New Year Metamorphasis....

Happy New Year, My Friends!

The New Year's Eve Table at my parents' house. Hmm, you think my first resolution would be to lose weight!

Whoa! It's funny how some things never change, and it seems I'm still busy enough to be quite late with my New Year Greetings! But changes, they are a'comin'! I've picked this auspicious (if interesting) day--1/11/11-- to tell you about my plans.....


It's been a strange, steep winding road, 2010 was. Full of challenges, but intertwined with fun and imaginative things, too. I am still grateful to have moments of magic, and still be able to keep my sanity (though it's barely hanging there by a thread at times)!

2010 saw SO MANY HAPPENINGS:

1. Our 3 beehives became 6, and this was the first year we harvested honey!
2. I became a manager of a small urban farm, and oversaw the growing of veggies, herbs, even pumpkins. And we even managed to celebrate Halloween in style!
3. The last of our two family dogs died. But we got the white haired SWEETIE IN THIS POST to help heal broken hearts.
4. I grew a garden, and THREE chickens (I really need to tell that story one day!)
5. NEW TECHNIQUES WERE USED in "the art department"...and more are on the way....

Which brings me to my New Year's Resolutions. I don't know about you, but I usually avoid resolutions like the plague. Something about this year, though, compels me to be more...orderly...so I decided to set myself a few goals (we won't call them resolutions, right?). And, in fact, I'm happy to say that I've already started being proactive on a few of them.

What are your resolutions goals? Here are a few of mine.

Remove more stresses in my life. I actually managed to REDUCE a few hours of my wickedly busy day job. Which frees me up for more art, bee adventures, and looking for the dream farm. Speaking of which....

Buy the Farm. Ummm, not figuratively! If you've been reading this little journal in blogspace, you may know I have a bit of Farm Fever. It tends to manifest itself HERE and HERE. I am still looking for a little piece of farm heaven.  And, in fact, I will probably be focusing more on those blogs this year. 

This year, I intend to make THIS blog a sales page only, along with any art related posts, such as my swaps and blog parties. So if you are interested in following me (including posts on doll making!), your best bet is to *follow* my BEYOND VAGABOND blog.

Swaps: yes there will be another two this year. They do seem to fall during Spring and Wintertime. I will be announcing the next one after Valentine's day. And I also wanted to thank all of you who always seem to participate in my online art shenanigans. What beautiful, talented, wonderful people you are!


Promote myself more, artwise. I am horrible at this. Or rather, I don't have time to even advertise that I am this little folk-ish  artist. All last year, I'd watch in awe as so many of my favorite artists and friends created or  participated in various art groups, while I stayed put at my tried and true ART DOLLS ONLY group. Which is an AMAZING group, indeed! But maybe I'm selfish and want to break out a little! Can't a girl be part of the Halloween, rustic arts, folksy groups, too? I feel like the proverbial braces-and-glasses wearing kid trying to get into the cool kids club!

Hmmm...I do believe that pretty much sums up the main goals....

And now, the last bit of news:


A few *NEW* offerings!  
You might remember awhile back that I started working with wood burning techniques.  I was quite proud of my little wood ornament, "The Owl and The Pussycat," which you can SEE HERE (and a BIG THANKS TO MARIE PATTERSON for giving it a good home!)
Well, over Christmas, I shuttled the wood burning equipment with me to my parents' house, and with ALL of that free time, quite A LOT got accomplished:

   TA-DA!

More on that story soon!  In the meantime, if you're interested in these beauties, you can snatch them up at my Etsy Shoppe tomorrow!

(And, I big thanks to all of you who bought our beeswax ornaments! We still have a small lot for sale, and they make great decorations the whole year through. Get yours before next fall, as we have only allotted a small amount of natural wax from our beehives)! 

What about you? What do you wish for this year?

Big Hugs and a Wonderful New Year, my Friends!