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TODAY, I was surprised to see that my Aristocakes cupcake bakers were featured on the Today Show! Yep, there they are with Matt Lauer and Bobbie Thomas, the style editor, in a segment about giving your mom the royal treatment. Well, this was a treat for me!

Later, I was flipping though the June/July issue of the Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine that had just come in the mail, and there’s another one of my current products in the Fun Faves section! These are called Tropsticks… flamingo-shaped, easy-to-use chopsticks.

Yeah, it was a good day.

As a product designer, I am never sure where my items will show up, and I must say, it’s frequently a surprise.

Here’s the Winestein in the hands of Hoda and Kathie Lee on the Today Show!

If you follow this link, you can watch the whole opening sequence in all it’s glory… towards the end, they actually play with their Winesteins and talk about them. WooHoo!

It’s that time of year again, kids! It’s the new Spring Line of the Fred company. One never knows from season to season which items will manage to make it allll the way through the design and manufacturing process and become real products. The process reminds me of The Bill from Schoolhouse Rock. Your proposal could get vetoed, it could die in committee, it could be argued about indefinitely. Only, I’m not making laws, just products!

Anyhow, good news! Here are a few of my new items that made it through! They will be making their debut at this week’s New York International Gift Fair, and at a number of other nifty shows across the continent.

AristoCakes are silicone cupcake bakers that are perfect for your next royal party. William and Kate should definitely consider using these for the Royal Wedding.

TropSticks make eating with chopsticks easier, if you are chopstick-impaired. They also make eating more… tropical. Yeah!

Here’s GloBoy. This one took a long time to figure out technically speaking, and I never thought it would see the light of day (ha)! He is a solar-powered nightlight. During the day, he’s sleepy and recharges. At night, flip him over and he’s wide-awake and glowing. He’s designed in a way that you can take his arm and pick him up for midnight bathroom trips. Shiny!

You can currently see the latest products on the Fred Facebook Page.

And there you have it! Spring is in the air, product-wise. NOW, if we could only ditch this infernal snow!

The ravioli-lovin’ staff at Everyday with Rachael Ray have featured my Spongioli super-absorbent kitchen sponge design in their October 2010 issue!

I don’t know about you, but there is something about ravioli that captures the imagination. OK, that might apply to just me.
Anyhow, thanks for another nod, Rachael. You’re cool.

Did you have an awesome summer? Didja?

I have been having a good amount of fun coupled with a lot of work, both in and out of the studio. So, I let my blog languish a bit for summer. Now is the time to bring it up to speed as we go into FALL!

Going back a couple of months, I don’t think I ever showed you this fabulous new book called lllustrating Children’s Picture Books:

It’s by my friends Steve Withrow and Lesley Breen Withrow, and I was most happy to contribute a couple of articles to it. This one is about writing and illustrating board books, which is truly one of my favorite subjects:

This page is about the “other” markets you can pursue with your children’s art. If there’s one thing I do know a lot about, it’s “other” markets! This encompasses toys, fabrics, magazines, and stuff like that.

Let’s see… what else? Ah, I have been illustrating almost monthly for Highlights High Five, mainly little snippets of recipe ingredients.

I am continuing to create the Newport Creamery children’s menus. The current one is summer-themed and has Newport’s Cliff Walk on the cover. Next time you’re there, go ahead and ask for the kid’s menu!

I haven’t managed to update my website in a while (it’s on the list), so for now I will show you a few of my recently designed Fred items, now available at a store near YOU! Keep your eyes open for:

Salt ‘n’ Pants! Oh, how happy it makes me to see this one on the market! The little guy is salt, and his pants are pepper. I know it’s weird, but I’ve been trying to get it made for a couple of years now. Huzzah! Hooray for pants!

Another item I am glad to see out there is the Candy Stash. It’s a zip-up wallet shaped like those candy buttons stuck on paper. Mmmm, paper…and candy!

Rachael Ray, you’re the tops. Once again, one of my designs has turned up in her monthly magazine, specifically April 2010!
The item is called Budget Cuts, and it’s a piggy bank with various budget-related “cuts” outlined on it. Get it?? Haha! So you, too, can save your pennies for lottery tickets and donuts. Mmmmm, donuts.

Here’s how it looks all by itself, from the FRED site:

St. Patrick’s Day is coming soon enough. If you are like me, you like to get a jump on Irishing up your house for the occasion.

Each year, I bring out certain things. Things like this guy:

Yes. I know. He is actually Scottish.

This is Angus McDermott, also known as the first item I can remember designing as a professional. He came with the name “McDermott” sewed to his leg. I added Angus as an homage to his obvious Scottish heritage.

Back in 1989, a few months after graduating from RISD, I started working at Russ Berrie and Co., in Oakland, NJ, a large giftware manufacturer. I was put into the “Plush Department” (What a dream! Making stuffed animals for a living!), and this is one of the first designs I ever made that actually got manufactured. Like other kinds of design, a huge proportion of what gets developed doesn’t actually end up manufactured. In the two years that I worked there, I was lucky to have quite a few go through to production.

Anyhow, when he comes out for St. Patrick’s Day, he reminds me of those early days and of my NJ friends. Begorrah!

I love seeing where my designs turn up. Here are some neat new places to find a couple of my items!

Crazy Books, the Food edition is coming out in October in Germany from Edition Braus. The publisher is debuting it at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year. My Calf and Half creamer is in it- keep your eyes open when in Germany (drat, I was just there a few weeks ago)!

Here is the current Fall ‘09 MOMA (Metropolitan Museum of Art) catalog, with another of my glass items, the Half-Pint Creamer. Every purchase made thru the catalog supports the museum. Sweet!

I’m loving the line quality and colors found on these cute little tray/dishes from Norway.
They are marked “Stavangerflint” on the back.
Graphic happiness!

Where else but New York City! I just got back from a whirlwind 4-day stay in the Large Apple with some of my most excellent illustrating gal pals. Two of the aforementioned pals had their own booths at Surtex for the first time, and the rest of us went to cheer them on, help out, and walk the shows. Barb’s booth was bursting with licensing goodness:

And Monica’s was all a-flutter with fun freshness:

Barb and Monica did an AMAZING job of putting these booths together, they truly looked excellent! Surtex (or any show like this) can be grueling in terms of setup/breakdown, and manning the booth for the whole time. Way to go, girls, for managing this. We also got to see a bunch of other blog buddies and other illustrators, like Jannie Ho and Holli Conger. Very fun to see everyone converging in one place!

Laura and I also got to check out the ICFF/International Contemporary Furniture Fair.
Despite the name, there is no cotton candy or pig racing at this fair. You will, instead find things like this:

Lots of furniture, lighting concepts, and home fixtures of all kinds. I always like to check this show out since some of my Fred work falls into this genre of design. Speaking of design, here’s Laura in the fabulous Japanese pavillion:

Here’s one of Mary Beth’s two Louie-nominated greeting cards at the Stationery Show:

And OH! Look! Here’s Mary Beth with the actual Louie Award that she won! WooHoo! The Louies are given to the the best greeting cards of the previous year. MB’s cards were designed for the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Our hotel had excellent views of about a hundred water tanks!

And look at this ridiculously green rooftop garden amongst the grey. I never once saw anyone up there enjoying it!

As usual, you can never predict what you’ll see in New York.
Maybe you’ll see:

A ginormous button and needle. We couldn’t figure out the weird configuration of button holes on that button. Then we decided it was “art”.

I love this homage to the city’s immigrant garment workers!

Weeniemobiles…times three!

Giant rotating lobsta! And a chick in a bathing suit looking on. Weird.

Serious M&Ming going on at the 3-level M&M store…

Or, if you prefer your chocolate to be Hershey’s, just go across the street.

My hero George M. Cohan will gladly show you the way to any of the freaky sights in Times Square. Just be glad I didn’t take a picture of The Naked Cowboy.

One of my must-go-to-places in NYC…the giant Toys R Us, complete with Ferris wheel inside!

Life-size functional Tyrannosaurus? This is always amusing no matter how many times I’ve seen it.

Likewise insanely large things made out of Legos.

Speaking of which, look at these cool Harry Potter Lego guys in the FAO Schwarz:

To cap off the Surtex/NY experience, we went to Angelo’s in Little Italy for an amazing dinner. It was sort of like Federal Hill, but, um…more so!

We’ll be back next year to do it all again!

That’s right! I just came back from this year’s New England SCBWI conference. This year’s theme was “Many Voices,” and that turned out to be very fitting! On Friday night, there were many voices at the Muse Jazz Club Meet & Greet:

Very fun to catch up with a lot of friends, and of course, to have that experience of saying,”Hmmm.I know I know you…where have we met before?” It happens a lot at this conference!

Here’s Barb Johansen Newman, Carlyn Beccia, Moi, and Maryann Cocca-Leffler. And a basket of snacks.

There a was a big wall to draw on. Here’s John Bell adding something to the wall near one of Barb’s famous kitties.

This year was different for me. I was a member of the “faculty,” and I had two presentations of my own to present on Saturday. So I did get to hear the keynoters, but mostly missed the other sessions! The morning keynote speaker was the fabulous Cynthia Lord:

What a way to start the day. She was very inspiring, talking about the power there is in personal stories. She gave excellent pointers on finding the emotions in your own experiences and integrating them into your work, even if your book is pure fantasy. The emotions involved in recalling real people and experiences can add the needed depth to your characters and stories. Everyone came away from this talk feeling inspired. Everyone.

I was able to catch most of Kirsten Cappy’s session on creating marketing plans for your books that tap into each story’s unique theme. The idea of creating an individualized marketing plan for each of your books is great, and she showed some very cool examples of others who had done this.

Here’s me becoming one with my first-ever Power Point presentation. My first session was called “Books and Beyond: The Many Markets for Children’s Illustration.” I was nervous. But then, I got to talk about all the stuff I love and have been doing for a long time: magazines, toys, fabric, stationery, licensing, and everything else that requires an illustrator with a knack for children’s art. It’s a big, big, world out there, and there was not really enough time to get into it all…but I did my best!

Barb, Janet Montecalvo, and me at lunch.

Let’s see, I think I can rememeber everyone at the table! Alice (A.C.E.) Bauer, Nicole Tadgell, Charlene Willing McManis (who had the best Native American jewelry ever), Alisa Libby (who has a book that actually bleeds!), Greg Fishbone (webmaster!), Barb, the unseen Janet Montecalvo (as seen above), and me.

The lunchtime keynote speaker was Floyd Cooper. Wow. Just wow. His work is luminous and stunning, and even though he did a piece right in front of us with a kneaded eraser, I can’t fathom how he does it. Check out his website. I appreciated that he has worked in many other genres, too.

My second session was called Fun Reads: Board Books and Other Novelty Formats. As you can see, my board book session was in the Board Room (very Donald Trump!). You can picture the chairs actually filled with people, right? Mildly intimidating! But again, I got to talk about that which I love, and I brought a lot of examples of books (both my own and others) to play around with. I pretty much ignored my Power Point presentation. Oops. I sort of forgot it was there. Oh, well, no matter!

Here’s the Diversity Panel: Louise May from Lee and Low, Bobbie Combs from Two Lives Publishing, Jennifer Laughran from Andrea Brown Literary, and Floyd Cooper. Moderated by Padma Venkatraman.What an excellent, topical discussion. It was good to hear “many voices” speaking up about the challenges and necessity of getting diverse books into kids’ hands.

Here’s the adorable Kathy Weller, with her prize-winning poster! I just adore this piece she did…a favorite of mine, and obviously a crowd favorite, too! Kathy also did a great rundown of the sessions she went to on her blog, WellerWishes. She also happen to go to one of my sessions, so you can read about it from the other side…thanks, Kathy!

I wrapped up Saturday at the booksigning…here’s me and Barb and our adoring throngs of fans…LOL!
I had a blast seeing everyone there, and I hope everyone had a great time on Sunday, too!
Next year’s conference will be at The Courtyard Marriott in Fitchburg, from May 14-16. Mark those calendars!

Some of my products have shown up in some rawther nice magazines lately:

Holy cow, Cool Jewels was in Oprah’s O At Home Winter 2007 magazine!

And check out the February 2008 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine- they featured two of my items this month:

You can see some of the development sketches for these items on my Giftware Page on my website.
You can also visit the FRED blog and see lots more product sightings…woohoo!