Tooting my own horn.....

Have you, ever in your life, read something or heard something and simply could not believe it until it was repeated at least 3 times?  Well, that was exactly my reaction when I opened my e-mail one balmy May morning and read a letter to me from the editor of Australian's Homespun magazine asking me if I'd like to be a guest designer for their upcoming December issue.

I think I sat with my mouth open for a full 5 minutes wondering all sorts of stuff, but especially how in the world they ever found me...although the editor did mention that she had seen this and loved it:

So......to continue.....I yell out to my hubby who was still in the bathroom, "Hey hon, wait until you hear this", and proceeded to read the e-mail again (and they as long as I was at it, printed it out so I could hold it in my grubby little hands).  Not only did they want me, BUT (get this) they were going to pay me to design it!!!  E-gads, can you believe???

Since the design was for their summer issue, the editor suggested a beach theme and after correspondence back and forth I drew 4 possibilities for their review:

I was delighted when they picked #1 which (all along) was my favorite.  It had to be fun and colorful and funky (after all, those are sort of my signatures I figured) so I started pulling fabrics (and buttons) and fusing my heart out:

Eventually, I ended up with the finished product:



And here are some close-ups:









And here I am with a nice profile story right in the magazine:



And here is the cover with my wall hanging on the top far right corner:



I'm telling you, this experience was one of the highlights of my year!  I LOVED it!!!  And how I shut up about it for 7 months I'll never know!  I usually can't keep a secret overnight.  LOL  And, for all of you in the US, someone told me that this magazine is available at the big JoAnn superstores, so in a week or two go get yourself a copy.  (It's not there yet...I checked.  LOL)  Guess what all my relatives are getting for Christmas?????