As you all can imagine, we're ready to put 2010 to bed, and we're excited to be welcoming in 2011. Last night I had the great pleasure to visit a bit with Cameron Malloy. I hadn't seen or spoken to her since we closed the gallery. and the timing of our meeting was nothing less than serendipitous. While Cameron and I both mourned Hummingbird Lane in 2010, we both have high hopes for the future in 2011.

Cameron, her sister Linda, and two friends were walking along North Park Street when Kathy Aerts, Jon Dahlstrom and I were closing up Cranberry Corners.

I saw Cameron, and my first instinct was to run and hide. When she spotted me, she barely recognized me. When she did, her face lit up, and her warmth enveloped me completely. She walked towards me with her arms outreached. Her grace and elegance again impressed upon my very soul. "I have been thinking so much about you. Please let me introduce me to my friends. They were just asking about you." She proceeded with introductions, and I had to wipe a tear from my eye. "I'm sorry I havent' called you. I just couldn't." 

 "I understand completely," she said. "I can hardly believe it's all real. I'm so sorry. "

 "I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry," I said. "I never wanted this to happen, but we had no choice."

 "I know," she confirmed. "But I wish you and Todd the very best. I hope 2011 is going to be a great year for you."

 With her wish, I think I've finally put the events of 2010 into the "Past" file, and will be able to move forward. Closure is nearly impossible with something like this. I've experienced two other losses in my life that compare to this one, and I didn't think the pain of any of these events would ever subside. But it does, and we move on.

So as we move through the last hours of 2010, I have to reflect on the value of friendship. Without my friends, I don't know if I could have survived the events of 2010. From Jorgene West, who spent her entire Summer vacation working on the details of closing the gallery, to Clark Edgin, my best friend since 1995, coming to the auction and holding me up while they auctioned off the famous carved wood hummingbird, to Kranberry Kathy and Vicki who both encouraged and pressured me to produce more clay works, to Sheila Lawson Litherland who came and sat with me on many tear filled afternoons and everyone in between, I have the most amazing friends in the entire world. I will forever be reminded that had it not been for my friends, 2010 could have destroyed my spirit. 

 And yet they were there, and with their help and support, we're moving forward. We're working on the Hummingbird website now, getting it prepared for the new world of selling pottery and paintings. Maybe in some worlds it seems as if nothing has changed, but for us, selling our own work as been secondary to supporting artists from all over the Southeast. Now it's time to promote our own work, and to have that as my primary mission is a little out of my comfort zone. But I have learned one huge lesson in 2010: If you don't take care of yourself first, you will never be able to take care of someone else.

I'll be scheduling classes and workshops, studio open houses, home shows and stocking my vendors with loads of new work. I'll be reaching out to the community, and have already started to connect with my friends and neighbors here in Dawson County. I'd like to offer my services of promoting businesses in Dahlonega and Dawsonville, and will continue with Dahlonegaweddings.com. My work was chosen to be Inaugural gifts for Georgia's new Governor, Nathan Deal. A whole lot has changed, and as you've all heard, Change is Good!!!

So bring it on 2011! Let's see what you've got - we're so ready for you!

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