Is it Christmas yet... ?

Hahahaaaarrr. Feels cold enough to be. :-s

Well, that didn't go very well did it. Warning - venting imminent.

If you're a designer you know what you need in order to get the job done. If you work with those who don't know, don't appreciate or have no clue about - it makes things twice/three times as hard. And if the goals, the brief and ongoing instructions are vague... well, we all know what that means. Implosion by designer. You "try" to second guess what the hell the client wants = ongoing and endless tweaks, back and forth, more questions in order to get it right.

Designers and artists HATE specific and overly detailed instructions - or at least I know I do. It leaves little room to put your own artistic stamp on things, plus scratch that creative itch. BUT... it saves soooo much time and pure aggravation to know exactly what it is you're meant to be doing.

Nature of the graphic design beast I'm afraid. And if ya didn't know this - learn it before working with a designer, I think it will help.

So glad I'm mostly outta that g-design game. Too much stress and battling with clients - esp those who think you're battling against them for the sake of it, when really you're just trying to do a good job for them.

Lol. :D

Ahh well. Vent over. Thanks. Onwards.

Winter is here, forget the casual slide into Autumnal mildness. Woollies ahoy.

Have a great weekend, all. ;-)

Keep smiling...

Is it Christmas yet... ?

Just checking. Soon!

:D

Doing a lot at the studio - of course. The hut is finished now and good job too since the weather has definitely slid straight into Winter. Brrr.

Not done much writing at all. But have been creative in the old mosaic work. Something I guess - better than nothing!

Hope you're all well.

Enjoy your week (or your month if my posts are anything to go by).

=o)

Margaret Mellor - an activist for the
Waterloo community.

Of course.

One blog post a month! I'm so crap at this bloggering thingmajiggy. My apologies.

Spent most of this month mosaicking. If not working at the studio, I'm volunteering for the studio or at the Artists resident's hut for the studio. Basically. And building up my mosaicking callouses nicely by making small pieces, but not much progress on the main portrait work. One more week of the hut and I can get back to the latter. Yay!

Forgot to set my alarm properly this morning and nearly didn't make it to the hut at all. Whoopsie. ;-)

The writing has been pretty quiet too. Polished'n'tweaked a couple of short scripts that have so far got nowhere. And started a new feature script - only a few pages in and missing a title, which I usually have early on in. Doesn't bode well does it? One day I might give up the key bashing malarky in a hopeless hope to one day sell a script - and retire. :) Lol. One day. That day is not today, err, and it won't be tomorrow either.

Ahhh well, we keep going...

Hope you're all well and a happy new week - or should I say happy new month to yous.

:D

What the...?

TWO WEEKS since my last post!??!! Apologies for being so remiss. :(

Been busy mosaicking, working and writing of late. Yes, I have been doing constructive, creative stuff and trying to imitate a productive person. Can't say the same for Alfie... lol. :D

Hope you're all well out there.

It's the weekend yet again and nearly into a new month- AGAIN. Time flies when you're pretending to be busy.

Posted a couple of short scripts to here: http://www.circalit.com/jwest/ Although, it's a strange place and reviews are few and far between. Rather odd. Such a shame Triggerstreet don't do shorts. Talking of whom their site has been overhauled. Can't say I'm a big fan of the new look, mind you the old one did look a little tired. The new site has a cold and impersonal feel and it's tricky to access the normal stuff. Plus they ignored my advice on the logo so I'm slightly biassed. Hehee. Ah well, as long as the head ponchos are happy, I guess that's obviously what matters, not the actual peeps who keep the place moving.

Ahem. Just another reason not to frequent the place... shame though. A few years back it did have a great community and friendly feel. And was the place that I first started screenwriting, or any writing in fact. So it still has a warm, mush place in my cold, old and bitter heart. :P

Still have to finish off my Tv drama tomorrow, can you believe I'm one page short! Grrr. Fwustrating to say the least. But did manage to get all the chores done today - in record time. Mwuhaharr.

Quick MOT on Alfie tomorrow and I can get key bashing.

On that note, I should get to bed so I don't lie in too late tomorrow. Things to do, pages to write.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Let's hope we get some sun, at last.

:o)

Cream crackered

Well, I seem to have been ultra busy this week with not a lot to show for it. Done NO writing = shocker. Tsk, tsk. And spent most of the week in the studio, doing something FOR the studio or generally things studio related. Hmm. Oddness. I do like work, but this is cwazy.

:D

Have a sandwich kinda weekend coming up. A day off tomorrow, catching up with friends on Saturday and another day off on Sunday. And THEN volunteer in the studio Monday, Harry Potter Tuesday, working in the studio Wednesday and in the studio hut Thursday. I'm doubly exhausted just thinking about it!

Some writing "must" be done in between. Must.

Umm, other than that not a lot to moan about. I hear a collective "phew" in the background. HAha.

Hope your week has been going okay.

Enjoy your oncoming Friday! Bring on the weekend.

:o)

Warning - cat picture imminent! :-P

Oooer...

My portrait of Virginia Woolf is now on display at the Artist's in Residence hut along the Southbank. YAY! Still not tackled the new portrait - tres nervous.

The washing's out, so fingers crossed it will stay dry until teatime... hahahaaa. Hope you all have a great week!

:D

Tumm-tee-tummm

Well, not a great deal to report I'm afraid... the exciting life I don't lead is obviously showing in my lack of posts. Whoops and a blush.

Started a new portrait in the studio this week of a local lady who fund raises and campaigns for the Waterloo community. I have to get this one right, as she can tell me off it turns out wrong. Eeek.

Wrote another few pages today on my drama that I want to send to the BBC. Whether they'll like it or not - is doubtful. They're a bit fussy. Which is intriguing since some of their comedies and dramas often miss their mark, but heyhoo. It's true when they say it's who you know in the business - although, it does help to be a shit hot, talented writer too. Of course.

Shall have to keep working at it until I'm at least talented and hope the shit hot level increases with time.

Hehee. Hope you're all having a super week so far. Have fun!

Hohummm

Sounds like the neighbours are in. Joy. Not really. Loud and annoying.

Have decided not to go the flicks tomorrow. Left it too late and the film is on in too few places to get a good time and a good price. Don't want to overpay for an average film, so am leaving it. Shame, but hohummm.

Will have to save up for Harry P and Captain A. Woohooo. :)

And it means more writing time tomorrow - to make up for today's appalling page count of two. Ahem. Whoopsie.

Nearly the weekend. Nearly.

Have fun! :D

Hotcakes

Well hot without the cakes - I'm fat enough thanks! :D

Yes, very hot, really humidy hot. Ug. Not sleep conducive at all so still up on a school night.

Wondering how to get more peeps to my Facebook artyfart page. Not having much luck there and not sure how others do it? No, wait that's not true since I'm doing it for other pages and doing well, but lack the reserve to get it going for my own page. Conundrum.

Finished my lady today at the studio. Pleased that I got it done since I seem to have been working on it forever. Eeek.

Some thunder and a bit of rain would be nice, just to lift the air enough so we can sleep. Hope you all have a great week.

Work, work and more work

By choice. Updated the gallery website and thought, while I'm here I might as well get my own little site going. Thanks, Wix. I did it.

Now I feel very square eyed and square bummed. I am no doubt diabetes waiting to happen. Eeek.

Still need to fine tune a few pages before sending off this week. Still not happy with the title, but have really struggled on that for this one. My excuse is I haven't written the whole 90 pages, therefore I don't know the feel or complete story, and therefore don't know the best few words to sum it up for a title. *sheesh*

But at least I've been productive today. Mostly.

Looking forward to the sun tomorrow - mind you, they did predict a mini summer for today and it didn't happen... so we will see. Could be a great washing day, indeedy.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

:D

Whoops

Just realised that most of the pics on here are of the cat. HAHAARR. *sigh*

About as interesting as my life gets these days - lol.

Here's a non-cat piccie. Have a great Friday! :D

Hmmm...

Been stuck on Twitter, my new found efriend. Altho, most of the time I have no clue what I'm doing and tend to get ignored. Whoops: " ...fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — You can't get fooled again."

Well, life is back to normal and the heaveho of the last few weeks has gone. To be replaced by a stalemate on a "thing" that would be great to finally get sorted out. "Things" are never simple eh and sent to drive us nutsio.

So I've been able to concentrate on the writing for the past two weeks - not done a great deal. Of course, I'd like to think it's quality rather than quantity, some quantity would be nice too though. Will see if it's worth sending off... or not.

With the mention of fuzzy - the furry one is THREE years old tomorrow! In human years he's in his twenties, but still acts like he's in his terrible twos. Kitty prerogative I hear. Prerogative goes meow - a lot.

Happy Birthday to Alfie Pickle, Esq. :D

X Men...

First Class, mmmm. not so much. Second class and over the weekend with no deliveries on a Sunday, lucky to get anything good on a Saturday.

I thought the start and set up was all a bit scrappy, settling on nothing until we got to... *spoiler alert*  Xavier's home and the training. It all lacked humour, the dialogue lacked punch and wit with a fair bit of annoying on the nose "let's tell them straight just incase they don't understand our mutant feelings" dialogue. Shame. Wasted opportunity I think.

And the moves between the two stories of the lead lads' felt jarring and out of sync, and in light that we knew the two would meet, it seemed unnecessarily bitty.

The cast was good enough I think. Surprisingly I found Kevin Bacon not only terribly (worryingly) thin, but he lacked weight in his baddieness role. Yet in Hollow Man he's every bit the sinister creep. Good to see the Brits getting in there, especially Nicholas Hoult our growing lad from About a Boy and Skins. Blesssss. And I found Fass-(round the)-bender captivating - even more so than McAvoy. I'm not convinced James has the same theatrical, personality weight as our Patrick "engage" Stewart.

Then the big battle and climax it all seemed exciting and very much a proper action packed film and all... well most... well some... was forgiven. Not quite as miraculous as the repackaged Star Trek, but not bad.

I did enjoy it. Honest.

If you haven't guessed already - I'm writing this weekend. Have 14 pages to find from somewhere. Heheee. Have a great weekend, y'all!

;D

Ohhh Gawd

A month? A month! Gone. Past. Done. Been. Vamoosey.

:-s

Have been ultra busy - of course. And sadly not in an arty farty way.
Typical eh.

Hope to get back to a more creative and stress free routine soon.
Then I might get back to le bloggery.

Enjoy your weekend! :)

The other loong weekend

Is here. And is long.

:-s

Should be writing, but of course, I'm finding all sort of things to do so I'm not. Lol. Tis life. Especially with a loong weekend - oh I have Sunday and Monday to do that. Next thing, it's Tuesday. Oopie. And to be honest I did very little yesterday, wedding nup-of-the-tuals and all that.

Had a row with Alfie cat yesterday after he non-affectionately nibbled on my bare arm. :( But we made up today after my revenge of claw clipping and ear cleaning, and I re-established who's boss - for 5 minutes at least. :D Here he is as a kitten, just look at that little face!

In fact imagine the same pose, but with a full grown Alfie Pickle. He's squidged on the sofa with me at the moment snoozing and taking up most of the room. Typical man. :-o

I will do some writing tomorrow - no excuses or playing around on my new Fb page. Hehee. Just hope more peeps join those, who've already kindly shown their support. :-s

Have a great weekend, one and all!

=D

Bloomin'eck

Yeh, well. Scrap that last post. I sent my email. Eeeek.

And on another thing been asked how much money do I want? LOL. If you have to ask then you can't afford me! :D Just kidding, I go very cheap - it has been known cheap, cheap and peanuts. But that's between you and me, okay?

Thanks. :o)

Alfie Pickle Esq seems as restless as me this week. Bless his fluffy white socks - which reminds me, claw clipping very soooon = less of the bless.

We keep going... and racing through the year.

Enjoy your week. We only have two more working days then a long weekend bookended by yet more Bank Holidays. Like the Banks need holidays - they earn enough they should bloomin' work for it more, imho.

> Onwards. :)

Easter Monday

Well scrap that busy week and I'm less busy now, lol. How quickly plans can change.

Decided not to venture into town on Thursday with a fear of being stuck in a day long diversion, due to the royal wedding. That and a combo of being cancelled on. I refuse to camp out on the street to see a procession of how the other half live (mainly off of us).

Anyhoo, I did construct my letter of queriness but a lot of that depends on how things pan out this week. I'll wait to send it until next week when there are fewer Bank Holidays for my correspondence to get lost in catch up e-postage. Back to that waiting game, I guess. *sigh*

Have a great new week! Or at least let's hope it turns out great. Yay!

:D

Happy Easter Sunday!

Well, I took the Sunday off - to eat chocolate. :-s

My life isn't that hectic, so I'm finding time to keep up the resemblance of a Renaissance gal. :-p Although, I'm out for most of next week coming now - oooh - with a long weekend next weekend too. Woohooo!

Started an oil painting on Saturday after sketching it out on Friday. Am continuing the new script, which I may write a bit shorter to make it a TV hour length drama instead - will see. Phew.

Have decided - tomorrow I'm going to construct a query letter to send out to an agent for my writing. Feeling brave (and stupid). And they can only say no - umm, or ignore me. Ahh well, if you don't try... :)

Hope you're all having a chilled Easter weekend. Enjoy!!!

That pic is asking for trouble methinks. Lol. :)

Weekette

Hoping to get more done this week. Hope you all have a great one too, and enjoy the sun!

Another weekend

Nearly finished my Queen's face, which is the trickiest part. Eeek.
Have a great weekend! =o)

Cream crackered

:-s

Good job I don't have to be anywhere early tomorrow. Actually don't have to be anywhere at all tomorrow. Woohooo. ;) I foresee a day of writing, so I can find those lost 11 pages and maybe finally have a finished, complete project. Doh.

And slow going on my Egyptian Queen. *sigh*

Getting there . . . on all accounts. Hehee. Enjoy the rest of your week, everyone.

Another new month, another new doodle. :) Happy weekend, everyone. ;D

Another week

Can't believe we're already at the end of February. Where does time go? :)

In progress, she does look a little scary still, but until the face is complete she will continue to look half reptile, half Egyptian Queen. Hehee. Happy new week to yous.

Bloggette

Find it a bit frustrating to try and get the blog page right. I don't know enough to edit the Html, and the templates provided are good, but I wish one had "more" choice for certain elements.

Never satisfied eh?

Ach well, if that's all I have to worry about . . . then things can't be that bad.

Oscar night tonight and the only night I actually wish I had Sky Tv. Shame the BBC lost the Oscars to Sky. Doh. Kings Speech v The Social Network, are my thoughts. On one side I hope K-Speech does well, being such a fabulous film and British. On the other, S-Network had such energy and style, one can see why it's done so well. Even bigger shame that Inception has been mostly overlooked in this year's award season. What a film!

Ach, time will tell on the rest with a mix of tears and smiles LA side, as we everyday peeps look on with wonder.

Have a great new week, everyone.

:)

Tsk, tsk.

Well, it's the weekend, I should be writing and instead I'm here wasting key bashing time, blogging. Are blogs out of date? They do seem to have lost their cool edge in this digital age, where one week out, something newer supersedes the older.

I know I'm outta date, but we won't go into that. Thanks. :-p

Cold, wet and weekendy. *sigh* One neighbour above is sawing wood (don't ask, since I do not know) and the other has his radio on as if he's hearing impaired (I can assure you he's not, but he tends to do everything with the volume stuck too high - including his girlfriend). I guess sound proofing of flats wasn't the rage at the turn of the century.  Moving on swiftly...

And of course I really should get on with that writing thing. You just never know eh?

Have a good one, all. I'm off to find some creative motivation. :-s

:D

M-ummmmm

Just don't forget Mother's Day! Just don't . . . :D

My first mosaic piece.

Haharrr :)

I'm blogging myself. Lol.

Ahh well, one of those things I guess. It's Friday, I need to get down to some writing. No resting on the old laurels eh?

Do you ever feel that it might be better to do less, concentrate on one thing and achieve a higher level of greatness, rather than try to do everything - less great? I always struggle to focus on one thing at a time, and wonder if I did, would it turn out wayyy better for it. Hmm.

And yet we carry one . . . .

Have a great day, me. And, you, if you happen to read this too.

:D

Mum and babe

The real Alfie Pickle, Esq.

Do not be fooled by his cuteness. He's a very nawty boy.Heheeee. :D

Yikes!

I used to have a blog once, years ago, before blogging was an everyday occurrence. Nowadays, it's more like "who isn't blogging, tweeting, Fbooking, living their life online?"

I return, renewed - well, quite knackered actually - with the intent to fuse all my arty farty bits together. Yeh, that sounds painful, but am hoping it won't be. Hoping.

Can't guarantee I will be a daily bloggist, but I hope to get the page sorted (with my limited web skills) before inflicting this bloggette onto anyone intentionally. Hahaa. If you happen to stumble upon this before I've had the chance to make the page right, apologies.

And have a fab weekend. ;D