Back in Business

It seems like the last nine days or so have passed by in a blur. I may have overdone my intense work week by following it with an intense socialising week and then it has taken me this long to remember what the hell I am meant to be doing. 

I am lucky because I can turn sections of my brain on and off. This is great for compartmentalising stress, as I can just turn it off and forget about it for a while. I am not one of those people that takes my work home with them! The downside is that it is much easier to turn it off than to turn it back on again. 

But, I feel a bit more focused today. I have completed negotiations for my massive Golden Temple print so that is being made as we speak, and bizarrely, unintentionally sold a few face masks. Because of course, now that masks are compulsory, I have got some with my paintings printed on them..... 

I have also completed my current load of architecture work and updated my accounts so I am currently feeling quite zen. Not to mention the fact that I cleared out my study on Sunday to make some more storage space for my paintings. I am not quite sure how I managed it, but I made it feel disturbingly empty, although I have got used to it now. 

So on the agenda for next week, or the next few days is:

A blog post about my latest painting.

Making my missing prints

Doing a new painting

Making a Facebook Shop. 

And I can't remember anything else. 

Evening Stroll

As promised, I did successfully have radio silence last week, and yesterday as well seemingly.

Yesterday, I was trying to remember what I did before I had a crazy week of architecture work. I also had life admin to complete as literally everything other than work was on hold last week. On the plus side, even though I wasn't doing art stuff I still managed to sell a large Limited Edition Print on Etsy and I had an enquiry for a bespoke, enormous print of the Golden Temple. The print is a bit expensive as it is 1.5m wide so it is debatable whether it will go ahead but we shall see.

Other than that, not much is happening. I should be able to share my latest painting with you soon as it is being collected at the end of this week and hopefully I will find some time to paint soon. I don't necessarily feel like I am burning to paint just yet, but I can feel that I have been without it for a while. I just need to find some inspiration. I also need to make my missing prints up and I have an advertising voucher on Facebook if I set up my 'shop' there. I have no idea what this entails, but a free ad voucher seems too good to miss.

This is all on top of still tidying up my website, which I have forgotten how to do, but should come flooding back to me when I log back in (Fingers crossed).

In the meantime, not a painting, but here is a photograph I took the other day whilst out on a perfect evening stroll. I hope you enjoy...

Pip the Poodle

Hmm, so who knows what happened on Wednesday and Thursday. I did some website updates I think, and my brother fixed my SSL issues. Oh wait, it's coming back to me, I also painted on Wednesday evening. You'll have to wait for this painting to be shared as it is a birthday present so I need the recipient to receive it first.

Speaking of painting's being received, my latest dog commission made it to Seattle on Wednesday having left my house on Monday which seemed pretty efficient! I was tempted to wrap myself up and get shipped to the US too, although that would be a bad idea currently.... for many reasons.

I have had some architecture work come today as well, so be prepared for potential radio silence next week as I manage to forget that I have a blog, or that I paint. Compartmentalising is a skill I almost seem too proficient in.

But anyway, the dog, the lovely Pip the Poodle, who is no longer with us unfortunately which is why the owner wanted a painting of him. Let's hope I did him justice!

(And yes, I wrote this yesterday but forgot to press post!)

Consistency of...

I ordered some more puzzles yesterday, it is debatable whether this will be a good investment or not but I need to restock one of them anyway, and I can see a few are still in people's baskets so hopefully it is a planned risk. My missing prints are finally arriving today as well, so putting them together will be on my list for the next few days.

Other than that I think today will be plodding through some website updates. I feel like I need something simple to concentrate on that I can see the fruits of my labour at the end of the day. I am still having website issues currently but I am hoping any updates I do now can be migrated over to a new host if required and will be worth doing if I stay where I am anyway. Plus when all the SEO updates are done I can create a new £100 small commission page and change my portfolio 'commissions' tab to 'animals'. Somehow I have enough now to have an animal portfolio section! Who'd have thought.

I have also seen a competition running for animal paintings that I am quite tempted to enter 'Roary' into, just to change things up a bit! And by tempted, have in fact just entered. I forgot I also sold a print on Society 6. So not big sales, but for once in my life, quite consistent selling. I have sold 33 things this tax year so far, in comparison to 8 things by this time last year. Seems like a good progression, and I would have noticed the money if I hadn't reinvested it in cardboard boxes and a thousand (almost literally) blank canvasses.

Time to start painting some new pictures soon I think. That always helps keep the interest up! 

Post viral Fatigue

I knew I forgot to blog on Friday, I was going to blog on Saturday instead, and then Sunday, and now it is Monday.

My painting got it's seal of approval on Thursday and is wrapped up and waiting to be picked up today. I also sold a large print on Saturday so I need to persuade myself to go to the post office again shortly. I really miss the mini post office than was ten minutes around the corner. Having to walk into town each time is knackering. I can't complain though, it is better to sell something than to not!

Other than that it has been quiet - my security certificate is still not working on my website, two of my paintings got shared on an sikh art site on instagram so that has been some good extra publicity, and hopefully I will paint my next commission at some point this week.

Other than that more website updating I guess and I need to do some invoicing, and more importantly, try not to fall asleep.

I think it might be a long week.

(Also, I did finally write a haiku on Friday for my food poem:

Fish and chips Friday

It only happens weekly.

Sea air is lacking 

They are much easier to do! )

Frustration.

I did a good job of forgetting to post yesterday. I decided to paint a commission I needed to do in the evening so I thought I could blog whilst I was waiting for it to dry. Instead I mostly lay on the floor and did some yoga.

I had had a slightly frustrating day on the computer, so I was happy to spend the time away from it. I purchased an SSL certificate the evening before which I was trying to load onto my site with the help of my brother. It doesn't seem to work for some reason, so I spent most of yesterday online with Moonfruit (my website provider) speaking a language I didn't understand, trying to sort it out. Apparently it is sorted now, but I have to wait for 24 hours to see, in which time my website could just completely break. Lets hope that doesn't happen.

In other news I sold a mug on Etsy to someone in Cincinnati which sounds good but I think I have underestimated the postage so I need to update that on both Etsy and my website. It seems a bit like every time I think I have sorted something out, 20 other things happen that I need to update. My to-do list is super long at the moment and I am super tired. This doesn't make for a good combination, as by the time I have chosen what to do and then procrastinated about doing it I am pretty sure the day will be over.

Never mind, one commission down (hopefully, I am still waiting for the seal of approval) and one to go!

Also, as I missed sharing my lunchtime poem for yesterday:

Baked beans on a garlic naan,

This take-away is lasting forever,

I.m sure it is making me fatter,

I started out as light as a feather.

The calories are surely worth it,

It is better than eating cardboard.

Just don't judge when I loosen my belt

and my waistline looks like a fraud!

I promise next week I'll behave,

I'll stick to the diet like a slave,

But until then anything goes,

Lets just ignore all the weight on my toes! 

I seem to have got far more invested in this than I was expecting....