Hearts and Hands

Thank You . . . Love and Hugs

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 01:51:00 +0000

I've known for a long time I needed to have the courage to move on. This will be my last post here. Heartfelt thanks to all of you who have been so very kind and supportive. I treasure your friendship and count you as great blessings in my life. I will always be grateful for all I've learned about myself and you during our time together.

I truly hope our paths cross again someday . . .

I'm embarking on a new adventure. If you'd like to keep in touch, please visit me on my website www.lorinawyn.com for updates.

Much love,

Lori

a song in your heart

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:59:00 +0000

Amazing Service Dogs . . . and my amazing friend Lily

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 02:51:00 +0000

Keep Calm and . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:42:00 +0000

Love, Hugs, and Hope: When Scary Things Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:22:00 +0000

Love, Hugs, and Hope: When Scary Things Happen is now available on Amazon as an Ebook!
The hardbound version will be out September, 2013. If you're a blogger or children's book reviewer, please contact me for a review copy.

My Word for 2013: Gratitude

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:45:00 +0000

Wondering what the next twelve months hold makes my heart beat faster. Both joy and fear simmer just beneath my skin. Faith whispers hoped for goodness and peace. In my head, and on paper, ideas for new projects are already taking shape. Possibilities dot the horizon with promise.

Yet reality is jumping up and down, vying for my attention.

Love, Hugs, and Hope: When Scary Things Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:16:00 +0000

I'm honored to have been asked to illustrate
a very special picture book dedicated
to the children of Sandy Hook.

Love, Hugs, and Hope:
When Scary Things Happen

will be published by Familius.

Saturday with the Huskies

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:15:00 +0000

Sweet Memories

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 17:31:00 +0000

click on photo for story . . .

Mountains and the Gift of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:18:00 +0000

challenges . . .

A Dying Art . . . Rekindling Family Relationships

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:26:00 +0000

How can a dying art can help rekindle family relationships?

Love, Gram: The Art of Letter Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:30:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:41:00 +0000

Today there are snow covered vistas outside my window, a reminder winter is trying to set up residence. This year will soon come to a close.

Next year will bring the release of my first full-length non-fiction book A YEAR'S JOURNEY. And in March 2014 my non-fiction book FLIGHT PLAN will be released. Both publication dates seem a long way off, but I'm happy to have the time to finish up THE GRATITUDE JOURNAL PROJECT and a couple of middle grade novels.

Time to start thinking about the Thanksgiving menu . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 17:23:00 +0000

My 14 year old daughter, Maggie, is a concert pianist who is organizing a fundraising concert to help aid in the restoration of the Christensen Academy of Music and Dance in Brigham City, Utah.

Tickets are now on sale for the event

Dreams: Remembrance and Hope

which will be held August 18, 2012 at Academy Square,

60 North Main, Brigham City, Utah.

From 5-7 there will be an open house and a food court.

The concert, from 7-9, will feature actor/singer
Marvin Payne
as well as many local performers.

A silent auction will be held during intermission.

For more information about the event or to buy tickets online, please visit:

http://dreamsremembranceandhope-es2.eventbrite.com/?rank=1

Thanks . . . and Happy Birthday, Anne

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:12:00 +0000

Spring came late to my heart this year.

After cold, darkened winter days, my optimism usually begins to simmer in January. Hope breaks through any lingering clouds in February. By early March the last ice crystals of doubt have melted away.

This year was different.

Over the course of last fall and a too long winter, my family became engaged in a battle. A clash over values, perceptions, and beliefs, the turf war unfolded right in our backyard. We were trying to live our lives as usual, but life as we know it may never be the same.

My family is not perfect by any means, nor do we claim to be. But we're trying to do our best to live our lives the way we perceive we should.

So are those on the opposing side of the conflict.

We first met them in our driveway. They were making a drug deal right under our security lights. Within days, our house was broken into. Two more break-ins occurred within coming weeks. Hastily installed security cameras revealed our yard as a major thoroughfare for crime. Law enforcement surveillance revealed a shocking number of people were involved. Cynical phone calls, cyber stalkers, and twisted emails were proffered as calling cards to greet us each day.

A coldness, deeper than the season, settled into me.

By March, my soul brimming with negativism, I realized I needed to tip the scales back the other way.

I started a gratitude journal.

I discovered that the seemingly simple act of finding and focusing on one good thing each day can yield a bounty of goodwill. In my soul, the sun once again began to shine bright.

I am achingly grateful that there are more good, honest people in the world than those who choose otherwise. I sincerely appreciate their hope, optimism, and kindness, and their determination to light the way for those navigating darkness.

Today, Anne Frank would have been 83 years old.

Her words continue to reach beyond the circumstances of her tragic death to guide and inspire us: “I don’t think of all the misery, but of all the beauty that still remains.”

Thank you, Anne. And Happy Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:12:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:12:00 +0000

“The first time
someone shows you
who they are,
believe them.”
― Maya Angelou

Thursday Thought . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:21:00 +0000

A grateful heart seeks hope . . .

Ready for spring . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:51:00 +0000

Off for a week of . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:29:00 +0000

and some

Just Be...

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:32:00 +0000

Happy Halloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Miss Georgia...

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 03:21:00 +0000

Coming Soon! - WAE Network

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:23:00 +0000

Coming Soon! - WAE Network

Hidden Dreams...

noreply@blogger.com (Lori) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:51:00 +0000

When I was in grade school, there was a poster contest. I wanted to enter. I wanted to win.

We were the Lincoln Lions. Incorporating a lion into the design would have been a good idea, however I didn't know how to draw lions. I did know how to draw Bugs Bunny. I had watched enough (probably hundreds) Bugs and Elmer and Daffy cartoons that I could clearly see the characters in my head!

I found a piece of thick yellow 11X17 construction paper--the only thing I had available at the time--and began to draw a roadster being driven by Bugs. The roadster was something I'd seen the rascally rabbit drive on TV, but only once or twice. I didn't have any comic books to reference so I carefully sketched and erased, sketched and erased, AND sketched and erased until the vehicle looked just right.

Bugs was easy. I positioned one of his white-gloved hands on the steering wheel. The other hand he held aloft as he waved. I positioned some of the other characters around the car and added lettering. I carefully shaded everything with colored pencils. As I remember, the entire endeavor took several nights of work. I was proud of what I'd accomplished.

A group of sixth graders served as judges for the contest. Their reaction to my poster? "It's good!"

Too good.

You cheated, a girl named Donna told me. Her hands on her hips, her dark brown pony tail bobbed as she informed me that it was impossible for a kid my age to draw Bugs Bunny as well as I had. I couldn't have come up with the design, layout, or the positions of the characters, she claimed. "You traced it from a book," she concluded.

Thrust back into my trembling hands the poster suddenly felt cold and ugly. "It's on construction paper," I offered weakly, hoping she'd see reason in the fact that that the characters would have been impossible to trace.

She walked away.

I wanted to disappear and never return to school again.

I didn't see any value in knowing I had actually done the drawing, and that the other kids thinking it had been traced was--though they didn't realize it--a compliment. In my young mind, the girl's words meant I was stupid for entering the contest. I was not, I reasoned, an artist at all.

That evening I shoved the poster to the highest point of the very back of the deepest recesses of my bedroom closet. I never wanted to see it again. I never wanted to draw anything again.

Even now I remember how utterly small and worthless I felt under the glare of that sixth grader. In the many years since, every time I draw something those emotions still rustle through me. Even with an award-winning picture book out last year--a book that took me a year to complete because of my self-doubts--I still hesitate for a moment when I start to draw or paint or do anything artistic.

Am I good enough?

The point could be argued. One woman's art is another woman's, well, not so much art. Yet these past weeks I've had the privilege of meeting lots of children at my book signings--their faces light up when they see the illustrations. "You're the illustrator?" They ask with awe in their voice. To them I'm okay.

And the fact is I love to draw.

Last week I got a crazy idea. What if I did one quick digital piece each day and posted it here on the blog--one every day for a year?

What if?

Eugene Delacroix said, "Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything."

I'm going to continue to keep up the pace of my writing, and as far as art goes I'm going to shove the emotions evoked back in sixth grade to the highest point of the very back of the deepest recesses of my bedroom closet and just have fun!