happy boo day!!!

It's almost the witching hour...here are some Halloween pieces I did when I worked at American Greetings:













Halloween is truly one of my favorite holidays. I guess I've always loved the creativity of making costumes and decorating. My mom made my costumes every year and it was always lots of fun to have something unique and handmade, that couldn't be bought in the store. Here's me as a witch...I think I was about 4 or 5 years old:



And here's a drawing I did that same year:



I won't get to celebrate too much this year–no big parties to go to–but I'm hoping to host a Halloween party one of these years so I'll just have to make up for it then! Hope y'all have a happy, happy Halloween!

fall catch up

It's been a while. I have a few new fun things to share...

First...



I am happy to announce that my new book Don't Throw That Away! (written by Lara Bergen) just officially came out yesterday. This is part of Simon & Schuster's Little Green Books imprint, so it is 100% recycled material and is all about recycling and reusing in creative ways. It's a simple message, but the books has some fun interactive flaps that keep little ones entertained.

Second...

I just got samples today of the Haiku Baby boxed note card set I did with Papyrus. It contains 20 cards and envelopes, and features 4 different images from the book (sun, rain, moon, flower). You can buy it online here (click on "additional views" to see all the images). Or hopefully the note card set is in stores too, but I'm not sure about that (so let me know if you see it out there). So you know what to look for: the box is just the turtle image on the front, and all the text info is along the sides of the box.

Third...



If you are in the Ohio area, come visit me at the Buckeye Book Fair in Wooster on November 7. I will be signing 4 books (Haiku Baby, Have You Ever Tickled a Tiger?, Don't Throw That Away!, and Peanut Butter and Jellyfishes: A Very Silly Alphabet Book). I will also have a tiger mask craft for kids to make and wear. You can get the full scoop here. I participated last year and it was a lot of fun. It's a great place to find Christmas gifts for book-lovin' family and friends...and you can get all the books autographed too. But come early, because books do sell-out (I was sold out of books by 1:30-2:00 last year).

Fourth...



Stay tuned for some super-cool jellyfish pics from my trip to the Baltimore aquarium with one of my BFFs (and this is just a dinky one from my i-phone). Till my next post, I hope to be relaxin' and floatin' like a jellyfish on my soon-to-come beach vacation...do sharks like jellyfish or aspiring jellyfish? Hope not;)