A few weeks on and things are looking a great deal rosier. Our house is under offer again. I've learned not to take anything for granted with a house sale and won't feel secure until contracts are exchanged and we have a key in the door to the new house. After the disappointments that we have been through we are still decorating and tarting up the house to ensure that if the sale does collapse again it will be irresistable to yet another potential buyer. If it does go through we feel that the updates will be well deserved by the buyers, a lovely young couple who are completely dotty about each other and probably ready to fill the house with even more children. This house is used to children!

Work-wise I completed the job for the local council and thankfully they were really pleased with my work and made very positive noises about using me again. The contact was very positive about my figurative work so I'm going to try to pad out my folder with more figurative studies to hopefully lure a few more commissions like that.

I was recently contacted by an artist from another art forum which I visit. They advised me to look at my cartoon style and to try to reduce the straight lines and add some wiggle. It was inspiring advice and I'm looking forward to experimenting. I used to add far more wiggle to my pictures and lost the style along the way. We'll see.

School holidays are nearly over. The children go back to school next Thursday. We were supposed to be in the new house across the road from the school on the 24th July so it is going to be strange and hugely frustrating parking beside the vacant new house and walking the children from the car. The poor souls won't have the new school jumpers that I bought for them at the beginning of term because they are packed in boxes which are completely inaccessible, as are half of their toys. The estate agents tell us that if this current sale goes through without complications we should be in the new house around November so we're just praying that we can be in before Christmas.