Product of Spain

Clementines. My co worker has been bringing three of these golden orbs to work with her lunch each day and I have been wanting some of my own. I bought a box on Tuesday (along with some 48 cents a pound bananas). Yesterday, my clementine had about 30 seeds. Today's- not a one. How does it decide?

The roofers are here removing snow from the roof. It's a very loud and busy job. Riley was outside with them until it got a bit "too" busy because they have staging, buckets of nails and other things where a dog will get into trouble. Now, he's watching from inside. I don't know what they are going to do. But they just removed one of the blue tarps and the sun is shining in. So happy to see you, Sunshine!

G and I argued and yelled last night, trying to get the unattractive tree I bought to stand straight in the stand. Not going to happen. So the stand now has shims under one side. I'm going to call the tree the "Flat Stanley" tree. It looks great from one side and this must have been the side I looked at during the purchase. The other sides are flat. Sort of like a pencil skirt. Hugging the butt. And the butt of this tree is flat. I am facing the "good" side toward the door, where people may come to look at the tree, and the flat sides will be what I see, every time I look at the tree from my seat on the cozy red slipcovered couch. I could change my mind and turn it so I see the good part and everyone else (if there are any) sees a really ugly tree. And I paid money. This isn't something I cut down in the woods.

I'll be adding lights this evening. While watching Survivor. Is Russell going to do something stupid? On WW yesterday, Mrs Lanahan bought a new car and was killed by a drunk driver. I hadn't seen this episode before.

I listened to a podcast with Roz Stendahl yesterday, moderated by Rice Freeman (who has a very irritating voice and laugh). Roz had a number of good things to say to me. Stop whining. Stop wanting the universe to send you what you want instead of working for it. Write down how you spend your day (in 15 minute increments) for a month. See how much time you waste. And think about how you work. This was interesting as none of the work I do (art wise) needs to be done in one session. I can do a bit here and a bit there. So if I had a project "on the table", or even two or three, I could wander in and do 5, 10 or 15 minutes work while cooking, doing laundry, making the bed, ironing etc. through my day. Even a watercolor painting. do a wash and walk away. This would even be a better way for me to paint as I mess things up by going too fast.

Roz also talks about paying attention to how your brain works. There's a spot in the brain where an idea can settle and bring to your attention anything resembling that idea. Her example was a Mustang car. Get the idea in the right spot in your brain and suddenly you will be "seeing" Mustangs everywhere. They were always there, but your brain didn't know you wanted to notice them. This is exactly what happened when I got the idea for the Christmas Cards while sitting in the left turning lane. I had put the thought (I need an idea) in the right spot in my brain and it sorted through everything and the idea popped up. And I had everything I needed for the cards. Norfolk pine seedlings, colored pencils, smooth paper that took pencil beautifully and a paper cutter and pencil sharpener. But my brain knew all that.

I apologize for the depression post. I am trying to do better at keeping the blog upbeat. But yesterday was a very bad day. Until the podcast and then it turned out to be a very good, productive day.