Dear Diary: If you have patience, you will reap the rewards.

I can't believe it's Friday again. Where does the time go? Of course there was that last minute ketubah for a wedding next Saturday in New York, but really—the true culprit was getting some real new work done. It is easy to recycle all the stuff I have already done. Making new art is soooo much harder.

There are moments when I must take myself in hand and say—OK—it is time to get down to it and try to come up with something different. The kind of hard creative work that makes me yawn over and over again and makes my eyes tear and my legs cramp and my hands freeze (I mean really from the cold but also from concentrating so hard). The kind of work that makes the day seem long and makes me wonder if in fact I have it in me.

A few weeks back, cousin Sheryl called to talk about a new avenue for my work. "I think I have an idea to expand your business" she said. "Now that you have weddings covered, what about birth certificates?" I was quick to say that I was way ahead of her and had been playing around with some ideas but hadn't really gotten far enough with it to do something serious about it. She was very encouraging and assured me I would come up with something great.

Well that was kind of the kiss of death.

Now there were expectations... It was for some reason like a lead weight I couldn't get out from under—So I gave myself a shake this week, and between rush ketubah jobs and trips to the post office and Fedex I started doing research and started putting some ideas together.

Then I let them sit for a few days ...  and you know, I am kind of excited about the results.

First I researched the Jewish tradition of baby naming which is to officially present the child with a Hebrew name, usually honoring a loved one who has passed on. I wanted to create a certificate that documented the baby’s key statistics, English and Hebrew names as well as the dearly departed family members that were being honoured by the naming. In the tradition of ketubah artwork, I wanted to decorate the document with meaningful symbolism.

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Since pomegranates are a symbol of fertility and bees and butterflies pollinate and fertilize, these elements seemed like a great beginning.

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In both designs, the background faded leaves form a subtle Star of David. Not everyone will see this detail, but I know it's there.

These two designs will be are for sale at my etsy shop next week now. The text will be totally customizable and I think I will offer two sizes based on off the shelf frames.

And this is not the end of my weeks accomplishments. But I will save that for another post...