I’ve been busy painting at zoos and working on my paint kit and website lately. The business is going well, particularly considering that winter is the quiet time for this kind of work. I think I’m going to be very busy with it this summer! There’s a 2 days a week job that I’ve been keeping an eye on for ages and now I have to decide whether to go for it or not… it’s a hard call! The job is working as the women’s worker supporting newly identifying GLBTIQ people… pretty much my dream job… but I’m very busy also getting a new very exciting small business off the ground, and I have a lot of art projects I’m keen to sink my teeth into soon. Hrummmmm.

I keep thinking about Neil Gaimon’s advice in an awesome speech he gave (here) about how to reach your dreams – to treat your big dream (like, say, I want to be a professional artist) as a mountain you’re heading towards. Every time you have to make a career or life decision, you ask yourself if the choice in front of you is taking you closer towards, or further away from, your mountain. I think one of my challenges is that I currently have about 20 mountains… which is awesome… but does make decisions like this difficult.

So, thinking for now, and working on the People Painting business. I’ve revamped the website, updated photos, rewritten my rates information page, and added a whole new page for party theme ideas! I’m pretty damn proud of myself and have a lot more ideas buzzing about my brain. Actually I’ve been either buzzing or asleep lately, somewhere between exuberant and slightly manic. It’s fun but also a little wearing.

I painted at the Adelaide Zoo the other day, with a price set for me of $3.50 per face. That’s very low, and meant I needed to create a host of simpler designs that could be painted more quickly. I was a bit stressed about it but also kind of enjoyed the challenge. I wound up painting the most amazing collection of neon rainbow animals… the panda in particular looked incredible!

It’s a beautiful day out there… and I  have so much admin and so many errands to run. But I’ve had only one hours’ sleep and I’m fading fast, so I think I’m going to leave it all behind and go and hide out in bed. I’ll leave with one last photo of kitteny goodness. 🙂

Oh, all right, a bunch of photos then… Tonks is going great. His sister, who has been named Kiki, comes over for a visit regularly and they have a great time chasing each other around the unit. Here he is last night, exploring the awesome new cat tree Rose has let me borrow. 🙂 Zoe is doing much better now I’ve been able to get her to the dog park for a good run a couple of times. She’s still restless but it’s taken the edge off. Sarsaparilla is fighting every cat in the neighbourhood and constantly coming home wounded. I’m desperate to put together a cat run to keep him in. He hates being trapped in the house and cries at the door for hours, and then seriously gets destructive. Hopefully I can pull that off for him soon.