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Making my list, checking twice… three times, four times, shopping, wrapping, eating, meeting with friends, watching kids sing, going to a parade, cleaning the house, painting the living room, designing a set, painting a present, putting up a Christmas tree, and, and, and …. STILL LOOKING FOR MY 2010 CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS FOR MY KIDS!!!!

(Where did I put them????)

It has been busy busy busy in the studio!   The place is jammed packed with characters waiting to be famous.

Newton has had his day in the sun with a new Baby Journal out in January. 

“Yes You Can Man” wants a bit of the action for himself. He has been waiting in the wings with his REALLY BIG ideas!

Peep Squeak?.…  he is always “On the Move!“.  There will be Peepsqueak fabric out in February and a Peepsqueak‘s children’s book in the works for 2012..

Lae Dee Bugg is hoping for a July release at Christian Art Gifts for the TWEEN market.

Bitty Bot?…  she and her bot friends really wants to be on fabric. They are waiting to hear back from a recent submission.

Hen Rietta fabric is in revision mode. Hen Rietta‘s friend, Grace is serving us up some hot cocoa. She is standing near ……. Shivery the snowman!  Brrrrr!!! He has high hopes for a children’s book someday.

There is no forgetting Bea Bunny.  She is always trying to get in the picture. She will debut in the Peepsqueak book.

This is life in my studio.  Never a dull moment!

Oh NO! did you hear that?  It’s Zippy! That little hedge hog came in late and missed the photo shoot.  I will not hear the end of that!

“Zippy!  Next time try to be on time.  Remember, you snooze  you lose!”

There are also bears, clowns, birds and more. It is never boring in the studio!

0 Comments on Crazy Busy With My Cartoon Family as of 1/1/1900

OOOOHhhhhh!  I love the UPS man!  . . . that is . . . well . . . you know what I mean.  I don’t actually KNOW him but I love when he brings me packages!  I LOVE surprises!!! (My husband drove for UPS once and I do love HIM! :0))

Today UPS brought me a children’s book I ordered.  Oh it is so cute!  It made me so happy!!!  Some folks get happy with diamonds or vacations on cruise ships.  I would be happy with a drawing board in every room in my house and piles of children’s books and art supplies scattered about!  Ha!  … Here are a couple of images of my new book.  I wonder if I will ever meet Peter McCarty?  I think I will look for him on Facebook!

Many, many years ago, a woman named Lainey Garvin, gathered a small group of 5 other women and formed an email group. It was called,  “The Cafe”.

Each morning someone would begin by sending out an email to everyone.  The group would all respond.  For many many years we have continued on with our emails.  We are “art” friends, but we are also, “heart” friends!

We are all very different, our art is different, our personalities are different, but we have one thing in common, we love and respect each other. When our Lainey passed away suddenly, we re-named our group, “The Lainey Cafe“.  Now we are Karen, Joan, Luanne, Leslie and the baby of the group, Roz.

We are all artists pursuing our dreams of earning a living doing what we love,  ART.

As it is with life, there are many ups and downs.  This week was a down.  Roz’s son passed away on Monday morning.  His name is Kevvy.  He is only 15 years old.  Most of us never met Kevvy in person but through the years we have all grown to love him through this thing called email.

I am dedicating this blog to our Kevvy.  Live on in heaven Kevvy!  Run and dance and jump!  You are still very much alive to all of your aunties in the Lainey Cafe!!!

3 Comments on Saying Goodbye at the Lainey Cafe, last added: 11/4/2010

I am always changing things around, cleaning up, redoing, shifting, repainting, reorganizing, stacking and filing.  In the last two years I have made an addition to these behaviors.  I am now getting RID of things. My husband’s remark?

“She is giving away everything that’s not nailed down!

Of course this is not completely true.  I have not gotten rid of HIS things yet. HA!

For some reason it feels like everything in my house looks as OLD as the hills, the paintings, furniture, dishes, towels, lamps… EVERYTHING!

Perhaps it is because all of our kids have moved out and we have more time to stare at the stuff in our house?

Well, the stuff is GOING!  I can almost hear my belongings shaking in fear, thinking to themselves, “Am I next?”

Ha ha ha heee hee heee (evil laugh), YES!

My work seems to have different phases.  Last week was full of wild creativity!  I browsed pages and  pages of magazines with scissors in hand, blasted through bins of children’s books, and treasure hunted for color combinations in just about anything that came into view. If you could have seen into my brain you would have been scared. hahaha!

This week the tide has turned. My days will be spent without any other human beings in sight and only a sleeping puppy or two at my feet. It will be this way until my ideas are sketched, inked in, scanned, and colored. For me it means many quiet solitary days. Someone singing on the radio or a person talking on the television might scatter my thoughts like a syiff wind blowing a newly finished puzzle off a card table into a million pieces!

I don’t mind quiet days. In fact, when life gets crazy hectic I often retreat to this quiet place.  It’s a source of strength to sit with my little cartoons that smile up at me.  Call that crazy if you’d like … but its my little part of the world.

I was going to finish cleaning my kitchen floor… but then I thought, why not add a blog update?  ha!

Today I went for a walk.  There is nothing like walking in leaves!  I love fall mornings.

As usual, even on my walks I am working.  All I could see were color palettes! I picked up leaf after leaf to add to my fall collection.

In my quest for new ideas, I often begin at our local library.  In fact, I am discovering all the libraries that are located between my house and my dad’s house which is about an hour away.  Each library has different books!  What fun it is browsing through pages and pages of BOOKS!  Children’s books,  garden books, books about weaving, decorating, farm animals, famous painters, travel books and more!  Sometimes just having a stack of books near my chair inspires me! ha!  I LOVE BOOKS!!!

Bunnies Rock!  I love them!  Does this bunny look familiar?  It’s ME! ha!  I love personalizing my art and thinking about friends and family when I draw.  When my kids were little I would draw a bunch of cartoons and they would come up to me and ask,  “Which one is ME?!”

I’ve been pretty busy with studio cleaning!!  Bags and bags of things are GONE from my sight!  Why is it that I feel so much freer when clutter is OUT OF SIGHT?

The last few days have been working days!  I have bunnies galore, many baby chicks fluttering about, a children’s book on the front burner and more fabric ideas ready to color.

I find it interesting that fall seems to be my most productive time. I get so energized!  I can hardly wait to get working each morning! The cartoons are nearly flying off the page!!

Clothworks! I have not forgotten my Winter fabric collection revisions for you!  I have many sketches ready to go and some fresh ideas!  Have some more children’s fabric in the works too…. so fun!  I love my job!!!!

After all this pretending I am taking off my disguise.  I am Leslie Ann, the daughter of Bob and Ann. I am not living in some strange city or walking through a new home. I am not a different person, I am just me.

Even though I dearly love pretending, I find it is best to bring my dreams into the present… to see them come to past with planning and then praying!

This has been an interesting week.  I spent most of it cleaning my studio. (I will post a picture when I finish).  I took out bags and bags of old things!  It is amazing how you can rummage through your possessions year after year and then one day you see that you no long WANT them!  I threw out books, notebooks, and sketchbooks with only a few tired pages of stale art in them.  I bagged up some of my art supplies that will be better used by three daughters and two grandsons.  I discovered old paint cans with dried up paint, and I ousted many little unwelcome spiders!~  I gave it all a bit of new paint to boot!

What is the result of all of this?  A sparkling clean room with more space for new ideas and a fresh outlook.  I hope to purchase my new futon before the snow flies.  It will be nice to snuggle into my little room and create all sorts of new little creatures and characters. I can almost hear them waiting to be born from my pencil and poured out into my computer pages!

In hiding!

Have you ever wanted to be invisible or hide out somewhere?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be someone else?

Have you ever walked by a house and wondered what it might be like to live in it?

Have you ever taken a trip and wondered what it might be like to live in a new place where nobody knew you?

Have you ever wondered what it might be like to know what you know now and go back in time 40 years?

Have you ever thought of completely changing your job description?  “I used to be an artist but now I am a brain surgeon saving one life at a time.”

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to win the lottery IF you actually bought a ticket?

Have you ever…….. ?

In everyone’s life there is always, the “NEXT” step.  It may be a project you are working on or a dream you are dreaming of.  It may be ongoing or far reaching. The important thing is to keep moving in a direction of that goal and taking those determined steps.  We cannot be beaten down with discouraging thoughts or words.  They only serve to destroy faith and demolish dreams and they make no difference.  They are only words.  Gotta keep those embers of faith alive and burning!

You may ask, what is MY next step?  It is to venture out to the studio and begin loading more images to my new Etsy store. Then there is a little boy I must begin working on for my book.  …. then … then … wait!  ONE step at a time!

I will report back later!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LalaLeslieAnn

Meet Kamik, the little fox tot!

Kamik means Eskimo boot. (I think I will have to work that into his bio).

I drew him this week for my new book.  He is a baby red fox and lives with a number of other interesting characters in the land of Shivery Timbers.

As with all my cartoons, as soon as I draw them I am captured by them. They are my babies and I have sketchbooks full of them.  (I find it a curious thing that they all want to be famous!)

When I was little I had an great aunt named Emily. She would smile, crunch up her eyes and pinch my cheek!  While I realize that some children would hate this gesture, I found it a wonderful attribute!  Aunt Emily will forever be in my heart!

Aunt Emily once told me that every room should have just a little bit of RED in it.  I was very young when she told me this but it has stayed with me all these years. I think little Kamik the red fox, will be a just the dash of red that I need for my new book.  If he has a little girl friend I shall name her Emily!