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meet alex and his friend andy...they are ready for a little "tricking and treating"!
i thought this piece fit illustration friday's theme of 'disguise'. it's an older piece, but it's definitely appropriate. besides...it's never too early for cute halloween art. in my opinion anyway...;)

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1. With the help of Twizzlers, Cadbury mini eggs, and March Madness, I finished the first draft of my YA romantic comedy. Woo.
2. And I'm getting ready for a writer's retreat, which means Preparing my Husband for Full-Time Child Care
3. BWA-HA-HA!!!
3 1/2. Have a great weekend everyone!

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We moved into our tree house on 3/4 and moved out of butterfly town 3/11, the day of the Tsunami warning in California. Tomorrow all our stuff from LA arrives––a Tsunami of furniture, and belongings you might say. Moves are so incredibly dramatic. We really didn't need the backdrop of a major catastrophe. Our daughter lives in Santa Cruz. It's estimated that the harbor there suffered anywhere from 10M to 20M in damages. On the 11th, the day I was cleaning out our rental I thought what a bummer it would be to leave this world while cleaning out a refrigerator. Then I thought of all the devastation and I just can't get my head around it. It's so much. People here are talking about radiation and carrying Geiger counters and iodine pills and closing the two plants we have in Southern California. And I can't even find the lids to my pans.

We moved ourselves out of butterfly town, and left it to the professionals to move our stuff up from LA. It took us eight days to move everything. Every night I needed two Advil, a ton of water and lots of hand lotion. I can't get enough hand lotion.

And in the middle of all of this we had a gigantic surprise. My daughter flew in from FL and Joe's best friend flew in from LA to join his mom and Mx and we all had an amazing celebration of our new tree house and our 25th wedding anniversary. It was my first surprise ever and I absolutely loved it. The girls and I climbed one of our trees and our house really became a home that day.

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This is called "Got Candy?" It is one of my favorite illustrations that I have done, and there is the pumpkin on the bag.

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I found a wonderful set of videos done by illustrator Lynne Chapman on how to do a picture book. She goes through the process of creating a book from start to finish, using her newest book, Bears on the Stairs, as an example. Informative and fun and entertaining, plus she has that neat British accent!

I'm not allowed to embed the actual video here, but you can click the links which will take you to her blog posts where you can watch them legally, and also look around at everything else she has going on (I love her sketches of people on the train!)


Her blog.
Blog post with first video.

There's a new yarn - a Malabrigo Rios - which is 100% Merino wool, but also washable. If you know about these things, you know that wool usually 'felts' in the wash. So washable wool is a pretty cool thing. I may have to get some to play with. Oooh, a trip to the yarn store - sounds dangerous! to my checkbook, anyway. We'll see.

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Halloween's around the corner, and I am in full candy-inspired mode. I loaded up on 'inspiration' and 'models' at the store the other day and now the challenge will be to not eat it all before it gets drawn!

The taffys are for sale. I'm doing a series of 5 x 5s on a 6 x 6 piece of paper. Not sure how many I will do, but will continue on for a while - besides candy I have to do some 'regular food' ones to frame, so there's no end in sight for the moment.

I ordered some fancy 5 x5 frames online and love them - but they came with no glass, so I had to go get glass cut special. And they have the nice wire and eye-hook dealie hardware for the backs, which I will be struggling with, I'm sure. A framer I am not. I'm sure there will be a post about all of that coming up soon!

Back to candy for now ~

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I made the mistake of walking into a small candy shop in the village. I'm not a huge devourer of sweet things, but I am hugely attracted to their bright colours, shapes and oh-so tempting shine. These liquorice allsorts for example ... they were far too gorgeous to resist: I just had to draw them. There's a whole bag of them sitting on my desk now looking quite mournful at being so intently ignored -- so if any of you would like some, you're welcome to come over and have as many as you wish ... Cheers!

Liquorice Allsorts cards and gifts at Floating Lemons at Zazzle

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Thought a celebration would be a great way to return from vacation! I'm celebrating my daughter's birthday today. Who knew so many years ago when I held her for the very first time that we'd be living on opposite coasts when she grew up. I'm so proud of her and all the adventures she's had in her life. She's truly happy and that makes me happy too! A mother's dream come true.

I didn't go anywhere on my blogcation this year. As we are in perpetual motion these days, it was vacation enough to settle into this new place and enjoy where we are here and now. I had adventures and learned new things about myself and about my dreams which is what all good vacations are all about.

I love Summer. Although I am missing the hotter than hot weather and that sort of light-headed, simpler-time feel I would get walking down Big Sur's wildflower-lined dirt roads, there's something special about walking down to The Bay and the feel of such an historical place. A friend gave me a great book about Steinbeck called JOHN STEINBECK, WRITER, A BIOGRAPHY by Jackson J Benson. It talks about the people who lived on the streets where we live. It talks about what went on here when Joseph Campbell [who would become one of the foremost authorities on mythology] had "decided to see something of the world and ended up broke and without any resources in Monterey" during The Great Depression and became friends with John Steinbeck and Doc Ricketts and the parties they would have. Their discussions were a form of recreational escape, during the time when Steinbeck was gathering material for TORTILLA FLAT and CANNERY ROW. In fact the book indicates that the party scene in CANNERY ROW might have been inspired by the party cooked up by John and Ed as Joseph's first drinking party.

It's good to be "back." Hope you all are having a wonderful Summer, filled with quiet moments and celebrations too!

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What is going on with the Cadbury mini-eggs? This is my all-time favorite Easter-time treat, and I can't find them anywhere! I've been to Target, the supermarket, Rite Aid. I'm feeling kind of desperate, like I gotta get them quick before Easter is over and they're gone forever. Or at least until next year. My husband informed me that Hershey's just bought Cadbury. Is that the problem? Tomorrow's mission: CVS and Walgreen's. Then I'm out of options. What's your gotta have it Easter treat?

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with a lot of questions. Lots and lots of questions. They just bubbled out of me. Questions about my dad. Questions I'd never asked him. And so I told my husband all about it and that I wanted to spend some time visiting Mom and Dad to get caught up and to ask Dad all the questions I had. Joe was great and said "Do it!" So I've been here, in Florida doing it. I came to Florida by way of Chicago where I spent a weekend celebrating my bro's 50th Birthday. I flew down with my sis to Florida and stayed with her and her family for a few days. So fun. We had an Oscar party. My brother-in-law made some great appetizers and Suz and I brought some Oscar cookies we bought in Chicago as a prize for the person who picked the most winners. That cookie tasted great! And then the question-fest began. And it was so fun. Dad was amazing and had such great patience with me. And Mom was so supportive.

If there is one thing I'd recommend it would be to sit down and figure out all the questions you want/need to ask your mom and dad and do it, soon. You'll enjoy such an amazing time together.

Of course for me a big, big bonus is that by visiting my sis and her family and my mom and dad I also get to catch up with my daughter. I'm here at St. Pete's beach. It's been a bit cold and rainy since I arrived here, but every day at the beach is a good day at the beach. Yesterday on a beach walk I saw some kite surfers in the surf of The Gulf. Very unusual sight to see The Gulf with those kind of waves. Reminded me of The Pacific. Candy and I got caught up over a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant here in St. Pete. I was happy to hear all about the "British brotherhood." She has a British boyfriend and they've befriended a lot of British ex-Pats who take care of each other.

Saw Alice In Wonderland with my nieces in 3d Imax. Fabulous:

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For Poppytalk’s Spring Color Week.

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The winner for the "Candy" challenge is:

Kinga!

Congratulations to Kinga. I chose Kinga's "Candy (pistols)" as the winner for the Candy challenge. Great design work, composition, color and technique. A wonderful style that subtly highlights a social commentary making an otherwise cheerful and colorful subject into something dark and dirty. Well done!

This was no easy decision. I am very partial to K.H.Whitaker's translucent candies. I suspect K.H. will get her win soon enough.

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Hi everyone. This is my very first post in Monday Artday so I am a bit nervous... I was very pleased to find out that we got an extended deadline for this prompt as I had an idea when I saw the word "Candy".

This time instead of something sweet (no pun intended) I wanted to design something that involves a certain kind of twisted sarcasm.

Thanks for having me!

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Inspired by an image of sucrose (sugar) crystals under a microscope:



You can see more like this at:

http://www.klbaileyart.com/ or my facebook fan page or Etsy Store.

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