Artist & Illustrator
I’ve made a free mobile download to celebrate the upcoming release of my new book The Good Morning Book!
We been making them like crazy over here and it’s been so fun. It’s a quick little project that takes about an hour to do together.
I’ve added some instructions in the download, but it’s pretty straight forward. These little cuties pretty much figured it out on their own.
You can download it here:
I’ve created a colouring page to celebrate the launch of “My Canada- An Illustrated Atlas”. The book is coming out May 23 to celebrate Canada’s 150th, and will be available anywhere you can buy books. The colouring page is available now and is free! You can download it here.
Count your chickens is finally out! I’m really happy with how it looks and it’s a lot of fun. My 8 year old can’t stop counting the chickens and making up stories for all of them. It can be found at most major book stores and online at amazon.
I received an email last summer from Helen, who had just visited PEI. She had seen my paintings in a shop and was wondering if I had ever done anything with Anne. She was disappointed there wasn’t anything more cute and fresh of her here. She asked me if I could make some fabric pieces for her.
I’ve been so busy with other things I wasn’t able to get to these until now. I’m so glad I carved out sometime because I had so much fun working on them! I love the Anne stories and LM Montgomery. Her Emily of New Moon series especially. The way she describes the wind through trees or the beauty of a meadow … that is what I’m always striving to achieve with my work. It’s pure magic.
“A book is just a book until a child picks it up and interprets it, that’s when the magic happens.” – Kari-Lynn Winters.
Sonya White at the One Schoolhouse Foundation is doing such meaningful and beautiful work. She recently shared this video with me of her visit to St. Lucia and the Reading Rainforest event. It is an event celebrating books and reading. Me, Too was one of the books including in the celebrations.
The video is beautiful. It is incredibly uplifting to see so many people doing such good things, and there is really so much magic in the world, mostly in the hearts of children. This video would have made me cry regardless, but the fact that I can see my book in the hands of children I never dreamed it would reach, was almost too much.
Maybe Spring doesn’t want to come to PEI, but that doesn’t mean I can’t paint it! I spent this weekend painting barns and flowers, and I’m hoping it might coax Spring to arrive.
These paintings will be available to purchase at Cottage Industry in Charlottetown or through me.
My girls have been absolutely loving Kallie George‘s series called “Magical Animal Adoption Agency”. It has sparked all sorts of creativity over here. Magical animals are being crafted, rooms have been turned into adoption rooms, there are even unicorns in my bath tub!
These books feel even more special because I have a small connection to Kallie. The first email I received offering me a children’s book illustration job was from her. She and I worked on “The Goodnight Book” together.
I’ve got the sequel to The Goodnight book ( The Good Morning Book) all ready to go. It should be coming out pretty soon. 2016 is a super busy year for me, I’m working on 4 books! A very different scenario from when I received that first email from Kallie… and I will always feel thankful to her for giving me my first book.
Here’s a little sneak peek of something I’ve been working away on that I am so excited about.
“The Love Book” is a book I wrote myself, that will be fully illustrated with fabric pieces. (!!!) It’s being published by Owlkids Books, and will be released in the Fall of 2017.
I have never been prouder of a project. The message is straight from my heart and the artwork is so special to me. I hope the world will love it as much as I am loving working on it!
I just had to share this video for Bobs and Lolo’s song Run Salmon Run. This is so fun for me, to see my little drawings come to life! It’s a lovely song, and Turtle Box Productions did such a great job.
We weren’t expecting to get a new doggie so fast…. but the universe sent us this little one. If there is anything I’ve learned in all my years… it’s when the stars align and things seem right, they usually are.
So we took the leap and welcomed this little corgi puppy into our lives. He has been nothing short (hee hee) of magical. He is making us all feel so much better. We all still miss Gerty so much, but the happiness is now back in our house.
(His name is Sprout. Inspired by the amazing series “Korgi” by Christian Slade.)
Last Sunday we lost our little Gerty.
Anyone who met her knew what a sweet dog she was. She was pure love. Alway happy, always ready for fun. On our walks so many people would smile at her as they walked by. More than once, people have yelled from passing cars what a cute dog she was. She didn’t have a bad bone in her body.
She was my constant companion, and I couldn’t have dreamed of a better one. She brought a smile to my face every single day. Just looking at her instantly made my heart happy. She slept with Ila every night, she was her best friend.
Our house is so painfully quiet, all I see is the hole she has left. We all loved her with all our hearts and miss her so badly.
Gerty, you were the best girl.
I’ve been working a lot with a most reluctant Ila on learning how to read. I wanted to try something a little different to make it fun for her. We worked on this together (she is most proud of the I), and I loved the result so much I decided to get some printed. They are printed on heavy card stock, 11″X17″ and signed. I will be selling them for $35. They are up for sale in my Etsy shop. If you are in Charlottetown, please contact me directly.
(The amazing banner is by Kim Roach Design)
I have some spot illustrations scattered throughout the current Discover Charlottetown Activity Guide. You can find it all around town or you can request one from the Discover Charlottetown website.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the Me, Too! book launch today at the Confederation Library! It was great to share this sweet funny book with so many sweet funny kids. I was also really happy to share the colouring book I made with the children. I’ve added it to my “freebies” section and a free downloadable PDF.
Lori Joy Smith
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