Robert Heidbreder’s book that I illustrated for Kids Can Press is available now! Here are a couple of spots you can order it. In Canada here and here. In the States here and here. Let me know if you start seeing it in the stores!
Category: Illustration
!!!!
We had some major excitement here this week. An advance copy of Noisy Poems for a Busy Day arrived! I had a hard time not crying when I opened it up and saw the pages, but reading the enclosed note by my editor pushed me over the edge. I think Sosi was terrified until I explained “happy tears, these are happy tears!”.
The book doesn’t come out until this December, but you can preorder it here or here. It is such a fun book to read to your kids, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. It looks great!
what we’ve been doing…
Knocking down walls,
Painting picnic tables,
Playing with (awesome) neighbours,
Finding homes for gnomes,
Enjoying the quiet,
Cherishing moments like this,
and this.
Close to my heart…
I’m happy to finally be sharing with you something that has been so close to my heart for this past year. It’s called “Noisy Poems for a Busy Day”, it’s a collection of fun children’s poems… and I illustrated it!!!
It is going to be published by Kids Can Press and is due to be on shelves by this coming December. It was written by Robert Heidbreder. He’s a retired school teacher living in Vancouver, who now works as a children’s book author.
Every part of this project has been a dream come true for me. I’m still pinching myself to believe it’s all real. Robert’s poems were a complete joy to illustrate, he was so supportive of my work .
I feel thankful that my art director Yvette saw the potential in me for this book. It was a crazy amount of work, but I feel like the luckiest person in the world that I got to do it.
I hope once it’s out there in the world it will bring as much happiness to others as it has brought to me!
…
I haven’t had too much to say these day, I’ve just been savoring these wonderful moments leading up to Christmas (and the completion of a project I’ve been working on for months, YAY!).
I love how these last days before Christmas are full of excitement of the gifts you’re going to give. There have been many late nights working away (my husband is making bunk beds for xmas!).
I’m also feeling so happy that I finally got to settle in to my studio. This place doesn’t look like much… but trust me it is full of magic!
I thought it was fitting that my first day in the studio was spent knitting doll clothes for Ila. Feels so good to be knitting again.
I’m feeling so grateful for my little family who finally are all heathy (knock on wood) and for all the family, friends and neighbours that we will be seeing and sharing time with over the next few days.
I am wishing you much happiness and coziness and love this holiday season.
* For a real treat check out these Christmas song/simple animations at Hallo Heute, she’s posted one for each day of December. It’s impossible to choose a favourite, they are all so good!*
Merry Christmas!!!
happy birthday monkey girl!
Our little monkey turns 3 tomorrow. My parents are visiting so we decided to have an early celebration last night. I know I say the same thing each year… but I can’t believe she’s 3! Where does the time go? That’s how old Sosi was when we moved here and I can’t help comparing them. They seem worlds apart but also exactly the same.
Happy birthday my sweet sweet girl.
tail warmers and Christmas crafting…
This past weekend I dove into the Christmas crafting head on. I’m not sure if my family members always enjoy the homemade gifts they get from me, but each year I simply can’t help myself. I just gotta make stuff! Sosi, inspired by her mama, decided to start a little project of her own using this nifty little spool knitter from some friends.
Early Monday morning she came happily bounding into my room crazy eyed and exclaimed she had been up since 4:00 knitting this tail warmer for Angelo! I rolled over to my husband exasperated, and wondered out loud why on earth she would do such a crazy thing (not the tail warmer *so awesome*, the 4:00 wake up part ) and my husband just answered, “… well, she IS your daughter.” Ah, yes… she is.
things I’m loving…
walking my favourite 6 year old and 7 seven old home from school,
these beautiful days we’ve been having,
this breathtaking place where we live,
the little lady she’s becoming,
the quirkiness of her,
how much fun they have together,
everything about this man I’ve been lucky enough to have in my life for the past 16 years,
the pure joy these two bring,
this secret project that i’m loving to work on everyday… hoping to share more here soon,
my new glasses that are making working on said project much easier,
the magic that happens when you take the time to enjoy these little things each day. While we sat here watching this sunset Ila told me from the backseat of the car I had the the sunset in my hair.
Some other things I’m loving :
all three seasons of “Bored to death”. The cuteness and chemistry of the 3 main characters makes me very very happy.
this website: Day after day in Nod
I can’t stop listening to Feist’s new album “metals”. I’m in love.
What are you loving these days?
Best Health illustration
I have an illustration in this month’s Best Health magazine. It’s an article about what not to feed your pet.
… my kitty, as you can see, found it very interesting!
Happy weekend!
happy halloween!
warm things for winter
I’ve finally finished my striped study shawl. I think it may be the longest (stitches and time wise) thing I have ever had on my needles. Painful to knit (tiny needles… soooo many stitches!), but absolutely worth it. I LOVE it! It is a tiny bit of heaven wrapped around my shoulders. The yarn is 100% alpaca (so soft). I got a great deal on the yarn from the yarn lady (I should really learn her name) at the Farmer’s Market. I have a ton left and have already started thinking of what I can make next… maybe this?
With the recent drop in temperature (brrr!) in these parts I finally got to try out the heated mattress pad I got for my birthday present from Paul and the girls. I don’t know why I have never had one of these before. It is beyond cozy! Our bedroom is not a very well heated room in an old not very well heated house. Getting into a cold bed on a cold night can be down right painful…. but now it’s like getting into a warm bath! For someone who hates to be cold, it is the perfect gift. I’m a happy (and warm) woman.
recent work and some other stuff
Some recent custom pieces… I feel so lucky that people ask me to do these for them. They are always so much fun! The top one is of a cute family from White Rock, B.C, the bottom one is of a girl and her pirate kitty. They travel the world together.
Some illustrators I’ve recently discovered and have been really enjoying:
Sachiko Umoto (so wish I could understand Japanese)
Ina Hattenhauer and her blog.
Happy weekend!
garden gnomes
Paul spotted some gnomes in our garden this weekend. 🙂
38!
Thanks to everyone who made it such a special day.
table rules
Our “Table Rules” poster has worked wonders around here. Especially for the smallest person in our house, who you can see, was my major inspiration for the poster.
I whipped it up in a fit of desperation one night before supper. Nothing else was working or getting through to my temperamental little 2 year old. Every night she was making dinnertime stressful with her crazy behavior, I couldn’t take it anymore.
I’m not sure why I haven’t made anything like this sooner… maybe because it just seemed too easy. If your kids aren’t listening to you when you ask them something 100x why would a picture work? Well, it does. When someone is breaking one of our “rules” at dinner time, we simply point to the picture and (mostly) they stop.
It’s also been a big conversation piece with visitors to our home (most likely thinking to themselves “what kind of crazy house is this?!”). People seem to like it …so I thought if this helped us, maybe it might help some others in the same situation.
So I redid the poster and made it into a PDF (b+w, so your kids can colour it in if they want). You can download it by clicking on the button below.
P.S Sosi is pretty horrified I drew her throwing food and wanted me to make it very clear she doesn’t do that. I just couldn’t draw Ila doing everything .
these days
These days have been full, very full. A lot of going back and forth…
from things like this,
and this,
to this,
and this.
In July my attempt to get more childcare backfired…and I ended up with no childcare. My children were both miserable in the new places I put them and begged to stay home with me. After weeks of fighting them, and lots of tears and stress, I gave in. I ‘ve had them home for 2 weeks with me and it has worked out amazingly. I ‘m with them during the day and my husband is with them in the evening and weekends (when I whisk myself off to my (Katherine’s) studio, aka heaven). I’m actually getting lots done and more importantly …
look how happy these two are (man, I love them)! It’s been nuts, but so totally worth it.
Lori Joy Smith 
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