I just read an interesting article by Angie Wagner over at AOL Australia Lifestyle on Talking to Kids About Death. Wagner has interviewed Diane Cantrell, author of our book “Good-bye, Baby Max,” which is about a kindergarten classroom who deals with the loss of their classroom pet. Diane provides a lovely honest perspective on talking about death with little kids, offering the advice to not be afraid of discussing it with your children.

My favourite children’s book review podcast, Just One More Book, is coming up to it’s 400th episode this July… and to celebrate the love of reading they’ve invited children’s book illustrators to come up with a logo for their website. Mark & Andrea are a lovely couple whose love of reading with their children is truly apparant through their podcasts… they’ve received some great submissions already, including this awesome one by one of my favourite illustrators/writers, Oliver Jeffers… as well as artwork by some very tallented kiddies! Deadline for entries is June 15th, 2008… Happy drawing!

I’m just amazed at how the time’s just zoomed by… Hera’s three months old now, and I just don’t know where the time’s gone! As she’s grown she’s become more interested in her surroundings and wants to spend more time with mummy, so my days are pretty much centred around her needs… making it a challenge to squeeze in some drawing time! I have had a little “me time” here & there to do some hand sewing… I used the (free) BittyBooties pattern from Heather Bailey for the boot, then added ears & eyes to make these little Dead Mouse Booties for our little girl… she looks so cute in them! kapow!

“The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it.” – Banksy (British graffiti artist)

After an overwhelmingly successfull Earth Hour ‘08, it’s exciting to think of what could be in store for Earth Hour ‘09, to be held on March 28th at 8pm everywhere! 58% of adults in Australia’s capital cities participating in Earth Hour this was quite impressive, with many coming up with fun ideas for how to spend Earth Hour with their families. I think my favourite idea was two young boys who formed “Earth Hour Police” and went door-to-door asking their neighbours to shut off their lights. I wonder if they wore special badges :) Maybe next year I’ll do some Art In The Dark!

My favourite comic strip artist, David Malki of Wondermark, is having a zany “make-something” contest, check it out! We’ll see if I have time to whip something up between burping Hera and illustrating Charline & Lauren’s storybook.

This Saturday, March 29th, aside from celebrating my 28th birthday, I’ll be satisfying my creative and green sides by participating in SketchCrawl 18, followed by playing a game of Settlers of Catan by candlelight during Earth Hour from 8pm-9pm.

Earth Hour is an event set up by the WWF, where they’ve encouraged thousands of people worldwide to turn off their lights for one hour to increase awareness of the need for action to act against global warming. Just switch your lights off between 8pm-9pm your time… and if you’re really enthusiastic, switch all electrical appliances off, too. Then take a moonlit walk outside and watch the stars with friends, or just take a catnap for an hour. For more details check out the Earth Hour website. (They’ve got a cool web-banner in which your name floats by once you’ve signed up, ta-hee!)

SketchCrawl 18 is basically the artist version of a pub crawl… meet up with a bunch of friends / artists, and sketch like crazy all day! Combine it with some good food (or even with a pub crawl!) and unique locations to visit, then visit the Sketch Crawl forum to share your sketches! Our sketches will be up on my blog as well as on the SketchCrawl forum under Adelaide.

Well, I’m (kind of) back from my time off for maternity leave… as much as I can be back into the swing of things with a new little girl to take care of 24/7! My day is now broken down from one feed or diaper change to the next, with not a lot of time in between for myself… but it’s sooooo worth it!
I have thoroughly enjoyed the last five weeks since Hera was born, especially having my husband home on paternity leave, and both my parents visiting from Canada during that time. It certainly made the transition into motherhood much easier with all their support!

So this is going to be the first day of my gradual return to freelance illustrating… I’ve two books on the go at the moment, and will post their progress as I find time to work on them (during Hera’s afternoon naps!)

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” – Unknown

If only I’d known it was this simple :) I came across the above here.