Wishing You All the Best in 2013

 

Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a terrific celebration to ring in the new year last night.  I am excited to be kicking off the new in my new location and my new home in Gainesville, Florida.  Of course, I will miss Miami and all my friends but it is exciting to be starting a new chapter in my life.

I want to thank everyone for all their tremendous support over the past 6 months.  I can't tell you how much it meant to me while my life was in such upheaval during that time.  The whole process of getting the house ready to sell, showing it to prospective buyers and then the endless looking, looking, looking for something in the new area.  And then the tremendous physical work of packing and moving, unpacking and getting settled really wore me down.  At 60 years of age, I am not as spry as I used to be and I've had day after day of aching bones and muscles - LOL!  I am so happy to say that it is almost all behind me now!  We are about 80% unpacked and settled.  Of course, we still have a lot of decorating to do, but most of the house is organized and looks neat and tidy - all except my craft area.  My new craft room is only a couple of feet shorter in each direction than the old one, but my goodness does it ever feel cramped!  I still have stacks of stuff sitting on the floor that I have no shelf space for.  I'm twisting the DH's arm to hang some nice looking wall shelves that I can use to store craft items as well as my own art work.  I got rid of a lot of supplies/stash before I moved, but I think I am going to have to trim down some more.

Here is the first piece I have made in my new space.  I didn't have any particular deadline that I had to produce a sample for so I decided to kick the new year off with something just for fun.  I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year so I didn't have anything special to shape my piece around.  My goal is really just to settle in and also look after my health.  I have a couple of small health challenges and want to make sure I focus on them and handle them properly.  I am looking forward to getting out to walk more and I have already invested in a bicycle to get more fresh air and exercise.  There miles and miles of walking/bike trails in my new area and I am looking forward to taking advantage of them.

I decided to kick off the new year with Tim Holtz's January tag.  Here is my interpretation of his tag.  I loved that he used the Pocket Watch texture fade as a base.  For my time element, I used the Weathered Clock die, cut a piece of chipboard and embossed it with the Verdigris embossing powder.  The effect wasn't quite coppery enough so I dabbed it with the Antiqued Bronze metallic stain.  I also went a little crazy with the embossing powder, using it on the tiny gear, the long brads and the hinge clip.  The sponging was done with Broken China and Dried Marigold.  Those colors were also used to die the seam binding.  The large flower was cut wit the Tattered Florals die and the small ones with the Tattered Flowers Garland Decorative Strip Die.

Whew, I haven't made anything in a couple of weeks and it was hard to get back into the groove again. But this was fun and I'm happy with the way it turned out.  Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the lovely comments!