You ever notice how some days you just wake up, and you KNOW it’s going to be a good day? Something inside is just happy to be awake even at six in the morning? Where even those cranky morning commuters can’t get you down? A day when you’re excited to be alive and every moment has so much potential that you feel you’ll go crazy if you can’t do everything at once?

Maybe it’s just the coffee talking. At any rate, I think both me and my coffee are having a day like that. I’m looking forward to this weekend because I have so much I want to do! I have freelance projects I want to finish/start, I have my office to finish cleaning, I have paintings I want to start. Ash and I recently bought Wii Fit Plus and I want to start that up. We’re also volunteering tomorrow to help with the CTFR cattery at PetSmart. I want to go to the park tomorrow night and walk the dogs since we haven’t had time to do that lately. So much to do! There really isn’t enough time in the day.

And of course, I have to work on my comic. I’m three days behind but I’m going to attempt to catch up tonight. Got a couple of ideas, so hopefully I can draw them up. I’ve also still got several blog posts I should finish, and a blog series I want to start (any illustrators interested in being interviewed? Contact me).

Let’s see just how much I can get done this weekend. Let’s do this!

Wow, a post on the weekend you say? She must be mad! Yes, yes, I’m mad. I’m also bored out of my mind and sick of looking at duplexes online (with the amount of houses I spent snooping around today in the unbearably sweltering heat of the Texan sun, I am completely surprised I wasn’t either 1: arrested as a potential serial cat burglar, or 2: shoveled off the pavement in the form of a melted pile of sizzling egg-goop (what a great description, huh?) – either of those were open options). Anyway, have a blog post.

As some of you may have noticed, I am a blogger. Therefore, I love to read blogs too (crazy, huh?). So because I enjoy sharing the happy little nuggets of good reads (and I haven’t done it in quite awhile), I thought I’d throw another blog at you to add to your feed reader.

Run Jen Run

Not only is Jenny a witty writer, but she’s a fantastic photographer, and a wonderful client to work with. She was one of my first (and still one of my favorite) blog clients to work with professionally and her feedback was fantastic as well. Anyway, as a blogger, she is charming, intelligent, and downright hilarious at times. I love her Photobooth Chronicles the best – who knew you could say so much in just four small pictures.

Jenny is also the founder of the ever-growing TequilaCon, which is something I hope to attend next year depending on where they decide to hold it (hey, idea! Austin? Seriously, I’m totally throwing it in the ring here, guys). Tattoos, tequila, and bloggers? There really is nothing better.

Anyway, check out Jenny and all of her awesome photos, blogs, and tequila love over at her snazzy blog Run Jen Run. You won’t be sorry you did (but you will be sorry if you don’t – just saying).

Alright, life has taken on a whole new meaning of hectic. Ash and I recently took in three strays: a four month old, thirty pound Irish wolfhound mix and a mother cat and her kitten. This brings up our total amount of furry kids to three dogs, six cats, two ferrets, three rats, and two fish. Our house is absolutely insane. To top it off, Ash’s laptop is out of commission and she’s been using mine for her work – which I’m fine with since it has allowed me to focus more on art and catching up with reading materials, but it means I’ve had to take a break from twitter and some designs I was working on.

Anyway, Ash and I recently took the three strays to the vet and spent a little over $160 to make sure all three were healthy. The cats were strays, but the puppy was obviously someone’s pet – only we’ve had him for five, six days now and nobody has called in a lost dog anywhere. We’ve checked the paper, the shelters, animal control, etc, and yet nothing. Unfortunately, we can’t really afford the bill, having just paid the vet even more money on our rats and our oldest dog, so we’re asking for donations from other animal lovers to help us get these rescued animals fixed up for their future owners (since we can’t keep them ourselves, we’re fostering them until we can find them new homes).

All donations will go straight to the vet bills, to get vaccinations, get tests, etc. Anything helps – even $5 goes far. I usually don’t like asking for money, but this is for such a good cause and we really can’t do this without your help. Also, if anyone is interested in a puppy or a couple of cute kittens, let us know. ;D If you want to know more about these cute kids, go check out the blog over at our rescue site I Love Rescue Animals.

Hopefully this all explains why I haven’t been online and why I’m pushing my ComicCon Contest back a few days. I just can’t keep up with things right now – our house is a mad house and there is far too much to do offline. I hope you can understand. I’m sure you will. I can’t say no to a fluffy puppy face. Who can?

Mondays are generally the most stressful day of the week (and Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and – well, weekdays can just be bad), and if you’re like me and tend to just drag at the beginning of the week, then you might find it useful to do a few things that make yourself feel good. And what better way to make yourself feel good but by making other people (or animals) feel good. So here’s a short list of some things you can do during your day to make the world a better place with just a few small well-placed happy gestures.

01. Smile.

Really. That’s it. Ever hear that smiling is contagious? It’s true. You smile at her, she smiles at him, he smiles at someone else, and it just keeps going. A smile is a good thing. Do it. It can brighten the darkest of days and the crankiest of souls.

Click here to continue reading this article.