So my working week starts with two new fresh pet portraits on the easel of two golden retrievers. It is two separate dog portraits, Bazia and Morton. Their pet portraits measure 16×12 inches each and you can read about them here
I don’t think I have mentioned it, but I am going for blood tests as my hormone levels aren’t right. It has been not right for a while and the gp thought it needed testing. It is playing havoc with my anxiety and my mood swings are all over the place. It could be one of a few things, some of which I care not to think about any of the possibilities it could be. Non will be particularly great. We shall have to wait and see. As a result of this blood test I am missing my nordic walk tomorrow and will be working most of the day, except for when poor Maggie has to have her boosters. That is another worry in itself as she had a bit of a reaction last time. I think I will be glad when tomorrow is over!
In other news google and I seemed to be locked in our battle over rankings again. I am stubborn and hopefully I will win out again, but we shall see. It’s a constant battle keeping your profile out there and visible to people. I love the challenge, of course I would love to spend my days painting pet portraits and wildlife paintings, but that isn’t the case sadly. Maybe I will win the lottery and I can paint for pleasure totally.
I am also planning a painting for my own wall! Now that is a first. I have the odd painting up to help with storage issues, but this is going to be of my own pets! I am starting with the two dogs. I am undecided whether to put them in the same portrait or individually. I plan to work out some mocks as dedicate a blog to the whole process so you can see how the Jolly Splashes pet portraits come together. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Hopefully I like it enough to hang on my wall. It’s strange how I don’t want them in a more traditional style. I think if I did I would commission another pet portrait artist for the job. Let’s face it, I look at my work allllll day long haha!
So today was blood test day an hopefully in a few days I will be one step closer to finding out what is going on with me! I really hope it is nothing hugely problematic. I suspect it will be a second set of bloods in a week or so, but for the time being I am trying not to let my anxiety get the better of me over the whole situation.
In-between my trip to the hospital I went to the post office and posted a couple of pet portraits,a minature akita portrait and Dingo’s portrait. Both Jolly splashes style. I also managed a few hours on Baiza’s portrait
My poor little dog Maggie had to go to the vets today also which is quite anxiety inducing for herself and me. Last time she had a horrible reaction to them, the same day as the day my daughter broke her arm. Yes that day is one day I would like to forget about. Maggie clearly remembered that the vets don’t do nice things and struggled so much the vet only managed to administer half the injection, so she had to do it twice. Poor Maggie was not happy. However we are now 5 hours since and no reaction yet, so I am keeping all my fingers crossed she will be fine now and if there was to be any problem it would have shown. She is being extra cuddly, but I love Maggie cuddles, and Luke’s, but Maggie doesn’t like sharing me, the little tinker!
Anyway time to continue my duel with google organic rankings now! There is definitely some weird things occurring there, I can’t work it out. I hope it settles down soon. I am off to watch stranger things. We watched season 3 and now we are starting at the beginning again. If you haven’t watched it, I really recommend you do!
Today has been flat out painting. I am very tired now and I think I am going to write a quick update and crawl into bed and call it a night. I have another full on day tomorrow so I can feel like I have caught up a little bit. I have another horse portrait to start next week and some gift vouchers have been redeemed. My next big deadlines are just before mid August so I won’t have much respite. I always have work, but these are time dependant so I can’t let anyone down.
I made excellent progress with Baiza’s and Morton’s dog portraits, so tomorrow it will be a case of finishing up the details and scanning in for my client to get the approval to sign and frame. My husband has to take them to London next week. I also need to frame my double dog portrait tomorrow. I started today, but that needs finishing up. After that it is making further progress on a border collie portrait. Phew, I feel out of breath typing all that!
Well today hasn’t been so great, my baby boy is all poorly. Ok he isn’t a baby anymore, but he is my baby. You know what I mean. He has a high temp a sore throat, ear ache and a headache. In fact as the day has gone on, his temp has got higher. It seem such a shame for him to miss his last few days of school, but what will be will be. I really hope he feels better soon.
Despite him being off I still managed to get some work done on my current pet portraits, and made brilliant progress on Baiza and Morton’s dog portraits I am delighted. I only had a small window to get these completed in as my client is flying in from the far East for 3 days only. Just the framing to go now, which I will start tomorrow.
So the little man, I probably shouldn’t say little really anymore is finally feeling better. He picked up about mid day and I managed to get out for a nordic walk, thank goodness, as I hadn’t made Monday. It was full of laughs which was just what I needed. I got back and worked some more on a border collie pet portrait, tomorrow I will upload a photograph of that piece, and then it’s a step back to the horse portraits with a painting of a bay horse.
I can’t believe how tired I am. I think that intense period of work I did Monday/Tuesday caught up with me. It always does if have that amount of concentration going on. I certainly acheived a lot in a short period of time. I can’t do it very often that’s for sure. The upcoming pet portraits will be done at a slightly slower pace. I still have many commissions to get through along with it being the summer holidays its going to be a busy, busy time!
What did I say?! I knew my blood test results would be in for today and I have to have further blood tests yayyyy. I also swear bad luck follows me.
Today started off well, I went for breakfast with one of my good friends anf then I planned to work this afternoon. Usual drill, but Maggie had other ideas. Oh yes she did. She ate two raisins that accidentally got spilt. I am so relieved I saw it as I may never have realised until it was too late. I actually didn’t see her eat them but she hoovered up some other scraps that had fallen in the same place. I couldn’t wait and see, it was straight there where they induced vomiting. Up two came along with various other contents, the receptionist found it very amusing to give me a running commentary!
They think because I acted quickly she is low risk. It can cause sudden kidney failure if not treated promptly or all the raisins are brought up. She still has to have 3 lots of activated charcoal and a blood test next week so we are keeping everything crossed.
Please, please be aware of what is and isn’t poisonous to your dogs. Onions, garlic, raisins and chocolate are just a few. If they do ingest anything they shouldn’t please act quickly and don’t adopt a wait and see approach as it could well be fatal. Read more about toxic foods to dogs and Maggie’s experience here
Tomorrow I shall definitely be back to the pet portraits, but tonight I am emotionally drained after all that!
I did manage to walk today and I then I came home a slept, and slept, I was shattered last night but we had a bit of storm rumbling around which sends my crazy Jack Russell a bit mental, so I didn’t get the sleep I had hoped for. I did managed to do one of three Jolly Splashes mini watercolour pet portraits completed and will get the other two, plus a third done tomorrow. I hope! I also need to frame Morton and Baiza’s dog portraits and a few other odds and sods! I will be sure to post the finished and framed photos of the two pet portraits.