Yay!  It feels real now because I have an official Hundred Thank Yous Exhibition poster!  I am so excited to get these printed and spread around.

I have 7 more paintings to make. Seven!  Wow.  I’ve noticed that since I have been pouring my heart into all of the paintings there hasn’t been a lot of extra creative energy left for writing. But that’s OKAY because plans are in the works!  I’ve been writing an outline and making lists of ideas and shooting short videos.  I am putting together a book and ecourse from all I have learned from doing this project.  The goodness has overwhelmed me.

Plus, there is soooo much artwork- all created with the highest vibration of gratitude and love- I have ideas for kits and collections and cards galore.

AND, I am starting a new video interview series called, What’s Real!  I am super excited about it.  The first interview is with Hannah Marcotti (I adore her.)  I discovered that I love to interview people.  I care, I have lots of questions, I keep it heartfelt.  It feels so perfect for me.

So in this quite and grateful painting space I have been living in, lots of other goodies are emerging and waiting to be born.

I once heard Lady Gaga talking about her creative process.  She described it like standing on one side of a door for a while, struggling, then breaking through and opening it, walking fully into the other side of the song where everything flows easily.

I can relate to that right now.  I feel like I am standing at a door.  I am about to walk through it.  I believe everything is all unfolding exactly as it should be.  It feels like things are lining up for me right now.  Like I am connected and supported.  And I am wildly happy (I can’t stop listening to Jason Mraz and singing loudly.)  And flooded with gratitude (to the point of watery eyes nearly every day).  I’m also scared and a little stressed (I’ve started clenching my jaw again).  But most of all, things feel exactly right.  Like I am stepping into my power- the fullest expression of myself.

Does that sound dramatic?  It turns out that it is emotional and a little draining to make 100 paintings for people I adore.  It has created a space in me that is sort of uninhibited and open-hearted.  It is hard to describe.  I am different since doing this project.  I’ve stretched my ability to love.

It turns out that even though I am giving away all of the paintings as gifts, I believe I have received the biggest gifts of all.

Wow, I am so honored to have my artwork on Natural Awakenings Magazine again this month in select markets.  If you go to Whole Foods or your library or health food store, you might find it there.  I haven’t seen a hard copy of the magazine yet myself, but hopefully soon!

I am going to be taking a break from my blog for the rest of this week.  It’s vacation time!  This is the first winter we have not spent months buried in snow.  Actually, we have had record amounts of “no snow whatsoever” here.  Today my dogs went outside and fell asleep in the grass while basking in the sun.  In February!

When I am back I will share more about a new video series I am starting titled: What’s Real?  It is an inspired idea I have and I am just doing it.  I am JUST DOING IT- Even though I am a little scared and doubtful thoughts are creeping in.  Even though I am not sure exactly how.  Even though I am new to my MacBook and just learning how to use iMovie.  Even though in the middle of the night when I wake up to pee, I think I must be crazy to do this- I am doing it anyway.  Yay!

It feels empowering and scary.  We’ll see how it unfolds!  Exciting!

I’ll be back next week.  xoxo

A lot happened inside my heart while we were in The Line.

It was my mother and my husband and myself.  We were visiting my mother, 6 hours away, for the weekend.  The sun was shining brightly, but it was bitter cold and windy.  My mother’s hand was holding a flimsy aluminum rolling cart.  She knew a few other people in the line that also lived in her senior high rise.

I looked up and down the line.  A far as I could see, I was the only one wearing a winter coat. My coat was new, a gift from my husband for Christmas.  It is from Eastern Mountain Sports- full length, down-filled, warm and cozy with a fake fur hood.  I also wore a pair of expensive EMS gloves, that are thin, but have a special lining to keep fingers warm.  I wondered if I was the only person in line who was warm.

Even my mother wasn’t wearing a winter coat.  Did she have one?  I couldn’t recall seeing one on her in a long time.  When did this all happen?

The line moved slowly, people pulling their carts and chatting.  I felt myself wanting to shrink, wishing my jacket wasn’t so nice, wishing I didn’t wear any make-up, wishing I wasn’t there at all.   This shrinking feeling around my family is a familiar one.

Truth is, I never thought much about Food Banks.  Years ago, as a teacher, I donated cans for local food banks and we held can-food drives in the schools that I worked in.  I even remember collecting coats for kids that didn’t have any to wear.  But I never thought much about what that looked like, to not have enough money for basic needs, such as food.  I never thought much about what it felt like to be in that position in life.

Here in the line, the pain of it all was palpable.  It was heavy.  The volunteers who worked at the food bank had the kindest eyes and the most genuine smiles as they lugged sacks of potatoes, one after the other, into peoples’ carts.  It was all so sweet and so sad.  I felt a mix of confusion, sorrow, gratitude, guilt, frustration, and Love.

I am not sure what to do with this experience that is weighing heavy on my heart.  Maybe it means I should volunteer at my local food bank.  Maybe it is a lesson in gratitude for my beautiful life.  Maybe I should give money to my mom.  Maybe I should send her a heavy winter coat.  Maybe I should “live and let live.”  Maybe it is a lesson in acceptance.   Maybe it is all of that.

Maybe Just Love is enough.  For today, I am just going to love my mom and everything else, just the way it is.

I saw this quote in Hannah Marcotti’s gorgeous course called Making Space (I super-duper highly recommend this course from the bottom of my heart.)  The quote made me think immediately of my gratitude project, A Hundred Thank Yous.

This is why gratitude feels so right, so good.

Announcement…after a brief hiatus over the holidays, I am back to my Hundred Thank Yous Project!  Yay!  I am two-thirds of the way through the project and I am working to schedule an exhibition of all 100 paintings that will happen in June.  (June!)  Everyone who gets a painting is invited and it will be open to any of my people who want to come!  I literally want to jump up and down with excitement about the event!  Of course, not everyone will be able to pick up their painting in person, so I am busy collecting addresses and putting little love letters to go with each painting that will be mailed to those who can’t make it.

I decide that February is THE month.  The month to work my heart out on the paintings and get them organized and finished so I can feel peace and bliss in the months leading up to the exhibition.

This project is the most JOYFUL thing I  have ever done.  I have come to realize that once my grateful project is finished, I may keep making paintings for people.  Maybe I will.  And give them away one at a time.  Or, I might do a different gratitude project.  Who knows.  But, I am very open to keeping this light of gratitude glowing in my heart.  It has deeply changed me.

On that note, here are a few things I am WILDLY grateful for in this moment:

• Hannah Marcotti.  Love this woman to bits.  Her work for the world is angel-sent.
• Goddess Leonie, my soul-sister of the Turquoise Ray (never heard that before and I looooove it!)  I am part of her Goddess Circle and (holy mother of Goddess) the wisdom and love pouring out of it all is epic.
• My new Happy Light.  Oh, the glow of Happy Light sun in my studio in the depths of winter!  (You can see it in the photo up top.)
• New Anthropologie mugs.  I truly LOVE them beyond reason.

I am headed to my mom’s this weekend and will probably be off-line most of the time.  A sweet little break at the end of January- then paint paint paint for everyone I love and adore!!!

Before I go, here is a sneak peek at my new Self-Love Prayer Flags series in the works!  The flags reflect what I believe is the most important thing we can do for the world- Love ourselves.  Can’t wait to finish and share.

Thank you for being here.  Much love.