Put a Little More Art in Your Life, via Reading the World, March 28-29, in San Francisco

add some art to your life! 

click here to 

find out about 

the rtw

 art auction: 

be there or be square

Reading The World in San Francisco! Soon!

Reading the World is almost here; 

you're in, right? Here! Check! Now!

A Day In San Francisco, A Night In The Ukraine?

goodies in store, here

you did want to go to the Ukraine, right?

we thought so

Pardon Our Mud

Ah, sometimes keeping up with two blogs four kids a dog a husband a house and a job makes things a little muddy. 

We are making mudpies over @victoriathornedesign. So, you might go see?

And we are quite behind in announcing (or elaborating upon) some wonderful events and so on and so forth. Please stay tuned and have patience, goodies are on the way. (As soon as my office has shifted back into place...we did a bit of house&room juggling over thanksgiving).

Here's Mud in Your Eye.

READING THE WORLD AT USF IN SF: TIME TO SIGN UP, QUICK LIKE A BUNNY!

I've mentioned Reading the World several times 

(including here and here), and it is just 

THE most wonderful conference...

there will be quite a bit more about it, 

soon, in these here pages, but for now: 

I send you to the registration 

and bid you sign up quick! 

Like a bunny! 

Because RTW at USF is not to be missed.

And Rosemary Wells will be there. 

So how about that?

Felicia Hoshino

Made me cry. Well, looking at her artwork made me cry. Like a baby. Her work is luminous: it is rendered beautifully, in a masterful way that is vivid and touching. I wish you could see it in person, as we did, year before last, during the always-remarkable Reading the World, at USF.

A Place Where Sunflowers Grow, written by Amy Lee-Tai, and illustrated by Felicia Hoshino. Yep. It's the art from that book that made me cry (I'm still a little embarrassed by it: when I went up to congratulate Felicia, after she gave a delightful presentation, I couldn't talk & got all choked up. I think it was truly the beauty of her work--the soul that is contained within--that readily shines through. When you see that sort of thing, it is not bad to be so moved. It is good. Amy Lee-Tai's story, greatly inspired, is an important one, and I think every child would benefit from knowing it.) 

I am sure that many great things will continue to come from Felicia. I can't wait.

Just for a taste, check out her wonderous website.  

And, pleasepleaseplease, don't miss the Michiya Hanayagi Dancer, on the website. Fabulous.

Photo above is from The Presidio, which is a hop skip and a jump from USF. You can take a spin through it's marvelousness when you come out to attend Reading the World, 2009. See you there.

Saint Joan and Saint Beverly, Amen.

This blog wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for two patron saints: St. Joan and St. Bev.  

St. Joan, because she nudged me several years ago (with the most delightful nudge ever, an invitation to join the best book club I could possibly imagine being in...thank you, Joy Look Book Club, for being the most excellent of most excellents of...you get the picture).  That nudge--and the amahzing (as Seth Rudetsky likes to say) book group that Joan thought up--brought me back (from far-away design & style land) to my first (after the fam) love: children's books. There will be lots more about Joan Vigliotta later, if it's okiedokie with her, but we'll start with a link to the Mother's Day post on sweet her.  Thank you, St. Joan, with lots of well-deserved adoration and stuff.

And what of St. Bev?  She's the gal who said to go on and do this blog (or whatever web-wide stuff it was I was thinking of doing--I wasn't sure at the time, and it's all still evolving).  She's the amazing person who said, basically, "you go girl, I know you can do it, I know it will be good."  She's the kind of friend everyone with an idea needs. The incomparable Dr. Beverly V. Hock is also hugely instrumental in the gloriousness that is Reading the World.  And if you haven't bought your ticket to go see it yet, you best get started...it is the event that I never, ever want to miss.  More on this here.  

We hope to be interviewing the fab Dr. Bev in the near future.  And, if we are very, very lucky, we may be able to take a quick video tour (or several dozen) through Joan's amahzing house: how fabulous is her house?  Well, let's just say that several of the best authors & illustrators in the universe (yep, universe) have been speechless in joy and amazement at the gloriousness (there's that word again) of it. Amen.