The hoopla of the holidays is long over and you’ve settled down to a long winter’s…no nap, just a long, maybe cold, winter of looking at the same walls everywhere you go: At home, in the office; at your best friend’s house; and especially at your mother’s. You are staying away from the mall ‘cause there’s certainly no excitement there.

You are so ready for a change of scenery. You start envisioning yourself sitting atop a mountain, cool breezes blowing through your hair. Or tanning on a sandy beach watching surfers wander here and there. Maybe your imagery takes you on a sail boat, or to a special place from your childhood.

Wherever you imagination can go, you can’t right now. You are pretty much stuck at home or at work or in the neighborhood. But, you must do something creative or you feel like you will explode.

Your mind wanders to those scrap booking projects you’ve been planning or to the online album you’ve been promising to complete. But you are easily diverted hoping for something that’s more spontaneous.

You look at those walls again. They need a boost but painting is just off your energy chart and is not an option.

Your mind wanders back to those photos, but you decide to ignore them and surf the Internet for a bit. It seems like a good way to go around the world on a shopping spree.

Voila! You enter the keywords “shop around the world” in your search engine box, and then click on I-ShopTheWorld.com. You click around the Tortuga Rum products and wonder what life would be like right now in the Cayman Islands.

You move on to the line of Thai silk clothing and handmade jewelry and can practically taste that Tom/Yam/Tom Yum Real Thai soup made from the mix sold online.

Then, you click on artwork and read that you can get your photographs converted to hand-painted works of art.

Your mind shifts back to those photos in your online photo file. You go there this time. You click around and reminisce about your vacation in the dessert when you got those great shots of large cactus plants.

You find that photograph of the old family home place where your dad grew up and you spent many hours playing with cousins in your youth. There’s a picture of your dad pushing you in the tree swing. Your grandmother’s vegetable garden is in the background and you can see spots of color from the flowers she always planted at the edge of the garden so she could have bouquets in the house when you visited every summer.

You want that memory to last a lifetime.

You return to I-ShopTheWorld.com and place your order to have that picture preserved in your very own custom hand-painted color oil portrait. You look forward to interacting with the artist to approve the finished portrait before it’s shipped. More importantly you look forward to displaying it on your walls in your own home and passing it and its story along to your children and grandchildren.

You think again. You realize you have other priceless photos. You choose one for your office wall. You choose one for your mother’s birthday. You choose one for your best friend just because.

The winter no longer seems so long nor the next holiday so far away. You’ve found a bright spot. It feels warm and exciting, and you can recreate it anytime just by looking at that oil painting.

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