Getting Back to Work

No ... that doesn't mean I'm clocking into a 9-to-5 job somewhere. Sadly, my legs are no longer up to that. But it does mean that I'm back to painting and writing! This book is finished now:

If you'd enjoy a read-aloud of "The Thanksgiving Mice," here's a youtube video I did today. However, my nice camera acted up, and the video ends at page 23. So you'll just have to wonder how it ends, haha! 

As with my other little book, this one will be for sale. But I have to get it printed first, which is always the trickiest part for me. It will cost $10, just like the last one (same number of pages), which includes shipping inside the U.S.

What am I painting now, you ask? Well, Philip and Kara gave me those lovely paints and that lovely watercolor paper for my birthday. He told me, when I complained about lacking ideas to paint, that I should paint something to hang on the wall in the nursery someday, when they have their first baby, which is not happening yet. I don't want to start any false rumors. But still, I thought that was a pretty fun idea!

Immediately I thought how neat it would be to have a framed collage of characters from my little children's books, for my grandbabies to look at. It would remind them of all the farm animals they love from Nana's (that's me) books! I started with a rough preliminary sketch.

I'm sorry it's so pale. I didn't want to launch straight onto that high-quality watercolor paper without first roughing it out. Six blocks, five containing farm animals, and the sixth one saying "Red Robin Farm."

I started with Bernie. I know, I chopped his tail off. Well, it's for grandbabies, and they are forgiving, right?

 I proceeded on to Priscilla the Squirrel. (I haven't thought up her last name yet.) She figures in a love story I'm writing now, a somewhat one-sided love story.

 And Ned. He is in love with Priscilla, you see. An ill-fated attachment.

I have Punkin and Mrs. Mouse yet to paint, but they will be easy. Then I'll do some touching-up and finishing with backgrounds and probably some rick-rack to divide the boxes. Should be fun!

We exited wedding weekend straight into a death and funeral in our church, our oldest member and much-beloved. Plus many other excitements to keep us from settling back into our calm lives. I remind myself, as so many of you often remind yourselves on your blogs, that God has it all in hand, and all will be well. I need that reminder. Thank you for stopping by and putting up with my yappitiness!