Lovely day!
After 3 years of being here I have ended up in the Signals Exhibition. Thank you to whoever thought up club chaos for us in Crystal Palace who have wanted to get involved, but did not know how to. Bit tipsy after lunch with fab friend etc....so that is it for today.
Friday, 31 August 2007
Kimonos and cabin fever
After all this rubbish rain and dull days (okay bank holiday was lovely) it has been a bit depressing and staring at the same four walls doing the web stuff till today (well yesterday now) was giving me cabin fever and a slight case of agoraphobia, which I found out later seems to be common amongst those of us who work from home. Can't wait to get out, but some invisible force is keeping us in and when the other half gets home and just wants to loaf we are desperate for them to go straight out again with us not them on their own. Oh you know what I mean. I needed to get out and I needed to get drawing, but for some reason I just could not get motivated. I know what is good for me, but CBA was taking a hold. The worst case of Cabin Fever.
I tricked myself into going out by doing a very boring job in the garden. . . it's one of those creative block things. By doing something mundane you suddenly realise you'd rather be doing something more interesting etc. etc. I wish the urge to create would kick in after the first load of laundry rather than the 10th though. So boring job alert: sort out the lawn with J Arthur Bowers Weed and Seed - a heritage product as recommended by the Secret Garden (it's our local Garden Centre - this place has everything!) . So I weeded and I feeded being very careful at weighing the 1oz of weed and feed for each yard(well I thought it's bigger than a metre and the job would get done quicker) . I was so careful at weighing and so lax at measuring the yards. Far too impatient for that. Luckily there was odd stick and dog poo to remind me where I was. I think it was okay. I'll know in a day or two. By the time I got to the cowslips under the chestnut tree I could not wait to get out of the house. Job Done. You see. It works.
So at the studio, that is nearly mine mine mine - tomorrow! I had a lovely chat with Mig about what he's been up to and that helped me - I was babbling poor man- having not spoken to a living soul for hours and I am the woman who will strike up a conversation with a lamp post (according to best friend) so poor Mig had no chance. Never mind his holiday, what about me and my rantings! Found out we are both entering the Lynn Stainer Painters Prize competition on Sunday. Had a look on Google Earth and it's a trek up the the Mall to see if someone likes our stuff for an exhibition for realist painters. Then the same again for me next Monday after my race for the ING. Pfff. Oh well at least I'll know where I am going.
It's funny how for some reason I always feel like I have no ideas then suddenly I find a few old sketches and think oooh. How about that and I am off. A couple of people have said I should try drawing a bit more before I start a painting or just do some from those. . . I found this one little sketch I remember doing at Bluewater when out Christmas shopping of a pylon (mmmmmmmm said in Homer Simpson thinking about a doughnut kind of way) on a chalk face - that is like a cliff, not a clown although that might be a bit more Dali. The trees looked like the pylon and I thought ooh man-made tree. Anyway that little sketch triggered off a little bit of motivation in me and I did a drawing, then a start of a painting which prompted me to start working on my ING painting again. Hurrah. I was having a lovely time of it. . . then came the creeping tri hunger and it was straight to Domali's for scrumptious fakey sausage sandwich. I am starting to feel a bit predictable as that is all I seem to order in there, but it is soooooooo nice. I digress, but you see food is something I never really enjoyed until now. Now I can eat and eat and eat. I feel hungry. I should not have said that. I am hungry again now. At 1.37am no I am not going to raid the fridge. Thank goodness there are no scales in this house.
So to Art Club. This is a life drawing class held every Thursday evening in Antennae Studios with Caron who gets the models and sets the programme. Today it was a Japanese model (Oriental Silk is her stage name) which is very unusual by all accounts as it is considered to be like pornography to take your clothes of in public. She was really interesting to listen to talking about Japanese culture and how people are still trained in the art of how to cut a man into 5 pieces before he hits the floor, but without the death row convicts they used to. She is doing an experiment to see how it feels to take her clothes off for this and how it affects her confidence etc. or was it there is a project that psychologists are doing to see. Either way. Cool.
I said if I had the balls to do it I would and someone piped up that would indeed be very lucrative. That'll learn me. Oh how we laughed.
I have been doing more print-like sketching using felt tip to make me think more carefully about what I put down and gives a really nice feel to the drawing.
We did a couple of 5 mins and 2 mins sketches which seemed to go well for me then onto a longer pose. I was well chuffed with the results and with all the other stuff I have been doing feel great about this week so far.
Hopefully back in the studio tomorrow to spend a couple of hours on the ING project and finish off my drawing from tonight.
Here is the longer pose, it's mixed media - felt tip, chalk and charcoal. I am happy with this. It is ridiculously late so off to bed if I can sleep. I am either a lazy lathargio or the opposite. I guess I could read for a bit and try and sleep. Stop typing now.
I tricked myself into going out by doing a very boring job in the garden. . . it's one of those creative block things. By doing something mundane you suddenly realise you'd rather be doing something more interesting etc. etc. I wish the urge to create would kick in after the first load of laundry rather than the 10th though. So boring job alert: sort out the lawn with J Arthur Bowers Weed and Seed - a heritage product as recommended by the Secret Garden (it's our local Garden Centre - this place has everything!) . So I weeded and I feeded being very careful at weighing the 1oz of weed and feed for each yard(well I thought it's bigger than a metre and the job would get done quicker) . I was so careful at weighing and so lax at measuring the yards. Far too impatient for that. Luckily there was odd stick and dog poo to remind me where I was. I think it was okay. I'll know in a day or two. By the time I got to the cowslips under the chestnut tree I could not wait to get out of the house. Job Done. You see. It works.
So at the studio, that is nearly mine mine mine - tomorrow! I had a lovely chat with Mig about what he's been up to and that helped me - I was babbling poor man- having not spoken to a living soul for hours and I am the woman who will strike up a conversation with a lamp post (according to best friend) so poor Mig had no chance. Never mind his holiday, what about me and my rantings! Found out we are both entering the Lynn Stainer Painters Prize competition on Sunday. Had a look on Google Earth and it's a trek up the the Mall to see if someone likes our stuff for an exhibition for realist painters. Then the same again for me next Monday after my race for the ING. Pfff. Oh well at least I'll know where I am going.
It's funny how for some reason I always feel like I have no ideas then suddenly I find a few old sketches and think oooh. How about that and I am off. A couple of people have said I should try drawing a bit more before I start a painting or just do some from those. . . I found this one little sketch I remember doing at Bluewater when out Christmas shopping of a pylon (mmmmmmmm said in Homer Simpson thinking about a doughnut kind of way) on a chalk face - that is like a cliff, not a clown although that might be a bit more Dali. The trees looked like the pylon and I thought ooh man-made tree. Anyway that little sketch triggered off a little bit of motivation in me and I did a drawing, then a start of a painting which prompted me to start working on my ING painting again. Hurrah. I was having a lovely time of it. . . then came the creeping tri hunger and it was straight to Domali's for scrumptious fakey sausage sandwich. I am starting to feel a bit predictable as that is all I seem to order in there, but it is soooooooo nice. I digress, but you see food is something I never really enjoyed until now. Now I can eat and eat and eat. I feel hungry. I should not have said that. I am hungry again now. At 1.37am no I am not going to raid the fridge. Thank goodness there are no scales in this house.
So to Art Club. This is a life drawing class held every Thursday evening in Antennae Studios with Caron who gets the models and sets the programme. Today it was a Japanese model (Oriental Silk is her stage name) which is very unusual by all accounts as it is considered to be like pornography to take your clothes of in public. She was really interesting to listen to talking about Japanese culture and how people are still trained in the art of how to cut a man into 5 pieces before he hits the floor, but without the death row convicts they used to. She is doing an experiment to see how it feels to take her clothes off for this and how it affects her confidence etc. or was it there is a project that psychologists are doing to see. Either way. Cool.
I said if I had the balls to do it I would and someone piped up that would indeed be very lucrative. That'll learn me. Oh how we laughed.I have been doing more print-like sketching using felt tip to make me think more carefully about what I put down and gives a really nice feel to the drawing.
We did a couple of 5 mins and 2 mins sketches which seemed to go well for me then onto a longer pose. I was well chuffed with the results and with all the other stuff I have been doing feel great about this week so far.
Hopefully back in the studio tomorrow to spend a couple of hours on the ING project and finish off my drawing from tonight.
Here is the longer pose, it's mixed media - felt tip, chalk and charcoal. I am happy with this. It is ridiculously late so off to bed if I can sleep. I am either a lazy lathargio or the opposite. I guess I could read for a bit and try and sleep. Stop typing now.
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
(blank)aholics
Addiction
Wow everything is addictive now. I am addicted to Jordans Tropical Fruit cereal and have to buy 3 bags so we don't end up on a dried fruit come down. Great in between work and dinner before swimming sessions (thank you Paolo). I was watching a programme on ITV about Technology addicts. Unfortunately it was only the tail end, but there are people who cannot tear themselves away from the many forms of technology available to make our lives easier. . . .or do they? The Crackberry for example which infringes on all leisure time with emails coming in at 3.00 am etc. Says me who ended up chained to her computer all day yesterday again until the swim session. I did not leave the house until then. Not good. So today I will be going out. I will be going to the studio and I will be doing some art work . . . just got to finish a little fiddly job then that is that.
One poor boy/man (well younger than me at 23) was an overweight, pasty, nervous and shy sort who spent 80 hours with his friends online and had never met them, but they all lived locally. I thought it was a bit sad, but then he seemed er well odd in a shy kind of way maybe that was his way of interacting with people that made him feel safe and in control. After all you dont have to be wearing the right kit to fit in online. He took a trip to see a specialist addiction counsellor who recognised all the symptoms and explained what these were and how and why people get addicted. Things to watch out for - isolation etc. He could not see himself in any of it. He thought it was totally normal to be shut up in his bedroom locked into his PCs . . . still running Windows Professional we noticed. Anyhow it's by a guy called Mark Pizzey. If I find out anymore I pop it on here.
So it was back to sport for me yesterday evening and the excellent 50m pool just over the road. I feel very privileged as the next nearest one is in France, apparently. . Bit worried about my 1500m coming my way all too soon. I don't mind the swim its the dark water that I have a problem with although I did do some work on that this year. This year anyone would have thought I have been at this for ages. Ha. On holiday in Ibiza I went to Ibiza Swim which I found on the Internet and Ruth Osborn got me swimming rather than panicking in the sea. I just hope it is a sunny day on 9th September - the water seems less scary Lake Placid then.
Well swim club went well, but there was only 4 of us. We did a 500m warm up and some drills and some swimming on 60secs or 15secs/10secs rest. I was not doing the 60secs as it still takes me between 65 and 70 secs to do a length. A couple of weeks back I did manage 55 secs Hurrah for me. Then I did it again. Double desert for me, but since then I became more and more tense thrashing about and the stroke went. I had a chat with the Fruitcake and he said I need to relaaaaaaaaaaaaax. So I have and last night I was really pootling nicely up and down. I tried to remember all Pablo's advice too about the high arms. . . I have to say it felt better than I expected. I thought hmm 1500m suddenly felt within my grasp or gasp rather. It's the breathing that sometimes goes and then I know I need to relaaaaaaaaaaaax again and just stop working to hard. After all when I get out there is the bike and run yet.
Results for today so far
So I guess yesterday the Web and the Tri went head to head and it was a draw, but no drawing for me so today I have to make up for that. Art Club tonight and hopefully I'll get a trip on Eduardo out as well.
Spooky
A bit of spookiness for you. After watching shopaholics I was talking to miPaolo about how I am terribly worried about money all the time and end up spending to make myself feel better…crazy, but no doubt there is something in the psychological background there. Anyhow Shannon in the programme cuts up all here credit cards and yesterday on a complete whim I cut mine up too as after leaving work last year there is not the income really to be splashing out. I also decide (again) to sell the car. Then I read my horoscope on Google's ig: “A financial decision that has weighed heavily on you might be resolved today in a single moment. You may have a sudden flash of inspiration that helps you to see what it is that you've been missing. When you realize that the issue is less about money and more about what you value, the logical choice will become clear. “
Wow everything is addictive now. I am addicted to Jordans Tropical Fruit cereal and have to buy 3 bags so we don't end up on a dried fruit come down. Great in between work and dinner before swimming sessions (thank you Paolo). I was watching a programme on ITV about Technology addicts. Unfortunately it was only the tail end, but there are people who cannot tear themselves away from the many forms of technology available to make our lives easier. . . .or do they? The Crackberry for example which infringes on all leisure time with emails coming in at 3.00 am etc. Says me who ended up chained to her computer all day yesterday again until the swim session. I did not leave the house until then. Not good. So today I will be going out. I will be going to the studio and I will be doing some art work . . . just got to finish a little fiddly job then that is that.
One poor boy/man (well younger than me at 23) was an overweight, pasty, nervous and shy sort who spent 80 hours with his friends online and had never met them, but they all lived locally. I thought it was a bit sad, but then he seemed er well odd in a shy kind of way maybe that was his way of interacting with people that made him feel safe and in control. After all you dont have to be wearing the right kit to fit in online. He took a trip to see a specialist addiction counsellor who recognised all the symptoms and explained what these were and how and why people get addicted. Things to watch out for - isolation etc. He could not see himself in any of it. He thought it was totally normal to be shut up in his bedroom locked into his PCs . . . still running Windows Professional we noticed. Anyhow it's by a guy called Mark Pizzey. If I find out anymore I pop it on here.
So it was back to sport for me yesterday evening and the excellent 50m pool just over the road. I feel very privileged as the next nearest one is in France, apparently. . Bit worried about my 1500m coming my way all too soon. I don't mind the swim its the dark water that I have a problem with although I did do some work on that this year. This year anyone would have thought I have been at this for ages. Ha. On holiday in Ibiza I went to Ibiza Swim which I found on the Internet and Ruth Osborn got me swimming rather than panicking in the sea. I just hope it is a sunny day on 9th September - the water seems less scary Lake Placid then.
Well swim club went well, but there was only 4 of us. We did a 500m warm up and some drills and some swimming on 60secs or 15secs/10secs rest. I was not doing the 60secs as it still takes me between 65 and 70 secs to do a length. A couple of weeks back I did manage 55 secs Hurrah for me. Then I did it again. Double desert for me, but since then I became more and more tense thrashing about and the stroke went. I had a chat with the Fruitcake and he said I need to relaaaaaaaaaaaaax. So I have and last night I was really pootling nicely up and down. I tried to remember all Pablo's advice too about the high arms. . . I have to say it felt better than I expected. I thought hmm 1500m suddenly felt within my grasp or gasp rather. It's the breathing that sometimes goes and then I know I need to relaaaaaaaaaaaax again and just stop working to hard. After all when I get out there is the bike and run yet.
Results for today so far
So I guess yesterday the Web and the Tri went head to head and it was a draw, but no drawing for me so today I have to make up for that. Art Club tonight and hopefully I'll get a trip on Eduardo out as well.
Spooky
A bit of spookiness for you. After watching shopaholics I was talking to miPaolo about how I am terribly worried about money all the time and end up spending to make myself feel better…crazy, but no doubt there is something in the psychological background there. Anyhow Shannon in the programme cuts up all here credit cards and yesterday on a complete whim I cut mine up too as after leaving work last year there is not the income really to be splashing out. I also decide (again) to sell the car. Then I read my horoscope on Google's ig: “A financial decision that has weighed heavily on you might be resolved today in a single moment. You may have a sudden flash of inspiration that helps you to see what it is that you've been missing. When you realize that the issue is less about money and more about what you value, the logical choice will become clear. “
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Art and Tri - Nil Point. Web Wins today
Web stuff - score 5
As luck would have it my fabulous friend Jayne had dropped me an email recommending an excellent company to print my business cards, but I wont tell you who they are just yet as I am already 'avin' a word about the special offer that did not quite turn up.
I spent most of the day designing and redesigning and sending my design to well respected friends and partner for comments and assistance. I didn't want something too boring or too cheesey, but did want to reflect my web design and development web site which has been up for a bit and say I am in Crystal Palace.
It's so much easier when you are not the client. Finally came up with the goods and went to upload and pay to take advantage of the £2.99 for 250 offer plus a bit of shiny foil to set it off when it all just started to hang . . . and hang . . . and hang.
I watched the little clock tick away until I thought this is not right and went to check my order. Sure enough it's not there. Pfff!
By the time I managed to place the order the offer had run out? Surely not - it was only 4.40pm GMT and hardly the end of the business day. Oh well. I need the cards so I just pressed the rob me now button and sent a follow up email. I need some flyers printing so I guess they might help me out with this.
I did have a look at some SEO stuff, but post bank holiday was not the best place to start studying.
-------------------------------------------------
Tri - score - 0
No sport today. Swim tomorrow and the legendary Fruitcake to keep me focused on my stroke. It's only 2 weeks till my first Olympic Distance in Northampton and I am starting to get a bit scared. It's not the bikey, not even the thought of the 10k at the end, but the 1500m swim start. Apparently I need to remain "lifeless in the water" - Dave the Whale, but all I do is end up all tense and swim like a brick . . . it seems the less I try at the this the easier it is. Strange.
-------------------------------------------------
Art - score - 0
Does thinking about it count? As usually happens on a Tuesday the studio waited and waited all day and I did not turn up, but it's not so bad. I finished a painting on Friday and started a new one for a competition, which will probably be too late to dry. Nevermind. Always next year. Nervous laugh.
Really looking forward to getting my own space starting in September - is that next week? Where the web and the art will all be in one place so when I am not on the web case I will be on the art case and that will hopefully mean more creative web and art stuff.
All part of the plan
Well it was to promote the web site. Very sedentary day today. . . got locked into design for my business cards. All good as I need to get on the case and sort out some marketing.
I spent some time on the excellent Sitepoint and signed up for some emails to help me in my efforts to gain some new clients.
I spent some time on the excellent Sitepoint and signed up for some emails to help me in my efforts to gain some new clients.
As luck would have it my fabulous friend Jayne had dropped me an email recommending an excellent company to print my business cards, but I wont tell you who they are just yet as I am already 'avin' a word about the special offer that did not quite turn up.
I spent most of the day designing and redesigning and sending my design to well respected friends and partner for comments and assistance. I didn't want something too boring or too cheesey, but did want to reflect my web design and development web site which has been up for a bit and say I am in Crystal Palace.
It's so much easier when you are not the client. Finally came up with the goods and went to upload and pay to take advantage of the £2.99 for 250 offer plus a bit of shiny foil to set it off when it all just started to hang . . . and hang . . . and hang.I watched the little clock tick away until I thought this is not right and went to check my order. Sure enough it's not there. Pfff!
By the time I managed to place the order the offer had run out? Surely not - it was only 4.40pm GMT and hardly the end of the business day. Oh well. I need the cards so I just pressed the rob me now button and sent a follow up email. I need some flyers printing so I guess they might help me out with this.
I did have a look at some SEO stuff, but post bank holiday was not the best place to start studying.
-------------------------------------------------
Tri - score - 0
No sport today. Swim tomorrow and the legendary Fruitcake to keep me focused on my stroke. It's only 2 weeks till my first Olympic Distance in Northampton and I am starting to get a bit scared. It's not the bikey, not even the thought of the 10k at the end, but the 1500m swim start. Apparently I need to remain "lifeless in the water" - Dave the Whale, but all I do is end up all tense and swim like a brick . . . it seems the less I try at the this the easier it is. Strange.
-------------------------------------------------
Art - score - 0
Does thinking about it count? As usually happens on a Tuesday the studio waited and waited all day and I did not turn up, but it's not so bad. I finished a painting on Friday and started a new one for a competition, which will probably be too late to dry. Nevermind. Always next year. Nervous laugh.
Really looking forward to getting my own space starting in September - is that next week? Where the web and the art will all be in one place so when I am not on the web case I will be on the art case and that will hopefully mean more creative web and art stuff.
All part of the plan
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