Julia Denos's Blog, page 9
July 27, 2011
Next week:
Chalk aliens...
"Easy breezy" tank tops...
...and hopscotch!
I Had a Favorite Dress, by Boni Ashburn, hits stores this coming Monday, August 1 2011!
Thank you, Kirkus, for your lovely review.
"Easy breezy" tank tops...
...and hopscotch!
I Had a Favorite Dress, by Boni Ashburn, hits stores this coming Monday, August 1 2011!
Thank you, Kirkus, for your lovely review.
July 22, 2011
A Painted CSA
Friday is CSA day here at the farmer's market in Quincy, Mass. Since I'm a city girl (still have Connecticut country in my heart) it's a thrill to cart home our share of fruit and veggies, roots and greens, dirt, stowaway bugs and all. I love how the car smells like earth the whole way home! The Stillman's Farm family and friends who make it possible are heroes, bringing us nature from the heart of Massachusetts. You can subscribe to a local CSA too, find your nearest one here.
Quincy Farmer's Market
Our Stillman's shares all stacked up!
The CSA also provides endless COLOR for cooking and eating (make sure you eat your colors!) I decided to paint before I ate. Here's what my studio looked like last week...pretty messy as usual, (save a stray potato):
BLUEBS!
Radishes look like they should always be near paint palette.
Happy weekend!
July 17, 2011
Nobody Knows a Rabbit's Nose
To kick off National Rabbit Week, I thought I'd introduce you to someone:
This is Cinnamon (yes, the Cinnamon Rabbit!). He was a special bunny (if a rabbit runs through the garden to you when you call his name, it's a magical thing). He was as New England as bunnies come, straight from a farm hutch in Connecticut. We talked through a lot, nose to nose, on our tummies in the grass. A rabbit can be a refuge. And so, his namesake lives on.
This poem, worn page scanned in by my dad, read aloud best by my mom, is from The Sleepy Book written by Margaret Wise Brown, and will always sound like bed time:
This is Cinnamon (yes, the Cinnamon Rabbit!). He was a special bunny (if a rabbit runs through the garden to you when you call his name, it's a magical thing). He was as New England as bunnies come, straight from a farm hutch in Connecticut. We talked through a lot, nose to nose, on our tummies in the grass. A rabbit can be a refuge. And so, his namesake lives on.
This poem, worn page scanned in by my dad, read aloud best by my mom, is from The Sleepy Book written by Margaret Wise Brown, and will always sound like bed time:
July 13, 2011
Thunderstorm's Dinner Party
Rumble in like a jolly friend
Yellowed and worn grey suit
In the late afternoon
Gossiping to the trees with their open-eared leaves:
" listenlistenlistenlistenlisten "
Sometimes the trees clap "bravo!" for an extra juicy piece of gossip.
Others feign offense and fling their branches back in astonishment:
"Goodness!" (But they're really having fun too).
And the lightening laughs with you, sometimes before the punchline, but you're still friends.
You've always been.
Pals.
And you both roll on.
As you move past dinner time
Into the next county
Taking your party and banter and roaring fun into the night.
Leaving yawns of rain behind gathering their things to go home.
Summer Thunderstorm, Just Before Dinner
Rumble in like a jolly friend
Yellowed and worn grey suit
In the late afternoon
Gossiping to the trees with their open-eared leaves:
" listenlistenlistenlistenlisten "
Sometimes the trees clap "bravo!" for an extra juicy piece of gossip.
Others feign offense and fling their branches back in astonishment:
"Goodness!" (But they're really having fun too).
And the lightening laughs with you, sometimes before the punchline, but you're still friends.
You've always been.
Pals.
And you both roll on.
As you move past dinner time
Into the next county
Taking your party and banter and roaring fun into the night.
Leaving yawns of rain behind gathering their things to go home.
July 12, 2011
Dress Day #3: Evening With E.B.White
" Kitchen Table"
I hope you are enjoying some longggg and languid summer days. Today, I'm remembering the great literary voice, E.B. White. It was his birthday yesterday, which is funny timing for me after randomly reading Trumpet of the Swan last week after 18 years and now having begun my quest to read all things White.
"Secretary"
I recently told my friend, Emily, about how I wish I could take vacations IN his books and she directed me to his grown-up works, like this quiet essay... Anyway, aren't we overdue for a dress day? These might be good ones to wear, if you were to head over to the Boston Common to catch Louis the Trumpeter Swan at his gig, crooning for a crowd on a summery birthday evening...
"Blue Ikat"
These dresses and the rest of the book pubs next MONTH! Check out previews of I Had A Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn. Available for preorder on Indiebound.
I hope you are enjoying some longggg and languid summer days. Today, I'm remembering the great literary voice, E.B. White. It was his birthday yesterday, which is funny timing for me after randomly reading Trumpet of the Swan last week after 18 years and now having begun my quest to read all things White."Secretary"
I recently told my friend, Emily, about how I wish I could take vacations IN his books and she directed me to his grown-up works, like this quiet essay... Anyway, aren't we overdue for a dress day? These might be good ones to wear, if you were to head over to the Boston Common to catch Louis the Trumpeter Swan at his gig, crooning for a crowd on a summery birthday evening..."Blue Ikat"
These dresses and the rest of the book pubs next MONTH! Check out previews of I Had A Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn. Available for preorder on Indiebound.
Dress Day 3: Evening With E.B.White
I hope you are enjoying some longggg and languid summer days. Today, I'm remembering the great literary voice, E.B. White. It was his birthday yesterday, which is funny timing for me after randomly reading Trumpet of the Swan last week after 18 years and now having begun my quest to read all things White.
I recently told my friend, Emily, about how I wish I could take vacations IN his books and she directed me to his grown-up works, like this quiet essay... Anyway, aren't we overdue for a dress day? These might be good ones if you were to go hear a swan named Louis at his gig in the Boston Common, crooning for a crowd on a summery birthday evening...
These dresses and the rest of the book pubs next MONTH! Check out previews of I Had A Favorite Dress by Boni Ashburn. Available for preorder on Indiebound.
June 27, 2011
Summer Reading
This past Saturday was "Save Bookstores" Day, so I adventured to the distant land of Brookline and finally visited the cozy "Children's Bookshop" to find some breezy summertime treasure:
(Woah pink gingham!)
Holly Hobbie's paintings in Everything but the Horse were exactly how she described them, "an illustrated memory"...so lush and cool, like a sip of something in the shade. I hadn't read E. B. White's Trumpet of the Swan since 3rd grade. I'm rationing the delectable chapters out for summer nights and T trips. And I'm just meeting Katy Carr in What Katy Did.
When I was a kid, there was nothing so magical or hallowed as the library grounds in summer. Yum. My little wish is that someday the book covers I'm working up finally end up as summer reading: hauled on vacation, fingerprinted with jelly, sandy spine up in the grass under a tree somewhere...
Happy summer reading!
♥In memoriam: The beloved Curious George of Harvard Square; please don't forget your local bookshops this summer ♥
(Woah pink gingham!)Holly Hobbie's paintings in Everything but the Horse were exactly how she described them, "an illustrated memory"...so lush and cool, like a sip of something in the shade. I hadn't read E. B. White's Trumpet of the Swan since 3rd grade. I'm rationing the delectable chapters out for summer nights and T trips. And I'm just meeting Katy Carr in What Katy Did.
When I was a kid, there was nothing so magical or hallowed as the library grounds in summer. Yum. My little wish is that someday the book covers I'm working up finally end up as summer reading: hauled on vacation, fingerprinted with jelly, sandy spine up in the grass under a tree somewhere...
Happy summer reading!
♥In memoriam: The beloved Curious George of Harvard Square; please don't forget your local bookshops this summer ♥
June 20, 2011
Summer With Alice
I'm thinking it's possibly the first day of summer vacation for some lucky kids out there today! I'll have to write an ode to summer vacation (ahhh summer reading...long car trips...sun dappled FREEDOM!) but for now I'm happily spending this summery day with Alice Kathleen McKinley while I repackage her series by the prolific Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. If I had met Alice in the 80's I think we would have been friends. Do you have any extra-special summer plans?
June 14, 2011
Grand Opening!
Hi friends, I'm so happy to announce The SHOP is open for business!Click here to visit and find...
...the first greeting card set I've created for the Greeting Card Collection, "Audrey & Famous" (tied up with a bow!)Also look for the first archival Limited Edition Print series of picture book spreads from Just Being Audrey, and Dotty, as well as the first small Open Edition Print featuring lady Audrey...
Closest to my heart is the previously unreleased and unpublished spread, "Audrey & the Children" as a Limited Edition Print with 50% of the proceeds going to The Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund. This spread was not included in the book. More on "Audrey & the Children" to follow...
OH, so many new prints, character collections and greeting card sets on the way, stay tuned! ♥
After many months of hard work in the off hours, I have to thank my husband, Matt, for his untiring patience, and unending encouragement as this was definitely a team effort getting this little dream off the ground. Also thankful hugs to my artist/shopkeeper friends Anne, Sarah Jane, J.Hill and Abigail LaBranche for the support!
