I visited the 1st and 2nd grade students at Trillium Charter School for my first ever class reading. I had recently met their teacher Aron Nels Steinke, who is a fantastic cartoonist and illustrator himself and he invited me to see how my target audience would like the picture book that I have been working on. It was so fun! The kids had a lot of comments and questions. There were lively discussions about the price of ice cream, favorite flavors and about the height that a single cone could realistically be stacked with ice cream. It got even better when Aron asked the class to design the cover page for me, since I hadn’t done that part yet. I always adore kid’s art and they had some great ideas. I was also impressed by the visual detail they remembered from just the one reading. Amazing. Those kids are so lucky to have Aron as a teacher. I really think teachers should get paid a lot more for what they do for our children every day. Thank you teachers!

When I learned English at school they taught us the expression It’s Raining Cats and Dogs. I never heard anybody actually say that, but I wish they would. Maybe I’ll start using it myself. These kitties are life sized with real cat personalities somewhere between grumpy and smug. I’ll be selling them at Crafty Wonderland on May 11th, one day only.

On my way to becoming a children’s book illustrator I just got one step closer. I am now listed on the Transatlantic Agency website! My wonderful agent Fiona Kenshole has joined forces with Transatlantic and we are off and running. I think that is quite fitting, since I am sort of Transatlantic myself. Can’t wait to see all the good things that will come my way! Thanks to Jule for taking that nice picture of me on one of our Sunday hikes! I made her take about 500.

Here is what happens when I doodle in my sketchbook while listening to NPR. A nice day to all my gay and lesbian friends!

Here is another one from the vault. I still have the head of the scarecrow in the garage.

I am spending the morning rummaging around the deep deep drawers and dusty cabinets of my computer. Here is some of what I have found so far.

To all you love bunnies.

There are two kinds of chickens in my house at the moment. One kind is a custom order for a friend who wanted a chicken a la Gesine, the other kind is getting big and stinky (photo is from when they were small and cute). Hopefully both of them will live a good long chicken life.

My first foray into fashion: tote bags with tails. There will be tote bags decorated by different artist for sale at the Trillium Arts and Crafts Spectacular on December 1st and 2nd. Stylin’! Invite all your friends to the facebook event!

And here is what I used that white hot glue for that I had hoarded for some 15 years before coming up with a good use for it: fake icing on some fake gingerbread cookies. (See my previous post on ancient art materials.) I’ll be selling those at the Trillium Arts and Crafts Spectacular and at Crafty Wonderland where you can get your holidays started in style. I’ll even be adding some of those guys to the popular Crafty Wonderland gift bags!