The swan princes

The theme for next year's Artfest is "Fairy Tales"... any interpretation of familiar ones, fairy tales you dream up yourself, it's wide open. I'm almost finished with my take on The Six Swans.
When I was a kid, I read the original Grimm's Fairy Tales -- and a lot of them live up to the brothers' name -- and this was one that I remembered right away.

The short version: Six princes have been turned into swans, and only their sister can save them. To restore their human form permanently, she has to be totally silent for six years while she makes them special shirts.
She just misses finishing in time: there's a missing sleeve on the youngest prince's shirt. So all the princes become human again, but the youngest is left with one wing.
I brushed soft white acrylic paint on German paper wings. Would've been cool if I still had some of Artchix Studio's swan wings, but gahh! -- I used those up a while ago. I also found the little compass in an Artfest 2008 bag. (I know, I know.)
The image was originally of seven boys, but I had to cut off the seventh guy.
It was getting pretty crowded, and I hadn't even added the castle and shrubbery in the background. After I tweak the youngest prince's sleeve bit, it's time for varnish.

No, I didn't forget about the heroic sister! She'll be in a version I make for the Artfest ATC book.

Giving thanks for Good Mail and good coverage

The Edmonds Beacon published the story on me and "Good Mail Day" today! Whoo-hoo!

So for those of you who found my blog from the Beacon story: welcome! Say hi to me and my other readers in the comments!

I wonder how many Beacons I can pick up and stagger to the car with, without pulling some sort of important muscle.

Coverage!

Looking forward to local coverage for Good Mail Day!

One of the weeklies, the Edmonds Beacon, plans to run an article in the next couple of weeks. I'm going to drop off the review copy today at their offices.

EDIT: Article is probably going to run after Thanksgiving. Stay tuned.

Merit badge!

How fun is this?! A merit badge for participating in "Good Mail Day!"
It's like being a Girl Scout all over again, only less dorky. ( I say this from the perspective of someone who stayed in Scouting until the age of 16.)
The authors, Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan, also sent all the contributors a behind-the-scenes zine about the book.
Everything from the concept to the photo shoots...
... all in a special Good Mail Day envelope. Thanks, Carolee and Jennie!
We need a secret handshake and theme music.

Soggy Halloween

Just a few pictures from this year's soggy Halloween:
Carving the pumpkin The Boy chose on his first school field trip. (No injuries!) He is not a fan of pulling out pumpkin guts by hand. The Husband wasn't big on carving the pumpkin, either. Apparently I have a higher tolerance for goop and slime than either of them.
However, he was happy to toast and salt the pumpkin seeds for me. Mmmm...