A new year.  The first week of January has become difficult for me.  Two of the people I have been closest too died on the 4th & 5th of January: my grandmother in 2002, and my ex-boyfriend Taylor in 2009.  It's hard not to get weighed down by remembrance and lingering grief.  

Despite the inauspicious start, I like January.  It's a month bursting with the possibilities of the new year.  

There's a lot on the calender this year.

My five year wedding anniversary will be in May.  One of my best friends will have her second child sometime around the end of August.  I am preparing for major elective surgery of a personal nature, which will hopefully alleviate the excruciating back pain I live with and enable me to find tops that actually fit.  

Artistically, I don't have much planned.  I'm taking part in a big handmade gift swap sweeping through Facebook.  Actually, I wonder if I can get the same sort of thing going here.  

Alrighty, a challenge to myself and others:

I will send a gift handmade by myself to the first three people who comment to this journal, provided that you do the same thing in your journal.  Whether it's a piece of art, a print of a photo yet untaken, a piece of beaded jewelry, a knit scarf, a hang-tooled bit of leather working, or some other art or craft--it must be produced by yourself.  

I will request address information for those people interested and eligible. I'm setting 2011 as the time period for this, meaning that as long as the gift gets sent in 2011, it's all good.

As a side note, I'm an artsy jack-of-all-trades, so I could make anything I just listed or anything I can check a tutorial out for.  I won't be taking requests, but I will take a look at your DA page and try to gauge your interests and an appropriate gift from that.  

Happy 2011!