Some Happy Things

I feel like I've done nothing but complain for weeks, so here's a few happy things on the horizon:

1. My brother is coming to visit at the end of the month (on his way to Dallas to visit another friend). I can't wait! We're going to see the elephant seals, go on a couple hikes, have a day in San Francisco, and make lots of fancy delicious food. We always have a good time and I'm really looking forward to it.

2. The new no-sugar plus exercise thing is working. I feel much less tired and happier in general. I'm going to try and keep this up until The Brother Visit (because I know we will need to make a dessert!) and then for another month after, at least. And then we'll see how I feel. I miss baking, but I'm going to try and replace it with art-making.

3. Speaking of which, I got a little spark today telling me that I'm ready to paint again. The creative muse definitely has her own rhythms... she needed a break, but now she's ready. I have a couple small projects to finish up and then I wanted to capitalize on OUAT3 and play with some new ideas. I have one more owl in my owl series in mind, but s/he might have to wait. I might even be feeling brave enough to try a larger canvas, which is exciting. Maybe. Let's not push it. (and to those of you who have asked if I'm going to sell prints, the answer is YES! I just need to figure out how to make the prints, and then I'll set up a little shop. Thank you so much for your interest!)

4. And some general happiness: our house is no longer freezing, now that the weather seems to have turned into genuine spring. Such a relief. Now I can finish unpacking. The spring weather is so wonderful. I'm noticing that the light here in Oakland is so much nicer than the light in Alameda. I think it has something to do with being on the water - Alameda gets a lot of glare, and my poor Oregonian eyes can't take it. I really do love our new digs.

And in bookish updates: am halfway through The Seance already, it's also really good. It reminds me of a book that was once on Reading Rainbow long, long ago... something about a gypsy, and a seance, and a head in a jar. Creepy! I love all that Spiritualism stuff. I read a good one by Sarah Waters, Affinity, a few years ago -- maybe that Victorian era ghost-story stuff will be my theme for October this year.

Oh, and speaking of good and scary, I found out that there is a BBC TV-movie production of The Woman In Black, which is supposed to be incredibly creepy. It was hard to find but a local rental place has it, and I'm going to try to watch it this weekend. I can't wait! Ghost stories are my favorite sort of spooky book/movie.