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   10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston & illustrated by Rich Deas “Looky!” says a silly turkey swinging from a vine. Gobble gobble wibble wobble. Whoops! Now there are nine.” Girls and boys will gobble up this hilarious counting story about ten goofy turkeys roller-skating on a fence, doing a noodle dance, and more! Give …

http://youtu.be/Tkbz2RdltjY

Hand painted Pumpkin wine glasses/ candle holders
Now taking orders!!
Buy one for $35 or a set of three like this for $75

Have Patience

In September, I only had leaves and lost hope.

Then the first little pumpkin showed up.

Then another. Some are still changing color from green to orange.

You are allowed to have.

You’ll see.

Just be patient.

Classes Start Friday

I’m in a bit of a transition right now, so I’m not sure if classes will be offered in November or not and which. I’m expanding and growing! So, if are interested in Fairy Online School classes, they start Friday! Here’s the catalog of classes to choose from. Hope to see you in class!

I was so excited to find some cards I did for American Greetings in a local store!  BOO!!

4 Stars
Into the Pumpkin
Kinda Franklin
Schiffer Publishing
No. Pages: 48 Ages: 4 to 11

It’s Halloween Party time again and the witches, bats, ghouls, ghosts, black cats, scarecrows, ravens, and spiders have come together for the annual bash. Questions remain. Where should they have the party, in the graveyard or the pumpkin patch? Will they dress up or go as themselves? Take a ride on a witches broom to find the answers to this year’s Halloween party.

You will hop on the witch’s broom for a journey like no other. Each creature of the night has a part to play. The bats are letting all know about the party, the ghouls are planning the treat or treating. The witch mails out invitations. Is she not a little bit late, or does she have magic on her side? Everyone has a job to do, right down to the scarecrow, who is the host of the night’s ball.

The biggest question, it seems, is where to hold the party. In the graveyard, the haunted castle, or the pumpkin patch. I like the haunted castle. It has great character standing amidst the ghosts. The graveyard is the spookiest and the pumpkin patch says nothing about the Great Pumpkin, so for me, it must happen at the haunted castle. Once the party is over, and the raven has sung all he came to sing, the witch sends us back home by way of the pumpkin patch. It is quite a journey on this Halloween night.

Told in rhyming verse, the Halloween party plans are whimsical. There is nothing here to scare a little one. The illustrations have a ghoulish, haunted feel, yet are bright and fun. It is the illustrations that make this book for me. I like the orange cast of Halloween and the feel of spider webs and wisps of clouds covering each illustration. This lends a feeling of motion and emotion to each picture.  All the fall colors of Halloween are there. The oranges, yellows, whites, browns, and especially the blacks come together in delightful ways. The ghosts are dancing in a circle and I can hear the music as they twirl.

The text is a poem broken down verse by verse on the pages and illustrated by the author. She has made an unusual book with a familiar theme. Most of the lines roll right off the tongue in the lyrical way I enjoy. I think the illustrations are what make this book a winner. Anyone who enjoys Halloween will delight in Into the Pumpkin. I see this book as a family favorite, visited each year alongside the Great Pumpkin and treat or treating.

Into the Pumpkin is party planning that will not frighten a soul. To those of you who collect picture books for the fantastic illustrations, this is a must have. The illustrations are wonderfully enchanting. Into the Pumpkin could have just as easily have been dark, ghoulish, and frightening; the thing nightmares are made out of. Ms. Franklin chose to go the opposite direction and made a story any child can enjoy at any age. Into the Pumpkin is a Halloween winner.

Into the Pumpkin

Author/Illustrator: Linda Franklin   website
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing   website
Release Date: July 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7643-4183-0
Number of Pages: 48
Grades: Pre-K to 6
Ages: 4 to 11
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Below is an illustration I did for the back cover of October's Highlights magazine. This one is based on our annual Great Pumpkin Day celebration. This year is our 12th year of getting together with friends and family to eat, drink and carve pumpkins to welcome autumn. It started with myself and two friends but has grown to some fifty guests, many of whom are pictured here.

Spent a good part of today kneeling and lying on the garage floor painting...and repainting...letters.

Woohoo!  I think I've done enough grape leaves for now and I'm ready to move on.

Darn flash glare!  Notice that I added a couple of leaves to overlap the grapes.

Still toasting with empty glasses - hmmmm, white or red?

For the first time in a long time, I had a free Saturday.  I must have painted for about 8 hours overall (not without interruption, of course). 

I feel like I've spent a lot of time in the first two panels - especially because there were so many complicated issues on the tractor, the figure in the tractor, and the plow that hadn't been resolved.  However, there are a lot of details on these panels that I have yet to do, and they won't happen until the very end.  One of the last things I'll have to do is to get some of these panels exactly side by side with no gaps to make sure things line up. But, for now, I just measure where I can and "eyeball" it when I can't.

Getting tired of painting with so much green and brown - luckily today was orange (and a little green).

Yield a crop of pumpkins!

This is from a picture book that I illustrated called THE GOODBYE CANCER GARDEN, written by Janna Matthies. It recently won the 2011 Best English Language Children's Book at the Sharjah International Book Fair - wow! And it's also been chosen for CCBC Choices 2012: The Cooperative Children's Book Center top children's book picks for 2012. It's being translated into Arabic and Danish. I hope I get copies of those!

Cancer affects so many families these days. This is such an important, hopeful book about one family's way of responding to Mom's breast cancer recovery. What an honor to illustrate.

just a cute little illustration of a scarecrow named fern and his adorable canary friend:)

this is FOR SALE as a REPRODUCTION here http://www.etsy.com/listing/81979891/fern-the-scarecrow-reproduction

after this one, i'm taking a little hiatus from painting pumpkins. just a little one...;)

~haPpY AuTumN~