the journey so far

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and holiday. Ours was lovely and spent visiting our family about 2 hours away. Despite both my son and I coming down with icky bugs it was still nice. I always love seeing my mom and my brother. My microwave and I got sick on Christmas day and though I am better now, sadly (or perhaps not so sadly, hee-hee) the microwave had to be replaced with a new one.

With the year coming to an end I couldn't help but reflect on this past year. It's been quite an amazing journey filled with new adventures, inspiration and new friends. This was a collage I made back in Spring when I first started dabbling in collage and painting. This was also the template for my first paper dress. It's simple but still one of my favorites because 'soar' was the word I constantly thought of while on this journey.

As I look forward to the new year I find myself becoming excited about new goals and seeing where the journey will lead. I'm never one for creating New Year's resolutions but the one I did make for myself this past year is one I'm happy to say I actually did. That was to start living a consciously creative life and it started with my blog. Next month I'm celebrating one year of blogging. Something I'm proud of as I've never been able to stay with a new venture more than 3 or 4 months in the past. I know I was able to do this because of all of you. So again, thank you from the tips of my frosted toes to the bottom of my sparkle covered heart.

There is much for me to look forward to this coming year, starting with my Artful Bag Challenge in just a few days. I will be posting my first project (Playing With Paper) at the end of the week along with a Linky tool so any of you who would like to play along can just add a link to your post any time.

I also have another project going on next month, which I can't tell you too much about yet, but it's going to keep me insanely busy the entire month. All I can say is I'm working on a collaboration with my brother and sister-in-law and it involves me making several pieces of art that have to be done in a few short weeks! I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to take on this challenge, but then I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for me to push myself. It's definitely out of my comfort zone and I hope the lessons I learned the past year will give me enough confidence to see it through. I will share with you once it all comes together!

So as we countdown to 2011 I'm once again making a mental list of goals I would like to accomplish. I would like to think that my journey so far is only the beginning. I have learned that I can soar when I put my mind to it. Now I can see where my wings take me. What are your goals for the coming year dear friends? How exciting that we can take this journey together and look forward to a brand new start.

I wish you a beautiful post holiday week. Enjoy all the sales if you're out there shopping and I'll see you in a few days for The Artful Bag Challenge!