Just so you know.

The other day, when I decided to throw caution to the wind and paint again, this happened – but, you’ll be relieved to know that I put a stop to it as soon as I could.

First it became even more hideous – in a mocking sort of way, but I had the last laugh when it found itself in the trash.

Don’t mess with me!

So, coward that I am, I went back to the old faithful.

Which bored me.

And threatened to put me in another funk.

But, I plodded on,

Making stuff just for the sake of it,

 Which bored me more.

Until finally I gave up and sulked myself further into the funk.

Is it the same funk? I wonder to myself.

Or, is it allergies? Stranger things have happened. I do live in Texas you know, and suddenly, all that green stuff is laying about, conspicuous in its innocence (to the trained eye), on all available surfaces.

This, and those wind turbine things, remind me of the late great science fiction books. The turbine things are the new and improved War of the Worlds aliens. Sleek in design yet even more sinister in their silent, never moving way. They just bide their time, collecting the wind so to sniff out human happenings, looking, but not looking, and, all the time multiplying until, before you know it, they’re everywhere, like in Sweetwater, TX.

See!

(Actually, that’s not Sweetwater, but yet another example of alien infiltration on the outskirts of a doomed Texas town. Who will be next?).

And the pollen? Well, that’s obviously some kind of insidious microorganism waiting patiently for us to inhale them into our bodies, so that they can use us as a weapon to fight the wind aliens and continue their quest to take over the universe. Some of them will be wasted, of course, but it’s a sacrifice they are willing to take.

For them, failure is not an option …

As for Inspector Lynley, I was finally allowed to see the connection between the baffling – why are you telling me this – sub story, and the main story. I must admit it was in a bit of a ‘duh’ way, like I really should have seen it coming. But, as I’m not really that invested in the story the connection caught me off guard and it ended up more as the ‘boom boom’ part of a bad joke. (Can’t really sound that out in words so you’ll just have to work with me here).

I still haven’t finished listening to the story, but we all have to suffer in our own way.

On a lighter note: I burnt a hole in the studio counter when I put the nitric acid into a ceramic dish, (don’t judge me – it said I could). It was obviously not the right kind of ceramic dish, I think because it was old and crackly. I just thought, wow, that nitric acid evaporates quickly, but no – it had seeped right through the bottom and now I have a humongous area of molten formica counter top to forever flaunt my failures. It’s as though one of those alien versus predator things has dribbled its caustic saliva onto it.

And, the moral of the story is …

Never play with acid when you’re in a funk!

I’m telling you, this mood better change quick otherwise I’ll have no studio left.

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Be afraid. Be very afraid …

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I want to –

Paint soooo much, but I just canny do it capt’n.

It’s my most worrying thing to do.

Sometimes I ignore it and just don’t look over at that whole other side of the studio, you know, the one with all the exciting colours patiently waiting to play.

But, I know it’s there, because it’s niggling a hole in the side of my head.

So today I’m going to get to it – it’s going to be a painting day.

(I think).

Lighten up girl. Inspector Lynley is still half heartedly trying to solve the graveyard murder, which is a convenient place to get murdered in if you ask me, and as I only listen to the story when I paint, he’s pretty much been dragging his heals over the whole thing.

It’s time to put a stop to this story before anyone else gets hurt.

Actually, I’m not really enjoying it, it’s more something to listen to really. It does kind of take the painting anxiety away a little by dragging me into it’s (boring) drama, a bit like taking a xanax really, although it’s been going on for so long now that if someone doesn’t tell me who did it soon and explain to me how the whole little sub story about the toddler murder fits in to the thing, someone is going to hear about it.

So I’m off out now to paint and listen. I’ll let you know how the whole sorry mess turns out … if it turns out.

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A little something for you to mull on while you wait.

Come on. You know you want to try it, if only to laugh out loud because you knew it wouldn’t work even before you tried it.

The clue here is (repeat if necessary), although the whole fizzy science experiment thing does sound rather exciting.

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Links, murder and Atticus Finch.

Lots happening with the links.

As you can see I’ve made quite a few of them.

If you remember, this was the first piece I made with them.

And the second.

Then I got a bit carried away.

I even made a little something to go with them – just because.

Other jewelry news is that I’ve finally started to pay attention to pricing my work properly.

Thanks to Danielle who is also a jewelry maker and who has helped me begin to see the error of my ways, I have begun to work with a pricing formula. I have to say that this hasn’t been easy for me. Yep, the whole self esteem, lack of confidence, stuff comes back to bite me each and every time, but, and this is an important but, I am getting better at it. The more I work on perfecting my craft and the more I realize that what I want to do with the money I make from it is very important to me, the easier it’s becoming to take myself more seriously. Man, and it only took me fifty years!

Thank you Danielle for your nudge.

In between making the links I finally finished listening to, To Kill a Mockingbird. When I make jewelry I can only listen to audio books with earphones if they’re on my i pod. To Kill a Mocking bird is on c.d. and as I hammer a lot and plug my ears with the christmas gift, I miss a lot of the narrative so this time I could only listen when I was painting.

You wont be surprised to hear that it was as brilliant to listen to as it was to read. Sissy Spacek was the narrator. My favourite part each time is the part where Scout, Jem and Dill go to the court house when Atticus is sitting guard outside. Very powerful. Now I’m back to the murder mysteries, (don’t ask me why, maybe my therapist can enlighten me). Inspector Linley this time. I’ve seen this on the t.v. and have to say that I don’t really care for the actors in it, particularly the sullen side kick. But, she’s exactly like that in the book so who am I to criticize. The audiobook is just o.k. it hasn’t really grabbed me yet, although, again with the female impersonation. Why? is all I have to say. Why does the very nice male listening voice, have to try to play the woman as a woman? It never works. The women always come over as weak, pathetic, whiney, girly, silly people – and not in a good way. Just read me the story will you. I can imagine the rest.

Not that it upsets me or anything …

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A rainy Pissarro kind of day.

Big storm last night and it looks like more rain today. Right now it’s dark and cosy. A good reading day, but, I’m thinking studio …

A while back I started this,

which turned into this,

then this,

and now this,

As always I think I prefer the first one. Bummer!

Today I’ll be continuing to work the back ground and do something with the tree and sky.

I took it from Pissarro’s – The Red Roofs.

Isn’t it brilliant.

No chance I’ll be caught in a fraudulent act here! Just practicing.

 I’ve been going through a ton of audio books while out in my studio and it’s costing me a small fortune. The last one I downloaded was, I Alex Cross, by James Patterson. It was O.K. a bit more grizzly than the others. These authors certainly have a dark side, it’s a wonder they’re allowed out on the streets. Then dad brought over some Dick Francis, pretty light weight in comparison. That was just O.K too. I think it might be time to get out some real books for a change. I do have an audio copy of, To Kill a Mockingbird, one of my favourite books, and movies come to that, (can you say Gregory Peck!) so I think I might give that a go today.

Who knows, it might just improve my painting skills.

One can always hope …

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