Lookie what I got from Sue at Artful Adventures!

Now I’m supposed to send it along, but you know what, rule breaker that I am, here’s the deal:  everyone who reads this blog makes me smile.  Therefore, you may copy it and put it on your site from me.  Just so we know where it’s going, leave me a note in my comments section – that way you smile and I smile yet again to know you think enough of yourself to know that you (yes, YOU) make me smile!

Andrea tagged me for weird things about my life (and then she apologized for tagging me because I’m "so busy."  We had a chat about apologizing for tagging. It’s supposed to be:  "Ha!  I tagged you – get on with it!"  I’ve already done this about 3 times, so some of this may be reiteration, but here goes:

1.  I was a go-go- dancer in my early 20s, in the DC area

2.  At the same time I was married to a young man who was a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang.

(these two events probably changed my life forever – some of it good, some of it bad, but all of it leading to where I am now, and so I am not going to complain).

3.  In Florida I used to design needlepoint canvasses for a local shop.  I did needlepoint myself for about 5 years (easy and portable with a young baby at my side) and still have most of the pieces I designed/finished for myself.

4.  I do not like sports.  In fact I think sports are a huge waste of money and it makes me crazy that cities and towns spend so much giving rich people money to bring sports teams to town when kids in schools don’t have what they need (this goes triple for D.C).

5.  I have a best friend that I have known for 57 years.  Even though she lives in California and I live in Maryland (25 years now) we stay in regular touch and share each other’s life.  I have another friend who lives over the Potomac in Virginia.  She and I are friends for 38 years.  We stay in touch by phone.  In addition to all my other friends, these friends carry pieces of my life that no one else has shared (the 2nd one shares the motorcycle  and go-go years; the first my growing up family – we lived next door to each other).  I am blessed.

There’s another meme lurking out there that I haven’t answered.  And the memer is going to hate me because I asked already once who left it and she responded and now I can’t find it on my desk top and have forgotten (I plead old age, the wipe out of everything on my "hold" bar by my computer restarting itself – it does this on its own –  and too much going on in the past 2 months – things are quieter now – I am not on purpose ignoring your meme!).  If you’re still speaking to me, leave me a note (and be sure to take the Smile award) and I promise I will take care of it this time!

On the business end, yesterday was very successful!  I visited with Robbie, the owner of Deja Vu spa and salon on Solomon’s (I met her at the PRAD show 2 weekends ago), and she has given me a ton of wall space to hang and sell my work – one very large wall next to the front window as well as wall space back in the spa section.  I’m going to have to hang in shifts as I don’t know that I have enough!  How cool is that?!

I also managed to do a bunch of gallery research.  Here’s a gift for those of you looking for galleries:  American Style magazine has a website on which you can find listings of their preferred galleries by state.  If you have done at least a partial work-up of your ideal client (and I have a partial), and you know that American Style appeals to those galleries and folks who will love your art work, then this is a gold mine of information.  I’m working through it in my own area first, and then I’ll spread out (New York and San Francisco here I come).  I’m doing my affirmations, visualizations and meditations regularly (in the a.m. as I’m waking up is best, and probably best for my not quite awake mind too as the subconscious, I hope, it still mostly in charge – and I’m aiming at the subconscious.) Life is great!

thought for the day: We live in a society where only "big success" is acknowledged.  We don’t care about the small steps.  We don’t hear about the stumbles.  Yet it takes outrageous courage to be in the middle of your journey.  The middle is where it’s at, baby.

Maybe you’re growing a new business, writing the book of your dreams, or healing from a necessary divorce.  There are the times when alligators are nipping at your raw feet, the rain keeps beating down, the moon is fading, your mother is calling, and you wonder if you are going to age in poverty with hopes that never came true.  Yep, these are the moments that need celebration.

These are the times we need applause and ribbons and massive hot fudge sundaes and witnesses to our magnificence.  These are the time we must love ourselves through the hunger and exhaustion.  These are the times when we must celebrate our courage, the power, belief, and stubborn pluck it demands to keep just lurching and wobbling forward….

You are on the path.  You are on the path.  You are on the path.  The path begins wherever you are, when you embrace your life with honesty, patience and compassion.  Tama Kieves, Trusting the Journey Times, October 17, 2007 (you can have it delivered in your inbox in its entirety – just click on over and subscribe.  She’s amazing!)