Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I'm so excited for this long weekend.  I've got a lot planned and I'm sure it's going to fly by, but I'm not going to even think about that right now.  I recently got a couple of new books ....

"How to Create a Portfolio & Get Hired"

http://www.laurenceking.com/product/How+to+Create+a+Portfolio+---+Get+Hired%3A+A+Guide+for+Graphic+Designers+and+Illustrators.htm

and "2011 Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market"

http://www.amazon.com/2011-Artists-Graphic-Designers-Market/dp/1582979553

I'm going to start researching companies and creating my mailing list.  It's going to be time consuming, which is why I'm so glad that I have this long weekend.   Right now I have to get back to cooking our Thanksgiving dinner and watching "The Jerk" (one of my all time fav. movies).  I'm so looking forward to Ham (yes, ham instead of turkey), stuffing, green been casserole and pumpkin pie.  Then if I'm lucky we might go see the new Harry Potter movie tonight.  What a great start to my long weekend.  I have at least one new (small) painting to post this weekend, and if I am really productive hopefully I will have a couple others.   But, I'm off for now.

Have a great holiday everyone.

     You may notice a lot of changes happening to this blog.  Now that I'm heading into my promotion phase I'm trying out different looks until I have it just right.  The whole process is much more tedious than I had ever expected.  I did take a break this afternoon for a quick jaunt, with my husband, to the bookstore and then to Crumbs Bake Shop for a delicious cupcake.

     While we were out we also stopped at Target and got "How to Train Your Dragon" - which we watched while eating dinner.  Then enjoyed our cupcakes for dessert.  What a great evening.  Now it's back to the computer to see what I can figure out before it's bedtime and then another busy week of work.  So much to do and too little time to do it in, as usual.  I hope everyone has a great week.

Thanks for all the positive feedback from everyone, I really appreciate the encouragement. 

I have finally completed my final portfolio piece.  I hate to use the word "final" because it's no where near the final piece - but I wanted a minimum of 10 illustrations before I started promoting, and I have reached that goal.   So here it is .... the 10'th  illustration .....

There are still several small pieces that I have been working on.  Hopefully I will post them this week.  For now it's time to focus on the website, maybe tweaking the blog a little bit and creating a facebook for my illustrations.  I also need to begin contemplating what my promotional post cards should look like.  I have a lot of computer work ahead of me and already miss my paint brush, but I'm happy to begin the next step.  I'll keep you all posted.