Before and after and a new doll...

I had a great time at the Gaithersburg Book Festival. The best thing, of course, were the kids. We made paper aliens. :)

I am very behind on posting new work, but I wanted to share a 'before and after 'skelly, and a new doll I made.




This is the before:
Here is the after:

Adalina

And here is a new doll I stitched up. She has a friend, and I will post him soon.

Nanette

Every now and then I have to make a rag doll. I love them. I remember Caity collected them when she was little. She didn't like plastic dolls, just the cloth ones. The little desk is a thrift store find that I use in a lot of pics.

And now I will put on my cape and whip up a fantastic, well-balanced dinner while simultaneously washing the dishes AND the laundry! Ta da da daaaaaaaa!

Happy evening all!

Graduation and National Collapse Day

Graduation was bittersweet. Another chick grown and ready to leave the nest. We are so proud of him. Watching him walk across the stage (as a tiny dot) at the Comcast Center was amazing.

Here is Alex then.


Here is Alex now.

Congratulations, to our Biology AND Foreign Language major (he got a second bachelor's in Spanish). How he did this I have no idea. I barely made it to my B.A. Alex will be moving to Madrid to teach English for a year before deciding on the next phase of his life.

Since it is National Collapse Day, I will be signing off for the day to enjoy being a proud mama hen. I plan on puttering around. Perhaps I will pull a weed or two. Write a sentence. Draw a skelly. I might try and go to a movie today, if I can muster the energy. Happy Sunday, all!

A winner and a graduation!

Thank you all for such lovely comments about EARTH TO CLUNK. I have been so crazy busy I haven't had a chance to reply to each of you, but just hug yourselves good and hard from me, and ignore the looks you get when you do.

The winner of the book and MOOKIE is Bella! Bella, send me your address (my email is in my profile) and I will pop them in the mail to you next Monday.

Tomorrow, I am going to go see my oldest graduate from college. I cannot believe it. I think it was the day before yesterday that he was in diapers. Hahaha - oh, he would love to read THAT sentence. I will be sure to bring Kleenex. I'm one of those types. And I will try and remember the camera.

On Saturday I am going to be speaking at the Gaithersburg Book Festival (drop by if you are in Maryland!).
Sunday I plan on collapsing. Big time.
Monday I will be back on my game. Not sure what that game is exactly. Maybe ping-pong.
Or Tiddly-winks.Never fear! We'll have another giveaway soon!

EARTH TO CLUNK and a Giveaway!

NEWS FLASH: I've been visited by an alien!

A cute one named Clunk.

And right in the nick of time! I think we can all agree that life can be stressful as all get-out, tedious even, and that some weeks, it really does feel like you are trapped in a hamster cage busily wearing out your sneakers.

But every now and then, the trough becomes a crest, and we get a chance to celebrate. I'm having one of those moments!

This week my new book, EARTH TO CLUNK, came out. Yippee! I love the artwork by Joe Berger! His style is what I think of as "fresh retro". I adore my editor and my agent (shout-outs to Jessica Garrison and Jim Proimos!). They have all worked so hard to make my story into a real live book. So thank you, Joe, Jessica, Jim and all the good folks at Dial for making it happen.

Of course, to properly celebrate, I have to have a giveaway. So I am giving away a signed EARTH TO CLUNK and a buddy to go with it!

Here is Mookie. She's a great book buddy. I'm not sure what planet she is from, but she tells me they are all vegans.She likes to read books about ice cream. Vegan ice cream. Which are hard books to find. Maybe you have one at home?

She's a good listener. She will never interrupt you while you read.Best news of all: Mookie is always happy.

Just leave me a comment, and I will put your name in the hat. I'll pick the winner next Wednesday, May 18th after 6pm. To all of my friends who visit me here/there, FB and Flickr, and who have so generously encouraged me, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Hugs all around!

Whew...so it's May now?

Just for the record, I have been jamming down on the Time Accelerator's brake hard, and now smoke is billowing out from under the casing. If it seems like time is whizzing by at an alarming rate, well, that's because it is!

I had a lovely Mother's Day. I got to talk to all of my kids (we have 6 between the two of us) and I saw 3 in person. Them are good odds.

This is a busy month. We have one graduating from college. One graduating from high school. Kids moving home for the summer. Cars to get fixed. A middle school band concert to attend. I am supposed to give a presentation (gulp!). I have a book coming out this week! Ah, chaos! Don't you love it?

Here are some new pieces I have finished. I work on them at the same time I push the brake on the Time Accelerator. I can multi-task like the dickens.

Poppy

The Birdwatcher

Mr. Raven
Wanda
Harvey

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. I apologize for missing your blog posts. I am going to be having a giveaway VERY soon, along with a copy of my new book, EARTH TO CLUNK. And after the 21st of May I will become a normal person. Well, normal for me, anyway.