artful blogging and flying high

i cannot believe i am about to type this, but... my little blog has been featured in ARTFUL BLOGGING! eeek!!!! my excitement is through the roof and i have had a permanent smile all day long. i found out i was selected a few months ago and proceeded to write an article, but felt i would be jinxing myself to let the cat out of the bag that early. i am not superstitious about much, but sometimes, i can't help it.

being featured in artful blogging is one of the biggest goals i have set for my creative life (as you can see in a sample post they printed with my article). i remember seeing a copy of this publication at my local jo-ann's early on and being completely mesmerized. print and web had always been two separate entities, then this publication came out and it made us as artists look at things differently. to combine the two worlds was genius!

what i think is important to tell everyone reading is that this did not come easy for me. they say that you have to work and reach for your goals, and this was no different. i submitted my blog 3 times. yes, 3 times over the course of a year and a half. the publishing world is hard because they get so many submissions, that often you get no response. that leaves you wondering if things got lost in the mail, or if they just didn't like what they saw. but each time i didn't hear anything, i said to myself "well, at least you didn't hear NO." so i gave myself a pep talk and then friends would give me a pep talk and i would submit again. then, something just clicked. maybe my blog has grown and evolved from the fist time i sent it in. maybe they were waiting for a compilation of artists that i "fit" with. all i know is i was chosen and i couldn't be happier. some people would never tell you the back story about how they became published, leading you, the reader to think that everything comes so easy to others which then makes you beat yourself up about not reaching your own personal goals. but all the cliches are true... it takes time, but with a little hard work, eventually you will achieve all you wish for.

so that's my story and now it is also in print :) head on out to your local bookstore and pick a copy up for yourself. you will not be disappointed! every page has amazing eye candy and stories that are equally inspiring.

thank you artful blogging and jennifer jackson for making my dreams come true!