Sparkles.

Here is some custom word art from a little girl to her daddy for Father's Day! So dang cute how she uses my favorite word... sparkles! I know if we were to meet in person, we'd be instant friends!

 

What delighted you today?

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for bumping into dear friends while out running errands!

Happy Memorial Day 2012!

Hope you have a...

Thank you to all our military for serving!

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for nice and friendly neighbors with doggie get-togethers!

Good times.

Oh boy, it's Memorial Day weekend... the beginning of summer! That means some good times ahead! After spending two hours trying out a role as a pin cushion (allergy testing) yesterday...

And winning the play off game this morning...

We are seeing red...

Good times for sure... it's gonna be a GREAT weekend! How's yours lookin' so far?

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for good friends and gracious people.

Sparkly Goodness.

One of my dear friends sent me this photo today... it is of my artwork on metal at Michaels!! I didn't even know my art was going in there so can you imagine the surprise and delight of this news? Sparkly goodness has come my way!

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for too much work at the moment, a 10 page term paper to write and finally accepting the fact I can't change anyone except myself.

Simply simple.

I've simply GOT to learn how to do this again. An entire YEAR spent trying to simplify and it didn't stick. Hmff. Sometimes I feel as though I run around chasing my to-do list and only cross a few things off. I used to think I was super organized but now I'm reconsidering that maybe it's something closer to denial. Must. Simplify. Life.

How do you keep things simple?

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for easy lunches with long lost friends, situations that place me SO far out of my comfort zone that all I can do is rise to the occasion, and last but certainly not least I am ever so grateful for the best kid in the whole world.

Hawaiian flair.

A little floral fun with a hawaiian flair... these were created a long time ago and I almost forgot about them. Thought it might be time to dig them out for some air!

Happy weekend!

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for a nice outing at a children's book fair with my friend, her son and my boy. Best company ever!

Hope floats.

Hope. I am hoping my next presentation will go smoothly as this is the one that really counts. I am also hoping for my two lovely nieces, a better example of integrity than what they have at the moment. One last hope... I am hoping that anyone who visits this blog will be blessed with peace and hope for themselves.

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful to be on a very exciting journey.

Fear.

FEAR. Gripping fear. It can keep us stationary and not moving forward when in reality it's all a front. (except of course if someone has you pinned with a knife to your neck, then it's all adrenaline.)

What are you afraid of that is holding you from moving forward?

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for another opportunity to deliver a speech. Practice makes perfect.

Don't sweat it.

Good morning peeps! A friend of mine has children in sports and asked for a t-shirt design for their team for the tournament. Here's what I thought might be fun to see a bunch of kids running around wearing...

Random Musings:
My speech the other day went well, I can ALMOST say I nailed it. I was VERY prepared by video taping myself numerous times (horribly humbling experience) and also presenting to a 5th grade class before the REAL event. Just putting myself in front of 23 eyes really helped me very much and I have to say they were a tough crowd! Who knows, maybe one day I can get up in front of people and not sweat so much that I slide right out of my shoes!

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for a really great dog to walk and run with.

Story.

What is your story?

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for a lovely Mother's Day!

Holes.

Here is the completed project for my class on Monday. I created this for a speech I have to give and I'm going to talk about my newest dog and how he filled our hearts with love. I thought I'd start out with a little story I wrote and illustrated to break the ice...

One fine day, a little boy looked down and saw he had a hole in his heart. The hole made him feel sad and lonely...

Although he had a lot of love in his life, the hole was still there.

He tried to fill the hole with things. Some were too big... some didn't last long...

...and some just ran out. One day, when the boy answered a knock at the door a puppy jumped into his arms.

At that moment the little boy knew his hole was gone and his heart was full. Turns out there's always room in your heart for love.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! I am hoping this will eat up a good minute and a half of my five minute speech.

Daily Gratitude: I am SO grateful for an eleven year old boy who was the star closing pitcher in his baseball game this afternoon!

72 hours.

This is a little illustration for a project I'm creating for a speech I have to give in 72 hours.

The speech is for my class I'm taking for the master of counseling program I'm in. I truly dislike public speaking... unless I REALLY know my topic and am prepared, well then I can squeak by.

I've been working hard on this project because I was SO humbled in my last class. Our teacher sprung a public speaking task on us where we had to get up in front of the class, draw a topic from a plastic bin and then talk about it for one minute. Geez, one minute doesn't sound so bad, right? Well, everyone before me picked topics like "what was your best day ever" and "who is your favorite person!" My choice of topics were "crime" and "rain!" WHAAAAT? I KNOW, lame but I had to just go with it so I chose rain. Let me tell you that 60 seconds felt like three hours and I could feel the pain written on my audience's faces.

So, that means, there is nowhere else to go but UP and that's where I'm striving.

How about you? How are you on improve public speeches?

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for a soon to be broken dishwasher for that means a new one is in my near future!

Flying on a jet plane.

This is a retirement party invitation I created recently...

Random Musings:
The Big Full Moon on Sunday has really been "pulling" a quick one on emotions around here. Weird melt downs from a very centered kid, very insecure feelings during a public speaking session in class, strange comments from "so-called" friends, the list goes on but I stop here. Hopefully the planets will re-align and bring emotions back to normal very soon.

How about you? Have you noticed anything different in your neck of the woods?

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for a new group of friends!

Permanence.

There is an eleven year old boy who needed to hear this today.

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for the realization that most people who say hurtful things are only responding to their own pain within... it's usually not about you. (Man I could have used this in my teens!)

Nose2Tales!

My friend Suzanne and I have been busy with a little project... dog art with a tale! It's finally launched with illustrated dogs and fun fables to go with each breed. Check it out here if you are a dog lover! You can also go to ImageKind and type in Nose2Tales and find us. Here's a sample of what you'll find...

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for fun work that never seems like work!

"Leaf"ing a signature.

Here's that wedding guestbook all framed and ready to go! Guests will sign the leaves and the bride and groom will have this as a keepsake! Sure hope everyone writes neatly...

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for situations that stretch and grow your mind and patience for we all have the opportunity to improve!

Give thanks.

My heart could not be any more grateful than it is at this moment. How about you?

Written on leaves.

My friend's daughter is getting married. I created some invitations for her and now this is the guestbook. Yup, the leaves are where the signatures go!

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful for my little boy who is now a Boy Scout as of yesterday!

Projects n' things.

Here's a little project for the Alzheimer's Association I've been working on for Mother's Day....

Daily Gratitude: I am so grateful there is no one in my life with Alzheimer's. (Occasionally "Sometimer's" though!)