fresh picked whimsy

Meet the press!

I wanted to share some pictures with you from our field trip to the Printing Press yesterday.  We took the kids and got to watch as our cover was being printed.  What a thrill!  Ten thousand copies on this first run...yes, we hope there will be more...they said it would take all day for it to run.  Then, it will be on it's way to Tennessee to be bound.  Finally, we should have the books in hand on January 22nd.  That's just a few weeks from now...it has always been such a far off date...but really... it's only 23 days from today!!!!! Somebody, pinch me!

The gigantic printing press...all the way back to the back wall...AWESOME!

 

Anne and I with one of the first prints of the cover to come off the machine...

 

One of many color quality checks during the process.  They just randomly pull one off the press to make sure the color quality is good.  That's Rick...he was managing our job.  The folks at Quality Printing were so nice to us.  We had our whole crew with us and we were videotaping and snapping pictures.  It was a bit of a circus...the machines were so loud and the smell of paper and ink was intense.  We're so green, but this was one of those polaroid moments in life that just had to be chronicled.  I will never, ever forget this day.

For Christmas, Anne had matching necklaces made for her and I...it's a heart split in half that reads "Blooming Heart Books"...which is the name of our book series.  My half of the heart has the word "art" on it.  She's so creative!

Anne brought sparkling grape juice and disposable wine glasses for us to toast with the kids when we came out of the printers.  We did a little tailgating in the parking lot...it was so fun.

 

Finally, a short home video of the book on the printing press: Download MOV05879

Pardon my mess...

A little blog housekeeping underway...as you can see, there are some changes and additions to fresh picked whimsy.

• The whimsy studios stamps have arrived and can be purchased exclusively through Pink Papery Studios...an awesome custom stamp store that i have collaborated with to bring you some of my original illustrations in stamp form.  Valentines stamps are in the works now along with a new line of stamps inspired by my whimsy studios happy little house series!  Be sure to browse through Pink Papery Studios to see stamps from several different artists as well!
• In a few days, i will add a special section to freshpickedwhimsy that will allow you to pre-order the book i just finished illustrating...Getting to the Heart of Complimenting.  The book is on the printing press as I type this and we got to go watch it this morning.  I'll be posting pictures from that fun field trip tomorrow!

• I joined Twitter...have you heard of it?  It's a fun networking application that you can see on the left sidebar.  Click on "follow me on Twitter" and sign up for a FREE account.

• I've added some new favorite blog reads to my bloggy love/yummy blogs section.  Grab a cup of coffee, tea or cocoa and drop in on a few of these inspirational blogs.  Each one has their own special kind of creativity to share with you. 

I've so much more in store for you, faithful friends, so please don't mind the dust as i do a little rearranging and renovating...2009 is going to be loads of fun here at fresh picked whimsy!

My gift to you

Better a little late, than never, right?  So, you know my Christmas prep started a little later than i wanted to.  Therefore, my little gift to you is a little late, too.  I made my own Christmas gift tags this year for my family and friends and wanted to share them with my blogging friends, too.  You can download the pdf versions of the tags below and print them on cardstock or do what I did, which was print them on Avery labels.  I used Avery laser labels #5164, but you can use the store brand versions, as well. 

• Snowman tags
• Holly jolly tags
• Little birdie tags
• Happy house tags

 

 

 

 

And, if you're an incredibly organized person {or just more organized than me}, and already have all of your presents wrapped and tagged, then just consider this a little early leg up on Christmas 2009!!! :-)

Oh, little blog, how I've missed you!!!!

Has it really been 2 weeks???  I have been going through blog withdrawl.  Not only have I not been blogging myself, but i am so far behind in catching up with all of my favorite daily reads, too!  Thank you so much, friends, {new and old}, who have been faithfully checking in to see if i had posted.  I am back.  Finally.  My little speck in cyberspace is so comforting to me and I am soooooo happy to be back.  There's so much to tell you and so much to share...where do i begin????

First of all, the biggest news is...drumroll please...the book is DONE!!!!

I know you can't see me, but i am doing a little happy dance!  It is sooooo pretty and sooooo perfect and i just love it.  I hope you will all love it, too.  I have put my heart and soul into it.  It is at the printer as we speak going through a few last minute pre-press proofs...they call it "in flight".  The estimated date for the printing press is Christmas Eve!!!!  I will know more on Monday, but what an awesome Christmas present is that?!  Anne {the author} and I get to bring our families up there and actually watch it running on the press!  Isn't that exciting?!  We should have it in our hands by the very end of January and it will be available on Valentine's Day!  Our website will be live very soon and i will have a link to it here.  We will be able to take pre-orders probably right after the new year.  I will keep you all posted!

As you can see, from the new blog banner, i have switched gears and am fast and furiously getting into the Christmas mode.  I'm still not done shopping and haven't wrapped one thing, but i'm so giddy about the book, that nothing is going to stress me out.  Fa la la la la la...la la...la...la!!!! 

 

The UPS man has been making daily deliveries with all of my online shopping goodies.  He's been trying to make friends with Kismet, who goes ballistic from the first sight of the big brown truck coming down the street.

Who, me?

 

The kids last day of school was today...K survived her first high school finals...and Mark is off for the next 2 weeks!...Yay!!!  I love having everyone home.  We will be staying up late, sleeping in, baking, watching movies and doing puzzles.  And...if the weatherman's predictions are right, we will be playing in some snow in time for a white Christmas!  Hooray!

There was one other big event here this past week...a significant milestone birthday for my fella.  40 never looked this good, babe!  I love you...xoxo

We interrupt this blog...

The reading of the book at G's school was awesome.  There was a great turn out and the people could not have been warmer.  Anne and I visited our printer on Friday and have hit some hurdles.  We are working on all of them and as a result, i will be taking a brief break from the blog this week.  I have to focus all of my energy on the book so that it can go to press.  When i return, there will be ho, ho, ho-ing, fa la la-ing and jolly good times! 

Have a great week!

Lucky me

My sweet blogging friend, Jen, over at Jen Bowles Design swapped with me.  She wanted one of my little houses and i wanted one of her awesome pins.  Her package arrived (getting packages is so much fun...who doesn't love a delivery!?) and here's what she sent:

and this was a bonus she sent me just for the fun of it!!!!!

Lucky you...because Jen is holding a giveaway for one of her fun pins over at her blog.  She's drawing a name tomorrow (FRIDAY), so you must stop reading this and jump over to her blog and enter RIGHT NOW!!! :-)

I could have been a prima ballerina...

Tomorrow night, Anne and I will be reading and showing the book to students and parents at G's school at their Literacy Event Read-In & Book Fair.  It will be the first time the book will be seen by anyone other than family.  We don't have the printed book in hand yet, so we've loaded it into a power point presentation and will be showing it up on the big screen in the gym as Anne reads it.  The Media Specialist has asked us to give a little insight to the children and talk to them about our families, our childhoods, our workspaces and the whole book writing/illustrating process.  For me, she asked that i talk to the kids about how i started painting and drawing as a child and maybe show some pictures.  So, i found this photo of me at my very first art show.  I took private art lessons in the basement of Mrs. Flanagan's house once a week.  The show was also in her basement.  I must have been 7 or 8 years old.  I think i look just like G in this picture...we even have the same haircut!!!!  Ma...what were you thinking????

So, what up with the "coulda been a ballerina"???  Well, my art lessons actually started out as ballet lessons.  Huh???  My sister, Kim, had been taking ballet and my mom signed me up, too.  She was this little waif of a girl...built for ballet.  She had grace and agility.  I was this little chubby non-ballerina.  I really did try.  I wanted so much, to be just like her, and wear the sequined tutus and stage make-up that she got to wear in her recitals.  But, it was no use.  I did, however, see some girls at the ballet school arriving for tap lessons and heard the melodic clicking of their shoes and begged my mom to let me take tap.  Not because i loved to dance, but because i just HAD to own those shoes!  Well, i don't know how few lessons i took before i was pleading with my mom to let me quit, but as she was helping me put on my regular street shoes in the lobby, after a lesson one day, the receptionist overheard me complaining and asked me if i liked to draw.  Of course, we all know the answer to that question.  The receptionist turned out to be Mrs. Flanagan...a very talented artist who offered art lessons in the basement of her home.  It was that fateful day...that led me to here.

The halls have been decked

I hope you all had a really great weekend...and a very Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers.  We enjoyed a family feast on Turkey Day:

 

We decked our halls on Friday:

 

And, we went downtown Indianapolis on Sunday to the new home of the Indianapolis Colts...Lucas Oil Stadium for our hometown's high school football State Championship game. 

We are now officially leftover(ed) out!  CAN'T....TAKE....ANYMORE....TURKEY!!!!! The kids went back to school and now, the shopping madness begins.  Actually, we have really scaled back this year, as i'm sure most have.  But, i am trying to finish up the last details of the book and tackle shopping at the same time.  Online shopping is my friend this year!  Happy Cyber Monday, friends!