Special Issue 🍋 Happy Friday, Reader! I recently designed a deck of playing cards for members of the Wonder & Whimsy Society and we printed a very limited number of extras that we decided to offer for sale. A word of warning, however: there are 60 times more people receiving this email than decks currently available, so if you're interested, don't dilly-dally! With 52 of my colorful and whimsical paintings represented, this is like a pocket-sized art gallery. The casino-grade, poker-sized...
5 days ago • 1 min read
2025 Issue #4 🦅 "The Prepper" by Jason Kotecki. Oil on canvas.Mini*Print available until July 31. 2025 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where Mom is on a weekend retreat with her girlfriends, and Dad and the kids are eating too many doughnuts and too much pizza. When my wife told me she was pregnant with our first child, my heart filled with joy. Two seconds later, panic arrived at the party. All I could think about was how profoundly our lives were about to change and I didn't...
10 days ago • 4 min read
2025 Issue #3 🧟♂️ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we love marching to the beat of our own drummer, but can't escape the fact that living an unconventional life has its consequences. The whole reason Kim and I started our own business was so that we would never have to write resumés. Ok, maybe not the whole reason. But it's at least 79 percent. Kim recently took one for the team when she was required to write our resumés for an organization that wanted to hire us to...
17 days ago • 4 min read
Special Issue 🍋 Happy Tuesday, Reader! This is an important and timely message I hope you'll read 'till the end. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, during the pandemic of 2020, we founded a secret society. It was an experiment, really. But a lot of the people who joined as Founding Members are still with us, and the Wonder & Whimsy Society is still going strong, so I guess the experiment was a success. You may have heard about the Wonder & Whimsy Society before (or perhaps even been a...
22 days ago • 2 min read
2025 Issue #2 🧩 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we actually have five seasons. The time between Christmas and the New Year is Puzzle Season in our household. (Except for my wife, who is not the least bit interested in them, but is eager to take advantage of the fact that we are all distracted.) Me and the kids usually enjoy the 1000-piece varieties but hate the unnecessarily hard ones. (All double-sided puzzles, or those made entirely of pieces that are mostly one color,...
24 days ago • 3 min read
2025 Issue #1 ⏳ Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where Kim and I are grateful for 2024, but also kind of glad it's over, and are filled with much enthusiasm for the year ahead. "Today or never, that’s my motto." Now that's a good motto. Thanks for that, Mary Poppins. Looking back at the last year, I lived a lot of it scared. The after-effects of the storm that ripped through our property two years earlier lingered longer than I expected. The debt was a leviathan, and we slayed...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Special Issue 🍋 Happy Almost New Year, Reader! Regardless of whether you look back on 2024 with fondness or furious rage, there's one thing we can all agree on: Let's make 2025 as Adultitis-free as possible! One great way to do that is with a Celebrate Everything calendar. Between the combination of whimsical artwork and 365 fun holidays, it's an Adultitis antidote that lasts all year long! "Your calendar is magical." –Julie Ann Sullivan In a few days, it'll be time to take the old calendar...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
2024 Issue #51 🎄 Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we have joyfully celebrated the birth of all three of our children and prepare to celebrate the birthday of Our Lord. We have officially begun our Christmas break, which means this is the last Insider of the year. I wanted to share some thoughts I wrote last year, because they resonated with a lot of people and frankly, I needed to hear them again myself... It’s the curse of every author. The exact millisecond you finally...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
2024 Issue #50 🎄 “The Joyful Elf” by Jason Kotecki. Oil on canvas. Happy Sunday, Reader! Greetings from Sheboygan, where we've been building gingerbread houses, watching Christmas movies, and have our fingers crossed for a white Christmas. 🤞 Kim and I may have named it in 2005, but it's been around for centuries. Dickens wrote it into the essence of Ebenezer Scrooge. It was personified in the Grinch by Dr. Seuss. And Buddy rescued his birth father Walter Hobbs from it in the holiday movie...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read