autumn attitude

So what does an illustrator do between deadlines? Celebrate!

I started with birthday cake for breakfast, before it was light out. Icing and coffee: so good together.

Getting cool cards like this one from Marty is always a gift.

And to get tickets to a Cirque du Soleil performance, whew.  My daughter and I were thrilled!

C'est tres bien to share a birthday with a soul sistah like Nicole d'Entremont, neighbor, friend, author, and teacher. Here we are wishing big things. Thanks, Eleanor Morse, for hosting!

I cured my hankering for mountains with a visit to the motherland of orange trees.

The Flume is nothing short of spectacular. Have you ever been? It's a favorite spot of mine since childhood. All that granite is very grounding.

 

 I swooned with nostalgia in the Visitor Center, chock full of Old Man memorabilia.

A stop at Indian Head brought me back, scene of my days as a waitress in school. Daisy liked the teepee.

Yet the biggest surprise was waiting upon return. Hooray! My advance copies of Here Come the Humpbacks!

 

This non-fiction picture book about the journey of a humpback and her calf will be out Feb. 1, 2013.

Meanwhile, I've been working up this little zine for mailing. 

Let me know if you want one. I'm going back to celebrating my autumn attitude. 

This quote by L.M. Montgomery, a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, says it all:

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."