Mmwa Ha Ha!!!!

We had some fun with Photo Booth! The trick to making the scariest gargoyle face is to open your eyes wide and show us your teeth! Grrrrraaaawwwwrrrr!!

Wet hair will make you look as bald as a cue ball.

Happy Halloween!!!

Dance!

“Oui, on peut — Yes we can!” OBAMA ZYDECO FROM LOUISIANA 2008!

Music and Lyrics copyright 2008 Dirk Powell, Crying Bayou Music, BMI

Filmed at the Whirlybird in Opelousas, Louisiana

Musicians: Dirk Powell, Christine Balfa, Jeffrey Broussard, Zydeco Joe Citizen, Corey “L’il Pop” Ledet, and Linzay Young

Road Trip

Last weekend we took a trip to visit my parents, my  sister and her family. It is a 10-12 hour drive depending on how often you stop. On previous trips we’ve passed signs for caverns along the way. This time I thought, rather than just stop at a rest stop for lunch, we should get off the highway and stretch our legs with a tour of Luray Caverns. But on the way to our scheduled stop, I just had to pull over for this…..

A 90 foot octopus is worth pulling off the road for…. so we stopped to visit Dinosaur Land!

It was a great opportunity for the girls to visit a time when giant octopi roamed the earth… and we got to see some great dinosaurs and King Kong too!!

We had so much fun! After lots of picture taking and lots of laughing, we got back on the road and finally made it to Luray Caverns. It was amazing! I was a bit worried about being claustrophobic, but the air in the cavern is crisp and cool, not at all stuffy. And the formations are astounding. It was like being in another world. Here are some photos that my daughter took.

Dreamy wishing well. You can see more stalactites and stalagmites on flickr.

We  arrived at my sister’s house 5 hours later with plenty of stories to tell and had a great family visit.

Dahlias, Darling

I take care of the Elda Dixler Unger Dahlia Garden at the Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore. My dear friend, Eden, started the garden and named it in honor of her mother, a dahlia gardener extraordinaire. When Eden and her family moved to Egypt she asked me to take care of the dahlias. Ever since I have been completely smitten with them. I started a complete novice but have learned so much over the last three years. They are such spectacular flowers. Unfortunately when it rains they sometimes drink too much. No matter how strongly I stake them, I find them the next day leaning on one another, bees buzzing around their pretty heads, in other words, hungover. But all it takes is a little TLC and they are back to their bright cheerful selves in no time.

This time of year I often find photographers snapping away in the garden, some with elaborate tripods and enormous lenses….waiting for the perfect ray of sun to hit the flower just right. That makes me so happy. Elda lives in California. Recently she and I have been emailing dahlia photos to each other. I’d love to visit her garden some day.  You can see many more gorgeous dahlias here.

Happiness

A World of Happiness has arrived in my mailbox!

I am happy and proud  to say that I did some handlettering for this book. Tor Hyams came up with the wonderful idea to do a children’s music CD about the joy of being kind. He enlisted the help of some fantastic musicians and celebrities, Deborah Harry, Perry Farrell, Gary Oldman, Issac Hayes, to name a few…They each donated their portion of the proceeds to the children’s charity of their choice. The music was written for the 3-10 year old crowd, but parents love it too! I can’t say enough great things about the CD and neither can others… So when I had the opportunity to work on a book that included lyrics, sheet music and activities centered on the songs in the CD I was, of course, thrilled. The book was written by Tor Hyams and David Scharff, with activities to accompany the songs created by Dr. Denise Hyams, PhD. It includes a wonderful story about friendship and patience by Krishni Kiffa called “Lady Leo-Lani and Her Magic Garden”. The book was published by Alfred Publishing, illustration by David Smith, line art and hand lettering by yours truly.

I have to say it was great to have an assignment lettering chapter titles like these…

And the line art for the activity pages was fun to do too. I love to draw hands…

Etsy

I have finally started stocking the shelves of my Etsy shop.  Hooray!! I am calling it peggyellen and I’ll be selling handmade books and prints of my illustrations and other sundry seasonal items.

I wanted the logo for my shop to be similar to the logo I use for my illustration. I finally narrowed it down to the banners above. Ellen is my middle name. Peggy Ellen Fussell…that’s enough loops to make anybody loopy. Multiply that by the number of variations I did for my banner and you’ll understand why I am seeing double. (Yes, those of you who were kids of the 70s know that Fannee Doolee LOVES me!) Which do you like best? It is so easy to change the awning in front of an Etsy store : )

I’ve been having a lot of fun making hand bound notebooks. The covers are canvas and the paper inside is recycled blank paper. Sometimes I sew vintage buttons to the covers. Right now I am also making some scarves that are quite fun. Personally, I think skulls are always in season. More photos to follow as soon as my daughter has time to model!

As I said, I am also also selling prints of my illustration. If you have any ideas for which images I should make prints of or books with,  please suggest them! I am hoping that my current stock will fly off the shelves and that I’ll be constantly making new items!! Fingers crossed!