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Cloud formations in Los Angeles. Taken March 4, 2005 in Venice, CA.

I am all packed up and ready to head back down to LA this morning. Honestly I don’t feel like making the drive. It is a lovely drive, indeed, but my week has turned out to be fairly busy work-wise and I am eager to dive into all of my different projects. It is astounding how different I feel about living in LA now that we are in a home we love. Before we moved I was so antsy to leave LA every Friday, and every Monday as we pulled out of the driveway in Solvang I felt a tiny bit of sadness, wishing I didn’t have to leave. But now I am ready to get back down there and dive into work – because I can actually focus on work and enjoy it. I still love this peaceful valley, of course, but it is a relief not to feel like it is the only place that feels like home to me.

My challenge now is to manage my time as well as possible in order to create as much as possible. I have many different projects going on – new design clients, my book, a new series of illustrations, a new series of paintings and a painting a dear friend has commissioned me to do. I need to make sure my days are organized and focused or I risk becoming overwhelmed and scattered and then nothing gets done. When I start to go down the road of overwhelm, that is usually when I decide to go do something fairly useless, like buy shoes. Although I did get a pair of fabulous pumps with a leopard print on them last week. Perhaps buying shoes is not totally useless, but it certainly isn’t helping me accomplish anything on my to do list. Maybe I just need to adjust my to do lists now and then, and add "Buy a pair of hot shoes" once in a while. Then again, I’m a GIRL after all, so "Buy a pair of hot shoes" is basically always on my mental to do list.