Gratitude - My Word of the Year

Last year my word of the year was courage.

This year I'm concentrating on Gratitude.

 Gratitude in all things is my motto of 2017.

Having gratitude for paintings you're pleased with,

great sales,

a swift learning curve,

lots of followers

are all things that are easy to be grateful for. 

But, learning to be grateful when things aren't so great,

paintings you wiped off, more than once,

a subject you just can't seem to master,

few or no sales,

no one seems to follow you on social media,

health problems,

lack of funding,

lack of studio time or space,

lack of inspiration:

Those are all things you have to really intentionally be grateful for.  

How can you be grateful for health problems?

For feeling discouraged?

For not being able to move your art career forward?

Yet, we can be grateful for all these things.

We CAN drive out the "Whoa is Me" mindset

and usher in "Gratitude". 

Yes, it will take effort!

It will take introspection,

mind set adjustments,

preparation,

and a plan!

I am planning to be grateful in all things this year.

It may take all year to incorporate this new "Habit" into my personality.

I must admit, I am a "glass half full" kind of girl,

but I do get frustrated when I can't seem to get something.

Learning all the techy stuff that goes with promoting art online has had me near tears on many occasions.

and I am NOT a crier!

But, I have found that once I do get something,

I really understand how and why it works.

That's a really good thing!

I am placing some gratitude fliers around my studio

to serve as reminders to be grateful.

I know there will be days I will really have to search for something to be grateful for.

But I also believe that if I truly search for gratitude,

I CAN find it.

I'm PLANNING to find it.

Congratulations to June Mefford who won one of the two paintings I gave away recently for November and December.

 June lives locally so I could hand deliver the painting to her.

Fay Terry, a fellow artist in North Carolina, won the other painting I gave away.

Congrats Fay.

We met, I believe through the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge we each did several years ago.

Now if you want to win one of the paintings I give away every single month, you have to enter.  

You enter by filling out that annoying pop up box that showed up when you started reading this blog.  

If you clicked the X, I get it, but you can still enter by scrolling back up to the top on the right hand side and put your working email in the box.  Then when you receive a confirmation email, click the link in that email to confirm you did sign up.

I draw out a winner every month and send them an email letting them know they have 24 hours to respond to that email.

So, make sure you sign up with an email you use, or you might not know if I contact you with 

No Joke!  YOU Won! in the subject line.

Get back with me and I'll hand deliver or ship it out to you.

Funny Update.

My 8 year old grandson, Aidan visited this weekend 

and I took him to my studio to see my new painting

and asked him what he saw.

His face lit up and he got all excited

and said,

"It's a magic door"!

I said, "You're right!  It is a magic door."

Now that's something to be grateful for!!!

Let me know in the comments if you have a word or motto of the year and what it is.

Thanks so much for reading my blog.

I truly appreciate your comments and follows.