Saint Austen, Hebrew, Sitting Still, Etsy, Cats, & Mishegas

So, last night I realized, huh? wow? People are actually looking at this blog. We looked up the stats, and low and behold 150 people have looked at this website in the last 30 days. A lovely surprise for me. To any of you who are reading this, thanks.

I've taken a photo collage of sorts to share with you the things that have been up for me this week. A lot. Being the Jewish New Year, this week I have been thinking a lot about the last year. How have I grown? Who have I loved? What have I created? What have I let go of? Who have I hurt? How have I taken care of myself?

I am grateful that at the end of next week I will attend a 3 1/2 day meditation retreat. It feels like the perfect time to slow down and settle into these musings. I feel so blessed to have an opportunity to stop doing for a few days and enjoy the experience of being.

Shortly after the retreat Andy and I will set off on a little adventure. We are going to Vancouver B.C. so that Andy can attend a conference and I can explore a city I have long hoped to visit. Just me and a back pack filled with sketching supplies, a good book, my camera, and a few post cards. From Vancouver we will go down to New Mexico to join members of Andy's family at the Balloon Festival. I am also very excited for this trip.

And, ART. I am pretty excited because I am working on a piece that showed up in my sketch book a few months ago. For those of you who don't know, I have a guilty pleasure. I am addicted to Jane Austen. I could watch recreations of her stories on BBC for days at a time. I love her, and since I have been dabbling with religious iconography lately, I have deiced to make her a saint. There are very few images of her on the web, which makes sense since she's like 235 years old. So I worked from my imagination (one of my best assets). I included some images of the work in progress. I will post the finished piece in the next month, maybe next week, if I can stay focused. 

I think I mentioned last week that I have launched a shop on Etsy. I am selling prints of my work there. I am thinking about also offering cards.  I've been working hard on it. So far nothing has sold and not a whole lot of people are looking at my work. Huh. So I'll keep being persistent. I'll keep having fun. I'll keep trying to make virtual friends with other shop owners on Etsy. If any of you, my dear readers have any ideas or feedback about this project. I'd love to hear from you.

Lastly, there has been a lot of hissing and yowling going on in my cat family. We've been doing the slow and tedious job of helping cats make friends. This summer we were adopted by a stray cat we named Callahan. He's beautiful and kind. We are trying to get him a little domesticated so he can come in during the freezing winter nights. So far our inside cats are not keen of the idea. Yet another project in persistence and patience. 

I hope you, my dear readers are well. Thanks for visiting my site and encouraging me to keep doing what I'm doing.

Until next time.