little songs about raindrops

While the rest of the US and parts of Canada are suffering severe cold and ample snow, we here on the west coast are in the midst of an alarming drought.  Blue skies and moderate weather might sound enviable, however the situation in California is looking rather dire.  Rainfall has been low over the past few years and this year things are much worse.  We had a bit of rain in November and then the rain-faucet abruptly shut off.  Given that it only rains in California from November through April, the water situation is looking desperate, with water-rationing and brush-fires in our future.

In celebration of the rain we had this morning (and more in the forecast over the weekend... hooray!) I thought I'd share this little stop-motion animation with you.  I hope you like it as much as I do...

i think mice are rather nice

photo and mice by maggie rudy

Hello Dear All -- It's been three weeks since I've posted, and now that the very talented Anette Grostad has taken over doing illustrations for the book, most of my work is done. There is still quite a lot to finish up before book #2 is ready to go, but around here, the mad dash is over, and the remainder of my tasks will come along, bit by bit.  All to say, I hope to be posting here more regularly once again!

photo and mice by maggie rudy

And so I thought I would share with you some extreme mouse-cuteness...

photo and mice by maggie rudy

These mice were created by Maggie Rudy.  You can visit her blog here plus read an article about her from Doll Quarterly here!

And if that's not enough, she has created this book (oh, how I love, love, love this book...)

And she has another book coming out this July (yay!)

Just in case there are not enough mice in this blog post to suit your taste, might I recommend The Mousewife by Rumer Godden? The story carries a beautiful message and the illustrations by William Pene du Bois are perfect...

Another favorite mouse-related book in my house: Tumtum & Nutmeg by Emily Bearn. 

photo and mice by maggie rudy

Until next time, happy reading!

oops

Inspired by the fun photos on Salley Mavor's blog documenting her progress on the updated edition of her gorgeous book Felt Wee Folk, I would like to share with you this lovely photo I took a short time ago.

Okay.  So it's not really a lovely photo, nor does it document any progress I made on my new book.  Actually, what this photo demonstrates is that I have a talent for mutilating peg dolls. All in the name of art, right?  Right.

The other thing worth noting here is my beautiful set of bright yellow vice jaw pads. These vice jaw pads are great, and you will think so, if you would like to drill holes in peg dolls, too!  Seriously.  Before I had these vice pads, my dolls suffered dents and damage every time they took a trip to the work bench. It's still potentially perilous for the dolls whenever there's a power drill in my hand, but at least they are not dented (just impaled.)

I hope all the peg dolls at your house are safe and sound.  The peg dolls at my house are... well... I'm not sure where they are right now.  They are hiding from me.

gratuitous toddler photos

Because we baked cookies (again) and because he's small and cute...

 I thought I would share some gratuitous toddler photos with you.

Do you think he put enough sprinkles on the cookies? Here you can see he's checking his supply and inclined to add more.

Book update: The photos are done, the writing nearly done, and the very talented Anette Grostad is now drawing the patterns. I wish I could share some "process photos" with you, but everything still needs to stay under wraps.  However, might I suggest you go and have a look at Salley Mavor's blog?  Salley is working on a new edition of her gorgeous book Felt Wee Folk, and she & her husband have been very good about documenting some of the process.  You can have a look here for a fun sneak-peek.

Cheers!