What day is it?

As always I have no idea what day of the week it is at any point between Christmas and New Year, except for today! We are without internet at the moment so whilst I am momentarily connected to the outside world I bring you a short photographic summary of Titus’s first Christmas, with his new best friend, Dylan. Once I have opened all my presents(!) I shall resume numerous artistic pursuits and promise to bring you something new next week……..

A lovely sunny Boxing day - thankfully, North Scotland escaped the worst of the weather

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just a wee blog post today. My parents have travelled 600 miles north to spend a relaxing Christmas with us and we are all "relaxing" in front of a crackly log fire, with a wee dram before supper (amidst the chaos caused by not one, but two young hyper active dogs!)

Slainte mhor a h-uile la a chi's nach fhaic

(Good health to you every day that I see you and every day that I don't)

Beware Cynthia Roberts !

I really enjoyed the Christmas Fairs and it was so nice to meet new people, and hear their compliments about my work. I handed out lots of business cards, most of which have just my website address. You can imagine how horrified I was to discover this week that my pet gremlin has been working on my website and stealing all my messages. Consequently I have removed the Contact Form (and strangled the gremlin) and hope I didn’t miss too many commissions or enquiries. With this in mind I was delighted when someone contacted me via the SAA Gallery interested in buying some of my work. A few weeks went by and I heard nothing more, until this morning. A certain Cynthia Roberts emailed me wanting to know about 3 paintings on my website gallery. I was over the moon when she offered to buy two – and I raised an eyebrow when I found she was going to send “her courier” to collect them and ship them down to Kent. My raised eyebrows dropped to a frown when she instructed me to take twice the value of the paintings so I could pay her courier ! A quick search in Google revealed that this is a known scam, and so Cynthia Roberts has been banished to the Junk folder and blocked for good. Oh well, the delight of the sale was good while it lasted! On a more positive note, there are many genuine and very lovely customers out there -  I recently sold three of my Horny Hamishes as A4 prints to a very grateful customer in Aberdeen, and she even sent me back a picture of them on the wall. How nice is that?

See you later aligator....

..in a while crocodile! Remember that? I used to love Mud (when I was 5 years old) but not any more, especially the mud outside our front door. I brought Titus home after his debut at the grooming parlour in Thurso (where he spent 2 hours wooing the girls whilst they transformed him from a smelly beach bum into "dog about town"). To save his pedicured paws from the offending mud, I lifted him out of the car and over the threshold  - but in doing so I managed to sprain a ligament in my hip and am now dosed up with pain killers and walking with a stick. Oblivious to the trauma caused at his expense, “dog about town” has tried to wrestle me for ownership of my walking stick and become inappropriately amorous with my bad leg! 

Monday's gales and wild waves - I could hardly stand up to take this

The beach bum in Wednesday's bright spell

sheep bums in Friday's snow

Christmas trees and woolly bows

December has arrived and I have already decorated and undecorated the Christmas tree 3 times – only a little one for my stalls! This weekend I was at Bettyhill munching delicious homemade truffles and sipping mulled wine behind my stall.

No doubt I shall be eating something festive next Saturday at Caithness Horizons Christmas Market. I shall be selling my cards and prints plus a special line of bottled surplus energy from Titus.com. At home the preparations are underway - the cake’s soaking in brandy, I’ve found some 3 year old alcoholic mincemeat in the back of the cupboard and there’s a hunk of venison in the freezer – so what more do we need!

A few weeks ago I shared the progress of a commissioned pet portrait of Princess Neptune the pet sheep. Her loving owner was tearful when she first saw the finished painting and pleased that I had captured “that look”. She presented me with a bundle of Scottish bank notes beautifully tied in a bow of Princess Neptune’s wool. I put it on the table to photograph, clicked the camera and then it was gone – Titus caught a wiff of the wool and stole it! I squealed which caused Titus to run round the room in delight. I cornered him under the table and rescued the hard earnt cash – but the woolly bow was gone in a rapid gulp and lick of the lips!