Monday 17 September 2012

Much ado about nothing . . .




I am sitting here this morning in front of my computer screen, and for the first time in a very long while, my mind is blank! Most unusual. Well, not blank really, but I just don't have any idea of what to write about, which isn't like me at all.  I am usually full of words that can't wait to jump out of my head and onto the screen.

Our desktop sits right in front of the lounge window which faces the front of our house.  (Note, this is not the view from my lounge window, as much as I would like it to be.) It's not an ideal place, but for some reason that is where Todd likes it to be, mostly I think because that way it can be hooked up to the modem without having to have a long wire stretched around the living room.  I don't really like it here because it sort of makes it the focal point of the living room . . . and that's not ideally what I want as the focal point of the living room . . . perhaps I'll be able to convince him to put it somewhere else.  We'll have to see.  We both have our laptops . . . but I like my desktop for a variety of other reasons . . .probably because I don't really have a lap! haha

Not having a lap means that I have to use the laptop on top of a table and my arms and wrists get tired doing that, but . . . I am working at finding my lap, so maybe it won't always be that way.

 

I just started taking an online Art Course by Tascha Parkison of the Time with Tascha blog.  The course is called Learning with Tascha.  Yesterday was the first day.  (There's still time to sign up by the way, if you are interested.)

Todd doesn't understand why I wanted to do this course.  He thinks my art is good enough, and maybe it is . . . but I haven't been very successful with it really, and I so want to be.  I want very much to be able to make a living with it and so . . .  I think it's a good thing to be able to learn from those who are already making a living with it.  It was one of the cheaper online courses out there, and I like her little dolls and girls, and so I signed up for it.  In this first lesson we have been practicing sketching faces.



These are a few that I did last night while I was waiting for Inspector George Gently to begin on the telly.  I quite enjoyed just sitting on the sofa scribbling into my notebook which was resting on the arm of the sofa.  My pencil wasn't as sharp as I would have liked it to be . . . so I probably could have done better with a sharper one and they probably would have been better had I been sitting at  a table instead of my drawing from the arm of the sofa . . . but I think they turned out pretty ok anyways.

A gallery from Chester (Funky Aardvark Project) sent me a message yesterday on Etsy,  wanting to discuss my work with me with the possibility in mind of either showing it or I don't know what.  I am feeling very skeptical at the moment about this kind of thing.  I don't want to get my hopes up and have it be nothing . . . so I will pop in later in the week when I have some free time and talk to them.  We'll see what happens . . .   I hate being cynical about these things . . . but I would rather be a bit cautious about them and then not be so disappointed if it doesn't pan out.  Like my recent television experience . . . blah.  That one left me with a very bad taste in my mouth.



(When I was a little girl I wanted a pair of red shoes . . . didn't everyone??)

I am the kind of person who thinks that people shouldn't make promises or offers that they can't keep.  I always keep my promises . . . or at least I try very hard to, and it disappoints me when others don't.  Perhaps I am wrong to be that way . . . but c'est la vie.  That's just me!  Hey that rhymed!  I'm a poet and I didn't know it! (something my mother used to always say when she accidentally came out rhyming.  I love my mum.)

We have the MOT for our car today.  For anyone in North America, that is like the yearly safety inspection.  Our car is rather old, about 13 years old now, but it's in pretty good running order I think.  I always dread the MOT though because they always find work that needs doing . . . it's inevitable.  When you live on a fixed income . . . these are the expenses that come up that you could really be doing without.  They drain your savings . . . a lot of things are doing that these days. We just got notice the other day that our electricity rates would be going up in October . . . and they only just went up about six months ago???  I think it's time to look for another electricity provider!  Shop around as it were.

Source: google.com via Marie on Pinterest


The sun is shining brilliantly out there at the moment.  There isn't a cloud in the sky.  I so love England on a sunny day . . . to me,  there is no place more beautiful on earth!  Oh, I know in truth that there are . . . but on a sunny day like today I am exactly where I want to be!  I shall never forget my first impressions of England as I was landing at Heathrow Airport,  some 12 years ago now . . .  it was so green from the air, looking just like a beautiful patchwork quilt in every shade of green you can imagine . . . and then from the train on the journey up here to Chester . . . the green rolling hills, dotted with cotton boll sheep, the ivy covered trees and stone fences . . . those ancient stone churches . . . it was all like a dream come true.

Twelve years later it still feels like a dream come true . . .


Even on a rainy day.  I guess that's when you know you are happy eh?  When you can smile in your heart even when the rain falls . . .

Contentment, that's what that is.  Pure and simple.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Don't cry because it's over.  Smile because it happened."
~Dr Seuss

hmmm . . . I guess I had something to say after all!



 

It's all about potatoes over in The English Kitchen today . . . In Search of the Perfect Jacket Potato.

 

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