Rozzie Land

Illustration Friday- Tales and Legends

Here is the finished piece from the sketch I shared last week. It also works well for this weeks I.F. theme, "Tales and Legends".
Here's more on the legend of the mermaid.

Friday Five

Hi everyone, hope you all had a productive week. I'm a bit under the weather so it has been a slow one here.

1. Did you catch the ALA book awards this week?

I read Caldecott winner " The Invention of Hugo Cabret" on the plane ride home after seeing Brian Selznick's presentation in New York. Great guy and a terrific book.
One of his quotes that I still remember is "Struggling and fear are part of the process."

I'm anxious to read,"Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village,” which won this years Newberry Award.

2. Speaking of awards, I was thrilled to see my favorite movie win best picture at the Golden Globes. I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many times I went to see this at Christmas with my mum. =O) They won best musical score too and so well deserving.

I'm reading the book right now because I've heard your privy to the love letters they send to each other in the movie. Hot dog!

3. I received a rejection this week that stung. Dangit...so close, but no cigar. sigh.

4. Over at the PBJ's we talked about looking back/forward. Here is the collage of my favorite assignments from last year.

5. I also shared that I plan to do a new illustration every month for my portfolio. Here is the sketch I'm working on for January.

Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy the football playoffs!

Illo Friday- Stitch

I couldn't resist participating this week. This is a commissioned piece I did for a wonderful little girl's bedroom.

Five Things Friday

1. This week has been all about doing stuff like this...

The Quality Street  tin holds only floss now. My thighs are holding what was in it.

2. Speaking of which, here is my new best friend, Buddy, who is going to help me shed 20 pounds this year.

There, I've said it. Now lets see next year if blogging about it helped me stay accountable enough!

Actually, it has been amazing how much longer I can run and walk listening to music now. I'm addicted to Itunes and buying songs. Especially songs I heard over the holidays in commercials and just had to find. For example:

Feist - 1234 (ipod commercial)
Ben's Brother- Stuttering (Dentyne Ice commercial)
Ingrid Michaelson- The Way I Am (Old Navy Sweater commercial)

3. Speaking of losing weight, does anyone else enjoy ,"Biggest Loser"?.

Did you all see Ali's (host) crocheted scarf she was wearing this week? I have to make one! It reminded me of licorice allsorts.

I got so excited, I took a picture of the tv screen so that I wouldn't forget it.

If  anyone knows of a pattern for this type of scarf, please let me know. Otherwise I guess I'll start by searching granny squares.

4. Lily is 6 1/2 months! Time flies. Let me just say that training a puppy to jingle a bell when they want to go outside really works! I'm so glad we persisted with that because we can be anywhere in the house and know when she wants to go out.   These were taken this week and yes...the tree is still up. I have a hard time letting go of the lovely glow of the lights. I'll give in over the weekend.

5. One thing I love so much about blogging is connecting with others and sharing in their good news. Being able to read behind the scene's of other authors and illustrators makes my dreams feel more attainable.

I have been a fan of Lisa Schroeder's blog ever since I found her bedtime picture book, Baby Can't Sleep.

This week her first YA novel in verse, I Heart You, You Haunt Me, hit stores and I can't wait to read it. Congrats, Lisa!

Be sure and check out the new blog she's involved with, author2author, a collaborative blog of YA writers in different stages of their careers. Fun read!

P.S If you haven't entered for Kathy's giveaway of her new book, " The Months", there is still time. She'll be drawing the winning name around 7pm Eastern Time tonight.

Book Launch Party - Kathy Weller

Come join the fun over at the PBJ's and win yourself an autographed copy of Kathy's new book, THE MONTHS!

Theme For 2008

Here we are again, another year has passed and it's time to reflect. And I have been doing a lot of that I can tell you.

Last year, my theme was EXPLORE . I felt strongly that I needed to push myself and experiment more. I did and I learned that I can and want to include more fabrics, papers and embellishments in my illustrations. It gives me a freedom that I didn't have before so for that I'm grateful.

Also, I went to New York for the first time ever..and I flew alone!
That was definitely a form of exploration for me.

But what about this year? I have had such a hard time pinpointing a theme. I thought I had finally decided that it would be, DREAMS COME TRUE, but there's more to it than that for me this year.

I'm a firm believer that dreams do come true but it takes a lot more backbone than wishbone. Dreams don't come true just because we want them to, we have to work at it. And they certainly don't always come true when we want them to. I have accomplished way more than I could ever have imagined when I first started pursuing illustration in 2000. But my journey has been slow and although I had some fun assignments this past year, I didn't advance as much as I had hoped.

Roz "2000" would really be giving Roz "2008" a good kick in the arse if she read this because she'd see her as being ungrateful. But I'm not.

Doors really didn't start opening for me until I started working in felt in 2006. So much happened that first year that I felt like I had finally nailed it!  The felt was unique enough to open the doors but because of its uniqueness, the need for it is less. And therein lies the rub.

But lets get to the core of how DREAMS COME TRUE.
TRUST
It's very proactive. When you trust, you're not blocking yourself with self doubt and frustration. I did too much of that last year and I lost my peace. This year I'm going to practice "letting go". If I know that I'm doing everything I can towards making my dreams a reality, then I need to relax. That alone can be very empowering. I drove myself crazy with the wishing, striving and wanting last year. So much wasted mental energy and I'm tired. I want to enjoy the process and trust that I will get there eventually and most importantly believe that I'm where I'm supposed to be right now. Life's too short.

TRUST. That's my theme.