ellenmillion

More Muse Fusion fun!


Playing with a brush ink pen and Prismacolor colored pencils on Legion Kraft paper. (Original available, $15 or 15 credits)

I have FINISHED my not-a-book (again) and done another round of copy-edits on it. All that remains is formatting and backmatter, and I'm waiting on an answer to a chapter numbering question.

Kindergarten starts in a week.

A WEEK. WHAT?

*breaths into a paper bag*

Free to good home: Monster. Nearly five years old, mostly house-broken, poor table manners. Knows most basic commands. Ignores them. Tidy for age and species. Currently asking questions about whether she would be able to breath or talk without a tongue and why she can't take her body with her when she dies. Eats relatively little, usually over the course of one hour plus each meal and snack time. Negotiator level EXPERT.

In other news, my new windshield has a chip already, and I ran too long on my heroically changed flat tire (pro-tip, cold car drives a LOT like car with flat tire) and had to shell out for a complete set of four new tires for my car. On the upside, they are tremendously good new tires. (And they'd better be, for what I paid.)

In nicer news, I was featured in this collection of holiday craft downloads! http://blog.megcowley.com/2016/12/07/christmas/ That was a lovely pick-me-up.

This morning I managed to organize literacy bags for the preschool, sign up for my parent aide days for next semester, restock the hospital giftshop with coloring books, deliver a collection of ornaments and coloring books to Woven Sylver, go grocery shopping, mail coloring book subscriptions, and drop off boxes of outgrown clothing for charity.

During Guppy's not-very-quiet time today, I did get some artwork done. I'm about to the inking stage on this one:


This is a commission for the fabulous Senyaza series by Chrysoula (which you can buy at Amazon in a bundle. [this is an affiliate link, for disclosure...])

You can see a sneak peek of a piece in non-disclosure up in the corner, if you look closely. I got it about half inked today, as well.

Now I've got to go entertain a certain monster that I probably won't chose to abandon by the side of the road. Probably.

I'm going to be a bit shameless here, but the last few days, I have hit it out of the park, and I am pleased with myself. Bear with me. Or skip this. I'd understand.

Let me demonstrate with my list from Friday:

140 words for 78 Tarot description.
Release 78tarot art as promised last week. (Oops! I honestly thought I had!)
Z. cameo drawing.
Coloristas - post choices
Coloristas - PM files (uploading now)
Fold laundry + one more washed, dried and folded.
Lunch
Ship SF originals
April subscriptions (hardcopy and PDF)
Orders
Thank you note to MA x2
SF payouts
Finish Tentacle Friends
500 words on novella 6000+ words. Booyeah.

Because I am THAT awesome.

I also scanned Tentacle Friends, and Maiden, Mother, Crone, and took a nearly 2 mile hike with the daughter through the snow, and packed up some orders, and did some administrative stuff, and worked on my Kickstarter. (A huge shout-out to the husband, because there were No. Naps.) I am particularly pleased with the wordcount - 6000! That's... not quite a weekend record for me, probably my next best. My novella is to 19500, and I'm loving it.

(And to be fair, it did take 2 days instead of one to cross everything off, but I'm still chuffed.)

I had to share. Back to your regularly scheduled programming now. Carry on!


This was the final stretch in progress...

It was a state holiday, so the husband distracted the child for a few spells and I got Actual Work done. Among the things accomplished, I have Trying on Treasure available at Etsy now: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ellenmillion You can take 15% off anything on Etsy using: SPRING15.

We also have an actual, real bathroom sink! One in which water turns on with a faucet, and flows down a drain! For REALS! I am super excited about this.

I also redid the coloring book page in a pretty major way: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/coloringbooks.php

There are still some improvements I'd like to make, but those were more involved yet, and I figured this was a good first stopping point. You may note that several titles have Out of Print next to them. I did a rough tally on sales of some of them, and these were the most dire. Stock of some is quite low, so if you would like them, grab them now. (Or tell me to hold them for you, if you plan on backing the Kickstarter!) Several others are at risk; the Kickstarter will dictate whether they are archived, or put back into print.

That's the other thing I worked on this weekend: the Kickstarter! I am super excited about this one, and I've got most of the framework in place. I still need to make pretty and write some more content, but since I still need to do covers for the books I plan on doing, that's going to be put off a little bit. I'm planning to film some bits of the video on Thursday. (But I need a superhero shirt and cape before then!)

I also worked a little on this!



I hope everyone had a wonderful, happy Easter weekend.

I forgot to post about this here last week:



You can download the high res copy here: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/coloringbook.php?id=47

Over the weekend, we got some cabinets moved around in the kitchen and conquered a disaster area. (You know the type - it collects things you don't know where to put, until its an eclectic array of bottles and lunchboxes and things you temporarily wanted out of Guppy's reach, and gosh, I thought I'd thrown that out already....) We also worked on the bathroom sink - we have a vanity, and the faucet is attached to it (but not yet to water), and the exit plumbing is several steps closer to being hooked up. It looks so wonderfully bathroom-y in there!

I also have been nose-to-grindstone on artwork for the next collection of coloring books. On my desk now are these two still in pencil:



Guppy is being new levels of needy and clingy this morning, so that it for my time right now.

Yesterday was a health freefall, but I've rallied again! Rar!

Guppy had PJ day at preschool today, and got to wear her long red sleeping dress and bring a stuffed ray and her blanket. It sounded like great fun.

We're monkeying with new lights and bulbs in our living space, and it's already much brighter and nicer in our house. I will really love it once winter rolls around again, I know.

Got a little artwork done at the tea-shop today:



Much to catch up on - I did basically NOTHING yesterday. I didn't even vacuum or scoop the catbox. *shameface*

Sunlight is returning, and I'm so glad. It's noticeably brighter every morning, and more and more actual sunlight is hitting our land every day.



I'm spitting distance from the end of my 78tarot piece for the carnival deck. This was the piece earlier this afternoon. I've finished all the marker work at this point, but I will probably go in and do a few touches with gel pen and paint and pencils.



In other news, my daughter is utterly drunk with exhaustion. The last few days she has fought taking a nap or going to bed for hours each time, and then I have to wake her up long before she's ready. It's about three hours since I first tucked her into bed tonight. She just got up to go potty, then announced that her 'underpanties' were in the cat's water dish. She walked up the stairs singing 'Wiggly wiggly wiggly butt!' and careening into things. We have to leave early(ish) for swim lessons tomorrow and I'm basically dreading it.

Earthquake! Whee!

A fairly good rumbler at about 7 tonight, when husband and I got home from an afternoon movie and dinner date as belated celebration of our anniversary. We've actually had a whole lot of earthquakes lately, but this was the only we felt. Alaska Earthquake Information Center - and their page on this particular quake. Just a 5.07, now, though they reported 5.38 when I first looked at the page. Things rattled, but nothing fell down.

Sketch Fest is still on! I have worked on two more pieces, both of which I intend to finish:


Lovers, for the Sketch Tarot.


A long overdue illustration.

Both need a little anatomy refinement, but I'm liking how they've started. Both are ACEOs (2.5 x 3.5 inches), so a crazy amount of detail in a little space.

This is a first glimpse at a project I am incredibly happy to be involved in, Seventy Eight Tarot. 78 artists! 78 cards!



Mine is the 3 of pentacles: the completion of a project, teamwork, leadership, planning, and skill. The meta levels of this card are pretty amusing, and I've snuck in a deck of cards that will represent the 78 tarot project itself... :)

But that's not the only art!

I also finished the last not-Kickstarter custom card I promised for that project (ETA: Er, no, I have one more, but still haven't received references for that one...):



But I know why you're here:

You may have noticed I didn't blog all of last week. Or, maybe you didn't!

It was a little nuts. The garage is now about half-built, I think, so most days, the yard is this crazy swarm of people and equipment and loud noises. It's throwing the baby's napping off - she's gone from lovely 2-3 hour naps to 1-1.5 hour naps... and has decided to wake up a few hours earlier than usual most mornings, as well. To add sprinkles, she's waking up some nights, too. Friday night, we were up at 1, 3 and 5.

Brains... I need them badly.

I have started dance class again, which is quite nice. I need the exercise and grown-up time in equal portions, I think. I also went to gaming this weekend, which was lovely and much-needed, and got some solid work done on the last Fantastrix piece as well as a commission from that project. (Which I may or may not include in Fantastrix, depending on how it inks up... it may not be a good match in style.) I'm very, very close to the inking stage for Adopted:



I need to take a ruler to the architectural bits and refine the floor a bit. Any other last-minute thoughts for me?

I've been doing a lot of food things, too. It's smoking season - it's cool enough outside to do smoking without freezing things, so we did a biiiig pack of pulled pork for the winter. Guppy 'helps'.



Cranberries (lingonberries!) are ripe, so we've been picking those, too. I don't know what other toddlers are like, but this one LOVES to go outside. Several times a day she points imperiously at the door and insist that she wants to go play. The weather has been wretched, and she sometimes gets quite stompy when I try to explain that it's too wet. Sometimes we go outside anyway.

And she is very good at picking cranberries! I showed her what we were doing, and she was All About finding the little red berries and putting them in the bucket. She picks them one at a time, fishing around in the leaves if she drops one, and then lets it fall into the bucket, then tips the bucket to peer in after it trying to figure out which one she just put in. It only took a few instances of explaining that we didn't want leaves in the bucket before she was being very selective, and she only crushed the first few berries before accepting that we didn't want berry mush, either.



She also loves to 'help' me sweep and clean up, will 'close the door/drawer,' 'bring me the dishrag,' and 'find my/your shoes!' One of her favorite words is 'uh-oh,' which she says whenever she drops something. She has figured out how to open doors, though she isn't good at it yet, and likes to sit on things - sometimes backing up to them hilariously to get her butt on them.

My coffee is cold. I may need a cup of tea.