New. Year. New Start.

Happy New Year everyone!! 

Hope you all had a safe and fun time ringing in 2011. And I truly hope everyone had a great Christmas. Not surprisingly, I haven't posted since the middle of December, but that is going to change. More on that later.

I had a great New Years Eve. I spent it with my familia and friends in Salinas, playing board games! Yes,  you read correctly, board games. And not just the regular old boardgames one might think of like Scrabble, Monopoly, or Sorry!, but actual gamers board games.

For example, we played Ticket to Ride (image above), both European one and the U.S. one. Eric and I enjoyed the European one more because there are more stops and tunnels! Yes. To put it simply, one draws a card that had a railway linking one city to another. You must fulfill these railways or you lose points at the end of the games. Also, the more trains you put down and the more railways you complete, the more points you gain. It's anybody's game.  There is some strategy involved or luck of the draw, but it's a fun and entertaining game that kept my family busy up until the last minutes of 2010.

It's going to be on my birthday/Christmas list this year!

There were other games like Guillotine, Metropolis, the Game of Life and another game I forgot the name of, but there was certainly no shortage of games, food, alcohol and fun. :) I got to see family from the Long Beach area and family I didn't get to see over the holiday. Funny, how being surrounded by laughter makes one look forward to the new year and slowly shed off the heartaches and pain of previous ones and reflect fondly on all the good of the past year.

Like the family coming together to celebrate my abuela's birthday!

Or we can call 2010 the year of weddings for friends and family!

And *ahem* my marriage to my fabulous hubby Eric.  (Photos by Neil Simmons Photography)

A fantastic road trip honeymoon to Canada which was an awesome adventure of dune buggy rides, zip lining, kayaking and wine tasting!

As well as the birth of a new second cousin Carlos! Named for my dearly departed tia Carolotta aka Charlie. <3  And my friends son Devin.

It was also a year of new steps, where as I started renting a studio space in a scary warehouse and met a lot of fun, inspiring and hell bent on creating art, people who now are new friends who I look forward to seeing at my time in the studio. :) Great shows there too, as what we are now known as the Garden Core.

*note not at studio*

New works of art. 2010 started off with a show at Belle Starr Boutique in Eureka CA.

New works were born during the summer  with animal portraits to show at the Sand City West End Event.

Celebration and a runaway train of crazy painting for the Dias de los Muertos show at Calvary Cemetery.

My friend Josana at her table

To the fun and scary festivities of Halloween with family!

And let us not forget the awesomeness of the San Francisco  Giants winning the World Series.

A lot of fond memories, accomplishments and more stories added to our tales in life this past year. Hard not to look back on it and smile.

 

And with a new year comes new goals, more determination, more angst and challenges. Case in point, a new years resolution. Which will be spoken about in the next entry. I promise I won't run and hide.

For now. Enjoy the start of the new year!