I’m a small town girl living in this great big world and I’m ready to share my almost always positive views with you! I find life to be incredibly fascinating and funny and so filled with unique people and experiences that I finally decided to begin a journey with you that will hopefully enrich your life as well as mine. I am an artist by nature meaning I’ve had almost no formal training. I sketch, paint, design, sew, knit, crochet, craft and write. I have experience with a wealth of different creative entities and when I say “experience” I am referring to the fact that I’ve messed up almost everything I have ever touched but eventually learned that my mistakes were creating some very strong skills I would utilize in my later years. I didn’t attend college as I had immediate plans, after finishing high school, to become a wife and mother.  It took about twenty years for me to realize things weren’t going to play out exactly as I had imagined but I suppose almost everyone can say that, right?  I sort of conquered what I had set out to do.  I just wish I had known fate can have a rather twisted sense of humor which meant I didn’t give birth but rather married a man much older than me and at first I was his wife and then eventually I became his mother.  I did move on and am happy to say that I’m married, once again, and share my handsome husband’s two adult children with him and we have six of the niftiest grand-kids a couple could ever be blessed with!  I’ve held management positions in several custom frame shops, sprinkled my creativity around at a couple of fabric stores, worked as a florist for a number of years, put in some long hours at a hotel and convenience store as well as two post offices and I operate a home based business creating weighted baby dolls.   Given all of this information, it won’t be difficult for you to see where a lot of my inspiration came from.  You’ll read about our day to day experiences, stories from some very unique people I have had the pleasure of meeting and even a few trips down memory lane that transpired over the past fifty something years.  I hope to bring a smile to your face, perhaps you’ll shed a tear but if things go as planned, you’ll laugh more than anything! I honestly believe there needs to be a place where you can go, spend some time and walk away knowing you’re the only you there is and you should be celebrated!  We’re compared to others the very minute we’re born and the comparison carries on for the rest of our life.   The inspiration for this book arrived a few years after I was asked to teach an art class for a group of third grade kids.  The kids all started their project with the same materials, the same instructions and were offered the same amount of time to work on their masterpiece.  What I saw at the end of the class amazed me.  Each and every project was different.  Each child’s ability was different.  Each child had a finished piece of art and none of them looked exactly alike.  I’ve always found that experience to be incredibly satisfying, so much so that I wrote a book celebrating just this.  We are all unique or as I prefer to say, You-nique and to me, that is worth celebrating! I so hope you enjoy my thoughts.  They’re very personal.  They’re very honest.  They’re very me.