Bad blogger rings in 2010

Wow its been a long time since I wrote... that's actually really funny to me because I write posts in my mind all the time but just never make it from daydreaming in the tub to sitting at the keyboard. Or let me clarify, actually sitting at the keyboard doing something other than work (and surf Facebook, we must have our priorities.) At any rate the reason(s) for my 2 month absence are because my schedule for the last 2 months looked something like this:
Plan Small Fry's birthday party
Meet 2 deadlines
Plan the Sprout's FIRST birthday party
Meet 3 deadlines
Celebrate Christmas
Meet 2 more deadlines
oh, and did I mention we are planning to sell our house this year so that involves painting, cleaning, packing, calling realtors, more cleaning, fixing, planning, more packing, and yet even more cleaning. And our house isn't even listed yet, that's next week. I can hardly wait.

So not being one to make lists only about my headaches/reasons-I-can't-find-time-to-blog, I will share with you my list of resolutions for 2010. If you've been reading a while you will remember that New Year's is actually a big deal for me, as I wrote earlier. Here goes in no particular order:
1. Create another picture book to send out (somehow after doing one I decided I could do it again.) I haven't hard back from all of the places it was sent from my last post, but I did hear back from one - it was a personal rejection. Which in the world of publishing is actually a good thing. The editor complimented the story and thought it was funny, just not right for their house. But that is sooo much better than the crooked photocopy form letter. Yes I have gotten some of those too, but not for Zoo in the Tub. (One final note on my submissions, several folks have asked in real life if I've "heard anything." Honestly I'm trying to not think about it or talk about it too much. I'm superstitious enough to believe in jinxing oneself.)

2. Work on loosening up my work. Starting last year I really worked on not trying to make every finger on every hand of every child perfect. Sometimes I will get in a groove and the next thing you know I've been slaving over a square quarter-inch of an illustration for 20 minutes. It really puts a cramp in my hand let me tell you, and I don't think my work is better for it. So I want to put more fluidity (is that a word?), more energy, more life into my pieces this year.

3. Work on some licensing ideas. I toss ideas around in my head (more daydreaming in the tub) and I see posts go by on the various online illustrator groups I'm part of but I never do anything with them. Of course that is largely due to time and my lack of it. One of these days my kids will be in school 5 days a week and, when they are here, able to entertain themselves without my constant supervision or participation. While others refer to this as "that sad time when I knew my kids were growing up and didn't need me anymore" I like to refer to it as heaven.

4. Finally, lose 10 pounds. Ok cheesy and cliche I know.... but c'mon, i have two kids worth of baby weight hanging around. There I said it out loud and I think 10 is a realistic goal... surely in 12 months I can lose 10 freakin' pounds.

So thats it. We'll see how I do with this (especially the weight thing) when the stress of more deadlines and moving kicks in in a few months. But for the time being I'm going to sign off, go eat my vegetarian lasagna and take my sketchbook to bed. Happy 2010 ya'll.