Aaaah. Yes, the morning regimen. This is how today will start, followed by a nice warm nonfat vanilla latte (I’m a damn fine latte maker, I am.). Welcome to “what’s going on in my head this week” edition #(fill in the blank because I’m not going to count). This entry is brought to you by the makers of ibuprofen {{hug for those people}}, the makers of multivitamins {{thanks for the supplements}}, and the fine pharmecutical companies who regulate my thyroid and the beat of the rhythm of the night heart (80’s flashback).

Whew, what a week. Eye candies for you, throwing paint for me. It’s all been good and fun and by the end of next week, all of those lovely underpaintings will be complete and I will be in a tizzy about only having three weeks left to paint pieces for exhibition. hehe! I love stress. Without stress, I wouldn’t need those half-a-pink-pills. And I would miss them dearly, because they’re so nice to me. Okay, I’ll be serious – my time in my studio with my canvas, paints, paintbrushes and John Mayer (okay, he’s scaring me a little with the whole poor judgement over the girlfriend thing, but as it goes in Hollywood – this too shall pass (like bad gas)). Where was I? Oh, yeah. I was right here. These things all combined make up the other half of that little pink pill that I don’t need. Life is good.

So about that exhibition. At the end of this month, I’ll be setting up paintings in a 16-foot wide by 5-foot tall space, and they’ll be on exhibit until the end of May. So pack up the kiddies and head to the middle of a cornfield and turn left, you’ll see a bridge. Cross it and turn left, and my paintings will be on the right. I hope those directions are clear enough, and I hope you can all attend.

My head is really spinning this morning with a bunch of random things, so I’m just going to blurt it all out. Those of you who know me are familiar with this tactic of mine, the one where you have to keep up and try to remember and figure out what I’m referencing back to when I’m 10 minutes past that topic. Get a pencil and take notes, if it helps.

* * * * *A very exiting thing happened this week, one where my most treasured piece was purchased by one of my most treasured clients and friend, MommaK. She had recently commissioned a painting (Sweet Ride of a GTO) for her Hubby for Christmas, which had to have been the nicest thing a gal can do for her hubby, really. It’s a guy thing. Next thing you know, she’ll have me painting pinup girls for his new garage. heh! That would be funny. I digress. But that would be funny. So MommaK has been in love with my Tribute to Vermeer : Girl With A Pearl Earring. Well, I can relate to that. I painted her because I’m in love with her, too, in an “OMG That is an unbelievably captivating woman and what an amazing and moving painting” sort of way. And also? I have a girl crush on Scarlett Johansson in a “she’s so beautiful and wow what a great actress” sort of way. (And holy cow, the movies she’s been in? I had no idea. Wow.) I can’t forget Johannes Vermeer, because he rocked the studio. What an inspiration.

Are you keeping up? Good.

So MommaK loves her, I love her, and I knew she kinda wanted her but c’mon, you guys all want my paintings. I’m awesome. :giggle, eyeroll & sticks out tongue: (find me that smiley) She’s been hanging in my living room since I painted her, but now? She’s gone. She’s being professionally captured so that I can have a stretched canvas giclee print of her. And you know what happened lastnight while my little Chickeymonkey was playing piano? She stopped and came to me and said “MOMMY! The girl is gone! Where is she!?” and she gave me a big pouty face when I told her that someone purchased her and she’s off having her picture taken so we could have a print. Then she ran off and played piano again.

I couldn’t have hand-picked a better home for her, though. Really. I know that she’ll get as much attention at her new house, and I couldn’t resist such an obscene amount of money. I sorta felt like Julia Roberts holding a bunch of cash in Pretty Woman giggling my fool head off and sinking down into a tub full of bubbles – all I could see were shoes. Seriously. (just one pair. don’t freak out, “obscene” is a relative word.)

Wow, that’s a bunch of words already. I’ve probably confused or at least upset over half of you, since you really just come to be eyentertained. (haha! I should trademark that word.)

So that whole thing, that’s was the neatest thing, and It’s really honestly been such a blessed week, and such a motivating week in a lot of ways. Elsie arrived at her momma’s house, and she sent me this note after she opened the painting:

I don’t even know what to say – the image on the website didn’t do the finished work justice. I swear I thought I could reach out and pet her… the detail of the fur was amazing, it looked 3 dimensional and so soft! And her eyes… it was so Elsie. Wow!!!

and then also my Lovebird paintings arrived and I received this:

I received the paintings this week! they are awesome! they are so lifelike and you have truly captured the personality of each little bird- can’t even imagine how you did it with those digital pics I sent you. thank you thank you thank you for your beautiful work! I am so happy!

Truly, I cry when I read these e-mails and I’m at a loss for words to reply that express my gratitude and humility. I really do my best to make that final scanned image right on to the paintings, but I know that you just don’t get the size thing, the real in person impact. So when I hear things like this from my clients, I bawl like a baby. This is how I impact you, through my paintings – and words like these is how you impact me. These are my little fortune cookies that say “Dear Leanne, keep doing what I tell you to do and you’ll be just fine. Love, God.”

Yeah. {{grabs more kleenex}}

So this all comes at a particularly strange time, and a perfect time. Tell me He doesn’t know what He’s doing. Things that have been going on here at home that ((sorry)) I’m not bringing to my blog because they’re passing, fleeting upsets that in the grand scheme of things are just small hurdles to jump. This week has resolved everything and I feel a sense of peace today (aside from the headache, which the ibuprofen has conquered since I’ve been writing this for like 2 hours already) that I haven’t felt since the beginning of December.

* * * * *Our girls, in a word, are amazing. Their school, in four words, is doing a tremendous job. I pulled them both out of public school and put them in a private Christian school this year and this past week were second semester report cards and parent teacher conferences. A little background on Chickeymonkey – she was in 1/2 day public “PREP” last year – and after being evaluated by a district child psychologist to enter kindergarten was told that she wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready after a year in Prep to enter kindergarten. Couldn’t do her ABC’s, was very shy, couldn’t count to 20, couldn’t write her full name, and absolutely no progress on math or reading. I enrolled her in this private school, they started her – in kindergarten – this past September – and by the end of January (about 5 months), she can read, spell and write her full name among other words and sentences, has basic math down, can tell time to the hour, counts to 100 and has a warm and fun social attitude in class. And she’s playing piano and reading beginning sheet music. Seriously.

Catybug – well her ability to read sheet music and play piano is insane. She’s kicking my butt on the only song I ever learned, and then some. Aside from one “B”, she’s a straight A kid in the 5th grade learning at a 6-7th grade level. It’s crazy how smart she is, and how when I (try to) help her study for tests, my head is spinning thinking “my kid is smarter than I am”.

I am so proud of our girls.

* * * * * 

Our taxes are done and filed. Amen. 

* * * * *I bought The Devil Wears Prada yesterday and watched it lastnight. Hubby said “that’s a chick flick” and teetered on the doorway for about 1/2 hour convinced that it was going to be stupid and girly before the flick sucked him right in and he got cozy on the couch. Heh. I love when that happens. It’s a GREAT movie. Really. Meryl Streep deserved the award she received for it and then some. If you haven’t seen it, you should – I’m pretty sure every woman who has ever entered the workforce can relate to this movie in a big way.

* * * * *I purchased this Couleur Experte stuff because honestly, I consider myself a color expert. I do. Apparently there’s a big difference between “color” and “couleur”, because orange is a great color – but not so much on my head. So off I went to pay someone to do what I hoped I could do myself. And now I feel so much better, that I have flecks of gold that match my eyes, instead of flecks of orange that made people think “has she just been in a pumpkin mashing and flinging contest?”. Why yes, I was. Me & L’Oréal had a go’round, and things didn’t work out as planned. I’ll stick with a simple single color box next time, thankyouverymuch.

* * * * *And that concludes the pouring out of the things inside my head. I must go fiddle with my new hairdo now and get ready to paint. I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned – stay cozy and warm ’cause baby, it’s f-f-f-f-f-freeeeeezing outside.