Colossal Coaster Kite Flying Sketchbook Sunday

Kite flying pink monster!!!!

The first finished piece of the book I posted about here and here.

Besides little balls of monster fluff, the biggest news this week is that after 20 years I finally got a new chair for my drawing table! wohoo... before you gasp at my horrifically exciting life, just think about the fact that old chair had been loaded onto no less than twelve U-Haul moving trucks, traveled a total of 4000 miles up and down the Eastern seaboard, and enduring a total of 100 lbs gained and lost during two pregnancies. I'd had that chair since high school art class of junior year. Poor thing, it was time for it to have a rest. The new chair almost freaks me out because it does NOT creak and grown every 15 seconds.... but it does make working feel like this:

I've also been working on sketches for a couple of new projects... these are two different books but I thought I'd post them together because...well....they are cats and dogs so they seem like they go together:

Then I have this sketch I've been tossing around for a few weeks. One of my nieces is quite taken with dragons. Over the 4th of July holiday, she clamored for a book about dragons which shall remain nameless because, frankly, I thought it was pretty awful. But she loved it because it has dragons in it. After the umpteenth bedtime reading of this book I decided I would try my own take on one of the spreads, where the hero jumps on his trusty dragon from the castle wall:

Finally here's one of my covers from the new Lifeway VBS series for next year, Colossal Coaster World!

I'm all about winning an iPad, check it out:

And the video is pretty funny too.


Win a new iPad! Repost this status and video on YOUR FB, Twitter, blog. Then post your link at facebook.com/sleuthgear to enter and win! http://youtu.be/exSmxgB3lwo

A Real Danger on the Road

During this summer of multi-camping, the Fry has learned many new things: "Recycle, stop making garbage," says Go Green Camp Vandy. "Help the animals, protect their habitat," says the Nashville Zoo. "Share with your friends," says Vacation Bible School.

But my personal favorite is what the Fry learned from Safety Week at Bounce U.

"Don't be distracted while driving."

Apparently the police officer who visited admonished the kids to never text or talk and drive.... all very good and worthwhile advice. But I'd like to know why the good officer didn't talk to the kids about correcting a REAL distraction while driving, something even more dangerous than sending the occasional grocery list item to your husband before you forget for the 5th day in a row.

I'm talking about a situation like this: