Happy 2026!

Happy Saturday friends!

Ok, it's the new year and I am excited! I am working on manifesting a fabulous year and I keep seeing these:

(Haha, if you've had that chestnut mare, you know!)

These did make me laugh! But! I have enough trouble fighting that outlook after the last few years I've had and I'm reeeaaaalllly trying to keep a positive mental attitude. Speaking of which, if you know of an amazing IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapist, I'm looking.

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We had a little "event" here the day after Christmas:

Luckily it wasn't on our farm but the farm next door that backs up to Hwy US 1. Brad saw the smoke, called the neighbors (who were at home, not at the barn) and he and I drove up to the upper pasture to start moving their horses out. Luckily the firefighters had it under control when we got there. Fence damage but that was it. Turns out a car was dragging something on the highway, which caused sparks, which caused dry pine needles to catch fire and it raced up the hill. That caused a bit of PTSD for us.

If you're new here, we had our own fire in our house one year ago on January 2nd, 2025. Crazy that a year has gone by already. I have said a thousand times and will continue, Prepared Hero Fire Blankets kept our whole house from going up in flames. In honor of our 1 year anniversary, I made a video where I talk about the story and how those fire blankets helped.

During the cleanup and remodeling that happened after the fire, one of the workers bumped our clawfoot tub in the master bath. When the final cleaners came though they cleaned that tub and water went everywhere because the bump had moved it off it's pipe. So, panic from our general contractor and us, but it didn't reach the hardwoods thank God. They had a plumber come in and fix it and that was that.

Or so we thought.

Brad kindly scrubbed his bathroom (I don't use that bathroom anymore) from top to bottom as a surprise for me so I could take a bath in that fabulous tub:

Much happiness! I was reading away for about an hour, hearing this dripping sound. But I have this special plug that keeps the water, or most of the water from running out the overflow drain at the top. When you use it, you get a few more inches to sink into. So I figured the dripping was from that overflow drain, it has a 2 foot long vertical pipe it drains into. I wasn't trusting it and kept looking over the backside of the tub where all the plumbing was but didn't see a darn thing. 

Then Brad called from the store and said the hot water heater in the lower garage had turned itself off (he has an app hooked to it) because there was water near it, which means something was leaking...

I looked over the backside of the tub...nothing...

I looked over the other side of the tub, the side I hadn't looked at that entire time I was in the tub (ohmygod, just inexplicable) and was confronted with a sea of water.

Nooooooooo

Tried to get out of the tub so fast that I slipped and splooshed back down, adding to the water on the floor. So, as safely as I could, I got out and carefully ran my wet self through the house looking for a million towels. Thank goodness it hadn't reached the wood floor in the hallway!

I wanted the plumber to come back to fix it so Brad didn't have to but he said he would rather fix it right this time and he already had ideas about what he would do differently.

Never a dull freaking moment here.

THE RANCH:

The herd has been busy soaking up sun and relaxing:

Jaffe has been busy being Eeyore:

And another day:

Which I'm LOVING. I can't get enough and I think he's enjoying making me laugh!

The Duchess of Cashmere continues to integrate into the herd in new and wonderful ways:

I've never seen the ponies allow anyone to share their hay bag before!

A SUPER unflattering pic of me but look at her! I was with a client and she took turns hanging her head over ours. It was lovely.

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Brad has been busy with various farm chores like:

Haaaa!!! I looked out the window one day, and there he was, cruising around the pond! It took me a minute to realize he was taking the new aerator out into the pond. See the bubbles?:

If you remember, we were having an issue with algae, ew. The aerator is currently being run with a small air compressor just as proof of concept. In just a few days the weird mat of yellowish floating grossness that was moving around the pond with the wind, has almost disappeared and the clarity of the water is improving! WOW! Now Brad is waiting for the parts to come and he will make a solar version.

He's also fixed this gate that has been a nightmare since we bought the place, requiring us to lift it off the ground every time we opened it. Now it swings free AND inward toward the stock, which is the correct direction: 

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I didn't post our annual Christmas morning pic last week so here you go! 

Every single one we took, ManChild looked exactly the same. Incredible.

While I did this:

And this:

And Lucy, who is her mother's daughter did this:

Not even sure how she managed that one!

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Looked out my bathroom window and saw this sweet scene. Brad had let Sweetness out while he was doing chores one morning:

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I was driving the other day and saw this fabulous sky:

And finally, I was playing around on ChatGPT because it said it had a new thing, it could take a pic of your pet and turn it into a human. A human, not a human/animal hybrid. Cool. Let's see!

First I put my brother's Penelope in, wearing this super stylish scarf while out doing errands, of course:

The prompt it had natively, I didn't write it, said: 

Using the uploaded photo of my pet, reimagine them as a human while preserving their personality and recognizable traits. Translate key physical features such as fur color, markings, eye shape, expression, and overall vibe into human characteristics like hair color, hairstyle, facial structure, skin tone, and clothing style. The human should feel like a natural, believable person, not a caricature, with a realistic face and proportions. Maintain a consistent mood and personality (e.g., playful, calm, regal, goofy) that clearly reflects the original pet. Give them an outfit that reflects their personality. Use realistic lighting, natural textures, and a clean, photorealistic style.

Ok, so, I'm expecting a real looking person right?

Then I did Lucy, here's the pic I used:

Same prompt gave me this:

I said, "Oh come on now, you KNOW that isn't a human! Try again!" And it gave me the same guy's body with a girl's head:

Ok, not bad. I then described her as a hiker/climber that lived in Boulder, CO:

LOL, that looks about right!!

Needless to say, it's not taking over the world YET ;-)

Just for fun, I had to use the pic of Jaffe above, sitting Eeyore style and it gave me this:

Snort. It's too much! 😂

HERE'S HOW TO PLAY WITH ME IN 2026:

On January 5th, 2026 you can join me in creating Vision Cards for the New Year, Year of the Fire Horse! We will be playing with easy mixed media techniques including collage, watercolor, pencil, acrylic inks and more to make a set of unique-to-you Vision Cards for you to write the highlights of the life you'd like to create in 2026! No experience necessary! This is a once a week class, running for four weeks (7:30-9:00pm ET every Monday night starting January 5th) and the total is $140.

This is what they looked like before writing my vision on them at the beginning of this year:

This is what they looked like done and in a pretty bag (which I'll mail to you):

Read more about this class here.

Click here to learn more or to sign up!

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In 2026 I'll be offering FREE Monthly Art Playdates!

January 10, 2026, 7:30-9:00pm ET you can meet me live on my FREE monthly art Playdate, no experience necessary! We'll be painting this funny little Tufted Titmouse, one of my favorite birds! We'll use simple shapes that we refine and lots of dots and swirls for fun. You can click here to join this live freebie!

February 9, 2026, 7:30-9:00pm ET come join me on my live FREE monthly Playdate to paint Poppies! No experience necessary! You can click here to join this live freebie!

My Wednesday Women's Circles continue to be full, please contact me if you'd like to be added to the waiting list. It's possible I will open another evening circle in the new year.

THE MEMES:

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This is an AI-free newsletter! While I love to use AI to help me figure out a piece of software I don't understand, my intention is to use it to help me with the drudgery, never with writing, art, creation. All em dashes are intentional and mine, I was using them way before ChatGPT was a twinkle in Sam Altman's eye :-)

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Thank you for reading :-)

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