For the last two weeks, my relationship with my husband has reached new levels of closeness. Not out of choice, but because we had every internal door in our house taken away to be stripped, sanded and oiled. As a result, we had an open-door policy thrust upon us, enforced 24 hours a day. Yes, that included the bathroom.
The dogs, who have been campaigning strongly against the bathroom door for years (if you have a dog - or a toddler - you’ll understand) were naturally thrilled with the having an all-access back stage pass. Meanwhile, Juan and I were grappling with how to tackle the lack of privacy at, uh, certain times of the day. We found ourselves politely asking the other to make themselves scarce at the far end of the house for these… brief interludes. Juan took great delight in playing elevator music loudly from his office speakers during these occasions.
With the promise of having our doors returned within 2 weeks, on day 13 I found myself sending a pleading email to the door stripping company asking if they could kindly make sure that the doors were definitely going to be returned to us on time, as my parents were coming to visit… I don’t think anyone wants an open-door bathroom policy when their father’s in the house.
Well, the doors are back! And with them, a hazy view of the finishing line when it comes to renovating our house… You can scroll down to see them in all their wooden glory, along with all the latest art updates and a silly pupdate to finish off with. Bon appetit!
- Of paint! Get your mind out of the gutter!
I really tried, but the manual labour was too, well… labouring. The doors were left looking like a mess so we called the professionals in and voila!
Below you can see Spud taking great offence at the bathroom door being returned:
We don’t currently have a lock on the door, hence the zebra bodyguard!
Tomorrow we are getting the entrance vestibule tackled so I should have update pics on that for the next newsletter. As for the driveway? Well the guys we had booked in seem to have ghosted us so I’m back out on the hunt for somneone to help us out with this!
For now, here’s a great before and after I’ve unearthed of our kitchen doorway:
Recent news from my accountant has come to light that as of next month I am now due to become VAT registered! Whilst this, in many ways, is an exciting step, it is also quite the can of worms when it comes to receipts and paperwork and the task of having to email nearly 80 customers with individual updates! That being said, it has transpired that the VAT charge will actually only impact UK customers. However there is most likely going to be a price increase next month since I am already taking bookings for 2027! (I do have spots for Christmas available - but please note they are 10% extra due to high demand).
The reason I’m telling you this is so that if any of you wonderful newsletter readers would like to access my current prices, now is the time! For UK customers, you particularly want to get in before the end of the month as in order to avoid the VAT your invoice needs to be raised before 31st March.
My current payment system is 50% now and 50% nearer the time of starting but there is the option to pay off your invoice in instalments instead to make it more affordable - just let me know if you’d like this option!
If you are looking for something earlier as a specific gift e.g a birthday please email me in case I can accommodate a custom date.
Thank you for your understanding with this! I know it’s a lot of info to swallow at once but for those of you keen to book in I wanted you to be able to get the best deal whilst it’s available. You can check my prices below and then email me at hello@toriratcliffe-art.co.uk with your commission - if you can let me know your preferred size and country you’re based in we can go from there :)
Okay THIS IS EXCITING. After 13 years of painting portraits and nearly 4 years of running workshops I am finally going to be teaching you how to paint a dog!
Because I adore my group of regulars who pop up time and again for my online workshops, it felt right to paint one of their dogs, so when I saw a photo of Tilda the welsh spaniel I knew she would be perfect!
And yes, you get a drawing guide, to take the pain out of sketching! I’m told these are incredibly helpful for those of you unsure on how to draw out your animal:
If you’d like to join, it is this Thursday 26th at 7.30pm UK time, HOWEVER, if you can’t make the date grab a ticket anyway as the workshop will be recorded and emailed out to everyone the next day!
Book with this button:
How to Paint a Dog Online Workshop
Oh the joy of having your parents visit to help you out with all those jobs you’ve been meaning to get round to… no rest for the wicked, within hours of arriving, my mum had our bedroom curtains laid out on the floor ready to be shortened. We inherited them from my grandma’s house and they were far too long, which for many months has been much delighting Ollie and Spud, who’ve been using them to nest inside (as if they are starved of beds to choose from!)
In particular, it’s been Ollie who’s abused them the most. He’s been so committed to wrapping himself up tightly in there that he managed to pull the curtain rail half off the wall. Somebody pointed out I should invest in a canopy bed for him. He’d probably love a four poster! There’s a medievel princess inside of him, dying to get out.
So, Saturday was spent with my mum measuring hems and snipping fabric. But every time we laid the curtains on the floor, there was Ollie, hurling himself onto them with the fervour of a protestor desperate to save their favourite tree from the axe.
We couldn’t keep him off it. At one point, when my mum was ironing, he flopped on the curtains, pulled them off the ironing board and they fell down onto his head, draping him in fabric. When he tried to sit up he looked like the phantom of the opera draped in a cape. I sadly didn’t get a pic of that one but you can enjoy a small montage below of Ollie’s love affair with these now shortened swathes of fabric:
Well I’ll be damned. We’ve reached the end of the newsletter! I hear that tends to happen when you scroll down this thing far enough.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the ride. Work is getting busier and busier this year, which I am thrilled at, but again I do apologise for any slow emailing! Feel free to send chasers if you haven’t heard back from me - I’ve lost count how many times I’ve used “my inbox is bananas right now!” as an explanation to a customer I’m late replying to. As always, achieving dazzling levels of professionalism as of yet unseen.
Hope you all enjoy your week - yes, it’s a Tuesday, not the usual day for a newsletter, but I really wanted to make sure I let you all know about the dog workshop which is on Thursday! See some of you there, otherwise, I’ll be back in your inbox before you know it! xx
And for his next trick, Magician Spud will be sawn in half.
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