Happy New Year!

2012 is almost behind us! It’s been a wonderful year and I hope everyone has an even better year in 2013! Lots of exciting stuff coming up for me and my sweetie in the coming months. I promise to get back to blogging more regularly in the coming weeks. More music, art, love and joy coming soon! Until then, enjoy your family and friends and never take anything or anyone for granted. Be grateful for all the blessings and learn from the bad which is really just lessons/blessings in disguise! I am so very grateful for the good, the bad and everything in between. Nothing more exciting than a New Year ahead, a fresh slate to start over at the beginning! Happy New Year everyone!

Thanksgiving etc.

Gratitude, 8 x 8" oil on canvas board, my newest painting created in the days before Thanksgiving 2011, SOLD

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. Gratitude. Thankfulness. Other than the idiocy that is Black Friday and a million and one stupid commercials on TV during the Thanksgiving football games, it is the only holiday that doesn’t have relations to the retail world. It is merely and beautifully all about being THANKFUL. The only problem with this idea is that I believe we should be thankful and grateful EVERYDAY. Gratitude and thankfulness are the secret to true happiness as far as I’m concerned. This has been my secret anyway. If you’ve never tried it, you really should. Next time you feel sad, irritated, angry, any negative feeling really, start thinking of the things you are grateful for. I guarantee you will feel better almost instantly.

Now that I’m done with my gratitude rant, I’ll share my Thanksgiving. Aaron and I spent the holiday and weekend with his parents. They own a cabin up in the mountain town of Cloudcroft, New Mexico. My mother in law’s father and brothers built the cabin many years ago and it’s stayed in the family since. Cloudcroft is a small town (pop. 850) high up in the mountains (elev. 9,000′ where the cabin sits at the top of the hill) just east of Alamogordo and White Sands. One of my favorite things about going up there is that we can get several inches of snow and COLD temps (lows in the teens). If you get tired of the cold, just drive 20 minutes down the mountain to Alamogordo and you won’t need more than a light sweatshirt. Beautiful New Mexico! Gotta love it!

This was the first Thanksgiving in a looooong time that all three of our sons were not with us. This was difficult for me, but apparently the boys were all fine. At least I will have two of the boys at home for Christmas!

Now, it’s back to work for the week. Still working on cleaning out my much smaller studio, listed 4 auctions on ebay this week and I will continue to post pieces in my Etsy shop, which by the way, has a sale going on currently. 20% off everything in my shop, just use the coupon code: CYBERSHOP. Hope to get back to some daily painting tomorrow too.

One of the things I am MOST grateful for is that I am blessed to be a full time artist and have many people who have purchased and supported my art over the years. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT! I hope everyone had a great weekend! Happy holiday season to all and to all a good night! 🙂

30 Things I’m Thankful for

I have seen something floating around the internet that has me intrigued. It’s the whole 30 days of thankfulness or something like that. Anyway, since I am getting started past the middle of the month, I decided to post all 30 days in one blog post. So, here are 30 of the hundreds of things that I’m extremely thankful for.

1.  my sweetie and soulmate, Aaron Lewis

2.  a career that is my dream come true, creating/selling my art!

3. the support of a loving family

4. three healthy, smart, good looking sons, Bryan, Jeff and Nate

5. a warm place to sleep at night

6. good food to eat 3 times a day, 7 days a week

7. FREEDOM!

8. Chroma Studios

9. Some of the most amazing and wonderful friends anyone could ever hope for

10. chickens!

11. a beautiful, sunny day

12. the changing of seasons

13. LOVE

14. lunch out with a friend I haven’t talked to in a while

15. studio time, all day!

16. a glass of wine at the end of a tiring day

17. faith

18. JOY

19. a mom/son art show!

20. loving puppies who love me no matter what

21. blank canvas

22. clean, organized studio space

23. a good movie

24. Thanksgiving and all the food

25. facebook for keeping me in touch with people I may never have seen again

26. new tubes of paint AND new brushes AND blank canvas all at the same time!

27. music!

28. meditation

29. inner peace

30. my health!