"Oh, the places you'll go!"

The title of this blog is stolen from one of my favorite Dr.Seuss children's books.
A book about a successful future for anyone willing to try.
Willing to try, regardless of the end result.
And if you follow the author's magic formula, you will succeed.
One hundred percent guaranteed.

This book, with its messages, makes me think of my sister.
My younger sister.
I have 6 sisters actually, 3 older and 3 younger.
This one is the 2nd youngest.
From a very young age she was well ahead of the game with her unusually early speech.
She spoke fluently by 18 months, knew the whole family's birthdays before her 2nd birthday (12 people).
When she was 3 years and 5 months old, she taught herself to read.
By four she was writing short stories, with very few spelling errors.
Maybe thanks to her having so many siblings, my parents encouraged her, but didn't make a big deal about her special gifts.
First and foremost she was a child.
And my mom let her be just that as long as she wanted.
She was, however, very, very creative, and there were many nights when she and my youngest sister would be up late at night working on some craft project.
They had ridiculous goals at times.
Like "We have to use all this material before we can go to bed!".
(they were around 7-8).

One remarkable story is from when she was three years old.
My dad asked her:
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
To which she replied:
"I want to work in an office where you draw houses for people" (this is more or less what she said)
Well.  19 years later she graduated from college in Minneapolis with a diploma that let her do just that.
Remember, she grew up in Sweden and figured out, more or less by herself, how to make it possible to attend college in the States.
So, she drew houses.  And successfully so.
People would ask for "The Swedish girl" to do their drawings.

Then she got married and God blessed their marriage with a little boy.
I told her, while she was pregnant, to be prepared to become restless as a stay at home mom.
She didn't think that was going to happen, but I still told her that, just in case that day comes, don't feel bad if you want to work part time.  Knowing her busy, creative mind, I could see her brain burning from not getting enough use.
Well.  Little baby boy wasn't old before she drew houses part time again.
When the little boy was 1 1/2 they were blessed with a little girl, and mom had to slow down a bit.

Fast forward 6 years in time.
This dear sister is now a mother of 5.
You'd think by now she'd be busy enough, or just simply not have the time anymore, to create etc.
Wrong.
This girl is busier than ever!
She's gone from drawing houses to designing fabrics on www.spoonflower.com
She has been very successful with the designs, and she branched out by making baby/children's clothing from the designs that she got printed.
Now she has a growing business on www.etsy.com, she's been featured in magazines, had her clothing design printed in a book, been contacted from many different places that are interested in her stuff.

This girl is definitely going places!!!
I will share a link to her blog where she shares her creativity, designs and clothes, and links to her store etc.
Pellerina Design

"Fnill" (that's her childhood nick name), God bless your success.  I am so proud of you, and thankful that you are able to do these things that you truly love, on top of being a great mom and wife.
Just had to write this for you.... please don't shoot me.

Oh yeah, maybe the thing I love the most about her is how humble she is about her talent.
She honestly, truly never, ever does anything to draw attention to herself.
(if she was already good at that, I wouldn't have bothered writing this post!)

"Oh, the places you'll go!"
I can't wait to sit on the sidelines and just watch!