After three tries…I was finally happy with the way the cover was coming together.

That ballerina's pose was the most difficult illustration challenge I have faced…

I even tried to position my own feet, wobbling and losing my balance, gaining a whole new level of respect for all ballerinas everywhere!

Eliza is in awe, as well!

At last, the illustrations and text could be tweaked no more, and it was time to get this be-ribboned portfolio in the mail to the formatter, all the way in Tampa, Florida. 

Fed Ex delivered.

You would think it would be easy to relax, after all that work..the eye strain…the migraine headaches..

but it took great effort to unwind my brain.

Knitting always helps…

and a sunshine-y Sunday morning…

with sunbeams streaming across the dining room..

dancing around the crystals of the chandelier…

falling upon the last blooms of summer..

those hydrangeas and their heavenly hues…

And while we wait for the book to be formatted, printed, published, delivered…

research begins on the next project.

Last summer, on a visit to Indiana...I was asked if I would write a children's book to introduce little ones to my favorite author,

Gene Stratton-Porter..

and, of course, I said YES!

I am honored and humbled…and ready for the challenge.

Her book "Laddie" is the closest to an autobiography, and so this is where I began….

After my early morning reading/research, it was time to prepare for a visit from my daughter-in-love

and new grandson, Oliver.

She loves to enjoy a cup of tea, on her visits,

while I rock sweet baby, so the kettle was on, and the tea pot waited…

Sophia enjoyed a moment, feeling like such a big girl…

He is the sweetest thing! And his expressions are so entertaining! He is so animated!

and then this arrived in the mail… Thank you dear friend, Belinda, for hugging Susan's neck for me, having her sign a copy, and putting it in the mail to me, just when I was needing a mental "break"…

Susan Branch's Martha's Vineyard Isle of Dreams..

I had enjoyed a much needed Sunday afternoon nap, awakened by the dappled afternoon sunlight streaming across the bed. 

As I read, I felt compelled to bake (tell me if it doesn't happen to you, too, when you read her books;)

I gathered the ingredients to make her "from scratch" pie crust…

peeled 3 big Pink Lady apples…

and had a pie in the old Chambers gas oven by 8:00 that night...

Little girlie was curious, and found me in the kitchen…and smelled all the delicious smells…

She wanted to "bake"

 I taught her how to flour her tiny pin and roll gently across the dough….

The tea pot cookie cutter tin, served as a make-shift pie pan, and I taught her how to pinch around the edges of her "pie"

and soon it was time for the real pie to come out of the oven.

We had great difficulty waiting for it to cool …blowing frantically on the hot apples…

and she looked at me, us sitting there together at the dining room table…she said,

"I juss fink i'm in wuv wiv my mom."

Watery eyes met hers, and I said, "I think I'm in love with you, too!"

The next morning, Big Daddy granted me the gift of sleeping in…

and the last piece of pie, to eat with my cup of coffee…

With new energy, I made my way out to the Storybook Studio

for a good cleaning and straightening…

for, after a long project, things can get a bit out of hand…

I picked the remaining hydrangea blooms and arranged them in a blue mason jar,

cleared Aunt Marguerite's little oak kitchen table,

 and added her oil lamp to the vignette.

I cleared the old mantel…

swept the floors...

arranged a new work space on the table with the old typewriter and doll trunk..

Seth Tudor's art stand…and an old chest with tiny drawers,

 holding buttons and beads and rubber stamps.

The antique accordion lamp with its green shade, provides perfect lighting…

(sitting at the oak table, under the chandelier, was so very hot)

I tucked the chair, carved and created by Seth Tudor, amongst the Beatrix Potter treasures.

There, it holds Tasha Tudor seed packets and a tiny BP cup …

More hydrangea blooms sitting pretty atop the Singer treadle, alongside child-size sewing machines

and a giant Victorian thimble pincushion…my treasure from Martha's Vineyard…

There is time, now, for cooking breakfast for little girlie.

Tea pot Toast is her most favorite…and the only way I can get her to eat eggs;)

And at last, the book is submitted for printing/publishing…

It won't be long now. In a day or two, I will preview the online proof of the cover.

If all is as it should be, I will order the hardcopy proof.

Once it arrives, and I see that IT is as it should be,

the advance copies will be ordered.

And then on August 16, it will be available for purchase, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

This is the process.

It is so very hard to be patient.

So I find things to do…to stay busy…

and wait…

Thank you for waiting with me. Thank you for your encouragement and support and love.

Blessings, friends.