This post has a soundtrack. You’re welcome.

Oh. My. Goodness.

What a year.

I mean, WHAT. A. YEAR!

I don’t even know where to begin.

Two Thousand Ten was a hella crazy year for the Rossmans, including, but not limited to employment calamities, uncertainty, angst and drama. But instead of weeping over my Dickensian tale of woe (and I coulda) I decided to kick 2010 in the bum.

And I think I did.

But I didn’t do it myself and there are many thanks to be, well, thanked.

First, to The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond who single-bloggedly launched my art business. LAUNCHED it. I may never be able to adequately express my thanks, so she will just have to endure my pesky notes and surprise paintings of her farm animals for the rest of her life.

Thank you to Neil Gaiman, for two inspiring and lovely white shepherds to paint and the equally inspiring tweets to 1.5 million followers. I love making art for other people who make art.

Thanks to The Bloggess Jenny Lawson for the links, the tweets, and for sounding like the voice inside my head.

Thanks to Sundryfor the ad space and the Flipcam. I’m working on a handsome reward.

Thanks to Nikki at Design Coyote for the awesome new website.

Thanks to Modchik, Pupstyle, Design Milk, Fabulous Lorraine, Dog Tipper, Salem Monthly, Daily Grommet and Tales From The White House Lawn for the write-ups.

Thanks to GBK Productions for inviting me to be a part of the MTV Movie Awardscelebrity gift lounge. I got to meet Molly Ringwald, and that’s something.

And most of all, thanks to all of you who read my blog, follow my tweets, liked me on Facebook and ordered 256 paintings in 2010. Two Hundred Fifty-Six Paintings.

Remarkable.

Here’s to making more art in 2011.

In 2011 I will also look out for pirates.

Last year I started making my resolutions on New Year’s Eve Eve with the idea that they could then be considered suggestions rather than resolutions. Let’s see how I did.

1. Drink more water.  NOT EVEN CLOSE.
2. Drink less wine and coffee. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
3. Spend less time on the computer, except blogging, Twitter, Facebook and email. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
4. Spend more time with my kids. YES, BUT BARELY.
5. Spend more time making art. YES. YES. YES!
6. Keep the house cleaner. CLEANER THAN WHAT? VOID.
7. Say ‘no’ more often and know when to ask for help. YES!
8. Get out and get moving. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
9. Don’t sweat the small stuff. I’M NOT REALLY WIRED THAT WAY. VOID.
10. Make a big deal of myself in 2010. OH, YES. YES, INDEED.

And now for next year’s Non-Binding New Year’s Suggestions…

1. Drink more water. Come on, how hard can that be?
2. Join a gym closer to home, with the goal of actually getting there 3x/week for a spinning class. Drag a friend along if you have to, lazy bones.
3. Always look on the bright side.
4. Spend even more time with the kids, and I don’t mean barking at them to clean up their darn messes.
5. Stand by your man. (I mean, my man.)
6. Make a bigger deal of myself in 2011.

Yes, this is a shorter list but what you don’t see between the lines are HUGE, HUGE ideas and wonderful things and terrible hurdles and delusions of grandeur that will be emerging in the months to come.

Hang on to your hats.

There is this show coming up at the end of the month that’s calling for art inspired by Dia de los Muertos. I had such luck painting my daughter as a two-headed girl a few weeks ago, that I thought I’d try my hand at painting her as a Catrina figure.

Today we drove to my parents’ house on the coast to pick the kids up and while there, I decided to attempt Phase I of my project – painting my daughter’s face. Phase II will be working from those photos to create a portrait and if I’m lucky, Phase III will be managing to get the whole thing to the post office on time for the show.

And yes, I do sometimes randomly carry my face painting kit around. Doesn’t everyone?

Tools of the trade

Note to self: wear makeup on Saturdays.

She was patient.

And still.

Then she requested a mirror, which seriously impeded our progress.

And she was very involved in the design process.

It turned out just the way we wanted.

I’ve got two additions to my New Year’s guideline list, and they’re actually ones I’m looking forward to.

1. Spend 10 minutes every day looking at something beautiful.
2. Spend 5 minutes every day making something beautiful.

The first one is easy. Seemingly. I have piles of books, magazines and a list a mile long of blogs that I want to dive into for a little inspiration. But do I ever do it? Rarely.

Starting today though, I’m going to carve out just a little window of time every day to look at something purdy. To keep myself honest, I’ll be sharing my finds here every now and then so you can look at something purdy too.

Here’s where I’m starting…

Because I love, love, love this work.

I think I like the birds best.

As for the second addition to the list – making something beautiful – I’m going to leave it open for interpretation. Maybe it means messing around with an Etch-A-Sketch for a few minutes. Creating an artfully arranged tableau on some unspecting horizontal surface. Or – let’s be realistic – cleaning a toilet.

Beauty is where you find it.

I have a full-time job. And I don’t mean the one that includes pouring milk, doing laundry and feeding Webkinz. I mean a full-time, grown-up, wearing-suits-to-work kind of job. It’s not very often that I take vacation of any significant length, but I do try to when my kids are out of school. This year, I took vacation from Christmas Eve to January 4 and I have to say, it just wasn’t long enough. 

Tomorrow it’s back to work, the suits and the commute. I started to panic yesterday because how could it be over already? And what did I accomplish, really? So here’s what I did do, didn’t do and meant to do.

ART

I worked on a few paintings, even a couple that were Christmas gifts – one that I completed, one that I didn’t. (Sorry, babe!) Then there were three name paintings and two more horsey-type just for fun.

FOOD

I cooked a a delicious Christmas dinner at my parents’ house, if I do say so myself. Grilled salmon, crab cakes, crab mousse, tuna-pasta salad and shrimp. We’re from the coast, after all. I love cooking at my parents’ house because they have every gadget imaginable and my dad washes the dishes AS I GO. 

I also made good use of my sourdough starter, making sourdough-applesauce cake and doughnuts (and gaining five pounds.)

This sourdough-applesauce cake will make you give up chocolate cake forever.

Crabcakes, I adore thee.

A happy sight - bread dough rising in the pantry.

They might not be much to look at, but they are tasty.

FUN

The after-Christmas unpacking extravaganza (how did we get all that stuff in our car?) was followed by an entire day cleaning the kitchen from stem to stern so I could film a cooking segment for the Rachael Ray Show with my 6-year-old as sous chef and my 8-year-old as cameraman. (Stay tuned. It may never see the light of day, but it was fun to do!) 

We made mac and cheese. I cannot make this stuff up.

WHAT I MEANT TO DO, BUT DIDN”T

• Clean the kids’ rooms
• Organize the garage and plug in the new freezer
• Clean the carpet
• Relax

Maybe next year.

Despite the unfortunate events of the past 24 hours (hint: hundreds of dollars at auto mechanic and a break-in at my husband’s office) I am determined to cocoon myself in good thoughts (and chocolate if necessary) and make this a good day.  

As all good days start off, I began at Dutch Bros. with my usual mocha on the rocks. I don’t know what they put in those babies (chocolate milk!) but I am completely addicted. I picked up some ground coffee for husband on the way home – he’s not much for frou frou espresso drinks – so we could all be sufficiently caffeinated.  

I have lentil soup in the Crock Pot, which not only makes the house smell great, it makes me feel incredibly efficient to have dinner cooked by 10 a.m.  

I like saying the word mirepoix. It makes me sound fancy.

The kids are off to the park so they will come back in a better mood (fingers crossed) and their absence also allows me to crank up my stereo and make some art.  

It's going to be a horse. I hope that's obvious.

So to recap…  

• Caffeine (the frou-frou espresso kind if you’re into it)
• Dinner in the Crock Pot
• Kids at the park with dad
• Loud music
• A studio cat, preferably one that doesn’t walk across your painting with muddy footprints (I’m lookin’ at you, Ron)
• Optimism with just a dash of denial

Happy New Year!

"Resolution" is such a strong word.

The way I figure it, if you don’t make your resolutions directly on New Year’s Eve, they’re more like guidelines. Non-binding suggestions, if you will. Maybe I’m being a bit cautious (some might say chicken) but here’s my list of New Year’s Guidelines, for myself. Right out here for the world to see.

Caution be damned.

1. Drink more water. You have to start somewhere.
2. Drink less wine and coffee. Oh, but I love wine and coffee.
3. Spend less time on the computer. Except blogging, Twitter, Facebook and email.
4. Spend more time with my kids.
5. Spend more time making art.
6. Keep the house cleaner.
7. Say ‘no’ more often and know when to ask for help.
8. Get out and get moving.
9. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
10. Make a big deal of myself in 2010.

Look out, world.

A few weeks ago I started this here blog, with every intention of updating it regularly and faithfully. So far, I haven’t gotten past that snarky first entry.

You should know that this is not the first blog I’ve ever started. The last one met with the same fate…a slow start, feverish updating for a couple of weeks, and then – crickets. I am challenged by the seemingly endless potential of journal-writing, much the same way I regard a brand new sheet of watercolor paper. Big, bright white, expansive space waiting for something important to emerge. Faced with all that possibility I sometimes have a little bit of um…performance anxiety.

Plus, there is the whole business of me actually writing for a living. Sometimes when I get home after a day of writing soul-less ad copy and newspaper articles, I can’t. Write. Another. Word.

Except I am always writing in my head, really.

So what might readers of this blog find here? Since it’s got my name all over it, it will be closely associated with my artwork and all that jazz. And also chronicles of my life as a haggard working mom.

I think I’m going to be brave this time around and tell others that this blog actually exists.