Wish You Were Here

We are almost ready for our family vacation! I have cleaning and packing to do today, and am excited for a little break from the ordinary. Looking forward to hanging out with the fam, reading a book, and doing some sketching. My paintings for the book are safe in the hands of the publisher. Man, Karen is SO wonderful! It was great to finally meet her in person! I miss my little "baby" but am excited to see how it will grow into a real book!
Wishing you all a lovely weekend! See you in July!

Nerd Alert

I had a typo in my last post.
I meant to say "my previous post" not "my precious post."
Nina=Nerd

Sunday Night

Hope you had a nice weekend. Mine was nice, except I seem to have caught a cold. I think it is the same kind of cold you get when you have finished all your finals and let your guard down. Never expected I would feel so displaced... I really miss working on the book more than I thought I would. My plan is to get moving on a new postcard, update my website a bit, and keep working on a book idea that I think I might have gotten onto paper successfully while my kids were at camp last week. I'll have to dedicate it to Caribou's hot chocolate, doughnuts, and apple fritters (if it ever goes to press)! lol! This might be the last little bloggie I'll have to share from the book for now. I get to meet the publisher in person on Tuesday when I deliver the finished paintings- that will be really cool. Thanks for your nice comments from my precious post, by the way! Your pal, Nina

Arboretum

Greetings! I am SO happy to report that I finished the last illustration for the book on Monday! It has been a little weird not working on it anymore, but I have a few things lined up to keep me busy. The fam and I went to the MN Landscape Arboretum this weekend in hopes if getting a half-way decent photo of me to use for my book bio. This was my favorite- what do you think?

We saw lovely flowers, of course! This shrub rose smelled fantastic.

These peonies were amazing. The blooms were enormous!

There is a great photo of my Grandfather with my Mom and Aunt as kids. They were at the beach, he had a kid balanced on each leg. This is our attempt at re-creating that moment...

The concept seemed easy enough,

my oldest kind-of figured it out,

AND THEN THE LITTLE ONE TRIED TO TAKE ME OUT!!!!! Ah, kids.... they are such a joy!

The Dinosaur Stole My Paintbrush!

I wish I could blame my recent painting error on this plastic T. Rex... The ink smeared on my last painting. AARGH! After a few tears, I decided that a do-over will be fine and I just need to roll with it. So I will transfer it (again), ink it (again), let it rest overnight (again), and paint tomorrow. I was really hoping to be done today. Oh, well. I will still meet my deadline and that is the most important part. Thanks for listening. On the plus side, we might have gotten a good photo of me for the bio page of the book today. Back to the drawing board...

Bunny

Whomever guessed that the mother bunny visits her nest twice daily was correct! She pops in at dusk and dawn to check in on her babies, part of the reason people worry that the babies are abandoned. We are currently living in the middle of a rabbit farm, I hope they don't mind us being here...
With any luck, I will finish my final two illustrations by Sunday, scan them in on Monday, and drive to Alma Little to turn them in the week after. It was the last day of school today, so summer vacation has officially begun. I have a feeling it is going to be a nutty summer.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Ok- this is my new favorite thing. I don't know what they call it, but it sure speeds along my painting. It sure beats trying to pour water into dishes (and is way more fun). I just finished inking page 17, so I will let it rest and paint tomorrow. I think I have gone through a ton of Micron pens while working on this book... 6 so far, the one I am using now is on it's way to retirement. Wow- that was not super interesting! As I am on the verge of another postcard mailer, I wonder what creative uses I could come up with for extra postcards from previous mailings. Stay tuned, I have a few ideas...