We Did Not Take the Palm Tree

Saturday was the 21st Annual Children's Book Illustration Show at Chemers Gallery, where I work. We spend 6 months of the year planning, checking in artwork, shooting emails and phone calls back and forth between 5 different children's book illustrators, designing framing, ordering books, labeling books, showing artwork to clients, calling clients, painting the gallery walls, hanging the show, and finally, FINALLY it culminates into a one-day-extravaganza where all 5 illustrators fly in to southern California from around the country, sign hundreds of pre-sold books, meet and greet their fans, give talks and demos throughout the afternoon, sign MORE books, and then go to a dinner with the gallery staff, the children's charity the show is benefitting that year, and clients who have purchased artwork. (I think that's the longest sentence in the history of the world.)

So. Saturday was the big day! We were so busy that this is the only picture I manged to take during the actual event:

OMG, so many books and people!!

After so much excitement, can you blame me for being exhausted? BTW, we sold out of Fartiste. SOLD OUT! Luckily, I pre-ordered mine, and this is how it was dedicated:


Signed by one of the authros, Paul Brewer, who also happens to be an alumni of my high school


Apparently, this hasn't been a big seller for them. Why is absolutely beyond me.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching Parks and Recreation, The Office, and Mean Girls. We also went out to pick out our Christmas tree from the local tree farm. We got rained on. But we got a good tree.



 Despite the many Facebook votes for the palm tree, we went for a small pine tree.

We'll pick it up closer to Christmas.

I have 2 days off this week starting tomorrow, and I plan on spending it on catching up on holiday prep. I'm behind on cards, and I'm going to get out our wooden German Christmas tree to set up, plus find a good place to display my crazy Nutcracker collection. Maybe I'll get super-motivated and put up our outdoor lights, since the ones from last year that we never took down are mighty dark these days.