Well here we go, nearly half way through the month and then it will be half way through the year. Time has to slow down and fast. Is that a contradiction! I don’t know haha.
Anyway, I managed a good nordic walk yesterday. Thank goodness my shoulder seemed OK, so I am going to walk tomorrow.
I have had a fairly busy day today. I framed Bundy and Breakers portrait and did various other jobs. I finished up a small dog portrait I have been working on but haven’t had time to do a blog.
Tomorrow I will be sketching out and prepping my next 3 pastel pet portraits. I have space for a few watercolour Aka Jolly Splashes pet poryaits this month, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you are interested.
In other news I attempted my first C25K run. I tried running last year but it crippled my knees, so I found nordic walking. I think nordic walking will always be my first love, but I fancied giving running another go and it was suggested nordic walking may have strengthened my knees. Today I got my first run under my belt, and so far so good! I really hope they keep feeling OK as I would love to be able to run a couple of times a week as well. This fitness lark is really quite addictive!
I hope everyone is keeping well. The weather has been gorgeous today hasn’t it! I have certainly enjoyed my gentle nordic walk in the sunshine. As much as I would have liked to have pushed myself I don’t think it wise with my shoulder. I shall continue with the gentle walks 2-3 times a week and continue to concentrate on om C25K. I am supposed to do 3 runs a week, but I think with two Nordic walks at least it will make up for one of those, so I shall only do two. I think having rest days are incredibly important. Especially at the moment. If I get very sore I am hardly going to feel motivated to run am I!
I have had a day of packing up various pet portraits, tomorrow I shall be starting Digby’s horse portrait, so look out for his blog, very excited to be doing a horse again! I have another one in July with a human face in it! Eeek!
I need to really collate my photos of happy clients with their pet portrait for this blog I want put together. Lot’s of ideas going around my head at the moment. For the time being I am going to have to study my map for the walk tomorrow evening before our pizza and wine night, but no wine for me as I am t-total and loving it! So good for my mental health. I will talk more about my the advantages of it in another blog I think. I know I have discussed my mental health before.
Well, that was a bit of a scare! I managed to delete a whole page on my website, that then managed to completely muck up the whole menu layout on my website. Websites are NOT my strong point, but hey ho! All I seem good for is writing boring blogs, maybe!
I have to say looking at my google analytics it has been very quiet the last couple of weeks, it often is at this time of the year. I guess people are going away from now on onward. I forget that some lucky people get to go away at this time of year and aren’t restricted to school holidays! Lucky blighters!
I have been busy working on my 3rd horse portrait of the year yesterday and today. A gorgeous coloured gelding called Digby. I do love my coloureds. I would really love to get to paint more. I have a personal project in mind for horses. So look out for that! Anyway you can read my mini blog on Digby here.
I hope everyone has been having a good week. I have been busy with various bits and pieces, some socialising, some work and some admin and exercise, amongst the usual dog walking and tea drinking. Tomorrow will be a busy morning as I need to make a post office trip and hopefully make some good progress on Geddy and Rebus.
I need to get Digby posted along with a gift voucher too. Other than that it;s pretty much painting. It is a quiet time of year as I mentioned earlier in the blog. I have plenty of work to take me up to August, but I do have a few slots remaining for pet portraits in both pastels and the Jolly Splashes style. In all honesty, it is not going to be long before the Christmas rush starts. Sounds crazy to think about it in May, but I will get orders coming in within the next couple of months. So if you are thinking of gifting a pet portrait, honestly don’t wait!
Another thing I have been busy doing is making sure my website is working OK and that I am still ranking for keywords. Since the upheaval last month it does appear google has had a shuffle around for some of them. Some have been affected more than others. I am making sure I haven’t missed any errors that need correcting and trying to apply a little bit of the knowledge I gained when the disaster struck. I know there is a lot more to learn and I really want to get to grips with wordpress so I can do much more and maybe even help people with their websites in the future. I find it quite good fun! I like a different challenge, I just wish there were more hours in the day to learn these things!
I have made a little more progress on Rebus and Geddy’s portrait today. I have really struggled with my motivation. I am really tired and I am not sure why, I have been sleeping OK for me. Anyway I plan to have another session on them tonight and tomorrow when I get back from Nordic Walking. Maybe that is what I need, another good blast in the countryside, it fixes most things, along with a decent cuppa!
I have been working on two small Jolly Splashes pet portraits today. One is a cat portrait, yay to the felines, and the other is an Akita portrait that is now destined for a large 30×30 inch canvas. I am really hoping I will be able to successfully film the progress of his painting like I did Badgers portrait. You will be able to watch his slightly dodgy video on his blog by following the link above!
First up is Toby the cat. I am really trying to experiment with my use of colours and I am really pleased with how they worked out with Toby.
And here is Ted, Teddy and Toby. I was getting confuse between the two! As I said this one is going on a huge canvas and I can’t wait to paint it. There is something so exciting and raw about having a big canvas in front of you. OK it’s probably to some people but it is to me!
Unfortunately the other lovely akita, also called Teddy, yes you must understand my confusion now! Went missing in the post, so he is on my job list to repaint for my client. It is a real shame, but royal mail have been amazing the last 15 years so I am not going to moan!
I can’t believe how much I have worked out today. My morning started with over sleeping and making my nordic walk by the skin of my teeth, followed by 5 mile brisk nordic walk, came home and then did my 1st run of my second week of couch to 5k! It sounds like I am mad, but I need my rest days and as I am walking Monday and Tuesday, possibly even the gym Tuesday, so if ran tomorrow that would be 4 days on the trot. Wednesday will by next rest day, followed by a run Thursday and Saturday, as there is no walking next weekend due to it being a bank holiday.