One of my New Year's resolutions is to commit to my blog this year. Don't you love the idea of a "New Year"? A chance to start some things over, make changes...2010 was such a big year for our family. For me, personally, I became a mom, turned 30, and began working part-time. Oh, and I ran my first 5K! I can't wait to see what's in store for 2011.

Part of the reason I stopped blogging in October was because I started working on multiple artworks and had very little free time! None of them were for profit, but served as very special gifts for important people in my life. Here are a few of them:

This is a photo of me with my former Principal who retired in November. She is a quilter who loves inspirational quotes, so I had our school staff come up with two quotes each (for a total of 180 for each day of the school year). I typed each quote into a tiny 2" triangle and created the quilt pattern that you see above. It was a labor of love, but it was worth it : ).  Below is a close-up of those meticulous little triangles:

So as this project ended, I quickly began another. I wanted to do something special for my husband's aunt, Linda, who keeps Jude on the days I work. She is an amazing mother to her two daughters who are now both in college. I know she misses that role of nurturing her daughters as she did when they were younger--but she gets to experience it a few days a week when taking care of Jude. Thanks to her, I never have to worry about him when I'm at work--AND he knows his alphabet. She's pretty amazing. So, as a gift from one mom to another, I decided to paint a portrait of her daughters when they were little.

my attempt to photograph with natural light
...with my phone : )

a close-up of the top half

and a close-up of those cute baby feet

As soon as Christmas was over, I began a special painting for my favorite photographer, Janelle Rushin of Janelle Rushin Photography. Janelle took these amazing photos of our family...

There are so many more incredible pictures from our photo shoot, but I'll save those for my next post when I reveal Janelle's painting (she hasn't seen it yet, so I can't share it with YOU until she's had the first peek, of course!). Stay tuned...