I’ve become obsessed with Pinterest lately. I guess it started when I designed my Nutcracker pin and was pinning other types of nutcrackers. I pin to my Beach board – other paintings of the beach, beach decor, etc. Pinterest is really a great place to collect ideas. I’ve also been pinning ideas for holidays like Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter. It’s very inspiring. The real trick is to turn all that pinning into creating!
This year I haven’t really done much for Valentine’s Day. Years prior, I’ve painted, block stamped, and even created string art. I’ve been too focused on my beach painting project and didn’t want to lose focus. In looking ahead to St. Patrick’s Day, I decided to go through my previous artwork and perhaps design a fabric print in the Irish theme. As I dug through a bin of old projects I found “The Claddagh Fairy,” a book I wrote and worked hard to illustrate when I first started this blog. I put a lot of time effort into the book. I even had a doll made! What a shame that it is sitting in a bin.
With St. Patrick’s Day a little over a month away, I decided to dust off the book and release it into the world by self publishing it. It’s not about the possibility of book sales, it’s about finishing and sharing a project I worked hard on. I find tight deadlines very motivating, so I’ve been working these past few days, tweaking the story, finishing the artwork, and preparing the files for printing. Even though I’m a graphic designer, I’ve never self published before, and it’s overwhelming. I found a great, very detailed post about it. If self publishing is in the back of your mind – read it here.
Even as I write this, it still seems impossible that I’ll get this done, that the files will be right, the dedication will be in the right place, etc. But, I’m committed to seeing this through, until “The Claddagh Fairy,” is part of the Amazon collection. The luck of the Irish would come in handy right now.
mycreativeresolution.com 
Wow! That is fantastic Eileen! You go girl!! 💕🌈🌟😍
Thanks Jill!
Can’t wait to see it and get it!!! 😉. And I hope I remember to go back to this link as I keep considering publishing a book. Not even sure what yet. But it is a dream of mine.
Thanks Jodi for the support, it means so much!! I will definitely post again about the process, once I get through it. 😂
The doll is so cute and I love those illustrations! I’m a graphic designer too, and every since I was little I wanted to write and illustrate a children’s book. Stumbling across your blog has made me think I should really try to do that — and not for anything other than saying I actually did it! 🙂 Good luck!!
Thank you so much! Thank you for the encouragement, it means so much. You should do it! Especially with your design skills. I’d love to see what you come up with. 😀
I think I should make it something I really need to do. I’d hate for it to be something I always wanted to do but never got around to! And your welcome on the encouragement – we can never have too much support! 🙂
Agreed! Sending encouragement and support your way 😀
Good luck, Eileen, from this maiden-named McGill! ☘️🍀
Thanks so much Carol. My maiden name is McLoughlin. I thought hyphenation got when I got married might be a little over kill – McLoughlin-McKenna 😂
Hi I would love to know how the book is coming along. I am working on mine and any advice would be awesome.
Myra, in all honestly I worked like crazy to get it production ready. Then when I asked a writer friend to look at it again…I realized it wasn’t ready to put out there. So I pulled back on the whole thing.
Oh your pics are amazing…watercolor right?
The book was done in acrylic, but I mostly work in watercolor now