October is winding down.

Last Friday, my husband took the kid to pick out a Halloween costume. This is the first year I can remember where she opted for a store bought creation. She had originally planned on being a Monarch butterfly, but the store didn’t have one in her size. She tried on a bunch of costumes until she found one that fit, which she could live with. It’s a character from a movie. ‘Nough said.

I read a distressing statistic the other day. About store bought costumes. Did you know that 6,250 TONS of landfill waste is from used Halloween costumes? That’s a lot of trash.

I’m a saver, a recycler and a composter. I still have costumes I created in the late 80s. I couldn’t possibly fit into any of them, but they’re not in a land fill. One of my kid’s earliest chores was taking the kitchen scraps to the compost pile out back. A chore she still does to this day. I tried to teach by example, by using as few resources as possible and reusing the ones I had on hand as many ways as possible before disposing of them. Somewhere along the line, it got lost in translation. My child contributes more trash to the landfill every week than my husband and I combined.

I know there are kids her age who care about the environment and being frugal. I read about them in the paper and on the internet. It worries me though, that they may be in the minority and the current generation of children are even less concerned with what’s going on around them then the children of my own generation. According to the United Nations Population Division, the world’s human population will hit 7,000,000,000 on October 31. That’s a billion more than just 11 years ago. Talk about scary. That many people use a LOT of resources and make a lot of trash.

Are your kids wearing a homemade or store bought costume? Where will it end up the week after Halloween?

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

 

 

2 Comments | Tags: art nouveau, copyright 2011 Wendy Martin, free coloring page, Halloween coloring page, skeleton, spooky

Yesterday, my husband and I were visiting my mother-in-law. We go to see her every Sunday. This week she was baby sitting my nieces and nephew. The two girls are in their last childhood years, one turning 12 next month and one will be 14 at the end of the year. The boy, the youngest of the siblings is about 8.

While making pleasant Sunday lunch conversation, the question of what they were going to be for Halloween came up.

The eldest said she didn’t know. The middle child stated she was going to be either a ninja or a sock monkey, she hadn’t decided yet, and the boy proclaimed proudly he was going to be dressed as Mario. He then went on to explain to his poor old aunty he meant the character in his DS game.

It occurred to me, that many kids will be dressing in similar costumes, bought off the rack, tying into some game, movie or television show. When my kid was little all her costumes were home made. She was a princess, a pumpkin and a dalmatian. I’m sure there were others, but I don’t recall them at the moment. Now that she is nearly grown, she makes her own costumes. This year she plans on being a monarch butterfly.

I wonder if the ease of buying an off-the-rack, pre-fab costume is draining creativity from the newest generations of children. It takes very little thought or imagination to go to the corner K-Mart and pick a costume from the dozens on display. This is just a symptom of a wider trend, though.

I remember playing made up games when I was a child, hand-held video gaming wasn’t even a concept yet. My parents only allowed my brother and I to watch TV between 6 – 9 PM. Other than that it was either playing outside or reading a book. Or, as my mother threatened when ever we complained of boredom, she’d find us something to do. This usually entailed some form of housecleaning and was to be avoided at all costs. My brother and I spent many an hour concocting games and activities to while away the free hours after school and homework.

After our Sunday lunch, all 3 children pulled out their DSes and “played” a game “together.” One sat across the room from the other two. All three had their eyes glued to their screens. They sent each other messages through their games. Maybe I’m hopelessly outdated, but it seems to me there is no real interaction happening between these siblings wired into their programmed games. That concerns me.

What are your thought?

Today’s coloring page was a special request by Tara and Autumn. Thank you both for a wonderful suggestion.

Do you have a special request for a coloring page? Let me know either via an email or through one of my social networking sites. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

Sign up to receive alerts when a new coloring page is posted each week and/or click here to view more coloring pages!

Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Email your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpage (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

I send out coloring pages to let people know about me, my art and my children’s books. Help support my efforts by spreading the word or buying any of my books. Please stop by any of my social networking sites to leave me a message (here is good too!) and let me know how you like the coloring pages. Remember, I provide these pages free of charge for your own personal use. Do not reproduce them or use them for any other purpose without my written permission.

 

Comments Off | Tags: art nouveau, copyright 2011 W. Lyon Martin, costumes, Halloween coloring page, pumpkins

This month’s Coloring Page is the last one in the ABC of Lesser Known Goddesses series.

What better way to celebrate the end of 2010 than with the letter Z?

Zorya Vechernyaya is a Russian Goddess who opens the castle gates for her father at the end of each day. Since this is the last letter of the alphabet it is also the end of the series. The downloads on the yahoo group web site will stay up until Yule. Then they will be removed. You might be wondering why. It’s simple — all 26 letters — with new art for some of them — will be turned into a bound coloring book — available for purchase soon on amazon. Check back for details in a few weeks.

Meanwhile enjoy the new coloring page. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to lyon (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it to my blog!

These ABC Goddesses coloring pages are now available in a beautiful collection coloring book directly from the publisher. Visit their web site to order your own copy or visit your favorite book seller.

New Subscribers…
We have over 900 subscribers to Magical Child News, with more arriving every day.
For those of you not subscribed to the newsletter – I create my coloring pages every 4-6 weeks for teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents to enjoy with their children, but also to let the public know about MY BOOKS!
• An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child
• Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle
• Watchers
• Rabbit’s Song
• Smoky and the Feast of Mabon

Welcome everybody – I’m glad you’re here!

I want to be able to share all your wonderful emails, so I am adding a page to my web site which you can read or leave comments on. Visit my Comments Page. Thank you so much for your kind words!

Kids! Have your parents help you send me a low resolution .jpg of your colored images to lyon (at) handcraftedpagan (dot) com and I’ll post it on the blog!

Did You Know…
I create my coloring pages for teachers, librarians, booksellers, and parents to enjoy with their children, but also to let the public know about MY BOOKS. I hope you’ll take a moment to check them out and spread the word!

• An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child
• Aidan’s First Full Moon Circle
• Watchers
• Rabbit’s Song
• Smoky and the Feast of Mabon

Visit the publisher’s site http://magicalchildbooks.com to learn more about individual titles and download activities.

Note: All Coloring Page images and activity pages are available for personal or non-commercial use. If you would like to purchase rights to an image for commercial use, please email me.

Merry Yule Blessings,
Lyon

Comments Off | Tags: abc coloring page, Abc lesser known Goddesses, An Ordinary Girl A Magical Child, art nouveau, children's books, free coloring page, Magical Child Books

I’ve been very busy this month. Last month I decided to do a daily doodle. The reasons behind this are many, but mainly, I wanted to get into the habit of drawing something (anything) every day. When I was much younger, the daily drawing habit was something I never had to think about. With the responsibilities of adulthood, like mortgage and bills and parenting, the days seem to be much shorter.

Obviously, there are still 24 hours in a day, it’s just that they’ve become clogged with other things.

I also have been working hard behind the scenes to update (and upgrade) my web presence. I am on myspace, facebook, live journal and a half a dozen other networking sites. I have not twittered yet, but that may change eventually as many of my art friends have been forming twitter groups to network with each other. I hate to think I may be missing something.

Since my injury earlier this year, I have been home a lot more than usual because I wasn’t able to travel for my usual tour season this spring and summer. It’s put a dent in my income that I will have a hard time recovering from in the remaining months, but the down time has allowed me to concentrate on the many chores that piled up because I was either packing, traveling or unpacking for much of the years previously.

I have high hopes that 2010 will bring many new events, friends and opportunities. I just have to be patient and lay the ground work.

This month’s ABC Goddess is Pax, a Roman Goddess of Peace. Her festival day happens in July, so it seemed a perfect choice for the free coloring page. Enjoy. These ABC Goddesses coloring pages are now available in a beautiful collection coloring book directly from the publisher. Visit their web site to order your own copy or visit your favorite book seller.

Comments Off | Tags: Abc lesser known Goddesses, art nouveau, free coloring pages, Pax

July is half way through. Time just seems to go faster and faster as I get older.  This month features the letter J and the Goddess is Jerah, a Semetic Goddess. These ABC Goddesses coloring pages are now available in a beautiful collection coloring book directly from the publisher. Visit their web site to order your own copy or visit your favorite book seller.

I joined a new blog group this week called Watercolor Wednesdays. The members have to be watercolor artists doing children’s book illustration. Every Wednesday we receive a prompt for a new painting. This week’s prompt is “this little piggy.” We are to let our imaginations run wild, and mine is working over time. So much so I haven’t been able to decide what to do yet.

Work on Rabbit’s Song is moving along smoothly. The rough layout for the cover has received approval and I am busy finalizing all the changes and tiny details. The publisher will be making the book available for pre-order as soon as the cover receives final approval. The authors and I will all be appearing together in Tennessee for a pre-release party. All the books pre-ordered before the mid October event will be signed by all three of us. I am very excited about this.

I’ve decided that watching the scale inch up over the summer has got to end. I got my bike out of the basement and dusted off the cobwebs yesterday morning. I rode out to the post office and back in the morning. It actually felt kind of good to be doing something just for me. In fact it felt so good that I decided to ride the bike down to A Visual Impact in the afternoon to get my hair cut. (Check out the logo — I designed it for them.) I arrived at the shop without incident, got my hair cut and started on my way home. I took the main drag home (fewer hills) instead of taking the side streets I traveled on my way downtown. That was a mistake. Not only was the traffic heavier, the folks in the cars seemed to think they needed to honk their horns at me as they drove past. The side of the rode is not in good repair, so it was tough going. I gritted my teeth and struggled on until I cam to the rail road tracks. The tracks cut across the road at an angle. I was attempting to pedal my sorry self across them and avoid the worst of the potholes and road debris when a car swooshed by rather closely with horn blaring. It startled me and I took my eyes off the road momentarily to see the car rush past only to have the front tire of the bike catch in the track and get stuck. Needless to say, I kept going and my bike didn’t. OW! I now have a nice pair of matching road rash on my right knee and left leg. I wear leather biking gloves, so my hands are undamaged. A good thing because I used them to stop my face from landing in the gravel by the side of the road.

Suffice it to say, I won’t be traveling that section of road again!

Comments Off | Tags: art nouveau, free coloring page, girl, Goddess, line art, semitic