A Very Merry Christmas Sketch Thursday

Okay so this is not a sketch, however I did actually frost and decorate all of these today...so that should totally count for Sketch Thursday. I spent the entire day today baking cookies and it was the best day ever. There is nothing more relaxing to me than baking. I could do it all day long (obviously). I have been working on final sketches the last few weeks for When Blue Met Egg, which has been going really well (mainly due to the fact that I have an amazing team I get to work with at Penguin), but it was so nice to take a break today and bake up a storm. I probably ate my weight's worth in cookies and batter today, but it was totally worth the sugar headache. I highly recommend this form of relaxation.

Happy Holidays!

Sketch Thursday Blast From the Past

I had the urge recently to ask my mom to dig up some of my old books from elementary school, mainly for entertainment purposes on my behalf, and send them to me. And let me tell you it was entertaining. Hot Diggity Dog, shown above, a personal favorite of mine, about a girl who is very negative. She has bad day after bad day until a friendly Pooch from the planet Hot Diggity (I have no idea where I came up with this stuff in third grade), gives her a look at what her day would be like if she had a positive attitude. What third grader writes about this stuff?? Me apparently! Reading this story now, it seems like the teacher gave us a prompt and the class had to create their own story from it. Thus the dog and planets. All of this I find rather funny now, considering my first author and illustrated project is about the exact same thing, sans the whole positive and negative theme. Pelly and Mr. Harrison Visit the Moon (Kane/Miller, March 1, 2011) is about a little girl who travels in her bathtub to the moon with her dog, Mr. Harrison. Now they may not be visiting planet Hot Diggity, but there are definitely some similarities between the stories. Funny how things work out.

Sketch Thursday

Sketch Thursday

This week's Sketch Thursday is more of a project than a sketch. A lot of my friends have been talking about how expensive it's going to be to buy a tree this holiday season. Personally, I think you just can't beat a real live, full of pine scent tree, so the cost is worth it. However, I understand that in this economy shelling out $50-60 for something that is going to be thrown out in a month seems silly. So I decided I would try my hand at making my own tree out of cut paper, chalk, twine, and stamps. Although my tree isn't nearly as large nor does it smell as nice as a real tree, it is very festive, and a great project to do with your family. I spent the first snowy afternoon of December watching Christmas movies and cutting out paper. Sometimes, you just can't beat that.