last box

My last box of layouts for my book went out yesterday, and arrived in the F+W offices in Cincinnati this morning. How strange to have them all out of the house now, to have them sent away. The very cool thing about the process of writing a book like this is the insights I have been afforded into each step. I love knowing that my layouts will be opened by Eileen, who takes good care of them and logs them into the offices, and she has been totally sweet about emailing me to let me know that my projects have arrived and all is OK!

I understand from my editor, Christine, that they have been doing the flat shoot this week (high key shots of the layout from directly above, this is how you usually see layouts photographed in magazines), and the beauty shots are coming at the beginning of next week (so the shots with interesting props in the background -- I always like these the best as I find they show the texture of layouts a bit better). The super talented graphic designer who is working on my book, Marissa, asked me to email her some shots of my workspace so they could go prop-shopping to find some items to use in the photo shoots that will reflect my style. She has such a fantastic eye, I just can't wait to see what her and her stylist have come up with!

Now that all of the artwork is done, I need to finish writing the text portion of the book.... make sure the supply lists are correct, make sure the step by step captions for each of the 50 techniques fit the photos we shot in February... oh, and my headshot is ready (which I might have found to be the most difficult part of the process! Fortunately I found a wonderful photographer, JP Danko, here in Hamilton who did my headshots for me and made the entire process very pleasant and painless! He even managed to coax a few real smiles out! If you are in the Hamilton area and need a photographer for shooting a family event or portraits, I really recommend JP -- link to his website is on the right). It is hard to believe this process is nearly done! It is almost time to turn the whole package over to Marissa who will work her fabulous designer magic on it, and then copy editing... and then the long wait until it is finally in print in November!


It's late. Time for bed. I have an exciting date in a kindergarten classroom for singing, poetry, lemonade and cookies -- for a Mother's Day lemonade party in Summer Lily's classroom. :)

A.