How do you feel about getting paid for the work that you do?

Good Morning.

Everyday over at Zaadz they post a question or blog prompt. I sometimes do them, and always enjoy reading the responses of others. So today this was the question:

How do you feel about getting paid for the work that you do?

This is the off the top of my head response, and then below that a little more thinking about money in general.

***

I feel fine about getting paid for my work…both kinds of work that I do. My day job is being an intuitive life coach. Being an intuitive, I have never had a problem with exchanging money for my time and work in the world of spirit. It's a gift I was given at birth…a talent…should I not use it for feeding my family and keeping a roof over my head? Many people have wanted to debate the right and wrongness of my working in this field and accepting money for it. “Selling spirituality” is what some have called it. I see it like any other talent that people are born with or develop in their lives. If I was a singer…I would sing for my supper, a talented doctor…you get the picture. See…I went through a lot of soul searching about this…I was given a talent to see more than the naked eye can see…if I don't use this talent…for what reason was it given to me, and would that be like spitting in the God(s) faces, to not use it? So, I studied and still study to become a great life coach, and I use my intuitive gifts as well. I am good at what I do, really good. I have also learned that people who do not pay for what they get from me, tend to not value (even ignore) the information I share, or want more, more, more of me for free…and then they don't value the messenger (me). I treat each person like I may never speak to them again…give them all I have each time, and I charge money in this reality for my work…and I don't feel even a little bit bad for it.

My other profession (as many know) is an artist. Again a natural gift, and talent…and my passion in this life. I paint to live, and live to paint. I sell my work with no ego attached to price. I mean if someone offers me 5 bucks on a work…and I need 5 bucks…what's the problem? If I can sell my work for more, I do. I never have had any hang-ups about asking to be paid for my work. Why would I? People need money in this reality to stay alive. It's reality; if it changes…well I'll change too. Until then…I don't work for free, as most humans don't. I don't value my human worth or soul on what I give away…I value myself on what I create, what I share, and who I am. So, in short I don't have a problem with getting paid.Oh…by the way…did you need some art?

*Grins*

***

Ok, so that covers the question...but it started me thinking about what I feel about money, the making and spending of it and all that jazz.

I was born and raised in the South. And there was a thing that no one really took notice of, but everyone from the richest to the poorest took part in it as a general rule in society. Some people when they needed money, would go door to door and ask to do odd jobs or shop out their particular skill. Some had produce to sell from their back yard gardens, some pushed a lawn mover door to door, some painted houses...ect. It was common place. i lived in a home that bought the produce, and goods...paid the lawn guy, and hired the painters.

No big deal. We neither took notice of this or were any better than anyone else because of it. It was just what was done. If you need something, you better be willing to work for it. Easy really.

Mate man was from one of the families that asked for the job. Same rules applied for them too. No better or worse...could only be worse if you lived off the dole...you know were a lazy drunk or whatever.

So, when I left my home at 16 and learned what it was to not have money and food and a home...it was easy for me to get up, take a look around at what I know how to do, what I had to offer and pick up a rake and go door to door asking to rake leaves, or whatever...wash cars, weed gardens.

When I got sick...and had to live off the dole (welfare)...I only had access to food items and needed more money. So...I made bread dough ornaments at Christmas (for presents for my kid) and sold them door to door. I picked flowers after asking and dried them in corn starch...arranged them...and sold those door to door too.

When I got better and had to really start making all the money needed again...I still was limited so I learned how to make organic cleaners and went out to the street with some flyer's offering to do green cleaning for homes and businesses. It worked. I had a great company for more than 7 years. I added in my landscape skills...and the business grew...I sold off the cleaning and went into landscape design and growing organic foods. I studied and learned from the local library and as the Internet took off I got a bunch of free education from there too.

So...it goes. Mate Man did much the same thing...worked, studied, applied himself and is now very successful in his line of work. A rising star.

So making money is just that right? You go out and you do it. If you don't like what you do then you do something else...go learn what you want to know and then do it.

At least that's what I have done in my life...I do like having money over not having...it makes life easier. Really it does. I just don't need a lot in this life in material goods that is. We live light. If I collect something then it's because of it's value down the line and because I enjoy it. Stuff is just stuff...money now or possibly down the road someday. Stuff is just stuff. I like nice stuff, but it's still just...stuff to load, carry and deal with. If you need to move (which I have also made a life of, being a nomad) you don't need stuff, you need money.

I guess that's about my whole idea on money, it's just money, if I need it I work hard for it. I spend it wisely, I don't have a ton of things and I learned to like wanting.

Again...I make the rules, in my world.

Ahhhh, it's all good.

Knock on wood.

Have a good day,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

New work: The plague doctor

"Plague Doctor"

18" x 24

oils

finished sides/ Ready to hang

Hi ya'll!

I finished a new painting...a plague doctor mask from the 1400's.

Hit the link to find out more about the history of Plague Doctors.

Here's the quote that inspired me to find a subject to paint: (I am still trying to figure out why it was this subject myself...don't worry...it'll come to me *grins* I just go with it when it comes...no apparent rhyme or reason these days, I am going where it takes me.)

***

Prayer for You

I'm happy to announce that this is a perfect moment.

It's a perfect moment for many reasons, but especially because I have been inspired to say a gigantic prayer for all of you. I've been roused to unleash a divinely greedy, apocalyptically healing prayer for each and every one of you -- even those of you who don't believe in the power of prayer.
And so I am starting to pray right now to the God of Gods ... the God beyond all Gods ... the Girlfriend of God ... the Teacher of God ... the Goddess who invented God.
Dear Goddess, You who never kill but only change:

I pray that my exuberant, suave and accidental words will move you to shower ferocious blessings down on everyone who reads this benediction.
I pray that you will give them what they don't even know they want -- not just the boons they think they need but everything they've always been afraid to even imagine or ask for.

Dear Goddess, You wealthy anarchist burning heaven to the ground:
Many of the divine chameleons out there don't even know that their souls will live forever. So please use your blinding magic to help them see that they are all wildly creative geniuses too big for their own personalities.
Guide them to realize that they are all completely different from what they think they are and more exciting than they can possibly imagine.
Make it illegal, immoral, irrelevant, unpatriotic and totally tasteless for them to be in love with anyone or anything that's no good for them.

O Goddess, You who give us so much love and pain mixed together that our morality is always on the verge of collapsing:
I beg you to cast a boisterous love spell that will nullify all the dumb ideas, bad decisions and nasty conditioning that have ever cursed the wise and sexy virtuosos out there.
Remove, banish, annihilate and laugh into oblivion any jinx that has clung to them, no matter how long they've suffered from it, and even if they've become accustomed or addicted to its ugly companionship.
And please conjure an aura of protection around them so that they will receive an early warning if they are ever about to act in such a way as to bring another hex or plague or voodoo into their lives in the future.

Dear Goddess, sweet Goddess, You sly universal virus with no fucking opinion:

I pray that you will help all the personal growth addicts out there become disciplined enough to go crazy in the name of creation, not destruction.
I pray that you will teach them the difference between oppressive self-control and liberating self-control, awaken in them the power to do the half-right thing when it is impossible to do the totally right thing.
Arouse the Wild Woman within them -- even if they're men.
And please give them bigger, better, more original sins and wilder, wetter, more interesting problems.

Dear Goddess, You pregnant slut who scorns all mediocre longing:
I pray that you will inspire all the compassionate rascals communing with this prayer to love their enemies just in case their friends turn out to be jerks.
Provoke them to throw away or give away all the things they own that encourage them to believe that they are better than anyone else.
Show them how much fun it is to brag about what they cannot do and do not have.
Most of all, Goddess, brainwash them with your freedom so that they never love their own pain more than anyone else's pain.

Dear Goddess, You psychedelic mushroom cloud at the center of all our brains:
The curiously divine human beings reading this prayer deserve everything they are yearning for and much, much more.
So please bless them with lucid dreams while they are wide awake and solar-energy-operated sex toys that work even in the dark and vacuum cleaners for their magic carpets and a knack for avoiding other people's hells and their very own 900 number so that everyone has to pay to talk to them and a secret admirer who is not a psychotic stalker.

Dear Goddess, You fiercely tender, hauntingly reassuring, orgiastically sacred feeling that is even now running through all of our soft, warm animal bodies:
I pray that you provide everyone out there with a license to bend and even break all rules, laws and traditions that keep them apart from the things they love.
Show them how to purge the wishy-washy wishes that distract them from their daring, dramatic, divine desires.
And teach them that they can have anything they want if they'll only ask for it in an unselfish way.

And now dear God of Gods, God beyond all Gods, Girlfriend of God, Teacher of God, Goddess who invented God, I bring this prayer to a close, trusting that in these mysterious moments you have begun to change everyone out there in the exact way they've needed to change in order to express their soul's code.
Amen. Awomen. And glory halle-fucking-lujah.

Rob Brezsny
Source: http://www.freewillastrology.com/beauty/prayer.html

***

Have a wonderful day!

Lemme know what you think, I love hearing from you all.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Thoughts on Memories and Spiritual Partnership

Good Monday to you all.

Before we begin, I'd like to start with a couple of quotes (per usual).

***

"Life is all memory, except for the present moment that goes by so quick you hardly catch it going."

Tennessee Williams

***

"We believe that the possibility of the future far exceeds the accomplishment of the past. We review the past with the common sense, but we anticipate the future with transcendental senses. In our sanest moments we find ourselves naturally expecting or prepared for far greater changes than any which we have experienced within the period of distinct memory, only to be paralleled by experiences which are forgotten."

~Henry David Thoreau

***

The authentic self is the best part of a human being. It's the part of you that already cares, that is already passionate about evolution. When your authentic self miraculously awakens and becomes stronger than your ego, then you will truly begin to make a difference in this world. You will literally enter into a partnership with the creative principle.

~Andrew Choen

***

Everyone recognizes to some extent the type that each is drawn to and they intuitively feel each other’s polarity, mentally and physically. Such types naturally gravitate to and recognize each other, so that out of any hundred people, ninety-nine might have no mental or sex appeal for each other – while the hundredth would. All humans should seek the type which corresponds to their own electric wave length. When types so find each other, they will be as perfectly balanced as sodium and chlorine, and the union should be enduring. It is a common saying that people should marry their opposites. Nothing could be more contrary to universal law than this statement. Everywhere in Nature, like attracts like. This is fundamental. Opposites repel each other. Opposites in temperament and physical patterns invite discord, infidelity and mutual degradation. Matrimonial mismating unbalances the blood stream just as certainly as promiscuous mismating unbalances it.
~Walter Russell

***

OK, here we go.

So Mate Man and I talk all the time. I mean we chat, we analyze, we problem solve, we say things that ride on our hearts when we need to. We don't fight, we solve. We talk it out with respect and rules of engagement, if there is a discourse in our lives. It's been this way from the beginning.

My favorite activity in the world is to be able to sit and talk with Mate Man.

So the other day, we were sitting on the back porch, late day, watching the sun set (another of our favorite things to do together, we do it daily, we also watch it rise together when we can, work schedules permitting)

and just chatting along. We started in on our ages. He's 41 and I am 38.

We were talking about the world around us, and what we have seen in our lifetimes thus far. What followed was a conversation that lasted the next three hours in spurts, had our kids looking at each other like "Oh lord here they go again" and only ended because we fell asleep, still talking.

We were talking about the inventions, social changes and political shifts we have seen or remember happening.

Here is a short (very short) list of some of the things we have seen in this life so far:

CD's

Personal Home Computers and the Internet

cassette tapes

shag carpets

designer drugs

pocket calculators

cable TV (I skipped school to watch the launch of MTV, it was great)

tampons and self stick pads

car seats

Starbucks

all wheel drive and disc brakes

seat belts in all cars standard

digital cameras

digital watches

touch tones phones

cell phones

2 liter bottles

automatic ice makers

microwave ovens

Ron Popiel

Vietnam and Nixon

We have never known sex without STD's and AIDS

Planned Parenthood

The Artificial Heart

The first space shuttle launch & I watched Challenger blow up right in the sky above me.

Star Wars

Close Encounters

Stephen King

Sci-Fi (really getting big in writing and pop culture)

Skateboarding

Snow Boarding

anti-depressants

ADHD

Organics

Chernobyl

The Berlin Wall came down

Tienanmen Square

The Cuban missile crisis (ending)

The woman's movement

Dr. Ruth

Wendy's "where's the Beef" ad campaign

Madonna

Gay Pride/Stonewall

The Human Genome project

The riots in California

Ronald Regan's assignation attempt

The hostages held on a plane in Iran

The end of the cold war

The end of the U.S.S.R.

The space station

The Hubble telescope

Nelson Mandela being released from prison

Margret Thatcher

and

roller blades

Ok, so that's enough for you to get the picture.

The whole thing was too much fun I tell you. And for the rest of the weekend, I just felt lucky to be alive and happy to have found my Mate Man to share this life with.

I know that I am a better person because he came along and wanted to love someone, not just anyone...me. I had to learn how to love and give love. I had to learn not to lie. He had to learn how to deal with love that was unconditional and unconventional. He had to learn he was lovable.

It's been good for both of us lost souls to find each other and grow this life we share. It's healed so many of the painful spots I had blackening my spirit.

Today I am grateful for the life I have had, good and bad.

And I love my Man. *sigh*

***

I hope you all have a great Monday...I am off to work on a new sketchbook project, the theme is love. I am making two of them and they will be displayed at the Darklight Gallery in February. I thought that because I am feeling so lovely inside now would be the right time to work on them, energy wise.

Love to all,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com

Scroll down and see my two new works!

The Goldfish Rebelion and Masks of the Spirit

Mask Man

18" x 24"

oils

(picture taken with flash)

Picture taken no flash

Here is the quote that inspired the painting:

Every profound spirit needs a mask: even more, around every profound spirit a mask is continually growing.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

While Fishing on Uranus

18" x 24"

oils

picture taken indoors no flash

picture taken outdoors no flash...but a little more shake...sorry about that.

The quote on the painting reads:

Should I abide by the rules until they're changed, or help speed the change by breaking them? Better start rushing before the rushing begins!

~Ashlie Brilliant

***

Here's the quote that inspired the painting:
All Americans believe that they are born fishermen. For a man to admit a distaste for fishing would be like denouncing mother-love or hating moonlight.

~John Steinbeck

***

Ok...so I have been working on these two paintings...studio studies I call them. The Goldfish is all about my rebelion against the rules of being successful in the art world...ummm, like duh...and the mask is about me looking into myself for the answers I am seeking. I am not working towards fame...I am working towards salvation, sanity and freedom. This is the way I choose to express my path in this world...through my art. (Heart)

I have decided I may not ever know if this is the right path (non-conformist) unless I walk the damn thing...so I am just going to worry less and work more.

Simple right?

HA!

I do know that I can't seem to sport any wood about being a conformist...so what's a girrrrrl to do?

Anyhow...I hope you all are having a good day and have a great weekend.

Love to all,

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

Sunday down home in the Bluegrass

Good Sunday to you all.

Isn't that vintage image just...cute?

It's from my Davis sampler last week.

Anyhoo...I do have a reason for writing this morning.

Here it goes,

Last we saw of BAD! Kitty she was in her studio, swearing at the gods...and committing acts of focus and resolve. Shortly there after followed by the dreaded death of all creative thought...what-so-ever.

We will now find out what happens when you try to put a kitty in a cage and then throw her in the river.

She will drown...come on...let's be real here.

I was talking to Mate Man this morning while we were drinking coffee, listening to the birds wake up, and watching the sun rise. Sans kids...equals a little bit of heaven on earth.

I was trying to ask him meaningful questions about this "focus group" thing. I don't like having to do something. I don't want to do as I "should". I hate rules.

Does that make me a limited or bad person?

Mate Man: Honey, I don't know. All I do know is that it's more complicated than that. You don't like rules, but you have a lot of rules you live by. They are Heather's rules. No one can govern the world of Heather but Heather. In that world there are three, no maybe four rules that you must live by.

1. Heather makes the rules.

2. Heather makes the rules.

3. We don't talk about the rules.

4. If in doubt refer to rule # 1.

Then he sits back and takes a drink of coffee.

That's my Man.

Ok so if I make the rules, and I have faith that I am not an evil monster that is secretly eating live children or something....then Ok, I make the rules.

First rule with my work right now.

I don't want to focus. Period.

I want to do my thing and try to be mindful about my form, technique. I want to pay attention to what feels good. I want to feel good when I work. I want to feel sexy, alive and slightly naughty. I want to have a sense of humor. I want to laugh and dance while I paint in my pj's. I want to keep finding out what I like and what I am drawn to learning and exploring. I want to only focus on my technique. I want to do what I want to do. I am not making art to make a living. I work a hard ass day job for that money. My art is all about having the freedom to do whatever I want to do. Will that hurt me professionally? Maybe...maybe not. Depends on if my consistency shows through...depends on the economy, depends on what breaks I get, what breaks I make and or take advantage of. It means living with my intuition and not against it. It's having faith that no matter what happens or does not happen...I will have laughed and loved and played and been responsible, if only in this one area of my human life, to just myself. My sacred playground and place of learning.

I create my own world. It's a good thing. I like it.

So, no more with the rules and so on. I'm done with that. I will just be mindful of what I do, and work with my gut feelings about what form that creation will take and just let it freaking be...for pities sake.

Ok, spewing over.

Ahhhh, that feels better.

Back to regular life...the one that has never been in a box and isn't going to start now. Can't that act of committing to not living the status quo be an act of commitment too? I don't want to retreat from reality or society at all...I just don't want to live a life where you do things because that's the way it has been done for the last forever. I didn't go to art school, I didn't pick art as my life passion, it picked me up along the way. I am really the muse to it's own life force. I didn't get into this business to make me rich and famous...hell I started selling art because it was taking up room...to make space. I offered art door to door, because I had no idea that you couldn't do that and be a real artist. I enjoy being a business person, I enjoy making money, spending money, using money. So I will continue to sell work in my time...no doubt. I don't create for the sale. Even thinking about it ( creating art for the sale) makes my ass twitch. I want to live within this world and all it has to offer but not become a slave to it. Maybe I like it that way...yes in fact that suits me just fine.

OK, now I really am done spewing...whew.

Back to regular programming.

Enjoy your day.

Heather

with a whole heart and doing it my way.

www.badkittyartstudio.com

Ideas aren't real until they're lived. ~Jim Rosemary

Above: Vintage Bingo card collage. Laminated.

2005

Hello and good morning!

Here are my quote(s) for today:

A WARRIOR WITHOUT TERRITORY

Student: The idea of a warrior is usually associated with territory or responding to a sense of danger. If we give up all territory, what is the motivation for having the spirit of a warrior?

Chogyam Trungpa: A warrior is not like a samurai who is looking for a job. You are not trying to be hired by anybody, not even by yourself. The idea of a warrior is based on a sense of fundamental fearlessness. There is no reason why you should be a coward. It's as simple as that. You are not being a warrior because a state of war exists in your country. We are not trying to win against the ego hood people. We are not trying to fight with them. You are being a warrior because you ARE a warrior. If someone asks you, "Are you twenty-one years old?" you say, "Yes, I am." They don't ask you WHY you are twenty-one years old or how you have done this. You would have no answer for that. You are just twenty-one. Warriorship is a basic sense of unshakeability. It's a sense of immovability and self-existing dignity rather than that you are trying to fight with something else.

~From "Meditation: The Way of the Buddha," Talk Four, Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado, July 1 1974. Edited from an unpublished transcript

***

I am Willing

I am willing to change what doesn't work for me in my life.

I am willing to listen with an open heart, without judging.

I am willing to plant seeds that take a long time, if ever, to grow.

I am willing to feel and let go.

I am willing to make mistakes and learn from them.

I am willing to live in the present.

I am willing to forgive and forget in my heart.

I am willing to love as much as my endless spirit will allow.

I am willing to be seen in all my radiance.

I am willing to be fearless.

I am willing to be powerful.

I am willing to be peaceful.

I am willing to stand tall. and walk gracefully.

I am willing to sing with my stunning, full voice.

I am willing to allow.

I am willing to let go.

I am willing to change.

I am willing to see and be seen.

I am willing to hear and be heard.

I am willing to feel and be felt.

I am willing to heal and be healed.

I am willing to love and be loved.

I am willing to change what doesn't work for me in my life.

I am willing to listen with an open heart, without judging.

I am willing to plant seeds that take a long time, if ever, to grow.

I am willing to feel and let go.

I am willing to make mistakes and learn from them.

I am willing to live in the present.

I am willing to forgive and forget in my heart.

I am willing to love as much as my endless spirit will allow.

I am willing to be seen in all my radiance.

I am willing to allow.

I am willing to let go..

I am willing to be fully human.

~Margaret Mikus

***

Today I am back to the cooking. Yesterday I made chicken soup with barley and rosemary, and three bean with chicken burritos (and rice).

Today I am planning a huge old fashion country meatloaf, mashed potatoes with turnips, hummus, a couple dozen cookies and chicken pot pies.

With that I am also going to be trying (in the next day or two) to come up with some breakfast recipes too. I already have homemade pancakes in the freezer, but I want to try some new things...like sausage or bacon biscuits...and breakfast burritos. I'm also thinking of writing a cook it and freeze it cook book with all these tested recipes..."how to feed a family of five for 400.00 a month".

What do you think of that?

I hope to return to the easel tomorrow and have about two weeks free of the kitchen...except for salads and stuff.

OK now art news:

It's been suggested to me by a couple (more than a couple over the years) of well respected gallery owners that I need to focus on a subject matter and paint at least 20-30 paintings. OMG! Really?!

I understand why I need to do this... but I am so hard headed...I hate being told what to do.

So, I am going to freaking get over it...bite the bullet and do it.

I am going to start with my trees. 20 trees. Oh, lord.

Then...abstract landscapes...20 more of those. Heaven help me.

Then figurative...20 of those too. Stop the madness.

I had to pick three...so I can paint them all at the same time...60 works in all.

What the holy hell am I thinking?

I am thinking it's been long enough fighting the system.

I have spent 7 years doing my own thing. It worked really well the first 6...but the last year has been in the crapper as far as selling and placing my work. So...maybe I'll just do this 60 works and restart my art career again.

The Mother of re-invention?...poverty!

Well my sweet dumplings...(I am making those too...chicken and dumplings)

I must away to the kitchen...to slave over a hot stove...

ands set myself free!

Love to all,

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

The Dance - Completed work

Top of the day to ya!

Here is my new work all done and ready to hang.

Click to enlarge

'The Dance'

36" x 24"

oils

here are the quotes that I worked with while creating my own world:

Beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.

~Jalal Al-Din Rumi

***

There is a vitality,

a life force,

an energy,

a quickening

that is translated through you into action

and because there is only one you in all of time,

this expression is unique.

And if you block it,

it will never exist through

any other medium and it will be lost.

The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine how good it is

nor how valuable,

nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to

keep it yours clearly and directly

to keep the channel open.

You do not have to believe in yourself

or your work.

You have to keep open and aware directly to

the urges that motivate you.

Keep the channel open.

No artist is pleased.

There is no satisfaction whatever,

at any time.

There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction,

a blessed unrest

that keeps us marching

and makes us more alive

then the

others.

Martha Graham

to Agnes de Mille

in "Dance to the Piper"

***

I love that!

So, I hope you enjoy...

Have a great day.

See you in the clearing.

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/

A new work...ripped off!

My New work...that I ripped off from Matisse! I love this image and always have so I did my own version of it...or, um, er...I am doing my own version. I did an Andrea Pratt background (well inspired by Andrea, it's not near as fine as hers are, but it wasn't supposed to be, duh!) and then thought why not just do the whole painting as a ripped off work? So, I did, there...take that! HA!

This is 'the dance'

36" X 24"

oils

and it's just getting kinda interesting...so I'll update in the next couple of days and show you not only better pictures, (I hope)...but a better looking completed painting.

Lemme know what you are thinking of it...I am literally watching the paint dry.

(I am bored! So, freaking talk to me people...)

Love to all,

Heather

www.badkittyartstudio.com

If power was an illusion, wasn't weakness necessarily one also? ~Bjould

(above) One of the hand made magnets from my

A.I.M. Series

***

Good Monday all!

Here are some quotes to start the day off:

***

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by obvious realities.
We need men and women who can dream of things that never were.
John F. Kennedy

***

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.

~Robert Fulghum

***

The cross comes before the crown, and tomorrow is a Monday morning.

~C.S. Lewis

***

From my perspective of Higher Awareness, No one has the power to drive me crazy. In fact, people have stopped trying. They assume I can walk from here.

- Charlene (unknown submitter to Hay House newsletter's Laugh Out Loud)

***

Oky-doky. Now where was I? Oh yes...Good Monday to you all.

I have had a busy weekend. We spent a lot of time cleaning house, (yuck) and cooking for the week (fun!)...and playing Sorry! the game with the boys. I know...I have a very glam life. Be jealous.

Let's see I cooked: 2 Shepard pies, 6 quarts of bean and barley soup (known in this house as hamburger soup), 4 pints of hummus, Italian chicken with polenta, chopped a metric ton of fresh veggies (snacks and the hummus), twice baked potatoes, and a bunch of oatmeal cookies. Now...I don't have to cook for at least a week. Everyone can grab what they want out of the freezer...warm it up...eat it and put the dish in the dishwasher. It's really great. I've been doing the food thing for this family, like this for about 5 years now. It saves so much money, because there is no waste and everything gets used and eaten. It's also pretty great because I love to cook, just not every freaking day.

For the four of us...I can feed us like royalty on about 350.00 per month.

It's all good. I am thinking that this week I am going to make some mini-meatballs (I make them up and freeze them uncooked...then they can be added to all kinds of things quick and easy, taking about 7 minutes each to cook all the way through). The kids have been asking for pita bread personal pizzas...with meatballs. So, other than that I don't plan to cook at all.

We got the whole house spiffed up...and now I can paint all week without guilt. UUuummm...we bought a new board game the old Sorry! game. We basically sat around trying to sabotage each other and exact our revenge...it was great. I never won even one stinking game though...I suck at revenge I guess.

Well...I am going to start a new work later this morning...and my only problem (see above quotes) is the what will I paint thing. I have two little canvases drying at the moment in the experiment phase...I took oils and thinned them down with Liquin and painted it over the top of gold leaf I had used matt medium to glue down...then I made a random pattern with masking fluid (for watercolors) on top of the gold and then painted more of the thinned down oils over the top. I repeated that a couple of times...and I did the same thing with acrylics on another little canvas. The liquin has made the masking fluid sticky on the oil one...which I removed and then had to wash the canvas with a little terp to get the sticky off. I have not removed the masking fluid from the acrylic one yet...but I tested it yesterday and it's not sticky. Both seem to have worked...I just don't know what I plan to do with the information yet. Adventure time...we shall see.

Well, I have a busy day ahead with the day job (life coaching) and a big ol' white canvas on the easel...mocking me...so I had better get to it.

Love to all,

Heather

http://www.badkittyartstudio.com/