You are SO loved!

Happy (belated) 2013!  I tried to post something right after the new year dawned, but Blogger is determined that I will no longer be able to efficiently post anything through Internet Explorer, and I just wasn't ready to be held hostage to Chrome, so... procrastination won out.  I'm sure I'm not the only person in the world to be occasionally emotionally defeated by technology, but wow - floored by my own stubbornness sometimes.  (Me and my first-world problems).

ANYway... with a mind to the upcoming and ever-popular Hallmark holiday of hearts and flowers, I was noodling around in the studio and came up with this series:

Which of course lead me to question why it is that we feel the need to set aside only ONE specific day a year on which to tell people how special they are to us, and how loved?  Shouldn't that be the goal pretty much EVERY day - to take a moment's pause and shower the people we love with love?  (with apologies to James Taylor for the blatant rip-off).  One of my official "New Year New Start" promises to myself was to take more time for doing just that - sending more love out into the world, intentionally, thoughtfully, and with no expectation of reciprocity or acknowledgement.  It is tough to resist getting caught up in the "daily grind" - old habits die hard, I suppose - but I really do *want* to live a more intentional and meaningful life.  

I've also been working to expand on my "you can do hard things" line, because I am madly in love with it.  It's not a bad thing that I currently have a studio full of these that I get to look at every day... LOL

I also had a commission earlier this month - a great big Serene Buddha piece (20"x20") that took me forever because the tiny town I live in did NOT have a Buddha head that I could cast a mold from for the faces.  (Well, the fact that I live in the Bible Belt may also have had something to do with that - I suspect there are not too many Buddhists lurking around in this particular corner of the sandbox).  I did find the perfect thing on Etsy (yeah!!!) from which to make a mold just the right size, which I have been playing around with in other pieces to find something that works the way I wanted it to.  I'm not quite there yet, but I've had fun "doodling":

Fighting the urge the last couple of weeks to hibernate - it's been very cold lately, and all I want to do is huddle under my electric blankie and watch my backlog of recorded episodes of Project Runway.  *sigh*  I'm really ready for a girl's trip somewhere warm and toasty, to thaw out my spirit and reconnect with the people who know me best - asking the Universe for some unexpected abundance to help facilitate that!!