So excited to have my children's picture book, The Mutt & the Mustang finally arrive ---
They arrived at 1:00 and by 3:00 that same day I had delivered them to several stores in Estes Park! - In shops as diverse as the famous Stanley Hotel gift shop, to Gateway - a beautiful store at the Fall River entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, MacDonalds Book Shop, Colorado Homestead, Estes Park Historial Museum gift shop, and two dude ranches. How exciting to finally have my picture book in stores.
Tonight had my first book signing at the Loveland Museum Gallery opening of a horse art exhibit. Pat, the Mutt book illustrator went with me --- The street in front of the museum was closed so live horses and a trick roper could perform along with three artists - and us, two old broads selling picture books. As you can imagine, most kids ignored us for the horses and the trick roper.
Those folks who stopped at our booth loved the book -- highlight of the night - Jillian, a seven year old girl who after talking her grandmother into buying a copy chose to ignore the trick roper and live horses to sit on a chair and read The Mutt & the Mustang from cover to cover. When I asked her how she liked it, she hugged the book and said, "I love it."
Other highlights - a 16 year old boy buying a copy of The Mutt & the Mustang with his own money -who would have thought a teenager would buy a picture book? and a man in his 70s buying a copy for himself. All in all, tho we didn't sell many books we had fun and loved the positive reaction to the book.
Got home to find two new Mutt books chewed up! There went tonight's profits. I had the books in a canvas tote on a high table - Skye, my Siamese mix loves to push things off the table - so she and the dogs must have been in cahoots --- she pushed the books to the floor where the dogs chewed them up ---I suspect Kody - tho both dogs are old for such puppy antics- Kody turned 11 this month and Cheyenne is 5 - what got into them?
Oh well, I'm just happy Kody is still spry enough to act like a puppy and ride a horse. Today, Kody got two rides - one in the arena and another one from the house to the barn. I'll know he is an old dog when the time comes (if ever) that he no longer wants to ride "his" horse. Maybe he was mad at me for not taking him to the signing of the Mutt book - as after all, he is the star. Wearing his scarf and cowboy hat, Kody would probably have brought a lot more kids to our booth!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Art Show - sick horse & wildlife
The 2011 Colorado Governor's Show which ends this Sunday at the Loveland Museum has set a new art sales record of nearly $200,000! Maybe the economy is turning around.
Last week my 27 year old mustang had a fever of 102, didn't want to eat, had white snot coming out his nose and coughing a lot- as the local vets were out of town the only thing I could do was give him antibiotics.
Worried about Mustang I didn't sleep very well but the next morning he was back to normal. The vet thinks his illness was caused by the neighbor's having their trees sprayed to kill beetles - If I had known when they were going to spray I would have my horses out of the way - but they sprayed while I was gone and the next day Mustang became ill -
I don't care what the manufacturers say about insecticide spray - it does kill butterflies, birds,(especially humming birds) bees and good insects and obviously can make a 1000 pound horse ill! According to studies I've read the spray isn't even that good at protecting pine trees and the ones in the national park that have been sprayed died anyway - while my trees which have never been sprayed are healthy - it has to do more with how much water the trees are getting.
My water table is high so my trees are healthy -- even during the drought. News articles ask what happened to all the bees? Even a dummy should be able to figure out when every spring thousands of acres are sprayed with poison to kill beetles and mosquitos they are also killing bees. It has more to do with politics than the environment. The bluebirds that were nesting before they sprayed have disappeared....it makes me so sad. Wish I had hundreds of acres instead of only 3 so I could protect more wildlife.
The Mutt & the Mustang book doesn't arrive until the end of this month but I'm already getting lots of orders - so exciting....can't wait until the book hits the stores. At this point the books are on a slow boat from overseas which won't get into California until June 20.
Memorial Day I spent at a friend's bbq where we were lucky enough to see a nearly new born elk calf - so darling to watch the calf bounce around next to its watchful mother. Driving to my friend's house I saw a yearling bear trying to cross Hwy 7 - poor thing was having a hard time with all the holiday traffic. The bruin would get to the edge of the highway then stop with all the cars whizzing by --- turn around and run back into the bushes. Lots of wildlife still in town as there is so much snow - 270% more than usual in the high mountains that they have not yet migrated to more peaceful areas.
Last week my 27 year old mustang had a fever of 102, didn't want to eat, had white snot coming out his nose and coughing a lot- as the local vets were out of town the only thing I could do was give him antibiotics.
Worried about Mustang I didn't sleep very well but the next morning he was back to normal. The vet thinks his illness was caused by the neighbor's having their trees sprayed to kill beetles - If I had known when they were going to spray I would have my horses out of the way - but they sprayed while I was gone and the next day Mustang became ill -
I don't care what the manufacturers say about insecticide spray - it does kill butterflies, birds,(especially humming birds) bees and good insects and obviously can make a 1000 pound horse ill! According to studies I've read the spray isn't even that good at protecting pine trees and the ones in the national park that have been sprayed died anyway - while my trees which have never been sprayed are healthy - it has to do more with how much water the trees are getting.
My water table is high so my trees are healthy -- even during the drought. News articles ask what happened to all the bees? Even a dummy should be able to figure out when every spring thousands of acres are sprayed with poison to kill beetles and mosquitos they are also killing bees. It has more to do with politics than the environment. The bluebirds that were nesting before they sprayed have disappeared....it makes me so sad. Wish I had hundreds of acres instead of only 3 so I could protect more wildlife.
The Mutt & the Mustang book doesn't arrive until the end of this month but I'm already getting lots of orders - so exciting....can't wait until the book hits the stores. At this point the books are on a slow boat from overseas which won't get into California until June 20.
Memorial Day I spent at a friend's bbq where we were lucky enough to see a nearly new born elk calf - so darling to watch the calf bounce around next to its watchful mother. Driving to my friend's house I saw a yearling bear trying to cross Hwy 7 - poor thing was having a hard time with all the holiday traffic. The bruin would get to the edge of the highway then stop with all the cars whizzing by --- turn around and run back into the bushes. Lots of wildlife still in town as there is so much snow - 270% more than usual in the high mountains that they have not yet migrated to more peaceful areas.
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