HELLO! sorry i have not blogged for so long! i kept meaning to! but then i was just so busy. and then the weather was AWESOME. and i just couldn’t sit inside on the computer – i had to get outside and do stuff! and then the weather turned crap! but i still didn’t have time to blog because i was catching up on all the other inside things from when the weather was awesome and i was outside all the time! and THEN i had time to blog, but it had just been so long i didn’t know where to start! so i spent 2 days just generally faffing around procrastinating like a good ‘un. (you know how it goes. suddenly it’s so important that you enter that photography competition and tidy your sock drawer.)
ANYWAY! here i am! here is a mahoosive catch up! and you will see why i have been mostly too busy to blog (general faffery notwithstanding).
so, first things first – and it’s nothing new or exciting – house renovations continue. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: waaaah!
i look forward to a time in my life where every. single. weekend. doesn’t look like this!
we’ve chiseled out the old fireplace just so that we can plaster over it. also had the floorboards up (what delightful and unusual smells!) for general re-wiring and other assorted bits and pieces. the mister has been busy chiseling out the walls for other wiring, too. i made myself useful by painting the windowsill white – with the plasterer due to come and start slopping wet plaster everywhere on monday, i’m not entirely sure that was a wise move at this stage!
we’re planning on laying a new floor, and so we went on a hunt for reclaimed floorboards. our trip to the reclamation yard (which was unsuccessful) took us past a lovely garden centre <- fatal. (for the misters wallet.) disappointed at having to go home without floorboards i thought it was only right that i cheer myself up by buying something. A plant. singular.i even had a specific one in mind: just a new choisya – i have a gap in the garden which i wanted to fill with something bright and evergreen. well, an hour later, and having relieved the mister of some of those pesky dollars that weigh down his wallet, we left armed with a lovely bright green choisya. oh, and also a darker one. (because i couldn’t choose between the 2.) oh, and also some veggies.
cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and courgettes.
oh, and i couldn’t resist these peppers because the label intrigued me:
banana? interesting! i hope these survive… i don’t have a very good record with peppers.
oh, and while i was getting all that stuff, this gorgeous little shrub accidentally fell into my trolley:
‘sorbaria’. nice, huh? and what with the beautiful fern-like shaped leaves, bright green colour, and the contrasting new bronze growth…well, i was powerless to resist.
the weather being as gorgeous as it was, it felt like a good time to get some more post-winter clearup jobs done in the garden.
the gravel bed i created last year has done its job – there’s no ground elder coming through (yet). within a couple of hours the whole bed was looking neat and tidy – a vast improvement on previous years, where it has literally taken 3 months to weed..and weed..and weed again…only to be left with…a bed full of weeds.
as i didn’t need to dedicate eleventy billion hours to weeding, it meant that i could get on with another job that has been underway for far too long – painting the front fence! it’s taken me 3 years so far, even with my folks kindly helping out here and there - and it’s still not finished! BUT, i have now made it as far as the gate.
…which is now looking very nice! however, that’s just the undercoat. god knows how long it’s going to take me to do the top coat – i hadn’t planned on living this house for the next 20 years. will i get the job finished before we move? who knows! ahahahaaaAARgh! :\
it was great to be out working outside in the lovely spring sunshine… i love this time of year when everything is in blossom. the forsythia out front ^ is looking gorgeous this year – such vibrant yellow flowers:
…and of course, my absolute bestest favourite – the cherry blossom is out too.
gawwwd, i love it!
so let’s see, what else… in between the gardening and painting and renovation work i’ve managed to squeeze in some drawing and illustration type stuff… i’ve got some custom jobs underway, and i did a few zombie bunnies and cute bunnies for easter, which were all well received. i just hit a little milestone too – my 500th sale on folksy! will be having a little giveaway soon, to celebrate.
with all the hoo haw about petrol strikes, pasty tax and stamp prices on the rise, i also made this little aceo last week:
i shared it on my facebook page, and was pretty surprised and shocked that it went a bit viral – it was shared 561 times from my page alone (shares of shares aren’t counted, i don’t think) and got 1,528 “likes”. i was then further shocked to view the stats for my page:
virality: 45%, friends of fans: 461,201 and a weekly total reach of 57,333 people! my face is doing this -> :O
if those are the highs of having your work on the internet, then these are the lows – i am fighting a small battle of principles (or wills) (or something) on pinterest. a few weeks ago i found one of my bird cards pinned there – with the person who had pinned it writing “maria i need you to draw this for me” beneath it. coming across that made me feel a little bit sick, if i’m honest. sure, it’s probably quite innocent and blah blah blah, but 1. someone copying other peoples original artwork, for WHATEVER use, really annoys me. 2. it’s illegal. 3. it REALLY ANNOYS ME.
someone else had helpfully added a comment to say that if i didn’t want my work to be copied, i shouldn’t put it on there. (i hadn’t, someone else had.) (<- which is also irrelevant.)*head. desk*
so, i left a polite note under the pin: “hi, glad you like it, but i would just like to reiterate that the copyright belongs to myself. i would prefer that the design is not copied or reproduced in any way.”
to which came the reply:
” I believe that a breach of copyright laws would pertain to someone who is trying to profit from your work. How do you know how many people have copied any of your work, or anyone elses for that fact and have it hanging in their living room? Please stop putting your panties in a twist about this. Life is to short. I promise from the bottom of my heart not to copy your blasted bird picture, it just isn’t worth it.”
well, that told me i guess! i really must stop putting my panties in a bunch and get over myself, she’s right. life just IS to short (sic) and hey! she has promised from the bottom of her heart not to copy my picture, after all.
i’ve reported the pin to pinterest a couple of times and politely requested that they remove it, but so far have not heard anything back. you know what though? i don’t feel like letting it go. so…watch this space, i guess. bleurgh…. i hate having to sort this kind of crap out – i really could do without it.
right! i think we’re done! that’s us, caught up!
to summarise: renovating, decorating, painting, gardening, makering, viraling, and arguing.
it’s now easter weekend, and i would have liked to spend it lazing around eating chocolate and not doing a whole lot, but…well, right at this moment in time, the lounge is looking like this:
and the mister is looking like this:
…i think he is keeping those bits of plaster for later. still, at least he is happy in his work!
here’s wishing you all a lovely easter weekend, everybody!
hope you have a better one than us! ;)
