Wowsers, it’s almost been another month since my last post. I am still buying myself flowers and work is still very busy. I am also keeping myself busy with…

trying to teach myself how to hula hoop

finishing up some crafty and artsy WIPs

continuing to journal in the mornings

taking longer dog walks with Colby

watching Carnivale

trying to meditate – it’s harder than it looks!

(My new mantra might by the three Ws+R: water, walk, write and rest.)

Have I told you that I’m trying to get through the Artist’s Way? I can’t remember and am too tired to go check old entries. Anyway, I’ve been writing 3 pages from 5 – 5:30 every day since November. Hence, morning pages. Well, most days. And it’s made a HUGE difference and I could really tell last week that I had skipped it. (I’m not skipping it this week!). Wanna know how much of a difference it’s made…?

Well, rather than creating yet another powerpoint process map, I drew a comic strip explaining “how X works” at my company. And they let me use it. For a senior executive meeting. And I think it got my point across. It was more fun, memorable and faster than my previous traditional approaches. I wish I could share it with you, but I can’t. Work related, ya know?

Anyway, I realized I was willing to take that risk because, well, I don’t think my life’s purpose is to sit in a cube and create powerpoint decks. Even if I am good at it. I’m still learning that there isn’t one answer to “what IS my life’s purpose?” and figuring it out takes hard work.

Remember when you were young and you thought grown ups had it all figured out? Ha!



Instead of posting, I have been creating and going on vacation. We went to New Orleans with friends and it was great. We hit that right schedule of being tourists, having siesta time, drinking and eating great food. I had high hopes for New Orleans.

Have you ever done that, where you build something up in your head to be Important?

I did that with this trip – I kept thinking visiting New Orleans as going to provide me with some new creative, magical insight into the journey I am on and maybe even give me Answers.

That is a pretty high bar to set! But it happened. I think the influences are still catching up with me, which is great. It’s like vacation hasn’t ended yet.

Here are some of the thoughts I’ve brought back with me:

Each day is what I make of it. Music is a really big deal. Good food and a few drinks are powerful restoratives. I like bright colors. I miss Texas and the South sometimes. A sense of home is very important. I need to play as hard as I work. Visiting new places is something I want to do as much as possible.

To that end, we are planning another trip, this time to Montreal, hopefully this summer! Hooray!

I am participating in Thing-A-Day 2011 this year – and so far, so good! I’ve been mulling over why I blog quite a bit recently – especially after I picked up a copy of Artful Blogging last weekend.

I’ve been blogging since 2004 and have had this nagging feeling on and off that something was supposed to “happen” with my blog. I follow and hear about stories where there is a book offer, or a product line, selling patterns, or invitations to teach classes and I wonder… did my blog fail?

And if it failed, how exactly did it fail? What did I expect the blog to do? And I realized that the answer is “not much”. But it does appear, after closer inspection, that once again it’s really quite easy for me to compare myself to others and evaluate success on terms that are not mine. I went back and read some of my posts from my other blog, and well, some of those entries are good. I’m glad they are there and am glad I wrote them.

And why did I move from that blog to this blog? Well, I want to focus what I am sharing – this is probably due in large part because I am now writing – pen to paper! – almost every day. It is helpful in so many ways that it’s hard to explain. It’s helpful in so many ways that I get up at 5 AM to be sure I can get a few pages in even when I need to walk the dog, get ready for work and leave the house by 6 AM. Those writings are unstructured and unplanned.

So, what is that I want to share broadly and what am I hoping to get back in return? I want to share with you the little creative breaks I take in my otherwise structured, scheduled life. I am hoping I can learn from the little breaks that you take in your daily lives.

What do you do just for you, and why?

Geez, just a blue scarf can feel Different. I feel Different sometimes. A lot of the time. It’s not bad, it’s just Different.

With all that busy, one of the ways I remind myself I Am Not My Job is to doodle more, usually on conference calls. Someone last week saw the margins of my notebook and … Here’s our conversation:

CoWorker: Look at that! Are you an artist?

Me: What, hahaha! I was bored in a meeting and that’s only a doodle.

CoWorker: You didn’t answer the question.

Me, thinking: Well, SHIT. I CAN’T answer the question! What do I say? Yes? Yes, I am an artist in a suit? That is SILLY. NO, you are NOT an artist! That is just a DOODLE! It’s in blue ball point ink! You aren’t an artist! WAIT! Maybe I will be someday! So, maybe? Maybe I am NOW. HE thinks it’s arty, who cares that it’s a doodle… I like the doodle. It’s nice. . .

And so on. I never answered the CoWorker.

SO, I will tell YOU what I wish I said:

ME: Yeah, I am.

Gosh, it’s so easy and so hard, isn’t it, bringing art out of the margins.

And then, today, I found this video. Watch it. It’s just a minute. But how awesome is this? I’ve watched it a few times tonight, as a reminder that almost everything in life comes with an eraser and a rough sketch of what you want can take you pretty far if you have persistence.

So, right now, I’ve got a sketch of myself as an artist and that feels Different. In more than a blue scarf kind of way.

This holiday season was one of the best I can remember. I don’t know why this year felt more special than others and I am trying to avoid dissecting it. I’m just accepting that Holidays 2010 were a gift. Possibly a gift from Santa…since it was this year I developed my grown up theory on Santa.

I think Santa IS real, since I believe that Santa is a spirit and a feeling. Feelings are real, right? I think that when you grow up, Santa visits not only on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. And Santa doesn’t visit every year. I mean, that would explain part of the “how does Santa visit everyone in one night?” question. The answer would be “he doesn’t”. He visits some people and he visits throughout the Christmas season.

It’s like the Ghost of Christmas Present from A Christmas Carol – he gives the season a special flavor to some households those who need it most or who are trying to hold the spirit of Christmas dear. I am working out a way to better explain my “Grown Up Theory on Santa Claus”, this is a quick sketch.

On Friday, I just didn’t want to put all of Christmas away in a box. So I kept out this one string of lights, coiled them into a glass milk bottle and decided that for this year, we’re going to try to keep a little more Christmas around so that maybe Santa will come back in December.

I made Black Eyed Peas for our first annual “Waffles and Roses” gathering on New Year’s Day. Waffles and Roses is a make-your-own waffle bar and a viewing of the annual Rose Bowl Parade.

Waffles and Roses, besides being fun to say, means we started the year with a house of family and friends, good food and laughter. The make-your-own part means we do very little work, the Rose Bowl Parade part means entertainment is covered and leading to a very high return on a very small investment.

For 2011, we tried to provide a little extra luck to our loved ones, via this black eyed pea recipe. We substituted turkey bacon for the real bacon and boiled the peas in beef broth. The peas got rave reviews from everyone – even my one and half year old nephew!

I hope your new year got off to a grand start, too!