Last night I went to an art class with my friend, Sandra, and we attempted to paint on canvas a painting entitled, “Winter Solstice.”  Here is what I came up with.  (Note:  I’m not showing you what the example looked like because I want you to be impressed. Haha!)

Just before going to this class, my husband teased me about going to a finger-painting class, but you should have seen his face when I got home with this.  He thought that I had bought this painting and when he realized that I actually painted it myself, well…he was blown away.  I thought this was interesting, not just because it was flattering, but when I look at it, I can see every little thing that I did wrong.

You know, it’s a little funny that my life right now is all about art.  When I was in school, art was amongst my worst subjects because for one reason or another just annoyed me to no end. (I had a teacher once tell me that my drawing was horrible and that I should give up…so I kind of did.)

But that didn’t change my appreciation for art.  Growing up in Europe, I would be surprised if you didn’t have some enjoyment of art.  I’m not just talking about the wonderful art museums like the Louvre, but I’m talking about beautiful castles (like Burg Eltz, Neuschwanstein, or even Edinburgh Castle), wonderful food and wine (and yes, I think wine is an art), and amazing books. (I once got to visit the house of Sir Walter Scott – awesome!)

Given all of this grief that I got from attempting my own art, I think it’s amazing that I grew up into the person that I am; someone who is an artist.  Isn’t that funny?  Now, I hear the word, “artist” and immediately I think of someone who paints or draws…something like that.  But when I looked up the word on online etymology dictionary, it came up with, “one who cultivates one of the fine arts.” (Or master of the liberal arts.)  Isn’t that funny?  (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before but my degree is in Liberal Arts.)  As a child, I did everything I could to avoid learning art, but as an adult it is apparently what I readily embrace.

How about you?  Are you an artist?  What kind of art do you practice? 

TGIF!!!  I don’t know about you, but this entire week has been off for me.  On Tuesday it felt like Monday.  On Thursday I thought it was already Friday….but Friday is finally here.  Whoot! 

It’s been a really good week in my family.  We’ve had some great news, little things, all week.  Not the norm at all, but I’m telling you I’m grateful, really.  Lasty year was not super great, so I’m excited about all the little things this year.

I don’t know about you, but Monday morning’s are really tough for me.  Having the alarm go off, you roll over and look and see that it’s already the next work week.  Getting motivated to get out of your nice, warm, bed can be difficult.  Enter the movie, “High Fidelity.”  Have you all seen this movie?  The part that I’m talking about (although the whole movie is really awesome) is when Jack Black comes into the record store with his “Monday morning tape.”  (Yes, cassette tape.)  Do remember the first song that he played?

Watching this moive a few weeks ago sparked a debate between my husband and myself about what the ultimate Monday-morning-movitating song would be?  I mean, let’s give this some serious thought. (Meanwhile, someone is either smirking at me at this point or banging their head on their desk.)

So, there we are, sitting on our couch, debating music and what would be the best song to get you going on a Monday.  My husband’s input was, “Holding Out For A Hero,” by Bonnie Tyler.  I have to admit, that’s a pretty good song.  I defy anyone to listen to this song and at least not have a small smile on your face.

I couldn’t think of anything to beat this at first.  I mean, I have a lot of favorite songs, but nothing that would be the ultimate in this category, I think.  Until this morning!

I was getting ready for my Friday, listening to the radio, when my vote for the Monday-morning song came on…..”Eye of the Tiger.”  Yeah!  I mean, who doesn’t get pumped listening to this song?

So now I ask, what do you think?  Do you have a song that helps you get going in the morning?  I would LOVE to hear from you!

I was reading a blog post from Kristen Lamb about moving from being an “aspiring writer” to a “professional pre-published writer,” and it got me thinking.  How many of us out there are actually living our dreams?

This is something that I think about a lot because now that I’m a mother, I want to tell my daughter to reach for her dreams – dream big and work hard for what she wants in life. I confess, though, that I’m hesitant to believe this too much because how many people out there are actually living their dreams?

As a child, I think our dreams a really different.  You want different things and you base your hopes off of a place that is more or less not in tune with expectations in the “real world.” (Does that sound cynical – I don’t mean to be.)  I guess what I’m saying is as I got older, I know that my dreams changed.  Not just because of life experiences, but also because the things that were most important to me changed as well.

What is it about working towards your dreams that frightens us so much?  I wonder if other people struggle with that like I do and if so, I would love to hear your story.  From my experience, I can tell you that I always kind of figured that writing was something that would never be a real job – one that paid the bills and all that.  But now, after spending some time in that “real” world, I can tell you writing is all I think about.

I wake up, go to work, come home; and in all that time, I’m thinking about writing.  Now, after some serious thought, I had decided that this year, 2014, would be the year that I put more action to my thoughts.  ACTION is the word this year.  I’m going to keep trying and see what happens – because if I don’t I’ll never know, right?

How about you?  Are you living your dream?  Maybe your dream isn’t a job, maybe it’s something else?  I would LOVE to hear from you!  Please share your story with me.