A new photo for the new year

It's the first Monday of the New Year, and I've updated the blog just a tiny bit with a new photo of myself in the sidebar.  It's a picture my daughter snapped of me on Christmas Eve, sitting next to her on the couch as we were opening presents.  It was a quiet little Christmas for my tiny family of three, missing lots of family far away, but it was still lovely.  When I look at the picture, it makes me smile and remember that I am blessed to have my precious Dan and Gretchen,  and I'm reminded, too, that I need to celebrate life more fully.  I'm hoping that I can make the most of this new year---and of course I do have a few goals that I'd like to conquer.  Chris and I have decided to hold off on new Collage College classes for a while, and take a little breather.  Our fall classes and boutiques were so rewarding and fun, but kept us busier than we could handle easily along with our 'day jobs' (in fact, I literally burnt out my soldering iron mid-December and had to borrow Chris's for the rest of the season!).  Right now we're open to doing custom parties and classes that you are requesting (let us know if you want to gather a group of pals and book a crafty get-together!), but we won't put out a new class flyer for a couple months.  But, rest assured, I just ordered a new soldering iron, so we'll be ready when the time feels right!

R.I.P., Trusty Soldering Iron, Dec., 2010

One thing I'm determined to do soon is to start an etsy shop, accessible from this blog.  I truly love painting, especially my collaged angels, and have been lucky with direct sales of those and their prints this year---so I want to start offering them for sale online, and see how that goes.  I'm working on inventory now, s-l-o-w-l-y but surely.  I hope to offer paintings, prints, some soldered jewelry, and maybe more.  Chris hopes to add a few things to the shop as well.  Maybe, since I've now put that in writing, it will actually happen. Once I have a strong inventory, I also hope, again with Chris's help, to pursue licensing some of the images, or at least getting some consignment placements in shops and/or galleries.  We'll see....

I still want to post pictures of classes and events that have happened since my last update, but will save that for another time since there are so many.  Hoping 2011 is off to a great start for all of you!