Carnie Wilson

Living the Good Life Her Way

By Donna Smith

Life is pretty good right now for Carnie Wilson. The former singer for the pop group Wilson Phillips has three books under her belt, Gut Feelings (Hay House, 2001), I'm Still Hungry: Finding Myself Through Thick and Thin (Hay House, 2003) and her first cookbook, To Serve With Love (Hay House, 2005).

Adding "author" to her list of accomplishments is not all Wilson has been up to she can now add "Mom." Married to guitarist Rob Bonfiglio, the couple are the proud parents of an active toddler, Lola Sophia.

After a short reunion of the Wilson Phillips trio, which included her sister, Wendy, and friend Chynna Phillips, she returned to music as a solo artist. Her lullaby album, A Mother's Gift: Lullabies From the Heart (Big3 Records, 2006), was released in May.

The inspiration for the new CD? Quite simply: Lola. "Clearly having a child made me realize how important love is," says Wilson. "I wouldn't even describe it as love. The feeling that you'd do just anything for this little person. She just touched me in a way that I felt I wanted to give back. It's for her. The music is for her, but it's also for other babies too, and other mothers. I can't believe how beautiful it is to go to sleep at night, to put your child to bed at night and watch them fall asleep. To hold them in your arms."

The soft, soothing sounds of lullabies became an important part of the bedtime and naptime routines for Wilson, even before Lola arrived. "I remember being pregnant and starting to buy lullaby CDs and artists that had recorded lullabies," she says. "Actually, whatever I could get my hands on I bought. I probably bought about 60 CDs with different versions of songs and lullabies because I knew it was going to be an important part of putting Lola to sleep."

Music was already a part of Lola's life, even before her arrival on April 22, 2005. Wilson and her husband made sure she heard music in the womb. "My husband would play guitar [and] we would sing to her," she says. "I would put speakers up to my belly. She was exposed to lots, to a whole bunch of different styles of music."

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