I just broke a major personal taboo: I skipped and skimmed my way through a novel. Gasp!  (Those of you with truly exotic piercings and kitchen appliance fetishes are rolling your eyes about now…)  I’ve always been a reader, and I’ve felt it part of the Reader’s Code that if you start a book, you [...]

It’s getting to be downright embarrassing how much I have to learn from three-year-olds.  Despite having about as large a vocabulary as my dog, these kids have Yoda moments more often than I’m comfortable admitting.  I used to teach art to pre-K kids, with the emphasis being on process art.  In process art settings, the [...]

We all have our images of a perfect life, don’t we? Maybe it’s living in New York, eating all kinds of amazing food, and catching the latest shows on a whim. On the other hand, maybe your ideal life involves sitting on a rocking chair, watching the wind blow by, and having endless hours to [...]

I’ve had quite a dilemma the last few months. I have dozens of things I want to accomplish, and none of them are much further along than they were weeks ago. I want to sew myself a number of new pieces for my wardrobe, get down some first drafts of kid lit that’s running through [...]

Friday’s not the time to be morbid, but let’s face it: someday we’ll all be going off to the big Container Store in the sky. How do you want to be remembered? What three traits would you want people to associate you with when it was all said and done?
For me, I’m thinking:

Kindness
Optimism
Subversive silliness

I want [...]

photo credit: Anders Ljungberg
Most people who embrace simplicity agree that it’s its own reward. Still, I enjoy setting goals and rewarding myself. Whether it’s for a project completed, a hard day completed, or a financial goal, a reward is a great way of marking successes. So today, I’d like to know how you reward [...]