Often when I'm working, I listen to This American Life. This week's show turned out to be a foreshadowing of today's huge tornado in Oklahoma. This is SO worth a listen, please listen. 

Just for the record all of you Stephanitly come latelys...The original Stephanitely (me) has has the name officially since 1998...

My agent at Red Fox Literary, Abi Samoun , has written a couple of books that are being published the traditional way, but this one is something different- She and illustrator, Elizabeth Haidle , are creating this crowd source funded book about Nikola Tesla. 

On Being.

Premier Automne (2013) from Carlos De Carvalho on Vimeo.

I will be signing Princess Posey books at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival on April 20th here.  I'll post more reminders as the date gets closer. 

A sublime collision of deadlines. I was looking at the current projects on my drawing table and thinking how different they all are. One is a lot ore edgy than I have ever taken my work, one is younger than I have ever taken my work,  one is another Princess Posey book and another 2 are a new series featuring an entirely new style...4 distinct styles on 4 distinct projects. I used to worry about that- having too many styles, but it's a funny thing- when I get a project or write a book- it seems that each story/series/book wants a different style. Somewhere in them all is a common thread. 

Today Fred is out front working on the front yard- a space so neglected in the past that we received a note from the city saying that our treeless, shrubless yard was a fire hazard (some bored  person with no life complained about the length of our lawn)... Just what was going to catch on fire is still a mystery, but anyways, Fred has been doing some serious landscaping out there. 

We were talking this morning about that thing inside of people/animals that makes them unique an creative and gives them a vision/drive...We were talking about people we have known who have lit that on fire and created amazing things and those who let the fire go out and now blame everyone for it and can't seem get their footing despite a multitude of tried to help them do that...

CASSINI MISSION from Chris Abbas on Vimeo.

So why are we celebrating this person? He killed over 800 people- hundred of them...So St. Patrick- Icky Poo. Funny who people choose to celebrate...

My morning today: woke up, made coffee, fed fish, removed blanket from parakeets' cage, fed parakeets (Coco and Carl), watered garden, listened to npr morning edition while beginning this morning's paintings, took bath. My baths for the past week or so have been long. I put a few drops of lavender oil into the hot water, get a tall glass of water and a cup of coffee, turn on the audio book The Fault of Our Stars and soak. Today I finished the book and I have to say it was brilliant and felt so real an non-contrived. There was a scene in the book where the main characters go to Amsterdam. The description of the setting made me remember how much I love to travel- the other worldliness of it.

So- what did I do to celebrate? Bought a size 6 bikini- that's what. 

The art of healthy eating requires a lot of knowledge and a willingness to devote energy to preparing food. We try so hard to make good choices- eliminating anything white, eating organic- especially for the foods that have a high pesticide and herbicide load (like apples) and making food using only ingredients that grandma would have recognized.  YOu see something like this movie and you realize, how much the decks are stacked against consumers. 

So, the frustrating thing is that even if you eat this great diet, you find out that the couch is full of flame retardants, or that you sleep on a toxic mattress or that the water you drink contains antidepressants and plastics...ugh.

This movie is well worth watching. Especially the part about how much sugar kids get in things like milk - not chocolate milk, just regular...shocking. No wonder our population is so unhealthy. 

The kicker is that our tax monies subsidize this unhealthy yuck- yet, healthy foods not only have to compete with loads of advertising, but also chemicals that don't have to be listed that have various effects on the brain and the big corporations get our tax money. People eat the "food like products" and get sick, then the pharmaceutical companies get their cut, then the insurance industry- it is all really, really disgusting. 

I just heard this totally psycho "allergy testing" method- someone we know actually did this and believes it-  Can you say, "The Secret"?? I think that guy from "The Secret" book went o jail for murder, didn't he?? 

Today, a local landmark opens it doors for the last time...in it's place this. Laurel and Hardy attending the opening of this theater.