Inktober

Diving into Inktober again this year and getting schooled by my pen daily. I will do a month-end post here when the challenge is over. Will post daily on twitter and instagram, too. Happy inking!

Happy Spring

It sure is nice to see the snow trade places with fresh green blades of grass. It's backyard bunny season. Turtles are back in their ponds. Springtime is here.

Hoppy New Year

Happy 2019! I'm holding my daughter's bunny in this photo (Pickles is the world's cutest 2 year-old Netherland Dwarf bunny). Little did we know that another bunny would soon be joining our family...

Joey Snowball Sprinkles is a 1.5 year-old Californian rabbit. He is such a sweet boy and we are all quite taken with him. He got neutered on Friday and is recovering nicely. He's very good at eating, loves getting his face rubbed, and is a wonderful addition to our family. We need to wait about a month for Joey's boy bunny hormones to settle down and then we hope to gradually introduce the bunnies to each other. Hope that your new year is full of sweet surprises, too! xoxo

Inktober 2018

These were the prompts for inktober this year. I looked them over and had a rough idea that revolved around a pirate, his parrot, and a whale.

Other than that, I had no idea what I was going to draw and took it day by day. This is how it unfolded...

1. Poisonous

2. Tranquil

3. Roasted

4. Spell

5. Chicken

6. Drooling

7. Exhausted

8. Star

9. Precious

10. Flowing

11. Cruel

12. Whale

13. Guarded

14. Clock

15. Weak

16. Angular

17. Swollen

18. Bottle

19. Scorched

20. Breakable

21. Drain

22. Expensive

23. Muddy

24. Chop

25. Prickly

26. Stretch

27. Thunder

28. Gift

29. Double

30. Jolt

31. Slice

Here is the entire illustration. Looking forward to next year! xo

The Three Little Pugs Giveaway

Here I am with three little pugs and The Three Little Pugs back in March at The Red Balloon Bookshop. Gordy is wearing the blue ribbon, Jilly is in the green, and their real-life sister, Zoie, is in pink (I'm the one in the pug skirt). I still can't believe that The Three Little Pugs is a real book! Since March I have been brave and have done a handful of storytimes and met a ton of adorable kids, wonderful parents, and even a few local celebrities.

It's Sting, the world-famous therapy dog! It turns out that greyhounds are fast runners and even faster readers! He is a very good boy and it was a treat to get to meet him.

Gordy, Jilly, and I also got to meet Saint Paul Saints pitcher, Trevor Foss, and the one-and-only Mudonna! Trevor told everyone at storytime that he likes to read biographies of his favorite musicians. The Saint Paul Saints are my favorite sports team so this was the tops!

(Gordy and Jilly not included)

If you would like a chance to win a signed copy of The Three Little Pugs, leave a comment on this post by midnight on Thursday (9/13) and a winner will be randomly chosen Friday (9/14) morning.

AND THE WINNER IS:

NICOLE KRONZER

Many thanks to all of you for all of the love and support! xoxo 

My Motto for 2018

I woke up one morning in this new year with a very concrete thought in my mind:

Respect Your Creativity. Give it the Time it Deserves.

Isn’t that nice? 

This year I am making more time for myself to do the things that fill me up: sketching, knitting, walking, inking, reading, painting, baking, writing, gardening, thinking…

My hope is that giving myself more time to be creative will result in many good things including, but not limited to, brand-new ideas and new ways of looking at old ideas.

2018 is the year I debut as author and illustrator, the year I am going to finish the scarf I started knitting last July, and the year I am going to truly give my creativity the time it deserves.

p.s. This post was also shared over at the Epic18 blog. I am honored to be sharing this publication year with such an amazing group of authors and illustrators! Be sure to check their books out! 

p.p.s. I finished the scarf I was working on and started a new one! yay!

December

I wonder if my husband would notice if there were a few more pugs around here???

Happy December! Just finished up another music book yesterday so I'm loving that sweet feeling of wrapping up a project. I have a few other things that I'm going to get back to now, so that is pretty fun. My art group got together this week and one of the gals was talking about making a list of the things you've accomplished this year and goals for the next. I hadn't ever thought about looking back on what I'd done, I'm usually too busy trudging forward. Here goes:

Posted every other Friday for The Sketchables

Volunteered as a field trip illustrator with the Mid-Continent Oceanographic Institute

Turned in the final artwork for The Three Little Pugs

Illustrated 3 piano music books for The FJH Music Company 

Created a piece of art for the 2018 Bookmark Literary Calendar

Updated my website and portfolio with some new art

Donated a piece of art to The Plum Creek Online Auction

Volunteered for and attended the MNSCBWI Annual Conference

Sent out a new postcard (it had been a while!)

Participated in Inktober 2017

Revised a dummy and sent it to my agent

Went to a local writing retreat in August and one in PA in November

Working on writing and sketching new ideas 

PLUS keeping up with my teenagers, pets, husband, family, friends :)

That is a nice list! I feel kind of proud of myself now. Now I need to make a few goals for myself for the New Year (need to let that percolate for a bit).  I hope that you feel proud of yourself when you reflect on the past year, it isn't always easy being a human and things get away from us sometimes... Best wishes to you as we roll into the New Year! xoxo

Gordy and Jilly on the lake this summer