Day 66, 100 Happy Days: Back to Business in Fresh New Studio

Me in front of one of my more recent paintings (still in progress).

Today was First Friday set-up day. Artists came and hung their work while I tore down my studio, and rearranged things. It was nice to get back to First Friday after a month long break. I've been doing First Fridays every month since June 2009, I believe. That is a lot of art openings!

Also, exciting to people hanging work in my freshly painted and slightly made-over studio.

It's looking great in there!

Day 65, 100 Happy Days: Kindness

http://www.gofundme.com/ArtGrabBag

If you're one of the few people reading this, chances are you already know how my mom got sick in 2013 and I couldn't work because I had to take care of her.

I was struggling to build my business, and my mom delivered Pizzas. We had no savings to fall back on. Asking for help has never been easy for me - or even much of an option. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so I took to the internet for help. I set up a crowdfunding page and asked for donations.

My community, their friends, and even a few people I didn't know donated money and kept us afloat for several months. They provided a safety net for us to fall into during those hard times. It was absolutely beautiful.
The one benefit to not having money is getting to see how supported you actually are.

So when my friend Colleen told me she couldn't find work and was facing eviction, I had to help. She was in a pretty bad situation, and seemed to be panicking. (Who could blame her?) She could hardly even afford food. I've been in that situation. Can't pay rent, can't eat. It's awful, and you can't think clearly when your stomach is empty and you fear you might be on the street soon. I have a lot of empathy for her.

So, I started a crowdfunding page to help. And I offered grab-bags of art for donations (mostly art that I'm donating). My goal is to get enough money for her to pay rent and some basic living expenses for two months. This will take off the pressure, and allow her to look for work.

I am thrilled to say that tonight we made the first goal, which is to keep a roof over her head for February! Her rent is $725 (+$75 late fee), and we're at $800! (Of course there are admin fees from the website and processing, so we're not quite there... but damn close.)

Kindness. Most of the people who have donated are from my community and don't even know Colleen. Some of them are struggling financially themselves. But they came together to help someone in a worse situation, and that is beautiful.

If you'd like to help out (and get a mystery bag of art), please visit http://www.gofundme.com/ArtGrabBag

Day 64, 100 Happy Days: A Hot Cup of Chocolate

This was the kind of day when the "to do" list grew bigger as the day went on instead of smaller.

It's 4am. I'm giving up on that damn list. It will still be there when I wake up.

This lovely cup of hot chocolate got me through the night. Or at least part of it. I was so happy to find that I had just enough mix to make one last cup. Ahhhh.... yessss. :)

Day 63, 100 Happy Days: Cutting Myself Some Slack

Today got of to a rough start. I got to bed super late last night, then was up after a few hours because of a bad dream, then realized I felt sick. No bueno.

So I got up and worked. Next thing I knew, the sun was up and the stairs outside my window were being shoveled. It was 7:30am and I had to be at a meet-up at 10am. That was NOT going to happen - especially since I had a 1pm class.

After going back to sleep for a few blissful hours, I woke up too late to properly prepare for class. Which naturally had me a bit stressed out. I allowed myself a few minutes of stress and being upset with myself, then I decided that I just had to let it all go. I had already missed my meet-up, and now I was going into class unprepared... life happens. In the mean time I'm doing the best I can.

And as it turns out, class was great. A bit less structured than it would have been, but, things work out. I'm fairly sure things wouldn't have worked out as well had I gone into the class stressed out.

I've become a fan of going easy on myself. Beating myself up has never worked. Treating myself kindly makes me happy.

Also, the frosty dusk. So beautiful...

Day 62, 100 Happy Days: Getting Perspective

"Precipice" ©Tabetha Hastings

I love it when I can get far enough from something that I can finally get some perspective. Seeing things in a new light, or from a new vantage point can be powerful. Especially when that thing is a life event that happened seemingly for no reason.

With enough time and life experience, I can usually look back and see how that experience changed my life for the better. It's hard to see the blessings when you're in the middle of a hard situation, but they are there, and you can find them when you look back. And that's exactly what I did today, and it made me very happy.