Here are a couple of pics of my designer art bag for the 2009 Frameous Art Auction to be held Friday, June 12 @ 8:15pm, Cambridge City Hall, 50 Dickson Street in partnership with the annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts.

Frameous is an annual live and silent art auction hosted by the Cambridge Arts Guild.  The Arts Guild uses all proceeds to support the following arts initiatives:

• Cookies and Kids Performances
• Cambridge Studio Tour
• Juried Art Show at the Cambridge Centre for the Arts Gallery
• Artist in Residence Program
• Specialized Adult Programs – Kaffeeklatch Art Series
• 2008 Christmas in Cambridge “Unsilent Night”
• Subliminal Art Exhibition at Rock the Mill

My daughter is still working on her bag… I’ll take a picture of it and post it when she’s finished….

Granny’s Giant Bannock has been short-listed for the “McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award – Younger Category” at the Manitoba Book Awards  to be held April 25.

To read more about the awards and other categories check here: http://www.bookpublishers.mb.ca/mba/

These are a couple of photos taken by Barbara Young from SNAP Cambridge at “The Artist and Apprentices” exhibition last month.  For more photos of art happenings in Cambridge this month visit their website or pick up one of their free papers available all over.

I have put my books & some of the original artwork from “A Journey Through the Circle of Life” into the “Artists and Their Apprentices Exhibition” at the Cambridge Art Centre.  I teach part-time at the Art Centre & this is a Student & Teacher show.  The art in the exhibition offers a brief overview to some of the courses which are being offered at the Art Centre this year.  The exhibition runs for January 10- 24 with the opening reception being held on January 10th from 1-3 pm.  I hope to see everyone out.

This winter I am teaching “Children’s Picture Book Illustration” at the Art Centre.  I’m really looking forward to teaching… but I just checked… and I need another 9 people in order for it to run.  Unfortunately, it missed getting into the winter program flyer, so it’s only being advertised from this poster that I created:

If you are interested in taking this course or know someone who might be interested in taking this course please get in touch with the Cambridge Arts Centre.

Today is the last day of 2008, and it’s a very cold crisp day.  I know this because I just slipped out in my pjs and coat to pick up the recycle that fell off the snow bank onto the road!  What a mess… I hope they come by to pick it up soon.  Blue boxes really should have lids.

Anyway, lots of snow fell during the night, and it’s a winter wonderland out there once again.  Yesterday it looked more like March.  The sidewalks were bare & grass showing through.  Snow looks nice… but I’ve already had enough of it.  Sadly there’s about 3.5 more months of it… hopefully less.

Thinking back on the year I’ve got a lot to be grateful for.  For my health, I only recall being sick once.  I rarely think about my health, but this year both my Dad and Sister were being treated for cancer which was a reminder for me.  On that note, both Dad and Kathy are on their way to recovery… another thing I’m truly grateful for.  And though it seemed a little patchy in places, I mostly had a lot of work to keep me busy & paying bills.  And the work I was given was different and interesting for me too.  I learned quite a bit from it.  I need to update my design website with this new stuff.  About 95% of the work I did this year was graphic design work.  I only illustrated a handful of cards this year and my biggest project was another children’s book for Pemmican Publications.  {I hope that 2009 brings more illustration work my way… maybe 75% illustration work & 25% design work.  I really enjoy doing both.}

2008 marked my 40th year that was celebrated in June.  My little brother got married that same day… so it was quite an occasion for the family.  On the Sunday following, Michael & the kids gave me a surprise birthday party the day with a bunch of close friends.  That was wonderful.  Some of them I hadn’t seen in YEARS!!!!

I got to visit again with Mitch in California, and that was a fun week.  He and I finally published our picture book project, “Michael and the Purple Cows” book with lulu.com.  That was quite the process, and it has got me thinking about “Maude and the Glasses” again.  Maybe I’ll publish “Maude and the Glasses” through lulu.com this year.

Yes, 2008 wasn’t a bad year… I’m excited to see what unfolds for me in 2009.

I wish everyone all the best in 2009.  May all your hopes and dreams come true.

Lots of love,

Kimberly

Wow… I haven’t posted anything in here since February. I guess I kinda fell off the wagon with that resolution. Oh well … will try to get back into it again. At least the weather is nicer… and my hair is growing back. I haven’t gotten a cut since the infamous cut back in February. I’m hoping that it will be long enough for the hairdresser to work with in a couple weeks. I have to look good for my brother’s wedding… and my 40th birthday. That’s coming up too soon. We’re about half way into May… and it’s the long weekend (Victoria Day weekend) here in Canada. This morning it rained and I was kinda annoyed, because I wanted to start working in the yard. It’s a mess. This afternoon it kinda cleared a bit and I was able to tackle the jungle out there AKA the back yard. We only have a little manual push mower which is just a step up from cutting the yard with scissors IMO. The first cut of the season is always the worst… and you have to make sure that you keep up with the cutting and not let it slide. Unfortunately… letting it slide is something that normally happens around here… either due to rain or laziness. Anyway… it looks better than it did… but the yard needs alot of TLC. It smelled wonderful under the apple tree. Apple blossoms. The trees are almost pure white. I just took some pictures of it for my reference library that I’m building….

I’m gonna go around with my camera & take some pictures of other flowering trees & bushes around the neighborhood this weekend. It’s just so beautiful around this time of year.

In other news, I’ve agreed to illustrate another book for Pemmican this summer… I need to finish it by the end of August. That’s gonna keep me on my toes. I’ve been rather busy doing design work for the past 7 weeks. I finally got around to doing some sketching for it last weekend. I think this book is going to be really fun to illustrate. The story lends itself more to a more cartoony & whimsical illustration style than my previous book. I love working in that genre. I’ve already fallen in love with the characters… an odd thing to say… but I do that from time to time whenever I create characters. But what’s more interesting about this… is that the characters that I’ve fallen in love with are human… for me that is rare. I’m planning on getting a Wacom Tablet & painting this book on the computer. I love my watercolors but I’m never happy with the colors when they are scanned in. The greens & purples just never replicate on screen & print. When you paint on the computer… what you see is what you get. The color is way purer. Also, I have beautiful light detail in my paintings that the scanner never seems to pick up, which is kinda annoying to say the least. I used a tablet at Image Craft when I worked there. I miss the tablet, even for my design work. Though I’m getting used of the mouse, using the pen is just a lot quicker for some things. So I’ve been looking into the tablets and trying to decide which one is best for me. That’s been kinda fun. Today I was looking at the Cintiq … have a look at this:

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I think that’s the one that’s best for me… but unfortunately I don’t have that kind of money. (it costs about the same as a yearling bull was going for when I lived on the farm… LOL!)  So… I’m thinking of getting the Intuos 3 (6×8) tablet which is a step up from the one I had at work (Graphire). I have a feeling I’m gonna like it too.

I’ve been keeping fairly busy doing design work for a client, and have been neglecting my blog.  I know, where are my priorities?    Actually, what I’ve been doing has been really fun.  It’s almost been a new thing every day… and that’s really good because I think I was in a bit of a rut.  I was just thinking that I haven’t designed “one” greeting card this year.  Man, that’s so unlike me!

Speaking of “so unlike me”… last weekend (Feb 9th) I got my hair cut.  I look in the mirror and hardly recognize myself.  It seems that ever since I started getting my hair cut short… it’s been getting progressively shorter and shorter.  This time I think I got it cut TOO SHORT… yup… I think I look like a Vulcan… yeah… like Mr. Spock… all I need is the pointy ears. Well… the good thing about hair… is that it grows back… well… at least mine does. 

Wow. I can’t believe it’s Wednesday! It’s been go, gO, GO! all week for me…
During the day, I’ve been designing stationery product for one of my clients which has been a lot of fun. Mainly, because it’s getting me out of my “greeting card rut” and making me think a little differently. I’ve been designing stuff that’s kinda “dimensional”. So far, I’ve designed 4 “Tower of Notes”… and designed my first “Note Cube” today. I’d really be interested in seeing these when they’re manufactured. Hopefully, I will get some sample product… that would be nice.

On Monday & Tuesday evening… I taught. On Monday, my usual “Children’s Picture Book Illustration” class… then on Tuesday, I taught “Watercolours” to my daughter’s Pathfinder group. I’m kinda happy that I’m staying in tonight, though we were originally planning to go to church. But, we got a heck of a lot of snow today… and the roads aren’t so nice… so it’s best just to stay home. Michael was really late getting home from work tonight because of the driving conditions.

Once again, the kids had a “Snow Day” because the buses didn’t run. They had 2 snow days last week. That was like a dream week for them!

We had a big storm warning yesterday and a lot of the white stuff fell from the sky. I was out shoveling the driveway for a good hour… and by the looks of it… I need to do it again today. Sigh.

It does look really beautiful out there. Snow on the trees… really pretty.

I took some pictures this morning. Thought it was a nice juxtaposition. It’s the view from my living room window.. with my lovely pots of spring flowers on the inside and the winter wonderland outside.

It’s been super cold and windy today. I have my desk set up in front of the window that faces the street. Today was garbage day… and I’ve been watching everyones blue recycle bins blowing down the street like tumbleweed all day. I have a feeling a large percentage of recycled material never made it onto the truck today… I had to run outside a couple of times to pick up stuff that dumped.

I just got in from walking the dog. The wind made it pretty difficult… but we managed to make it home okay without blowing away.

My son has invited a bunch of friends over for a LAN party tonight. They just finished up their exams and this is the way they are celebrating. They’ve set up all their computers in the livingroom. They’ve shut the big baby (my golden retriever) in his kennel, because he was being too exuberant. Now he’s making this pathetic whining noise… sounds like a beached whale. Between that and all the shooting… I have a feeling it’s gonna be a l-o-n-g n-i-g-h-t…..