Just over one week in, they all became friends :)

As soon as the oracle cards arrived back from the printer, I put together the deck and randomly chose my first card. The card was "celebrate".

For a moment I pondered? There’s no "big" news to celebrate? So why this card? And then I remembered my conversation with a friend just last night where we talked about noticing how there’s so much pressure to be "extraordinary" today, that we are losing sight of what it means to appreciate and celebrate all of the beautiful moments and accomplishments in life, both big and small, ordinary and extraordinary. 

I’m a believer in celebrating everything you want to highlight, and not waiting only for the "big" moments in your life. 

And then not long after I pulled the celebrate card (an hour to be exact)... as you know we’ve been fostering kittens!!...spontaneously we decided that the kitties are meant be with us. And that is definitely worth celebrating ;)

I now know why, for several reasons, this was the very first card I pulled from the "Creative Joy" deck. 

Not to mention - it’s always exciting to share a new creation, especially one that combines a particularly special collection of my work painted over the past decade. More reason to celebrate!

Each word I included in the deck was carefully chosen, often correlating directly to the title of the original painting featured on the card. Since my art is so often a reflection of what I’m experiencing while I’m painting, each image contains the feeling expressed by the words. If you remember, the characters highlighted on the "celebrate" card are from a 2007 painting titled "the gang celebrates".  It was a time when my characters were developing, my art was just starting to sell consistently and my business as a full time artist was finally coming together.

I hope you will cherish this deck and share with me stories of how the words or the images spoke to you at just the right time, even if simply inspiring a theme for your creating that day.

You can order your deck here!

There’s something about the momentum of calm 3 day weekends bring, that really inspires creativity for me. And it kicked off the beginning of some serious painting time which resulted in these two pieces, each measuring 8" x 24",  that will also become future growth charts! 

I’m already attached to the calm and imagination with a touch of adventure represented in these paintings, the "Wildflower Garden" and "Delightful Dreamers" (an evolution of he first version) And yes if you look closely you will see that there is a tiny kitten ;) featured in the bottom left corner of the "Wildflower Garden". 

Enjoy the newest additions to the Creative Thursday collection! The originals are available to purchase here.

I’ve often referred to my neighborhood as a "magical vortex" 

Only because I’ve never lived anywhere where I instantly felt at home, and 3 years in I love my neighbors more than ever.

As it turns out, others sense this quality too? because they keep dropping off tiny animals in our neighborhood. The assumption is that they will find a good home. And very often they do!

This is how Pepita aka "the calm chihuahua" found us. And just last week, 2 kittens found their way to our neighborhood too.

What do you do when 2 of the cutest kittens ever show up unexpectedly? Well first you foster them, then you snuggle them. Then you take way too many photos and videos of them, to share everywhere including your blog. To keep up with their daily antics, follow my video stories on the Instagram app.

Oh and you also start painting them, because they are only the BEST creative muses, next to Garbo and Pepita {who are not so sure about life with kittens}. 

"Kittens love abstract art" The first in what I’m sure will be a continuation of "kitten art".