Five Things on a Friday

South Berwick, Maine. Photo by my husband, John

1.  I had such a nice library visit in Wells, Maine yesterday. I did a story time for my Hamster books, and right before I left home, I noticed the stack of sparkly mardi gras beads I had left over from my bookstore parties for Happy Birthday, Hamster last year. I tossed them into my bag.

When I got to the part in that book where it says, "It's Hamster's birthday and you are invited," I said, "Well, if we're invited to a PARTY, we should look fancy, right?"

You should have heard the gasp from the preschoolers at all those shiny beads! I passed them to Devin, the children's librarian, and said, "I have enough for everyone to choose two colors."

2.  When I was choosing what to wear yesterday, I put on a dark pink blazer and asked John, "Do you think this is too pink?"  He said, "For the preschool crowd, I don't think you could ever pick something too pink." 

I smiled looking out over my preschool audience at all the hot pink clothes the girls were wearing.  John was totally right. :-)

3.  Today, I'm off to the New England SCBWI conference.  I'm excited to see so many friends and to participate on a panel with author Linda Urban and her editor, Jeannette Larson. Linda is a good friend, but I've only ever emailed with Jeannette. It will be great to meet her in person finally. 

4.  The forsythias are gorgeous here now.  While I was in North Carolina, lots of flowering bushes and trees popped into bloom in Maine. It was great to come to home to them.

5.  Derek Anderson has a wonderful new blog on his website where he talks about his creative process, including showing some of the evolution of Hamster and his friends!