HAPPY MONDAY GIRLFRIENDS!  MUSICA

Those are words from my new book, THE FAIRY TALE GIRL ~ I’m designing bookmarks for it now, I think I’ll put this on one of them . . . I am so excited . . . the book is at the printer ~ it won’t be long now!  I just received the color proofs . . . and thought you would like to see.

The printer sent these sample pages so I can check the color and the cut-lines and make sure everything is being printed inside the borders.  They looked pretty good to me!  They wouldn’t let me keep them, wah, I had to okay them and send them back!   Thank goodness for cameras or I might not believe it happened.

I had to paint fairies for the new book, here is one of them, I love her.  We have these tiny blue butterflies here on the Island that come for only a couple of weeks in the spring and float down the dirt road with us in the mornings, two or three at a time.  Like magic. So I modeled my fairies after them, except of course for the hands and feet!  ANYWAY, I just wanted to say . . .

I’m still trying to catch up and get life back to normal.  I just finished designing the covers for the 2017 calendars.  The manufacturer always needs those first, for their catalog.  I have to say, painting “2017” was shocking.  I had to go check, I couldn’t believe I had the right date, but I did!  So they are done, and right now, I am deep in the throes of writing a new WILLARD ~ I figured it was about time!  You have all been so patient.  I checked with the Twitter girls last night and everyone said they wanted a long one, so prepare yourself.  You might have to take the day off.  After that, believe it or not, I will have nothing on my plate.  N O T H I N G, I can empty my trash and it will stay empty!  How do you like the sound of that?  I’m pretty excited.  I even got the title for the cover of book two of this Fairy Tale painted:

That book is all written too, I’m way ahead of myself ~ I can work to finish it with art and photos more slowly and over time.  Right now, it’s time-out for fruits-of-labor enjoying! Already there’s more time for appreciating the little things that make life sweet, taking the camera out on our walk, having naps with old movies, eating lobsters, taking Jack out to the garden so he can munch the grass and I can admire things like this:

The island is frothing over with hydrangeas these days . . . this one is growing under our bird feeders.

We went out to dinner the other night and watched the sun set over the harbor . . . such a gorgeous evening. Now you know why I call it Isle of Dreams. 

Hard to believe you can sit right there and have all that just for the price of a glass of wine and a plate of deep fried oysters.  Wow. Right?

We went out for a walk after dinner last night, just as it was getting dark . . . middle of August and quiet, summer nights in our neighborhood, crickets cricketing.  You should hear what I hear right now, at 6 a.m. . . . . Not a sound from my studio window but birds singing, cool air flowing in and just the barest light in the blue sky beginning to show outside. My favorite time of day.♥

That’s what I’m doing! There’s one of my blessings drinking out of the sink!↓ ♥ 

It takes me about four days to write and design a WILLARD, then I send it to Kellee so she can work her magic on it, which means we plan to have it all ready to go by August 18th.  Once we push the “send button” it takes about three days for the whole thing to go, it has to be sent in batches (so we don’t destroy the Internets), so if you know anyone who would like to have a WILLARD, they’re free of course, and all you have to do is sign them up and boom, it will show up in their email box (if you don’t see yours, always check your spam folder because some computers might (rudely) block it).  And FYI, there will be a mighty fine Giveaway involved in this WILLARD ~ and all kinds of other surprises too. I’ve warned Vanna she might actually have to work when it comes out so she should plan for it! I’m a real tyrant with that girl.

Blog Daddy had so much fun with all your comments and best wishes for his birthday.  Thank you for letting him feel how special he is. ♥ You are a power for good. You can take pride in having totally MADE someone’s day. ‘Course you do that for me all the time!  So, there you go.  Spreading sunshine.♥ Love you ~ have a wonderful day!  XOXO