New Picture book ~ The Claddagh Fairy

January 18, 2024 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

This week I published a children’s picture book called The Claddagh Fairy. Look how cute she is!

The Claddagh Fairy by Eileen McKenna Children's Picture Book Irish Ireland St. Patrick's Day

Book Description: Anna’s Grandpa gives her an Irish Claddagh ring. He sends her a jewelry box from Ireland with a fairy inside. Anna’s ring brings the fairy to life and teaches Anna an important lesson about friendship, loyalty and love. This illustrated picture book will delight children as they learn about Anna’s grandpa’s homeland Ireland and the meaning of the Irish Claddagh ring.

I created the artwork and wrote the book back in 2014 but for some reason I stalled. That was 10 years ago! If I had to guess, I probably lost confidence in myself. After that, anytime I have had extended time off I’ve added The Claddagh Fairy to my to list. But for 10 years I kept pushing it to the back burner. It was at the top of my list – yet again – but I told my friend Connie I wasn’t going to work on it. For not the first time, Connie said, “You really should publish it. It’s all done!” We all need a friend like that!

That afternoon I went home, pulled The Claddagh Fairy out, made a few slight edits and ordered a draft on Amazon’s KDP site. When I got my draft, I made some tweaks to the artwork and after, 10 years, finally clicked publish!

The Claddagh Fairy is special to me because it is inspired by my grandpa, Michael Dennehy. We called him Grampa. Grampa was the sweetest grandpa, with the cutest brogue. He was from County Cork, Ireland. I spent a lot of afternoons with him as he told me silly stories of characters with names like Nan Pike and Patsy Galoop. He passed away when I was in high school and I still miss him.

Order the claddagh Fairy

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The first newsletter issue is out!

March 3, 2017 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

My Creative Collection issue 1 The first issue of my newsletter “My Creative Collection” went out today. Sign up here to get your copy! Above is a little peek at the intro. As you can see I have inspiring plans this month – that I’ll be sharing in a future issue.

😀 Eileen

Sad news

July 21, 2016 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

rainbow
My dad passed away last Thursday. Diagnosed with cancer around Christmas, he put up an admirable fight. He was 83. A few months before his 80th birthday, his twin brother, Jack, passed away suddenly. After that I was on high alert and knew our time together was precious. Of course once he was diagnosed I knew our time was even more precious. I think we became closer in his last months – like when I was young and I was his pal.

An hour or so after my dad’s death, my cousin came over to my parents’ and told me, “Look for the signs.” She told me a story about her dad, my uncle Tommy, and a rainbow she once saw. Shortly after her story it began pouring, then the most complete and beautiful rainbow appeared. The rainbow was perfectly placed for us to see from my parents’ terrace. My mouth dropped open. A few days later someone on facebook commented, “The rainbow means he arrived safely.” 🙂

I tell my kids that I cry because I was lucky enough to have such a great dad. Apparently others thought he was great too – the line at the wake went out the doors of the funeral home and down the block! Dad wouldn’t have believed it. The outpouring of love from family and friends has been amazing and has made this sad time easier for all of us.

I was featured in a collage with other artists on Instagram

July 10, 2015 | Eileen McKenna {my creative resolution}

I follow nothingisordinary_ on Instagram. They are always posting beautiful images and encouraging people to use certain tags to be featured. When they recently asked for images within the theme “Pop of Orange” I had to tag my orange slices!

I was excited to have my image used along with three other artists in the collage you see above. I really like how the overall collage came out. You can visit the other artists on Instagram by following these links:

Top Left: @chelsealee
Bottom Left: @patriciaarts
Bottom Right: @rascalsnaps
Top Right: that’s me! @mycreativeresolution

If you don’t use Instagram it is amazing for creative people – for inspiration and sharing! I highly recommend it. Just scrolling through the feed inspires me! I post inspiration photos, art in progress, and final work almost daily. Please follow me. I’d love to have you!

BTW I just submited an image for today’s “Pop of Purple” I’ll keep you posted.