Reassessing

If you are a regular visitor to this blog and have been checking up on me, I'm sure you've noticed there has been no new baby girl painting since week twenty-four. The filly herself is alive and well, so no worries there, but I'm admitting I have reassessed my decision to do this project for a year. The last painting marked the six-month point, and I've decided not to continue, because believe it or not, doing a daily painting once a week, for me, is much tougher than doing one every day like I've done with my Thirty Horses Thirty Days projects. I've found it doesn't have the same benefit, artistically, and I haven't been happy with the paintings themselves. I've been fortunate enough to have sold a number of my larger paintings in the last few months, so I'm finding myself in an inventory deficit in that department! This winter I need to do something about that! Never fear, there will be more Baby Girl paintings, and definitely photos. The one above was taken yesterday, when the sun decided to shine! She is very fuzzy and sweet right now.

I think we may have finally decided on a barn name for the little girl. While "Jelly Bean" was contemplated (her mom's nickname, Jubie, is shortened from JubeJube!) and in her tough-girl stage I thought about Zena, Warrior Princess :-D , I think it will be "Polly." That actually came about when she first had to walk across mud and wasn't too impressed with it - I told her it was okay, she would be running at Woodbine and it's Polytrack! I think Polly is a pretty cute name though. They may very well end up calling her Jelly Bean at the track though. Mom's reputation precedes her!

Tomorrow is closing day at Woodbine, and we're holding our breath and hoping good things for the final start of the season for the first UnStable homebred, Peaker. C'mon Peaks! After that the gang will go on holidays for a couple of months. Here on the farm, we'll be counting the days till foaling season. First mare is due in early February, so it's not far away. In the meantime, I have a Christmas commission on the easel, and half a dozen WIPs in the wings. One of my favourite comments? Sleep is over-rated!

In the meantime, if you are looking for any holiday gifts, be sure to check out my Etsy store for some ideas, or visit my online gallery, Red Willow Gallery. And, if you haven't seen it already, I have some of my daily paintings for sale on my Facebook page for very special prices. Tomorrow, December 5, is the last day.

Okay - back to work!

The Art of Procrastination!

I haven't practiced this particular art in a while...but it seems to have reared its somewhat ugly head around here. It's my annual last-ditch effort to pull something together for the Art Show at the Dog Show, and I just must've started this painting too early because I'm dawdling! I did get some significant work done on it the other night, and while I wish my excuse for not painting today could be that it was still wet, that just isn't true!

I will, however, dredge up some excuses for my lack of productivity - beyond the typical Christmas/family line. After the mounds of snow we got before Christmas, the temperature worked its way above freezing and brought with it rain. It rained Friday night and much of Saturday, turning our legendary driveway into an even slicker version of a skating rink. On my way out to the barn Saturday morning, I fell victim to the evil icy driveway. While I managed not to knock myself out, I did hit my head pretty hard. I think from now on when the driveway is icy I'll be wearing my helmet and impact vest to walk out to the barn!

Because of the ice the horses stayed in, and after taking some time to recover from my fall, mucking out was a slow process. They ended up staying in again today because of high winds...and of course my body is sore from the top of my head to my tailbone, so again things took a bit longer out there today. I'm not usually a whiner, but I'm claiming that whole story as my reason for not working on the painting! Does that work?

I'm counting on being able to turn the horses out tomorrow. All the snow is gone, but the temps have dropped again so hopefully it won't be too muddy. And hopefully I'll feel more like myself, because I've got a lot to do tomorrow!

Just for fun, I'm going to post a few photos I took from the window the other day (when we still had snow!). This is Billy...playing with a stick. Okay, Billy! Guess it's time to find him some new toys!

Christmas is Coming!

Ugh, did I really just say that? Anyway, my reason for doing so is that I've been working on a number of Christmas card orders this last while, and as a result I've posted a page on my site with the designs I have available. These cards are blank so you can write your own greeting, or if Christmas isn't your thing and you just use this time of year to catch up with your friends, they still do the trick. I know today we put pen to paper less and less, but I still think it's nice to get something other than bills in the mail! For more info just email me!

Today in Southern Ontario, it's cold and rainy. So far I'll take that over snow. The ponies are all in, nice and warm. Great for them, more work for me! :-D Ah well...so it goes!