I’m really excited about the two new designs and they will both be premiering at Jingle Bash 2011! Please come out and support us and other local artists, November 19th 1-8 pm at the South Side Events Center on Lamar St. in Dallas. It’s going to be a good time and a good place to get some unique holiday gifts.

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Work has been closed due to the weather since Tuesday and Des and I spent most of the last few days shut up in doors, happily for the most part. But I was getting a little stir-crazy and we need to get some food and things from the store, so we walked to the convenient store a few blocks away from our apartment.

What I found was that this was what is known as The Cliff House.  It was originally built on the cliffs north of Ocean Beach in San Francisco, California in 1863.  Back then it was a very modest, one-story restaurant.  It quickly became a popular destination for wealthier San Franciscans who stopped in on their way to horse racing and other recreational activities.  A slight remodel was made to the building in 1868, adding a promenade and additional wings.  It was following this remodel that the less wealthy and more unsavory characters started to call The Cliff House a favorite spot and the restaurant became known for the scandals that took place there.  It passed through another owner and more than two decades before it was burned to the ground on Christmas 1894.

After the destruction of the original incarnation, the new owner Aldous Sutro decided to rebuild the house in a more elegant an elaborate style.  It even became known during this period as The Gingerbread Palace.  In 1896, The Cliff House reopened in grand fashion, remodeled after a French chateau with eight stories, four spires, and an observation deck to top it off.  It again became the talk of San Francisco and a luxurious and favored destination for the wealthy and elite.

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It passed through another owner following Sutro’s death in 1898 before it finally met it’s end.  The Cliff House only existed for 11 years in it’s most ostentatious and memorable state.  Although it survived a major earthquake in 1906, only a year later it burned to the ground from a fire that started during another remodel.  It took 2 hours.

I hope to be crossing all of these things off my list this year, and updating here as I do.

I also have some goals that are more oriented toward this blog in particular.  You may or may not have noticed that I have been tinkering with the design.  I will be continuing to alter and perfect the design over the next few months and I will be making another post to explain the significant changes.  I have been thinking a lot about blogs that I really enjoy and what makes them more enjoyable.  In my opinion, one thing is when the author gives you a real honest look into their life and who they are.  This is something I am going to try to be better at.  Not that I haven’t been honest but there is always a tendency to omit and hold back information and to try to paint a picture of yourself that you want others to see.  I am going to try not to do that.  I am going to try to just be straight forward and authentic to who I am.  Hopefully this will not only make for a more compelling blog, but will also make for less stress on my end about blogging.

I am excited in general to be starting a new year.  2010 was not the best year for me and my family.  At the very end of 2009, Des’ grandmother passed away and we spent the first half of 2010 dealing with that loss.  In February, my older brother left for 2 years to go to Paraguay for the Peace Corps.  In May I was laid off and started a 6-month long unemployment period.  It wasn’t until the last few months of last year that I really started to see a light at the end of the tunnel.  Now I am just hoping that 2011 will be a year of personal and professional growth and payoff.  I came across this on at the crosswalk and I thought it was the perfect sentiment: