I miss Picasa. It could be such a pain about some things, but it was perfect for making collages with a ton of photos. I haven’t found anything better for them to replace it.

So here’s February, made by making several smaller collages and collaging them together in Fotojet. I had to trim some of the pictures to fit in this space, but you get the idea. February was insanely warm towards the end, which was lovely and disconcerting all at once.

And February was my birthday month! I turned 38! It’s been a great month. I hit my stride for the new year, and we’re settling into a pretty great routine with working at home and keeping H busy in the afternoons. I’m getting through a lot of great audiobooks while I drive her to therapy, hit the gym, and work in my studio. I’m trying, TRYING, to get to a place where I’m filling my head with more art than politics, more inspiration than worry. Spreading the word about authors and books that deserve attention, and figuring out how to use my own art to speak for me. It’s a slow process, but we’re getting there.

As worried as I still am about the world in general, personally I realized this month how fulfilled I feel. I love my work, my kid is thriving, we’re inching towards our tenth wedding anniversary in May. Happy as ever. My studio finally feels like I’ve got it flowing the way it needs to flow. I’m reading more. Tackling fun projects with H.

I’m obsessed with my book club. We’ve moved to Goodreads this year, away from our old email list. And I’m still figuring out the kinks to keep everyone involved and informed, but I love having that space to talk about books and only books, with people from all walks of life. It’s a beautiful thing, and it makes my heart happy to know it exists.

I can feel new projects and goals starting to build for the coming year. I mean, I know it’s already March, but this year has been a slow crank to get the year rolling. Now it’s rolling, and I’ve got 10 months left, and good things are afoot.