Exciting Week 39!

It's Picture Day again!! I'm all caught up... thirty-nine weeks have gone by since this project has started. Wow. There are times the week just zooms by and it's Friday again... other times I feel like time goes backwards. Lately... zoom zoom! (hope the Mazda people don't get mad!)

Anyway... today was a pretty exciting day! I got yesterday's test back (thanks Jackie!!) and I did get the mark I thought I might. 100% So... if there are any local dentists reading... I'm a charting maniac. ;) Yay! I did my little internal happy dance and there you go. :) Also... my little girl had a good daycare day, didn't cry when I dropped her off, and was completely content to veer away from my waiting arms to go sit with a book when I went to pick her up. Guess she's comfortable there! The downside to the day is I'm pretty sure my son is sick. Again. Bah... at least it's just a cold (I hope!). Such is the life of daycare germies.  Oh, and I think I'm going to use this project as the subject for my oral presentation for my communications class. Why not, right?

Anyway, it's just a few minutes after midnight, I'm tired, and you all probably want to see the pictures instead of reading my babbling thoughts. So... here you go, week 39!

September 24 - Lady on a Leaf

September 25 - Flower Child

September 26 - Little Leo

September 27 - They call me Mister Pig!

September 28 - Tiny Turtle

September 29 - Grimace

September 30 - Cringe

Balancing Act

Life is a giant balancing act, isn't it? There are so many different forces tugging and pulling, pushing and shoving... it can get overwhelming for sure. However... if you keep going through all of the difficult times you'll come out the other end stronger. At least, that's what I think.

Tonight's balancing act sort of tipped in favour of school work again... but I'll catch up again tomorrow. This weekend is going to be heavy on the studying... four tests next week and all... but after that, it should hopefully get a little easier to make time to paint. Maybe even drop by the gym. I haven't been at all this month (what a waste of money!) but I just can't bring myself to cancel the membership because I keep hoping I'll have time to go. Hoping October will bring about a fresh start on that front. Anyway... everything is going well for the most part. If you overlook not painting tonight, that is. Sorry... but it just wouldn't be right. I'd just paint something that I wouldn't be happy with and I don't want to do that. I want to be proud of what I'm doing... not just whip something off because I said I'd do it. Especially since I want people to buy the paintings (hopefully partly because they like them and partly because they want to help me support Children's Wish)!

I have a request... will someone, anyone, or everyone, please send an email to a media outlet of your choice (CBC, CTV, the Chronicle-Herald, a radio station... anyone!) and just drop them a quick note about this project and the blog link. I think, perhaps, the more they hear about it (even without perfect details on selling, sorry) the more likely they are to pay attention. And, the more the media notices, the more everyone else will hear about it and the more support we'll have for Children's Wish. That's the whole point of this anyway... to help those kids and to do something positive for the world.

So.. if you have five minutes tomorrow I'd really appreciate it if you would fire off an email. If you don't want to contact a media outlet, how about sending an email to a bunch of your own contacts with a link. Maybe the majority of people won't visit, but maybe they will. The more the merrier!

Thank you!! Good night everyone!

Riddles & Restorations

My son is absolutely loving this riddle book we got out from the library. It's a short poem/riddle with accompanying artwork and it is both clever, appealing to look at, and fun to read. It has become his new favourite book... it's going to be a fun time trying to tell him it has to go back to the library! I wish I could remember some of them off the top of my head, but I can't and they're all the way downstairs (translation: it's late and I'm not going back down there!).

As for the restorations part of this post's title, I've been studying up on my charting for tomorrow morning's test. We're looking at how to record a patient's existing restorations (fillings) and whatever might need to be done. I'm finding it very fun so far. We even get to use fancy shmancy two sided pencils for the charting. :) Ah, it's the little things sometimes, eh?

So... given that I have a test tomorrow I almost thought I wasn't going to get to a painting tonight... but I was wrong! Yay!! I painted "Tiny Turtle" on a 5x7 canvas. It's modeled on a stuffed turtle that belongs to my little girl. I love turtles. I think, perhaps I had them on the brain today as I wore my glass sea turtle pendant to school. Someday I'll go swim with them again... you know, after I've worked for awhile and saved up the money to go!

Anyway... like I said, test tomorrow at 8:30am and it's 11:30pm now, so sadly should keep it short. One of these days I'll get to write a nice big long post and talk more about the paintings, whatever headway I'm making on getting myself organized. I did email some pictures to my amazing friend Tina who has agreed to help me make a poster/leaflet thingy. Have I mentioned that I am very lucky to have some pretty awesome friends? You guys are great and you know who you are!

Well... good night... sleep well! Have a great day tomorrow!!

Cute Kid Art

And... I'm all caught up again! Did two paintings tonight to make up for last night's lack of painting. It's a weird schedule I know, but I'm doing the best I can. :)

For last night, I did a lion and called it "Little Leo". It's a 5x7 board and I think he's a little cutie. Great for a kid's room, or for the young at heart.

For tonight, I did a little pig and it is called "They call me mister pig!". Yup, this piggy has attitude. :) It is also a 5x7 board and I think they look pretty good together. :)

They are both inspired by stuffed animals that we have in our basement. The pig's name is Ledge and we bought him out in Saskatchewan and named him after the Legislature building there. Yup, they call it the Ledge. It's a very pretty building on the "lake". My in-laws used to live across the street but they've since moved. The lion doesn't have a name, but he's long legged, soft and fuzzy and super cute and cuddly. So... they got to star in the paintings du jour.

In other news... it's after midnight so I'm going to bed! Good night!!

Longer Days Please!

Ok... I suck. I didn't manage to get downstairs to paint tonight. I even had a plan... oh, and I didn't finish all the reading I wanted/needed to get done either. Sigh.

Oh all right, I don't actually suck... but it's easy to beat oneself up a little when you can't meet super high expectations! I know I'll catch up... and it will be ok... but I don't like that little pang of failure I get when I don't stay right on top of everything. However... since I am not superwoman, merely a mortal, I guess I will cut myself a wee bit of slack.

On the up side, I got a test back today and did considerably better than I had thought I would (tooth morphology was trickier than I thought, and I felt prepared too!)... I wrote a test that turned out to be ok (hopefully more than ok) and had a lovely chat with some of the staff at NSCC about this project. Hoping something can be worked out there to, if nothing else, increase awareness of the project. Plus, the two people were very nice considering I hijacked their lunch hour. (sorry!!)

In other news... we all seem to be on the mend. My girl's teeth are almost through (feels like I've been saying that for days) and my son is a boundless field of energy. He and Chris made muffins from scratch this morning before daycare. Might just have to have one for breakfast in the morning. They are so cute! Oh, and continuing in the vein of selective productivity, I sent off a painting in the mail to Kitchener. Well, I packaged it and got the address and Chris mailed it when he got to work. So... it was a joint effort. :) Hope you enjoy it Darryl! Let me know when it arrives? In one piece? :)

So.. enough babbling... I must go to bed otherwise I really have no excuse for not painting. I definitely type faster than I paint though! Good night and have a wonderful day tomorrow!

Ready Or Not...

Well, tomorrow is another big test day. I actually think I'm ready for it. Thanks, in large part, to studying a whole lot this weekend. Never say anything against being prepared. Anyway... so tonight was a bit of a time crunch in order to finish going through my notes one more time and then painting.

Oh, but tonight's painting... I'm fairly pleased with it! It's a 5x7 canvas and it's called "Flower Child". It's a little fairy, sort of purply-sandstone, with deep purple wings and a yellow dress. That was hard, I had done a bunch of shading for the whole fairy body before painting on clothing, and I was quite pleased with the 3D effect... and then had to paint a dress on and try to recapture that molding. Not so sure it came out as well the second time, but can't very well leave the poor sprite in the altogether! Anyway, she's hovering over a red flower and so that's why she got her name. I forgot to mention last night's title was "Lady on a Leaf"... didn't want to forget that again today!

Anyway... off to bed with me... up early in the morning to go to school. But, my classmates might be happy... I made some white chocolate/butterscotch fudge to take in. Figured it'd soften the Monday Test Day blues. :)

Happy Monday everyone and thanks for reading!! Feel free to pass along this blog to all your friends and family. It's getting into crunch time for getting the word out there and I could definitely use the help!!

Saturday Study Fever

Hello again! Oh it feel so good to sleep in... until ten after seven. :) Then a nice snuggle with my son... and eventually getting out of bed for our customary Saturday morning chocolate chip waffles with peanut butter. Oh, and a ton of fruit. :) Love it!

I made some plans with another student in my class to get together and do some studying. Turns out she just lives down the street a ways from us. Sweet. :) She's super nice too so it was good to get to chat as well. I think the three and a half hours we spent reviewing for Monday's test helped us both, so it was a good afternoon. Plus, when I got home supper was almost ready, the kids were happy, and I didn't feel too bad about being gone. So... all good things!

Tonight I painted an 8x10 canvas... it's a ladybug. I'm kind of focusing on some ideas for kids because, well, I have two! I'm going to try a week of kid-oriented fun images. I hope they all turn out ok. We shall see!

We're over the 5100 mark... not by a lot, but every peek counts! I really must send off an email or two to get some things rolling on the selling front. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd love to hear them!

Otherwise, not too much else is new... we all went to the walk in clinic this morning... as a family. Yeah, the look on the receptionist's face was pretty priceless. Turns out us girls needed throat swabs to hopefully rule out strep throat, but the boys are looking to be on the mend. Here's hoping pills are not needed! I do NOT like taking pills. Bleck. Anyway... won't know for a few days. Keeping some happy healthy thoughts going. :)

So, an early bedtime for me. Part of me thinks I should be studying/reading more, or painting ahead, and the other part just wants to collapse in bed and snooze away the night. Hmm... I think I'll take that option! So... good night, sleep tight, and don't let the Zipperump-a-zoos bite!