A cold, gray morning just two days after Christmas finds me groggily puttering around the house in my pjs, heading for coffee and breakfast. Still recovering from Christmas festivities, stepping over toys and readjusting to life without Christmas music, I browse my phone to see what’s going on in the world. There’s a confusing text from one of my friends that looks like this:

from www.al.com Birmingham’s Best 2013

I ask what it is, where it’s from, and expected questions when you are nervously beginning to be excited, but waiting to find out it’s a scammy joke. But apparently this time it’s for real. Some of my family members found the same surprising announcement in the newspaper that morning.

Some how, some way, all my little cows, pigs, portraits and cotton bolls helped me get voted by at least enough Birmingham residents to make it on the list as a runner up for best local artist in Birmingham for 2013.

I have one emphatically hyphenated word for this news: Ca-razy.

And even in the Birmingham News! Hurrah!

So let the confetti rain down for just a second, for this lovely year-end surprise… Happy New Year!