I've been doing gratitude journaling since 2009. I recognize this means different things to different people. My version is highlighting as many positive moments that happened during the day, and trying to write most days. Recently I opened up one of my older journals and saw a note to myself. It said, "Don't worry about writing every day. It's aok if you are too busy living it up to write."
That has been this year. There has been a lot of living and not as much time for reflection. Even my gratitude entries have been quick writes, sometimes just pictures. For me, reflection is super important, and I am grateful I'm easing back into it.
There have been so many wonderful moments this year I find myself eager to revisit my 2026 resolutions to make a lot of checkmarks! Though it isn't quite time for that yet, I do want to highlight some of the good.
I am creating as much art as I can humanly make, absolutely living it.
I have started to tiptoe just past my comfort zone in some areas (working some athletic events at schools for the heck of it among other things). I am embracing the connections that are wanted and with those who wish to reciprocate. Sounds easy! It is not! I didn't realize it until recently, but I have been absolutely weighed down with the absence of meaningful connections. I am an introvert through and through, but I also recognize I need to do more than just going to work and PT sessions.
I had successful carpel tunnel surgery, which is the easiest procedure in the world, and it's made such a huge difference.
I just played the barest, smallest amount of tennis and am moving easier. I am enjoying jogging - much to my surprise. I am at a solid eight minutes of jogging, which is the exact length of Justin Timberlake's Pusher Love Girl.
I am even finding just the faintest trace of a routine at work. Robert and I both have full teams of people we think are incredible. There's so much work in so many different areas, I'm absolutely bowled over by it on occasion. But I have been picking myself up and getting back to it rather than letting it crush me. My Texas brother, Jason, said something super helpful. He said that we are the type of people who just want to hold down the edge of one of those giant soft pools and let the water gush out. Get it all done as fast as humanly possible and move on! Well there are some jobs where this method doesn't work. The water has to be taken out a teaspoon at a time, and well, Jason and I suck at this method. His very weird metaphor gave me such a huge laugh but also really helped. Here is just one of many examples. We need a second C02 laser. We buy the laser. We next need to find a home for the laser. A bunch of things need to be moved around. In the process we learn our fire extinguishers are the wrong ones. The electrician needs to do some different wiring for the laser. He finds some other wiring we need. The HVAC folks come out to run another exhaust line, but they're missing a part. They leave a giant homemade box that takes up so much room we need to move it every time the saw is used. They leave it for weeks because the box is missing a part. The old laser needs to get its butt out the door. The new laser needs to be properly set up by a professional etc. etc. This is terrible, terrible teaspoon work. But I can recognize that now and focus on whatever moment we're in during the process with each task and not the entire effing task.
Ok, that's my small moment of pausing to reflect (and maybe possibly going on too long about a laser).
Recent pictures!
I saw the Mary Oliver documentary, and it was wonderful! I have been a huge fan since I was 17, which was when my great aunt Betsy gave me one of her books. I even had the opportunity to attend one of Mary Oliver's readings several years ago. If you are a fan the documentary is a must-see. There is a lot of fluff, but it's actually the good kind of fluff because it just goes to show that Mary Oliver was a very private person, and even after her death, her privacy hasn't been too terribly invaded. Plus the fluff is the artsy kind.
First tennis post achilles injury. It was a relief to discover I am still the most terrifying Arnold Schwarzenegger/Roseanne Barr combo out there. Especially with my golden retriever posse by my side. 😆
Pumpkins! One of the wonderful people I work with, Nini casually told me she wanted to laser engrave some pumpkins. She showed me a video, but I wasn't sold. I thought we were going to create some kind of terrible pumpkin pie in the one laser that is successfully hooked up. Not to worry. No pumpkin pies were made.
She engraved lots of pumpkins last month and I do believe started a tradition.
Josie couldn't have her moment with her pumpkin (which had her dressed as a mummy), because someone was jealous (look behind her 😂).
And because our lives pretty much revolve around our dogs, here is Margo soaking up the sunshine.
We also had some company from out of town, and surprise suprise our dogs absolutely suffocated them with love.
And Josie with Margo's cow work toy. Also Josie in Margo's boat with Margo's backup human. Our lives really just revolve around our dogs.
I've been so busy I haven't posted any of my recent art.
This piece is entitled Phoenix and is made with mostly tea papers.
It was one of my "Wing It" pieces, which I now realize is a pun. Pretty much what happens with these pieces is I pick out the colors, cut everything up, and start making the piece without any plan. Robert and I both think I'm just waiting for whatever bird it is that wants to appear. The night before this bird appeared, I dreamed about a phoenix rising from the pages of a book. Sure enough, when I looked at the collage the next day, there it was.
I haven't blogged in so long I don't know where to start. All of my spare time has gone into getting additional art ready for the fall art fairs. Unfortunately, I had to withdraw from two of the three fairs due to weather. This was my first time withdrawing, and I was really bummed about it. But Robert and I made it to the last one of the season (for us), and we had a great time.
What makes an art fair successful for me are a few things. First, connecting with others! Gleaning inspiration, soaking up all the good vibes, and maybe selling a couple originals are also on the list. I have been extremely fortunate at every art fair we've had this year.
Robert and I have really been working hard on my booth, and we were able to tackle a few things on our list for this last fair. First, all my little tables are gone. I now just have one table. I thought I was going to buy some tabletop print bins and a sticker holder, but Robert took it one step further and custommade my print bins using acrylic we bought from one of my personalization/awards business vendors. Robert spent several Sundays measuring and adjusting, repeat repeat repeat, until they were just right. He then helped me take a picture of one of my collages and convert it to lines. The flower image you see on the clear acrylic is my art! If you look closely you can even see the word "tea" from one of the tea bags I used. We also spent an ungodly amount of time learning how to get different sticker shapes. Even though I use a vendor to print the stickers, shapes are still a surprisingly tricky thing to do. I now have several circular stickers, which works really well since a fair amount of my work starts off in a hoop, and heart shaped stickers.
Our next changes involve a custom sign (we already have the acrylic for this, a custom tablecloth (I have a vendor for this!), and new standalone print bins. The ones I've been using are black and oppressive, and the prints just flop around in them. If there's one thing I've learned it's that multiple print bins and different ways of browsing are important. So I know I need them. I'm just not sure where or what yet.
We also need to get everything organized and out of our dining room, but one day at a time. This winter will be mostly spent creating new work. Thankfully, I have more ideas than I know what to do with. I had three collages flop this year, and that was tough. Not everything is a winner! No matter though, I think Robert and I will be more than ready for the spring fairs when they come though.
Here are the bins! I have two of each. The smaller ones hold notebooks and smaller 6" x 6" prints. The larger ones hold 12" x 12" prints.
And here is a closeup of my table, complete with a mega sticker holder.
The last week and a half Robert and I had the amazing joy of exploring Seattle. We got back last night, and Robert picked up the dogs this morning.
I am in the throes of doing way too much laundry but also reveling in all the good memories. It was just about a perfect trip. The only thing missing was family. I found myself thinking of a loved one just about every other minute. I could not bring myself to eat raw oysters for my brother, Scott, however. There is a line, and eating ocean boogers is well on the other side of the line.
In our down time, mostly while driving, Robert and I talked endlessly about our favorite moments, foods, and places, constantly rearranging the lists as we went. Seattle is a treasure.
Lists!
Coffee (we saw the first Starbucks and kept walking 😆😂):
1. Anchorhead. Check out this adorable cup:
2. Bri's Beans. We stayed in Kent and had a good morning routine. I would do my daily workout and get my work stuff done while Robert got coffee (and sometimes breakfast!). Not sure how he got his work done too, but that man is a marvel. Bri's Beans was solid and had a great dirty chai.
3. Cafe Flora. Everything was excellent there, so it was no surprise their coffee stood out.
4. Anchor House. Robert said he watched them roast the coffee while he waited.
5. PHIN vietnamese coffee. They make a special dairy-free condensed oat milk!
Books:
1. Arundel - I saw several titles I hadn't heard of before, and the staff were incredibly friendly. This makes the number one spot, because I found the most books here. Though I wanted to support the heck out of this bookstore, most of their books, maybe all, were brand spanking new, and I have a soft spot in my heart for art and coffee table books. I had to put most on my library list.
2. Open Books. A poetry bookstore! Everything you could want relating to poetry - poetry itself, books about poets, poetry criticism/manuals/anthologies etc. They also had both used and new books. The person there was SO passionate. They nearly lost their shit when another customer asked a question about a poet. It was heaven on earth.
3. The Central Library and its bookstore. The bookstore was just like every other library bookstore. A treat for the soul. I am a sucker for literary journals, especially ones I haven't heard of. One of my goals during each major vacation we take is to subscribe to a new journal. Just like most people, I love getting presents in the mail. Getting a handful of literary journals monthly/quarterly is a great way of finding new poets to worship. At a smaller Seattle library branch I already found a journal to look into, Pontoon, and to my extreme delight, it was on the shelf with other books to checkout. The small library's poetry section only had about 30 books, and in that mix was a few issues of Pontoon. It's one of the best feelings in the world to find literary journals within a library's poetry collection. I'm getting a little sidetracked here, but I can't help it!
Back to the Central Library bookstore. I found a few literary journals on the dollar cart before I even stepped into the store. While I was browsing the dollar cart, Robert was inside buying every adorable book thing they had. I walked away with some handmade book earrings among other gifts he gave me after we toured the library. An INCREDIBLE library. Their poetry section went on and on. The nonfiction section has this unique architecture where it spiraled around and around (see second picture). Up and up we went through the Dewey Decimal system. Such a treat! I found books I've never heard of and smelled book smells that were so rich with history. I can't tell you how many times I opened a book and saw checkout slips from the forties (see last picture). It was paradise on earth.
This was a staff area we accidentally found ourselves in. Sorry not sorry!
4. Lamplight Books in Pike Place Market. This is where I found the Stanley Kunitz book!
5. Seattle Art Museum. Robert and I were just kind of meh about the museum, but like any art gift shop, they had piles and piles of beautiful books. Once again, lots of books to find at the library later.
Food:
1. Cafe Flora (also in Robert's top 5). This just became my new favorite restaurant. It beat out Guerilla Bizkit in Nashville, Genghis Khan/Blue Koi here in KC, and Tumerico in Tucson. Everything we ate at Cafe Flora was complete bliss, incredibly thoughtful, and classic. They served breakfast, lunch, and dinner and have both vegan and vegetarian food. I had something that I didn't realize was the vegan version of chicken and waffles or I wouldn't have gotten it. It was oyster mushrooms, pakora, and the best waffle I've ever eaten in my life (and it was both vegan and gluten-free). We ate at Cafe Flora three times, tried their bakery (which was just ok), and even ate at their Floret location in the airport before heading home. Best food I've ever had. Sorry Grandma!
2. I ate a lot of seafood. Every time I saw cioppino on a menu, I had to have it. Picking the meat out of mussels is not something I get to do in Kansas City. It's both a stew and treasure hunt. The best one was at Duke's Seafood (also in Robert's top 5) because it had vegetables in it too. The other cioppinos I tried would have beat Duke's, but no veggies! We ate a lot of sourdough in Seattle. Duke's also had a stellar sourdough. We ate at Duke's twice, so we had the opportunity to try several things. They had a seasonal salad that had both salmon and shrimp plus dried coconut, pineapple, and the first purple cabbage in a salad I didn't pick out. It was weirdly delicious, super thick with its own flavor.
3. Vegan mac and cheese from Bang Bang Cafe, but the mac and cheese I make at home is better. Even though my mac and cheese is better, I always learn something from trying other mac and cheeses. After trying Bang Bang's, I plan on dumping in some chilies or jalapeños in my next batch.
4. Japonessa Sushi Cocina (also in Robert's top 5). Though we saw it on other menus later, this place introduced me to what is now the holy grail of sushi - the salmon sampler. Unlike other sushi places, their sushi sampler did not include seared salmon, which I think is an atrocity.
5. Frankie & Jos/Yonder Cider. Frankie & Jos was one of the few places on my list prior to learning we were going to Seattle. It deserves the hype. It's a vegan ice cream place with only a handful of rotating flavors, some a little out of the norm like chocolate tahini. The strawberry was the best strawberry I've had in a long time, and they had vegan waffle cones too! I tried a few hard ciders here and there. Yonder came up a couple times, so we decided to check out their taproom. I love a good flight (or two)! We may have bought a few six packs to share with our employees.
Robert and I have a tendency to cram a lot into a vacation. When we were in the habit of taking a couple vacations a year, we did both relaxing vacations and vacations that were completely packed. Sometimes we did a mixture of both. This was our first vacation in a year, and we chose one of the coolest places to visit. I did a lot of research and planning the last few months to make sure we weren't missing too much. We did a lot of things, and honestly the only place we were just meh about was the Seattle Art Museum, but even then we were glad we went. Tara Donovan has an exhibit there right now, and her exhibit is totally worth it. There's even a spot to touch and feel the materials she uses and also for visitors to try their hands at making something out of those materials.
We went to the top of the Space Needle (pictures 1, 2, and baby space needle 3), oohed and ahhed our way through the Chihuly Garden and Glass (pics 4-7), took a Boeing factory tour (In Robert's top 5), walked through lots of planes at The Museum of Flight (In Robert's top 5), hung out at Ballard Locks, shopped at several places (bead store, gift stores, even the Microsoft store), hiked Mt. Ranier, spent some time on the water, hung out with whales (though they probably didn't know this), and saw as much as we could, but we know we there is much more to do and can't wait to go back.
Here are some pictures of my treasures (minus gifts, no peeksies). The first pic is our haul from our first visit to Pike Place Market. Pic #2 is mostly from Greenwood's Seattle Recreative (more in a bit). Pic #3 is from our second trip to Pike Place Market and our book crawl to multiple bookstores. Pic #4 is our goodies from the Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and the Microsoft store. I found a delightful excel mug that says, "Making Sheet Happen Since 1985." Though we're both Excel fans, we had no idea it came out the year I was born. We had a little fun looking into Microsoft programs one of the times we got stuck in traffic. The last pic is our haul from Georgetown's Seattle Recreative (didn't even make a dent in their beads!) and The Library Bookstore. They probably had to restock after Robert came through. He got me earrings, a necklace, notebook, and coaster. 😂 Can't tell you what all the love languages are, but buying me many gifts from a library bookstore is one of mine.
Here is my top five list of favorite things we did:
5. Hot tub boating (Also in Robert's top 5). After stumbling upon this unique type of boating in a pamphlet, I jokingly mentioned it to Robert. He immediately booked us a boat. It was a little toasty but gave us an entirely different perspective of Seattle. We saw so many types of boats while we were out on the water, we ended up making a top five list of boats we would like to try when we visit the next time. At the top of my list is a donut boat, which was the most adorable boat. The hot tub boat had some space to sit outside of the hot tub. It was the most delicious thing to have one foot in the cold water and the other in the hot tub. This made both of our top five list, and we both highly recommend it.
4. Pike Place Market. This is a giant tourist trap, and it's SO worth it. Fish throwing, shops of every kind, people watching, and wonderful food. We only had a couple of musts on the Pike Place Market, so we attempted to go once and cross them off the list. We ended up going back again! Prior to taking the trip to Seattle I had only a few things on the list: whales, Mt. Rainier, a vegan ice cream place, many hiking places around Seattle, and a psychic chicken in Pike Place Market. Seriously! We found the chicken and so much more! Robert got to try chowder from Pike's Place Chowder (which also had a vegan chowder), there was a tarot store with about a hundred OPEN decks where you could actually touch and look at all the cards, a bookstore where I found a Stanley Kunitz book I've never heard of, a chocolate covered cherries mecca, and a cider place with about 15 ciders to try. We had such a blast trying foods and shopping. I found a fair amount of gifts for family and friends. We actually had to mail a box of goodies home! Sadly, the psychic chicken couldn't go home with me.
3. Seattle Recreative. Seattle and the surrounding area has a few craft recycling places, including Seattle Recreative, which has two locations. I enjoyed both and was really impressed with how much junk they saved, even shoulder and bra pads! That's a new one for me. I thought the Greenwood location was fun, but Georgetown was epic. I found so many charms and beads I will be set for a really long time. I can't wait to dig through and sort them all.
2. Mt. Rainier (Also in Robert's top five). We were a little bummed that some of the all-day excursions we planned were just not doable. There are a handful of places that will need to be entire trips for each place. Traffic is no joke and not predictable. We've traveled to a few places with heavy traffic. Los Angeles and Dallas come to mind. I remember being completely absorbed in wandering the garment district in Los Angles, Robert nowhere in sight. Suddenly he appeared and said, "We have to leave now." Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie, right? Nope, just LA traffic, which was fairly predictable. Another five minutes in the garment district would put us back at the Airbnb an hour or even two hours later. Seattle had no predictability. The map would say 20 minutes to go 8 or 9 miles but then change before our very eyes to 40, back to 20, up to 40 again. It was wild.
Thankfully, Mt. Rainier was attainable. It does deserve more than a day and is back on our list with a note to stay closer. I've been before but it lived at the far reaches of memory. It's a beautiful area, even during the haze from surrounding fires. We took the gondola, which is a must. It was so dang peaceful and magnificent. We also hiked a few of the Sunrise trails, which were perfect for my FIRST TIME HIKING since the achilles injury. They were steep but either dirt packed or paved, and Robert and I just took our sweet time doing the hills. It was incredibly beautiful. I can't wait to go back and tackle some of the crazier trails. I also can't wait to hike again. Mt. Rainier lit a fire in me to put some bucket list items back on the list. I've been so cautious and exploring Mt. Rainier reminded me the risk is worth it.
1. Whales! Robert's #1 too! We did a whale tour through Blue Kingdom, and they are exceptional people. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate, and the person driving the boat did a wonderful job making the ride as smooth as possible. They provided coveralls, coats, binoculars, goggles, and gloves for the boat ride. We did not see other tours doing this. Our tour was on a small, open boat, and Robert and I had the luck and great pleasure of sitting at the very front. We were great wind blockers for the rest of the passengers! After much research and talking to others, we were hopeful we would get to see whales, but we knew it was more likely we would not.
We not only saw whales, we got to see three orca whale families, hang out with each family for a while, learn their ancestry, what made them unique, and even their names and nicknames! The first family we saw really spoke to me. It was a brother and sister duo. The brother, Sequoia, was born in 1986! We also saw a mother and three of her kids and a mother and son duo.
The boat ride itself was everything. Nothing beats being on a boat that's not going too fast, gracefully riding the waves, the wind sloughing off months, maybe years of stress. But we saw whales! We could hear them exhaling through their blow holes and learned what made each of their dorsal fins unique! We even smelled one of their kills, not something I ever thought about prior to that day. We saw seals, including a mother nursing her pup and sea lions jumping on and off a buoy. Stalwart folks take a note. 2400 pounds of braggart sea lion leaping and hauling itself up on a buoy six feet out of the water like it's nothing. Brawn and grace. Beautiful.
After the tour we all headed back inside the shop to take off our many layers and look at the genealogy of the three orca families we saw. The guide also shared a map of where we went and some items she had collected on her journey - baleen from a whale's mouth, a seal whisker, and elephant seal fur.
And that's not all! The guide took pictures the entire trip and told us she would send us the pictures later. She not only sent the pictures, which I'll share a couple here, she also sent us the nicknames of the whales again along with their formal names.
It was a once in a lifetime experience I'll be carrying with me for the rest of my days.
When I opened this picture just now I realized the guy behind us wasn't wearing any gear at all. There were a couple passengers who had just done whale watching in Iceland this past February, and despite much encouragement from the guide, they did not suit up because they did not suit up in Iceland. But I was very glad for the gear. Nice and toasty the whole time and the goggles saved my contacts from drying out.
Here is one of the genealogy charts plus the map of where we went:
Like that beautiful, confident sea lion who threw himself on the buoy, I'm ready to throw myself back into my life. I've got enough good energy and joy to get me by for quite some time. I'm ready to kill it at PT. Ready to get our CRM launched at work. Ready to work with the designers to get more of their magic creeping through our showroom (they held the fort down like nobody's business while I was gone and already started making a few samples). Ready to jog like there's no tomorrow. Put a new twist on my mac and cheese. Turn some memories into art. Listen to the whales in those quiet moments before sleep. Swim with the dogs before summer is over. Plan the next trip with my nerd. Read everything once all our treasures come in the mail. Hike again! Try some new things and be ready for tennis when it comes.
