Friday, May 14, 2010

New Laini's Ladies

As I hunker down to a new batch of Laini's Ladies, it occurred to me that I probably didn't show you the last batch, which are available now HERE.

"When I have a little money, I buy books. If I have any left over, I buy food and clothes." - Erasmus

"There is nothing better than a friend . . . unless it is a friend with chocolate." - Charles Dickens

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." - Mae West

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Berthold Auerbach

I also didn't show you the baby announcement illustration I did last month for my dear friends in Amsterdam:
(the canal houses and tulips = Amsterdam; the cats are their cats; and the rocket ship - The Stork! - and robot in the background are at the request of the dad :-) I had so much fun doing this, and I'm so happy Fletcher is in the world. Yay, babies!

The weather got suddenly gorgeous in Portland yesterday, which diminished my productivity considerably. Those of you who live in year-around sun, how do you get anything done? Do you just get used to it? Hm. I know that when Jim and I moved here in the dead of a particularly wet and grey winter, we discovered the huge benefit to creativity that nasty weather brings. We stayed inside our first few months, and developed work habits that have stayed with us. But yesterday was so pretty! We walked to our favorite Thai place for take-out and then went to the park with pad Thai, dumplings, fresh spring rolls, a tupperware of watermelon chunks, and some chocolate-covered coconut shortbread (from my sister). Clementine watched the bigger kids race around the playground, and she got to go in the bucket swing, and she crawled in the grass.

Crawled.

Suddenly she's crawling. Yikes! It's so cute. Then, back home and thinking to get some work done maybe, the phone rang and it was my best friend beckoning me out again, and I gave in easily and so did Jim, and we all went back to Mississippi Avenue for more pineapple ginger ale floats. So there went the afternoon. Here's the food cart:
So pink! And their sign:

And then by evening, Clementine was saying, "Bedtime? What is this "bedtime" you speak of?" and so it wasn't until around 9 pm that I got around to doing a little work. You can imagine how inspired I was. (Actually, I had done a couple of hours of writing in the morning! I vowed to do it no matter what else is going on in a day, and so far I haven't broken that vow.)

Today: more wonderful distractions loom. So I'd better get that couple of hours of writing in now. Laini's Ladies, see you tonight, probably around 9 pm again. Ha!

10 comments:

Jennifer D said...

I love those new "ladies" and the announcment is amazing.

Jennie Bailey said...

Love, love, love that announcement! It's so cool. The new Lainies Ladies go without saying, I think. They are always so much fun. Lots of distractions for me this week as well, but I'm trying to be good like you and get my writing in no matter what. That meant up until 2am this morning. I'm hoping to get the writing done this morning so I can go to bed at a decent hour tonight, but sometimes the story calls to me and I give in!

I'm a SoCal native so I'm used to the sun. Sometimes I multitask in it! Once summer hits, it might even be too hot which means hours spent inside accomplishing things in the nice air conditioned house!

Laura S. said...

Beautiful illustrations! And congrats on Clementine's newest milestone!

I'm from PA and don't get year-round sunshine, but we do see plenty of sunshine here. Honestly, I'm most productive when it's sunny! It boosts my spirits and gives me energy. Gloomy, rainy days make me feel lethargic and I just want to curl up under a heap of blankets with a couple books!

Fletcher of the Day said...

Great Laini's ladies...even better Birth Announcement! We Love it (Although I've told you this a gagillion times....). We've gotten so many compliments on it (Your baby is beautiful, blah blah, love the name blah blah..Great announcement!)

Anyhoo...Dank je wel lieve vriendin!

xx Lori

Shveta Thakrar said...

I love the Mae West Lady especially, but they're all lovely. :)

And the pink truck is super cute!

Sounds like a great day.

Anonymous said...

My mind fluttered away all day to tasty memories of chicken lemon sandwiches and pineapple floats. You two are the best food discoverers ever Fatty- ever!!! We still have to hit the grilled cheese cart on Alberta asap!!

Myrna Foster said...

Those cats are awesome, Laini! And I like your new Laini's Ladies too.

Piper said...

I love the Laini's Ladies. They're so pretty! I'm going to have to buy a couple of them to decorate my new desk once we move. :)

JeannieML said...

YOU'RE the artist who makes these ladies? Small world. Someone gave us one a year or so ago that we have hanging in our local yarn shop. I never knew who the artist was. I recently started subscribing to your RSS feed for your informative writing tips; now this!!! What a good morning start.

Anonymous said...

The chocolate one is hilarious! By the way, you are the author of my favorite book, Blackbringer, and I'm quite excited about the sequel! In fact, I've even dreamed about a fan fic in which a HUMAN is the main character!