Feathered Quill Book Award Winner!

I'm thrilled to announce that "Ladybug! Ladybug! has been awarded the 2017 SILVER MEDAL Feathered Quill Book award for the best illustrated children's poetry (1st place for best children's poetry book)! It's been an honor working with children's book author, Charlotte (C.J. Rains) this past year and we're thrilled to announce we're moving forward and working together on an entire book series titled, "Flitter, Flutter, Crawly". The next book, "Bluebird! Bluebird",  is scheduled to publish this Fall so stay tuned. 

Thank you to everyone who's been a part of my creative journey, encouraging and supporting me a long the way. It means so much to me and I look forward to sharing more with you this year.

Sunday Sketches (A Woodland Birthday Celebration)

With Michael's birthday trip being this past week, not much work was done in the studio. Which, to me, was fine knowing I need that occasional break due to my head injury. Some days I'm feeling so great, I get carried away with my work forgetting I must take breaks. Otherwise, I'm down several days in a row with intense head pain and eyes hurting, from hitting my head multiple times in my previous car accident. It's frustrating but a part of life I've learned to adjust to.

Above is a sketch I doodled out this past week while staying in the mountains for a few days. I'm sharing with you the finished illustration and a photo of it being painted. I must admit, I'm falling in love with painting woodland illustrations of sorts. What do you think? To me, I feel I've found my "calling" within my work.

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!
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Sunday Sketches (Rudi longs for a home...)

I've been working on this illustration for the past few days and am finally calling it complete. It will be part of a portfolio I'm putting together representing a children's picture book I'm writing titled, "The House On Rabbit Hill".

If you'd like to see the other sketches and transition of this illustration, visit my Instagram page. You might find some other lovely posts you'll enjoy.  More soon! It's Mr. Toast's birthday weekend, so I'll be visiting on Monday.

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If you're participating in Sunday Sketches, you can grab the NEW Sunday Sketches button HERE. 

Sunday Sketches (Grandpa's Lamp, Pt. 2)

Last Sunday I shared with you a preliminary sketch of Jacob and his grandfather's lamp. This week, I'm sharing with you the finalized piece. It took some time trying to decide not just what colors worked well with this clothing in this snow scene but how to best portray the lit lamp. It was a bit of a struggle but finally came to what I felt was perfect for this heart-tugging illustration, drawing the reader in to want to know more about Jacob's journey.

Please do accept my apologies for still needing to make rounds for last week's Sunday Sketches. I hope to be all caught up be the end of this evening. Happy Sunday Sketches!

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If you're participating in Sunday Sketches, you can grab the NEW Sunday Sketches button HERE. 

A wintry new year

Just a quick little morning doodle before diving back into work. With a pressing deadline, there's not much time to "play" at the moment. For now, enjoy this little girl, booing the snow that's on its way once again this afternoon. This past Sunday, we received about 11+ inches of snow with record temperatures, leaving things quite cold and icy. We've had quite the wintry new year already! Brrr!

More soon and I promise to catch up with my lovely Sunday Sketches peeps!

Making Magic in the New Studio

It's finished. Done. Completed...the studio, that is. I've spent weeks rearranging, sorting, and organizing. I'm quite happy to say my new studio is finally all set up and producing magic within. I'm looking forward to sharing my 2017 journeys, projects and more! It's going to be a FABULOUS year! I can feel it. Can you? I certainly do!

How about you? Do you have a special place you like to work - a room or location that brings you JOY every single day while illustrating, crafting (or whatever you do!)? Please do share. I truly enjoy hearing your stories and memories as well. Isn't that what life is all about? Sharing and encouraging one another along the way?

Sunday Sketches (Grandpa's Lamp)

Follow along with Jacob as he grabs his grandfather's old lamp and ventures off into the fresh fallen snow, seeking out new adventures. What do YOU think he'll find along the way?  More working out characters and illustrations telling a perfect story. I'm definitely enjoying this new creative journey.

Things are finally getting to a place where I'll be blogging on a regular basis again. It will be wonderful catching up with each of you. Here's to a wonderful weekend for all of us!
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If you're participating in Sunday Sketches, you can grab the NEW Sunday Sketches button HERE. 

The Magic Winter Brings

As the new year slowly moves forward, I've nestled within my studio and started working away. It's been quite the sight, actually. With the extremely (and unusually) cold temperatures, I've bundled up in thick sweaters, wearing two pairs of socks inside my giant grey slippers, while toting around a hot water bottle all day. Regardless, for me, winter brings so much magic that my heart can hardly contain it! Eek! One cannot deny the fact that my artistic heart truly shines during the winter/Christmas months within my work.

With that said, I've many goals this year and one of them pushing myself within my work by not just telling more of a story in each illustration but also capturing that child-like heart/wonder as well. To kick-start things, I made a point to begin moving in this direction with my daily 2016 Christmas countdown. After flipping through each of the 25 illustrations completed, it was apparent I accomplished what I'd set out to do. Yay me!

After the first few weeks, most of my illustrations were stand-alone characters but in the final 10 days that followed, each slowly transitioned into full-blown illustrations, telling of a sweet, magical, Christmas story. Let me tell you just how much my heart was thrilled to see this!

Over the coming days, weeks, months...I hope to share with you more of these wonderful stories - just like the one above. In fact, you can view my initial sketch idea here. I tweaked it just a little by changing out his hat and face a little. In the end? Pure child-like heart magic found within another woodland winter tale.

Our Little House of Love

Our little "House of Love"- I just melt inside-out when I hear those words. It started several years back when we purchased a tiny little print from a long-time friend and illustrator, Susan, who lives in the heart of Nova Scotia. Since then, not only have we added each of her "Tiny Life" illustrations to our collection of art, we feel like our home (and hearts) have literally taken on the meaning of a tiny life.

We cherish everything about our (new) cozy home here in Colorado, holding steadfast to all the joys and laughter it's already brought us since returning home from England just 7 weeks ago.  Most of you know before we left back in July of 2016, we downsized and sold everything we owned except for about 15 small boxes of "must keep" items. People were shocked and at times, we both were questioning if we were de-cluttering too much. However, after relocating back to the states I cant tell you just how much we enjoy being surrounded only by the things we love. I find more joy in waking up and facing the day than I ever have. There's more breathing room and a whole lotta love and peace filling the rooms now.

So, as we begin to take on the new year, let me take a moment to wish each of you a Happy New Year! May it be filled with healing, peace, love and prosperity. My heart prays each of you find and receive all that you need in the coming days and months. For now, the mister and I are hunkering down with hot water bottles and thick warm socks for the impending snow storm heading our way here in Colorado...including the puppy with his sweater!

Sunday Sketches (Celebrating Friends & A New Year)

It's going to be a fabulous new year! Uh huh. Can you feel it? For the past few weeks I've been telling Mr. Toast (aka the hubby) I can feel some incredible, good things coming this year. Since we returned from England, I've been taking it somewhat easy with my illustration work. However, I'm excited to cozy up in the studio to work on some brand new projects, sharing my progress and great news along the way.

How about you? Any new plans or projects on the horizon? I'd love to hear about it! Happy Sunday Sketches!
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If you're participating in Sunday Sketches, you can grab the NEW Sunday Sketches button HERE.