will probably be a set of robots, another will be ghosty things, and another will be hairy monsters.

I still want to nab some sweaters at charity shops and recycle them into weird little plushies. And since Valentine's is the next big holiday after Christmas, I think after I finish with these mini paintings I'll work on sets of handmade valentines.

I finally made it into a shop called Ken's today, which specializes in vintage magazines, newspapers, printed ephemera and the like. Ever since I saw it, it reminded me of a shop I used to love in San Diego called Paper Antiques. I could have blown so much money at Paper Antiques, mainly on the massive selection of abandoned family photos. One that I've bought, which I like to call Scary Baby*, is proudly hung on our wall. The rest are still packed away for the time being.

Ken's though, seems to have less of a selection of the photos I look for. I did find a box of photos that were doubled up on cards; I forget what they were called, but it's two nearly identical photos side by side. There weren't many with people in them, but I ended up buying two in the end. One of a bustling Victorian street scene that looked a bit dark and creepy because of the lighting, and another of a man standing next to a fountain looking suspiciously like he'd just pissed in it or was thinking about it. That's probably not what really happened, but that's what sprang to mind. It made me laugh.

I will be going back to Ken's for sure. There's a lot there I could use for various projects, and it's a lot of fun just to look around! It's a treasure trove.


*Scary Baby is so called because it is a rather old photograph on card, and it's got the black and white equivalent of red eye... which makes it appear as if the baby has evil, possessed looking eyes. I don't know what draws me to things like that, other than the fact that my brain seems to come up with interesting stories about them.