Niagara, Concordia, Giclees (with an accent over the "e")

Phil, the pup, and I stopped and Niagara Falls on our way back to Michigan recently. We were in Rhode Island at a book festival and the dog happened to come along.

If you can't tell, when we were at Niagara Falls, it was a very windy day.

More posts with art soon (a new book is coming out in February) but for now, a little announcement.

Phil and I (without the pup this time) will be speaking at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan tomorrow night (November 8th) from 7-8:30 pm. Please come by if you can.

Also, just a reminder that prints from Amos McGee are being sold with the help of an esteemed colleague of mine. You can see the options at prints.erinstead.com.

That's it for now!

The prints are ready! The prints are ready!

Phil and I have noticed a curious thing happen over the last year. Whenever someone local who has read about our crazy few months in a newspaper and then runs into us in town, or the places we were regular customers at suddenly figure out that that couple who ate lunch at odd hours and seemingly didn't have a job does indeed have one....sort of...everyone turns and asks us the same thing.

"Are you going to stay in Michigan?"

Buck up, locals. Despite some bad luck and a horrible February and March, this is a pretty good state. In my opinion, one of the best. I did not plan on happily living here. My big plan was to leave and most likely, never come back. But I love my town. And I really love my state.

This weekend was a good demonstration as to why, sometimes to my surprise, I love living here. At the very last minute, after some monumentally grumpy weeks on my part, Phil and I and two of our friends (another married couple from our high school) ran up to the Sleeping Bear Dunes area.

I am a very buttoned up, uptight person. Me and my inhibitions are very close. There is something about it up there that makes me very relaxed. The nature is very friendly (see also: 200 foot piles of sand and adjacent pine forests). My friends, Philip, and I went to an apple orchard where they grow antique apples. I love food and I feel pretty confident in my knowledge of produce, but I have never seen so many special breeds of apple. A very tiny example below...

And in case you were wondering what else was in this apple paradise, the farmer has a collection of pop bottles.

All in all, it was a very relaxing, inspiring weekend. So get out there Michiganders. It's nice here. There are fall colors left to see.

Soon, I will show some pictures from my book that will come out in February. But for Now, there is very exciting news.

After some requests, some juggling, and a lot of help from a good friend, prints from Amos McGee are finally ready. With more help from my friend, there will be a link on this blog permanently...somewhere. For now, though, interested parties should follow this link!

All the information is at that link for the prints! Enjoy!