Welcome to My Studio!

After debating which of my creative interests to focus on, I decided to publish a blog that could contain them all. Just to give you an idea of what topics may appear, here’s a partial list:

• writing and illustrating children’s picture books (over 35 at last count)
• insider info about CB publishing (CB = children’s book)
• painting/beading/stitching fabric collages, otherwise known as art quilts
• experiments with various materials, such as drawing on foil
• plein air painting, which I haven't done much of but will attend a workshop in April
• science-related topics (my husband Andy is a scientist*)

* Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweetie!

Here’s a bigger chunk of the art quilt used as the blog header. Click on it for a larger image. Note that the whiskers are REAL cat whiskers, shed by our cat Knickers. It was very tricky to sew them on, because whiskers are so springy and they kept popping out. Ended up using monofilament thread and lots of teensy stitches. As you can see, the cat is not looking at the cardinal. Wonder what she’s looking at?

Though this is the first post on my personal blog, for about a year I’ve been a once-a-month blogger on I.N.K. which stands for Interesting Nonfiction for Kids. It’s a group effort by several authors from picture book age on up. My most recent post, Being Smart is Cool! refers to some recent research about the best way to encourage children to learn, and gives recommendations for great books kids can read to ratchet up their brain power.

I can’t pretend to be a big expert on the whole blogging thang, so if you have any suggestions please put them in the Comments. And by all means add this blog to your reader... if you don’t have one already, give Google Reader a try. Readers allow you to create your own custom “newspaper” on whatever topic you choose. Mine is full of art and book blogs, naturally. Will post some favorites on here, eventually. Thanks for stopping by!