Being Sick in 2013 Was Not On My List of Goals

How is it, living in a nice humid, sub-tropical climate that I ended up with this cold? I am not good at being sick. And, my hubby is home sick too. That dastardly guy brought it home with him from Colorado, that's how I got it. I missed blogging yesterday due to the complete blockage of my sinuses and of aches all though out my body that sent me running to the Aleve and put me into bed by 8pm. Still, I managed to capture the sunrise yesterday and today, making it four days in the row I watched it rise and all four days it was so unique:

Sunrise 1.3.2013

I love that time of the morning. Coffee in my hand and all the birds are active, but the rest of the world is not. Today a flock of Ibis, a Seagull and a Hawk all flew overhead while the grackles sang their dawn song with extreme gusto. And lo and behold, today two neighborhood cats were sitting under a bush watching it rise with me. I could only get a quick snap from far away as the closer I tried to move, they got in their ready-to-bolt stance so I let them be as I enjoyed having company to view the sunrise:

Sunrise 1.4.2013

I have managed to keep up with my daily journal each day so far despite being sick. My goal is to keep it up for as long as I can this year. Here is a snippet containing my new hat again only this time in colored pencil:

Daily Journal

And, I was notified that I won second place ($90!) in a holiday contest I entered! It was this cute image of my elf making gingerbread that won:

Santa's Little Helper

Also, despite being sick yesterday, I grabbed words from my word box (yes, I am a collector of words!) and put them in my mixed media journal:

The Word Box

By the Light of the Moon

Another goal I have stuck to so far this year is cleaning out my archives by processing one photo a day. I have been working on pictures from 2009 and 2010:

Confetti Web

Beachy Selfie

Eat Your Peas!

See, yesterday was not a complete bust! And today, well, I'm blogging and that IS being creative, right? Looking back on the last 24 hours I'm amazed at what I accomplished despite feeling so horribly bad. Of course, there were a couple of goals that went out the window...clean eating and gardening! Sometimes, you just have to have a chocolate frosty from Wendy's. ;-)

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January 1st, 2013

It started out with a beautiful sunrise...the morning light brought forth the dawn song from a plague of Grackles, who were flying back and forth across the lake, egging me on to capture them in a perfect composition on my little iPhone:

The first sunrise of 2013

My poor hubby spent the morning in bed suffering from a cold. Not a great start for 2013 but he still managed to find something good to write down and throw into our "best of" jar (see previous post).

While he coughed, sniffled and sneezed, I retreated from the germs and took refuge in my art room. I wrote and sketched in my 2013 art journal and worked on a graphic art piece that I started a couple of weeks ago. The piece is still a work in progress and I'm learning as I go but what fun it is!

Still in progress, I have yet to name the piece. I need to work on the background, the forest plants and add some details, like a butterfly or two. :-).

While I did art, Sami lounged in her new bed, soaking up the warm sunlight beaming through the window:

It's a lazy day at Casa George

One of the goals I've given myself for 2013 is to process one image from my archives everyday. I'm so far behind on processing pictures...four years worth sit in files on my laptop! Being a photographer means that I'll never catch up. I've accepted that but I can at least keep up with the images I take in 2013 and revisit one image from the archives each day. By the end of the year I'll have 365 images done! That seems doable. So here is the first one, taken in 2010:

Just One

This year, Lita and I are recording all our bird sightings each day on eBird. My count today:

50 Grackles

3 Painted Buntings (2 male, one female)

1 Palm Warbler

3 White-winged Doves

2 Mourning Doves

7 Muscovy Ducks

1 Northern Mockingbird

That's it! Day one of 2013 is done. A sore throat has come upon me as I write this (glares at sick hubby). Hopefully my creative train won't be sidetracked by an illness. Fingers crossed, knocking on fake wood.

Oh...and, pat on the back...I blogged two days in a row!

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