January is just flying by. I love that Valentine candy is everywhere, including my kitchen. Oh alright, there is candy in my kitchen all the time. It seems easier for me to stay on a healthier plan when there are small treats along the way.
It's been about a month since I started eating even lower-fat and lower cholesterol foods than I was before I found out I was cursed. My diet is not much different than before because I was already dieting. People keep asking me if I feel better but I feel no different. I didn't feel bad before, though. Am I supposed to feel better? BETTER?  I feel like I want some french fries and a cheeseburger. I am going one more month before I have some blood tests, so if I'm supposed to feel better, I need to ace that test. I feel pretty darn good so if there is a better, I want it! I'm super excited to find out what it is like.

Happy Lunar New Year! It is the Year of the Dragon and the dragon is supposed to be the symbol of power, strength and good fortune and luck. I think we can all use some of those things. I am bringing in this new year by planting a winter garden that I hope I will have good luck with. And, I hope the vegetables I grow will nourish my body and give me strength. I also hope they will taste good! It's a crying shame I can't grow a peanut butter cookie tree. Is there an ancient symbol that can help me with that one?
Speaking of good fortune, we ended last calendar year by donating a house to a single mom with a young daughter who has cancer. We appreciate everyone who supported us with that.
Escrow closed near Christmas just as we had hoped, and they had a safe, warm home over the holidays. The family has now decided not to live there.  Because the church created a fund specifically to provide that housing for the family, the church is returning to donors donations made for the housing.  You therefore may receive a refund. The amazing thing is when you give and help, you often get it back in ways you don't expect. This wasn't the ending we expected, but we know this family truly appreciated the gift and they get to keep the love that was sent with each donation.
Karen was born in a year of the dragon and I the rooster. She is the yang and I am the yin. Do you know what your Chinese astrological animal is?

It's a lovely day right now, so lovely that I want to share my suffering with everyone for FREE! For a limited time, you can read my Stop Barking! journal on your Kindle or Kindle App for FREE! Yes, FREE, FREE, FREE! I want you all to enjoy what I am feeling right now. And if you do it in the next few hours I can pretty much guarantee the dogs will be barking while you read it. It's a quik read, perfect while you have a candy bar. Just a dozen pages and photos and the photos are in color if you happen to have the Kindle Fire (or the app on a color device). Depending on what device you are using, the text may be next to the photo or before it. Either way, the dogs will still be barking and I won't be able to open my window. Get Stop Barking! here.

Also, I am trying out Big Cartel shops. There are some signed copies of Journal Revolution and Visual Chronicles available there. Additionally, there are some tiny original priced at only $10 a pop. My shop is here.

Yeah, I was sitting here, eating my muffin and drinking my coffee, when I had what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity.
--Jules
Pulp Fiction

The other night I was channel surfing and landed on my favorite scene of Pulp Fiction. Oh how I love that movie!
Speaking of things we love~
*Cheerios now come in peanut butter flavor and it's pretty darn good.
*Justified is back tonight!
*We seesters are going to see Sinead O'Connor sing in a cemetery next month. When I was 18, I dreamed of things like this. Stretched On Your Grave next to a grave, think about that. I've got chills.

Clarity is available in my shop here.

A few days ago I declared January the month I was going to do things for myself since all my time consuming obligations to other people were done. Whew! A little breather. Ah, to be obligation-less for a little bit is a nice feeling. I didn't make this declaration to anyone but myself because I've learned that when you announce things like it's all about me, me, me for the next week, week, week, people get pissed off and that takes away from your me time. It's best just to glare at people and pretend you can't hear them when they ask for favors then turn your phone off.
Since the pitbull incident, Karen and I have been talking about signs and discussing them to death. I've also been on a lemon kick, noticing how they bring out the flavor in everything! So, one night I painted this piece summing up my feelings about life giving you lemons and what lemons in cooking have  in common. Ooooh, deep! The original and prints are available in my shop.
All this business with lemons made me feel like I wanted to work with watercolors. Lemons-lemonade-watercolors. It's a natural progression. I spent today in my art closet and created half a dozen new pieces. Then a tragedy of epic proportions happened. For the first time in 12 years, I somehow knocked over the water jar that holds the dirty brush water. Of course the jar was full with brushes and water and it spilled all over the surface, an ironing board without a pad, right through the holey top onto the capret beneath. This coud've been way worse because I normally have my iPhone on the ironing board and luckily I did not since I was avoiding society. Still, paintings ruined, carpet soaked, me totally annoyed at myself for not ever putting a pad on my ironing board desk. Oh, look at that, life sent me a wake-up call!
I think I will get a pad for my ironing board desk now.

It's a quarter to eleven and I'm working on a project that I've been wanting to start for a while. I'm in my hands are tired and the Advil is downstairs and I am upstairs mode. The windows are open and I'm playing Sinead O'Connor for the neighbors tonight. I have no intention of turning the music down or closing the window. I am cetain the barking of lonely dogs is louder than the sound of an Irish woman singing and a paintbrush dancing, anyway.
It's the magic hour and I am feeling very 1987.

The other day  I was having a discussion with someone about how far I was walking when I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill. I had no idea because I use a program on the treadmill that changes in speed and incline but I was fairly certain I could run and walk faster in reality than on the treadmill. Because I said that, I was tested almost immediately.
On a typical day, no matter what time it is, one of my neighbors is outside. Someone is going to work, coming from work, watering their lawn, washing their car or smoking in their driveway. On this day, I came home from running my errands and noticed nobody was outside. I pulled into our garage and popped my trunk. I left my purse (and phone and my tea!) in the car and was going to get the groceries out of the trunk when I noticed our garbage cans were emptied and I was going to bring them up from the curb. I was still by my trunk (in the garage) when I suddenly got a bad feeling. A hot breath on my hand feeling. I turned and made eye contact with the scariest pit bull  I have ever not expected to see in my own garage.
The list of things I am afraid of is long but dogs is not on that list. Frogs, yes. Spiders, yes. Snakes, holy-hell-yes. Dogs, no. I've been around dogs all my life and have had big dogs. This dog was terrifying.
I was frozen with fear for about 2 seconds too long and my eye contact with Cujo was not helping matters. He was coming toward me aggressively and he seemed hungry for pudgy artist. I started yelling NO! and GET BACK! really loud thinking maybe that would stop the dog or at the very least one of my neighbors would come out. As if. The dog kept coming toward me, proudly showing me his fangs,  and no neighbors came. My own car was blocking me from getting out of the garage and the only option I had was make a run for the door into my house and hope I can get in before he does, or be eaten by the dog. I was so scared and there was no way I was going to let this dog eat my face off. I just thought FEET DON'T FAIL ME NOW, if he's going to bite me, he better go for my butt because I'm running. So I ran for my life. And he was right behind me. I got in the door and of course, Suki was sitting right on the other side waiting for me (as she always does when she hears the garage door open) so I was screaming MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!! and she was moew-screaming and  the dog was forcing his fangy head in and I slammed the door with all my might right on his nose. I don't know what I was thinking- well- I wasn't thinking because I was crying and sweating, but I deadbolt locked the door in case the dog wanted to get in. It's not like he had thumbs but shit man, maybe he could bite the doorknob or something.
Once I get in the house, I realize I do not have my phone and that it's in the garage with the dog. I also realize I can't see if the dog is still in the garage because there is no way to see into our garage from inside the house. My heart was racing, I was crying, I didn't know what to do. I took a deep breath and started looking out the window to see if the dog was out there. About 5 minutes later, 2 women I had never seen before came around the corner with the dog, walked by our house and put the dog in a yard a few houses up from us. I went outside (still totally shaken up) and asked the women if they knew the dog. They did! One woman said she lived behind the house where the dogs live and the dog eats through the fence and goes in her yard all the time, the owner is a fireman who works a lot, giggle, giggle, giggle. Uh, huh.  I tell her the dog just angrily lunged at me in my  garage and she says, "oh he probably would've just humped you. The other dog would've bitten you. But the owner is a fireman" giggle, giggle, giggle.  Just humped me? The other one would've bitten me? THE OTHER ONE? As I go on to tell her I don't think it's safe for hostile dogs to be on the loose even if the owner is a fireman, the dog gets out of the yard again and comes right at me! Holy mother of Buddha! I ran behind the garbage cans, prepared to toss the cans in the dog's path, as I suggest the ladies take the dog to their yard since they know the dog. They begrudgingly did.

Once I calmed down from the shock of having to run for my life from a pit bull unexpectedly appearing in my garage, I got to thinking how that pitbull was a sign. If a pit bull suddenly appearing in your garage is not a sign, I don't know what would be! It was the physical manifestation of  bullshit I need to slam a door on. No need to tell me twice.

*Slam a door on a pit bull trying to eat you and nothing will seem hard to do after that.

I've been wanting a digital photo frame forever. It's the type of thing I would normally just buy myself but I'd been saving it in my head all year for the time when my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday or Hanukkah. Finally, I had something to say that I wanted! Some girls dream of diamonds, I dream of my memories on rotation in my living room. My husband did get me the frame and it's the best thing ever.
I'm not  into New Year's Resolutions or that One Little Word thing (why just ONE word? Please. Who has just one of anything?) but when I declared to my husband and seester last year that God damnit, this is going to be the year of travel, it so totally became the year of travel. And the year of walking, eating, laughing, reading maps, driving, train rides, foreign languages, sunsets, beaches, villages, bridges, bees, canals,packing, unpacking, saving money, planning, planning, planning, saving, late nights, rain, umbrellas, pulling over to take photos on the side of the road, inspiration, sunburns, bug bites, broken beds, blisters, reflection, charging batteries, and a hundred self-portraits. We country- hopped and state-hopped. That list doesn't even include everything that happened at home. And as much as I love making photo albums, I don't have the time to create them or space to store a million albums.  But still, I want to see all the photos I took all the time. Now, those memories are in constant rotation and are a constant reminder that even on a crappy day, there is good. Even the photos from days at home when nothing much really happened are great reminders that so much has happened. I love this evolution of the photo album. I love that the photos I take on my phone are not just trapped on my phone, they are displayed for us as we live.
I'm not done traveling  and I am so happy knowing I can just add my pictures to the chip in the frame and see where we were while I plan where we are going next.

*This is the frame my husband got me. Karen's husband and kids also got her a frame but I am not sure what brand hers is. So far mine is good and my only complaint is that photos edited in photoshop do not work. They have to be straight out of the camera or phone. I need to research that problem a bit.

Stuff that happened in the last few days:
I cleaned out my closets
I watched a Chopped marathon
I got my hair cut
I played with eyeshadow
I worked on a new collection of art for licensing
I killed dust bunnies
I listened to Tennessee Me on repeat
I took myself out to breakfast
I got caught up with friends
I finally put photos in the frames on our wall
I took a 3-hour nap
I took photos just for fun
I paid bills
I had a migraine
I fell asleep with the lights on
I did research
I paid attention
I treadmilled
I made lists

I decided to close the office for this holiday week because I just really (finally!) wanted to get some stuff done that was all about me, me, me. I also wanted to get some stuff done that was for work. Sometimes it's easier for me to get stuff done when I can spend hours doing research, making art, writing, or planning at 3AM without worrying that I have to be up at 7. I'm going to spend a few more days on the stuff that makes more stuff happen.

Happy weekend of food, presents, and bad traffic to all! Suki spent a long time looking for Santa, hoping he would bring her some treats since she is on a diet. She is still waiting.
My husband surprised me with an iPad2! It was a total surprise because I told him all I wanted was a digital photo frame, which he also got (more on that later). I didn't think I wanted an iPad but now that I have one, I don't think I can live without it. I got him a drill and the new Call of Duty, so we've pretty much spent the day playing with our new toys, eating cookies, and just laying low. Well, not really laying low, he has been fake killing people and screaming I FUCKING SHOT YOU! for 6 hours and I am all I  CAN USE MY WACOM STYLUS ON THE iPAD!!!!  and then lemon bars and chocolate cookes fly between us. Happy, happy!

Karen returns from her family vacation to Cancun soon. She has been without wifi for over a week and I can't wait to hear how her adventure was! Since we are us, I am sure we will get together in Mid-April and celebrate Hanukkah then. We have a 3-month buffer on holidays over here.
Oh! I am so impressed with all the holiday cards we received this year. Almost all of the photo cards were kids with parent or parents, TOO! YAY!!!!!
What gifts or treats did you get or give that made you squeal?