blizzard blast

Christmas was sweet around here, thanks to secret Santas, and a dusting of confectioner's sugar, followed by a good blast of snow on Monday. Even a visit to Nana at Birchwoods was a delicious treat.

 

Nothing like an overload of sugar to fuel a session of snow sculpting.

I visited the Freeport Library on Wednesday for a celebration of winter with other DownEast authors and illustrators. Even that place looked totally sprayed with snow.

The first to read was Lynn Plourde, a word player extraordinaire. Her background in speech therapy no doubt informs her lyrical delivery of rhymes; she's always a joy to listen to. Her latest book, The Blizzard Wizard, is a fun romp of spells gone wrong for a forgetful wizard. Everyone made paper wizard hats to get into the magic.

 Robin Hansen and I got into the act. I think my scarf adds to the costume, doesn't it?
photo courtesy of Judy Paolini

Katie Clark read her latest, "Grandma Drove the Snowplow" and delighted us with the calamities of a snow storm. Robin followed with a reading of Ice Harbor Mittens, which doesn't feature snow, but a blanket of white fog that swallows two boys in a lobster boat.  Lynn rounded out the program by reading Karel Hayes' newest, "Snowflake Comes to Stay."  This charmer of a book features Karel's own little dog, Snowy, who is a ready mascot at appearances, patiently tolerating hugs and squeezes from the crowd of kids. He silently upstaged us all, without even donning a hat.

During the readings, I sketched a bit, just to stay busy. No easy task, capturing a moving target, but the adorable girl next to me was sufficiently enraptured by the stories, so I did this quick take.

Hmm, I need to stay in practice! I am still working on my Sketchbook Project, with only 9 pages to go.
Deadline is quickly looming in January. Here's my sketch of Eda, who is also participating.

 

And here is my sketcher, Daisy, who is sharing a sketchbook with her.

While Daisy waits her turn, she's doing cute drawings with a Wacom. Here's one that shows what we plan to do this evening, to celebrate the last night of 2010.

Let's hope it doesn't warm up too much. We Mainers like our winters white, full of magic and getting outdoors.

Happy New Year!