An update at last. ;)

Oh hello intarwebs and my lovely readers! :) You see that dude up here, with his cute little chubby body and exhilarated expression on his face because life is oh so awesome? Yeah, that one has been ruining my life keeping me up. The only reason I'm able to type this post is because the last 2 nights have shown mild improvements in his sleep behaviour, but there were nights which had him wake up 10-12 times making me feel devastated in the mornings. Then try to work, film lessons, edit videos, reply to emails, deal with both kids during the day. I was a mere effigy, puddle of my former fantastic self. ;)

Seriously, the fact that I can be sarcastic and joke about it now is a true sign of improvement, but last week no funny bone resided inside of me; I was short-fused, cranky, intolerant, snappy and gave anyone coming near me; evil eyes. 

May Elliot's improved sleeping continue for the good of everyone. ;)




Ok, so we went on holiday to Spain -> it was as awesome as it could have been. No, it wasn't easy (particularly not because the whole [family] hotel had marble flooring wtf? - so there were no soft places where Elliot could safely practise his newfound crawling skills - doh), but we managed and had a good time. Dylan loved the pool which is great. We really wanted him to gain more confidence in the water, and he did!




I actually managed to have sporadic moments of relaxation and read my book(s) for a bit!




And I too spent a lot of my time in the pool! I love pools and swimming.




Lots more pics of the holiday on my flickr account if you're interested. :-)
Then I came back home to a back log of work, childcare problems and Andy needing to work on a job so chaos ensued and I'm finally now crawling out of that chaos a bit, hence a blog post. Haha.



Art wise I haven't done much new work, but my latest large canvas has come along a bit further and I'm not sure if I should consider it finished at this point. I never quite know how and/ or why a painting with more abstract concepts is finished. It's something I'm learning. :)




Let me know what you think? Is it finished?

The VERY COOL news is that I'm on verge of securing a space on AN ART RETREAT IN SOMERSET WITH FLORA BOWLEY, TEESHA MOORE AND SOME OTHER FANTASTIC TEACHERS WHOSE NAMES I CAN'T REMEMBER RIGHT NOW, CAPITALS ARE NECESSARY BECAUSE IT IS SO AWESOME THAT I'M GOING!! :)

It's this one: Call of the Wild Soul organised by the awesome Erin Faith Allen.

For me to able to attend this required about a 1000 emails with Erin, 10,000 conversations with Andy and a begging of a friend to come along so that they can support Andy with the babies. :) But I am going! I'm going! I'm going! Yayyyyyy! And my whole family is coming, lol. Of course, they're not doing the course, but they'll stay in the same awesome place.

So, this is like a dream come true!! :)))

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In the mean time students on my courses are continuing to produce awesome art and experience amazing personal growth. Life Book is ticking away and I've BEGUN PREPARATIONS FOR A LIFE BOOK 2013! (Another announcement worthy of shouty capitals). So if you joined LB 2012 and want to continue to be inspired on a weekly basis, keep an eye out, registration will open in October OR if you wanted to join LB 2012 but couldn't for whatever reason, you get a chance again in October to join a year long fantastic mixed media course! Just keep an eye out for information soon(ish). :)

The guys on Summer Girls are all creating super beautiful Summery Girlies (this is an open-ended course which you can join at any time and SO affordable @ only £14.99 - join here if you want to learn to make pretty Summer Girls. )

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Elliot has just hit 8 months old and Dylan is 3 weeks away from turning 3. That is just crazy. I don't understand how Dylan as a baby is suddenly turning 3 and Elliot is almost 1? Quoi?!

Recent Dylanims:

• "Strawberries" are pronounced as 'strawbellies' which is so much more of a better word!
• Dylan running around naked, points at his bum (bottom/ behind) and shouts to his dad: "Look! Look! It's Dylan's bum! Touch it, it's very nice!" - LOL - no body issues there then!
• Having just seen the new baby the neighbours had, Dylan says: "I want a new baby too, because it has nice little hairs".

This is where Elliot's at:

• He has cut his 2 bottom front teeth
• Is chomping on finger foods like he is an adult, loves his food
• Crawls like a maniac, is always on the go
• Won't lie still during a nappy change - you need 2 or 3 people to actually change his nappy
• Sits up, pulls himself up, stands. I think this was will walk by the time he's 10 months old
• Very smiley, but can also be very cranky
• Is very perceptive
• Is adorable, beautiful, amazing

That's it for me groovy art gang.

I'm currently only working a 3/4 day week, no workies for me on Friday's as there is no childcare, so we're off swimming or running through a park today enjoying the British heat wave.

Buttercups and moonbeams.
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