Tattoo talk

Lovecats

Hey everyone! I've been working on a couple of commissions so far this month, which I'll hopefully be able to show you once they have been gifted. I just did this quick pencil drawing of Charlie and Wallace for fun. Yes, it's most definitely from a photo - as if Wallace would sit still in someone's arms long enough to be drawn. I realised I've actually never drawn Wallace before - don't think the mouth is quite right, and his forehead isn't dark enough looking at it now. But he still looks cute, so that's the main thing.

Work is almost over for the year, and everything's still going great in my new role. Got the gist of it down, but still learning new things all the time which keeps it interesting. We had a couple of staff Christmas functions to attend in the past few weeks, including a day at the horse races which was really fun. The weather overall has been brilliant, just hoping it stays that way for Christmas day.

I'm looking forward to taking a fresh approach to my blog in the New Year; seems like a good time to do so. Hopefully I'll be posting more before then, but regardless I hope December is treating you well and you're feeling suitably festive.

Photobooth

Charlie got a MacBook Air. So far I haven't been too neglected.

Humpday Happenings

Over the weekend my parents stayed at the Intercontinental hotel, which is one of Wellington's finest. On Sunday morning we had a little family gathering for brunch at the hotel restaurant- buffet style! So amazing! I had bread with salmon and cheese, waffles and pancakes, mushrooms and bacon, scrambled eggs and fresh juice. Pretty small helpings of everything, but I was so stuffed! I really love all things tourism, especially airlines and hotels. Definitely need to save for more trips away.

After our stomachs recovered from brunch, I went to a few shops with my parents, including a little garage full of junk in Ghuznee Street. Most of it was junk, although there was a decent tripod for five dollars. I was considering buying it, when Dad said he has a spare one I can have! So excited. I feel a little try-hard embarking on this, but I'm really keen to start doing some outfit posts on this blog. It's never going to stop being rather miscellaneous, and definitely not going to become a 'style' blog (pahaha) but I really want to give this feature a go! Working full time in a mostly-casual-smart-casual office, I'm getting even lazier when it comes to my appearance, and I really want to stop that! Too young to be getting frumpy yet! I feel pretty lame when my boyfriend's a million times more stylish than I. So we'll see what happens when I get the tripod (this weekend) and stay tuned.

On Saturday night we had a few beers in preparation for going to town. Wallace had been struggling with a hairball all day, but around 11pm he started really going for it, and then curled up on the floor and started panting and almost convulsing. Major freakout time! We did lots of Googling, I did lots of worrying, and we even called an after-hours vet. Needless to say we didn't end up going to town, but we decided not to take him to the vet and just see how he was the next day. He was eating, drinking, pooping and meowing normally in the following days, but would still have little spells of silent panting, so I booked him in at the vet yesterday evening. When we moved him in the past we've used a friend's or my parents' cat cage, but yesterday I was kind of lost- and there are no pet stores in the CBD! So ridiculous. We ended up taking him to and from the vet by taxi, in a cardboard box which had two holes for handles- they were both Wallace-head-size by the time we got home again!

The vet did a thorough check up and x-rayed his chest- doesn't seem to be a hairball and everything checked out fine including his heart, but the vet suspects he could have asthma so gave him a couple of shots. So relieved it's nothing serious! The horrors you can stumble across on Google...

Wallace and Charlie

Wallace Weekend

Weekend away.

Last night (Saturday) after Charlie finished work, we caught a train to Paekakariki to stay a night at Charlie's Dad's house. He lives only a five minute walk from the beach with a tiered backyard that great views from up the top. We had a barbeque for dinner and nice cold apple cider. The weather was insanely good today, so Charlie and I went to the beach in the morning, and then did lots of eating and admiring the view this afternoon.

How was your weekend?

Portraits

These are probably my favourite two portraits of myself and Charlie that I have done. They are just pencil on crappy sketchbook paper, but I really like them. They are a bit beat up from moving house, and are currently taped on the wall above my art desk. They were both done in 2009, but I haven't posted them on here before.

A Belated Wallace Wednesday

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Have you done/are you doing anything to celebrate?

I have to say I am absolutely sick of all the anti-Valentine's whingey bullshit I have heard from single people today (this is largely due to my job, not people I actually know). Seriously- get over it! I do appreciate it can't be the most joyous occassion for those unhappy to be alone, but it's the equivalent of people who are estranged from their parents complaining about Mothers' and Fathers' Day (maybe they do?)

This is the second Valentine's that Charlie and I have been together for. We don't really have a relationship-anniversary that we recognise (does Facebook-official count?) so it's nice to have this day to be happy and cutesy and together.

Excited?

Danielle at Sometimes Sweet has published yet another post that I have decided to respond to. I swear I do read other blogs, but hers is definitely in my top five daily reads. She has written this post about things she is excited about. Honestly, this prompt has come along at a perfect time for me, because these past couple of weeks I just been feeling bored. We're sort of making enough money now to pay all the bills and buy all the essentials, but still not enough to really put any aside to save for something exciting. However that should hopefully change in the next couple of months. Work is going really well and I love it, but I've been feeling pretty tired and uninspired as soon as each working day is over.

So here is a list of things I am genuinely excited for! I had to rack my brains a little bit to come up with a list, but here you go.

• I'm excited about getting a new tattoo- I haven't got an artist (Kev has gone back to the UK), design, or the money yet... but I know what I want! It's a start.
• I'm excited about having our apartment in order, which means I'll be able to produce some more work, and hopefully develop some ideas for a future exhibition. I find it impossible to produce anything worthwhile when our apartment is messy.
• I'm excited about having a temporary flatmate later this month- Charlie's friend Matt is moving over from Australia and will be staying with us for a little while.
• I'm excited about buying a bunch of new clothes for winter... and some boots!
• I'm excited about taking a weekend away in the Wairarapa, and spending some time with friends.
• I'm excited about turning 22 in May.
• I'm excited about my friend Vikkie getting married in November.

Artwork and Updates

Check out these TradeMe listings of artwork done by a 16 year old girl from Wellington named Gemma. She's created the images using mostly song lyrics, and I particularly like this one of Frank Sinatra. Auctions will only be available to New Zealanders, but go have a look anyway. She was apparently featured in Hot Auctions earlier which has generated some pretty decent bids. Good on her parent for listing them.

As you non-Reader visitors will notice, I've changed the layout of my blog a bit. Navigation buttons are now across the top- please feel free to give me your feedback on that. I've added a mouse rollover effect, but let me know if you don't think it's clear that they're buttons... I don't want first time visitors to be missing out on my content. Speaking of which, I've updated the actual Artwork and Contact pages as well. Not huge changes, but a new photo of me and a tidier arrangement of my artwork.

The other Internet "news of note" (for me) is that my Facebook artist fan page currently has 110 fans! As promised, now that I have 100+ fans, I will be arranging some sort of giveaway of my work- probably an unframed watercolour, so I can open it to international fans and readers. Will keep you posted on this blog, but if you haven't "liked" my page, and you would like to be in to win, please head over there now so you don't miss out!

I've been in my hometown on and off for the past couple of weeks now. It's been really nice to spend time with my family, but it has really sucked not having the holidays in Wellington with Charlie as I'd planned. It's also frustrating not being able to dive into the ideas I have for new artwork straight away! I don't have any of my supplies and it's been crazy hot (31°C yesterday) almost every day anyway. But I'll be heading back to the city tomorrow, so will have three and a half days of freedom before I start my new job on Monday! Really excited about that. I'm so glad I had the courage to go along to their Christmas function late last year when I knew no one, as I think that will lessen the nerves considerably on Monday morning.

So yeah, a fairly average start to 2011, having not even seen Charlie yet! But despite that I think it's going to be a great year.

Memory from May

Day 6, 7 & 8 of 30

I've been useless at keeping up to date with this self-set challenge! I had a busy weekend, and have just been feeling really lazy and uninspired... sitting down to do artwork feels like a big chore, I end up rushing, and the results are less than desirable. Hopefully things will settle down later in the week. Our flights are now booked for our trip to Australia in November, so I'm mega excited! And after I finish this post, Charlie and I will be watching E1 of Dexter S5, which I have been dying with excitement over for months now. Without further ado...

• Your favourite hot drink
• Your earliest childhood memory

My favourite hot drink is a Mojo Coffee flat white. If I'm forced to get a flat white from anywhere else, I usually add a shot of hazelnut syrup, so that if their coffee is shit then it's still drinkable!

The childhood memory I consider to be my earliest is more of a feeling than a memory. I remember drawing a colourful rainbow, houses and a bear over two pages of my story writing exercise book at primary school. I remember running out of time to get the actual story written, and having the most horrible fear of my teacher coming to see my story and getting angry at me. I don't remember getting told off about it, so either I was worrying about nothing, or the teacher went so apeshit that I've suppressed the memory...

Charlie's 30 Days of Me

Head over to my boyfriend Charlie's new blog and follow him; he's just started doing the 30 Days of Me project.

Charlie & Wallace

Day 9 of 30/Whinging

This past week I've had a few things to be proud of. Obviously getting Wallace, and feeling like I rescued him from a very bizarre living arrangement. Going to Sarah's school to help with backdrops. Being a bit more frugal with my money than usual. Finally buying Rufus tickets (well, Sarah had to help me out there, since I couldn't get the credit card to work online...!) And I think I've had a pretty productive week at work too.

On a negative note, I've had a couple of minor (in comparison to the benefits) side effects from Humira. The most annoying of which is that my hands have gone insanely scaly, dry and cracked. I put moisturisers and creams on them all day long, and they still split. My hands were in better condition when I was washing dishes in a cafe for hours on end. Still, it is a minor complaint! My next shot is tomorrow, in my thigh, and I'm sure Charlie's looking forward to administering it! I still can't bring myself to. My last one, two weeks ago, was in my stomach and left a bruise that's STILL there! The EpiPen shoots pretty damn hard. Sigh! I'm not too bothered really, I just like having an outlet for complaints!

Tonight I'm going to a party wearing a moustache. Should be good!