If You're Cold, Let Me "Warm" You Up!

If you've been cold and buried in snow this week, let me "warm" you up with a little bit from my book, "WARM Chocolate". If you've read the book, you know that I like to use drawings and real photos in my pictures. In one scene, the main character Marvin is sharing a cup of "warm chocolate" with his mother in their living room. 

 

 As you can see, there are lovely wall hangings, a lamp, and a cute little couch in the illustration. What you probably don't know is that the couch in the illustration is actually a real picture of my family's living room couch, and it is also really a sectional (see picture below). By using my computer "ninja" skills, I was able to hack off the end of the sectional, cut around it, double it, and paste it together to make it look like one sweet little couch.

I was also going to cut out my daughter's blue coat, but I thought it was a good winter coat for Marvin so I left it in the illustration. Living rooms are a great place to hang out with family. Whether it's watching a movie, chatting about our day, or just sipp'n on "warm" chocolate, we love chill'n as family on that big black couch! Hopefully you like to hang out on your cool couch with your family too!

  

Do you like to pretend instead of going to bed at night....yeah me too! A Flitzy Book Review of "On My Way to Bed" by Sarah Maizes, Illstrustated by Michael Paraskevas

So I'm a big fan, and I mean a BIG fan of playing pretend (you can see my love for pretend play in my books, and especially in my book, Play). I played pretend ALL the time as a kid; I played with my toy ponies outside in the grass, enjoyed a game of Hot Lava with my brothers in the living room (to learn how to play Hot Lava game, click here), and turned into a beautiful green mermaid by putting a pillowcase on my legs ( To learn how to make a really rock'n mermaid tail, watch the "How to make a fake mermaid tail" video, made by an extremely creative kid!). One of my MOST favorite pretend memories was playing with my imaginary rainbow pegasus Chloe. I would take her on long walks outside, feed her rainbow glitter from a plastic bowl, and fly her around in the sky by holding onto my "invisible" leash. She was such an awesome friend!

So naturally,  I found the the kids book, On My Way to Bed by Sarah Maizes/Illustrated by Michael Paraskevas,  to be absolutely delightful! The story is about a little girl who has to get ready for bed, but takes her sweet time because she just can't help but imagine. The little girl's mother "works" with her daughter as she SLOWLY completes all of her bedtime tasks.  The illustrations are adorable, and loaded with color. I especially enjoyed the simple responses from the mother, and of course, the mother's patience. 

Buy it on Amazon here

 So if you are kid who just can't seem to turn off your "imaginary" brain at night, or a parent who understands the importance of getting your child to bed, but in a way that works with the child's wonderful personality, then this book is for you!!! 

FLITZY ACTIVITY BLOG QUESTION FOR KIDS:

What kinds of things do you like to pretend?

Do you have an imaginary friend that you love to play with? 

Feel free to answer by adding your comments to this post!

I'd love to hear from you!   

HAPPY READING AND PRETENDING!!

And never forget kiddos...you matter. 

love, Eve

A behind the scenes look at my book PLAY.

    In my kids' book PLAY, Jack and Zoey go on a WILD  imaginary adventure. They transform into fish, visit a mysterious jungle island, and whoosh through space on a comet horse. One of the things I LOVE to do in my illustrations is use both drawings and real life photos.  And because I'm a newbie to the whole drawing thing, I will often use real photos as a guide for my drawings. For example, here is the real life photo I used to help me draw the comet horses in the book. This particular horse is one my father-in laws' Foxtrotter horses-what a beauty! Foxtrotter horses have a special head bop and prance! They are beautiful horses and epsecially fun to watch (To learn more about Foxtrotter horse breeds, click here).


Here is a photo I used  as a background for the jungle scene. This waterfall was taken at Multnomah Falls, Oregon. We visited this  exotic place back in 2011 as a part of family vacation. The waterfall was absolutely breathtaking to see in real life.  I thought it made an excellent jungle background-what do you think?? (see the waterfall behind them-that's it!).
 

Now if only...

Wow. This blogging thing is fun. Now if only I can write something meaningful...that would really be something...

My wings are flapping!

This should be fun.