A woman I work with recently told me how much she loves Etsy and buying homemade goods. Somehow, we got to the topic of how my mom is crafty and she wore the crafty-ness off on me. I showed her some handmade greeting cards I made, and it lead to her asking me to do a commission piece for her daughter's first birthday (Katerina). The theme in Katerina's room is elephants, hot air balloons, and the colors pink and brown. She really liked the idea of a girl wearing a patchwork dress.
So, the idea was shuffeled around, and turned into an elephant wearing a patchwork dress. Then, it looked way too odd for such a small elephant (the piece has to fit in a 8" x 10" frame), so now the patchwork is in the puddle - it's raining and the elephant is stomping through the puddled (Katerina is an April baby, after all!). I also embroidered rain drops with a blue gradient embroidery floss, added embroidered touches on the elephant and the umbrella, and water colored the background of the picture.
And, as an extra for Katerina's birthday, I decided to crochet her bow clips for her strawberry blonde hair :) since my nephew won't be wearing these anytime soon, I need to give them to someone!