Happy New Year

First of all I'd like to apologize for how late this post is.  I was having some blogger issues, and finally got them resolved.
_________

I hope your holidays were wonderful!  How did you fare?  I fell into the holiday vortex and got a bit lost, but I am back!!!!!

I hope the new year is a rockin one.  My holidays were nice, and I loved the time with family.  I am so thankful that my hubs and I are both self employed.  Though it can keep us very busy, its nice to be the boss and take a week off to hang with each other!

Here are some things that kept me so busy (on top of the dogs surgery to drain an abcess and Julia's pneumonia the week before Christmas- never a dull moment).

I made many gifts this year and really really loved making each and every one of them for my friends and family.  I didn't get pics of them all, but here are some.........................................

I made these for my MOM's- my mother and my mother in law.  I antqiued up a picture of the kids, and used sheet metal, mica, rivets, and other thingys to bring them together.  I even used some of my grandmothers old broken jewelry on them.  I am really happy with how they turned out.

 I also made these magnet frames for my siblings in a similar style to the pin above

I also made these sugar skull pendants, but ended up using them to make some really fun ornaments for all my Grateful Dead fan friends.  (I used some great suburban girl beads as the dangles, they were perfect!)

I made a box for my friend Genea with a glass eye cab she made for me.  I REALLY love making these boxes.  I use polymer, sculpture paste, inks, acrylic paint, leather, ribbon, ect.........to make each one.  Genea loves bright, so bright hers was.....................

Christmas is so much fun for me, since I just love to create, its nice to create with no business aspect in my head. It's very freeing and just get to make things I think my friends will like.

After the holidays, for some reason I thought I'd have a break.  However, I had a few january deadlines I forgot about, and I am making new stuff for the gallery and my other shop I have jewelry in.  I also decided to create my first line of jewelry this year, which you can view here on facebook.  It's zodiac inspired, so each month I will create new pieces for the gallery, and perhaps some for etsy too.  I will add new designs to my facebook page as I create them.  If you are not a fan of my facebook page yet, just click here.

I haven't gotten as far as picking a work for the new year or setting offical goals.  However, I am going to take this year off from sea glass festivals, and instead, add bead shows.  I also plan to try to get my jewelry into two or three more galleries.  I am also replacing one of my yearly shows (Doylestown Arts Festival) with Tyler's Art Festival- but they are further down the road, so I will give you more info at that time.  So I guess my big goal for this year is to try to eleveate stress, by doing less shows, and get into more galleries.  Whew.  That sounds simple.  Oh, and to just go with it, where this business takes me, as long as I am comfortable, and family can still come first.

So Happy New Year!  Thanks for being my friends, my supporters, my fellow journey-women and men in this beady, jewelry world. 

Any of you have big plans for re-vamping the business this year?  Any small changes you vow to make?  Please share- I'd love to hear where you want your year to take you.