ellenmillion

"You're not eighteen anymore," the doctor told me.

Then he apparently heard his words and desperately back-pedaled. "I mean, you're still quite young, of course..." and turned red.

Not-eighteen-me should not be attempting to level railroad ties by herself apparently.

Nor should such days be followed by abnormally active days spent working on the woodshed and blowing glass ornaments.

Friday morning, it all caught up with me a vengeance on step #8 of 11 with hot mugs of coffee in each hand.

Adjectives like blinding and blazing and brutal are appropriate.

As there was no real choice but to take those last few steps, that's what I finally did, after standing there a stunned moment and a few false starts. Then I staggered into the bedroom, safely deposited the coffee and fell into bed.

The husband earned his wifecare merit badge by getting me fed and carefully put in the car for an emergency visit to the chiropractor. X-rays later, it was determined that it was "just" muscular. It was still pegging the pain meter.

The next three days were spent in a stupor of agonizing pain, reclined in a chair, lifting nothing heavier than my phone. I couldn't get out of my chair without assistance. We watched a lot of TV and husband earned that badge several times over. Monday, desperate for relief, I went to first care, and they gave me a shot in the ass and some prescriptions.

So, it's been un-fun. I am feeling much, much better, but that's relative. Today is the first day since injury that I've felt up to opening the laptop; I haven't even done any art. I am going to take it super, super easy for the rest of the week at least - they told me it could be several weeks before I was back to normal, and I am not going to push it. See above about not being eighteen.

But hey, I've got a bandaid with a dinosaur riding a skateboard on my butt, so it's not all bad.

***

In other news, it's Skycat Month at Torn World! We've got several skycat-themed pieces we'll be releasing this month, including this amazing felted skycat from my talented friend Carina:



Next week is our muse fusion! You can leave prompts on any topic, but I'll be focusing on skycat-themed work.

The tarot expo was really fun and inspiring. I have used it to kickstart my muse on the Sketch Tarot project I started a gazillion years ago, and used THAT to kickstart a workup of new rewards at my Patreon - there is now a $3 level that includes a sketch tarot file every month. And a $4 level that includes another extra coloring page every month. And there are higher levels that you'll have to click that link to see... *whistles innocently*

Today was a crazy day. I ordered lumber to complete the woodshed, and they surprised me by saying they could deliver it tomorrow. Which meant I needed to get some bags of gravel to level the pad for the steps. And I got new propane for the grill, and I took a flat tire in to get repaired (for free!), and I bought dog food and got replacement parts for a broken lamp and went to the post office and got water and wrote about a thousand words and added an epilogue to my not-a-book. I even spread out some of the gravel, though I had to stop before it was finished because that's hard work and I had to go to bellydance practice.

*lies on the floor*

Here's the last of the pieces I did for my feature in Color On! Magazine:



Now I'm going to go to bed and sleep the sleep of the just. Or the just tired, anyway.

It was a weekend of beds! We bought Guppy a bed frame, finally. She outgrew her toddler bed a while ago, and we had a mattress on the floor for her, but this is much, much better.

Not stopping there, we dismantled my weird-sized bed and turned it into a twin XL, which frees up the bedroom space ENORMOUSLY, and makes the room so much more gorgeous. Hopefully it will mean fewer barked shins, as well.

There was gaming and art on Sunday, which I haven't scanned yet.

It's a sulky, rainy day today, and we're watching movies while I do some Facebook promo and jot notes on my not-a-book. (Earlier, we had a balloon party and drew in Guppy's workbooks together).

Don't forget about the Amazon clearance: http://ellenmillion.dreamwidth.org/1609672.html

And the next Sketch Fest is the 21st! Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/144259459467548

And I promised artwork this week! I am the featured artist at Color On! Magazine. I did five exclusive pieces for them (back in April!), and you can buy print or digital issues. One of them is Butterflies at Solstice, posted a few weeks ago. One of them is this piece:


Under the Rose Bush - Fairy Wedding. The original is available, inquire!

You can read the interview they did here: https://coloronmag.com/issue/july-2017/

(And then there was food poisoning. Better now, but not up to bellydancing tonight.)

Aging pets are hard. Just, hard.

A few nights ago, Norway tried to get up the front steps and failed. There are only two, and they aren't that steep, but he was having a bad back legs day. We put out the truck ramps for him, but they are metal, and although strong, sort of rattly. He looked at them, he looked at me, and said nope. I did finally get him up them with a firm hand on his collar, but it wasn't much fun. The next day, he ignored them and hopped down the steps. That night he got up the steps with effort. The following night, he walked right up them. It's so variable!

He's not the only one having issues with steps. Velcro's catbox and bed are on the main floor of our house, and her food and second waterdish are upstairs, where Norway can't help himself. I've pondered moving her food down because she clearly doesn't enjoy the stairs anymore, but figured it was the only exercise she was getting at this point. Yesterday, however, I watched her fall down them twice, and that's the end of that. The first time was just a few steps as she was going up. She picked herself up and powered up them, so I figured it was just one of those ungraceful cat moments they pretend you don't witness. But shortly after, she came down them and sort of got away from herself and ended up upside down at the bottom rocking in shock with her little extra toes in the air. She mewed at me in a very disappointed way when I came to help her up and spent the rest of the day sulking in her bed.

She's been missing the catbox more regularly lately, too. Oh, she tries! There are no accidents around the house, but sometimes she just barely gets into the catbox and the important parts aren't there yet. I've got puppy pads down, so cleanup isn't bad.

Poor old lady cat. Poor old man dog.

It seems like a lot of friends lately are losing beloved fur family members; Facebook seems to show me a few each week lately. I suspect it's just that I'm hyper-aware of them right now, because I know that my time with my own fur friends is not going to be a lot longer.

Have some art!

I recently did this for Portrait Adoption:


This one started life as a Sketch Fest sketch, in very rough form, and got refined at a gaming session.

A little over 800 words yesterday, slogging onward. The not-a-book is about 16k. I do not anticipate getting writing time today, as we have a playdate over quiet time. I've also got two more #junicorn pieces done (but not scanned), and am 1 behind (not counting today).

In less thrilling news, I finished the laundry, cleaned out the toaster with the air compresser, vacuumed upstairs (downstairs, too, but that's daily), and Guppy helped me measure and cut wood blocks for the woodshed.



And when I say helped, I don't even mean that with air-quotes! She fetched the blocks and drew the lines while I held the square. (She's wearing gloves because it's splintery treated lumber, not because it's cold.)

We made GREAT progress on the shed over the weekend, and we had our neighbors over for dinner, which was simply delightful, and we got a date night to go watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and have sushi. There have definitely been good times.

I'm growing on my bangs, and the irritation level is about a 6 right now. I've promised to try it until September.

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.

My little Guppy just missed being a leap year baby, by about 12 hours. I was just as happy she decided not to wait.

I remembered to take bear photos yesterday!



This weekend was very busy and almost entirely wonderful. On Saturday, we worked in the bathroom, getting the hooks for towels up.

We also unexpectedly got a phonecall letting me know that my worktables were ready for pickup - I figured it would be another 2 weeks at least, and hadn't cleared off my current tables yet! This took very little time, actually, thanks to the massive purge I'd done a few months back. I dismantled the tables - one went directly to the transfer station, and vacuumed the impressive dustbunnies from the corners, and we assembled massive, heavy new tables to work on. I meant to take before and after photos, but forgot to. So here's a halfway through photo (imagine a second, sagging folding table across the left):



And the new tables set up:



My back felt quite strained after all the lifting and constructing, so I took a pain pill. I think it was as much impending illness as it was backstrain, on retrospect, because I woke up partway through the night with fever chills, which interspersed the next day with hot spells and horrible lung pain with occasional (very painful) coughing fits. A cold pill knocked most of the symptoms down so that I had a good birthday with Guppy. (With a few naps!) I was even able to help Jake finish the shelf in the bathroom, and it all looks SO good. Like a real, classy bathroom. Stylish, even. It's a little crazy.

I'm feeling mostly recovered this morning - some lung and coughing pain, but no fever, and the coughs feel effective and less horrible spasm-y. Two nights in a row of excellent sleep helped a lot; I have energy again, and cleaned up the house, paid bills, and took a shower without feeling like I needed to lie down again. (I have parent aide again tomorrow, and I'm thinking I'll be fine for that...)

My not-a-book is still doing awesome, and someday I will stop refreshing my stats and gabbing endlessly about. I had planned to write this weekend, but that just didn't happen... (see above).

I've got a second load of laundry to go move around and fold, so I should do that. There may be art, later, and maybe some words. There will definitely be a tea party in the blanket fort.

Happy solstice! It really matters up here - we're down to less than 4 hours of sun (and functionally NONE on this side of the hill), and I am more than ready to get some more of that back.

I feel back on the horse, health-wise, but as many times as that's gone quickly sideways on me this fall, I'm making sure to stay hydrated and rested.

I have been working on artwork I can't share yet, for 78Tarot, and the perk for the subscription Kickstarter. But here's a piece leftover from Inktober. This is the last one, I think:


(Original available, $15 includes US shipping) on hold

This weekend I redid some of the bathroom work we did over the week - we'd accidentally buried some electricity for the lights behind finish work, and it needed to be dug out. And after Guppy got up from her nap on Saturday, I impulsively said, 'It's time to give away some things!' and we spent about three hours doing a MASSIVE room purge. She was remarkably compliant with the idea that we were giving away piles of her toys to 'girls who don't have any' and we also took the opportunity to put up some of the toys she either didn't play with yet or didn't play... er... correctly with. Puzzles, for example, were all dismantled into pieces and carried around in tote bags with crayons, cards, stamps, play jewelry, lincoln logs, and Duplos. We sorted bags and bags and bags of these miscellaneous things, and put up all the Lincoln logs and Duplos, sorted the stamps into their boxes (put up), put all the art supplies together (left down), separated out the cards (also left down, and not sorted into their games - it's just a giant stack of playing and flash cards), and her room looks marvelously clean and uncluttered. Her training potty was given away, and her diaper genie and the stroller and booster seat and all the things she doesn't use anymore. The basement looks better, too. It was followed by a necessary flurry of vacuuming, and everything is much less 'I've been busy lying on the couch praying for death' and more 'a house I wouldn't be ashamed to show people'.

I have two more gifts I'd like to get mailed (already late, of course) before the season is officially over, and a few small family things to wrap. Otherwise, I'm ready for Christmas to be here! It's supposed to get COLD over the next few days (-30!), and I'm actually really excited for that, too. As soon as Guppy is up from her nap (soon!), we'll be going outside to stock up on wood inside and I'll start a fire.

I still need to do my November roundup! This may be the lastest monthly wrapup I've ever done... but I was sick most of that month, so it probably won't be worth the wait. :P

I did not blog on Friday. I called the truck dealership about getting the power steering fixed (It was a serious workout parking that thing!) and they surprised me with an invitation to bring it right in. So, Guppy and I packed up a bag of tricks and went in to entertain the staff and salesmen by gallivanting about the showroom like a pair of loons. Once we had the diagnosis and time estimate (broken pump, 2 hours), we got a shuttle ride to the swimming pool!

And that was AWESOME.

Guppy hung onto me like a little barnacle at first, then accepted a floaty barbell and a vest, and was off on her own. At first she wanted to cling, then wanted at least a hand on her, then nothing - but I'd better stay close, and by the time we left, she was paddling off by herself and not at all bothered that I'd swim a few paces away to catch a ball and talk to her from across the lane. She even off-balanced once and dunked herself under - and after I got her back up on her barbell, I backed off again and she was just fine. We were in the pool for a little over an hour, and it was my idea to finally leave. That's at least double any previous pool time. The swimming teacher was there and very pleased with Guppy's progress. She says Guppy's ready for the big girl class! Horrah! We'll start that in June.

Swimming success!

Back to the dealer, to get a truck that turns without having to throw all my weight on the steering wheel, getting a load of water at the fillup station, and then home.


At the water fillup.

Our Friday evening adventure involved broken glass. Lots, and lots, and lots of broken glass. Guppy stood up in my chair and pushed over the floorlamp, which hit the ground with an amazing explosion and shattered the glass lamp from one end the living room to the other. There was glass in the kitchen, there was glass in the bathroom (the door was open). There was glass in the pile of Guppy's favorite blankets. There was glass under all of the chairs. There was glass ON the kitchen chairs. So then there was a lot of sweeping and vacuuming. Miraculously, the lamp still works, just needs a new glass bowl. When I yelled at Guppy to STAY IN THE CHAIR, she buried her head in her arms, then she sobbed at Jake, "I need a timeout."

Saturday, Jake took me out for Mother's Day dinner (a night early, to avoid the crowds). Guppy has gone from wailing inconsolably when I leave the room to pushing me out the door, demanding, "Can you go now?" Because Aunt R is WAY more fun than me.

My little girl is getting all independent and grown up. *sniffles* Also, she just got another one of her molars, and she is starting to refer to herself reliably as 'I' instead of 'Me.' I think last week's dose of extra monster was another mental level.

We had dinner at the Lemongrass, and we were going to go play mini-golf, but in getting ready to go, the topic of coats came up and I bemoaned my lack of a light-weight nice coat. I have a fabulous heavy coat - absolutely gorgeous, and utterly useless at temperatures above about 10 below. But for warmer weather, I have a lot of fun, casual (mostly worn-out) things, but nothing appropriate for a date night or dinner. Not that it matters a LOT in Fairbanks, mind you, but sometimes you like to look good.

So, instead of mini-golf, we ended up going coat shopping. I got a beautiful little peacoat, light grey, that should go with anything nice that I have, a moderate winter clearance coat to replace the one I wore out this winter, a pair of pants, and a sweater that I love to pieces. Shopping without a 3-year-old in tow is blissful. Best Mother's Day presents ever.

This morning, we got up and motivated, and started cutting ceiling boards for the bathroom. We've got it about 1/3 put up, along with insulation for sound protection from the bedroom, and another 1/3 cut, waiting for Guppy to get up from her nap to go up. They are cedar boards and not only does the bathroom ALREADY look an order of magnitude better, but it smells AMAZING.

Now, sea monster coloring pages! I have finished two of the sketches I started (one posted earlier as a Mother's Day freebie), and have a third nearly there. We are less than $100 to professional printing, and I'm really, really hoping we get there so I can make these generally available. :) http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/1515101.html

It was a lovely weekend. We got the fan ripped out of the bathroom, though we didn't get as far as getting the new one installed; we ran out of materials to mount the new one. Apparently, we've moved on from the stage of housebuilding where we had extra 2x4s lying around everywhere. I also got good art time at gaming (in addition to being able to smash a bunch of nasty little gnomes with high-end office chairs). I did a new portrait from scratch (in the queue), refined my 78Tarot sketch, and did a fairly finished sketch of a gift drawing that I've had in mind for a while.

And of course, there were lots of trips out into the cold to look for the moon. (The moon is up right now, but the Guppy is not.)

It's looking likely that we'll finish one of our woodpiles today, which is rather randomly exciting. It's an older pile of birch, and grew some interesting mushrooms over our very, very wet summer (despite being covered). I'm suspicious that these mushrooms have been the cause of some of my sneezing fits, so I'm curious to see if that stops once we've moved to the next pallet of wood.

It's 35 below in town this morning, but must be warmer than 20 below up here, because our outdoor LED lights are no longer in strobe mode. (Thank GOODNESS.)

My inbox is at 34, but nearly all of them are NEW emails; I did well on last week's goal to weed out the inbox a bit.

I have new work up at Portrait Adoption! Okay, technically, it's not NEW. One is several years old but I've held onto it to release during the site upgrades:




The original is available through PA: http://portraitadoption.com/portrait.php?id=2576

The other is a piece I've just added color to:



I have two (totally new) portraits in the queue to be released this week, but I'm hoping other artists will submit some work so it's not just a flood of my own work. HINT HINT HINT.

I'm off to do more color work while I can. And also, get some breakfast. And some phonecalls to find out if anyone in town has prescription cat food, because I was not thinking far enough ahead.

We went to a birthday party on Wednesday, and Guppy discovered the joy of wading pools:



The weather was fine, so I didn't mind that she got a little wet. Then, a little wetter, as some of the kids were slinging buckets of water and throwing balls. Then, she decided to step INTO the pool, with her shoes still on... I caught her after just one foot, but we still cut short our festivities and she learned to say 'soaking wet!' We did stay for hot dogs, and many delicious side dishes, and ice cream punch, all of which were met with great enthusiasm. Sunday, she woke up and demanded more hot dogs, and when I told her we didn't have any, she explained that we could get in the car and go up the driveway for hot dogs.

She was particularly monstery, through the day, and practiced yelling and being upside down, as well as throwing Mom's phone and making a pile. I understand why some species eat their young (Jake argues that this would be a poor return on our investment - she's a spindly little thing, not enough meat). We went for walks both days with Norway - very long walks, considering the length of her legs. She only turned around to come home because I insisted, knowing that I would be carrying her up the last hill, at least. We played in the turtle and walked around the house several times. I sang the Sesame Street theme song seven hundred times. "Suuuuunny days. Mama! Suuuuuunny days! Sing!"

The ladybugs, despite their habit of fleeing my garden after I release them, are starting to make a dent on the horrific aphids on my delphiniums. The cilantro is doing better than it has any business doing here, and everything else is flourishing except the basil, which looks a little traumatized from its re-potting. I'm still thinning out violets and putting them on the slopes that washed out. They aren't exactly spreading yet, but they aren't dead there yet, either, which is as much as I can really hope from that terrible soil. The trench continues to do its work and after several more torrential rains, there hasn't been any more sliding.

The painting in the garage may be finished by tomorrow. I am delighted with our contractors so far - they are going to have the WHOLE thing done in a week (they estimated two), and under budget by a good amount. Then, we can start moving shelving out there, and I will have a MUCH nicer workspace in the basement. (Not that I have much time to USE it right now.)

I do have artwork to share - I will be releasing it here shortly!

And I finished my sketch AND my ink stage for the RTH multi-artist collaboration project, which is a big load off. Bills to pay, today. Laundry, as well, dessert to make, nephew to ferry, and... probably something else I'm forgetting. Inbox is at 80.