I’ve been thinking a lot lately about learning to play an instrument. More specifically learning to play the guitar. My brother taught himself to play, and I know a few other self taught musicians. I wonder if I could do it on my own though. I would need a guitar to start with. That one up there my brother sold not to long ago, although I do want to play acoustic as at least I could play it anywhere. Just an inkling, but I don’t even know how to tune one if I had it. I never thought myself to be very muscially inclined but I wasn’t too bad at playing happy birthday on the piano. Maybe a new world of music is in my very near future. I will keep you posted.

Feeling so out of it today, maybe because I slept in until noon. Or the fact that I just ate lunch about a half hour ago. My day is all off today. Now I sit here with a bit of a headache. Normally I wouldn’t post on days like today, but since I am trying to not miss a day of NaBloPoMo, here I am posting about really lame stuff. Nothing to keep you readers interested. You could just bypass this entry today if you like.

I could also complain about my obvious lack of word count, if you check out the little NaNoWriMo widget on my sidebar you will see I am a mere 8K behind where I should be right now. Part of this is the starting over, part of it is lack of motivation, and part is just I get tired of typing sometimes. I am still going to try though, I figured out a new daily word count that will get me to 50k at the end of the month, and if I at least stick to that I should have a pretty good first draft of a novel at the end of the month.

Well I am out…Happy Monday =)

I need to set up my other scanner, I am finding my current one is scanning a bit weirdly lately. I am surprised some days it still works seeing that it is eight years old. I know there are way better scanners out there and for cheaper, but if it still works why fuss with it. Still I have another all in one printer scanner down in the basement that I should just set up already and use…

Not sure why I am babbling on about scanners, just have a lack of things to say today. My brain is all mush, and really crowded with all these crazy thoughts. I sent out another round of promo cards earlier this week, and am really hoping some work comes in. I know I am totally new to all this, and just getting started and it takes time. I get impatient at times though, and it’s easy to feel discouraged when you sit around in your studio trying to come up with things to paint so that you can build a portfolio. I know the work will come, and that it does take time, and I will get there. One baby micro step at a time. I just wish I could take all my gremlins out for a day on the town and get them drunk and let them pass out so they would just stop talking stupid already.

I know how does that make any sense. I am trying, I am painting, I am certain it will all work out, and I am an artist. All that other trash in my brain right now just needs to go out.

The older we get the wiser we get?

I just realized I had not posted any photos of CJ from Halloween. I dress him up every year. He probably sees it as torture or something close. This year though the costume was a pumpkin and it was more like a t-shirt, which he can handle. It had a hood but it wouldn’t stay up and CJ is not a big fan of stuff on his head. So here are some of the highlights of the photo shoot…

He really is such a good dog when it comes to getting his photo taken. He will now sit and stay without me even having a treat in my hand. I kept trying to sit on the ground though during these and he didn’t understand what I was doing so he would come over and sniff me. Silly Dog!

Next month I will be taking part in a group show called Play Child Play over at the Effe Leven Gallery in Chicago. I haven’t really talked about it too much here, as I have been really busy trying to get the paintings done for it. Also getting them framed, and all the other little stuff that goes along with getting artwork ready for a show. It is a lot of work. It is almost done though, all that is left is to drop them off. This is one of the paintings I did for that show…

“laugh play dream” 12″ x 12″ mixed media on canvas

So I am working extra hard on my novel, and managed to get way ahead in word count. Yesterday while I was trying to make some invoices and then cleaning up the desktop I somehow trashed my novel. All 6,000 words gone in one quick click of the mouse. I didn’t notice though until hours later when I was all excited about the plot line and where I was headed with this story. Let’s just say I was devastated to realize that it was all gone, and I would have to start over…from scratch. Already five days in I need to make up 8,500 words in one day to catch up. BAH! Well I am off to take a nap and then try to work on getting some word count going again.

At least some good things happened yesterday to make deleting my novel not seem so bad.

Just hoping that we find out tonight that change is going to happen.

Not much else to say here, trying to be quiet, let the words come to me…

- warm November days
- sitting outside and reading
- keeping up with my daily word count for my novel
- paintings that just sort of come together
- my new charger for my camera
- short lines at the post office
- spending time with my husband
- the changing of seasons

Went to a baby shower yesterday. Lots of people having babies right now, well at least in my little world. Funny how there is a cycle to everything.