2015 was a pretty horrible year… 

I’ve heard this from lots of people; maybe it was in the stars?
Surgery, bad urologist, fear, pain, stress, craziness, burdens.
Not all bad, and some incredible gifts came our way, but a year I am happy to see GO!

Be gone 2015!!

I am grateful for our end-of-year winter traditions, from Solstice to Christmas to New Year’s.  Usually we take our month off, but this year was so crazy we had to play catch up on too many projects to make our business goal.  Instead, we took long weekends, four and five days, and did what we do best, which is to chill, be creative, and rejuvenate.

Sleep is a big part of rejuvenation.

Especially for me, as an insomniac, but even for Mitchell.
Having your own business means that we have to answer phones 10-hours a day,
and do so even on Sundays, because someone might let their
fingers do the walking if they don’t make contact with us.
So we are usually on, even when we are “off.”
But at Christmas and New Year’s, our potential clients also take a break
and don’t call, so we can really be off!

This year during our December vacations
we didn’t have enough time to really drop into writing,
however, we relaxed in a way that we hadn’t in years.
Mitchell sometimes played guitar while I painted or cooked,
or we ate wonderful foods and watched old movies.

And slept some more.

Surprises and connections happened in the last few weeks of 2015!
It was as if the change was already happening after the Solstice.
I was touched by a gift out of the blue from another artist,
a pen she made sure worked for me — because I so wanted one and had given up due to buying duds!  She inked it and made sure it worked and sent it along with a sweet card of her art.  Artists are a giving group — sharing secrets, ideas, their work, and tools.

And gatherings, nice smaller gatherings!

We don’t do a lot of gifts anymore, but love surprises.
Time spent together is the greatest gift of all.
That might seem weird because we work together,
but work is work and time together is different,
and besides, we are often in different rooms working on different things.
The cats write us cards and somehow go shopping for the little things.
We don’t need much, and tend to gift each other when we feel it.
Mostly our gifts are about our creative endeavors, be it writing, music, or painting.

And need I say I was given two pairs of
yummy pajamas in my favorite colors?
I have to find a way to wear them to work.

My goal for 2016 is to work in pajamas!

This piece was created in conjunction with 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.

Moleskin 8×11 watercolor journal; Pentalic HB woodless pencil;
Platinum Carbon pen, my NEW Hero pen; DeAtramentis, Noodler’s and Super5 inks; Greenleaf & Blueberry and Daniel Smith watercolors.

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