The good? I love my new place. 40% bigger than my last place, a nice view of woods and hills, easy access to public transit, a quick walk to a good falafel place, and I squeezed the landlord until they gave me a 2 year lease at almost 20% off the asking rate. There are SOME perks to a rough economy. Other good? I’m getting some clarity on what I want to be working on a year from now. I am starting to take the steps necessary to do it; reading, researching, applying techniques I intend to teach and work with people on. It’s good.

Thank you for letting me share.

Goddess Leonie | GoddessGuidebook.coms last blog post..Interview with Jen Louden: Goddess of Comfort!

Also awesome: restarting burlesque classes and learning Cell Block Tango (from Chicago, choreographed by our awesome teacher who’s a walking exclamation mark). One of my classmates, who’s also a good friend (we’ve been doing these classes for about 12 weeks together now) just got dumped by a dodgy ex and he’s absolutely feeling the song!

Tiaras last blog post..April dreamboard! (feat. The Merch Girl and Gala Darling) [1]

it’s violet season here, which is my favorite part of spring. I went out to sketch them this week, and also got ready to start a big exciting new drawing I’ve been putting off for literally years. In other good news, I spent the first part of the week on vacation in Florida, and my partner just got a great construction contract that means we don’t have to worry about money for the next few months.

On the other hand, I just found out I’m not pregnant after all, that the editing job I’ve been waiting on wants me but wants to pay me $25 a week, and that I didn’t win the lottery.

Pretty good week, though, mostly!

@Lori – yay for groundwork. Seriously. That rocks. Word *should* be spreading. Your stuff is neat.

@Andi – pita! And yeah, feeling aggravated about feeling aggravated is the WORST. Ugh. Sorry. Thanks for all the sweet well-wishing — I totally appreciate it, as do my arms.

@Mark aka Crispy Mark – MARK! I was just thinking that I miss you and then hopa! There you are. Nice job on the talk. Also the lock-picking. I think.

@Kelly – Right? You nailed it. Stu is so the naughty butler. Though he’d probably call it the bawdy nutler or something, just to be an ass. I’m almost (but not) afraid to get well … there will be so many people who will miss him!

@Amy – Pod-the-kitten! Ohmygosh I want to hug him right this second just because of the name. CUTE. And glad you’re getting good support (and taking it in whatever form you need it — even better). Right on.

@Sari – happy spring-in-Finland! With massage! Even better.

@Deveena – sounds like quite a tumultuous week. Sending you love …

@MeiLin Miranda – Like Sari said … wow. That *is* a hell of a milestone. Good on you. Glad we have you with us. And yeah, Portland spring is out of this world.

@Barbara – look at you biggifying your art! Whoooooooo! Fabulous. I love the little painting I bought from you so much. I’ll totally get to say that I “knew you when”. :)

@Sparky Firepanks aka Mr Pants – wow. WOW. I want to read an entire blog post (at least) with your grandmothers as characters. I can really feel them.

Video post! That’s brave as hell. I bet it’s awesome. Am going to peek now …

For me, overall it was a pretty good week.

The hard:

- Holy carp there’s a lot of carp on my to-do lists. All of which must get done before I take off on a short vacation to see my cousin get married in a mere two weeks.

- I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in weeks, and it wasn’t pretty.

The good:

- All those to-do items are the result of work coming in, from both old and new clients. I’m booked solid for the next month and even have something on the calendar for June already.

- Breaking the projects down into little chunks and implementing the one-thing-at-a-time rule is helping me to churn through those lists at a slow but steady pace.

- I was expecting to owe a carpload of $$$ in taxes, but I managed to pay enough estimated that I actually came out just about even.

- In the past three days I’ve received two orders for custom etched necklaces for Mother’s Day and my biggest wholesale order ever, by more than double. Word = spreading. Groundwork = paying off.

Lori Paximadiss last blog post..the view from my desk

But the good part: Finally at around 3 this morning I realized that I’ve been spinning my creative wheels for nearly two years with stuff I neither want to do nor know how to do . . . talk about frustrating! Now I can give myself permission to stop doing that Stuff and get back to doing what I actually know how to do well. Or, I can keep annoying myself if it turns out that’s what I’m truly addicted to. Hope it’s the former.

BTW: Keep moving in the feeling better direction Havi. Even though your arms have something to teach you, you’re way too cool to feel like crap.

Rain. Lots of rain, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, part of yesterday.

Getting an unexpected rejection note for my jewelry when picking up the jewelry from the Parkersburg Art Center show (I had been told we could sell stuff as exhibitors, and I did, and was not applying for the shop). Taking it as a sign on one hand that pursuing this big art thing is what I should be doing instead of doing fiddly jewelry stuff, but on the other hand finding my cranky pants were firmly in place (I mean really. My stuff is as good as what was in the shop already; what was their criteria?). Being aggravated that I was(am) aggravated. (this is the stupid).

The good:

Sun! Lots of sun! And flowers and birds and pretty pretty blooming everything when we were in Parkersburg picking up the art.

The gorgeous orange/pink Noro yarn and Lantern Moon needles I got for my birthday while in P’burg today.

Being able to eat pita again. (Passover visits our home too).

Lilacs are blooming! I need to track me down some so I can go smell them. :)

I am glad that you are able to do more for yourself, Havi, and am grateful for Stu and your helpers and your gentleman friend because I love reading your posts and reading everyone else’s comments.

Andis last blog post..Gocco, My Gocco or The Rewards of Patience

The good: Yay! I got done with my talk at the Notacon hacker conference! It didn’t suck too badly! The guy from fark.com said it was good! w00t!

I also learned how to pick locks.

And it’s actually spring in Cleveland, finally.

Mark W. “Extra Crispy” Schumanns last blog post..MarkWSchumann: @agent0x0 <Interesting things being talked about in the Pilates for common cubicle injuries talk> You lied! You said you were in MY talk!