2021 Comes to a close...

 And what a year it has been!  My friend Cinde and I became contributing artists at Sedona Artist Market

Which led to a return for me to creating Spirit Dolls

And lots of tie-dye as well as some bowls

All in all, Sedona has been a great place to sell, and Cinde and I have enjoyed our monthly trips down to restock our booths, hike when the weather permitted, and enjoy a nice lunch together!

At Arts Connection, I stepped down early this year as co-manager and focused on keeping my booth there stocked with tie-dye, bowls, and recently some freeform weavings:

This year, we were able to resume our annual Flagstaff Open Studios tour, and although we were not sure if people would be ready to come out in gatherings due to the pandemic, we were pleasantly surprised to have a good turnout, and good sales!

On the personal front, we did have a couple of health scares - in October, Bruce had a couple of "mini strokes" which landed him in the hospital, with a myriad of follow up doctor appointments and tests.  They finally determined he has atrial fibrillation, and have modified some medications to fight blood clots.  And he has lost about 20 pounds, which is all good.  He also had to have emergency hernia surgery a few weeks back, but has healed nicely from that.  He just celebrated his 79th birthday, and we're hoping the coming year will find him in better health!

One bit of very good news - our Son Joe returned stateside after a year long deployment in Kuwait, and he and his wife Dawn will be moving from PA to TX soon, and will be coming for a visit after the first of the year.  It will be awesome to see them, and good to know they are located closer to us so maybe we can see them more often!

So as the year comes to a close, my thoughts are focused on what I want to do in 2022... right now, my creative juices are low, and I'm taking it easy, just concentrating on what I need to do, but also giving thought to what new directions I want to take creatively.  I recently bought a couple of books that I hope will get me started:

I'm always looking for hand stitching projects I can work on, especially when I work shifts at Arts Connection which is pretty much every Monday now.  And the clay book will be helpful as I strive to learn how to make my own clay faces for my Spirit Dolls.  I have another book coming soon:

I saw this in a blog post as I was admiring the blog author's freeform crochet vessels... right up my alley!  

So that's the plan so far for 2022... meanwhile, I want to wish you all a  Happy Holiday season, and a New Year of Peace, Good Health and Dreams fulfilled!