An Exciting New Project

Hi! How is everybody? Just wanted to stop and chat a bit and update you guys on where things are at with me personally.

I've stopped doing the custom wedding invitation thing (thanks for all your support). As much as I loved meeting all the couples and working with my hands on the paper and embellishments, it was very labor intensive and I wasn't making much money:( So, for about the last 9 months or so, I've just been a stay-at-home Mom (my favorite gig so far!)....and blogger, of course. I've loved the freedom and extra time to myself that came along with giving up that side business. I'm completely happy with that decision, but I've also recently been wondering if, creatively, I am supposed to be doing something other than coloring with Maura:) I was sort of at a crossroads, until something completely out of the blue fell in my lap.

A good family friend (Lisa of Life in Dar...she currently lives in Tanzania - yes, I mean Africa!!! - with her husband and 2 adorable kids) recently got in touch. She and her hubs have written a children's book (it has always been a dream/goal of theirs to do together) and they asked me to illustrate it!! Say what?!

I went to school for Illutsration...earned a BFA in it from Syracuse University (coincidentally, Lisa attended SU too). But my first job was in product design and then I became a 3D animator, so I never really totally did the illustrator thing. It was the farthest thing from my mind when I started thinking about what (if anything) I was meant to be doing with myself and my free time. (Did I just say free time? Lol. I have a toddler...and a blog. That's funny!!) But after a lot of thought, tons of emails back and forth to Africa, and chats with some of my creative/live hard-play hard kinda friends, I decided to go for it!! I'm so thankful to Lisa and her husband Kristoffer for wanting me to be a part of this adventure.

So, I'm about to illustrate my first children's book  (its a very different Santa Claus story - so fun)!!! I've been published a few times before, but nothing this huge. (Worked with a local author before on a couple of her books...my favorite piece was one of those maps you see at the beginning of a book that shows you where all the locations and events mentioned inside are! I'm the nerd that always flips back and forth to the map while reading to get my bearings!) I'm really, really excited...and nervous...and scared out of my mind!! How cool/surreal would it be to someday be in this stack?!

We don't have a publisher yet, our plan is to shop it around and then if no one bites/worst case, self-publish. If you don't mind my asking (we can use all the help we can get in making this thing a reality), have any of you been involved in something like this before? Do you know anything about publishing your own book? Have any contacts in the publishing world?

On a side note...what are some of your favorite children's books? Have any favorite illustrators whose work I can check out?

Any of you guys starting out on a new path? Inspire me with your success stories:) And thanks in advance for understanding while I juggle this new work load with this ol' blog here!!!