The last 5% takes the most time and effort

Short working week due to a long weekend annual visit to meet up with family. We're scattered the length and breadth of the UK so it means a mad few days of catching up with all the projects, passing photos round and general questioning, discussing and lobbing ideas and suggestions around for anyone who has something in the pipeline.

Aside from that, the latest sculpt, once I'd painted it white, was pretty skinny so her limbs have been filled out a bit more and it looks much better. Hmm, actually the mix of pulp colour and white looks quite good...I may have a new decorating option.

I had three new pieces to paint for future prints, but didn’t have any 12 x 16 canvases left. Found three sheets of acrylic paper but it’s not quite so forgiving of the layering I tend to do so will have to go to town this weekend to get some more.

But…this weekend is Affordable Art and also Landmark Autumn Art Fair - always a good show.

There's also a 'small' demo going on in London…I am torn between wanting to go and thinking I’d be better off sorting out my own stuff. If the B thing comes to pass, I don’t expect it to go well; it could have dire consequences – deal or no deal - for the business I work part time at. Regardless, the more options I have for my future, the better.

So, one of my other creative options is writing. I currently have ten pieces on assorted subjects in draft form, plus a longer project related to this site/blog.

I also have a new book to read on making a living with writing, to complement the online searching and reading I’ve been doing on self-publishing.

It’s all at the testing phase for now; coming up with topics, typing madly to get the basic ideas down, then sorting through it to see what the structure needs to be. From there, it's about clarifying the concept, fleshing it out and editing.

So I’m back in the ‘how to do I find time to do all these things’ stage, but in a good way.

‘Things’ consists of:

• Sculpting some smaller mixed media pieces

• Painting more canvases for sale as originals

• Paintings on canvas for scanning and adding to print shop

• Sizing up some sketches to make stencils to use on various items

• Working on the abstract painting

• Planning where and how I can sell my work

• Working out who/how to approach with an opportunity for live drawing and/or photography so I have plenty of reference material and cos face time is a good thing for artists

• Adding an extra part to the website for customer feedback/testimonials

• Doing research on various areas

• Thinking on all the stuff I’ve been reading or listening to/relaxation. If you have no clear space in your life or in your head, it’s pretty hard to hear what you’re really thinking, or sort through things when you’re on the go all the time.

And prints. Last night I was all set to finalise Shopify. I need to add ‘buy’ buttons to my site rather than add a Shopify site/store - which makes all the instruction references to my Shopify store (shopping cart bit?) very confusing. It will probably make more sense when everything is in place.

I also had to make some changes on the Creative Hub app first but couldn’t log in - ‘bad request’ error. Ho hum. (Just found out 2 minutes ago they've totally revamped the site.)

So, instead I looked at the Shopify template policies. Bleghh, they give you every possible option and you delete what you don't need, but it's pretty confusing working out what's store/shopping cart stuff and what's different to the website.

Sometimes you're better off leaving this sort of thing until later. I gave up last night or I'd never get to bed. This evening I'll have a better idea and try again. I want to be confident I've done this right; that's my admin/accuracy/details background showing it's face.