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.

de·vo·tion (noun)

• Committed love
• Dedication
• Enthusiasm

This picture is what I have been up to this month.  I devoted myself as much as possible to my Hundred Thank Yous project.  I did art every day.  I let the creative ideas swarm and buzz around me like bees.  I felt mountains of gratitude for each person as I made the paintings.  I took long walks with my dogs.  I also had a several meltdowns and questioned my sanity.  I learned to endure and trust.  Through it all, I made money even though I wasn’t directly working on my business as much as usual.  I started to understand, clearly, that I am learning so much  from this project- like:

I receive in proportion to what I give.

Creative ideas are endless.  I just have to show up.

Being grateful creates more reasons to be grateful.  It  multiplies fast and furious.

And, I cry a lot when I’m grateful.

The exhibition of all 100 paintings is here on June 16th!  Exciting!  Happy weekend everyone!

PS: My dear friend, Liv, has a Bliss List every Friday on her blog.  This week, it is a Bliss List with a Twist.

Every one of my paintings has an ugly phase.

A phase where I have fleeting thoughts of I can’t do this, who do I think I am?  A phase where I want to quit.  Give up.

But, the hopeless thoughts come quickly and leave quickly.  Oh, I am thinking too much again.  It is not to be taken seriously.   I keep going and I trust.  I trust the layers of paint.  And then it happens… layer after layer the beauty begins to shine though.

This morning I woke up a little cranky, a little sad, a little overwhelmed.  I started to feel anxious about that sadness, worried because I have so much to do – my thinking mind was at work again.  After I moped around a little bit, unsure of where to start, I decided to put a self-care plan into place.   What do I need?  Immediately, a shower.  A walk with the dogs.  A green smoothie.  A cup of warm tea.   Valor essential oil.

I’m in my studio now, heater on, masala chai tea in my sweet Anthropologie mug warming my hands.   It is remarkable how much comfort a warm, beautiful mug gives me.

As I sit here, I am looking at the painting on my easel.  This painting and I worked through the ugly phase together last night.   It makes my heart sing when I look at her today.  We did it!  I showed up, opened my heart and trusted the spiritual process.  It is the practice I rely on for every painting.  It is the process that guides me through every problem, every blog post, every rough day, and leads to every inspired idea.

Each painting is a connection with The Divine.  It is that simple, really.

Show-up

Open-up

Allow

Trust

Let go

Beauty and love shine through.

I’m feeling better.

YAY!!!  WILD Sister is out today!!!  Topic: Women I admire.  I did my first ever interview via Skype recorder and it is with the gorgeous Goddess Leonie!  We had SO much fun!  Love love love!!!

This afternoon I got pulled over by a police officer in a huge SUV.

He followed me for a long time before finally turning his lights on.  I couldn’t breathe.  I was panicking inside.  I knew I was speeding, because when I drove past him, I glanced down at my speed.  72 miles an hour.  OMG.  What is the speed limit on that road?  45? 55?

(For the record, I am not a speeder, usually.  My husband often gets annoyed with me for driving too slow and being afraid to drive more than a few miles over the speed limit on highways.)

The officer came to my window and asked for my license and registration.  I handed them to him and he said he would be back in a moment.  He walked back into his SUV behind me.

I felt like I was 7 years old and in big trouble.  I actually felt like crying.  But I’m not seven and I am allowed to make a mistake and speed and I am allowed to get a ticket.  I do not need to be perfect and good all the time.

I was starting to feel less panicked.  I can handle this, I thought.  It’s okay.

Then I realized that I could add my powerful loving energy to the situation.  I called in all the angels around me and asked for their help.  I would send love to the officer.  Like, big time loving thoughts, prayers and blessings.  I closed my eyes.  I imagined beams of white light swirling around him and his vehicle.  I wished only good for him and his family.  I hoped he felt abundant and loved.   I prayed that he would be safe and appreciated in his work.  I imagined a beam from my heart to his- soul to soul- may you be happy, may you shine, may you have peace.

The thing about sending love to someone else is that it always comes back around again to me.  I felt washed over in caring and compassion for this guy.  It didn’t even matter at all if I got a ticket by the time he came back to my car.

I had found love instead of fear.

He leaned down toward my window and made eye contact with me.  He said, “I really don’t want to give you a speeding ticket.  So I’m going to give you this lesser traffic violation from the township.  It won’t go on your record or cost nearly as much.”

He explained a little more about how to mail the ticket and really minimized it’s importance.  He seemed almost sad that he had to give me a ticket at all.

With complete presence I said, “Thank you so much for being so nice to me.”

He replied, “Thank you, for being so nice to me.”

And then he stood in the road and held traffic back, waving me on when it was safe to pull out and into the road.

Thank you.  May you be well.

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

You can view the video on the Year of Wishes page here.

There is something about Wild Sister magazine that makes me pour my heart out in all of the articles.  The February issue is about Self-Love.  I immediately knew what to write and I got a vision for the painting to go with it.  I find Wild Sister to be enchanting, luminous and divine.  I was thrilled to see that Jen asked Gabrielle Bernstein to share her wisdom in the pages!  So much love  here.

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.

Hello sweet friends!  Lisa and I have just 9 Calendars left!  We are selling them at the discounted rate of $24.00.  (What a deal!  In the end you get 12 art prints + a Year of Wishes.) The sale ends when all of the calendars are gone.

We had a hugely beautiful response to the calendars and are so grateful.  You can join us all year long on The Year of Wishes tab above, where we will be doing posts and vlogs on the topic of each month’s calendar wish.

January’s wish is: May I appreciate my body.  May I be filled with love and gratitude.

February’s wish is: May my mind be at peace.  I am relaxed and I am safe.

We are so grateful to have you with us!  You can buy the last few Year of Wishes Calendars here.

Much love,

Lori and Lisa

I am writing to you today from my beautiful new studio!   Just writing that sentence makes me want to pause and breathe it in.  I feel expanded, open, grateful.

I moved my studio from a crammed upstairs bedroom (that also served as my dressing room) to a bright and sunny room on the first floor of my home.  It seemed that I could never get a grip on my studio with all of the other pieces of my life (clothes, beauty products, jewelry, personal filing cabinets, computers, etc) all sharing the room with creating art + printing + packaging orders.  This was a really good move for me.

This space contains only what I need to do my work.  Only what I love and cherish.  Only what inspires me.  It is clean and sparkly.

And, best of all, it has been blessed.

Yesterday was a magical day.  (Interestingly, MAGIC is my word for the year, but that is another post.)

My two sweet, soul-sister friends, Lisa and Melanie, came over to do a new studio clearing and blessing.  They brought me the most gorgeous flowers.  Lisa created a ritual that was an open-my-heart-beautiful experience.  We cleared out any old energy to make space for what I want to happen in this studio.  I declared my wishes- we used essential oils and sounds and ceremony.  But best of all, Lisa wrote a Blessing for Lori’s Space- here is the first sentence:

Sweet Divine Spirit,

So filled with Creativity and Love,

Bless this space with Your Magic.

I would share the rest of this blessing with you, but we decided it was a magical gift for the world.  The studio space blessing and clearing is on it’s way to being an inspired Creative Space Blessing book or kit of some sort.  Lisa is working on that and I will let you know when it is finished.  If you do any kind of creating, you will love this with all your heart.  It needs to be out in the world.

My art space feels different..more inspired, more magical, peaceful, abundant, clear…good things are happening here already.

I can feel it.