So! A note about this blog
I have made the decision to change the way this blog works, as you may have noticed from a lack of updates.
Mundane sundries now go to my personal livejournal once again, here at livejournal.
However thoughts on work, art, being a freelancer, misc general interest items and videos of cute animals will be posted here. Oh, here’s one now!
So The Ugly Goat is not dead…just….uh…whatever.
Stay tuned!
November 29, 2009 Comments Off
My dad came home
Well, another night burning the midnight oil, curled up in a ball around my wacom, Seth and the cat already in bed.
And since I’m here, I’ll take a break from the painting to write about my evening. My dad just got back after 4 months in Canada (my dad’s partner is Canadian. Her met her online. It should also be noted that I met Seth online, and Laurie met her partner online too. ‘Thank god for the internet’ should be the family motto. And @ should be the family crest.) and tonight was the first time we’ve seen him since he got home.
It’s funny how you don’t realise how much you’ll miss somebody until they’re away, and then once they get back it’s like they were never gone. I must’ve said “Oh, were you there when this happened? Or were you here?” about a hundred times.
So there were a lot of (mostly hilarious) stories to be told, and fabulous gift giving. It was like Christmas. And in the true spirit of my family, we gave and received some mighty odd and fantastic gifts.
Such as!
A leather poncho he bought from a Mohawk Indian, and fun long fuzzy green shirts with polar bears:
and this is WITH red-eye reduction…
A fabulous hat:
And to quote Laurie “Oh no! I’m wearing an Opeth hoodie! How embarrassing!” which should hopefully teach her a lesson or two about wearing other people’s clothes…
Weird little key lights:
As well as a big fat can each of REAL, dark maple syrup. Now I have to figure out what to use it on/in so as not to waste a drop. And a nifty little camera tripod each with extendy legs. And a black shirt with a small leaf logo for Seth, who wears black, black and on a day when he’s feeling really fun, almost black.
Then while my dad was away both father’s day and his birthday came and went, so we got him:
Pickled herring.
A bag of unshelled peanuts.
Half a kilo of goat milk feta.
A book about birdsville.
All beautifully wrapped in a plastic bag. We re-used it. It’s environmentally friendly. Yeah it is. Shutup.
You will note we are one big photogenic family.
And now everybody has gone home, the house is dark and quiet, I’ve got my fuzzy green shirt with (some upside down now, I notice, the poor buggers) polar bears on and left over freshly baked peanut butter cookies.
Time to get to work.
October 15, 2009 Comments Off
A horrible secret
Sometimes I get in a mood where I want to drag the tv into my room, get into bed (dragging the cat in with me), watch a romantic comedy and cry.
Yes, it’s wrong. Yes, it makes me feel dirty to even write that.
I have no idea why I get these moods. But I’ve been feeling melancholy yet oddly energised today. An odd little individual washing clothes and tidying dishes while listening to Zoe Keating’s (yes, I know I’ve mentioned her a million times before, but she’s incredible) Cello x 16.
Also, there are no cookies in my house. This makes me sad.
October 14, 2009 Comments Off
Kitty McShitty
This morning I feel like death warmed up. I wake up early needing water, fill my water bottle, heat a heat pillow and go back to bed, letting the cat into the bedroom as I do so (she isn’t allowed to spend the night in there – she wants to party when I want to sleep).
Me: Ok Kitty, get up on the bed and lie down.
Kitty: *walks up to my head and rubs herself all over me* I LURVS YOU!
Me: Love you too Kitty Cat, lie down.
Kitty: Oh no! You’re sick.
Me: Yes. Lie down and go to sleep.
Kitty: *licking my face* I leeeek you. I leeeek your face all better. *lick lick*
Me: Ow! Ow! You’re tearing the flesh from my bones with your sandpaper tongue! OW! Go asleep!
Kitty: I LURVS YOU!!!
Me: YES, I know. Lie down.
Kitty: *paws at blanket* I want to get in.
Me: Fine, get in and go asleep!
Kitty: *walks under blanket, down my body to my toes and climbs back out again* Ta-dah!
Me: ASLEEP!
Kitty: *paws at blanket* I want to get in.
Me: YOU WERE JUST IN!
Kitty: *purring* IN IN IN I lurvs you in in in!
Me: Fine, get in and shutup.
Kitty: *climbs in* *paws at shirt*
Me: Excuse me?
Kitty: I want to get in your shirt. purr purr. I luvs you. *lick lick lick*
Me: OWW! OW! No, you’re not getting in my shirt!
Kitty: IN IN IN
Me: LIE DOWN and SHUT! UP! I’M SICK AND I’M TRYING TO SLEEP.
Kitty: Oh no! Are you sick? Here, I leeek you! *lick lick*
And whenever I go to get up to throw her out, she gives me that cute cat look from Shrek:
I’m helpless. Stupid cat.
October 8, 2009 1 Comment
A good morning
For the first time in…well, I don’t know how long, actually…I woke up today feeling rested. And at 7am, no less.
Night before last I slept for 12 hours (I needed it, I’ve been short on sleep for some time) and STILL didn’t feel like I’d had enough. So last night I was in bed before 10pm and – bing! – 7am.
Wide awake, ready to go.
Now it’s 9.30 and I’ve already had a bit of chill out time reading in bed with the cat (she likes to rest right up against my eyes so I can’t read my book, the sod), had a coffee, watered the garden, unloaded clean dishes from the dishwasher, loaded dirty ones in and hit wash and started work on my painting for the day.
And aside from a nasty mishap where I got confused and mistook a scrap of leather for a tasty bit of chocolate (I realised before I swallowed it, don’t worry) all has gone swimmingly.
Well, I’m choosing to see in that way at least.
The house is a pig sty (there’s all sorts of random packaging and papers and crap everywhere), and to walk about you have to dodge and weave and step. But if you think about it, people PAY to do that sort of stuff at fitness boot camps, right?
So maybe my house is just a boot camp fitness obstacle course. No, I’m not in great shape, but imagine the shape I’d be in if I tidied up and no longer had to contend with random obstacles in the hallway in the dead of night!
So, really, all that crap is there for my health.
Similarly, the drifts of paper that threaten to bury the cat are there so as to lessen the burden on the recycling centre.
Yes, I’ll put it all in the recycling bin, but later. If that much paper hit the recycling centre at once, they’d be overwhelmed.
By storing it on my desk (on my floor, on my cat, across the bed, over the chair) I can recycle tidy handfuls at a time, thus providing the centre with sustained, steady work. Providing job stability for their workers. Allowing them to take out mortgages to house their families, providing paychecks to send their children to private schools and university, providing not only their family but the whole of Australia with a better tomorrow.
I hold my nation’s future in the shit all over my desk. I must act wisely. A hasty clearing up session could wreak havoc upon god knows how many citizens.
September 30, 2009 Comments Off
Today
Woke up today feeling like I was in an oven. It’s funny weather – sunny, but with this hot, hot wind.
Perfect laundry drying day! (oh, how domestic of me)
Still, it seems most days that I wash laundry and hang it out to dry, it rains. So given that I either want dry laundry OR rain (it’s so dry here my grass is dieing) I figure it’s the perfect day for me to wash towels.
My laundry. As the bottles may suggest, I’m a pack-rat. And I ESPECIALLY can’t throw away bottles.
It’s exciting stuff at my house, I can tell you!
[Read more →]
September 22, 2009 Comments Off
Good things from the postman!
The PO Box held wonderful things for me today:
The wonderful (and relatively new dreadhead) Meggy Bee sent me a bit of the custom dread soap she had made for herself! Huzzah!
My camera is a bit dodgy these days (won’t focus properly or…or do anything properly, actually) so the photo above doesn’t do this bar justice.
In person, it’s a deep rich olive green with gold mica sparkle across the top.
And smells fantastic.
I’m keen to give it a go, but I think I’ll use a knife to just lop part off to use.
That way I can keep the rest of the bar away from the bathroom and hopefully lose less of it down the drain. Plus it looks too good to just lather up and ruin. If I do it one small bit at a time it hurts less!
So thankyou thankyou thankyou Miss Meg! Can’t wait to use it!
But not today. It’s too cold. Shame.
The second parcel held my order from Planet Art on Etsy.
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September 16, 2009 Comments Off
