First week open, and still running!

This has been an exciting week for me! Thanks to all of you for stopping by and visiting my shop. It has been a lot of fun. A bit of a whirl wind…trying to learn the ropes amidst a lot of other things going on, but it has been great. I have made a lot of really great contacts, and met some really great people. It is really exciting to see other parents like my artwork and see that it speaks to them and their own children. That is why I am doing this: I just wish I could see the children when they get their pictures.

This week I took a quick trip to Maryland (where I grew up) to visit my parents and little sister. I love it back east. It is an enchanting place…especially this time of year. It is a little more dry this year than normal, but it doesn’t matter. It beats the desert in October. The mountains are beautiful…don’t get me wrong. But there is nothing like being able to go out into my backyard and be with the deer and the squirrels and the fallen logs on an autumn afternoon. My kids are, needless to say, in heaven.

The first time we went out to the backyard, Addie insisted that she run back and put on her princess dress and get out her “I wonder” basket (Sleeping Beauty sings “I wonder” while holding a basket for berry picking in the dark woods...notice how her "I wonder basket" could also double as a 99 cent hot pink plastic jack-0-lantern bucket from Target). So, Addie is in her dress (and basket in hand) singing “I know you… I walked with you once upon a dream” all because we were in the trees. She LOVES trees, and here we are in the heart of it all. I love it!

My sister Kaile is a horseback rider, and so of course we had to take the kids to see the horses...and the barn cat they discovered. Addie and Ian LOVE animals, and depite the funny pictures, addie is actually very natural with animals.

And with the shop open and successful I have also managed to get my artwork in my first boutiques! It is really exciting. The first is a DARLING place in Northern CA called “Teapot Parties” and the second is in Leesburg, VA called ‘On a Whim’…a very vintage/ chic store with a lot of personality. I am so excited! My stuff will most likely be there by the end of the month.

So, a lot of learning going on here. I really just threw myself into this. I have at least a dozen more pieces I am just DYING to get printed, but that requires me being home. So, I will have to wait till next weekend. I just can’t stop coming up with new stuff. That is the fun of it…there never has to be an end to this! It's all just imagination!

Thanks again for all of your support and compliments. It’s great to think that my elephants and bunnies and little people are on the walls for other little children to enjoy. In some ways, I feel like a Santa…I just want to make children smile :)