The ground hog did not see his shadow this year so spring is on the way! Thank goodness, I could use a lot of sunshine in my life, how about you?

New plans are underway for this New Year. At the top of the Priority List last year was to make time to paint and submit projects for each of the five trade shows that we attend. Thankfully my goal was reached as I did make all of the deadlines (I know that is hard for you to believe) so I will be teaching at each of the conferences and conventions that we attend in 2007.

Top priority this year: New samples for much of our tin piece will be showing up at shows and on the web. You can expect many new tin pieces available only from our Folk Art Tin line. There will be a decidedly new look in our booth at the trade shows.

And now for news that will bring you up to date on the life of the Wetterman's, Della and Company and Folk Art Tin.

Valentine Offer
As a thank you for your support we have a special for our Folk Art Friends that shop with us. With each order of $15.00 or more placed by a Folk Art Friend we will include a 4" heart ornament. This offer does not apply to sale items. Please type the word Friend on the checkout page in the "Additional Information" box and your Valentine Puffed Heart will be included. Be sure and type Friends because our shopping cart is not equipped to handle two "offers" at the same time.This offer is limited to those on our mailing list.

Ornaments
We have expanded the number of tin ornaments in our line and more are on the way. At the Vegas Show we will have a new display unit to house the ornaments and a number of new samples will be on display for the first time. By June at the Anaheim Show we will have new ornament samples and more new samples of other tin surfaces as well.

Placing Large Orders for Classes
We are experiencing "growing pains". (A very good problem to have!) If we should be out of the product that you need for your class it takes at least 90 days once we place an order with our supplier for the product to arrive.

We have many teachers using our product (thanks to each of you) and it has become difficult to keep all our products in stock in sufficient quantity to always fill large class orders. Please place orders for the product you need as soon as you can since it takes so long to order, have the new merchandise manufactured, shipped and received.

The trains will be sold only in sets. The cost of the trains will be $64.00 + shipping. We will not wholesale the train sets. They are labor intensive and our cost will not permit us to offer a discounted price. The set includes the large train engine, a flat bed car with a tin flag and a coal car. Both of the cars can be filled with small toys, little treasures, painted miniatures or candy.

All orders will be shipped in the order they are received.

There will be a limited number of trains in this order. There is an ad in the recent issue of PaintWorks and many orders have been received. All orders placed in advance will receive a free miniature Colonial Christmas tree made especially for our train.

The painted train will be on display at the SPD Show in Anaheim the pattern will be for sale.

Lia Anderson Seminar
We have Lia scheduled to come to Texas and teach in the spring. Due to unexpected events it will be rescheduled. We were booked at a hotel in Brenham, Texas only to learn they had no non smoking rooms or rooms with two beds reserved for us. I have been unable to work out another date this year with them. We will reschedule it for a later date. The options are for the hotel there to free up some rooms at another time, move it to another city (possibly Salado in June), or wait until the spring of 2008 and have it in Brenham so we can tour the Painted Churches in that area. A decision will be made very soon, the info will be listed on our opening page and an email will go out to those on our Folk Art Friends mailing list.

For those of you that don’t know about Lia she is the only painter in the US that teaches authentic German Folk Art. Her bio will be on the web when we the date and location are confirmed.

Below is one of the designs we will be using.

2007 Annual Gathering of Folk Art Friends
The date is set and samples are being designed as we speak. Rosemary West and Della Wetterman will be teaching at the new Holiday Inn Express in Salado, Texas. This is the facility we were scheduled to use last year, but they were not open before our seminar. The facility is lovely and spacious and you will be pleased. The class room view is of the pool and patio area. We will be two minutes away from our daily "Salado 101 Shopping" our two hour lunch break.

The date for the seminar is October 25 – 28. We will have a prep night on October 24. The registration form is now up and registration can begin.. If you plan to attend you can contact the hotel and make your reservations. Reservation info is on the web.

New Arrival in our Family
Bill and I welcomed a new male member to the Wetterman family. He was born on Oct. 6, 2006. He is the cutest little guy you have ever seen. He weighs 9 ½ lbs. has huge dark brown eyes, Mr. Beau Jangles is a ball of white fur … a Bichon puppy. We love him well beyond our expectations. He has completely stolen our hearts and my mothers as well. Dad is an Alzheimer’s victim and can no longer lives at home. He is in the hospital quite ill. Mother is home alone and lonely. Beau is a regular visitor and brightens her day. He is so good for her. When he enters her home he races to her much to Mother’s delight and a tremendous show of affection ensues. Of course, he knows his favorite “puppy” treat will also be waiting for him.

Beau, being an exceptionally bright puppy, exhibits a flair for painting. DecoArt Paint is his chosen brand of paint. Recently he sneaked a bottle out of a box on the floor in the studio, chewed on it and dark blue paint dribbled out of his mouth, down his leg and on the floor. I blotted the paint, saturated it with baby shampoo and you guessed it, it spread all over that part of his body. I was home alone or I would have definitely had a photo of that. I could hardly clean him up for laughing.

I first used No Tears Baby Shampoo and that did not work. I followed that with Ivory Liquid, then Murphy's Oil Soap and he was still blue, it was still spreading! I was becoming really concerned. Finally, I decided to use some DecoArt Brush Cleaner and that did the trick. Thank goodness we were not going to a have a permanently stained puppy.

Just like grandchildren you have to share photos. You can expect to see Beau in the next newsletter.

Down on the Farm
Many of you call to inquire about the date the next newsletter will be received and you always want to hear about news from the farm, so here is a short update. Short is difficult because there is always something new to share with you about the farm. Since Christmas 120 new Royal White lambs were born and almost that many baby goats. What a heart warming sight, they are adorable. Coyotes are a problem all of the time, but especially when babies are born. When the mothers give birth the coyotes are lying in wait in the creek bed that curves through our property. Many watchful hours are spent in the pick up the guys use to drive out into the fields to watch with binoculars and a scope. We have a Great Pyrenees dog that helps to keep them away as well. Even so, we lost a few of our babies.

Patterns Added to the Web
Several patterns have been added to the web. The following patterns appeared in magazines articles in 2006.

November/December 2006 Decorative Painter
Christmas Cardinal Orn.	Victorian Santa Orn.	Snowman Ornament
Luggage Tag FT-2108	Stocking FT-2068	Oval FT-2107

PaintWorks Magazine 2006
Flat Trio of Trees Ornaments Folk Art Tin #FT-2129	Two Black Ornaments Folk Art Tin #2108

The three here are not new, but they were not on the web. Check them out.

Christmas in the Village	Village Squire Grouping	Angel Document Box

In a couple of weeks we will have a lot of new patterns from Rosemary West. The notice will be on the opening page when we have then scanned and up.

We will be sharing other plans in future newsletters. We welcome any suggestions that you might have for us to improve our business and any merchandise you would like for us to sell.

Seminars
With my parents both in ill health I have rescheduled some of my seminars so I have the spring at home to be with them. I will teach a chapter in Ft. Worth this spring (because it is near and I can drive) and then five trade shows the second half of the year.

If you would like for me to come for a seminar and you live on the way to or from a seminar I will be accepting dates the week end before a trade show begins and the week end after the trade show. The one before the show should be only several hours drive away, but the one after the show on our way home and can be in another state as we will have ample travel time.

This will be easier for me since I have to arrange for someone to stay with Mother when I am on the road for shows.

And in Closing
It had been my plan to send you a Christmas greeting, due to family illnesses it did not happen. In December I decided it would have to be a New Year’s greeting, but that was not to be either. So, now, I will send you a belated Christmas greeting, my wish for your New Year and Valentine greeting.

First I hope your Christmas was filled with family and fun and that your Valentines will be especially nice to you.

As for the New Year:

"Wishing you a prosperous year filled with love, good health and lots of painting time."

I want to leave you my continued mantra(s): "If money can fix it, it is not a problem!", "Hug your loved ones often”, "Stay in touch with your good friends", and last, and most important of all "Take care of you". I am learning this is more important than I ever knew. Most of us are the glue that holds the family together.