Yay!!! I'm soooo excited to share this with you! Here it is: The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections. The cover is final and the book is on Amazon available for pre-order right now! (With a release date of March 11th, 2008). Amazon will probably have the description up in the next few days (do you think I could wait that long to tell you about this? Um, no), but until then, here's the deal, straight from the catalog of Trumpeter Books (an imprint of Shambhala):
Between work and school, music lessons, and sports practice, there is less and less time to connect as a family. Those few moments together are often spent making meals, doing homework, or watching TV. In this inspiring book, Amanda Soule, a young mother of three, presents simple ways to use arts and crafts and other forms of creativity to deepen family connections.
For parents of all backgrounds, The Creative Family offers unique creative activities for the whole family. The range of projects includes: imaginative play such as dress up, home theater and parlor games; arts and crafts such as family drawing time and knitting with children; nature explorations such as creating garden journals and making natural toys; and family celebrations that include making music and displaying children's art. These fun and engaging alternatives to television, video games, and the computer are meant to captivate children´s imaginations, celebrate their achievements, and express love and gratitude as a family.
So that's the book! I would add that whether or not you draw or sew or have never even identified yourself as someone 'creative', I do believe that we all have it in us - and finding that and nurturing it can be a wonderful experience for the whole family - child and parent. My intent in writing the book was to fill it with activities, patterns, projects and ideas on how you can incorporate creativity into the lives of your family - in some small way - every single day. Throughout the book are my full-color photographs as well as beautiful illustrations by Portland, Maine friend and artist Betsy Thompson. The cover photograph is by the dear and talented Jessie Fields.
Even after looking at this cover photo for a couple of months, it still gives me goosebumps. Could someone pinch me, please? Writing a book was always one of those silent dreams for me, and it rather blows my mind that it's really happening, and how it all happened to begin with. Looking at the cover fills me with immense gratitude for so very much - for the three amazing little people on it; for the bigger one just out of the shot; for the friends who contributed their art, love and support; for the people who made it happen to begin with (that would be you, dear readers...and a very lovely editor); and for those who will spend their precious time reading it. I'm very, very grateful.
And I'm sorry, but I think I'm also rambling...
{Have a lovely week, my friends. I'm going to slip quietly into vacation mode around here - some low-key local beaching and then to the woods we go. I might be on Flickr, but otherwise back here on Monday.}
