Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Category: Uncategorized

Moving On – Next.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Moving On – Next.

After all that build up, hype & excitement the Big Day has come, and gone. Now we are waist deep in the gap between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Forget making plans. If you haven’t had them made for a few weeks by now, don’t bother. Trying to get people on the phone, or to answer text messages is nearly impossible. Or perhaps it’s just me. But, point still stands. It’s a weird time, and a strange floating, weightless, dateless, what day is it? Kind of time. Not my favourite.

I was keeping busy by cleaning the furnace/laundry room, emptying closets, dressers and drawers of junk & old clothes. Tidying up, organizing and cleaning our basement so that we could use the space once more. The other tv is down there! It now has an old dvd/bluray player so the tv has more utility to our family now. I reclaimed floor space, and thinned out my share of books to create additional play space and storage for the kids ever expanded collection of Lego sets. After I vacuumed, and dusted, and thought about mopping the floors I have finished what I can do down there, for now. Now I’m back to floating around aimlessly. I mean, I still have laundry to do, groceries to buy, dishes to wash, kids to bathe, and general household stuff. Work has been put off until January by those that request it, so… household projects it is. We’ve donated children’s clothes, adult clothes, and books in order to open up floor space and empty closets. In that regard there isn’t much else we can do – for now.

The girls opened up the last of their presents today. They decided to save two each for the next day so that Christmas wouldn’t end so quickly. I admire the restraint. I certainly didn’t show that sort of ability as a small child. But then again our family ends up having to wait for other people to begin, and pushing to open the day after, so perhaps after several years of conditioning the kids have adapted to it. I know I hate it, but my side of the family was a free for all tear through your gifts as you like, not a one by one wait and watch like my in-laws. It’s really upsetting if you transition to the “let’s drag this out over a few says” crowd, coming from a mad dash to open and start playing with it all position. Ugh! I get why they do it, but i also don’t care for ‘credit’ for the purchase. Seems intentionally slow just to make the purchaser happy or more important. But that’s just me.

Boxing day is here. Tuesday even. Seems I missed the recycling people today. No one had bins out yesterday, and this morning there are several empty bins up the street. So not only did they come, they came about 8 hours earlier than they usually do. Gonna be a big batch next week! Who-ah!

Enjoy your holidays and time off to recharge for the new year ahead. Drive safe, drive sober, or Uber/Lyft/Taxi where you need to go. Ciao Bella!

The patience game of waiting for extended family.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on The patience game of waiting for extended family.

Keeping the kids sane by opening stockings while we wait for extended family to show up so we can open our real presents. Kids are killing time in the tub playing with bubble bath & bath bombs. Still have seventy five minutes until the earliest my wife’s folks will show up so that we can begin. Have to get creative with early Christmas morning programming to stop the two kids from melting down. So far so good. Ha.

Have a wonderful day today. All the best.

It’s a strange feeling when you learn to let go.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on It’s a strange feeling when you learn to let go.

It can be really challenging to let go, whether it’s things, stuff, accumulated junk, perceived slights, missed opportunities,  whatever it may be. Knowing what you can comfortably give up, or get rid of and not have it gnaw at you is a hard won skill to have. Oh you are going to have the opposite to buyers remorse a few times when you start out. Misjudge what a thing means to you. But if you keep at it, and be as down to earth and real with yourself you’ll know exactly what you can, and cannot part with. Knowing your limitations is good. You can test it, expand it incrementally, but you have to know where that line is drawn so as to not hurt yourself (feelings – not physically). 20 year old me would lose his mind to hear about clearing out books, and clothes. I carted 24 or more 76L tote boxes of books and stuff around with me from move to move for years. Why? Because my stuff was what felt like home to me, not the location. We moved a fair bit in my youth, so people, friends, and locations don’t mean as much to me because we severed those connections (as I was so little) when we moved, so my home was my “things“. Materialistic much? Yeah. Gets real easy to fall into the must buy things trap. Surround myself with stuff to feel at home. But my situation is different now, as we’ve lived in the same house for 15 years. I’ve never stayed in one spot, let alone one house for that long. I feel like, for the first time, I’m putting roots down. It’s a strange realization. So I have to change. Have to heal. Let some of that shit go. Accept the parts that made me, well – me. But let go of some of that hurt. Don’t play the What if? game. Let it pass through you and be better afterward. That sounds glib. I’m no psychologist. I’d wager there is far more going on in the background than I can articulate. But understanding where your foibles stem from, looking at those circumstances with a critical eye, making adjustments to things that are harming you because of it, and trying to do better, is worth it. For me. Perhaps not for you.

Closets, drawers, dressers, book shelves, and my old wardrobe.  Stuff I haven’t touched in ten years. A good portion of it can go. Serve someone else as you have served me. Let someone less fortunate go work their first office job with my old dress shirts/pants. Let some teen read those fat ass books because I sure as hell wasn’t going to read them. Whether it was a style of writing I couldn’t get into, the subject matter, or any number of other reasons. No good holding on to that stuff just to look like I have a library at home. I’m not holding on to 1,000 books I don’t plan on reading, enjoying, or being challenged by, just to qualify my horde as a library. Ridiculous. Better served to go to the community at large. I’ll read twitter on my phone, and the occasional article, but I read best with a physical book in my hands. That hasn’t changed, and I don’t think it will. But also, if I choose incorrectly and buy a book I don’t like, I don’t feel as though I HAVE to keep that book for the rest of my life. Subtle difference. I wish I could read faster/on demand so that I could utilize a library. But my mood towards a book, even one I’m loving is so volatile I can’t stick to reading one in 10-14 days, as a general rule.

This has been a weird one. To summarize. Deep cleaning is good. Letting go of some things you’ve held on to for unhealthy reasons is good. Understanding where your tendencies stem from is good. Using that to change your life/habits little by little for the better is good. You will over do it early in the process, and hurt yourself. Be as truthful as you can be to yourself, and start small. Also I read so inconsistently I can’t seem to utilize a library very well, and continue to buy books most years, though not in the volume I once did. I am also ok with putting a book down part way in if it doesn’t do anything for me. I can give those books to others. It’s ok to not like/love every single book I pick up. Statistically speaking that was an unlikely expectation in the first place.

Happy Christmas Eve, to all whom celebrate. We have more rain, fog and potential for freezing rain. Not much going on around here this Sunday December 24th, 2023.

Mad Rush To The Year’s End.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Mad Rush To The Year’s End.

Finished one of the two partially read books I had in my pile all ready. And I am now going to attempt to complete the second book before the year is through. My resin build has sat untouched for at least two months or more. I need to finish the arms, and primer all the parts and then begin to paint in earnest. Not going to happen this year. But, I did finish the basement tidy up and reorganization. Excepting the water softener, which I need a dolly, ratchet straps and a plan for where I am taking it. Like to the garage is step one, but to the dump or elsewhere as a final destination has yet to be determined. I took all of our broken electronics out to the garage. The change table is there too. I can’t work in the subzero temperatures so I might aswell store the crap out in the garage while the space isn’t in use. I bought storage racks to put in the laundry room, and got them to fit. I tidied up and put everything up on those racks more safely. I bought clear bins for our Christmas decorations, and swapped them out to get rid of the too tall opaque green ones I was using before. I got rid of clothes, old bags, boxes, general garbage and placed things up on the shelves and not on the floor. Still have access to the furnace, and the furnace filters, humidifier unit, and duct work. Better than it was, by far. What started with moving nine bags of childrens clothes cascaded into cleaning closets, thinning out my books, opening up shelf space for the kids things, reclaiming the floors, and sorting out & organizing the basement, as well as removing bulky items and broken technology from the basement. It is now a cleaner, more useable space. I’m not done yet, as I have some drawers left to empty of ten year old unused clothing of mine & my wife. We have dressers full of old untouched, unused clothes that should get donated to people in need. Let the clear-out/purge continue unfettered! That’s what I say. I’m on a roll.

Honestly I have sat and thought about all of these things for months and months. Feels good to start and finish a bunch of those tasks. I can feel the urge to stop and let good enough for now take over, but I’d really like to empty some drawers, get the clothes off to a drobo box for textiles and THEN call it a day. In reality it’s not really done until the junk I. Oved to the garage goes to its final testing place, but I am willing to overlook that right now in favour of “inside the house” being better than it was.

I went into a Walmart and a mall this close to Christmas and I gotta say, I see a whole lot of folks still Christmas gift shopping. Doesn’t this feel a bit late to you? I do mine in October-ish. I was later this year due to our vacation in mid November. But I’d had the kids lists on my phone for months. It’s handy that whenever they saw a commercial for something they liked they would shout about it, so I just made notes about it during the summer & fall. My wife was kind enough to tell me what she wanted this year as well. I had ordered some stuff before we went away, and filled in the gaps once we returned from the US.

Two days until Christmas. Hope you are all well fed, and looked after. Ciao Bella.

Look! You can see the floor.
Clear storage bins for the win.

Finding a voice, and a niche in which to thrive.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Finding a voice, and a niche in which to thrive.

Catchy title huh? When it comes to artwork I’m still searching for what defines my style. I believe I have located it as far as sculpting is concerned, but in regards to drawing & painting, I’m still mirroring (as best I can) the reference materials from those artists I admire. Finding a style or voice in those mediums has proven to be elusive, and very difficult. I mostly gave up drawing & painting because I was tired of doing a poor copy of other, much better artists. I still fancy having a go every now and then, but I have since lost a deft hand, and any nuance I could control as brush or pencil with. Use it or lose it honey! So very cruel yet true.

Here we are, the last Friday before Christmas. The last school day of the 2023 calendar year. Still have laundry to do. Trip planning to fi ish for 2024. I have three projects coming for winter/spring 2024 that are scheduled all ready. Very happy about that! Good to be able to look forward and know there is work on the horizon. I’m sure the kids will just watch movies and hang out today. I can’t imagine they’ll be in any sort of mood to do school work. I know my oldest has to knock out a book report over the break, so that should be fun. Oh, what’s that? Yeah – no, that’s going to feel like pulling teeth, and is going to suck. That Sunday January 7th evening is when she’ll scramble to do it, in a mad panic. They never learn. Do it now and forget about it. Get it over with before you get all these new Christmas present distractions. Bah!

The next two weeks will be a bit of a time warp bubble. Who knows which day it is. What’s the date? Do we have plans today? I still gotta do the laundry? Where are all of our spoons? Did we run the dishwasher yet? Ugh this floor! What do you mean I have to vacuum? Again? Why is there so much paper & tape on the floor? Oh yeah. Never mind. It’s a weird time. Not the best for hosting people without a major clean-up.

All the best to you out there whom are hosting, cooking, cleaning, and celebrating with friends and extended family. Bless you for it. Take care. Have fun. Enjoy the brief moments of levity and love. Ciao Bella!

Brevity: It’s a Skill.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Brevity: It’s a Skill.

Not being vague, but concise. Giving exactly the amount of detail required, no more, no less. It isn’t just being blunt, nor is it the gift of omission. As a long winded person whom prefers to write micro short stories, it is simply a must. Learn it. Use it. Enjoy it. We are, all of us, better off for it.

Being able to distill complex ideas down and explain them without volumes of text is challenging. Ask anyone who has to write a precis of any written work. Hard number counts and being brief is difficult to master. What to keep, and what is covered under the umbrella of what is kept is a high level thinking, big picture challenge. Try it. Tougher than it looks.

Finally here on Thursday. Christmas will be here in four more days. All this build up and poof! Gone by 8:00am Christmas morning. Soak it in while you can. All the best. Ciao Bella!

You Best Leg It Then, My Son.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on You Best Leg It Then, My Son.

Don’t want the expense of putting more gas in the car, best walk round the shops then. Hate the cold, but hate spending money even more? Leg it, the less expensive, slower, and more time consuming method of travel. Leg it, not approved for the newly minted, the injured, the elderly, or the sick. Not available in all areas. Terms and conditions apply.

But seriously though, I need to gas up the van, pick up a prescription, and do some grocery shopping. None of which are going to help lower this months Visa bill. It is going to be a dozy. I forgot my eldest birthday party went on the old Visa on the 2nd. That was $500.00 I wasn’t planning to add to this year’s Christmas shopping attack on my account. I had hoped to pay back in October, but it had to be done on the day, for some reason. I guess because we had some late drop outs, and a few new additions, and my wife added extra meals to the order (which went uneaten, by the way). Oh well. I didn’t have to host, cook, clean, nor entertain a room of 12 children nine and under for several hours on a Saturday afternoon. Money well spent, but it’ll jump up the ole balance a hefty notch. Ugh. Tighten the belt heading into January in preparation of the Spring Tax collection season. Blargh.

I have remembered to bake my daughters polymer clay creations this morning, so the house is a tad smelly. Glad for the basement apartments oven. Wouldn’t want to do that type of craft curing in an oven I cook our food with. Yuck. I have a timer on, so I can’t leave to shop/gas up until it peeps. Don’t want her creations to burn. She made them in different colours so as to not have to paint them. If I burn them, or make them brown that will defeat the purpose of how she made them.

Maybe I’ll go work for a second and then check in on them. Ciao Bella.

Are We Close Enough To That Holiday Limbo Period Where You’re Never Certain If People Are Still Working, Or Are Off On Vacation Time…

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Are We Close Enough To That Holiday Limbo Period Where You’re Never Certain If People Are Still Working, Or Are Off On Vacation Time…

But sometimes they answer emails or request work, but you’d swear you’ve had an OOO message explaining an absence for the end of the year. Do I need to finish this asap or… will you approve this now or… should I wait for a reply and any possible changes before I go round my pal’s for a drink or… do I give you until 9:00pm and then shut down for the day or… that type of thing. Get it?

Tuesday of the week before Christmas,  and other such Holidays are upon us as well. Seasons greetings, Happy Holidays, Happy/Merry (?) Kwanza, Happy Chanukah, and any such others that I’ve missed.

We have a very light dusting of powdery snow this morning, masking a brittle & crunchy layer of ice beneath thanks to all of yesterday’s rain. Is it treacherous out there? I dunno. All I did was uncover both vehicles, but parts of the driveway were slick, so I’d have to imagine so. Go a hair slower towards all those four way stops, and give yourself a breather heading towards lights at intersections. That sort of thinking should help you out on a day like today. Get some of that good old glare from the sun off the road and you have yourself a recipe for smashed glass and dented bumpers. But we all hope not.

Here’s a quick health tip reminder. Drink a glass of water. If you feel bound up inside, head-achey, or a bit dry of lip, go drink a glass now. It might rush right through you in the next 10-15 minutes, but a cool glass of water will be appreciated by your body. I regularly forget to do so, and I should take better care not to forget. One small step of personal kindness. Just don’t do it if you have to go drive somewhere, or wait in a place with no bathroom access. That will not be of any immediate help to you! Ha.

In alternate news I did a good amount of clearing up down in the basement. I finally tossed several years of old fair entries, kept all of the ribbons though. Kept some of the more special entries too. Stuff that really displayed effort and/or creativity. I also condensed down our books to open up some more space for the kids things, and to provide additional playable surfaces for them both. It doesn’t look like I got rid of much because of how much is still left, but I know I sent off 70lbs worth of books, novels, and hard covers. Tried to get some old manuals out the door too, but those five were rejected. I knew they would be, but worth a try. Can’t score if you don’t shoot! Ha. In all honesty though, as happy as I am with the progress, there are an awful lot of things that still need to be sorted out, organized and gotten disposed of. The old water softener which weighs a gods be damned tonne has to go. But I haven’t been able to empty out all of the congealed salt yet. Also my wheelie cart went to the in-laws never to return. So I need one of those, my ratchet straps and a final destination planned out before I fuss with it. We have a change table & crib combo that needs to go too. If our newly pregnant cousin on my wife’s side doesn’t want it, I’ll take it to the Care & Share donation drop off site. I just want it gone, but not to a landfill. I could just as easily break it down and burn it at the cottage, but it deserves to keep doing its thing unhindered.

I also need to designate an appropriate storage spot for all of our newly acquired wheeled luggage. I don’t want to bury it someplace it’s a pain to get to, but they are big & light weight. I guess the closets I emptied recently of baby clothes is as good a spot as any. I was hoping to retain that space for later, but those new bags need a clean, dry, and out of the way place to be stored so that the kids don’t try to climb inside them, and break the wheels or zippers etc… I tell you I dream of storage space. A magical extra door in the basement that leads to a cavernous, yet dry and luke warm room with rack upon rack of easily accessible storage. An Indiana Jones style warehouse to put all of our extra stuff. These are the desires I have. Not extra wives, or girlfriends on the side. No. I dream of adequate storage space, and an upgraded shop. But I digress. I could daydream about that sort of thing all day if I let myself. That and winning the lottery. Again – I digress. Shame, that. I’d be pretty good at spending money on all sorts of fun things. Probably why most lottery winners go bankrupt or end up back where they were inside of ten years. Eyes too big for their account balances. Plus getting fleeced by banks, bad money managers, shady business partners and the like. I’m drifting here, I can feel it! Dream a little dream of meeeeeeeee!

Less than a week to go now until Christmas. And then we’ll be looking down the barrel of a looming 2024! Crazy. Anyway, take care. Ciao Bella!

Donating books

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Donating books

Had a bunch of books I didn’t like, and won’t read so I bundled them all up and dropped them off at the local Care & Share. I offered them up for free to anyone I know nearby, but alas no takers. So a seventy pound box of books went off to a new home. I think 90% of them were in pristine condition too. I take good care of my book collection. But when it comes to authors I don’t like, or books I just couldn’t get invested in, they gotta go. No point holding on to so many things I don’t care about. I need the room for things I do care about. Hopefully they go to people whom like those authors, and get read, reread over and over again.

Oh Don’t You Worry, I’m Very Aware That I Dress Like A Toddler.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Oh Don’t You Worry, I’m Very Aware That I Dress Like A Toddler.

Rumpled t-shirts, the same two pair of comfortable sweats, and a Patagonia style zip up sweater are my go to wardrobe now that I am a full time work from home dad, and have been doing so since 2017. With few to no in person meetings I have left my professional work attire unattended in my closet gathering dust. I also put on several pounds during the last four years, and I’m certain much of that attire no longer fits in a flattering manner. As I can attest to during the series of funerals I attended this July. Well, I had updated several pairs of slacks, but never thought about my dress shirts, and those lovely shirts may need to go to someone else. Or I have to do something, and lose weight. Or at the very least tone up the flabby bits, so I can get away with keeping my work clothes. My usual grey or black monochromatic dress code looks super-duper shabby. I should at least try to wear proper pants, or at least jeans or my work pants once or twice a week. I think I can build that into a habit. I keep meaning to hem some other pants I have to increase my wearable roster of leisure wear. I’ve said this a few years in a row now. But! Ha-ha, we have a sewing machine in the house now, so I can do it myself if I find my thread and figure out how to load the machine. Or hand stitch a bunch more. I did at one point start this process on each pair of pants, but gave up after putting in a couple stitches on each pair. It was tiresome, and it needed a lot of stitches. I stabbed my fingers a few times, and was unhappy with the lacklustre results. Will I remember? Will I follow through on the shift in what is an acceptable wardrobe for a forty plus year old man, father, husband, business owner/operator? Stay tuned.

It’s a rainy Sunday here today. I have one last Amazon package to be delivered. Not a Christmas present to be exact. But a new, large stereo for the house. A JBL Boombox 2, 80 Watts of blood pumping waterproof goodness. I want to be able to annoy the neighbourhood with my 50’s classic rock, and a soft spot for Weird Al Yankovic. Followed closely by the raucous chaos of Chas n’ Dave, and a bit of Status Quo on top. Layer in a fair bit of Wolfmother, Soundgarden, and early 2000’s club beats and I’m there my friends. Shaking, bumping, gyrating to the music. Club rat 101 going on out on the dance floor. I may jiggle & sway a whole lot more now than in my twenties, but I can still cut a rug, or get down!

Even had the chance to take a few Christmas presents over to my inlaws on Saturday. Slowly I am making my way towards reclaiming floor space. Hell on Friday I moved nine (9) full vacuum bags of childrens clothes out of the basement closets. That had to be 500-600 cumulative pounds of too small childrens clothing. Enfant wear, right up to age 5. Anything that fits a 6-9 year old child got kept, obviously. But we made a significant dent in the amount of clothing we were storing away. I’m beginning to be able to see our basement floor again! Progress. Next on the list are toys. Some can go to school for the MID kids there, others can go to the cottage, and others still can go in the trash. But most of all, I want it sorted, and looked after, up off the floor. I admit, that is tough to do with the Christmas tree in the living room, but they should be able to manage their own rooms for grown out of toys & junk / garbage. Or I’ll wait for school on Monday, pick a room and begin to purge unannounced.

I wanted to do that in September but I was actually busy with paid work, so this fall I did not do any DIY projects, or go over the entire house to throw away the newly gathered junk. I did a real good job of that the first year both kids were at school together. And in all honesty we have not gathered up nearly as much junk since that initial clear out. Not to say we don’t have things to get rid of, we absolutely do. Just not anywhere near as much. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Our house is tiny, and the clutter makes it feel even smaller than it really is. We can not hold on the every single thing that catches a passing fancy. At least not in the current disorganized way. I’d like dolls of certain sizes to be stored with other similar items, so that if you are looking for a specific toy of that nature you need but upend just one bin, and not every single toy box in the house. Simple things like that would make me happy. Less clutter, more organization with intent, and a habit of cleaning up after oneself. Not perfection, but sweep after dropping food on the floor, taking plates and cups to the kitchen after use, not leaving wrappers all over the house. We can build up from there.

Have a great Lazy Sunday. May all your chores go smoothly today. Ciao Bella.