goals

  • An intentional 2021

    An intentional 2021

    This past year was a wild one, everyone knows that. It wasn’t exactly the worst or hardest year I’ve ever experienced – our family has been through much tougher stuff. However this was unique in that it was a difficult, strange, and overwhelming year for EVERYONE to different degrees. The collective anxiety and tension over…

  • Labors of love

    Labors of love

    This weekend I spent a lot of time on the administrative aspects of this little art biz. Making tweaks and adding functionality to this website, setting up an email newsletter and automating as much of that as possible, starting a Facebook page, converting my Pinterest account to a business account so I could get some…

  • Music, painting, and alcohol

    Music, painting, and alcohol

    The last couple months of 2019 were both joyful and frantic. I had a surprising volume of pet portrait painting orders for Christmas which was all a new business to me, so I just buckled down and spent my evenings and weekends cranking them out in time for the holidays. It was exciting and scary…

  • Projections

    I see them Sad eyes Blank stares Shallow conversation Going through the motions “Is this all there is?” Cries from their empty insides I wonder what their stories are and what brought them here, and if they will ever wake up and escape? Do they even know it’s possible? And then I wonder If what…

  • 2017- another chapter

    I’m writing this as I listen through the baby monitor to Skyler singing “Wheels on the Bus” to Layla as she attempts to rock her to sleep for her last afternoon nap of 2017. Their sweet interactions don’t happen often enough, but when they do I am warmed with joy and visions of them as…

  • Things I am…

    …amazed at the things Skyler is learning in preschool. This week is “shapes,” so I naturally thought this will be a breeze for her since she’s known circles, squares, triangles, and even octagons forever now. But as of today, the four shapes they’ve covered this week are ellipse, diamond, pentagon, and octagon. She also came…

  • Outside the Comfort Zones

    Now and then you have to push your own limits. I sure don’t do it nearly enough, but over the course of the last few days, I was three for three. It started with Ronnie’s and my first long motorcycle ride together. I’ve only ridden with him on fairly short jaunts around town, with last…

  • Crunch Time

    Starting in January, I got serious about getting back to my happy pre-pregnancy weight. By happy, I mean the 5-pounds-less-than-what-I-weighed-right-before-I-first-got-pregnant-weight. I signed up for the South Beach Diet online, ate very deliciously healthy, and was working out 3-5 times a week through the beginning of March. I lost nearly 8 pounds, and got only 5…

  • Resolution

    Last year, I didn’t make any. I was already on the quest to lose the baby weight, so I didn’t really feel like it counted, and that was enough of a project that I didn’t want to add any new goals to last year. But now I’m here another year later and still haven’t lost…