All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!

Petal graciously consented to be my model the other night. Truth be told, she's a bit of a ham and it didn't take much convincing for her to sit still. 

Though I could tell by the way she was eyeing the dress I was knitting for the new bunny she had an ulterior motive. 

Silly Petal, you're perfect just the way you are. 

Trick or Treat!

Frankenbunny, Iggy leads the way yelling, "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!" 

Petal says,"Yeah!" 

Esmeralda wonders if her siblings might be a tad over zealous and grips her getaway broom with one hand,

and Petal with the other.

All's well that ends well. Have a safe and happy Halloween from the bunniest Halloweeners ever!

Carving Pumpkins

Everybody needs a little helping hand once in awhile.

Iggy's talent lies in carving pumpkins with a butter knife.

Esmeralda excels in spider therapy.

Petal believes in Bunnerflies and smarties.

Everybody say cheezies. 

Happiness is a warm bunny. 

Bye for now.

Have Broom Will Travel

Trick or Treat !

Here's to Esmeralda, the best dressed witch in the village. 

It's time to go hunting,

On Halloween night,

For witches and ghosties,

To give you a fright. 

Just Fooling Around

Evening Sky under texture.

Trying some new photography techniques on for size.

Cornflowers from my yard using one of Kim's black textures.

I used Kim Klassen's instructions. I really love how they turned out. 

Especially my little Maid Marian Bunny. 

Happy Halloween

Building bunnies and banners.

  I'm feeling Halloweenie and pushing to finish my projects before it's all over and time to squeeze out something for Christmas. Here's a peek at the dress I'm making for pretty Esmeralda, my little witch bunny.

 I used about 15 colours to make the candy corns in the Happy Halloween banner for a bunny photo shoot. My husband, David made a bunch of mini ghosties tied on a string to hang in their cute little bunny window. He also made the window, and a kitchen table to put under it!

Here's a closeup. 

I also bought a beautiful Chinese Lantern plant to put outside my front door.

I just love these tiny lanterns. They're going to come in very handy for painting my greeting card, Esmeralda and the Spooky Boo. She's running under a big branch of them in the drawing. The owl in the corner wearing a sheet and saying Boooo instead of Whoooo, is the spooky boo. 

Just a handful of some of the colours I'll be using. I know I'm pushing it trying to have the card ready for Halloween but this is really a warm up for the book cover, Tale of the Black Mamba. And the candy corn banner was a warm up for this card. I get so jittery when I'm starting a new painting. 

 Here's a beautiful picture my youngest daughter, Daphne took with her iphone while she was shopping. So colourful. That's some kind of phone!

I Love Window Boxes

Finally, after all these years I managed to talk my husband into letting me have some window boxes. I started in 1979!

This is my studio window. 

He made the cedar inserts. Aren't they pretty. 

And put them under the rec room window. The hostas look a little sad from being tromped on while he painted the house. But who's complaining?

He also painted the stairs and I painted the front door but made the brush strokes go the wrong way. Hopefully visitors will arrive only after dark. 

Here's my little garden off the front stoop. 

And a close-up of my bunny bath. 

I wanted my planters to stay mostly green till Spring so I added a boxwood, dusty miller a couple of heather and some winter pansies. I know the pansies won't last. 

I also made up a pot of some crazy kale I just had to have. 

My husband asked me, "How much did you spend on plants, fifty bucks?" 

I said, "Yeah, okay," and went about my business. 

Tale of the Black Mamba

It's been a long time since I've been here, I feel a little guilty about that, 

but whatever.

Anyway, here's the rough copy for the cover of my YA novel, Tale of the Black Mamba. It takes place  in 1901 at the World's Fair in Buffalo, NY and Niagara Falls, a kid's adventure story. That's clouds and the Falls in the background and he has a snake braid too, in case you were wondering. He's very evil, my Dr. Wu. There's still some detail to add but it's basically done. 

I thought my photograph was too boring. It's there on the sidebar in purple if you're interested. I was in such a hurry to publish I thought I could get away with using a photo but I'm glad now I drew my own, it'll just take longer to get out there. Probably won't be ready for Christmas sales but I know I'll get into the Spring Catalogue for sure. I now have my ISBN numbers for the paperback and ebook and the CIP number to get into the library. Yay!

The next step totally freaks me out, the really hard part, transferring it onto good paper and painting. So stressful! I think it'll look pretty good once I get the colour on, though. It always surprises me how much different it ends up looking.  

 Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it!