Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival

This little painting of Chicken Lily is going to be a part of the silent auction to raise funds for the Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival so that more than 13,000+ students can attend the festival free-of-charge. The auction opens on September 1st. Many thanks to Dylan Teut for all that he does to connect kids with books!

Chicken Lily Giveaway

"Mashed potatoes and gravy, Marie!"

To celebrate Chicken Lily's book birthday, I am going to give away a signed copy! Leave a comment on this post by midnight on Thursday (3/31) and a winner will be randomly chosen Friday (4/1) morning.

Many thanks to Lori Mortensen, the fabulous folks at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, the amazing Teresa Kietlinski, and to all my family and friends for all of their kindness and support.

Oh, and there will be an event at the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, MN on Saturday 2 April 2016 at 2pm: David Huyck and I will be there to celebrate Chicken Lily and David's awesome new book, Manners Are Not For Monkeys. Hooray for books!

Andi Butler is the WINNER! Yay!

Thank you all for playing! I will give away

another book if I get to make another one! ha

Chicken Lily Coloring Page

Happy Coloring!

Swag

Look at this adorable magnet! I ordered it from PureButtons and am thrilled with how it turned out. I also placed an order with StandOut Stickers and am working on a bookmark and probably a postcard, too, that I will order from GotPrint. I have ordered from GotPrint for ages, their prices are great as is the quality and customer service. StandOut Stickers is a terrific company, I have ordered from them before, too. There will for sure be a giveaway here when CL makes her debut, so stay tuned (and I will get all of my ducks, er, chickens... in a row)! xo

Summertime

Hello! Haven't posted in a while, summer vacation is keeping us busy over here. We have picked out new colors to paint our house,

watched some monarch caterpillars turn into butterflies,

picked a lot of raspberries,

added a new pug to our fam (Gordy and Jilly),

drew on the driveway (thanks for the chalk, Shawn McCann!),

and have seen some pretty beautiful sunsets.

Hope that you are having a nice summer so far, too! xo

Proof

I was thrilled to receive the proofs for Chicken Lily this week. It's going to be a real book! The official publication date is 29 March 2016. Absolutely thrilled with how it turned out, I can't wait for you to meet Lily and all of her pals! Here is the official cover: