I got an early heads up that my book was back from the printers on Monday. It came in during an email conversation with my editor and we were both so excited and she said she’d send me a copy asap!

Asap turned out to be the very next day!!! I almost hugged the delivery man because I knew what he was handing me. Something I’ve worked on the past two years. A labor of love that began as a dream 20 plus years ago when I was Tole Painting up a frenzy and secretly thinking how awesome it would be to write my own book filled with projects to share with others. But like most of us do, I didn’t do anything about the dream.  But the dream didn’t go away.

And when the time was right, it came back stronger than ever and at a point in my life that it was actually possible to pursue this dream. I now had the support system in place, was at a good point in my art journey, and had something important that I wanted to share. No one really tells  you how much time and work is involved in writing a book. It takes so much more than I ever imagined. It’s truly a journey and I’ve learned so much along the way. It has made me stronger. Everything was new and the past two years have been full of ‘first times’, with  many emotions experienced along the way. Excitement, fear, frustration, surprise, exhaustion, amazement, and inspiration. I lived ‘Art at the Speed of Life’ the whole way through.

Yesterday I finally was able to hold the culmination of my dreams and efforts in my own hands. It felt so good.

Thank you all so much for following my journey, inspiring me to keep keep going, supporting my efforts, encouraging me with your comments and helping to make this dream come true.

‘Finally, I must give thanks to the “Master Artist’ for putting these people in my life, this dream in my heart, and the brush in my hand.’