Re-Visiting The Last Unicorn

Yet another birthday surprise—a couple weeks ago, my friend Miranda announced that she was getting me tickets to see Peter S. Beagle (as if I need to mention, but I will—the legendary author of The Last Unicorn the book, and screen writer of The Last Unicorn movie) in Santa Fe at the end of the month. WHAAAAAT??!!!!

waiting in line to get in

So, while I did know that George R.R. Martin lived in Santa Fe, I did not know that he recently bought and revoted a small theatre there, the Jean Cocteau Cinema. It's a really cool place, small and intimate—and they have amazing events.

This one was so cool, George R.R. Martin basically interviewed Peter S. Beagle, on stage. It was a lovely, informal conversation between two greats. We heard all kinds of behind the scenes tidbits—like how Peter started The Last Unicorn years before going back and finishing it (a version of the original manuscript will be released soon), how Peter didn't know where the unicorns where for most of the writing of the book, and how George had approached Peter to write for the TV show Beauty and the Beast—and Peter turned him down! And, exciting news—they're planning a live-action movie! After the talk, the showed a remaster version of the animated movie.

I gotta say, I thought it was going to be cool, but damn if I didn't turn into a complete fangirl once I was there.

George and Peter chat on stage

Happy Birthday

To me! LOL
Seriously, I had an amazing birthday this year… because it lasted like, a week. And, most importantly, I didn't get the flu (like last year—literally, on my birthday).

My friend, Mike, held his annual White Elephant party a bit late this season… and my friend Lynn arranged to combine it with a surprise party, for ME! I usually hate surprises, but this… was totally awesome! Check out the handmade birthday card from Lynn and the awesome colored pencil frame!

My friends Lynn and Vicky also treated my to an evening tea at the St. James Tearoom. The Tearoom had an artist theme this month, including my favorite tea, Van Gogh Smiling. Look at all the goodies we enjoyed, do they not look amazing?! And that's the gluten-free menu!

Vicky took me to the same tea back in 2012, here is a page from my morning pages, on which I drew the entire menu. So good! (the food specifically, but I like the drawings too)

SCBWI-NM Illustrator's Meeting, January

Our local SCBWI-NM Illustrator's group kicked off 2014 tonight, with several events. 

At 5pm, we started with dinner and socializing at a local cafe. Our SCBWI Schmooze is held on the same night (a new schedule that gives writers and illustrators have more options), so writers and illustrators got to mingle a bit while we noshed and hung out. 

At 6pm, the illustrators headed over to one of local indie books stores, Alamosa Books, for our first official meeting of 2014. It was informal; illustrators brought recently finished pieces or works-in-progress. We're hang a group show called Enchantment this year, and pieces are due at the end of the month—many members brought their already finished show pieces. It's going to be an amazing show!

At 7pm, a couple illustrators stayed to chat at Alamosa, while several of us headed over to Alamosa's Reading Room (another location across the parking lot—where they sell YA and cross-over adult books)—for our monthly Schmooze meeting. Former SCBWI-NM RA, Chris Eboch, did a lovely presentation on voice in anticipation of a voice workshop she has coming up on Feb 1st.

Overall, I was super excited by the evening. Being the SCBWI-NM Illustrator Coordinator AND the Newsletter Editor for our region, I've been a bit back-logged—I'm still finalizing our illustrator calendar for the year and I only sent out a reminder for this meeting yesterday! We had 8 illustrators in attendance, that is excellent for our group!

Happy New Year, Let's Celebrate!

So, it's the new year! Yay!!
And a new season of Downton Abbey is about to start. It's a wonderfully entertaining show with amazing art direction—costumes, sets, you name it, it's just great visual inspiration.
Last month I had the opportunity to attend a Downton party of sorts. It was like a second Halloween for me. Doing my hair Edwardian style was a highlight, here are couple pics just for fun.