summer days, obsession and a new website!

Tonight is the solstice. Summer will be here for real. As I write this it's 56 degrees and raining, thunder rumbling in the distance. Doesn't exactly feel like summer.

Even so, I can't believe how quickly June is flying by. Didn't I just turn the calendar?

In the garden there's a strange combination of some things galloping (seemingly) ahead of schedule and other things growing so slowly.

The self-seeded sunflowers have started to bloom, but the sunflowers I planted aren't even a foot tall yet. My sweet peas haven't started blooming, but the arugula is already flowering. I did spy the first snap peas.

And the beans are starting to twine.

I'm trying not to miss any of it.

It all goes so fast.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was going to focus on revamping my website this month. I figured I would do it slowly. Spending some time painting and some time on the computer. Little did I know that it would become an obsession. Once I got started, I couldn't stop. A bit like Pepper when he notices my art*.

I've been focused. Overly focused. Even when I wasn't working on my website I was thinking about it, trying to work out problems in my head. I use Squarespace for my website. In general it's easy to use for non-tech people, once you get the hang of it. But there is a learning curve. Especially when you're trying new features or switching templates. For this re-design I decided to switch templates, give things a totally new look. I'm fairly tech savvy, but even so, it took me a while to figure out what the heck was going on with all the features. Squarespaces tutorials and guides are invaluable.

My new site went live yesterday. I'm still tinkering, but I'm happy enough with it that I think I can (mostly) leave it alone. For now.

I hope you'll take a look and let me know what you think. Is it easy to navigate? Do the sections make sense? Let me know if you notice anything that doesn't work or that is confusing.

Now that my website is "finished" I need to finish tweaking my blog design, but I'm not quite feeling up to it yet. Do you have any strong feelings about blog designs? Are there features you wish mine had to make it easier to read or to navigate? I'd love to know what you think.

I've been so focused on my website this last week that I have barely done any art at all.

I did manage to do some practice petunia sketches. I want to paint a larger piece, but as I was preparing I realized that I was a bit nervous about it. I've never painted petunias before and their shape is deceptively simple. It's been a while since I've been flummoxed by a painting subject and so I had to remind myself that the answer is simply to sketch. I sketched with pencil and then I sketched with watercolor.

I really should have taken more photos while I was working on this. I often say that it's important to keep going when I'm working on watercolor paintings, that in the middle they often look terrible. That was certainly the case for this one. It's tempting to abandon a project when it's at that stage, but it's important not to.

I guess that's the case with a lot of things. Don't give up on them when you're part-way through. If you're in the middle of a project (or even in the beginning stages), I hope you'll keep that in mind!

Wishing you a happy solstice!



*in fact he's looking at his reflection. He is a bit obsessed with staring at his reflection. He sees it in the oven door, the refrigerator, computer screens, and yes, mirrors, too.