New Pieces

It's been awfully quiet around here lately, hasn't it? I'd say that it's because I've been really busy doing this or that, but in all honesty I haven't really felt all that busy. 

I finished up my firefighting class a couple weeks ago and passed my exam, which has been a huge relief. I had been sort of stressed during the months leading up to it, mostly because I'm dealing with health issues so I was really concerned that test day would come and that I wouldn't physically be able to do everything I had to do, which could have potentially caused my group to fail, and that would be terrible. It felt like this looming storm cloud for quite a while but it's over now and I'm good to go! Thankfully test day came and I felt great. I've mostly been feeling pretty good on all the other days too..I've learned that I just have to go about things at a slower pace than I'd prefer, and I think the new pace is finally starting to become normal rather than the huge annoyance it had been at first. Outwardly I look fine; most people have no idea that I have this going on and I think I prefer it that way, to a point. It does suck when I'm having a hard day and people who don't know that I'm usually strong and determined think that I'm just a weak and feeble girl who needs some dude to do everything for her. I do realize that posting this on my blog opens the door to pretty much anyone in my life knowing about this, but I'm hoping that most people are respectful and don't make a big deal out of it. Please and thanks? 

Okay, moving onto happier thoughts...I've been working on new art stuff and lots of small landscaping projects now that spring has finally decided to stretch itself across lower Wisconsin. Yay! Here is one of the new pieces I finished last month:

It's about 19" x 24", mixed media on wood. One of the larger pieces I've made...I really like it for the most part; making these bigger pieces feels a lot different than the smaller ones do. 

I've also been working on moving my studio to part of the house that's bigger and brighter and has a door that walks out to my gardens. I was all set to move everything, and I was really excited about doing so since I worked hard to get it cleaned up and ready to go, but then my dickhead cat Clementine decided he was mad at the world and began to pee on things in there. Ugh. Joe and I are to our wits end with him. On one hand he's super sweet and cuddly, but then he turns into a mega jerk and is mean to Moonshadow and he pees on things [sprays] for reasons unknown. I thought we had everything sorted out when the neighbor's cat stopped roaming around the house, but I guess we didn't. We're trying to figure out what to do with him...finding a new home would be nearly impossible, but like I said- I'm sick of our things being ruined and I'm even more sick of the house smelling like cat pee and not being able to find the source. Come ON dude, I just want to have people over but don't feel like I can with this going on. And now that I've typed that I realized that there's a friggan CAT controlling my life, and that's not okay. 

Anyway, back to happy thoughts again. I'm hoping to have a couple shows late 2013 so I've been working on lots of ideas for that. I might go canoeing today...it will be the first time this year and although I really feel like I should be doing art or working on house projects, it would be great to get out on the water. I'll take pictures if I go. :)