I’m a bit fanatical about sketchbooks. I love creating in them and I love encouraging others to embrace the practice, too.

What I love most about sketchbooks is the freedom I find within their pages.

Over the last couple of weeks, our snow was slowly melting. Two weeks of predicted snowstorms never materialized. What was left was nearly gone and then this week we were hit with snow, sleet, freezing rain and more snow. Now everything is white again.

Last week I mentioned how books are one of the ways I make it through the winter. And over the years I’ve shared books here on my blog again and again.

Here we are, two weeks into the new year. How are you feeling?

Have you chosen a word for your year? Are you setting intentions?

I vividly remember the first time I tied my shoe.

I’ve been teaching on Skillshare for over 6 years. My first class came out in July of 2016.

Today I have 27 classes on the platform.

Last year I blogged about planning my dream studio. I was hoping to move my work space from one room in our house to another. For various reasons this never happened.

My blogging calendar has a different post scheduled for today, but I came down with a bad head cold this week and that other post didn’t get written.

Flipping through magazines in a bookstore with a cup of coffee in one hand. Checking out a stack of magazines from the library. Opening the mailbox to find a magazine tucked inside.

One of the things I love most about my garden and gardening is connecting with nature. I plant my garden and I tend it, but I’m not really in control.

Earlier this year I invited you to share suggestions of what you’d like to see here on my blog. Since then I’ve been sprinkling in posts inspired by you.

One type of question a few of you had was around making decisions.

Last weekend was the Winding Roads Art Tour.

I keep trying to write about it, but nothing I write truly captures the experience.

After being canceled the past two years because of Covid, the Winding Roads Art Tour is finally going ahead.

I regularly invite you, my dear readers, to engage in conversation here on my blog by asking questions in my posts. Nurturing an open, encouraging and inspiring environment is important to me.

In a recent review of one of my classes, a student wrote:

“She encouraged me to step out and paint for me instead of for approval.”

It’s almost Valentine’s Day and if you’ve been around a while you know I love it. Not for the commercial aspects (though I’m a fan of both chocolate and flowers) but because the idea of a day devoted to LOVE makes me happy.

The sun is shining, warm and bright. The garden is humming with bees and I catch the scent of roses, mint and spicy tulsi. I step among the blooms with my scissors at the ready,

When I think about the word EASE, I imagine serenity and calm. I picture being able to do hard things with confidence. I see myself flowing through my days with lightness, finesse, grace.

“Thanksgiving is not just a day, it’s a lifestyle.”

In April I wrote about stepping away from Instagram. It felt right for me. Energizing. Freeing.

In June I wandered back.