Creative experiments

So I hadn't been painting at all, and frankly haven't painted this month that Coop's been gone, but I'm finally getting around to loading these pics so I can hopefully see what you think. I basically was really bored of what I usually do and wanted to have some fun giving something a bit more expressive and loose a try. I did this one first:
Then I painted this one:
And then going way outside the box for me - not even drawing inspiration from a photo but just from my head - I tried this one. I LOVED it as a drawing and halfway through and was rather unhappy with it when I got done.
So I changed it a bit. Still not thrilled. I feel like it makes my eyes go blurry. Not quite sure what's wrong - lack of focal point? too much going on? soft edges not working with hard one? colors? composition? I just don't know. I think it's better than it was, but I'm not even sure about that. But here it is as at present:
So what do you think of them? Any suggestions?

Finding it hard to finish

So I haven't got to paint much lately, mostly because Cooper was suffering through finals and the girls and I were suffering from lack of Cooper, and our house was all out of sync, but hooray Coop for finishing the term! Hip hip hooray! And when I have painted, I've been totally unable to finish anything or feel successful at it. Here's some of the works in progress.

Attempt #1:

Attempt #2:

I like some things about both but think it'll probably take at least attempt #3 to get it right.

New subject.
Attempt #1 when I liked it:

Attempt #1 after I ruined it with the nasty background that I didn't want to add but went for anyway and regretted it so much afterwards that I didn't paint for days:

Sad.

Attempt #2:

Sweet but missing something - not a nasty background, but something. I can't figure out what else to do with it and I'm too scared of ruining it again to touch it for now.

Attempt #3 on bigger paper (requires more courage and commitment) in the line-drawing stage, which I was really happy with:

Attempt #3 in the I'm getting nervous about ruining it phase and so it's time to go to bed instead:

Time to go to bed and dream about being an accomplished, confident artist who knows what she's doing and doesn't care about messing up, because it so rarely happens and even if it does, it doesn't matter because she has endless amounts of patience, painting time, and money - so she can start over anytime and never worry about wasting money she doesn't have on watercolor paper.

P.S. I posted two at once. Don't miss the cute entry of the girls sleeping below.