View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #36 π Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we are days away from a sold-out Wondernite and the launch of my first children's book, The Penguin Who Flew! The upcoming Wondernite auction will be filled with unique items. (The one-day auction is open to everyone, but you can also buy a virtual ticket to watch the livestream of my presentation.) Among the items available are two original paintings I did while...
9 days agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #35 π¦ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we just announced the opportunity to experience Wondernite from your living room! I mean, nothing beats being there in person, but tickets are sold out, and with it being the official debut of The Penguin Who Flew, we decided to hire a professional livestreaming company to bring my presentation to more people. Virtual tickets are now available! This talk of...
16 days agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #34 π€ͺ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I am putting the finishing touches on the talk I'll be delivering at Wondernite, which is officially sold out and now less than three weeks away! Facebook showed me the picture above from 2016 as a "memory," and I was reminded of something I wrote about a year before it was taken. Back then, we had a seven, a four, and a two-year-old under our roof. We've held fast...
23 days agoΒ β’Β 6 min read
View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #33 πΆ Photo by Katja Anokhina on Unsplash Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we are recombobulating ourselves after a family vacation in Alaska. How hard could it be? It was a very calm lake, and I'd been kayaking a few times before. Spending an afternoon with my family on glacier-fed Eklutna Lake in Alaska seemed like a great entry into our vacation portfolio. Then the guide started giving her super...
30 days agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #32 πΆ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from...Alaska, where the Kotecki family is returning from a much-needed vacation. I'm sharing an article I wrote waaaay back in 2011 because it recounts one of my first visits to this great state and offers a lesson still relevant today... When we booked our first speaking gig in Alaska, neither Kim nor I had ever heard of a babymoon. According to the hip kids these days, a babymoon is...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 5 min read
View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #31 π Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I am putting the final touches on the new paintings I'm planning to debut at Wondernite next month. I hope you can make it! "Yep, they're dead." The confirmation came from the woman at the nursery after seeing the photos Kim shared of two of our cherry trees. It wasn't a surprise, but it also cemented the fact that we'd lost even more time. A few years earlier,...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #30 π€’ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where I am thrilled that my original painting "The Prepper" (seen above) has flown away to a perfect new home! Now, on to an uncomfortable question... Are you sabotaging your own success and happiness? We recently exhibited at the Midsummer Festival of the Arts in Sheboygan. I'm no stranger to this sort of thing, between participating in art fairs and the gift shows we...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
View this online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #29 π¦ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where today I am exhibiting and live painting at the Midsummer Festival of the Arts from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center downtown! If you're in the area, come say hi Kim and I were on our way to San Diego. For reasons known only to Delta, our seats got reassigned, and we were split up. Considering that part of the reason for our trip was to...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
View this article online β’ Get this from a friend? Subscribe here! 2025 Issue #28 ποΈ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where next weekend I will be exhibiting and live painting at the Midsummer Festival of the Arts on July 19-20 at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center downtown! Iβll be one of 100 juried artists selling work all weekend long. There will be live music, food trucks, hands-on art activities, and so much more. Itβs free, fun for all ages, and we'll have some...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 4 min read