atwhim.com Blog

Oh lovelies, I’ve been wanting to write for so long… but my mind has been a jumbled mess with all the holiday chaos.  After Thanksgiving, the people have been swarming to the book store for their holiday shopping.  I’ve been tearing my hair out trying to think of presents for everyone.  I finally got gift certificates posted in the shop, something I meant to do months ago!  My studio/kitchen is SO SO COLD!!!  The thought of painting at my easel sends shivers through me.  If it’s going to be cold, it should at least snow.  A few days ago, someone from Etsy Admin told me they used one of my prints for an article in the Storque!  It’s one of my bundled up girls in my favorite mustard yellow coat!!!  It’s the opening title image, check it out!  I’m so pleased.  And of course, I did get a little painting done too….

*Cloud Girl*

And *White Rabbit*,

who really reminds me of a little cute Totoro.

Well, I still haven’t finished that painting I mentioned before that a friend commissioned me to do.  I really should get to it.

Stay warm everyone.  Do all your holiday shopping on Etsy, and you won’t have to battle the angry mobs out there!

I couldn’t think of what to name this painting.

I showed it to my friend Priscilla who surprised me a few weeks before with a watercolor travel kit that I LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! The painting above was the second painting I finished with this lovely kit. The first was this….

. A Bunny Christmas .

Now back to the little girl, I showed my friend the painting. She asked me the name, and I had some silly name like “Girl with Young Trees”.

I have such a difficult time naming pieces, I usually revert to just describing the picture and call it a title… i.e. “girl with skinned knee“, “a girl and her chickens“, “girl with white flowers“, etc. etc. Maybe I’ll do something daring and paint boys, then I could name them something like, “boy with…blah blah blah…”

So, anyway, Priscilla said, “She looks like Little Red”.

And I said, “Yeah! She does look like Little Red!”

So that’s her name now…..

*Little Red* and *A Bunny Christmas* have already sold to two lovely repeat Etsy customers (Hello Sandra and Michele!), but prints are available in my shop.

And I have a new book for you to read… it’s called : The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Oh and LOOK! I was on a small corner of Powell’s Books INK recommending my favorite kid’s books! Oh how I love books….

The books were:

The Three Hedgehogs by Javier Saez Castan

The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan (illus.)

The Wizard Comes to Town by Mercer Mayer

Elena’s Serenade by Campell Geeslin and Ana Juan (illus.)

The Red Tree by Shaun Tan

The Dragon Machine by Helen Ward and Wayne Anderson (illus.)

Crictor by Tomi Ungerer

On My Way to Buy Eggs by Chih-Yuan Chen

Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange and Kadir Nelson (illus.)

Ms. Rubinstein’s Beauty by Pep Montserrat

Today the role of my heart will be played by a little red bird. Sweet isn’t it? I wish everyone could have a little red bird for their heart.

I’ve just discovered a new Children’s picture book that I must have. It’s called *Chester* by Ayano Imai. It’s so cute! There’s a little dog named Chester looking for a place to call home. He walks around with his dog house on a leash and a little birdie friend follows him everywhere.

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! and soon it will be mine.

So it’s already November! Can you believe it? I’m so unprepared for the holiday madness. On Halloween the most I could bring myself to do was my Medusa hair (which turned out pretty neat), but I didn’t have a costume. Here’s the only picture I have…

Hope you all had a good one. August got all kinds of sugary sweets at school, a bucket full of candy at night, got sick and vomited in his pirate hat…. then bounced right back and said, “This is the best Halloween ever!” It’s good to be a kid.