Goodbye 2009

This year has been a true adventure. I lost a job, I started a small business, I was on the news and two new nephews were born.
I've built several web sites, learned a bit of JavaScript, designed my own logo and sold a few paintings. Hell, we've even adopted a puppy!
All in all it's been a fun learning experience, trying but fun.
I never really know what each new year will hold, but I always have expectations of a better year than the one prior. This year that certainly holds true. In the past, I've withheld from verbalizing any New Year's resolutions out of a sense that somehow that is setting myself up for a failure, or setting an unobtainable goal or otherwise self sabotaging. This year I am going to break tradition and prescribe some clear and concise plans for 2010. My primary goal for the new year is to improve my income and establish myself and my business in a substantially more profitable manner and to continue to move toward a more healthy and active lifestyle.
I want to find more time to paint, although I am hesitant to say that because last year I promised to find more time to blog, yet I actually blogged less than the year prior. I want to spend more time with watercolor and work on my blending technique with oils. I want to be able to paint more abstractly and let go of that need for control of every single detail. Yes, I know I tend to be a control freak. I'm working on that too.
I want to see my marriage continue to flourish in the new year, and that means a dedication to it and a commitment to nurturing that relationship between the Wifester and I. I never want to take for granted the love and adoration that we share.
I want to make sure that I continue to cultivate other relationships in my life, too. Like with my nieces, for example. I am committed to spending more time getting to know them better as people, and not just as those two kids that I sometimes see.
I miss knowing my cousins, too. I alienated myself from everyone for so long that I hardly know them anymore, not that I knew them all that well to begin with.
I am committed to maintaining a fully organic diet both for the Wifester and I and for our pups.
And again, I am determined to spend more time with my blog, and even have plans to revamp it and redesign it.
I know you've heard that before, and I can certainly understand any skepticism, but I feel that after I've completed school this year, I'll have much more time to commit to these things.
So, that's about it, in a nutshell.
What are your plans for the new year?

Christmas Chaos

My head is spinning. It's that pre-Christmas, final exams, too many papers to write, baking holiday goodies and preparing-for-a-trip mania that just creates havoc and chaos in my life.
I don't like havoc and chaos.
I tried to leave them behind years ago, but sometimes they creep back into my life like a nasty mold creeps into the crevasses of an untidy bathroom.
Speaking of untidy bathrooms...there's another thing on my list that has yet to get checked off.
The arrival of our new puppy, Sally Sue, joyous and beautiful as it may be is also a very strenuous and anxiety inducing event that quite frankly, has been more stress than I anticipated.
The Wifester pointed out that as much as the Sunny Dog is her four-legged twinkie-twin, so is Sally-Sue a K9 version of me.
Case in point: Sunny Dog doesn't get too excited about much of anything. Except food. And naps. And she's really just content to be in the house, resting comfortably atop a pile of pillows, preferably on the bed.
Now, substitute "Sunny Dog" with "Wifester" and it all still holds true.
Likewise, Sally Sue is quite boisterous and easily excitable. She's a little loud, definitely an attention seeker, and curious about every little thing. She has to investigate every nook and cranny, sniffing, licking, pawing and biting at any and everything she can get her snout or paws on.
Just like me.
She really is my dog.
I fully believe it is precisely this similarity to my own self in her that drives me absolutely nuts.
Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world, except maybe a fully trained and no longer teething/chewing version of the very same puppy. Since that is simply impossible, I'll take her as is.
I will also take a Valium with her, please. Thank you.

Today I have an especially complex dilemma. I have 10 pages of a 12 page paper remaining as of yet, unwritten. I have an entire 8 page paper that has not a single word. And I have over 40 dozen Sunny Dog Snacks to bake in order to fill the open orders pending for my shop.
I don't know where to begin. I suppose the dog treats need to receive priority, since those are paying customers, but at the same time, I feel this sinking feeling that I am falling further and further behind every minute I don't devote to school.

Oh well, blogging about my woes and stresses isn't going to solve anything, nor is it going to get me any closer to completion of any one of these tasks on my list, other than "catch up on blog."
I guess I better fire up that oven and get to baking.
If anyone feels like swinging by and rolling out some dough with me, gimme a shout.

Grandma Appropriate Art

The Wifester told me her Grandma requested a painting for Christmas.
That's sweet that she wants one, but I'm thinking how do I make sure to get something of quality done and dried before CHRISTMAS? I do my best with oils, but there's no way that'll dry in time...
Before the thought can even finish crossing my mind, The Wifester chimes in with,

"No naked mermaids with big, buxom breasts hanging out OK? It's for Grandma, so think flowers, not Jesus hanging from hypodermic syringes, you got that?!"

Really? Does my darling Wifester really not trust that I know how to make a Grandma appropriate painting? Hurumph.

I guess I better get off of here and into that studio room...Where's my acrylics?