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Well, I'm not sure if you can call it "settling" yet but I'm knuckling down and working on many fronts to create my new life as an artist in Summerland. Today I was excited to get a call from the prime mover & shaker in the Summerland Studio Tour group. This weekend is one of their two annual open studio tour weekends and I will be out & about meeting the local artists and checking out their studios in case they have any great ideas to incorporate into mine. Tomorrow I'm going to paint with one of the Summerland painting groups, and Friday I will check out the other one. I'm also going to join the Summerland Art Gallery and put some of my work in their gift shop, as well as apply for their annual Christmas Art Faire. Then I need to create a whole bunch of new work for all the events that are coming!

Happily I've gotten most of the floor of my new gallery prepared and can start setting up some working space.

Remember, this is what it looked like a week ago? (That's my mom inside, by the way.)

Well, I found some tinted concrete sealer and am quite happy with how it turned out, although I still need to have hubby help me move the few heavy things that were masked off, and tint/seal those smaller areas too. I'll post some photos at a later stage of development.

I talked to the previous owners, who built the house and shop, and apparently this building was prepared to have water lines run to it! That was an exciting discovery, although I haven't yet developed a plan for completing the plumbing. I'm toying with the idea of a toilet, along with a sink and cabinets, in case I want to hold art classes in the building in future. In the meanwhile I'll get the basics started in order to be ready to get on next May's Summerland/Trout Creek Studio Tour.

Meanwhile the warm weather we had through September has come to an end and the wind today blew in temperatures that are about 15 degrees cooler. I had some sheets on the clothesline and they are now wrapped so hard around the line that I can't reel it either forward or back. The line comes off our top patio and is about 20 feet off the ground so I guess those sheets will have to stay there until my husband returns this weekend. Won't he be surprised!

I've also got some work going inside the house, where I intend to have a small gallery space in a front room which needs some wallpaper removed, repainting and re-fixturing. More work for the better half! I'm glad he's retired so he can help me with some of the heavier work involved in ramping up my art career...think "building studio", transporting artwork to shows, providing tea, coffee and sustenance to the starving artist (and perhaps to gallery visitors and students?) How can anyone say they'll have nothing to do if they retire?

Meanwhile the garden calls--the grapes are ready to pick and press for juice, the orchard behind is covered with apple bins, some full and some empty ready for pickers, and the flower beds are still growing weeds. The numerous trees planted by the builders, 20 years ago, are starting to drop their leaves and there is a lot of yard work to be done! No rest for the wicked, they say, and I must be pretty wicked!

I've started to sell my 2013 calendars, and they are going fast.

This sketch of a bushbuck from South Africa is on the cover, and the rest of the calendar is the same style as previous years--a little desk calendar with a new painting each month, that you can sit beside your computer or on a table as you go out the door (or come in, for that matter).

I managed to get a good printing price so I can sell them for $12, which is less than last year. They fold up nicely for a 5" X 9" envelope, which costs $1.29 to mail within Canada (or $2.10 for 2), so they make a great Christmas gift for any of those globe-trotting friends and relatives you have. This year I have paintings, prints, a collage, and drawings from Canada, Australia, South Africa, and from inside my head too! Email or phone me if you'd like to arrange to get some before they are all sold out.

I am so excited to be in an environment that is so beautiful and so friendly to artists--there is a great community of creative people here, and the rest of the residents are welcoming, helpful and seem so much more relaxed than the run-of-the-mill city crowd I used to belong to. I seem to have more time in the day when the longest it takes to get anywhere is 30 minutes, and most places are easily accessible in 10 minutes or less. Although it's still early days, I'm pretty sure we're here for the long run and we're going to love it to bits for years!

Until next time, hope you're having as much fun as I am, creating your life every day!Life is a beach!