7 year blogoversary!

acrylic on wood

Well, with the end of the world almost upon us, I thought I'd do a little year-end, world-end wrap-up. (Isn't that a grand way to start a blog post?)

Christmas Eve will be my 7 year blogoversary! I always credit this little blog and Illustration Friday for being the catalyst for this whole illustration path I've been on. Before the blog I was illustrating for my in-house design job, but I was lax about producing much personal work. Posting gave me the push I needed. And the rest of this story is….well, in the archives. Mostly, I want to thank everyone who has stopped by and supported me all of these years. I continue to be amazed by how incredible this online art community is. We may communicate differently these days; less blog commenting, more twitter and facebook, but the sense of community is stronger then ever. I'm so grateful to have found so many wonderful friends.

Here's where I like to look back at my first post of the year. Did I live up to my goals? I feel my decision to avoid conferences this year to focus on what kind of work I really want to create was very helpful. I needed to step away from expectations, and sink into my own world to see where it took me. But, towards the middle of the year I will admit I did start to feel a bit lost. My little boat had begun to drift too far into the big ocean, and I was losing sight of the shore. That's when 3 angels entered my life; and Maria, Katriona, Juana, and I formed the group Storybook Brushes with the main purpose being to promote ourselves through mailings, such as our 2013 calendar. I also want to say a special thanks to our angel friend, Gaia, who has been so supportive behind the scenes.

We're all quite excited that our calendars are back from the printer, and we can't wait to start shipping them out next year. I'm awaiting my shipment from overseas, but Maria snapped this quick pic.....

Now, I can finally check off my goal list that I opened my Etsy shoppe! Ok, I still need to get to work getting it all loaded up with prints and original art, and possibly some jewelry, but our calendar is now up for sale there. More Etsy listings are the first thing on my 2013 goal list. :)

So, it's been a productive year. An unexpected year. A year to remember.
2012 has been the start of some new exciting chapters. Oh, I better get some sleep. The end of the world is only 5 hours away, and no, it didn't already happen in Australia. It's based on UTC time.

Happy Winter Solstice to you all!
halfway out of the dark
….or the end of days. We'll see…….