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Nice illustration. You really got as great sense for colours

very cute!

Sweet Illustration. The texture and transparencies are really nice touches.

Another fun illo Chud. I Like it.

Nice Bunny design... flower, too!

Sweet little character design. Nice work.

What a happy and energetic little guy! Nice work Chud!

fun character design, love the line flow.

Just passing by.Btw, you website have great content!

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Making Money $150 An Hour

This is pretty sweet. Great texture and line work.

a coherent image, superb!

What a great reminder, Mary! Negative thinking does indeed bring us down. As Napoleon Hill wrote so many years ago, "The subconscious mind makes no distinction between constructive and destructive thought impulses. It works with the material we feed it…The subconscious mind will translate into reality a thought driven by fear just as readily as it will…a thought driven by courage and faith."

Good idea to quit complaining. I've noticed that complaints rarely change anything, except one's own mood, but an attitude of gratitude can.

It's important to channel what we see as going wrong with the world into clear critical thinking and action, which, is, yes, of a different nature than complaining.

In our private life, the complaint habit within ourselves and with others can be destructive and is good to counter with habits of gratitude and forgiveness.

I'm running a poem of the day this month for National Poetry Month as part of my bit to make the world a more beautiful place.

Janet Riehl
www.riehlife.com

I totally agree that we need a complaint free world! I try everyday to be thankful rather than complain. You go girl!
Bubbles

Glad you agree, Janet H. and Janet R. I'm going to really, really try to stop being no negative! I'll check out your poems, too, Janet R.

Thanks for leaving a comment, Bubbles! Good to see you here!

This is very interesting. I love the bracelet because it's a visual reminder.
But I think I disagree with this premise, if I understand it correctly. I don't think complaining is bad. In fact, I think if you're living a balanced life, it's a good indication that you feel your boundaries are being violated in some way.
I would rather try to redirect energies toward thinking of the good things than totally discounting the bad things.
I guess I'm sensitive to this for personal reasons, but I think it's okay to complain. But maybe the difference is semantics. I think it's terrible to whine. When someone whines, they're kicking their blessings away.
Okay, I'll stop now.
Can my bracelet be a different color? I don't like purple.
;-)

Good point, Chris. In fact, psychologists have made that point, too.

I'm realistic enough to know that I will NEVER give up complaining all together, however, I'd like to get to a point that it isn't occupying most of my life! If this bracelet just serves as a reminder to "pick my battles," I'll be happy.

Just one more thing---folling the philosophy of a good man---"I'd rather be kind than right."
bubbles

Duh! the word was following--can't type either!
B

"--can't type either!"

If you had a bracelet, Bubbles, you'd have to switch it with that remark! :-)

LOL! Love the dog and the bracelet is a great reminder of our daily karma quotient - if you can remember what you wearing it for! tk read

I'm a big believer - in theory at least - in having a positive attitude. That's the secret to dealing with people, parenting, team work and even writign success.

I'm intrigued that Lisa Yee says she blurbed EMMA-JEAN LAZARUS FELL OUT OF A TREE because it "deserves to be read". What if it didn't have a blurb? Would people have turned it over and thought to themselves "oh, nobody would blurb it -- not worth reading"?

Blurbing is branding -- part of the marketing plan. I recently went through this getting-a-blurb business for the first time, and I will say that most of who-should-blurb-it discussion revolved around who knew whom and people who might owe other people favors.

Now possibly this is saying something about my book (and I will be leaving my name off this one). But maybe it reflects something about the business. Does a blurb really mean anything? Or is it just something to be "got"? What if you don't know the right people? And your agent and editor don't either?

In the end, I did get a lovely blurb, from a writer I admire terrifically. So now the blurb has replaced the book excerpt that used to be on the back cover of my book. But does the average kid-in-the-library really getting a better idea of what the book is about?

That's what I liked about the article I linked to. In the end, some people think it's only the biggest possible names that make any difference. The Neil Gaimans of the world. To my mind, it doesn't really make any difference to the kids, but to the reviewers it may affect whether or not they pick up a book for consideration. If I see Tamora Pierce has blurbed something, I may be more inclined to give it a once over. Mind you, that isn't to say that I haven't read a blurbed book by someone I admired in the past only to finish the novel and then say to the blurb afterwards, "Really? Really really?"

Yes, exactly. The whole process can put both the blurbers and the blurbees in difficult positions. Typically an author agrees to blurb a book before he or she has read it -- obvious problem there! What if there is nothing nice to say (in this one writer's opinion)?

And what if the author goes ahead and writes a lukewarm blurb? I know of at least one situation where a big-name writer took the time to blurb a book but the blurb itself was, shall we shall, underwhelming. Now everyone is uncomfortable. Should they use it? Can they just toss it after this person has done them such a favor? Was this the big name's way of saying "No, I can't really blurb this book after all?"

I guess the bigger question is, should writers be mixed up in this at all? If others are doing it, can new writers afford NOT to? It's a sort of prisoners' dilemma.

-- still me.

And now, oh irony of ironies, I've just been informed that for the very first time I'm going to be blurbed on the back of Ralph Fletcher's, "Moving Day". I just found out 3 seconds ago. Kismet. They asked my permission too, which is just darling.

Always keep in mind that a blurb is free advertising for the blurber. It's in his best interests to like the book to get his names on it cover where that other author's readers will see it. The blurber's name recognition goes up on someone else's dime.

If the blurbee has a track record, I prefer to see quotes from reviewers of her earlier books.

What this tells me is that your name recognition and reputation are growing by leaps and bounds, Betsy!

Nah. But they're mentioning NYPL, which DOES have name recognition and reputation. I'm-ah gonna be the next Anne Carroll Moore, I is.

Speaking of who owes whom a favor, I just noticed that Ann Brashares blurbed Jodi Lynn Anderson's book PEACHES.