Uncategorized – Page 158 – Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Honey Do List

October 6, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

The first month of the kids going back to school has been a doozy. I managed to get through a laundry list of items around the house. I am so very happy that I managed to get these projects done, both the big ticket items and the smaller stuff. Things I’ve been able to do this September since my kids went off to school for six hours per day:

Paint Fire place – Paint the downstairs hall way – Cut and frame sixteen photos and collages & hang them up in the hall – Wash all household Cabinets – De-clutter upstairs of the house (That alone netted me 3 full over sized garbage backs of junk!) – Deep clean from exhaust fan, to tub drain the main floor bathroom – Sweep & mop the entire main floor to a sparkling shine – Manage children’s wardrobe – Clean front door cubbies – Clean front hall closet – Give to charity various boots, coats, hats and jackets – Resurface the dining room table – Clean off the kitchen island so you can see the counter tops again – Wash the winter coats and snow pants – Clean the girls rooms (under the beds and all) – Scrub, pressure wash, sand and stain the back deck – Sand and prime and paint the garage door and trim – Prune all of the trees and shrubs – Dig up 11 Black Locust Trees – Edges and weed all of the garden beds. All of that a more. It really has been a busy September and I’m pleased as punch about it.

Now that we’re into October I’d like to finally build my screen door for the back of the house, and start up on the Harry Potter trunks again. I have two left to go just sitting and waiting for me to get started. Haul away all of the brush that lies in piles around the property – Wash all of the exterior windows – Give both vehicles a fall clean both inside and out – Properly breakdown and store the pressure washer and hoses – Begin fall clean up of leaves and dead flowers. I think I might even tackle the trim in the downstairs bathroom if I get up the courage to try my hand at multiple mitered cuts. Depends on how expensive the trim is I suppose.

Hey not to mention during all this I’ve been able to read three books from cover to cover, which is really quite lovely. And not just doom scrolling on twitter, real paper bound books again. Ah, it’s been lovely. Work has even started to pick up a bit too, so I have invoices going out and coming in again. Plus I am still able to do school drop offs and pick ups every day, which is really great. I hope you are all doing the best you can with what you’ve got. Cheers! ~ M

Ticking projects off my to-do list

September 20, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

It has finally happened, after seven years, both of my children are off to in person learning at the local public school and I am left at home alone in peace with six uninterrupted hours to get stuff (and my paid day job work done.) However, seeing as i am self employed I am opting to use some of this new found freedom to knock a fairly hefty number of odd jobs around the house off of my honey do list. Last week the progress was slow going but it involved a lot of deep cleaning of the main floor of our bungalow home. Sweep, vacuum and mop the floors, wash the inside/outside of the fridge (yuck!), do the same to the stove, dishwasher and microwave. Wash the cabinets, clean out all the left over and accumulated junk from all of the random drawers. Clean off tables, and art stations and bedrooms and the main bathroom needed a total hose down. Gosh, and golly gee, that was a lot of washing and sanitizing. Glad the bulk of it is done, and now I can just maintain it (I hope).

But today, today was the start to the bigger items on my list, namely painting. Sanding, priming and painting the fireplace in the exact same white as it was when first put together. Looks good, but it also looks like nothing really happened. Which sort of sucks. Next step is to paint our back hallway and staircase to the basement. That looks like it’ll need at least three coats of paint, and has some really nasty looking tricky spots. I might make that stretch over two days, I’m not sure yet. Once those two jobs get done I’ll head outside to power washing and sanding our back deck, and then adding a weather sealer (colourless of course, going oh naturelle!) I’d love to get that done this week too. Then all that is left is to wash and paint the garage door, and my biggest jobs will be completed. I can then turn my attention to the basement, where I’d like to finish the trim in our second bathroom, and generally tidy up the basement.

Something I have been meaning to do and have felt great relief getting it done, is purging years worth of crap out of the house. Our home feels bigger, less claustrophobic. Smells a hell of a lot better as well. As we turn towards autumn I’d like to wash all of the windows and winter coats in preparation for that drastic shift to grey rainy November.

Truth be told I’d like to get the bulk of this work done soon, in case my eldest wants to build a Halloween costume from scratch and we can turn our full attention to that in early October. Without feeling like I am neglecting household projects and deep cleaning for the sake of candy, candy, candy, candy.

New Business Hours in Effect Come Monday September 13th, 2021.

September 9, 2021September 9, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

New Business Hours in Effect Come Monday September 13th, 2021.

New Hours:
M-F
8:45am - 2:45pm
Evenings :
7:00pm - 9:00pm

Check this out at Amazon

August 7, 2021August 7, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

The Company – A series of interconnected space short stories: Varied works of short fiction https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B091JB3MG7/ref=cm_sw_r_u_apa_glt_1ESEPBF46YCZSZVSNQM5

Here’s a few old packaging projects

June 1, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Which I have finally gotten around to producing 3d renders for. The first is a plastic packet of gluten free chocolate crispy chunks. From what I recall of the project, we did up a few samples as spec work while we were submitting a bid to actually manufacture the wrapper. We did not win that particular job. The second is a paper bag soup pouch that was going to have an inner bladder to contain the different soups or chowders. Both were fun to work on, and far outside my usual alcoholic beverage wheelhouse.

I will continue to dig through my archives and see what else I can bring to life, whilst simultaneously working on my program skills, and completing my day job projects in a timely fashion. On a side note I’m well under way on one of the two Harry Potter trunks I have been commissioned to build. Sorting out the kinks on my box joint jig and I’ll be good to go. Might have to revert back to my mitered 45 degree edges until I get it up and working 100%, the box joint jig that is with my router.

Cheers! Stay as healthy as you can.

In regards to my previous post about 3d rendering.

May 23, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

I might be behind the eight ball here in terms of knowing about how to turn illustrations of uniquely shaped bottles into fully fledged 3d objects using Photoshop, but learning that work flow and then being able to chuck that stuff into Dimension and creating realistic looking mock ups is astounding. So glad I came across this stuff. No longer do I need to slave away drawing every bend of light or using finicky meshes. No no no, now you can draw up your custom bottle in illustrator, render the 3d shape in photoshop, with separate outer glass, inner liquid fill, cap and cork, plus add your various labels and tie that shit up with a fucking bow in Dimension with lighting effects, camera perspective matching to your background. Dear lord, it’s a game changer! I for one am pumped about what this could do for my beverage, and packaged goods clientele. Mind blown. I am tickled pink. Pleased as punch. Until next time.

Also – side note. I wrote a book of short stories available on Kindle, and kindle unlimited for $.99 USD. The Company – A series of interconnected space short stories by Mark Holyome. Available in 11 markets worldwide.

“I’m absolutely amazed that you’ve managed to get away with that…

May 21, 2021May 21, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

For so long, I mean, it’s kind of disgusting… the smut that you write.” Barks the stout middle aged man whilst walking around in the garden of the slovenly seated man. He is sat slumped in a deck chair, bent low over his dirty keyboard, the man looks up from his cracked screen and blinks rapidly in the glare of the hot overhead sun. Both to moisten his eyes after staring for a long period of time, and to give himself an excuse to cultivate a scathing rebuttal. “It isn’t smut, fuck you very much, it’s romance. And I do not apologize for my romantic bent having a thoroughly sexual vein running through it. If you pardon my phallic pun of sorts.” Quips the pudgy gentleman from his rustic looking deck chair. “Who the fuck asked you in the first place? As I recall, Benji, I pay you to look after my gardens not to interrupt me when my pages are finally starting to come together!” Leaning back now in his cruddy wicker deck chair, stretching until his spine pops loudly between his shoulder blades the pudgy writer smiles and waves lazily at a mosquito buzzing by his ear. The garden isn’t huge, but it’s quiet and secluded with massive rhododendrons and lilac bushes, surrounded by forsythia and Russian Olive trees. The garden smells divine on this late spring afternoon. A big proponent of hostas and day lilies and all manner of shrubs, the writer is slowly rising from his chair. “What do you care anyway Benji? I didn’t think you even read my stuff.” Standing a few steps away, half buried in the overgrowth of a gargantuan rhododendron Benji quips “I fucking well don’t, but I caught Gary reading one in the tub last night and I could hear his breath catch in his throat. He moans ever so softly to himself when he reads anything racy. So I picked up the book to peruse the chapter he was reading and it was all about throbbing this, and heaving that, with glistening chests and wetness and moisture. Oh god! It’s so hackey, it’s like every tainted soft core porno trope wrapped up in a bow. I couldn’t believe Gary was so turned on by it!” Benji is sweating profusely under the partial cover of the shrub, not only because it’s thirty some odd degrees in the cloudless heat. “Gary reads my stuff? I’m touched. People keep buying it, so I’ll continue to write it. Also, as a side note, my mother wants you to deadhead my roses again this year, she likes to see the bushes in full bloom from her bedroom window.” Both men turn away from the rhododendron to face across the yard to the next house over, where a tiny ancient woman sits smiling and waving from her modest porch overlooking the garden. “Damn straight Benji!, my little Julian wants me to be able to see those roses in bloom! From my bed!” Benji’s face contorts between a smirk and a grimace. “Oh of course my dearie, any thing for you – you shrivelled hag” he mutters under his breath. “Come at me you bitch!” Blurts the elderly woman while waving both arthritic middle fingers around in a figure eight pattern. “You leave my lovely boys alone, you know how much my Gary and Julian mean to me!”

So I wrote a book of interconnected short stories set mostly out in space.

April 22, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

You can of course read most if not all of it for free when you search my archives, or if you are a Kindle/ Kindle Unlimited user you can read it all in one place on your handy device as you please for $.99 USD or $1.24 CDN or £.77 UK pounds. That’s as cheap as I can make it and still make it available in 11 different markets under Amazon.

Book is available on Kindle only at this point.

It was a great run.

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

A bitter sweet moment has arrived now that I have completed the entirety of my four terrain boards to build one large interconnected 4ft by 4ft gaming table. Just in time too, as I came perilously close to finishing off my modpodge, ground cover, spring & summer grass flocking, foam stock and various colours of paint. Not to mention the store bought pepples and decorative sand. Phew – it was a nail biter. All of my best trees were used and the last few are so tiny I’m not sure how or what I’d ever use them on. Without further ado, I present my newest war gaming terrain build, and the final grouping.

I am happy with how they turned out. I might have miscalculated the foam alignments, but as I built them all separately I am not surprised by this at all. I look forward to many hours of story telling, make believe and quality time with my girls playing war games and D&D on these things. I’m in the process of building us each our own dice trays and at least one dice tower. In a few years I’d actually love to build a proper table (a nice one with hand cut joinery) for games that can be left set up. Now I need to finish reading my manuals and handbooks, nerf some stories or do up some homebrew adventures.

I followed all the same steps from boards 1 through 3. Although we chose the coldest day in March to try to cut foam outdoors to avoid the smell and fumes ( which worked for our health, but left us with numb fingers, and a perpetually cold hot knife). Memories – that’s how we make’em.

Simple-fast snack sandwich.

March 30, 2021March 30, 2021greatwallstudios1 Comment

This assumes you own a few things, such as a toaster, a microwave, a knife, a whisk/fork, at least one small breakfast/cereal bowl and 90-130 seconds of time. And of course, one egg, some cheese and a slice of some sort of protein from a deli counter (in my instance that is German Salami).

Crack one egg into a small bowl. Shake in a little salt and pepper. Whisk/stir with a fork to get a uniform yellow colour of the egg. Slap in one slice of salami. Dunk under egg with whisk/fork so it is covered. Add several small chunks of a cheese you own and/or like. Microwave for 90 seconds. Place bagel or bread in a toaster for however long yours runs at the setting you like. Ours is also nearly 110 seconds. Once the bagel pops and the microwave pings, I spread on some Herb & Garlic cream cheese, scoop the egg & cheese blob onto the bagel and consume. *You may note that a knife is handy to extricate your egg from its bowl, and for spreading your variant of cream cheese or butter on your bread of choice. Simple, tastey and effective. I have a step by step follow along procedure below, so even the young or hapless can get something vaguely nutritious to eat.

Must haves: toaster, toaster oven, microwave, bowl or cup that works in a microwave, one knife, one fork or whisk. Also relevant: eggs, bread in one form or another, a slice of deli meat protein, salt & pepper, some form of cheese you find palatable, a bread spread like butter or cream cheese. Kind of important: at least 90-120 seconds of time to prepare and cook said sandwich. **if you are lactose intolerant, vegan, or Celiac I would expect you to make as many substitutions as needed for your own peace of mind and safety.