Happy New Year!

Wow.  I know.  Long time, no blog.  It's not that I didn't have anything to show you and it's not that I didn't have anything to say.  It's just that day after day, I just never seemed to find the time to get here.  All in all, I had a very busy and thoroughly enjoyable holiday season.  I hope yours was wonderful, too!

So now it's January and time to get serious about a few things I've been trying to accomplish.  I don't really believe in making resolutions because I've always found them to be counterproductive.  Too often we resolve to do things that aren't completely in our control, and when we can't accomplish them we feel like we've failed.  I'd rather have goals to work toward and give myself the flexibility to adjust those goals if I need to. 

One goal I have is to finish up a couple of classes I've been taking.  The first one is Cindy Wider's Draw and Paint in Your Pyjamas certificate course that I've been working on for the last year.  I've learned so much, and my confidence has really grown, but now it's time to finish!  I'm going to be pretty busy with that for the next few weeks, and I'll try to keep you up to date on my progress here on my blog.

Although I haven't finished Cindy's course yet, I've begun training to be an instructor for the course on her website, DrawPJ.com.  So my next obvious goal is to finish the instructor training and start teaching.  If any of you out there reading this are like I was and always wished you could draw, I'm here to tell you that you CAN draw.  You just need some guidance, some encouragement, and some practice.  OK...you need lots of practice most likely, but it is something you can do.  If you're interested in giving it a try let me know, or visit Cindy's site.  She has a free two-week trial available so that you can preview the course if you wish.

Another goal of mine is to revamp this blog and improve my web presence.  I've purchased the rights to the Deesstudio.com domain and plan to build a website with galleries for my artwork and cards.  I plan to make some of my work available for sale.  As I said, my confidence has really grown, and I feel ready to take that next step.  My plan is to sell original drawings and paintings, commissioned portrait drawings, as well as greeting cards and other craft items that I make.

Speaking of greeting cards, I'll be continuing my on-going rubber stamping obsession, excuse me, hobby, because I just plain love it.  It is an active goal of mine to get onto one more design team in addition to Starving Artistamps and Technique Junkies.  I'd also like to see if I can get some more of my work published, but with everything else I have planned, I'm not sure how much time I'll really devote to that one.

So there you have it...my grand plan, or part of it at least.  I've got other things in the works, but I'll save those for another post.

If you're still reading this post, thanks for hanging in there!  I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment so I know who my most faithful blog readers are.  Come to think of it, you deserve a reward.  I have an extra copy of the Technique Junkie Newsletter Fancy Folds and Motion Paper Crafts CD to give away.  Leave me that comment by January 15th, and I'll enter you in a drawing to win the CD.

Just one last thing before I go...I have a card to share with you.  I made this one for the December 2010 issue of the Technique Junkies Newsletter using the Deconstructed Collage tutorial.  The stamp is from I Brake for Stamps, and the papers are from Basic Grey.

Happy New Year!