Angel/Healing energy

I’m migrating back and forth…this blog became a page on my site but because the integration could not happen the way I had wanted, it’s back on it’s own platform, yet still integrated into the site…but wait…the changes ARE forthcoming as I’ve now got Lauren, master PR/Marketing whiz, reworking both my website and my technology world.  She’s going to get me  in shape, once and for all…

I had a BIG crash 2 weeks ago that took me out of the loop of technology for a few days…thankfully it wasn’t as bad as it might have been both hassle, time and dollars wise.  April 4th is my daughter’s birthday.  She texted me early that morning with a photo of the exquisite necklace her very thoughtful boyfriend gave her for her birthday.  Wanting to connect and share in her happiness plus wish her Birthday greetings, I called her.  I was sitting at my desk.  My laptop open and on the desk.  My morning cup of Jasmine tea to the right of the computer.  Big Guy, my very loving cat, jumped on the desk and was poking around.  Normally I would have picked him up and thrown him off but I was engrossed in my conversation with Miss Em.  So I didn’t throw him down…before I knew it he had somehow knocked over my steaming cup of tea that poured right into my laptop.  You can imagine the words that flew out of my mouth (and I’ve been trying to give up cussing!).  I threw down the phone, grabbed the laptop and ran into the kitchen where I tried, in vain, to dry off my computer.  My towel wasn’t able to reach into the keys, however, and so the prognosis when I got to the Apple store/Genius Bar about 2 hours later was DOA.  They told me I’d have to completely have this computer restored OR buy a new one (this was 2 years old and you know how fast technology changes….).  Needless to say, I wasn’t breathing much my stomach in a huge knot.  They referred me to Lazarus, a place that restores hard drives, so I could recover my data.  Thankfully, William is an Angel sent from above and he just happens to work at Lazarus.  He reassured me he’d do the best he could and that not only was there a good chance he’d recover the data but he might be able to save the computer as well by getting it into his drying room immediately.  He called me continually with updates of his progress and by Friday, April 6th, I was able to pick up my computer…it worked…all the information was retrieved and all the programs working.  I did not have to reload any software or all my discs of artwork scanned or retrieve my quickbooks from my dropbox folder…it was all there!  Initially he thought I might have to use an external mouse as my track pad might have been damaged.  Even that came back.  The only malfunction came in one of my USB ports not working.  I’ll take that any day over getting a whole new computer.  You can bet that I went to Best Buy and purchased a “WD My Book” so I can now back up everything.  But really, if I had everything backed up and listened to Apple only, I would have been buying a new computer rather than realizing this one could be fixed.  God Bless William!!!

Besides the fact that I had William taking care of the very practical aspects of restoring data and computer, my computer was blessed with the Reiki energy of Michaela.  She is a very gifted healer and when she learned of my disaster she told me “not to worry, it would be OK”.  She promised to send it loving, Reiki energy throughout the day and night.  She told me how she had dropped her phone into a toilet.  Rather than panicking she did Reiki treatments on her phone for 2 days.  When she finally turned it on, it worked perfectly.  Between Angel William and Healer Michaela, I am now good to keep going with this lovely machine!!

Thank you Thank you to Both of YOU!!!!!!!

Rest of this post is a copy of what I had posted on my site when it was in transition.  I realized this post was missing, once this got back to the wordpress platform.  For historical purposes I wanted to make sure it was included so have reposted.

Blog update 3.29.12

Travel

Aspire to your Dreams has now migrated (traveled) fully into my Words and Watercolors website.  One of the reasons for moving my website over to a wordpress platform was for the ability to get my blog integrated into the site.  Obviously tweaking still needs to be done as the photos didn’t come along with the text and the background look is not quite what it could be.  Continue to watch for new looks.

Last week I traveled south to LA.  The trip idea began with my nephew’s wedding in LA on the 24th.  Once I realized I was traveling south, I thought it made sense to make an appointment with the company that asked me to do a commission for the Academy of Science in SF.  At the Atlanta Gift show I met with a woman who owns a company in San Diego called Event Network.  They manage the gift shops of various Science Centers, Aquariums, Zoos and Botanical Gardens across the country.  The woman had noted my illustration of the Conservatory in SF that I used in one of my cards and liked it.  Apparently the Academy of Science was looking for someone to do a painting of their building.  Based on my card, I got the chance.  I took many photos from many angles at many different times of day of the building, as I tried to capture how I might include all of what they asked for…the building, the “living” roof, the flora/fauna AND the Golden Gate Bridge (which you don’t see at all but this being a tourist destination they felt it good to have in the rendering).  So given all that, I was challenged with how to capture it all in a believable way.  With a few attempts at capturing the image, I found a watercolor block that was 16” long and 8” high.  That was what I needed to capture the lines of the long, low building.  The 3rd one I completed looked good and I took that with me along with a smaller one I had done to show just an excerpt of the building (the 3 banners to the right of the entrance).  Thankfully the person I’m working with liked it too!  Now I’m just on hold till they get back to me with what they might do with my work.  Fingers crossed that they will create a number of different products from my image!

In addition to traveling to San Diego, I popped in on the 4 Armstrong Garden stores that have my cards as well as had a great meeting with Dick Lahey, owner of Merrihew’s Garden’s, a delightful Nursery in Santa Monica.  Dick purchased my cards last fall from me after one of his employees saw me at the Far West Nursery Trade show in Portland, Or.  I love seeing the stores where my cards go and meeting people like Dick who sees great things for my cards!

I visited 2 Armstrong stores where each time I went up to the front cashier and said I was the artist of the cards and asked for the mgr, a customer heard me and came up to speak to me.  One guy shook my hand and thanked me for my cards!  He said he had bought one for his wife and she had cried when she read it!  She was ill (I think he must’ve purchased my Comfort card “for Greg”.)  At the Torrance store, a woman came over and told me she always buys my cards and loves them, in fact she picked up a birthday card to buy as we stood there talking. I felt both where Angels in human form sent to keep me motivated on getting my art out to the world…I am “enriching and inspiring” as my mantra states!