Card sightings in Paris, Vancouver, and Toronto!

My sister and her family recently went to Paris and as they were strolling past a Gibert Joseph bookstore, one of my nieces spotted a whole rack of my Blush cards! You can see them on the far right of the photo above.

How cool is that?

Not only that, but some of my friends have seen my cards elsewhere as well: Kristen came across my cards in Pulp The Paper Gallery at 348 Danforth Avenue in Toronto, and Brooke saw them in the Vancouver Art Gallery:



Supposedly my cards are also being sold in Japan, England, Australia, and the U.S. -- if anyone sees them, please do let me know!

Catching up

I have been sadly neglected these Blatherings, I know. The main reason: writing and prepping for the annual summer conference of the Society of Children's Book Authors and Illustrators. Also, because I've decided to move most of my writing-related posts to Inkygirl; I'll be posting my SCBWI conference reports in Inkygirl, for example.

But there's so much other stuff I have to catch up on. Like the fact that critters in our garden have continued to ravage my plants! And that friends and family have now spotted my cards in shops in Vancouver, Toronto and Paris! (I'll post addresses of those shops soon) That I'm more in love with my iPhone than ever! That I've upgraded to Corel Painter 11! So much more.

First, though, I need to finish unpacking and reorganizing my office. The latter still looks like a whirlwind of chaos just rampaged through. Meanwhile, I am so SO looking forward to not travelling for a while. The trips have been enjoyable, of course, but right now I'd like to go back to my Office Cave and get back to my regularly scheduled program.

Caught in the act!

Caught this young groundhog shamelessly munching on our oregano yesterday. I've named him Nigel in honour of a friend's cat. Wish the cat (who recently died :-( ) was in our garden yesterday. Nigel The Cat would surely have made short work of Nigel The "Eating Machine" Groundhog.



I formally apologize to the squirrels of our neighbourhood for blaming them for the destruction of some of my plants -- though I DO still blame them for digging up my seedlings since I've caught THEM in the act as well -- since it looks as if Nigel is the culprit.



Many mornings and afternoons, we'll find Nigel lazily lounging on our new deck in exactly the same spot. I used to think he was cute but now that I know that he's EATING OUR PLANTS it's clear that the cuteness is just a mask for his Evil Groundhog Soul.

I'm positive he's been collaborating with the neighbourhood squirrels, probably called in as the big artillery like when the orcs called in the cave troll in Moria.

Why I haven't been Blathering much lately

For those who have missed my Blatherings (aw, thank you!), it's because I've been doing a lot of writing and prep for the SCBWI conference in L.A. in a couple of weeks, plus trying to "meet" others who are attending so I won't arrived a COMPLETE stranger.

As I mention in the announcements section of Blatherings, I post in Inkygirl much more frequently than this blog (usually several times a day, with new and old cartoons) plus I'm Twittering. If you're on Livejournal, you can subscribe to the Inkygirl feed here.

If you're a writer on Twitter, you can follow @inkyelbows. I also use this account to post links to new writer cartoons, including Will Write For Chocolate and Countdown To The SCBWI Convention.

If you're a non-writer, you probably want to follow my personal account at @debohi instead.

I also have a VERY chatty account I use for @replies and online Twitter chats at @debbieohi. Here's why I have three accounts.

Revenge is a dish best served with country accompaniment

Apparently Dave Carroll wrote the song with his band, Sons of Maxwell, after his 35-hundred-dollar, custom-made guitar was severely damaged during a United Airlines flight, with little sympathy or help from United. Here's the story on the LAtimes site.



As one of the readers posted in response to the story:

"Revenge is a dish best served with country accompaniment."

Happy Canada Day!

Check out this little guy who was hanging out in our backyard with his siblings and mom yesterday, stuffing Saskatoon berries in his mouth as fast as he could.

After the photoshoot, Mama and cubs took off to find a quieter eating establishment:


Then this morning, we found this young groundhug sunning himself on our new deck:



I commented on how cute he was, and Jeff pointed out how he wouldn't be so cute when the little guy is chomping down on my plants. I bet the squirrels trained him.

Speaking of squirrels, thanks (I think :-D) to my friend Dave Weingart for pointing me to this somewhat disturbing video:



Happy Canada Day, everyone!