Under things.

So, choosing happy today meant beginning some new paintings that have brewing in my mind and in my studio. These are under paintings for something big (I hope.) Choosing happy also meant sneaking off to see a movie with my friends right in the middle of the day, having a learning session with my Alexander Technique coach and filling out some paperwork that needed to be done. Most of it is exciting and joyful in my mind but some of it not so much. The result though, brings about the happy and we are as happy as we choose to be... so it's all good!

How about you? Did you choose happy today?

Thursday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for really nice people in my life.

Choices.

Tomorrow, I can choose to work or sneak off to the movies in the middle of the day. I think I'm choosing happy!

How about you? What would you choose?

Wednesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for an outing to the batting cages for some batting practice. Fun!

All in a day's work.

I created the sketch a while ago for a mural project and today was the day to make it come to life.

First I like to start off drawing my lines with chalk and then just start painting.

Add more detail...

 Then pretty soon it's done!

Tuesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for interesting podcasts on parenting and lectures to listen to.

Upside down and over it.

Upside down. Ever have those kinds of days? Today was one of them... between mailing rental videos that weren't meant for mailing, disconnected schooling, anything and everything going wrong... I'm looking for a fresh new start tomorrow. Today couldn't end any faster.

How about you? Do you ever have days like this?

Monday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for the kid's stellar last minute win in little league. Go Stingrays!

In a family way.

I made this family tree a long time ago and recently updated it for my Etsy shop. There's some new stuff brewing and I'm excited! The prodigal mojo has returned and hopefully it will stick around for a while because it's been gone... way... too... long.

How about you? Do you lose your way once in a while?

Sunday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for hope to be showing up, funny kid movies, and a very productive day.

Gray skies.

I love gray skies. I loved today, it made me happy.

How about you? Did you have happy in your day today?

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful to be on a path of growth, although hard and uncomfortable, still grateful.

Yet another slice of humble pie.

At my house, we've been working on upping the ante on manners. One can never have too many and when things start to slide, as they always do, the manners police comes out in full force.

So, while "working" on the manners while out for a nice lunch, I was served another piece of humble pie. The kid and I were eating our lunch and I was quietly observing his manners, politely correcting as time went on. Then he excused himself to the restroom and I decided to talk about his manners when he got back.

Upon his return to the table, I mentioned that I'd like to discuss his manners and just as I was about to bring out several mistakes, he quickly pipes up and says, "Hey, can we go over what I did RIGHT before the things I did WRONG?"

Gulp. Humble pie, please.

Yes. Of course we should start with all the right things! AND guess what? His list of rights were longer than his list of wrongs. Geez.

Friday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for reminders that we all do "right" things and should think about those alongside of the "wrong" things.

Surprisingly...

My printed business cards. Surprise, surprise... me likey!

Thursday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for an allergy attack for it reminds me to take better care of myself.

Graphics and paint equal happiness.

These are some signs I made for a shopping center I've been fortunate to do graphics for. These little creatures crack me up! (Especially the little hamster in the lower left corner!)

Random Musings:
On another note, here are my final paint swatches. Final because IF I don't decide upon something in this group, I'm going to buy some touch up paint of the original wall color and walk away. Can you help me decide? Should I paint or should I walk?

How about you? Are you a decisive person or easily swayed?

Wednesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for some interesting work on my plate.

Wisdom in young years.

I saw this yesterday from my backyard. Nice.

Random Musings:
I think I need to listen to the kid more often, there is such wisdom in those young years. Over the weekend, I had a bad dream that kept reoccurring when I tried to go back to sleep several times. The dream involved my animals that are in my life and a young lion that I had as a pet. For some strange reason, I forgot to feed the lion and when I realized it, I was afraid to go out and give him the food. I was also afraid for my other animals and I needed to take care of this situation but I was paralyzed by fear of this animal.

I told the dream to my son and didn't know what it meant. He said, "maybe the lion was God, like in the Chronicles of Narnia."

Yeah. I didn't think of that. Maybe it was.

Then I realized that maybe the lion represented many things I keep forgetting about and not making them a priority. I think the kid is onto something, I keep putting off A LOT of things.

Yup. Wisdom in young years. I think we should pay attention more often.

Tuesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a nice long talk with my best friend.

Dream and begin.

Dear Spring,

We so have looked forward to your arrival but you've taken us by surprise. Yesterday, when you came floating in, you threw at us rain, hail, rainbows, roaring wind and bits of sunshine. Although these are delightful traits of your lovely self, can you lighten up and dish them out one at a time?

Thanks,

The Management.

Monday's Gratitude:

I am so grateful for a yummy salad, tons of work, and laughs with the kid.

First Day of Spring!

Hello Spring! We've been waiting for you and we're so glad you're here.

Sunday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful to be heading home in a few hours. Sleep soon.

Bad moods turned good.

OK. So we are in Arizona to see a few spring training games of some professional baseball teams. I am not a big fan of Arizona but that is mostly because I have never been here other than in the ridiculously hot scorching summer. But it's not summer now, and it's rather nice. Even the rolling sand dunes were interesting on the drive out here.

The kid was not too interested last night when we got into town as we ate at a Thai food restaurant that Mr Man couldn't live another moment without going to. I handed the camera to the kid and this was his point of view.

Then he proceeded to make a list of likes and dislikes about Arizona.

 However, at the game today, things were looking up.

 Even with small distractions.

 And most certainly with autographs from SUPER nice and humble baseball players.

Yup, maybe this ten year old to be will leave this state a happy camper after all. (Despite the claimed concussion from jumping on the bed and falling off and hitting his head.)

How about you? Do you make the most of your situations?

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful I didn't get sunburned although it sure felt like the sun was working overtime on my arms.

It's a very Buzy Town, Richard Scarry!

On Thursday, the kid's school had the opportunity to participate in BizTown, a community learning endeavor put on by Junior Achievement. Basically, it is a program that helps the kids learn about banking, working at a job, understanding different positions in the community, etc. It is a small city set up in a large warehouse. My friends... it is WAY cool. So much cooler than I thought it would be.

Here is the town before the mayhem...

 Here's the town with the mayhem beginning...

Afterwards, the kids congregated in "Town Hall" for a meeting and this is where the director asked the kids if they would work the jobs again if they came back. Look at the few raised hands! I think many got a feel for how hard it is to work in a job and find time for extra curricular activities.

When I walked back to my car after volunteering six non-stop hours, trying to manage a bank and reel in the "special" kids who weren't very focused, I saw what I had parked my car next to! A sure sign if the crazy mayhem in the town didn't do me in, surely nature had other ideas! Ha-ha!

How about you? Do you find yourself surprised in more ways than one?

Friday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for road trip food.

More to celebrate.

Tomorrow, we are driving out to Arizona to see baseball's spring training. It is going to be a weekend full of driving and baseball and baseball and driving. Hopefully there will be a few decent meals thrown in the mix and possibly something else remotely interesting for the one that doesn't live, eat & breath baseball. (me) But alas, this weekend really is for the person shown below. This one will be turning double digits next month and this is exactly what he wants to do to celebrate this milestone. How can I resist?

How about you? Do you remember your tenth birthday?

Thursday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for opportunities to volunteer in my community.

Thinking big or small.

While designing some business cards for a client, I noticed that I don't have my own. So, here are a few ideas I came up with, however, I couldn't decide because for some reason, it is one of the hardest things to design for yourself. Don't you agree?

Random Musings:
Today I met a really great friend for coffee and a chat and I love talking with her because she has a really forward way of thinking. She starts big and works backwards instead of the usual way of thinking small and working up to the big scary things. Things like plans about starting new businesses, moving forward personally and letting go of our garbage we hang onto, investigating the whole school dilemma, how to get past this financial crisis, you know, big things like that.

How about you? Are you a big thinker or are you more comfortable starting small?

Wednesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for some really great dinners ala Costco!

Getting to where you are.

These are a couple of graphic design projects that were on my plate today. I love when someone sends me some text and I get to have complete creative reign!

Quote for the day:
"Everyone who got to where they are had to begin where they were." - Richard Paul Evans

Tuesday's Gratitude:

I am so grateful for new beginnings.

Mixed up and messy.

I have coffee on my mind. A lot. Sadly, I give my mind over to it way more than I should. However, I have a coffee themed project that I happily enjoyed doing research on. Here are a few quick sketches of some ideas for this very large, enormous project that is going to take a lot of time and of course... some more research!

Yesterday, anonymous commented on my "What do you tell your daughter" post and asked me what do I tell my son. This below is what I tell my son on a regular basis, along with many more tid bits of info that sometimes develops into too many words. So, for the sake of simplifying, these below are my top 13. As far as the rest... I hope he picks them up along the way.

How about you? What do you tell yourself?

Monday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for messy, mixed up days that don't seem to have any rhythm for then the next few days feel all the more grace filled.

What do you tell your daughter?

Someone sent me an email the other day telling me that my art is in their treasury. Hmmm, I thought, what is this about? When I went to check it out, it turned out to be a treasury from Etsy and the really, really cool thing is that this reader put my artwork in a category of "what to tell your daughter!" I am honored and humbled by this. If I had a daughter, I'd tell her all these same things.

How about you? What do YOU tell your daughter, if you have one?

Sunday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a very motivating day to tie up some loose ends.

Feeling neutral.

This paint color has been making itself seen around my house. I am looking for a new color scheme for my interior walls (although in my family, I seem to be alone in this quest) and I am drawn to the grey neutrals. However, when I buy the sample paints and put them on my walls... it's instant dislike. I ask, why is this such a difficult decision? Come on Benjamin Moore...

Maybe a warm yellow would compliment the grey...

OR one of these lovely choices by Ralph Lauren...

How about you? How do you choose wall colors that you'll have to live with for years?

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for puppy love, old dog love, and a grumpy cat.

Time goes by...

It's funny. Sometimes you think time is never going to go by, you are not going to get through this and this is your life. Then, time actually DOES go by and you get to look at your previous situation with the wisdom of hindsight. Nothing says this better than a puppy. When you are in the middle of crazy monster puppy, time seems to stand still. Then just a few very long short months later, you look back and you can visually see the progress.

I say this on the eve of this puppy's doggie boot camp. He has come so far and when we got him, we were not prepared physically and mentally. We freaked out on some aggressive puppy issues and signed him up for a 3 week long intensive puppy camp.

He will be away from home.

For 3 weeks.

We were counting the weeks and days but now that it is upon us and he has filled up the empty holes in our aching hearts, we are sad and will miss him terribly. The camp is still a VERY good idea and we will still embark on this journey willingly, but never the less with heavy hearts.

That's how time goes by, right when you are not looking.

Friday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for another birthday lunch today with more friends!

Smelling the roses.

It's the real deal... oh, curtain's rising!

Thursday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a long and leisurely birthday celebration with a friend.

Making friends.

OK, I'm sorta stuck on the eye chart thing because it's just plain fun. I received some of my sister's ashes today and this quote jumped out at me because I would have chosen my sister as my "relative" even if she wasn't. Man, I miss her.

How about you? Do you have friends you choose as relatives?

Wednesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for a lively meeting with a colleague about a very fun project this morning over Gen Mai Cha tea and arugala salad. YUM!

Put the needle on the record...

But of course... it's always your choice. What is your destiny?


Tuesday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn about the Alexander Method tonight in a private lesson... could it be destiny?

Mastering growth.

Thoughts in my head...

Monday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for the groggy start of the day for then it was only up from there.

It's a small world after all.

While out for a nice dinner last night, Mr. Man and I stumbled upon fairy tale cottages lightly dusted with snow.

Seeking further investigation, we discovered a magical world of bird cages entwined among the snowmen and the gilded forest. Twinkling discoveries to be made the longer you stared. What is this little wonderland?

Oh my, stepping back for an overview, this magical snow capped story-book-land is none other than the Sisterhood of the Traveling Winter Village! Can you hear the music that bursts from the speakers?

How about you? Do you encounter weirdness that borders on gifted creativity?

Saturday's Gratitude:
I am so grateful for new discoveries, a new delicious restaurant find and interesting conversations.