Day 17,745 Gratitude: The Short and Sweet

On this unseasonably warm spring day, gratitude looks a lot like ...

A last minute invitation to take a much needed walk with a friend.

The knowing that I will soon be by the sea.

Letting sleeping dogs lie.

How about you?

Day 17,725 Gratitude: The Power of 100

On the first of December, 2013, I was inspired to create 100 business card sized (3.5 x 2") collages in 100 days. I called it my "The Power of 100 Project" because I knew that, in the process, I would be making art, yes, but also learning about what makes me tick (and tank) as an artist. It's been an interesting adventure and I continue to explore the layers of all that I've discovered along the way.

So here I am now, with a box of 100 collages ... each one with bits and pieces that tell stories within stories. It seems a shame to keep them packed away. I feel like these wee originals need to make their way into the world and in so doing, if they can also do some good, all the better.

Here's the plan, my friends.  Beginning today, these 100 collages will be listed individually in my Etsy shop for $5 each (with shipping and the swanky card-stock easel included).  Of that $5, I will donate $3 to Visionaries + Voices, a local non-profit that provides representation, studio space, supplies and support to more than 140 visual artists with disabilities in the Greater Cincinnati area.

The collages will be available in the shop for 100 days (until July 25), after which I'll cut the check to V+V. I hope to find homes for every single collage and be able to send them a check for $300.

I will post a few collages per day to the shop, so keep an eye out for your favorite(s). The first three are available now. Feel free to spread the word!  For your on-going support, I am so deeply grateful.

Day 17,724 Gratitude: To Every Start, Eventually a Finish

Everything about this project felt like it took forever, but it's finished ... done and dusted ... 100 collages within 100 days ... and each one of them, at long last, uploaded to this Flickr set for your viewing pleasure.  (The first icon of the three at the top right provides a slide show option.)

I don't know where to go from here.  I've no idea what to do with them.  For now, it's enough to be pleased, proud and patting myself on the back.  I finished a sticky project that I started!  For that I am so grateful.

(And to Tina, Beth, Pamela, Cynthia, and Keith, a great big thank you for the fixins contributed!)

Day 17,718 Gratitude: Wellbeing is a Team Sport

The big orange guy of the house isn't feeling well. The mobile vet came over today to look him over and help us figure out what's going on and how we can collaborate to support him in getting better. It got me to thinking about wellbeing teams ... how we each have one and how they include more than just our physician. Therapists, teachers and healers of all kinds can round out our wellbeing team. Beautiful people who prepare us beautiful food. The librarians. The musicians. The sales clerk at the art supply store. They, too, in their own way, can serve to support our wellbeing! Let's not forget our family and friends who are so often on the front line, providing succor as needed. For my own personal wellbeing team and the wellbeing teams of those I love, I am so deeply grateful.

Day 17,717 Gratitude: Behind

I'm behind on a lot of things. Sharing about the completion of my 100 collages project. Sharing about enduring the last leg of winter. Sharing about what's working for me right now and what isn't. I'm behind on making anything new. On eating right. On doing anything that remotely resembles exercise.

The one thing that I'm not behind on is being Alyssa's mom and doing my best to support her through what has been a very challenging sophomore year of college. I've been right on time, without fail and every bit on the spot in that precious area of my life. And for that I am so grateful.

Day 17,679 Gratitude: A Livelihood of Love

Yesterday, I went to the semi-annual Gemstreet show in Sharonville, hopeful to see Ken Harsh, my absolute favorite purveyor of wrappable crystals and stones.  Sometimes he would have a booth there and sometimes not ... which made perfect sense, as sometimes he seemed of this world and sometimes not.  He was an exuberant man with many offerings above and beyond the gems he sold, so I was disappointed when I didn't see his booth, but not particularly surprised.  Yet I wondered.  I wondered enough to do some research. And, sadly, it turns out that what I wondered was true.  He will be sorely missed.

Ken was a generous man.  Without fail, I'd diligently tally my purchases only to have him contemplate my basket and say, "Hmm, how 'bout twenty bucks" ... always significantly less that what I owed.  He was also generous with laughter, information, and stories.  I would come away from his booth uplifted in so many ways and already looking forward to the next opportunity to connect.  Isn't this what each of us should aim for as we do our work in this world?

The photo above is my inventory of gems still waiting to be wrapped.  They are the last from Ken. Bittersweet to let them go, yes, but it's my part in our unspoken agreement.  It's time for them to get to those who need them.  As synchronicity would have it, I recently agreed to participate in the Women Writing for (a) Change Swan Day here in Cincinnati on Sunday, March 30.  Many of these will be adorned and ready to be worn.  I will share more information in the weeks ahead.

For those who so obviously bask in and shine their light through all that they do, inspiring each of us to do the same, I am so deeply grateful!

Day 17,660 Gratitude: In Process

The 100 collages project (The Power of 100, that is) continues.  Nope, I didn't finish in January, as had been the adjusted plan.  I knew this project would teach me things.  The biggest lesson is that an artful endeavor such as this decides upon its own timeframe for completion.  Not silly me.  For now, it looks like it will work out to 100 collages in 100 days ... wrapping up one month from now. But I can't say for certain.  What I do know for sure is that I've made 60 of them so far.  Each one is its own story.  And each one a story within the story of the day that it was created and a snapshot in time of the me who created it.  Several of you have very kindly sent me "fixins" for these collages, which has warmed my heart and ignited my inspiration.  Yes, there IS power in the creation of 100 and there's more for me to learn before the 100th collage is made. For all of this, I am so grateful.