We've been working hard and have already hit $271 out of our $1000 goal! I'm so excited. Every time that number goes up, I swear I light up and do a happy dance. To celebrate, I want to share another piece of art from the book! This is the goat. He has some learning to do and I can't wait to share his story with all of you!

Happy Wednesday, everyone! This week I want to give you a sneak peek behind the scenes of bringing Tales From the Toy Store to life. The book has been written and just finished up some time with beta readers. I can't believe how close we are to publishing! So, what's happening now?

Art! Woot! I just sent the final reference photos for the illustrations to my artist, Eric Cockrell. He's going to turn real life toys into pictures for the book and I can't wait to see them. I'm incredibly excited to see what he does with them. I just know they're going to be awesome. Once that's done, it's my job to insert them into the book. We also need to finalize the cover which means I have to write the back copy. It seems like a lot but we're in that downhill slope to publication and I'm so eager to share these stories with all of you!

Before I get back writing, I want to give you a sneak peek at a couple of the characters that will be in the book:

Toby the Gnome

Edgar the Raven

Aren't they great? These are toys that actually live right here in my house and who I've written about for the book. They each have their own personalities and get up to all sorts of adventures!






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I'm not late! Ok, yes I am, but it's because I've been deliberating forever about which one to do today. Have no fear, with some assistance, I have made my decision!

But first, how did all of you do on your cookbooks? Did you sort them? Did you just smile at them? C'mon, let me know! As for me, I got them all packed up in 2 boxes and shifted into the laundry room (where I'm storing them til the move). I left out about 8 cookbooks to use over the next few months. Oh my gosh, can you believe it's only 88 days untli graduation and that means like 90 until the move!?! Wow!

Ok, so for this coming week, I'm going into the living room. All of you..well it could be your living room, kids rooms, family rooms..or heck, just anywhere in your homes! What are we tackling? Kids toys. Even though my boys are only here for about 4 months of the year, they leave tons of stuff here when they go back to their dad's house. So, this week's challenge is to go through some of those toys (or all if there's time..it's a hectic week for me at school) and get them packed up and possibly even getting rid of a few of them. For all of you, I challenge you to go through your kids toys (or if you don't have kids, your own toys!) and sort out those that are broken or just not played with. Again, you could freecycle them or donate them to a local women's/children's shelter or a local charity store.

As always, let me know..are you participating? how are you doing on these? are you tired of me posting them yet?