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Colour therapy

Who can resist walls of colorful yarn?
I just love Saturday's. This was from last week when my mum and I went out for lunch, looking at shops and then to a clothing swap. I got rid of a ton of stuff, took home some great new clothes and leftovers are taken to the women's halfway house nearby. Win win!
Today I am hanging with my little boy in the kitchen, windows and doors letting in a gentle spring breeze, a nice cup of tea brewing. All up and down the street, my favorite spring flowers are blooming and the sun is shining. I just love spring. I say that often enough that finch repeats it on our morning walks as we check out all the flowers. I found a potted forsythia bush recently and now its in the front yard! Always wanted one of those!
Finch and I have the same birthday, and this year it falls on mothers day! Hooray!
I asked for a lemon Zester- aim high!
Happy spring!

Saturday Morning Coffee ♥

Ah these tulips knock my socks off...

Working on a cool project (in the house alone, oh bliss! ) - a map for a book about cycling in Toronto. It is stories about people's cycling lives/adventures? Not sure of the most accurate description, but you can see some on the blog here.
Really neat! Makes me look at the city differently again and remember how much I love it here.

 

 

Okay!  Enough about Willow!  I wanted to do my part in promoting the book but I am happy to move on now.  Thanks to everyone who entered the draw!! I wished I could give all of you a book.

I am loving this book right now.  My friend told me about it and Finch loved it so much he didn't want to give back their copy. So I ordered one right away, just as much for myself!  It is so chock full of things to look at and is so NICE!  I just love it.  People are doing comforting things, like airing out the duvet in the springtime, walking in the park or just down the street.  Everyone has on fun clothes with stripes and polka dots and it really just make my heart happy to sit and look at it with Finch.  We keep finding new things, and can follow each character through the same scenes each season visually, as there is no written story.  Marvellous!

 

and the winners are...

 

Hooray!  The winners are.... Don and Megan!  So exiting!  My lovely assistant picked for me and was very careful to pick two names.  Don, I have known since art college where we laughed and laughed all through jewellery class and Megan has been such a loyal reader for so long!  Its fun to do a draw- I am sorry everyone could not win a book!!  I will be in touch to get your adresses!

give away!

 



I received my contributors copies! Nothing like a big box of your own books!  I want to give away two copies to my dear readers and I will pick randomly out of a hat, so please leave a comment!  I will do a little dedication on the inside cover once we pick the winners and sign it. Of course its always available on Amazon or Chapters-Indigo! 

Hooray!  Today's the day!  Willow Finds A Way is finally in stores.  It is always exiting to receive my preview copy, above.  Finch and I read it straight away.  I soon hope to get my contributors copies from the publisher, and when I do, I plan to do an autographed copy give away so please stay tuned and have a lovely weekend too!

a nice surprise!

Finch and I go to school every afternoon, meaning we go to the Parenting and Family Literacy Center which is inside his future school.  Its a marvellous, wonderful program that is free to all parents and kids up to age 6.  It literally saved my sanity to go and chat to other mums and they have free coffee!! The other day the February Scholastic Book Club catalogs came in and lo and behold, Willow Finds A Way was picked up by them for paperback distribution to the school market!  We order books from them all the time and I secretly always wished for Willow to be in there, but if it were to happen, I had expected I would be told before hand!  What a happy surprise!!  Not to mention Elsa, our sweet, kind teacher making sure all the mums at the center know my book is in the catalog this month, because I am too shy to mention it out loud (here on the blog? no  problem, but in my actual voice? forget it- I sound a bit like Willow...).  Now my next dream is that the first Willow and second Willow will be packaged together for Scholastic one day at a special price.

Bonne Idee Zoe!

I think it's really funny that Willow in French has become Zoe!  It is also curious, that all the kids names have been changed and one of them is actually now named Tania!  I mentioned a while back that Willow Finds A Way was picked up for French distribution and I received the book this week!  It is interesting that this one arrived before my English ones.  It is also cute that the title translated literally says "Good Idea Zoe!"  My nine year old neighbor, named Zoe, will love it!  I plan to blab a bit about the book in the weeks leading up to its realease (just a heads up!) and once I get my comp copies, I will be doing an autographed copy giveaway! Stay tuned!

March 1 release date!

                                       Click for full size!

Well!   I found out last week that the release time of spring 2013 for Willow Finds A Way, is specifically March 1.  This is very exiting because somehow spring seemed distant, but now it is very soon!   Lo and behold, it is already available for pre-order on Amazon!  So I thought I would share some of my process with you.
Above is the page 4 you will find in the book.  It is the first page of the story, and the kids are in the classroom doing various things.  Kristabelle is up to her usual ways of being a bit bossy and full of herself.  Willow is off on page 5 doing a painting at an easel.

Click for full size again!

My first rough sketch had Kristabelle in full on dictator mode!  Willow was standing to the side looking worried.  Jane is looking annoyed.  It was all a bit too dramatic!  

 

Click for full size again!

Next we had Kristabelle as more of a smooth operator, charming her classmates with promises and fun games.  Everyone is paying attention and wants to be included.  This is closer to the final page.  Again Willow is off on page 5 doing something, but also paying close attention to what Kristabelle is up to.

In the end, it was decided that Kristabelle should not be manhandling anyone, but merely beckoning them with a prop.  Here , in the linework stage, it is a magnifying glass from the science table.  It later became a plant frond of some kind.  She is reaching to hold hands with Tianna, who is a cheerful participant in any of Kristabelle's plans.  We finally went ahead and I coloured it as above.  This all transpired after the entire book was finished, as pages 4 and 5 were the last to be written!

 

Click for full size again!

Here is the full spread as you will see in the book!  I have to say, decisions were all made by my amazing editor and then designer, who are sharp as tacks and do not miss anything.  It was a pleasure and honour to work with them!  I tend to be slightly overwhelmed when it involves 32 pages of roughs, linework, final drawings, and without them, there would be no book at all.  No wait, without the lovely Lana Button, who wrote it, there would be no book at all!  What a team effort!  Hooray!

book of the month on TVO KIDS!

SO exiting!!  Willow's Whispers is book of the month in Gisele's Big backyard Bookclub!!

This won't mean much to you if you don't have a toddler and a TV and live in Ontario, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can watch Gisele, actually READING OUR BOOK!!!  This makes me feel just thrilled and delighted.  I grew up watching TV Ontario, Finch watches it now too and loves Gisele.

A few months ago I remember watching with Finch and wistfully thinking " Gee I wish Gisele would read Willow..." and dang, did it not come true?! It DID!!

Here is a link to the bookclub page and Willow is the main choice this month.

Hip Hip Hooray!!