When happiness glimmers, Isaac’s birthday, and the final days of the birthday sale!

“Think of all the beauty that is still left around you and be happy” Anne Frank

I hope you’re in the midst of a wonderful  morning / week. Over here, the past few weeks have been so disorienting.

Isaac started to get sick on May 24th and it very quickly became clear that we were in for quite the ride. He’s never been sick before and whatever virus this was hit very hard, to the point where we’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office for everything from high fevers to pink eye to an ear infection, he’s still not fully better 2 weeks later, and Eric and I are still recovering as well.

Here’s how we’ve spent a lot of our time recently:

I’m going to feel immensely grateful for our health when it returns. In the meantime, we’ve tried to find pockets of happiness as we can, such as quietly celebrating Isaac’s 1st birthday at the beginning of the week.

I can’t believe he’s 1!

I put together a compilation of the rest of his monthly photos, which are SO fun to see all together. It’s also fun to see the sticker project come to life, which began when Isaac was close to 2 months old and Eric challenged me to make my own monthly stickers. Challenge accepted!

Happy birthday, sweet boy! Thank you for the happiness you bring, as well as the challenge – you push me to be a better person every day. We love you endlessly.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The birthday sale is live for only a few more days!

Even in the midst of our crazy sickness, I’ve been so happy to send out a number of paintings into the world during the sale. Here are some of my favorites:

It thrills me down to my toes to see the paintings I love head off to good homes.

If you love both original art and a good sale, head over to my shop and see what’s available.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

We’ve been doing our best to slowly return to life, and for me that means returning to art-making! I began sketching out a new painting the other day during a rare boost of energy and I’m pretty excited to see where it goes.

It’s another larger wood panel – 16 x 20.

Here’s a small glimpse into the new world I’m dreaming about. More to come!

In other art news, I’ve also had a flurry of note cards to prep recently and I love to see what cards people choose when they create their own sets. Here’s a recent example:

This is one of my favorite recent photos. Here I am printing note cards up top while Isaac rearranges my ink supplies down below:

Sometimes all it takes is compiling pictures like this to see that while life has felt endless and exhausting over the past few weeks, there’s been happiness and beauty and memory-making mixed right in.

That’s a helpful reminder, especially as we’re still not feeling like ourselves yet.

In the spirit of seeing the good, here’s what I’m hoping for you this week: may you feel the happiness and beauty in your own life, even if it’s only a glimmer during an otherwise very long day.

Those little glimmers really do add up. And in the meantime, goodness do I hope you’re feeling healthy, friends! I really do.

With love,