Wrapping Christmas Gifts

This will be the first year we will actually be seeing our family for the holidays. For the last three years we were not able to visit because of the pandemic. Our daughter in law and grandson would drive through town and drop off gifts on their way to visit with her parents, or have things mailed if they weren’t traveling at all. I would have things mailed directly to their address since we wouldn’t be stopping in. Last year we went out to dinner after Christmas on the return home from visiting her parents. This year we are looking forward to visiting our family and we will be bringing gifts - like we used to. So in order to get everything prepared I ordered whatever we thought might be nice in late October. Then we picked out some wrapping paper that my husband liked, and also got some extra ribbon. So last Sunday it came time to finally get everything wrapped. I always liked to wrap stuff, but in all honesty it is getting less “fun.” I don’t think I’m a Scrooge, but I didn’t even decorate the house except for getting some green branches to stuff in the vase in the dining room. Maybe it’s because we aren’t hosting anyone and didn’t see the need this year - which is a good thing. If the Christmas decorations box was easier to get to I may have felt more inspired. In the end I’m always happy we got what we got and wrapped what we did. And it will be fun, hopefully - if we all stay healthy -  to get back to a more “normal” holiday. This pandemic really did the job on the older folks. It’s not how I had envisioned retirement. 

Memorable Christmas Gifts

We were thrilled to get pierogis for Christmas. It was a great gift from our kids. Four dozen different kinds that were delightfully tasty - just in time for Christmas Eve. We weren’t able to visit family this year - again - and we were happy to learn that our daughter in law and grandson were going to stop by our house on their way home from Baltimore back to central Virginia. We would all go for dinner at the old fashion supper club vibe in our neighborhood. We were surprised to get even more surprise gifts and it was fun to open them before all we went to dinner. My husband got a book about J Edgar Hoover, and a tea pot with two different kinds of tea leaves. The poetry written on the side of the tea leaf boxes was rather interesting. Every time we visit the kids we always go to the Waffle House - as a joke - but it’s certainly become a tradition of sorts. We got two Waffle House coffee mugs. We could use some new coffee mugs! I got a lovely colorful box filled with L’Occitane creams, shower gels and soaps. It smells so nice and the creams really work well on dry skin in the winter. We also got a bottle of wine from a winery in Virginia. It was fun to open the presents since we missed the opportunity to do it on Christmas Eve at their house. After that we drove over for dinner and had a wonderful time together. We are also expecting our grandson to visit again this week with his girlfriend who we will be meeting for the first time. Our lives have been quite sheltered over the last few years. We are hoping things can become more normal in 2023. We need to make up for lost time. 

LITDigitalart Christmas Pet Portraits

I’ve been painting pet portraits for over eight years using my iPad as the canvas and the stylus as my brush. It’s so much neater than watercolors, pastels and charcoal. The Christmas season always tends to be the busiest time of year. Luckily my studio travels with me, but this year was the first time we didn’t drive home for my birthday or Christmas. So I was able to spend more than the usual time getting the requests completed for the holiday deadlines. I really have to thank my repeat customers for remembering me. Many of the commissions came from folks I have done paintings for several years ago. That probably means more to me than any new customer, and the feedback on my Etsy site is so positive. With every portrait I always send the in process, ideas for digitalart options, and a PNG image that can be used if a background is not needed - like for a T-shirt. I never post the final portraits on social media until the holiday passes in the event someone might see it unexpectedly. Once the holiday is over I start to upload the portraits to Fine Art America/Pixels, Zazzle, Redbubble and Amazon Merch to sell the digitalart art images on products; Etsy to showcase my latest work; and all the other social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook Business page, Instagram, and Tumblr. Today I got an email informing me that someone in Suffolk, UK purchased a ten greeting card pack of my Cairn Terrier portrait. What a lovely way to end the year. The profits are tiny, but the idea that someone from across the ocean noticed and purchased my painting out of all the millions of images out there is thrilling. So, thank you so much for trusting my work. I really appreciate it! 

British Airways and Etsy Orders

It all started before Thanksgiving. I received two digital art orders for Christmas gifts and was pleased folks were ordering so early! This time of year can be tough to turn around a lot of artwork in a very short period. But we also planned a trip to visit friends in England and then meet our French friends in Barcelona, leaving little time to work on anything, even though my studio travels with me. When we got back to England, the requests were piling up and I needed to start organizing my work in a way I could get a grip on it before over committing. So one afternoon I started writing down dates, person, request, and deadlines. I didn't have my usual neat methodology in place, so I used the last page of my British Airways information sheet as my inventory management sheet. That thing has been through the ringer and I had to refuse work this year to keep my sanity. So, from the time we returned back home on Thanksgiving weekend I completed twenty two cats, dogs, and birds in all different configurations; sketched out nine more with IOU's to complete within the next couple of weeks - including six K9's for the trainers at an academy in California; and negotiated a couple for specific dates in January. All I can say is "Whew!" and thank you all for noticing my digital art. I'm still working on several of the portraits and really enjoy doing it. Just to think something I made is being wrapped as a gift for someone who lost a pet, just adopted a puppy, or just plain wanted a portrait of their furry or feathered friend, makes me feel humbled. Merry Christmas everyone! I just can't go on vacation this time of year!