A Room of My Own, Summer Style

I have always been a sucker for playhouses, beginning with some serious coveting of a cardboard house my older sister got for her birthday when we were little. (To be fair, she was very gracious and let me play in it nearly any time I wanted, but I wanted to own it myself. I'm not sure I'd have been as welcoming to her, if I'd been landlord.) From then on, I was the queen of forts and hidey-holes - under my bed, with piles of sofa cushions and sheets in the living room, in the little hollowed out place in the middle of the forsythia bushes - any place I could squeeze into.

I also think one of my secret motivations for becoming a mother was to have another shot at having a really cool playhouse, which is how I came to force my handy husband to build the one above in our backyard. I think the kids did love it as much as I did. In its heyday, it was well furnished with a little kitchen center thingie, a child-sized table and chairs, and comfy cushions - and outfitted with essential features like a basket attached to a pulley for hauling up snacks, a secret exit to the monkey bars, a double dutch door, and slide.

The years unfortunately, have not been entirely kind to it; it's full of cobwebs, half-painted as the result of an overly ambitious project undertaken by my daughter and her buddies right about the time they lost interest in make-believe and helping with chores (age 11, for those of you at that stage). I can no longer entice anyone to play in it, not even by offering to bring them a super nice snack or promising to leave them alone and not eavesdrop even a little bit. (Okay, not surprising since they're now 20, 18 and 16. But still.) Now it stores the lawn furniture over the winter and shelters chipmunks and squirrels and far too many spiders, but I always feel wistful when I catch a glimpse of it out the window.

So yesterday, when I was moping around after yet another rainstorm (with still another threatening) and fishing around for a way to avoid some little projects I needed to work on, I decided to do what I've been threatening to do for years: I fixed it up as a playhouse for me!

Pretty nice, huh! I rehung the curtains, even though they're very faded, brushed ALL the cobwebs away and asked the spiders and buzzy bees very nicely to relocate, and spruced up the furniture (nearly all scrounged from the garbage back when I could sometimes persuade my tweens to hang out in the house), and added my grown up necessities, like a snack, citronella candles, a small rug, a jam jar of flowers, and a LONG extension cord with a surge protector to plug my laptop into. (I've even managed to get intermittent internet reception, something I can't even get reliably on my crappy laptop when I'm sitting right next to my wireless router. Grr.) And then I was a good girl and worked out there the rest of the afternoon. And in the evening had my glass of wine up there in the rocking chair I lugged up (barely visible in the lower right hand corner). I had to read my book while I sipped my shiraz since I couldn't quite persuade my husband to join me. He had "more important" things to do.

By the way, I'm reading Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth (for my book club), and I'm enjoying it very much, even though I find the writing style and some of the characterization painfully clumsy at times. (Why do writers of adult fiction always seem to get away with faux pas that would brand someone attempting to write for kids as a rank amateur?)

There are still some glitches I need to iron out, such as the dog above, who not only insists on joining me (which means I have to carry her up and down the rickety ramp that is the only access I can remotely manage) but also refuses to vacate the best seat for working. And her attention span is annoying short, plus she drank some of my iced tea when I put it on the floor so I wouldn't risk spilling it on my laptop. And the half-painted look is already getting to me so I'm likely to end up hunting down the rollers and leftover house paint before long. And I need a fan. And some Off! because the citronella candles weren't really adequate. But on the whole, so satisfying. Maybe it will be enough to inspire me to finish the novel I started more than a year ago.

If you're craving a playhouse too, check out this book with lots of cool ideas. I'm already trying to plot how to convince my husband to just "update" my playhouse with a few little things, like real wiring, glass windows, maybe some heating for the winter...

My "Studio," Before and After

Things get a little "untidy" around here when I'm finishing up a big project. The two pieces and all the "stuff" are from illustrations for An Apple Pie for Dinner by Susan VanHecke. Actually the "before" picture looks better than it might, as there's about a square foot of table there with nothing on it -- rare that you can see any actual table when I'm working frantically. The really sad thing is I do have a studio space upstairs, but it's always such a disaster before I even reach the halfway point of a book that I have to branch out to my favorite spot, which just is the kitchen table. Much closer to the chocolate supply.

Guess how I got the table so clean? Yep, that's right. I just threw everything in a box and carted it upstairs where it's still sitting, waiting for me to sort it all out. Soon.

See the "trays" holding illustrations? I made those for this book, one per page, from foamcore scraps left over from my last book. Best organizational strategy I've used yet. They were perfect for holding all the little bits in progress, they stacked easily, and were light and easy to tote from place to place. I also put together a binder "Bible" that held a couple copies of my dummy and all my checklists, notes, and reminders (I think it was on the chair, just out of view). I promise to show all this organizational stuff better in another post soon. Oh, and see the little wax paper bag taped to the edge of the table? After battling zillions of little thread scraps around the sewing machine and little scraps of paper and smidges of clay everywhere else, I suddenly remembered that my junior high sewing teacher used to make us tape waxed paper lunch bags to our workstations to corral all the snippets. And I had this box of pretty little waxed bags I bought one day in a fit of nostalgia and "green" urges, but which my kids totally rejected as uncool, plus no good at keeping their sandwiches from going stale. So I taped up little bags everywhere I worked, and voila! No more scraps all over the floor! Well, fewer scraps...

One thing that was constant between both scenes (even though you can't see outside in the upper photo) was RAIN! I cannot believe how much it has rained this year in Pittsburgh. Pretty much every weekend. Plus lots of the week days. And naturally it' s raining here for the 4th, and supposed to keep it up Saturday and Sunday too. Sigh. I miss the sunshine we had on vacation.

I'm Ba-a-a-ack! With Mimi!

Here's Mimi! She made her official debut last Wednesday, and I'm as excited as a new mommy. Well, probably even more excited since she's very well behaved and doesn't keep me up all night like my human children did or make a colossal mess of the house. (Though now that I think about it, she did make me lose a lot of sleep last summer when I was slaving over the illustrations. And the mess! It was truly epic. Just ask my family - or anyone foolish enough to stop by my house during those last weeks.)

Like any new mom, I'm having a lovely time wallowing in compliments about how cute my little one is. And checking her amazon ranking obsessively - but I figure that's the author equivalent of checking every five minutes to make sure your newborn is still breathing. My favorite review so far is this very sweet one by five year old Kaya Wheatley on cnn.com, who likes the book because it's weird and happy. Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, she also said it had "bad stuff" because Mimi wants her pet bug Frank to get some kisses and you shouldn't kiss bugs because they've been in dirt. And I also got a nice review from someone at Kirkus, who apparently didn't notice about the dirt, but who did say stuff like this that makes me blush and squirm in a happy, embarrassed way: "A satisfying plot, whimsical illustrations and a beguiling main character add up to a delightful treat that even younger preschoolers will enjoy. Baicker-McKee is an author-illustrator to watch.” And there were other nothing-but-nice reviews like this and this and this, (geez, I hope these links work -- scroll down if you don't see Mimi at first and you're actually reading them...) and Parenting Magazine has a nice write-up in the July issue and is giving away 100 free copies (you can register here).

I don't really know any great way to sign copies that people buy (or win). I'm going to see if I can find an independent bookseller that will stock some for me to sign on an as-bought basis and then ship them (man, do I miss the children's bookstore that used to be just up the street from here). But meanwhile, if anyone's interested I'll be happy to personalize a bookplate and mail that to you.

Oh, and I had a request from a blog reader for a Mimi doll. I wish I had some to send you! But the Mimi in the book isn't really quite a doll-- I made each one individually (yes, there were an awful lot of them. The number of limbs was quite staggering) in an insanely time consuming process that involves wrapping fabric around illustration board and pipecleaners, and stuffing it and sewing little clothes and making features from polymer clay, beads and felt, and so on. I am thinking about making a handful of stuffed animal Mimis, if I can figure out how, for gifts (stop reading this Melanie. And Deb.) If I get good at it, I'll make an extra and have a contest for it -- but at this point it's the best Ican do!

Well, enough avoiding the apologies. Sorry I've been away from blogging for so long. I've been struggling to finish a book (yes, that SAME book about the apple pie and Granny) and it's finally nearly done! And dealing with the many obligations of a son graduating from high school, and um, a vacation last week (ah! It was paradise.) But now I'm back. Really and truly. No more excuses. My new theme this year is "Balance." Last year it was "Risk." (I picked that theme after the fact when I realized I kept putting myself in situations where I was over my head...) At any rate, my plan is to set the timer several times a week and just put something down. No more mammoth essays like, well, this one. Short and sweet -- and pictures. Now just pray at least some of my techno stuff keeps working so I can do it.

I leave you with this lovely picture of my messy, messy studio, aka the kitchen table. (I cleaned it up today! There's a tablecloth! And flowers! And already little piles of clutter!) Oops. I'll have to add the photo later. Just remembered it's on my husband's laptop and I forgot to email it here...

Make-It-Mondays: Banana Nut Oatmeal Muffins

Well, I've broken every one of my New Year's resolutions, with the exception of the one about eating more chocolate. Sigh. I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but I'm drowning in work and family stuff, and there's really no end in sight. But I knocked off a couple big items on my to-do list this morning, so I'm rewarding myself by spending my lunch break with a quick post.

Every weekend for the last month (maybe more, I've lost track) we've had crappy weather here. Snow, rain, freezing rain, sleet, hail, thunderstorms, you name it -- but none of it nice. So this weekend, I decided to cheer myself up with food (only a little chocolate though) and a bunch of my other favorite things. The table above, waiting for my sleepy family (though how they can sleep through so many delicious smells is beyond me), is set with lots of things that always make me chipper: a torn but super soft vintage tablecloth from a yard sale, embroidered napkins my parents brought back from a trip to Eastern Europe, an antique bowl that was obviously well loved even before it ended up in my hands, my sunny yellow teapot from my friend Julie, the oh-so-thin teacups that belonged to my husband's grandmother "Big" (and given to me by my kind mother-in-law Macky), cheery orange clementines in a turquoise glass bowl I got for $3 at Marshalls (the color combo makes me shiver, it's that beautiful, plus knowing what a great bargain I got on the bowl is so satisfying), and the banana nut oatmeal muffins I'm going to give you the recipe for! These muffins are fantastic, even though I vary the recipe a bit each time, depending on whether I actually have the ingredients I should and whether I remember how I've made them before (they're based on a mishmosh of several different muffin recipes). In fact, part of the reason I'm putting this up today was that they came out particularly well this week, and I still remember how I made them - so I thought I'd get the recipe on the internet for posterity so I can duplicate them when my memory deserts me again.

Banana Nut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease 12 muffin cups (or prepare paper and foil cups)

1 1/4 cups flour (whole wheat white flour works great -- can substitute oat bran for the 1/4 cup)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup sugar (I've used brown sugar on occasion and that's good too, but the texture's different)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (try one of the excellent cinnamons from Penzey's Spices)
1 cup mashed bananas (could probably substitute apple sauce or canned pumpkin too)
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil (or other vegetable oil)
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped or ground walnuts
1/2 cup (or maybe a little more...) dark chocolate chips and/or dried cranberries or raisins (yuck, I say, especially compared to chocolate chips)

Combine the first 7 dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix the bananas, egg, oil and milk in another. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ones, mixing just until combined. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips (or whatever), divide among the muffin cups (sometimes I stretch to make a few extras I can hide away for my elevenses on another day). Bake at 375 for 18 to 20 minutes until the muffins are golden brown and smell heavenly.

While they're baking make up some special coffee or tea and set the table with things that make you happy. Maybe some flowers too. Then share the muffins while they're still warm with nice people who won't mind if you whine a bit about the weather and how much you have to doooooo! (But first hide the ones you're saving - because any left on the table will get eaten.)

Belated - but not departed!

Happy Valentine's Day, belatedly! And even more importantly, a belated but no less sincere and gigantic thank you to Roz for giving me this great award! It made my day - and the last couple weeks too. I've been swamped with work, travel (for pleasure and work), kid stuff, snow days, and now a miserable virus too (probably inevitable after spending a full day with a class of snuffling kindergartners plus about 7 hours on planes at the beginning of the week, not to mention all the time I've spent standing in snow and slush this week, scraping and chipping to clear paths and vehicles).

Anyhow, to pass on the award, here are the details:
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make my Day Award” logo
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

It's hard to pick just five (kind of like choosing just five chocolates from the mega-assortment box), so I'm glad I don't have to count Roz's excellent blog as one of them (but make sure you check it out too, if you haven't already, especially if like me you adore fabric illustration). Anyhow, here are five blogs that spark my muse, all on different subject matter:

1. Julie Stiegemeyer of Jottings and Such (Julie introduced me to blogging and is the author of my Cheep books as well as tons of other charming children's books, and an incredibly dear friend and all around kind person).

2. Amy Karol of the much-read craft/mothering/interesting stuff blog Angry Chicken and author of the useful book Break-the-Rules Sewing. She's probably already received this award a zillion times, but it is one of my favorite blogs.

3. Danny Evans of the father-parenting blog, Dad Gone Mad. I recently discovered this blog, and I've been completely enjoying his male take on little people and parenting adventures. Warning for those with sensitive ears (eyes?) - he's a master of the irreverent phrase and creative use of four-letter words.

4. Kitty Griffin of Chocolate Ferrets and Writing for Kids which is a brand new blog (so it doesn't have many entries yet). Kitty is an amazing children's book writer (for all ages) as well as a screenwriter and some-time writing instructor in the MFA program in writing for kids at Chatham College in Pittsburgh. She's an outstanding teacher and mentor -- and she should consider this a gentle nag to post more! We want more! (says the, um, procrastinator/overwhelmed person who hasn't posted in more than 2 weeks....)

5. Susan vanHecke who's the talented author of the folktale I'm currently illustrating. I just discovered her blog recently too (I'm just plain embarrassed to say it didn't occur to me to look her up when I started working on her book), and I've really been enjoying it.

I also owe Susan a big apology (and some chocolate too) because I'm late with the art for her book (but I'm working hard on it! Really! It's just very complex and detailed!), so the pub date will have to be pushed back. I've been late with artwork before - I'm still new enough to book illustration that it's hard for me to gauge how much time I need - but this is the first time (and I hope only time) I've been so late that I screwed up a pub date. I feel terrible - but that just means I'll have to make sure the final art is as near to perfect as I can get it and thus worth the wait.

Okay, back to the drawing table. Well, to the kitchen table, where the sewing machine is parked and calling to me, snuffly nose and all.

3-D Thursdays: Mimi Proofs!

All images copyright Carol Baicker-McKee, 2008

Next to the moment when you hold the first published copy of your book in your hand, there's nothing quite like the moment when the proofs arrive. Seeing the words and the completed art together, getting to turn the pages and have the experience of "book" is magical every time. It really is like the cliche - akin to examining your newborn's tiny fingernails and smelling its delicious newness.

Anyhow, here are a few images from Mimi, the first book I wrote and illustrated. It's due out June 24th from Bloomsbury. I feel jumping up and down proud of it, so much so that I had to stick some of the pictures up now even though my scanner still won't work, and I have to settle for posting crappy photos of un-color-corrected proofs.

Mimi is her own "person," but there's no denying her character sprouted from my memories of my daughter Sara when she was that age. Sara's now 16 - so grown up these days that she even assisted with the artwork! For instance, she made the little flowers that dot the "i's" on the cover, helped me paint backgrounds (she's a much better painter than I am - any place you see brushstrokes: my fault), strung the beads for Mom's necklaces, made the spider plant on Mimi's dresser, and did other odds and ends for me. It was lots of fun to work together - and good for our relationship during the sometimes (okay, often) squabbly menopausal mom/hormonal teen daughter years.

The story and illustrations are peppered with details from Sara's toddler days, from her fashion sense to the arched window in her bedroom. Other details are from my other kids (my son Kyle had a pet roly poly, and Eric was glued to his stuffed Ted-Ted), and even from chance kid encounters (Mimi's jammies-and-tutu outfit was prompted by a little girl I saw similarly attired at the grocery store). At conferences, it seems like editors and agents are always saying they don't want to hear how your story or art is based on your own kids, etc., etc. - but don't let that fool you into thinking you should ignore the material from your own relationships and experiences while you're creating your work. Those personal bits and pieces are what let writers and illustrators create characters and a story world that are simultaneously quirky and universal - that feel authentic, because they are. It's just that it's important to stay flexible and not get too attached to any one "real" thing - often the story will need you to change or leave out something that feels so special to you, and you just have to be tough and do it. "Kill your darlings" as some author, I forget who, said.

I can't look at the proofs without being reminded of all the things I struggled with in making the illustrations. Some things I figured out more-or-less successfully - like how to get the perspective right for the wagon - and others the designer, Daniel Roode, has painstakingly corrected for me. For example: the bubbles. (Sorry Daniel!) I had a terrible time deciding how to make them. Having learned the hard way from the illustrations for Merry Christmas, Cheeps by Julie Stiegemeyer that it's a bad idea to incorporate shiny things in my 3-D artwork - the reflections are a huge headache for the photographer and the designer too - I knew to avoid all the things like marbles, hollow glass balls, iridescent beads, etc. that sorely tempted me, but I didn't think through the implications of using solid balls made from Sculpey Ultralight clay and positioning them at different heights off the background with bits of foam core. I thought they'd have depth and the sense of floating in the air, but instead all they had was really dark, bizarre-looking shadows! I can't imagine what a headache it must have been to photoshop all those shadows away - especially since the page after the one shown above is almost all bubbles. But they look fantastic now - just like they're floating. Next time I'll glue something like that down.

I'm also incredibly grateful to my editor, Melanie Cecka, who truly deserves the adjective "brilliant." She can edit an already spare text down to the nub - leaving only the best bits to shine in their simplicity. The other day I looked over my first draft of this story (well, the one I submitted), and I couldn't believe how rambly and unfocused it felt. I'm so glad that Melanie was able to see the core of it, and to gently coax me to pare away until I found it too.

I'd love to hear reactions to Mimi - I feel like a first time mama wanting everyone to admire her beautiful baby (that probably really looks like an extra-wrinkly Yoda). And if you have any great ideas for making 3-D bubbles that photograph well, I'd love to hear about it, in case I'm struck by temporary insanity and decide to put them in another book.

Tuesday Tip Day: Reading to Babies

Rats. I wanted to use an incredibly cute picture of my oldest "reading" a book when he was about 5 months old to illustrate this post, but ever since I upgraded my Mac operating system to Leopard I haven't been able to get my scanner to work. (I have a Kodak EasyShare 5300 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier if anyone has any suggestions - tech support is stumped, though it's clear from message boards that I'm hardly the only one having scanner problems with Leopard.) So no sketches either until I get this worked out.

Anyhow, I've been thinking about reading to babies ever since a recent chat with a neighbor who was complaining about how it was impossible to read to her 9-month old. It was clear to me that she was having a completely typical experience with a baby that age - he was squirmy, insisted on turning the pages himself every which direction, had no interest in the story, and only occasionally paused to check out a picture. She felt like he was getting nothing out of their storytimes - and all she was getting was frustrated. But believe it or not, that crazy kind of reading session is enormously valuable for a child that age - her baby's developing his fine motor skills, visual tracking ability, and sense of self and initiative while learning about the physical characteristics of books, and even absorbing some language - all good things. The only problem, really, is that the mom needed to be reassured that their experience was normal and worthwhile.

And then today I saw a great article by librarian and children's literature reviewer Karen MacPherson in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Beginning with Books' annual Best Books for Babies list. You can read the article, with its excellent tips for choosing and sharing books with babies and toddlers here. (Okay, it caught my eye because my book Cheep! Cheep! - pictured above - made the list.) But it reminded me of several difficulties parents face when trying to find and read books to the littlest guys: one, it's hard to find quality books pitched just right for babies; two, parenting books rarely inform parents what's normal about reading with different age babies; and three, that's important information, because babies of different ages have very different interests, skills, and needs - just imagine the vast differences in motor skills, language, and passions between a newborn and a two year old!

The following list of what kinds of books and how to read to babies of different ages is my own, unscientific one, based on my experiences as a parent and former infant and toddler daycare teacher, seasoned with my knowledge of child development. If anyone out there has different or additional info, please share it! And please, please, please, share your favorite book choices for different ages!

I'll start this week with tips for the first year of life:

Prenatal to 3 months Yes! You can start reading to your baby even before she's born, though people like my husband might laugh at you. Babies can hear well before birth, and there are clever studies showing fetuses not only recognize the voices they heard in utero, but the actual stories they listened to in the weeks before birth. Naturally, the illustrations don't matter - nor do they matter much for the first few months after birth, when babies' vision is fuzzy and they'd prefer to watch you making those funny faces as you talk anyhow. Your best bets are books with rhyme, rhythm, and repetition - Mother Goose, Dr. Seuss, Shakespeare, song lyrics - whatever you enjoy.

3 to 6 months Lap babies who aren't yet total wiggleworms are the perfect age for cuddle-reading. Especially if you've been reading all along, expect baby to sit on your lap and study the pictures while you read to her. Babies this age like to finger the edges of the covers and pages and to pat or "rake" the pictures. What's best? Very brief texts to accommodate baby's short attention span, lines with rhyme and rhythm, and illustrations that are simple and bold, with lots of contrast (bright colors, heavy black outlines, etc.). Babies this age LOVE to look at faces, and will smile themselves at a smiling face or stare soberly at a sad one.

6 to 12 months During the second half of this year, baby's emerging fine motor skills - and his drive to scoot, crawl, cruise and go, go, go make reading to him a real challenge. But his growing language awareness, his need to explore the concept of symbols (the idea that something -like a picture of a dog - can stand for a real thing, like an actual dog), his emerging ability to self-calm, and his rapidly developing visual and fine motor skills make reading practically an essential activity. This is the age for board books, cloth books, and those plastic books for the bath or high chair. When babies stick their books in their mouths, they're not just tasting them or trying to eat them, but learning about their tactile qualties using their enormously sensitive lips and tongues. Huh! How weird is it that that picture that looks like a fuzzy duckling feels cool and smooth and tastes like cardboard? The ability to grasp a page or group of pages helps refine baby's grasp, and he can play peek-a-boo to learn about object constancy (the idea that things still exist when out of sight) as he turns the pages back and forth, back and forth. Toward the end of the first year, some babies will have clear favorites they want you to "read." But forget about a storyline, or even trying to read one-word pages in order. Naming, pointing, and just playing "surprise!" or "Huh! Look at that again!" will make for a more satisfying storytime than trying to plow through a book front to back. Best bets: books with familiar objects, animals, and other babies, limited or even no text, and, toward baby's first birthday, ones with a bit of detail and perhaps an object or two to hunt for on each page.

Okay - comment with your suggestions please!

P.S. Those of you who love 3-D art, like I do, check out Salley Mavor's Wee Willie Winkie title on the Best Books list - it's breathtaking, as all of Salley's work is.