Here we are at the start of another new year, another new decade as well. I'm looking forward to good things this year and I'm sure you are as well. We are still facing economic problems and a sense of uncertainty is in the air. If you're like me, these first few days of January are used to reflect back on the year before so here goes mine.

  I started out the year with a display of my paintings in the window next to Classic Chevy in my hometown of Bellevue and got a good bit of positive feedback from those who saw it. Going into summer I was able to follow it up with another display in my hometown at the Muddy Cup coffee shop. This led to the years highlight of me showing my work outside at the Summer Solstice Fair and being able to tell people that you can see more of my work right down the street at the Muddy Cup. I love it when a plan comes together! I also showed at the Greenstone Church in the summer where I got a sale (thanx again Marion!) and meet another artist who sometime this year will be helping me reach a whole new market. I closed the year by showing at a vendor fair in Bayne Library.

  Looking back I'd have to say that I got the hang of exposing my artwork in my local community so with that under my belt I'm looking to expand those efforts in 2010 and hopefully increase my sales which leads me to the not so good in 2009.

  Do to the economy, three collectors decided to postpone purchasing artwork off of me and of course I completely understand. My hope for this year is we get over this recession and working people have more cash to work with so that they can do more than just barely keep a roof over their heads. All I can do as a small (very small) business owner is keep my art affordable and keep my policy of accepting no interest payments. The other thing I've decided to do is to keep my prices the same as last year since these three collectors have their prices locked in anyway. It's all about integrity and not being greedy and I'm going to say that if big businesses and banks had more of that maybe we wouldn't be in this mess now.

  I'm going to close by saying that lets all stay positive and keep praying. The country has rebounded from this in the past so it can do it again. Keep your goals in mind and take it one day at a time.