celebration

Even with the wonderful help of Ki-Ki and the Blue Rose Girls, I still was scrambling when the first guests arrived to the party. Punch wasn’t mixed (and never was), paintings were crooked and ice had been forgotten. But the party had begun!And it was wonderful. Who would’ve known that Lissy’s Friends would be such a appropriate book for the party? Because friends from everywhere, from all facets of my life came out on the cold, rainy day.

Author and artist friends like:

Mary Newell Depalma, Steve Engel (the artist that cuts all the snowflakes for Robert's Snow) and Nicole Tadgell.

Alissa Imre Geis

and Barbara O'Connor
Teacher/School Visit Friends like:

Pat Keough

Eisha (with Anna)

New Friends like:

Lily (a big Year of the Dog fan!)

and Scott Magoon

And old friends like:
Mike and Nancy (who came from Texas!)

Throughout the party, Ki-Ki and the blue rose girls were working the book table, selling lots of copies of Lissy’s Friends:


I kept getting unnecessary but extraordinarily lovely gifts from people. Thank you!

And Lolly from the Horn Book was podcasting:
See her trying to deviously pretend she’s not recording?

Kids seemed to like the cupcakes:
and the flowers:
And no one seemed to notice the lack of punch:

But I was still a bit scrambled. Time passed in a blur! I forgot to publicly thank the girls for all their help, do a book reading or even acknowledge the Lissy doll! I do remember that I did urge everyone to eat cupcakes, that I raffled my painting,and The Blue Rose Girls (sans Meghan) had a photo op:


So, I think Lissy and I had a pretty good birthday! Thanks everyone for celebrating with us!

safe arrival

After a late night, I woke up bright and early to prep for the party waking up Ki-Ki and Alvina (who slept over). Ki-Ki was particularly difficult to awake. The overload of sugar the night before left her in a state of food coma and I wasn't sure she was going to make it out of bed.

Now how does one transfer 144 cupcakes? I have a feeling I am one of the few people who have attempted this so I will just tell you the answer. You do it with the help of great friends like Anna and Elaine who are willing to chauffeur them and this cool gift from Alvina:


It's a Cupcake Courier! It can carry up to 36 frosted cupcakes at a time...and it does so perfectly. The cupcakes made it to Spark Studios (where my party was) in pristine and beautiful condition:



Other things that I was gratified to see make safely? The fruit arrangements:


And the books and dolls. Those were rushed in the day before from ChinaSprout. They had told me they weren't sure if my order was going to arrive in time...I guess just because a product is released on a certain day doesn't mean you actually get the product that day. But I begged and pleaded, as it is a little silly for me to have a Lissy's Friends Book Party when the book isn't there!



I rather enjoy this picture as it is the Lin sisters all together: me, Ki-Ki and Lissy, as a doll. Glad we all made it!

good friends

I think I just realized that throwing a book party is like getting married; or at least having a wedding. Or maybe it's just the way I do things--what's the book party equivalent to bridezilla? Book partzilla? Parthra (a la Mothra)?

And just like having a wedding, the success of the party is dependent on good friends pitching in. Lucky for me, I have those.

Alvina flew in straight from the International Reading Association conference in Toronto to Boston and pitched right in. Gosh, I needed her. Not only did the gift bags need to be finished (not everyone got chocolate rats; I had to start making chocolate faster so I was using all my molds--turtles, pigs, roses, seashells. Not very themed, but oh well!); I had cupcakes to make!!


144 to be exact: 48 carrot cupcakes, 48 pink velvet (supposed to be red velvet but I ran out of red food coloring) and 48 lemon. We used 3 boxes of butter! Alvina and I spent the day baking and I finally feel justified in having a fancy mixer.

Then after work, Ki-Ki, Anna, Bruno, Luke and Ranida came over to help frost. This actually didn't take that long...




Okay, maybe it did.

Easter

Robert and I don't have a lot of family in the area, so on holidays like Easter it's nice to celebrate with friends. This past Easter we went to Libby's and got together with the Blue Rose Girls. In honor of the day--okay, maybe just so I could use my mixer--I made carrot cupcakes.


which were the color of Peeps. I meant to get some to decorate the cakes with, but never got around to it. But no one seemed to mind.

At Libby's place(which is so nice!) we had an Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by Linda which was great fun.



Some of us looked a little harder than others.



But we found all but one of them. Even Linda, who hid them, couldn't locate the last. Maybe it hatched and ran away. Or maybe it planted itself and next year an easter egg tree will have grown. I hope we all get together again to see.

Gai See: What I Saw

I posted this on the bluerosegirls blog, but since it continues my Hong Kong journey, I thought I'd post it here too.

When I was in Hong Kong, I had the pleasure of seeing Roseanne Thong's new book, Gai See: What You See in Chinatown. Now while the title of the book says, What You See in Chinatown, it is fairly obvious that the book is about the Hong Kong open air wet markets. The "Chinatown" addition to the title was done by marketing, so that it would it appeal to the greater public.

Which I think underestimates the children's book audience. This book is a real treat; and, even more, it truly captures what a Hong Kong open air market feels like. It's rare that one can test the authenticity of a book, but I was able to do so and it passed with flying colors. Take this excerpt, for example:

Mangoes, starfruit,
colors bright
glisten in the morning light.

Dragon fruit
with scarlet scales,
lychees filling woven pails

Doesn't it just match this exactly?



And then there's images like this:



The book so exactly matches my experiences in Hong Kong that I can't imagine any child not finding delight in it. The only thing that was not included was the fascinating aspects of the fish market, where live fish jumped in the air.



Roseanne told me that she did have passages dedicated to that but they were edited out, probably in fear that that it would seem barbaric. Which it is a bit, to our western sensibilities, but is also a significant part of the culture of a Hong Kong wet market. Of course, the book is not about a wet market, it's about "Chinatown," so I suppose the deletion has validation.

Regardless, this book is just plain great. I'll never look at it without remembering what I saw in Hong Kong; I hope you all take a look at it and see what I saw too.

quality not quantity

Even as a child, I never had a great many friends. This used to bother my in my teenage years, when I looked with envy at the popular girls with entourages. Giggling and perky, those girls had so many friends that there wasn't enough room at the lunch table for all of them. Jealously, I thought they were favorites of fortune-- their value increasing with each friend they had.

However, that was many years ago. Thankfully, those teenage years are over and I can now see how blessed I am with the friendships I've been given. A reminder of this was given to me this past weekend, when all the girls got together here in Boston. We celebrated Libby's birthday with pink cupcakes (cupcakes seem to be a trend, first Alvina gave me a cupcake necklace, then I sent some cupcakes to fuse8 and to Alvina, and now even more cupcakes for Libby); and once again I remembered how wonderful it was to have real, true friends. We even started a blog together(it's all children's book shop talk, come and join the fun!).

So, I can truly say I've grown up a bit. I no longer care that I don't have enough friends to fill an address book--in fact, I can count all of them with my two hands. But if you think about it, two hands is all I really need.

adventures in ordering

It's Alvina's birthday! To celebrate the birthday of my oldest friend (oldest meaning longest friendship, not oldest as in age), I sent her what I've long suspected are the key to a children's book lover's happiness. CUPCAKES! (By the way, this theory has recently been proven correct as evidenced here).

But, the process of getting sugary sunshine to Alvina was quite harried. What seemed so straightforward: simply call the bakery and place my order became relatively complex--due to a bad phone connection and a foreign baker. Here is an excerpt of my conversation:

"Could you put letters on the cupcakes," I ask, "I'd like it to spell out 'Happy Birthday, Alvina."
"Yes," the man said, "Happy Birthday, Albina."
"No," I say, "Alvina--like Alvin with an 'A'"
"Albina," the man repeats.
"With a 'V'" I say.
"Yes, yes," he says, "With a 'B'"
"No, 'V'" I say, "V like vote."
"Yes," he says, "B, like boat."
"No," I say, "V like very."
"Yes," he says, "B like berry."
"V like venom?" I offer.
"D?" he says, "Denim?"
"vacuum?" I suggest.
"Oh, ok," he says, "I have it 'V' like backroom."

At this point, I decide to take his word for it and trust that a successful transaction has occurred. However, later, I must admit defeat. For instead of being sent to 'Alvina Ling' the cupcakes are sent to 'Albino Lane.' Happy Birthday, Albino!

inspirations

Your friends should always be people that you admire. I'm lucky enough that my friends are not only people that I admire, but are inspiring as well. Most recently,my good friend Linda Wingerter awed us with her new passion of fire spinning.

Linda has always been a great source inspiration for me. Everything she does, everything she creates is done with the care, devotion and passion. Just from observing her, I've been shamed over and over again, realizing the difference between painting a picture and creating art. Art demands dedication, emotion and concentration. Art aspires to greatness, not for ego or money, but because it yearns to fulfill its potential and not waste the gifts bestowed on it. Linda's firespinning, as incredible and as amazing as it is, is just another example of how Linda creates art.

In the past, when I used to do educational/editorial work, I had a tendancy to to "phone it in." The only desire felt while I made those pieces was the desire to paint them as soon as possible and get paid. I would be embarassed to put my name on the paintings I created. Slowly, I realized my folly and began to concentrate solely on work that I loved. Linda is my constant reminder that I didn't get into illustration to make money, I got into it to make art.

And, Linda has abs of steel. She also inspires me to go to the gym.