I received a generous birthday gift card from my brother and sister-in-law to Michaels, the craft store. They're now open again, so I took a field trip this afternoon to explore and shop. I wanted to stock up on threads, beads, baubles (sequins, buttons, etc.) and...
I've been so enamored of my newfound art - penny rugs - that I felt compelled to list what's making me so happy. In doing so, I realized that this applies to YOUR passion as well. Take the test, and let me know how you do. You can't wait to get to work on your...
I vividly remember a photo of NYTimes cooking columnist Mark Bittman making gorgeous food in his tiny NY kitchen. The image came back to me while feeling nostalgic for the drawers, cabinets and shelves of the large CT art studio I abandoned over 10 years ago....
...said Gabrielle Hamilton, chef/owner of Prune restaurant in the East Village, last night on a zoom talk for the McNally Jackson bookstore. She was in conversation with the Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Cunningham while over 200 people listened in,...
There's a saying in the rooms of recovery that 'your disease is doing push-ups' while you're in there working on sobriety, abstinence, solvency or your form of mental and spiritual well-being. Translated, if you choose to go...
I credit Wayne Dyer with the quote, "You get treated in life the way you teach others to treat you." He was my first guru starting in the early 80's. It was back then that I began to question my upbringing for the first time. I began to note how that upbringing...
There's a sign in my building's elevator reminding residents that today, May 5, is #protectallworkers day, a shout-out to the front line people, beyond medical workers, who are keeping us functioning, one day at a time. Each night at 7pm there is a cacophony of...
When I concentrate on my personal progress, the difficulties over which I have no control will iron themselves out. That was a sentence in my daily reader yesterday that could not be more apropos for April 2020. I'm always reminded in the Serenity Prayer to accept...
I was encouraged this morning reading Madeleine Albright's Op-Ed piece in the Times, Resilience in the Face of Disaster, particularly Bill Clinton's quote, "the quiet miracle of a normal life." The more routinely I go about the day's tasks, the more normal I feel...
I was speaking to a friend this morning who expressed her upset at the way the man she shares space with vacuumed the living room rug. In other words, It wasn't her way. Instead of advising her, I shared a recent experience that felt like a similar loss of...
"It's our job as creatives to put good stuff back into the world," Laurie Klein, my friend and creative guru, declared during our virtual zoom dinner this evening. Although we hadn't spoken in a few years, I received an invitation to and attended Laurie's "virtual...
For most of my career, as I've given advice to the self-employed, I've urged delegating, particularly in the arena of the home. Let go of laundry, cleaning and other jobs someone else can perform at a lower wage. That way you can put your best talents toward the...
The only thing that didn't get canceled recently was a Penny Rug class I'd signed up for months ago at the Guilford Arts Center in rural Connecticut. My good friend, Liz Alpert Fay, was instructing, and I'd easily convinced two other close friends to join...
There's a heart-warming and affirming documentary on Netflix called Harold and Lillian that will inspire movie fans as well as creatives who love what they do. Its subtitle, A Hollywood Love Story, tells you about the unusual marriage of two major contributors to...
I've enjoyed taking note of my friends' and colleagues' well-considered Word of the Year in the past, but had never participated. Hearing their successes and how having a specially selected unit of language impacted them throughout 365 days motivated me to consider...
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