Lists and plans

My epiphany came the first week of December, Yes, you can do too much, be overextended with projects and responsibilities. I missed two important appointments and began to doubt my mental acuteness age-wise. I did all the necessary things to insure I would remember the appointments and still I overlooked them. My resolution in 2016 is not to do too much.  I was getting ready, making things for two Christmas Fairs, practice piano and guitar, rehearse the choir for Advent and Christmas music, I had a commissioned painting due for framing, made Christmas earrings, painting purses, my old friend Nanny and I made 55 fresh greens arrangement to sell at the local fair and I had functions to attend, Christmas shopping and I told my daughter I would help decorate her house.  Stop.  Something has to give. It did. Lesson learned. Fairs require a lot of lugging and it is tough on the back. That gave,too.

My resolution lists 'Give up painting purses unless I get a request. They don't sell very fast, they take up space. I put them on Etsy and Ebay. I never sell anything on Etsy. Etsy is a good showcase for customers to see what I do. If they see something they like they can email me and I will send it to them.  Earrings are fun, don't sell much but they are lightweight,take up little space and are lighter than paintings and purses.

Oil, Three Boys in a Dory

 I stopped painting for fun because I have run out of room to store the darned stuff.  I like commissions.  In November,I did a copy of a Winslow Homer for a present for my son's birthday, Three Boys in a Dory. The original was a watercolor but I copied it in oil. I don't remember ever doing a copy before. It wasn't slavish copy because it was a different medium.

Also recently did the Varnum Funeral Home commission. An oil, 16 x 20.

Varnum Funeral Home

Resolutions are great because it focuses on your goals, long term and in the year. In my diary I wrote down a quote from Zig Zigler " If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time."
 I wish when I was in my teens someone had advised me to make a series of long term plans. Where do you want to be in 5, 10, 20 years. How will you get there and then plan out by working backwards to the present day. What do you need to do, to get to where you want to be. 

The other thing I have learned is... don't do or not do something out of fear. Don't get married because you are afraid to be alone, don't not be an actress because you are afraid to get up in front of people and speak, don't not go to the doctor because you are afraid he (she) will say you have a disease. Take the bull by the horns not the tail. I found the best way for me was to consult the I Ching. The message you get, gets beyond your ego, which lies to you constantly, but get to the truth which you know in your brain and you can make the best decision from knowledge rather than ego. Question your motives. A wise woman once told me that I have all the information in my brain to function in this world. That is a difficult fact to grasp. The I Ching is not a replacement for The Bible. 
I am happy when I think of the number of years I had the same thing on my list-to illustrate a children's book and I was finally able to check it off. I fulfilled that goal. My 2016 list says work more on the Godfrey stories and get them published.
On the topic of cats, I have a new cat,Pierrot. Pierrot is a Christmas gift from my daughter. He is a Turkish Van, from the pound. White with black earpatches, a black tail and three spots on one side of his body. He has webbed feet, likes water and is smart. He has one coat which means he doesn't have the usual guard hairs over the soft short fur. He has just the soft short fur. 
 My former cat, Tex, I got from a pound in Kerrville,TX. He disappeared this summer. He was street-wise, coyote and snake and eagle- wise having encountered them in Texas. So I figure a fisher-cat or lion got him here in Massachusetts. Cats cannot escape those predators in a tree. I mourned his loss as Larry had given him to me as a Valentine gift and I loved the cat.
I still mourn Larry's passing but it isn't painful anymore. I am not able to listen to his recordings yet, but I will. I know he would want me to.
I took up the guitar this summer because I wanted it to be played. It made so much music with Larry.  Christmas Day I went to his kids' Christmas party and I brought his Takamine guitar. I told them what I was doing and I told them to keep his music going by learning to play the guitar or some instrument or to sing. He didn't want to teach them how to play because he felt he didn't know the right way to do it and he didn't want them to learn bad habits. He learned by watching others. He strummed and knew chords and copied strumming techniques from listening to pop records like Johnny Cash or Elvis etc. He played confidently and boldly but could also play sweetly.
After Christmas my daughter had a party and I invited some people in who played an instrument and I was able to jam with them a little. I am not very good yet and I can't shift from one chord to another very fast but I am working on it. I have a teacher, John Kinear, who is so good I would like to just pay to sit and listen. He teaches at the Lashaway Music Center in East Brookfield,MA.

Happy 2016