The Sleepy Amoeba: A review of Jan 2019

Oh hey. It's February. Wasn't it just New Year's Day?

Speaking of which. This year Mr. P. and I stayed home with our cat and some candles. It was lovely and quiet, although we actually missed the new year. We had poured our champagne and were relying on the CBC to give us a countdown. They did not. But it is never too late to have a chilled glass of champagne!

The first of what I hope becomes an annual NYE selfie.

Renovation and renting

The vast majority of January, both in terms of time and energy, was spent renovating my rental condo. My former tenant moved out in December. I was at the condo almost every day from January 2 onward. It took about 3 full weeks to complete the job, with a great deal of help from my dad and Mr. P. Because I am an overachiever, even though I spent almost all day working at the condo I felt guilty and resentful for not getting any work done on my art business. Somewhere near the end of those 3 weeks, I figured out that it was ok for me to spend all my time and energy on this rather important project. So it goes. The whole thing was exhausting, but satisfying.

I listed the property for rent in the 4th week, and by the end of the 5th week had found a suitable tenant and signed a lease agreement. Read the whole story in this post. Be warned, it's long. But that's how I do.

Before: old carpet, baseboard removal

After: new floors and new paint!

I'm grateful this chapter is closed. And I'm looking forward to a new chapter in both the condo's life (with it's new inhabitants) and my own.

On the art front

Doodles and sketches

January was light on the art front. See above. I did a few doodles and sketches all the same.

Sometimes I found it too hard to commit to a proper drawing. At such times some free form doodling on a calendar I had no other use for did the job.

And sometimes I'd manage a proper sketch

Guest presenter at York U

Most excitingly though, I was a guest presenter at an Introduction to Natural History class at York University. I talked about observational drawing and field sketching, then taught a class of university students the basics of drawing.

Then we visited a greenhouse and drew some plants together. It was lovely and reminded me of how much I miss teaching. Read the whole story on my illustration blog, Dreams of Jellyfish.