A few pics

From my new book. Featuring Fida, the little girl who starred in the previous book.

Thank you!

A while ago, I joined Facebook and Twitter, and discovered ( I think within a day of actual use) that hey, it seems to work great for other people, but it's not for me. At least not for now. Most likely for never. I can't wrap my head aaround tweeting about the fact that I had a muffin for breakfast, or giving people 'pokes' and 'nudges' on Facebook.

I had joined those sites to get more exposure for my Etsy shop, and for this blog. But like I said, I never used them.

My shop itself I have sorely neglected, although I hope to remedy that soon, Inshallah.

This blog I hardly ever advertize. I can't seem to find the time to go to other blogs and leave comments or do any of the other dozen thigs you can apparently do to get your blog out there. I do send out post notifications to some friends, but they are not following the blog, although they seem to be reading it (thank you all!).

And yet, and yet and yet and yet I HAVE FOLLLOWERS!! I'm not sure where you came from (except for DaddyBoy - he came from the moon), but you are here, and I thank you for it!

Finished my second book!

Oh my goodness - what a week! The weather can't seem to make up its mind, and alternates between too cold and too hot. But in between there are snatches of just perfect, and then everyone in town seems to be falling over themselves trooping to the outdoors. I think the madness of Spring has begun!

Right now I am sitting in our little patio under our little gazebo with my laptop, and the LittleSparrow is flitting about around me. She keeps coming up to me with her little discoveries of twig or leaf or just plain dirt, and offers it to me. "Nice", she says. I agree and thank her for the lovely gift, and she scoots off to find another.

I feel like I'm on vacation!

The last few days were incredibly hectic. I was working on my second book of illustrations, and I was given very little time to do it, since the publisher would like to add this book to my other one and take both to a seminar he's attending this weekend. The good part was this second book had the same characters as the first one, so I didn't have to work out the 'look'. This actually came in the middle of me working out the look for another book, but they asked me to leave that aside for now and just work on this one.

Anyhow, last night I uploaded all the images to their ftp site, and I'M DONE! Although now I'm all excited about the next book!

YAY:)

Meanwhile, I was...

I've been away for a few days, and you can blame it on the good weather! I also suddenly had my hands full with this and that, the way it sometimes happens...but I have much to talk about, which I hope I can do soon.

I did make another post for CraftingInColor, if you're interested in more pics from India!

I also got my next book to illustrate and have been trying to work out the 'look'. It's about a boy and a cat - nice!

And a friend sent me these pictures. What can I say? Such beauty exists, and is around us. Can we be thankful enough?

Speaking of chairs...

Ooh, I like beautiful, well-designed, comfy chairs, and these are so scrumptious! Right up there on my wish list.

From Vioski.

With its high, curved back, button tufting, and deep, inviting seat, the Louis Chair combines modern comfort with mid-century style. Shown with swivel base. Also available with solid maple legs and matching ottoman.





The perfect place to unfurl after a long day of work and enjoy with a favorite book or movie, the wide seat and ottoman of the Palms I provide support and extra comfort. Available with ottoman and with wood legs or a swivel.

Yellow Chair

After a long time, the BabyFish and I did some painting together this morning. She made lovely blue squiggles, and I made this chair. I should not be lazy, and put it up on Etsy before I forget about it, since I've really neglected my store there lately. But I'd like to put it on some kind of board, and cover it up with beeswax for a diffused look...not sure when I'll get around to experimenting with that though!

Meanwhile, here it is in a virtual frame for now :)

Finished!

My illustrations for the first book I was working on are finished! It's been a while since I last illustrated children's books, so I was really happy to get back into the challenge. This was also the first time I used the computer to color the pictures, and it was fun to play around with different looks without having to paint and repaint! I drew the pictures by hand, scanned them, then opened them up with Adobe Illustrator, and then converted the drawings to what's known as a Live Paint Group. This basically allows you to take each component of the drawing and then color it to your preference. I've never done this before so I learned as I went. I'd also really like to learn how to do 3D renderings, but one thing at a time!

The BabyChick I went for another walk today. It was cool but not uncomfortably so, and there were so many more new things growing. I didn't take the camera this time, though. We ran into a couple of other babies with the mommies at the park, and the LittleBug was simultaneously shy and eager as usual. She gets really excited to see other kids but is lately wanting to keep her distance and just observing them play, instead of joining in. I'm being told it's a phase, which is fine with me. I know she'll want to play when she's ready for it. For now she is very happy to just watch!

Over the weekend I was able to make guest posts for Addicted2Decorating and CraftingInColor, the two lovely blogs I occasionally write for, so that was good. I have to start on my next book soon. Can't wait!

No ordinary day

It's no ordinary day, when, out walking with the BabyTroll you find:

Things budding, growing, living...


Flowers just about to open themselves to the sun...



Lovely shadows that will soon be dense masses of life!

Street eats

Pictures I took on the run of a vegetable market in Poona. Most of it is out in the street, but some of it is in an ancient building with real stained glass windows. It's like walking into a different world. I only wish I had time to compose my shots, but I hope you'll get the idea!

Here's the structure I just mentioned - all old black stone with strange spire-like thingys...




There were bunches of onions and garlic and peppers suspended in mesh bags, along with bananas and pineapples and lemons...

The ceiling is very high, with those windows all around shining red and green.

And this is the outside part of the market:




Can you tell this place would be blindingly bright without those awnings?


I wish I had more pictures of the fruit stalls. There were strawberries and figs and papayas and pineapples and pears and peaches and pomegranates (OK, that's a lot of p's, but you get the idea) not to mention the grapes, bananas, apples, and oranges, of course...and a few others I didn't even know the names of.


This strawberry seller's awnings really caught my eye - they were so festive!



Broccoli, bitter gourd, eggplant and cucumber...


And all the fresh green (and red) things this man could find...




Look at those mounds of produce...stunning!



They had everything packaged and ready to go - corn, lentils, mushrooms, stir-fry medleys...I would happily turn vegetarian with a market like this to go to!

And it's here!

Remember how gray (grey?) everything was in my getting ready for Spring picture? It's still a little dull back in the patio, although there is quite a bit of green there as well now, but out front it's like this!

Featured on Etsy - again

I don't know how many times this particular piece of mine has been featured in a treasury on Etsy, but no one has ever bought it!!!

Getting ready for Spring

Last week DaddyBoy cleaned up the flower beds in our little patio...the shovel had a happy mixture of dirt and pine needles and old leaves in it...



You can see the honeysuckle, all intertwined with the hibiscus, is already sprouting. The hibiscus will take a while though. I think even its dried out remains of flowers are pretty.

Final look (sort of!)

OK, so I played with the plain backgrounds, and fixed the mommy's facial features (the earlier version was about background selection - plain vs. patterned - so I hadn't worked on the face at that point) and yes, here it is.

Until I tweak it again.

Which I really shouldn't, since I have the green light on these.

Again, please do not use these in anyway!




I'm wondering if I should keep the flower in the little girl's hair, or lose it. Or replace it with something else?