My life began on a morning in March the winter my family moved to the city from the farm so my Dad could work in construction. I was born in a little maternity hospital called Grace Hospital in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. When spring arrived we moved back to the prairie farm in Saskatchewan where I would spend my young life.

The farm where I grew up has been in my family nearly one hundred years. My grandparents homesteaded the land and raised their family there, then my Dad bought the farm from them and raised his family there. I am the second daughter of two girls followed by two boys.

This is my fourth birthday and I remember nearly dropping that cake! Get a look at those ringlets. Do you know, people often offered to buy a ringlet from me and would give me money for it? But I always got to keep the curls and the money, too. I think that was my first taste of business.

My amateur art career began early. I loved to draw on the walls with bright crayons. My art always told stories, lots of people doing things. Naturally, my fresco-making was frowned upon by the adults in the house. I had to go underground, or in my case, under the bed. I'd lie on my tummy and draw where no one could see me. Sometimes, I even moved the dresser away from the wall and drew behind it then pushed it back.

A few years ago, my parents pulled up the flooring in their house and found the whole floor covered with art. They waited until I stopped in for a visit before laying the new floor so I could tell them what it was all about. I could. Eventually though, my creative efforts were directed to the use of paper.

I love this photo even though I never was very good at skipping. Living on a farm affords boundless opportunities for creative play. My siblings and I had a great climbing tree we called the Hotel Tree. We each had a branch that we called our rooms. We roamed the countryside on bikes, picked wildflowers, had picnics, made straw bale forts, skated and tobogganed in the winter, and rode our horses. When I was little my Dad was a rodeo cowboy, then raised cattle. Many a Saturday morning was spent moving steers from one pasture to another. Our grandparents lived across the yard and my grandfather always had sweets in his pockets.

My school years began in an old brick school in the village of Hoosier. I was the undisputed 'best drawer' in the class all through school. As a teenager, my parents encouraged my artistic abilities by providing me with a set of oil paints. They still proudly hang my early works in their home.

I graduated as my class valedictorian from high school in a nearby town. I still have this dress which now hangs on a dressmakers form in my house. It was my own design. My mother was great at constructing the dress designs I created.

I studied art at the University of Calgary which for me was 'the BIG city', where I discovered exciting things like conte crayons, charcoal sticks, oil pastels, inks, and just how sleepy a drawing class in a warm room can make you.

That's the same year I met a cute guy named Gord Hughes. We fell madly in love and got married at the age where we thought we were incredibly grown-up and knew almost everything. I guess we must have known something because we're still married to each other today. This is my cute husband now. He just keeps getting better.

I took a break from my art career for a while to create a little family. First, Merrilee was born at the same hospital I was born in, then four and a half years later, we had Olivia. Those little people were so much fun. When Olivia started kindergarten, my artistic urges began to call. I decided to try watercolours and found a studio class in the city. People began buying my paintings and asking me to create portraits for them. Local galleries sold my work to art-lovers from all around the world.

When our children were a little older we decided to take a bold move and re-locate our family to France for a time. It was one of those, 'if we don't do it now, when will we?' impulses, so we sold our home and off we went. We found a position in rural Provence and for a while lived our dream of living the French life. Thank goodness for our high-school French classes! It's true what they say about the light in Provence. It's like nowhere else. We languished on a beautiful eighteenth-century estate among vineyards and fields of sunflowers. Long summer days were filled with walks in the country, lavender fields, quaint villages, blue coasts with white sand beaches, antiquities and sunshine.

Now I live in another village, this time in British Columbia's beautiful and lush Fraser Valley. While my children were going through school, I set up my huge antique drafting table in a corner of a room and began creating commissioned portraits and paintings from my travels.

Then after my children grew up and left home I needed to really follow the call of my heart. I began by creating a workshop on how to Dream, Believe, and Create the life you really want. After all, that's what I was doing. Then I began creating products with my artwork on them to sell at my workshops. They became so popular that I had to stop facilitating workshops and concentrate on designing and producing my lines of fun and useful paper and gift products.

Two years ago I also had the opportunity to open a store with my sister, Debra. She is a master cheese-maker with an artisan cheese store on her family's dairy farm. Together we've created a great little shop with her fabulous cheeses, and my product lines, plus all kinds of other goodies, gourmet foods, and gifts. When you are in our neighbourhood, you must stop in and see us. You can see the store with my sister's cheese creations here.

All of the fun things I've been creating are available at gift stores throughout Canada and United States, and now also in my own online store. If you have a retail store and are interested in carrying my products, please view my wholesale page here. The Dream Believe Create Workshop is available by e-book or the paper version.

Now my days are filled with designing, painting, and writing. I'm currently working on a couple of book projects as well as creating lots of fun designs for licensing. My husband and I travel whenever we can and we love it. Here I am putting on the glam on the cruise we took to celebrate our thirtieth wedding anniversary. Somewhere along the way I became a blonde.

As for following your dreams, I highly recommend it. My faith in God forms the foundation of my life and I am so thankful for the talents he gave me. He has given me the desires of my heart and helped me to follow the dreams he put in it. It is a fantastic way to live.

Be sure to sign up for the Luscious E-Letter, my creative and fun newsletter all about the Art of living an abundant and luscious life.