Australia!!

That's the second country starting with the letter A in the past few days. Very cool!

Tonight I finished "Love Birds", a 5x7 board with two cute little birdies sitting on a branch. I like it!

Chris really likes last night's painting too... so maybe I'm on a good roll here. :) Getting all set for the weekend's craft show bonanza... two craft shows for two days each. No... I'm not cloning myself... two wonderful friends are going to do the Porter's Lake show for me... I'm making them fudge! One of my friends and classmates is going to come with me to the Cole Harbour show... she will also get to eat fudge. :) I think it's good to have two people just so you can take a break from time to time... walk around and stretch, look at what else is out there, and maybe just maybe, get a snack. So... thank you to all three of you wonderful ladies!! I can't thank you enough for taking your weekend and helping this project out. It means a whole lot.

Tomorrow is evaluation day again... here's hoping things go well!! I've practiced, watched the videos over and over, and read my manual a few times. Still nervous! Ah well, what's the worst that happens? I'll have to try again. I guess that's not so bad. Not a bad way to look at a lot of life really... if you don't try something you absolutely will not succeed. If you try, you might fail, but you might just succeed too. Might as well keep your options open!

So... good night everyone around the world... or good morning depending on your time zone. Tune in to CBC tomorrow morning at 6:20am our time... or check the Arts website (link coming) to listen at your leisure. I'm SOOOO excited!!! Ok... going to bed now. :)

Another Country On The Map!!

Hello Azerbaijan... which looks like it's somewhere near India (hello to you too!). It's so exciting to see new readers popping up on the map! It also prompts me to do a little self-directed geography lesson... I love to find out about different places in the world and this gets me to learn new things. So, thanks for coming and seeing the blog!

I had a productive painting day today... finished one, a 5x7 board called "Online Dating" and started another one I'm calling "Love Birds". I haven't gotten very far with that one, but I wanted to use up some of the leftover paint from tonight! Then it started to get late and I figured I'd better get to bed. You know, sleep is sort of useful.

Is anyone else moderately disturbed by all of the Christmas stuff in the shops and on people's houses and lawns? Already?? We went for a little family walk this morning and one of our neighbours has Christmas decorations up. His neighbour still has pumpkins on his porch. Very weird. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. It's one of my favourite times of the year. I even like Christmas shopping... to a certain extent. I do NOT like the overcommercialization of it though. Having Christmas stuff out in stores before Hallowe'en is even over seems a bit too much like rushing life. Slooooow down people! December 1st is a perfectly acceptable time to put out the Christmas kitsch. Any earlier and people get sick of all the holiday trimmings a few weeks before the 24th! Anyway... that's my little rant... I think we should stop rushing through holidays and retail opportunities and get back to what it should be about... and in a more relaxing timeline. I'm hoping to make presents for most people this year... though if I don't sell many paintings guess what you'll all be getting! (No, I'm not at all freaking out about that... ha ha... nope, not me... uh-uh)

On that note, I'm going to re-inject the happy by saying that I'm very pleased with the painting I did tonight, the one I'll have for tomorrow, and the other idea that I'm going to use later this week. So... all in all, it'll be a good painting week I think! Good night... and Happy Monday (in half an hour)!

First Craft Show!!

Thanks to my friends who dropped by to see me, and buy some paintings. You guys are great and I really enjoyed the company. A very adorable little girl around my son's age gave me a sticker after I gave her one of the Children's Wish ones. I wore it on my hand all day... hurt a bit to take it off, but it was so worth it!

Overall the craft show was a good time. I sold four paintings and raised $100. I think I've learned a few things for next weekend!! I did take some pictures with my phone, and there was a photographer from Snap there, though he didn't get my name so I'm going to assume we won't appear in the paper. I used to volunteer for Snap and we always got names. Got to chat with some lovely ladies around me and was sorely tempted to buy slippers and pjs for Gavin, and and and. I did succumb to a very cute little crocheted duck as it was an exceptionally good price! I was quite chilly... the gym had a door directly to the outside, and there wasn't any heat on, so it did make for a somewhat uncomfortable time temperature wise... but I won't complain too much as I was happy to be there! Plus, I got asked back for next year so that's pretty flattering. :) Lots of compliments on the vivid colours and the cute little animals, and lots of people took the cards Chris made with the blog address on it, so who knows? Maybe some more people will want to make an offer on a painting.

Tonight we went on a date to do some Christmas shopping without the little ones in tow. By the time we got home a little after ten, I so didn't want to paint! By that point I thought, I've seen enough paint today... but then I must have gotten a second wind because I did do one. I went with a suggestion/request one of the other vendors had today. I enlarged a painting I did around the time of my brother-in-law's wedding and made the background a bit more interesting. I really like the way it turned out! I haven't named it yet because I fell asleep shortly after I finished painting. Chris was watching the latest Rocky movie and I pretty much conked out. Probably should have gone to bed... but stayed sleeping on the couch. Now it's almost 1:30am and I do not know how my eyes are still open, nevertheless fingers typing! So... I will update the catalogue tomorrow and name today's painting, and all will be good. :) Hmm... I guess I will do those things 'today'... just after I've  had some sleep!

Goodnight!

45 Weeks!

Craft Show tomorrow!!! Special thanks to my husband, Chris, who did an amazing amount of work helping me get ready for the craft shows. Cannot thank him enough! I'd be going out of my mind right now without his help!!

Hmm... that implies I'm not going out of my mind... may have to rethink that. ;)

Oh, and a quick update... the CBC interview will now be aired on Tuesday morning at 6:20am on Information Morning, and on Main Street in the latter half of the week. If you don't catch it, it will be on the arts website soon. I will post a link when it's up there.

Here are the pictures for this week... tonight's is thematically appropriate I think. Enjoy.

November 5 - Critters

November 6 - Stress!

November 7 - Glee

November 8 - Light & Loss

November 9 - Little Miss

November 10 - Bridge

November 11 - Row on Row

Observation Day

Today was not a school day in the sense of being on campus in the class or the clinic/lab. Today we had a "study day" and it was intended for us to go out into the community and spend an observation day at a dental practice. I was very fortunate that my dentist allowed me to come to his practice today. Without getting too gushy, let's just say that I was so impressed with my dentist and his team that even after we moved from Halifax over to Dartmouth we decided to remain patients with his practice rather than find a dentist closer to home. I think it's worth the drive! So... I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to spend some time with the team. I also really like the dental assistant there. She's great. In fact, she's part of the reason I wanted to do dental assisting. I had a bit of a hard time with my wisdom teeth extraction and she helped me stay (relatively) calm and I think in general the whole experience was easier because of her. She also made me feel better afterwards when I felt like a dolt for weeping (it wasn't crying so much as eyes leaking due to stress). So... I figured, why not try to do the same for some other people? Plus... teeth are cool. Anyway... I had a great day today so thanks to all of you!

I decided to paint tonight's painting to reflect my experience today. I borrowed the office logo and painted "Bridge". I hope they won't mind! I really like the way it turned out. It's a 5x7 board.

In other news... craft shows are approaching!! I'll be at the Kris Kringle Pancake Breakfast & Christmas Craft Show at the North Woodside Community Centre this Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Many many thanks to Chris for helping me get ready for this show! I honestly do not know what I'd do without that man! So, if you're local, come by and check things out. And hey... there are pancakes! I'm a waffle girl myself, but whatever floats your breakfast boat. ;)

So... here we are... almost to the end of the 45th week, craft shows are starting, the CBC interview airs next week, and I'm getting very excited! This is definitely the time to start sharing this blog with everyone so we can raise lots of money for the Children's Wish Foundation. Wouldn't a painting make a great Christmas present? Especially when you can tell the recipient that the money raised from the sale is going to such a worthwhile cause? It's like two gifts in one!

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day... so take a moment and reflect and say thank you... Good night.

Back On Track!

I painted two paintings tonight... seems I manage to catch up pretty quickly. Wish there wasn't a need to 'catch up' but that's life. I worry there may be more of these days in my future! I think the final five weeks of term are going to be even crazier than the first five! We shall see....

I'm going on my observation day tomorrow... very excited... I even made some fudge tonight to take with me. Yes, I am fully aware of the irony. :)

The kids are both fine... no more throwing up or any signs of illness so all is well. I did put my daughter down a bit early today. She just seemed tired. Who doesn't need a little extra sleep from time to time?

Anyway... to the paintings. Last night's is called "Light & Loss" and is a 4x4 (I think) canvas. It's a single candle that was blown out. Tonight's is called "Little Miss" and it's just a fun little cartoon with googly eyes and pigtails. Sort of a nod to the Little Miss books. I like those... they're fun.

And now, I'm going to sleep... up early again tomorrow. Here's hoping the traffic isn't as bad as it was this morning! I so do NOT want to be late!! Good night!

Good Grief!

I fell asleep studying. Again. What is wrong with me?? I swear I put my head down for a second just to take a moment... and looked up twenty minutes later. Ugh. I don't know what else I can possibly do!

Oh... yeah, test tomorrow... so the added bonus to falling asleep is that I ran out of time to paint. :( No good. There is an upside to Friday being a day of remembrance (and therefore no work/school) is that along with honouring the veterans I will have some extra time to catch up if I haven't already done so. Perhaps I'll do a poppy painting that day.

I have had the weirdest day... I was all set to study and do homework all day and a gigantic wrench got tossed into my plans. My sweet little girl threw up at daycare at 9am. She hardly ever does that! She's not sick... at least not as far as I can tell... the only thing I can think of is she didn't chew her breakfast well enough and had an overload of yogurt (some at home, some at morning snack). Anyway... had to quickly pack everything up, save my paper and email it to myself at home (can't open it unfortunately) and then zip downstairs to pick her up. She, of course, was happily playing as though nothing was wrong. Still... policy is policy and away we went. Imagine me wrapped up in a strange little bundle of concern, relief, frustration, and annoyance. It was a very weird mix! We ended up going to do a little Christmas shopping (unsuccessful) and then to a park to have a swing and play with the stones (and NOT eat them!) and then off to the post office to pick Chris up as he was (very luckily) done early. She fell asleep within a block or two from the house and stayed asleep through getting out of the car, coat & boots off, and laying down in the crib. Amazing. My son never did that! She slept for awhile, I got some work done, and then when she got up she polished off quite a substantial lunch. She's been vomit free so I think we're good to go for tomorrow... which is good because I have that test!

Anyway... that was my up and down and all over the place day. I didn't get as much as I'd have liked to get done... but my little girl is ok and that's the main thing!

And now... bed. Here's hoping some of what I've reviewed sticks in my brain for tomorrow...because honestly, I can't remember what any of those vitamins and minerals do... The next five and a half weeks are going to be even crazier than the first five weeks I think. Oh my! Wish me luck!! Good night!