What I did on my Summer Vacation…..

Remember that first little essay we used to have to write when school started in the fall?  You know the one….

“What I did on my Summer Vacation”

Here’s mine….so far….

I was by my mother’s side for yet another biopsy done on my step father…..good news no cancer

I helped my son and his bride to paint 4 bedrooms, 1 utility room, and a back porch in their new home

I cleaned and then painted darn near our entire house…which we then put on the market and SOLD!  At least I hope it is sold.  We still have to make it past the inspection and appraisal.

I’m still working on window treatments for my son and daughter-in-law’s new home

I now…due to the unfortunate accident of a toilet overflow, must sort and throw out damaged personal items that had been stored below said toilet!  Probably not all bad as we needed to purge and let go many of those items anyway….it is just the timing that sucks!

I am still working on sweet Nuchi……being extremely grateful for his mom and dad’s patience!  Thank you so much!

Now..don’t get me wrong, I am happy to do each and everything thing on the above list.  Although I would have preferred to avoid the ‘toilet accident’ it too serves a purpose.  It is just a lot to process and get done in the span of a few short weeks.  The good news, as I look back on all this, I realize how much I have accomplished and how good it feels to be moving forward.  How wonderful it is going to feel to finally handover the keys of our home to its new owner, to stand back and see the smiles on my son and his wife’s faces when the window treatments are hung in their new home, to finally purge and ‘let go’ of all that ‘stuff’ that I have been holding on to for far too long, and to know that special joy that comes when I send off yet another pet portrait of a beloved and cherished furbaby.  I’m getting there….day by day, step by step….

Now, speaking of  ‘step by step’, here is the little Prince….

I still have work to do on his little face, but I felt I needed a break.  Sometimes I ‘over focus’ on an area and it helps to move away from it and then come back with fresh eyes and a new perspective.  So I decide to start blocking in the fur on the body.  As you can see I start by putting in a base color.  Sometimes I will lay in the darker tones first, but I felt with Nuchi I needed to start more in the mid tones.  Staying in the mid tones enables me to keep the transparency of some of the lighter tones.  Some colors, especially the rust tones are difficult to ‘bring forward’ if you have a really dark tone behind them.  I always try to block in the color using brush strokes that flow in the same direction as the fur.

For my painters out there…..here are a couple of  photos with a little closer view of the process…..

Now….do tell…

What have you been doing on your summer vacation?