This year we were excited and honored to have author and illustrator
Heather Ross do the portrait and hand lettering for our 2011 holiday card. Half of our daughter's dresses are made from Heather Ross fabric and we have admired her illustrations for many years (so it was a special thrill to have her create this card for us). For the subject, Heather chose
our annual trip up to Eastern Market to get a tree. My wife says, "Somehow, each new Heather Ross fabric seemed to
perfectly match our daughter's interests. It started with her
mermaid
line,
then
unicorns, and then, most
recently,
playing with horses. For her birthday I'm making a quilt from the latest line, and I hope that years from
now, when our daughter has nearly forgotten how she played with
toy horses on the floor of her room for hours at a time, she'll look at this quilt and remember. Heather Ross captures the magic of childhood." I'm so glad my wife convinced Heather to do the card (left to my own devices, I might have asked
this guy to do it).
Every year I get more and more excited about this tradition; I love the idea of having new artists with completely different styles capturing our family each year and I love the results even more (here are
2009 and
2010). Happy holidays, everyone.