New Year’s Eve

When I visit here, I’m filled with the feeling of “Why did I ever leave here?”
I enjoy these people I call friends and miss them and yet, I don’t find the time to come back.

For one of the first times in my life, I feel like grabbing hold of the new year in a big pro-active (hate that phrase but couldn’t think of another) way.
2011 was the year I was so sick …almost dying a couple times….so, as everyone told me, I needed at least a year to really recover….but I think it took longer than that. I’m not 100% back to my old self. I don’t know if I ever will be….

What I do know is that I don’t want to fall into that bland, easy life that I see so many older people doing or people who’ve been ill.
It beckons me sometimes and it’s seductive….so much easier to be boring.
So I’m really in the mood to really jump in and take this darn life and do what I want to do with it.

We are presently in the end process of changing our downstairs….we had two guest rooms and a small junk room, formerly called The Maid’s Room…who hasn’t shown up since we bought this house 3 years ago.
I don’t particularly want guests who stay overnight(s) so why 2 guest rooms? So one guest room and the junk room have had the wall between taken down and is becoming my office/studio….
Fabulous light coming in thru the windows and plenty of room for 2 easels, a drafting table, a desk alcove and storage cabinets…..am I lucky or what? And I plan to be in this room a lot….I no longer care if I become the Next Greatest Painter in the World (that’s probably a lie) but I NEED to paint. And I have come to realize that you need to “Do” something with the talent that what you were given, even if you’re not automatically the best. I realized that I was just going to my art classes twice a week, just for the opportunity to paint…and probably not learning as much as I could.

The Studio is almost finished….although in the last few weeks, it was disguised as a Present Wrapping Room but Christmas has left this station, upstairs and downstairs already.

So Happy New Year to everyone.

I’m not going to promise I’ll be here more often because when I do that, I don’t do that.