It's All in the Family

Wow. All I have to say is wow. I've been part of my family for 25 years now and I'm still learning new things about them every day. I am continually amazed at the amount of TALENT and CREATIVITY that is coming from this bunch of crazy people! (crazy in a good way, that is!) I am honored to be a member of my family.

I've recently had the pleasure of visiting with my aunt & uncle (my dad's sister and her husband). I've never really been that close to them, but only because I haven't taken the time to get to know them better. My uncle has been in the military most of his career, so they have lived in various places around the country and have grown accustomed to being far away from any family. Well, now he's retired from the military and they have moved to Ivins! Ivins is a gorgeous little town just outside of St. George. I am so thrilled to have family close by, and they are too! It's a first for them. They invited us over for family home evening a few weeks ago, and ever since then I feel like I'm attached at the hip. It's awesome.

My aunt Dixie is so talented with painting and I got to see some of the projects she is working on as well as some that she has completed. I've seen her work before, but it is growing all the more breathtaking, detailed, and beautiful. I can tell she is really putting her heart and soul into her work and LOVING it! She does these amazing paintings called "soul paintings" that I couldn't stop thinking about for days after she showed me and told me about them. Here's her description of what a soul painting is:

We are each individually unique, different than any other person who has ever existed. A "Soul Painting" is as unique as your fingerprint, there are no two exactly alike. A "Soul Painting" contains elements that have special meaning to that specific person. Elements that touch that person deeply and has special significance to their life. That is why no two "Soul Paintings" will ever be identical. You are unique, the only "You" there will ever be.

Anyway, I am totally excited because I called her up the next day and asked her to paint my soul! There is another project that she has been working on. It is a children's book that she has written and illustrated. It is SUCH a cute book! It's called: What I'd Like to Be. And it has the unique feature of being personalized for each child that owns a copy - meaning that the child's name is actually published into the story! It's so cute. So anyway, she told me she has been invited to a book signing fair where different authors from our area will be present to sign and sell their books. There was another lady who was going to help her get this project published before Christmas, but she became too bogged down with other stuff. So here is this project sitting on her burner and she wants to get it done so she can attend this fair! Well, I determined that I would help her, and I have! It's been so awesome. I took pictures of all the artwork with my awesome new camera and then took them to work on my computer and cropped them and got them all ready for publishing. There is actually a site online where you can self publish your own work for free! (by the way, I am TOTALLY going to use this site to publish stuff I've written and illustrated through the years!!!) Anyway, so her book is actually published online now and you can order it from Amazon.com or lulu.com. I ordered a proof copy first to make sure everything looks good before we go ordering more though. As for Dixie going to the fair, I made her 4 samples of the book (2 for boys and 2 for girls) and had them printed up at Kinkos so she can take those with her this weekend. I'm excited for her and hope that she is able to sell lots of copies! It's a darling book!

Like I said, I am continually amazed at the amount of talent and creativity that is within my family. I'm so thankful for family. There's definitely a reason we are all here together at this time! I just love my family so much. I want to do better at serving them.