Chugging along

I have no more excuses because we're technically done with the new place.. for now. I've been working on a few illustrations, going between outlining and coloring. Sometimes color takes me no time at all, but others.. it gets really difficult and I have to take long breaks in order to sort out what I want to do.

This is a typical screen capture of my screen when I'm working.


ooo eraser. My friend!
All my illustrations have a pinkish background to begin with, so that colors stand out more and I can make sure I didn't leave anything uncolored. If I can see the pink, then I know I missed a spot! I could use any color... but I'm pretty attached to pink.

Hopefully I can push these out quickly and have finished illustrations!

Pre-Bee.

It just so happened that shortly after being contacted by a couple for an illustration commission, the bride to be got the Bee-to-Be email! So this illustration was started for Miss Dachshund before she was announced! I'm so excited to have been able to do this for her!

I love it when brides let me go a little more playful, so it was fun to play on the fact that Mr. D is a foot taller than her! So for once, we wanted to make her taller than him!



This seems to be the favorite style for couples and I have no problem with that. Drawing these little illustrations is a lot of fun, and I love that I get to draw such big heads. I love big heads! Maybe it's because I have a big head...

My finger is back in full force (eh, 80% force)

My finger is missing a fingerprint (and all feeling in the tip) but the nail grew back and I'm ready to go! I finished TWO illustrations... and am ready to work on the two I have had on the back burner for a while. Rob has been very very pushy about getting them done, which is a good thing for me, and I'm always happy when I finish one and find out the couple is happy with the end product!

Here is the one I did for Mrs. Taffy:


Let it be known that I find drawing little chubby birdies really uplifting and amusing.
And now... more drawing.

Who are you anyway?

I've been gone. I know, it's been an up and down what with having NEARLY CUT OFF MY FINGER. It's gross, but it's decided to reattach and now the end just feels (and looks) a little strange. The nail is almost back to full length. Just another month and I think I will be able to get a very well deserved manicure for my abused hand. Oddly enough, the same week I nearly lost that finger, another friend of mine smooshed his into near oblivion. The same finger on the same hand! We were lame finger buddies.

In other news, I just finished the illustration for Mrs. Taffy. She was so patient with the move, and the painting, and the loss of my finger.... so I'm happy that it's finished and that she likes it! I'll post that as soon as I get home. :)

We also hired someone to put up wallpaper. We were going to do it ourselves until we realized the ceiling is so high right above the stairs, there was no way we could do it. Not without doing a crap job and breaking our necks, at least.



And I'm embarrassed that my entry way looks like this - although it doesn't anymore. We cleaned it and hung up the coat rack... but I'm all about being real. Here is my really nasty dirty entryway.


Next up, forcing Rob to buy me a new washer and dryer.

A Quick Fix.

I've been trying to work on my art, but things come up. We've had a non-stop stream of friends coming to stay with us, including tonight someone will be with us for the remainder of this month. That put my neurotic furniture arranging on hold (which Rob is really happy about) and made me instead turn to things that are quicker or easier to manage. Ok, so this wasn't quick or easy, really, but it was something that will tide me over until we get a full on remodel of the kitchen.


Ok, so the kitchen isn't horrendous.. it's showing it's age, it's not the best layout, and it's just kind of blah. I really didn't like the cabinet fronts, but really, that will get worked out as soon as we remodel. It wasn't worth a temporary cost to make it better until we take the sledgehammer to it.

Insert 1 ambitious friend, screwdrivers, and a husband out on an errand so that he couldn't stop us. Add some paint and some shelves and you have this:


Forgive the mess, we were just starting to arrange our kitchen wares and clean them after having been removed from the boxes. That's my excuse anyway.

It was a very fast makeover and it made a bit of difference. I can live with it... for now. But if said ambitious friend comes over one day when we have nothing better to do, maybe we'll take something else apart....

Ok, I don't have the best photos. But here is the general idea.

WC Before:

Black toilet of horror. Black tiles of horror. Just generally ugly water closet.

WC After:

note tampons. Normally hidden, but not today! Out in the open for EVERYONE TO SEE. Just in case you were questioning my being a woman.
We added the white wainscoting and painted the walls the palest purple. A new light was put in, not that you can see it, and the tiles are 1" hex tiles with light gray grout.

Bathroom Before:

This photo of Jen pretty much shows you what we were dealing with.
1. white ugly tiles all the way up the walls
2. nasty stall shower
3. black sink... that was REALLY HIGH. Seriously, the counter was boob height.
4. weird ugly light sconce things. Looks like elementary school project gone wrong.
5. Also had the nasty black tiles on the floor like the WC.

Bathroom After:



obviously pre-installation and paint

It's already a mess, we just moved in. But yay! Same pale purple walls, white wainscoting throughout, vintage corner sink with new faucet, cute clawfoot, and new tiles. I don't have a good photo of the tub... I'll deal with that later. It's a small space, so getting photos of it is very difficult. The new window is on order and should be installed some time next week.

Was it worth it? Yes. The bathroom is not a horrible monstrosity that I'm embarrassed to have in my house. I can only imagines guests panicking with the old weird black toilet that filled to the top before flushing. I definitely think the bathroom remodel and the secret window added more value than we spent, so overall a good decision. I'm sure a lot of people walked away from the property after seeing what they would have to deal with.

Next - the kitchen.

Finished Illustrations!

I put aside the paint brush and hammer for a night and completed two illustrations that had been waiting for me to just buckle down and finish!




Thanks to Kelly and Bethany to putting up with my crazy time schedule!

Flooring is nearly complete!

One of the things we decided to do right away was to do away with the floors in the bedrooms. At some point they put in really yucky carpet and it was so filthy if you walked on it, your feet turned black. So nasty.



floors with carpet of hidden grossness

So after ripping up the carpet, we discovered two things. One, the floors under the carpet were the original 1890's subfloor/floor and were large planks of soft wood. They were obviously set lower than the floors in the rest of the house, as those are hardwood from the 1920s or 1930s. We opted to just bite the bullet and have historically accurate, matching floors put in. That included nailing the boards, mitering the edges to follow the trim of the room, and all that wonderful business.



laid floors, no stain!

They already are worlds better than what was in there before. Not that I don't absolutely love nasty carpet, but we all have sacrifices to make!

One thing that does bother me about the floors that are being put in is that the wood has a lot more dark, deep grain than the rest of the house. And although the floor guy is constantly praising how perfect the stain is, I'm not sold. I can tell it's not exactly the same color, and in fact, not really that close. I admit I'm picky and being an artist, I can really tell the difference between colors and I notice the little things... like the grain. To me, it's a huge thing. To Rob, it's nothing.

Anyway, I dislike feeling like they are constantly trying to sell me on the job they are doing when I know it's not perfect or anywhere near perfect. I'd prefer them to be honest and say "this is as close as we can get it, and the wood does have a lot more grain, but it would be impossible to get the same kind of wood that was used on the original floors."

Honesty matters, I don't think I can handle one more "I AM SO AWESOME" from the floor guys.

Remodeling Update

Congratulations, we have a floor!
Well, at least in the toilet room. Like a lot of older San Francisco flats, we have a split bath. I'm totally ok with this as it's fairly common in Japan and I've been living in San Francisco for quite some time. We asked that the toilet room be completed ASAP as we still need to go in there and deal with our kitchen and continue to paint the rest of the house. Without a toilet, we can't do that, obviously. We're told we will have a toilet tomorrow morning, even though they don't work on Saturdays, they are taking pity on us.


This is the hole that all things will pass through.

It's much better than the black toilet of death we had earlier. The void that nearly filled to the top with water before flushing very slowly away. So black you couldn't see anything in it when you looked into the water. Was there pee? Who knows? Spiders ready to crawl up your butt? A mystery!

As much as I love surprises and mysteries, I don't want that anywhere near my bare bottom.

Illustrations!

phew! I managed to get some done in the past couple days! Thanks to Miss Joey and Miss French Bulldog for being so patient. I know Joey had been hoping for me to get it done in July before my random illness, and probably was sweating bullets that it wouldn't get done in time... but I busted my ass and churned these puppies out.


First is an image for Miss Joey, a coloring book image for the kids attending to fill in. I definitely want to see some completed ones!!


And this one is for Miss French Bulldog, an invitation to her rehearsal dinner which happens to be at a Chinese restaurant! Who would have guessed, huh? You know, with the takeout box and all!

I feel relieved to have finished these two in time for them to be put to use. I have three in the works and I will be working like crazy to get them done in time!

I feel like I've been riding a horse

We spent the entire weekend painting the house. We've still got a lot to do, but it's coming along really nicely. The kitchen is being taken apart slowly, we'll get around to finishing it over the next couple weeks. Somehow, even though we were just painting, my inner and back thighs are killing me. Don't ask me how, it just feels like I've been riding a horse all week.

The bathroom of horror was gutted today... and revealed this:

A window!! Who knew! It was a false wall with the shower tiles on it, which when broken down revealed the true wall with a window! Why would anyone cover a window with an ugly shower unit? Oh well.

Interesting finds during our bathroom remodel. I haven't heard anything about rotted wood or horrible other things, so I'm hoping that other than the window, there are no unexpected surprises!

Rough drafts abound!

I've been doing a lot of roughs, mostly because I have time during the day, and trying to squeeze in some final line work and coloring at home. I'm feeling good about the few I have that are going towards being finalized. I'm going to be painting all weekend, as my new house is currently a whole lot of poor-taste colors, and trying to work in some drawing time!


see that green ceiling? It's more pukey in person.


and this wall?

Seriously, it was not masked off and it's poorly done venetian plaster. Not only is this the only wall in the house like this, it's the only wall in that particular room that's like this!! And to top it off... this wasn't there when we came to the viewing. This was done between seeing the place and closing escrow!! WHY! WHY!! Not only is it an eyesore, it's a lot of work to do in a place you're no longer going to live in.

Sigh... moving on.

I'm really really REALLY excited about my first commission through etsy, and it's already underway! Wish my luck... in mostly picking colors for every room in the house!

Remodeling

It's been a long, horrible road to getting our new place, but we have the keys and are just days away from never having to talk to anyone that was involved in the deal ever again. I don't wish bad things on them (well, maybe some of them) but my life will be better without them. Seriously.

Rob and I hung out at the new place yesterday, painting, seeing contractors, preparing for a long 2-3 weeks of remodeling and stress. Rob and I plan on doing the kitchen remodel and the painting ourselves (except the really high ceiling above the stairs) but since the bathroom has to be done before August, we're going to hire professionals to just go for it.

Otherwise, in illustration news, I'm really happy I finished Spider's illustration. It was supposed to be done so much earlier, but because I have the world's worst luck I caught Mono and couldn't do much of anything for weeks. Seriously, who catches mono at my age?

Ready for Business!

After my long 5-6 year hiatus of not doing illustrations, I'm going back to my roots and buckling down to do it again. It's definitely a scary step to put myself out there again, but it'll be good for me to stop being a 100% number monkey and more like a 30% monkey, 30% artist, and 40% nut job.

I'm offering custom wedding illustrations on etsy! I'm nervous, but really excited. Today is definitely one of those crazy-shaking-psycho-look-on-my-face days. I'm sure everyone at work thinks I'm on something.


Thanks to all the girls at Wedding Bee that are supporting me in my art, during the wedding process, and the inspiration they gave me in being so darn cute I had to draw them!

And thanks to Duet Letter Press for linking to my freshly opened etsy store!

We're almost there.

I'm starting this blog just to document my day to day, most likely of no interest to anyone but me, but it's good to have a record.

This week we're getting the keys to our new home. We'll be staying in our current unit in Lake Merritt, Oakland, until the end of the month when we finally pick everything up and cart it over the bay. We're retaining our unit in Oakland until the market is better, renting it out to a new couple in the mean time. We hope they like it, I know I'll miss it to death. I think it's actually good to keep it for me, I'll detach from it emotionally while living at my new place, but we won't have given it up officially yet. It's not yet "no longer our home" until we sell.

It's really heart breaking to leave, Rob and I planned our wedding, got our dogs, and got married while living in this house. We both learned a lot about ourselves and our lives changed greatly, but now it's time to move on. I'll miss it.

Memories of our place as, the way it looked while we lived here.



Bye old house.
Hello new house. I hope the puppies don't mind learning to poop in the city.