Dec6

Morning musings

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Well, I didn’t post yesterday. It might be my first day missed, or maybe my second: I seem to recall one Sunday I was too hung over to type. I feel a little lazy about it, but I’ve 145 posts and over 3,500 views and twice last week new records were set for most views in one day (thanks, YukonSocks and unknown person who read nearly every post). I also had my two-month blogging anniversary on Sunday, but I was busy… I guess it’s okay I that I took a day off.

I did nothing yesterday. It was me wearing two shirts, two pairs of socks, two blankets and two cats on the couch most of the day. We found new free TV channels so I gorged on CSI and SVU. Always loved napping to those shows in the US. I like them because I don’t have to care about the regular characters; I can dip in and out and not miss much.

Right now, I’m sitting in front of a roaring fire with Spot. He is annoying me to no end by trying to rub on the corner of my iPad. Gerroff! The sound of his little teeth clicking on the plastic cover drives me crazy.

I’ve another lazy day planned. iDJ broke the hinge on the oven door Saturday, so I need to try to fix that. I’m sure I’ll get sucked into cleaning it, too. Which means first I have to do dishes so my sink is free. Ugh, I’m so tired of doing dishes. Sigh. I also keep meaning to try this recycled-materials recipe for homemade firelighters. I’ll be using the butt-ends of old candles instead of new wax, though, and I’ve been collecting dryer lint and egg cartons for a while, too.

I also have to take a bath. That means turning on the electric water heater and cringing at the red numbers on my Wattson. (It want from 91 watts used per hour to 2,110!) But, I can’t take showers any more, not without suffering. I don’t know what is wrong with my skin, but I have to soak, scrub, soak, scrub to get the dead layer off. A shower just gets it wet and then I itch for an hour. It’s truly disgusting to see my bath water after – I almost need a shower to rinse off my bath. Wish I knew a dermatologist, but they are harder to see here than a back doctor. The internet hasn’t been helpful; as usual, I’m unusual.

Great. I went upstairs to start filling the bath. I got sidetracked watering plants. I came back to the fire to find it had just collapsed and a chunk had flown out and burned a pillow. Glad it didn’t burn Spot! He was only a hands-breadth away.

I have a KIBIS meeting tonight, yay! Last week was postponed due to a cold, then cancelled due to a back injury – and it wasn’t me either time! Unfortunately both happened to MrsMMC. Three of us had a long goofy conversation via FB’s messenger on Friday, though, wherein we decided we should dress up as the Pink Ladies from Grease and enter a float based on the song ‘Look at me I’m Sandra Dee’ in next year’s Paddy’s Day parade. Except we think we should wear red, because all four of our home countries use red in their flags. I said I’d think about it, if I can be Rizzo. They want to have a bowling night, too, so we could reuse the Red Ladies jackets for our bowling team. I don’t enjoy bowling, did it once when I was six and never wanted to do it again – despite the fact I’m good at it on the Wii. But the gals are such good craic, I might put up with it.

The ‘Grease’ idea came out of someone saying that the menfolk are jealous of our KIBIS meetings, and think we all gather around in sexy lingerie and have pillow fights. Uuugh, men. Yes, we’re all gorgeous gals, but really?!? A few weeks ago we spent a half an hour talking about stab wounds and how to recreate them in rising bread dough, autopsies, what weird and/or gross foods we eat in our home countries, and drinking. Soooo girly!

Dec4

The Open Fair is now closed!

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I’m home! And I have one rum and Pepsi Max in me, and I’ve caught up with all the internets stuff I missed from being gone all day.

The venue was packed full of exhibitors. I had half of an 8 foot table, and a hard wall behind me. It was tiiiight. There was a painter to my right, and a wood-crafts couple on my left. I had to ask painter lady to move a huge painting so I had some wall space. All of us had to squeeze between my end and painter-lady’s table to get out on to the floor. Here’s a couple of really bad iPad camera shots of the room, from my view point.

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First pic shows the length of the room. There were back-to-back tables in two rows down the centre like that pic, two more in the middle, and then all three outside walls were filled. Lots of people! Bakers, jewellery makers, knitters, photographers, painters, pasties (not usually an Irish thing, and not what strippers wear), woodworkers, a salsa dancing couple that offered lessons, bog oak art, people doing something that had something to do with angels… loads! I was the only one doing digital art, and the only one doing inexpensive portraits.

Here’s my wall…lots of familiar faces here!

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A hurried slap-dash stick it up there quick effort! We were running late.

And, because I see no reason not to put my face on here as long as I don’t use my name (until I decide otherwise)… Here’s me posing in front of my wee ‘booth.’

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So… I didn’t sell anything, at all. Neither did painter-lady, and the wood furniture guy sold two candleholders and one little wood framed mirror – and he drove two hours to be there! I did have two people (that I know from town) show real interest in having a portrait done; one for herself and one as a gift. One little girl asked her daddy to buy her a picture of Fergus, but daddy said no, the meanie.

That was really it! But I am NOT disheartened or disappointed. I had the guts to do this, first of all. My hubby, my sister, and my best friend are proud of me. And you know what? I’m proud of me, too.

I know what needs to be done differently, now. I know how to talk to browsing strangers, and I know how to get their interest, sort of. But mainly I learned that when asked if I have a product or a service the answer is service! The shoppers didn’t want something later, they wanted it now, and since I didn’t have my service in my head as what I was actually selling, I didn’t convince anyone that I had a product. Does that make sense? It does to me… It wasn’t the right forum for what I was selling, the way I was selling it. Next time will be different!

One last pic, of me with my precious iPad now showing my markdown on prints; and me, showing by my smile that I am not defeated!

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Dec4
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Hahahah! The BeeGees, ‘Tragedy’!

NOT due to any lingering worries over my show in a few hours. There’s going to be a stupid TV show aired in a few days wherein ‘slebs’ talk about their favourite BeeGees songs. What a totally pointless show! TV over here can be brutal at times, good thing I’m not an addict. Anyhoo, the ad for the show came on last night, with appropriate music, and Tragedy is the one that stuck in my grey matter.

Back to my coffee!

Earworm OTD

Dec3

Red Dog has been Brushed!

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I did Red Dog just for me a few days ago. I wasn’t going to post him, not yet, but I really, really like him and need cheering up. I used a picture of a stalking dog as reference, but didn’t use the original pic like I normally do. I also put his tail up, instead of down like the working dog would be, so he looks playful.

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Oh – he was ‘for me’ in that I felt the need to have a bit of fun, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! But he’s also for my sister – she inspired me to try a few new ideas 🙂

Dec3

Must not kill.

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I am so angry and sickened I could spit, bite someone, and spit again.

Last week we went to Harvey Norman and had 3 prints made on photo paper, to test their quality. It was perfect, and each 8×10 was €2. Good deal, we were happy with that.

We went back today to print another 15 for sale at the show tomorrow. We did our thing at the kiosk and ordered the prints, I took the receipt to Bottled Shite (she was as-thick-as), waited 10 mins, got our prints. I took a look before we left to go pay… and they were all gloss, not matte. Looked like utter shit. They looked like cheap cartoons.

Me: Why are these gloss? We ordered matte.
Her: Oh they didn’t bring us matte paper this week, we only have gloss.

Thanks for fuckin telling me when I ordered them, and thanks for telling me again when you handed me the closed envelope with my prints, you useless twit.

We spent another 10 minutes ringing people for advice, trying find another place, and/or deciding to keep the horrible pics. We ended up giving them back, which pissed me off – who’s to say that dimbulb doesn’t steal my work, even if it did look crappy? We went to another place, and the kiosk there read at least two of my drawings completely wrong – the color was off, and there were lines that must have come from my drawing’s several layers, but they didn’t show anywhere else! Not on my iPad, not the Mac, not in Photoshop even at best resolution and the maximum Dpi…So those two were unprintable. Then they wanted €6.50 EACH (remember, they were €2 in HN?!?) and four flipping hours to print. And we live over 30 mins away.

Well, when I heard €6.50 I started to almost-cry. Too much frustration and running around and now the money we do not have to spend is being more than tripled? I went outside the shop to cool off.

Hubby got them to lower the price to €4 each. Still; double the budget, and I am so disappointed. We put a lot of time and organisation into this part. Now my plan has to change, my day has been wasted, and one of my favorite drawings now cannot be shown on good photo paper.

Screw you, Harvey Norman, and your stupid, useless worker who doesn’t have the sense god gave a rock. I couldn’t even tell her how upset I was: she clearly didn’t understand the problem or didn’t care, and what was she going to do about it at that point anyway? I didn’t want prints that look terrible, even at half price for screwing them up…not that she offered.

A sorry would have been nice, an offer of some sort of solution would have been nicer, but best of all would have been to tell me that what I needed was not available.

Dec2

Distracted by cuteness

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I was going through old Facebook photos. My intention was to find some things for me to draw while I’m at the Open Fair. I found one cow and then starting saving pics to put up over here. The kids are just too cute…

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Spottie, showing his best side. It must be his best, he always sticks it in our faces for a good, close look. That’s iDJ’s hair 🙂

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Lokii, at the breeder’s house. He looked goofy even then. We got to bring him home a few weeks later. So tiny! Ah, look at the little pink kitten-belly, too!

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The Kitty Kings, on their thrones – pun intended 🙂 In the morning, this part of the room gets sun so they like to sit on the litterboxes and warm themselves. Yes, my kitchen is lavender.

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Awwwwww….

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Spot annoying Neko. I have a whole series from this day – Neko was asleep until Spot interrupted and plopped himself down right where her head had been. She couldn’t go back to sleep afterward without squishing Spot – not that he would have minded. She is too gentle a dog to even consider something that would hurt Spottie, though.

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VERY rare occurrence. Even after two years, Lokii is scared of the dog. This is the closest he ever got and stayed relaxed about it. Of course, Spot is his guardian.

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A last one, to get us in the holiday spirit. Sing it with me: “Cat Butts Roasting on an Open Fire…”

Dec1

Stegosaurus and Penguin have been brushed!

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These are the two I did quickly, for kids. I Googled ‘kids favourite animal’ and these, along with tigers, are pretty high up there. I’ve not gotten around to trying a tiger yet!

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Dec1

Oot and aboot

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Still getting ready for Sunday and the Open Fair. I still don’t have any information to speak of from the organisers, but apparently they are being annoyed with queries. I got this email today:

“Could I just ask everyone to please be patient? I DON’T have a floor plan yet as applications are still streaming in by the dozen and we’re trying to deal with those, as well as trying to find time to answer everyone’s individual inquiries about their table numbers etc. I DON’T have table numbers yet. As soon as I do, I will send them to you. As I understand it, you will be able to set up from 9am.”

A few hours later, they sent an Exhibitor Information PDF. It didn’t really say much new, other than they are having issues with giving everyone wall space that asked for it. So I emailed them and said my work was very light, and I could use string and clothespins to display it just as easily (and probably quite interestingly), and I didn’t need a wall if they were running short. They sent me a short ‘thanks for that’ reply. Always pays to be nice, I think.

Speaking of which, thank you to the lady on the till at Tesco last week. We weren’t planning to try to use those coupons, we knew we weren’t buying those products. But she said to hand em over, there’s a glitch in the system and we’d get the discount anyway. Nice one; she saved us €1.50 and didn’t have to do that at all, we would never have known. Again, pays to be nice – I’m sure if we were rude she’d have never said a word.

Anyway, back to the Open Fair. Open apparently stands for One Person ENterprise. There’s novelty cakes, lightweight travel bags invented locally, and jewellery makers, bakers, graphic artists, photographers, fashion designers and furniture makers are all mentioned in the newspaper. It sounds like it will be busy! I’ve been telling people about it, and a few folks want to come just to shop – that’s what I like to hear.

I’ve been telling people because iDJ printed my flyer for me. Three hundred of them! I took a batch out with me today. I put them in the hardware shop, the grocery, the post office, the paper shop and the music shop. I know all these folks – I’m too shy to go ask a stranger to allow me to advertise for free in their business. Even though everyone else does it.

I also bought some poster board and visited my Canadian friend at work, to borrow her scalpel and cutting mat. I got 18 8×10 backing boards for €3 and I didn’t cut myself once. iDJ would have cut a finger off, dropped the scalpel, impaled his toe, and bled all over the paper making me have to go buy more.

We had ordered cellophane bags on Monday, so I could put an 8×10 print and the tacky backing board into the bags for sale at the show. They came today. Instead of 8 x 10, they are about 5×10. Fuck. Some quick thinking on iDJ’s part (he’s clumsy, not stupid) got me a pile of clear bags from his uncle’s bakery. They are too big, but I can cut and fold and tape. Fun fun! We’ll go and have a few pics printed on photo paper Saturday and spend the evening making little parcels.

You guys have seen all my work – which ones should I print for sale? I know Fergus the Jack Russell will be popular, and I like Grey Horse and the Seahorse original drawings. Do you think any of the others would sell? How about Mr Penguin, for kids? Oh, I’ve not put him up here, or my dinosaur. Let me fix that next post. It’s going to cost me €2 each to print them, and I don’t want to be stuck with a pile of my own work!

Dec1

International food shenanigans

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I’m grinning like crazy right now. The little group of international blow-ins that I (unintentionally) named is KIBIS really taking off. It consists of me, from the US; a Canadian, an Italian, and our newest member is Japanese.

Our KIBIS group today decided to have a ‘KIBIS Christmas Gala Dinner’ on the 14th Dec. I suggested we make and bring food from our respective countries. This is going to be an interesting meal!

Italy: either sage stuffed roast chicken with walnut bread, or lasagne. (I’m hoping for lasagne, I haven’t had it in years.)
Canada: sweet potatoes with cranberries and maple syrup (Wow! I think I’m salivating just typing that.)
Japan: a variety of sushi (Okay, I’m a newbie at sushi. Hope I don’t make an ass of myself.)
USA: cornbread and DethNog.

Since the last two are obviously mine, I have more than a parenthetical comment to offer.

I’ve never made cornbread, unless you count Jiffy Mix. I don’t know if I can even get cornmeal here! I might end up going with my second option, buttermilk biscuits.

Proper southern recipes for either one are now being taken. I don’t have a clue…

The eggnog, however, is a classic family concoction. I have my dad’s instructions for this brew, and it is POTENT! Our tradition is to write on the jug ‘death nog’, because one morning mom put it in her coffee instead of milk. Wheee! Work today is so much more fun than usual!

I usually draw a skull n crossbones in a Santa hat on the jug, to keep it coffee-safe. Last year I had two, one was a cat and one a dog.

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Hmm, it seems I left the ‘deth’ part off last year.

Anyhow, if I could be bothered to dig it out, and had my dad’s permission, I’d give you the recipe. But I can’t, and I don’t. Maybe if someone asks nicely I will. Tomorrow, when I’m less giddy.