Half a pint and a bottle of beer please

Another milestone birthday was coming up for a family member of one of my regular customers. I received a very organised e-mail from him detailing what subject matter and what greeting should be included on a customised card and, along with that, he also attached a photo of the birthday boy. He seems to have learnt how I work and certainly made my job very easy on this occasion.

This time the event was his nephews 21st birthday and I was asked to illustrate the birthday boy with a selection of his interests. These include cooking, drinking, poker, football (the English club Tottenham Hotspur) and travel. My client told me that I didn't need to illustrate every hobby and activity but the card design came together easily and I was able to include everything. The overflowing pint glass and bottle of beer in the foreground are my favourites!
My youngest son was recently helping Daddy do a little weeding in our front garden. He excitedly ran into the house to present me with a flower that he had found in the course of his work. Of course it wasn't so much a flower as a weed, but I was delighted by his gesture and happily put his gift into a vase on my bedside table. Behind the arrangement you can see one of my most prized possessions - a drawing done by the same son last year, with a big heart on it and the message "I luv you Mummy". As I mentioned in my last post, he loves to draw and create and certainly seems to be on track to joining me in my little business one day!
At the end of last year Yafit of Yafit's First Glass, and a fellow member of the Etsy Chai team, included my Hanukkah cards in a treasury. When a discussion recently arose on the Etsy Chai e-mail list about Google Analytics and the number of visits people get from referrals, both Yafit and I were pleasantly surprised to discover that she had had a good number of visitors to her shop as a result of my mentioning it, and thanking her, in a blog post. Yafit recently included another piece of mine, my Japanese Woman Papercut Picture, in one more Etsy Treasury, titled "I love EtsyChai's colors". My picture can be seen, above, in the centre of the colourful collection and is also available in my shop. Thank you for showing my piece, alongside some other beautiful work, Yafit. The co-operation and online friendship between so many Etsy sellers is just wonderful!