Tag Archives: move

Happy Day!

See this oil painting of a girl on a tree swing come to life in 2 minutes (time lapse video)

Today we had the opportunity to bring the kids to the house we’ll be closing on. Until now, they’d only seen the pictures and video. I was nervous that they wouldn’t like the house as much as we do, but they fell in love with it as soon as they saw it. They are now excited to move in. We had a happy day, exploring the rooms and the yard (the yard has a couple of really big mature trees and I’m wondering if we can put a swing in one of them!). They chose who would have each bedroom, and we took family selfies in the living room.

On the way back to this place we’re currently living in, we went out for a celebration lunch at Cracker Barrel, where we’d not taken them in years. We usually only go there when on a road trip vacation. We chose it today partly because of their fun gift shop. After we ate, we each chose a small keepsake item to remember the day by.

I just downloaded the photos we took, and I love them! I will cherish these always. I want to frame the last one we took, when I said, “do something silly for one last picture”. That was our best one.

Moving Soon!

See oil painting “Autumn Cottage” come to life in just over 1 minute (time lapse)

If you’ve been following our unexpected sudden move journey, and the way the housing crisis has caused a shortage of rentals and homes to buy, then you know it’s a tremendous weight off our shoulders that this house deal has progressed from accepted offer to the inspection stage. The inspection was today and looks like it has passed! We will get the official report tomorrow. Unless there is a nasty plot twist, all is on track for an early close and we’ll be moving soon.

BTW: our new house has a window box! That’s been on my dream wish list ever since we were first married and living in Germany in the attic of a house that had window boxes. So, I chose this autumn cottage painting for today’s blog post. It was a painting I did while just sort of daydreaming of a peaceful cottage with a fall seasonal theme, and the window boxes almost painted themselves.

I will be packing up my paintbrushes and paint, so it will be a while before I have anything new to share. But, I have 200+ paintings already filmed and my chatter will not cease. The daily blog will continue throughout this crazy time. I have many stories to share with you about everything that’s happened, and when I have a bit more time I’ll do that. There will be a day here soon when nearly everything is packed and I’ll be restless. I can tell those stories then. For now, I’m still in a packing frenzy!

Packing Up

Watch this wolf oil painting come alive in just over 1 minute (time lapse)

I spent several hours today packing up my art in preparation for our unexpected move. You can probably recognize ones I’ve shared with you (in the photo below), especially the wolf painting at the bottom because you’ve just seen it again in the video on today’s blog.

These are various sizes of canvas, and all are small enough to pack inside storage/moving bags, bins, boxes, etc. But my largest paintings are still on the wall because I don’t have anywhere to put them right now. My plan is to pack them in mattress moving bags, as there is nothing else we have that is large enough to protect the biggest ones. Since I don’t want to step around large mattress bags while I’m still packing up other things, I’ll just leave those last two paintings on the wall until closer to moving time. But other than those, I’ll be done packing up my many, many paintings! WHEW!

In case you were wondering why I don’t sell these, it’s because I’m saving them for art shows and exhibits. I’d landed a solo month-long art show in Ireland, moved there, and then had to return to the United States before my show date because I couldn’t get my visa extended. Ever since, I’ve been determined to get my solo art show at the right time and right place.

Meanwhile, I’ve painted probably over a hundred and fifty additional paintings since Ireland in 2016, so my show will be much bigger when I finally have one! Until then, my paintings are a bit stressful to figure out how to store and now move them yet again. I’m very relieved to be nearly done with packing my art!

It was a productive day. I also did my second-to-last taping for the Easter show. I’m still on schedule to finish the show on time. It’s getting down to the wire though, and hard to focus when so much is going on.

We still don’t know where we’re going, only that we have to be out of here by May 31. Today was one step closer, as the lender said that she is working on our loan application. We might get our pre-approval tomorrow and finally have the green light to go house hunting- and we better hunt FAST!

Shocking News

See oil painting “Road Unseen” come alive in under 2 minutes (time lapse)

The story behind this painting is on the “Road Unseen” page. There are times in life when we don’t know what’s on the road ahead. Today we found out that the person who owns this house has decided to sell it and won’t renew the lease. So, we have to move out in about two months. We were not expecting this, as we won’t be ready to buy a house until next year at the earliest. You might remember that after job loss (the company he worked for moved out of the country) my husband went back to school for a new career? He graduates in June, but we must vacate before then. We were so close to the end of this journey, yet didn’t quite make it and now we’re in a sticky situation to find a four bedroom house quickly.

We not only have to figure out housing, but we only have a short time to pack up five years’ of living in this house and move. I am shocked by this sudden turn of events and I have no idea how this will turn out for us. I will have to put certain things on hold work wise, like the new weekly show I had already postponed- now it will be postponed even longer. It involved a green screen, you might remember? I had tested it out. But, today I took the green screen down and I’ll pack it up. I’m still doing the Easter show though, as I’m very close to taping that and it would be a shame to cancel it.

I’m still in shock over this. I have no idea what we’re going to do.