Happy New Year!!!

Its hard to believe another year has gone by, wow, where did it go. I have personally done much more this year than I have in years past regarding my business and artwork. I have designed fabric, signed with a licensing agent, was juried into a major pastel show in New York, was published in a book, magazines and expanded my teaching. Yet even looking back on this year I feel like I have just started to scratch the surface of what I want to do. I am even more excited as I look forward to what next year will bring. I would love to double what I did this year. It seems like the more I do the more people I meet and I have throughly enjoyed meeting so many creative people this last year. I want to thank all of those special people in my life that have inspired, encouraged and supported me this year.

For my quilting friends, Stitchin Heaven is having a New years eve party online, find them on Facebook, twitter or go to their website. They are giving away tons of gifts. I will be a part of the fun as I will be giving away patterns, fabric ect. Join us for a fun way to bring in the New Year. Along with the products I am giving away on their site I will have my own giveaway on my blog. If you post a New Years goal that has to do with being creative I will put you into a drawing for a special gift here! Just post a comment on this post for a chance to win! See you next year!!!

Block Print Workshop Jan 15

After all the fun I had creating my Christmas exchange gift I scheduled another workshop in my studio. This project takes a simple sketch, yours or mine, and then we will transform it into a block print using linoleum blocks and carving tools. Its a wonderful way to create your own stamps from sketches, you can then use the stamp to print on paper or fabric. You can then create unique and personized gifts or cards. Check out my website if you are interested http://www.desireesdesigns.com/

Zentangled Christmas Get together

 Today I hosted a Zentangle Christmas party for my wonderful students today. I have the most wonderful students and they are all friends. Around 20 amazingly talented women came for a day of creative fun and a lot of visiting and eating! Homemade soup and quiche with salad and deserts hit the spot on this rainy day. I loved watching everyone create a unique little piece of art that they can enjoy this holiday season. Thank you for all you do to support my teaching and classes!!! Here are some pictures of the day but I will not share Marilyns amazing quilt since she is going to be showing it and I don't want to spoil the surprise. Merry Christmas everyone!!

Watercolor Christmas cards

I love painting my Christmas cards, I have done that for the last few years. I paint an original and then upload the image to be printed onto cards. This year I was feeling a bit Scroogish and wasn't going to send any cards. I wasn't even going to paint a card but I also belong to an online watercolor group and every year we paint one original painting as a card and send it to an exchange person. I love this group of artist and really enjoy doing the exchanges with them. So I painted this cardinal and decided I liked it well enough to have some cards printed. My Christmas cards will be late this year but at least I am sending some. Cindi got the original and she liked it. I don't paint birds very often so this was working outside my comfort zone.

Getting ready for Christmas

A few weeks ago as I was unpacking my ornaments for the tree I took the time to take some pictures to share. Years ago, when I was a young mom and didn't have alot of money I would have ornament parties. Everyone would make 12 ornaments and then we would get together and we each got one of each persons handmade ornament. It was so much fun, fun to create something new every year but more than that the fun was having something that a friend made. Every year as I pull out my ornaments, I think of those people, many of which have moved away and I say a prayer for them. I remember the good times we all had together in those early years. Decorating my tree is much more than just putting up store purchased ornaments its a trip down memory lane every year. Even after all this time these are my favorite ornaments, they are priceless. 



This was my ornament, I collected eggs from my brothers mad goose and cleaned then out and painted on them, sealed them and made a hanger for them. This one is dated 1989



This one was made by Roxanne, I love the cinnamon sticks for legs.



This one was Dorothys, the little mouse is made from felt and it was amazing she made all those clothes and everything!



This one was made and painted by Sabina, she was a tole painter and made some really cute things over the years.



This ornament was china painted by Ramona, her and her mom used to do a lot of china painting. I got three of these for my kids that year, Missy wasn't born yet. The picture is of Jennifer



This is Judy's hand embroidered ornaments, she made 12 different ones all heavily embroidered that year.

Merry Christmas to all of my friends, both near and far, I appreciate how you have touch my life through the years.

A day with Nathan

A day with Nathan
Originally uploaded by ddhabicht

I took Nathan to see "tangled" and then we rode on a train and then we saw Santa. He proceeded to explain to Santa what spiderman does with his webshooter and how he wants one. What a fun day remembering the magic of Christmas time for kids