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Your mind effects the universe, and it also creates it. Your thoughts absolutely determine your reality. How you generally feel inside and what thoughts you generally carry in your head is what's going to keep coming at you.

David Horvath, creator of Ugly Dolls, on achieving goals.

Life is also very insistent when it needs attending to and easily distracts one from creative pursuits no matter how much one procrastinates ... :) I've had so much to attend to lately that I find myself slightly (or hugely depending on how I want to view it) blocked where art is concerned at the moment. So I've been fiddling around more with typography lately and this is one of the results.

I hand-draw into my sketchbook first now, as my tablet PC seems to have given up on me, and then scan the drawing in and polish it up in photoshop. After which I transfer it into Illustrator to fine tune the lines as it's the smoothest way of changing the colours on the letters if I wish to do so. 

I'm considering opening up a new store on zazzle devoted entirely to my play with fonts and type design, as they seem to be getting increasingly popular. It's also fun and almost as therapeutic as drawing, so I won't be giving up on it anytime soon. Cheers!

If I were one to make New Year's resolutions, I'd be a week behind. As it is, I'm one to make any-time-of-year resolutions, with certain restrictions:

• I won't make outcome-based resolutions ("I will lose weight"—a commonly made and almost as commonly broken New Year's resolution), only behavioral ones ("I will bike several times per week").
• I cut myself a lot of slack. ("If I bike five times per week, that's great. But if the weather's bad or my knees flare up, less is okay.")
• Whenever possible, they should be things I can enact immediately. ("The bike's sitting there. I can use it today!")
• I won't make resolutions based on "I shoulds," only "I needs" or "I wants." ("I feel better about myself, mentally and physically, when I exercise! I want to do that more often.")
• I won't make lists of resolutions. If I enact a resolution right away, there's no reason to write it down. And if it's important to me, I won't forget it.

I made a personal resolution, in December of 2005, to write at least one page in my notebook every day—something strictly behavioral and within my control. If I missed a day, I forgave myself but got back on the wagon immediately. I made the resolution not because of any external pressure but rather because I was unhappy with my lack of writing routine and lack of follow-through in my writing projects. I didn't wait for January 1 to arrive; I started right away. A year later, I had a novel manuscript to send out.

In the two years since, I've signed with an agent and finished another novel (not to mention worked on a lot of projects that will probably go nowhere). Finding a publisher, at this point, is largely out of my control. If there's any writing resolution to be made, it's to continue writing one page a day in that notebook of mine. Some days I can do much, much more. But even at my most uninspired, most depressed, and most busy times, I know I can write one notebook page. It's my anchor.

I really enjoyed Carol Grannick's column in this winter's Prairie Wind, "New Year’s Resolutions, Optimistically." She has many great things to say about making positive resolutions and coping with the emotions that accompany life's changes.

I appreciate Carol's talk of "normalizing" one's journey and feelings. This isn't a term I was familiar with, but I very much like the idea and know it's something I would like to work on. I tend to be very hard on myself in a lot of ways, force issues into black-and-white when they're not, and assign positive/negative values to my emotions. Carol says:

Moving forward is always full of obstacles and detours. Greet those obstacles and detours gently, with curiousity for the information they hold.

and:

Feelings are simply clues to your internal movement as a human being. You may have lots of different feelings as you move toward your goals. They are not good or bad. Greet them with interest (literally: “This is interesting. I am feeling ______”) instead of judgment, and they will come and go more easily.

Based on my own criteria, I can't resolve "to feel better about myself" (that's an outcome), but I'm resolving to change the way I approach obstacles and bad feelings. And I'm enacting it immediately. So mote it be.

This is interesting. I am feeling hopeful.

I'm starting off the new year right with this lovely calendar book personally signed by Delsie Chambon that I picked it up while at Silver Bella in November. It's so beautiful inside and has large areas in which to write in. I think I will use the areas to write at least 3 different things I am thankful for each day (with none being the same) for the entire year. This will really help me to focus on the positive this year. If you are struggling in life and cannot see the good in your day, try this process, it really works! Did you know that a person thinks an average of 79% negative thoughts and only 21% positive thoughts in a single day? That alone gives me reason to continually look on the positive side of things!

Unfortunately, the bug in my computer is not a positive thing. I am still struggling with this unknown bug even though my husband reformatted my entire computer right before Christmas. We think it came in an email so I spent the better part of 3 hours today deleting all emails and sent files in my Outlook today. Tonight I am still getting error messages. Because my computer is partitioned into so many sections reformatting is a huge process not to mention loading all the programs again. If I am away for a while again, you'll know why. If you are sending emails, please send them to my hotmail account; that will keep them from invading my home email again.

I'd like to thank all of you who have been so supportive of me in your positive notes, emails and comments on my blog, it really has meant so much to me and has inspired me to continue to grow creatively. I've also been able to get to know some of you on a personal basis as well which has been very special. To all of you, I wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

As American as______? What would you fill the blank in with? Ronald McDonald, Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker or someone we didn’t mention? Who do you think is the quintessential culinary icon that never lived? Below Andrew Smith, editor of The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink gives us some history behind these American icons. Please let us know in the comments who you favorite is! Be sure to check back on Thursdays throughout May for more great posts by Andrew Smith who teaches culinary history and professional food writing at The New School University, serves as Chair of the Culinary Trust and as a consultant to several food television productions.

A. Ronald McDonald
In 1963 a Washington, DC McDonald’s franchise invented the Ronald McDonald icon. Ronald McDonald appeared on national advertisements beginning in 1965 and the following year, Ronald McDonald became McDonald’s official spokesman. (more…)

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