Well, sort of. I mean, once I decided that this was the year to do it, I had just enough time to maybe get it done. I looked at the calendar on November 2nd and realized if I made 3 or 4 pictures a day, every day, I would just barely get finished in time for Christmas. It seemed like a long shot but when I told my friend Erin about it later that night, she told me I should totally do it. Then we ordered one last pitcher of beer (always the one you regret the next day) and that sealed the deal.
I was making a children's book.
So, the next day, I got started. And then, four weeks later, I sent a big PDF off to be made into a book and thought, "Holy crap! Where am I? What happened to November? I missed my birthday and my sister and mom visiting and Thanksgiving and... wait, where's my son? Do I have a husband? Whose house is this? What the F happened!?!"
Okay, so I didn't completely miss out on everything. I still experienced November, just in a very abbreviated, one-track mind sort of way:
I (quickly) celebrated my birthday...
And spent (a little) quality time with my mom...
I was thankful on Thanksgiving...Who said I couldn't multi-task?
Once I got started, the project took on a life of its own. Initially I wanted to make pictures for each letter of the alphabet - you know, like C for Candy Cane, T for Tree...inanimate, easy-to-draw stuff like that. I was trying to avoid people all together since I didn't know how to draw faces and didn't even want to think about making hands. But once I was knee deep in scraps of paper, I don't know what happened. It was like suddenly I was making things I had no idea I knew how to make.
For example, I made a Gingerbread House for the letters G and H. And it was fine. But it just wasn't doing it for me. So I went back to the drawing board and the next thing I knew I was working on a tiny paper Bill and Liam making a gingerbread house:
This whole thing still comes as a bit of a shock to me. That I started it and finished it for sure, but more that I was so focused and detail oriented in the process.
Now that's my style.
So, who the heck cut out all the tiny holly leaves to make a wreath?
I'll tell you all about it really soon. I promise!
(Oh, and in case you're wondering, the Borax totally worked! Goes to show, just because you don't know what you're doing doesn't mean a thing. Go ahead and do it anyway - the results just might shock the pants off of you.)








