Tomie de Paola award entry, progress

I am somewhat hesitant to post all of my work in progress for my entry- can't decide whether this is reasonable or paranoid.  A little of both, mayhaps?  I really got down to work this week, believing the deadline to be the 5th of December, not the 15th- which, as I discovered today, is the actual deadline.  Deadlines really work for me... when I have a deadline, I make decisions, I get things done- not that I don't without a deadline, but I somehow find a way to prolong things...not through any lack of motivation or effort.  My book, for example- I fuss and fiddle and put things aside so that I can 'think' about them and ostensibly find the 'perfect' solution...and I never, ever manage to just bang out a page within a day, or two days the way I can if I HAVE to.  I don't really know how to make my self-imposed deadlines as REAL to me as an externally imposed deadline, I really don't... Anyone else have this problem?  Any suggestions would be muchly appreciated! 
In any case, I am quite pleased with my progress thus far.  I am going to incorporate a pattern, surprise surprise... I envisioned what I realize are actually quite eastern european flavoured floral-botanical patterns, although Heidi is set in the Swiss Alps, I still think that  it works...here are some of my pattern experiments:

I tried turning this into a regular repeat; this attempt shows just the framework and no petals, leaves, etc.:

However, I realized that this was too 'regular', not quite what I had envisioned.  I want to use this pattern ON the mountain they are ascending, so I wanted it to look a little more like actual plant life... something more like:

That was more like it... but finally I decided to go with this one:

I've since transferred it to the drawing...which no, sorry,  I've decided I'll wait to show you in its various stages only after it's all finished and sent in.  That will be soon enough; I'm ready to make with the gouache.  I'm going to (try to) pretend that I don't realize that the deadline is actually the 15th.  I'm having fun with this; it's going well.

People I've never met and conversations I've never had...

Another contest entry, selected candidates to be (possibly?) collected into an upcoming book. It's been a couple of weeks since my last post... what else has been going on? Well, I wrote a review of Holly DeWolf's book Breaking into freelance illustration that you can read on the Escape from Illustration Island website here (it's at the bottom of the page, scroll down!)
Now, back to my book! I'm going to begin a series of architectural drawings to sell as cards and prints.

'mail me art' entry

So, here is my entry for the 'mail me art' contest in the u.k. I'm reasonably pleased with it, although I had to put packing tape on the edges to hold it closed. I made my own envelope out of bristol (because I wanted to paint on it and wanted to be sure that it would hold up), and did all of the painting/pasting etc. BEFORE gluing the envelope closed. It wouldn't stay closed, due to the thickness, multiple layers of thick paper and slight warping (BECAUSE of painting)...alas. Next time I'll know better! It looked even better after the guy at the post office put the postage sticker on and postmarked it. Perhaps I'll get to see what it looks like after its travels?!?! I hope...!

communication arts illustration contest etc.

So, I did not do the Illustration Friday topic suggested last week, for a number of reasons. Reason the first: I was away visiting family and friends and was thus unable to think properly. Reason the second: What time I did have I spent working on and thinking about the (mentioned a week ago I think?) promotional piece that I was considering entering into the Communication arts illustration contest (mostly thinking about, only a little working, sigh.). Reason the third: I didn't like the topic/word this week so much anyway. It was 'breezy'. I can't put my finger on why particularly this word/topic irked me, but it did... maybe I was just looking for an excuse not to do it. And would it kill them to add a second word occasionally?!?! Never mind.....

Anyhow, so I was concerned with completing this piece for Friday, the deadline for the contest, i.e. TODAY. Having only returned home on Wednesday night, and having had to work yesterday, I wasn't sure that I would finish it, so was considering (had been, anyhow- who knows how well something is going to turn out?) other options- i.e. pieces already completed. I checked the contest deadline again (to find out when exactly the 'last minute' would be) and what do you know, there has been an extension until next friday, leaving me more time to think. So, having no illustration friday BREEZINESS with which to regale you, I will instead post my 'shortlist' of possible entries, excepting the as-yet unfinished piece. Soon I must buy a scanner! Then you will be submitted to ALL of my half-developed sketches and other stuff that nobody should probably ever see.... I will post the images above, provided 'blogger' lets me add images (it isn't allowing me to add images to this post, perhaps because I added and then removed? ah, mysteries of the tinternets!)