Gift Season

Today is technically the last day of fall and as I went outside to grab a sandwich at lunch and take my dog for a quick walk the very first snow flurries began to drop.  The snow quickly turned to rain and nothing stuck but it felt like the perfect way for Mother Nature to raise the curtain, giving us a sneak peek of the season ahead.

Tomorrow will also mark three months since my birthday.  A whole season ago I turned 45 on the last day of summer. As has been my custom since my 23rd birthday, I bought myself a birthday something this year.  The rule is always the same - one thing, a treat just for me, and I don't have to panic about the practicality of any of it.  

Except this year, I broke my own rule.  I bought two things.  

It took me awhile to decide on what I wanted my gift of my 45th year to be; I knew I wanted something a little different from birthday years past.  I thought I wanted art (never mind that I'm basically out of wall space in my apartment) and I definitely wanted personalized and distinct.  As anyone who talks to me for 3 minutes will know, my dog is my favorite thing in the world, so I wanted something that involved him too. While tooling around on Etsy one evening, I finally landed on just the thing. 

A pet portrait.

A human portrait.

I couldn't decide which idea I liked more, a sketch of just Indy or a funky painting of me and Indy together.  So, naturally, my brain said - well, how about one of each?  (My wallet said - I did not approve this new rule! But...okay, just this once.)

As you can imagine, ordering and receiving my * ahem * custom works took a little time, particularly as one was * commissioned * by an artist in Spain and another in England. I finally received the last of the two just this week.  I've framed my sketch of Indy and he's watching over us from the bookshelf.  I haven't yet framed the one of the two of us, but we'll get to that in the New Year. 

And so, without further ado, I give you 45 - birthday portrait style.

This is me and my beloved pup in one of our favorite places on earth - Christmas Cove, Maine.  A dear friend snapped the photo of what became the inspiration for this painting the very first summer Indy and I were two peas in a pod, August of 2022.

This sketch was done by an artist in England, who was a delight. I fell in love with her whimsical artwork immediately and she was so accommodating when I requested that she include Indy's three most beloved toys (OF ALL TIME) in the sketch.  Please meet Dragon, one legged llama, and his orange Chuck-It ball, all three of which he would follow to the ends of the earth - assuming he could look back and make sure I was coming along too of course.

I will admit it did feel a little silly? different? to order a painting of myself but if there is one thing I've learned more and more as each year passes, is to tell that negative Nelly voice to step aside and do the thing that makes you happy.  And these two, they make 45 year old me feel just that.  So happy and merry to me.