Today is my birthday, and I am grateful to still be here — and still well enough to do the things I love.

learning something about my self-talk

I had a sudden epiphany today. [This may sound painfully obvious to you, but it's new to me, bear with me, okay?]:

I was looking at one of my paintings, and suddenly asked myself, "What would I say about this painting if a friend made it and showed it to me?" And I realized I would be much more positive and encouraging — and really mean everything I said. So why not say those same things about the same painting when it's made by me?

Why not, indeed?

a good dental check-up this morning — I can still remember when they never used to happen, so it reinforces that I'm doing better now

A really decent nap. It was everything ya want one to be: solid, a good length, into it quick, and refreshing when it was done.

My latest paintings were both Christmas presents so I had to wait til their recipients got them before making them public, so here we go now:



My eighth gouache is supposedly a chipmunk. I still struggle with getting my paint to a good working consistency — straight from the tube it's too thick to spread easily, but it feels like when I add any water it instantly goes as thin as watercolour. There's a sweet spot in between that I keep missing.



My 43^rd acrylic is my house, as seen from across the street. You can't see much of the actual house frontage and porch from here, so it looks like mostly garage, but there is enough house back there to live in. Any other angle would be mostly tree, so if I wanted to get the whole building in, this was the best I could do.

Christmas lights.

On my way home tonight, it seemed to me that, this year, a lot more houses are putting up Christmas lights, and doing it earlier. I was really in the mood for them today and it cheered me to see them.

Tea lights.

Many years ago, like before we moved to our current house so like maybe twenty, on a whim I bought a pack of a hundred tea lights from IKEA, along with a few lanterns to hold them. I just really liked the idea of them making a soft pretty light.

I never used them. I was always saving them for a special occasion.

Last night, I read a post somewhere about how things are meant to be used and enjoyed. And how, if you're saving things for a special time, and you notice that a special time never comes, then stop it and enjoy them now. So tonight I have a candle going in front of me For No Reason®. And it's lovely, and it feels good to look at it, and I appreciate having it.

waking from a deep, sound, solid sleep and putting on clean clothes: two significant blessings back to back

getting my headlight fixed — I hate having one out