I knew it was going to be an exciting day when I walked down Collins Street past Pelligrinis and saw my name written in chalk on the pavement outside The Hill of Content! The sun was shining and the city was buzzing. The children who came to say hello, listened so carefully and coloured in some creative paper Peggies! Afterwards I had some treasured time to catch up on some of the beautiful new children's books that are on the shelves. If you are in the city you must wander up Collins Street and have a coffee at Florentinos or Pelligrinis and drift into The Hill of Content. Luxurious.

In the afternoon I mosied on over to Federation Square and joined Books Illustrated for an afternoon of painting. While I painted, a tiny camera projected my progress on to the HUGE screen in the Atrium! It is amazing when your illustration is enlarged to the size of a loungeroom wall! I kept wanting to look at the screen rather than my actual picture.

It was wonderful to hear the comments of all the visitors and spend the afternoon with Ann James and Ann Haddon, both so inspiring, funny and kind.

During the school holidays we went for a long drive. It was wonderful to remember how big the sky is, watch the children laughing and and to eat ice-cream. We rode bikes around The Dubbo Zoo and saw the beady eyes of an echidna, we walked in a National Park and saw a whale, we swam and enjoyed the sun. Now at home again it is raining outside, but am happy to be back and feel refreshed and ready for the busy lead up to Christmas!

In the next few months I have a book to finish and other ideas which were swimming with me during the holidays need to be drawn, all very exciting! I hope you have had some time to watch the sky roll by too.

I am so happy Spring has arrived. I usually love winter but this year it feels like  Spring brings with it a gentle warmth and peace. My chirpiness is also increased because we are going on holidays tomorrow! Friends are looking after all the animals here while we are away, and the teeny tiny plants in our garden. It has been a busy year and I can't wait to be have time to watch the clouds blowing around in the sky. I have a new moleskin diary ready for some drawing and I look forward to saying hello again in a couple of weeks, fresh as a daisy!

Hope you have some time to wander about in the sunshine too!

During this year I have been a mentor for a friend's son who is in Year 8 at school. The  students could choose a project and Ezra's choice was a picture book. The ideas were all his, I just talked to him about exploring some of the ideas further and thinking about the structure of the book etc. He has worked so hard and I am very proud of him and the beautiful book he has created. He wrote the story, created a storyboard developed pencil roughs and finally translated the roughs into paintings! The paintings were scanned and uploaded with a little help from his parents to a book template using Blurb.com. The result is his own limited edition of a hard cover picture book complete with a dust jacket! Fabulous!

I regularly am asked about publishing books and how to go about getting a book published and I think this is a wonderful way of exploring the intricacies of creating a book by making your own. It is great to show this example of what can be achieved and how this could be presented to someone as an idea! It is also a beautiful way of making a book for your family or publishing the stories your children have written.

Not so long ago, the rabbit escaped again, and was returned looking miserable. To keep her warm and safe I put her in with the chook (not sure why I did not think of this earlier) and after four years of looking cranky she is finally smiling! They look so happy together sharing apple cores and parsley.