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Instead of featuring a brand-new picture book today or an up-and-coming illustrator, I’ve got artwork from one of my favorite picture book artists, Elisa Kleven<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n The new year is upon us, and when I thought about sharing artwork as we edge up on 2013, some art that would buoy our spirits, I immediately thought of her. <\/p>\n Elisa sent me a handful of illustrations, and it was hard to choose which to share (for many reasons, I’m going to keep this post relatively short and sweet this week), but I chose the one above, and these two: <\/p>\n May you all party hard in the new year—or spend it quietly, if you so choose—and may there be fireworks of one sort or another in your 2013. <\/p>\n Oh, and peace. Here’s hoping we all have peace — in many directions and in many ways and in many hearts and brains. <\/p>\n All artwork is by Elisa Kleven and used with her permission.<\/em><\/p>\n Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n 1)<\/strong><\/font> Looking through Elisa’s artwork and having to choose several from many beautiful pieces is a good problem to have. <\/p>\n 3)<\/strong><\/font> Champagne was had! I not only raised my glass to Betsy (all the way from Tennessee in the direction of New York), but I raised it to Peter, too, whom I miss and who would have been so excited about this news. <\/p>\n 4)<\/strong><\/font> I tend to annually feel some slight post-holiday let-down—it’s easy when you have young children who get so psyched about the holidays and for whom opening presents on Christmas morning is the Best Five Minutes of the Year—and sometimes I think that New Year’s and New Year’s resolutions are rather over-rated. Also, trying to figure out something fun to do on New Year’s Eve when you have young children? Oh, sweet Mother of Dale Earnhardt<\/strong><\/font>.<\/p>\n HOWEVER<\/em> … I don’t know precisely why, but this year I’m feeling it, and I have actual Things I Want To Do in 2013 in my head (I refuse to call them “resolutions” — too much pressure), and I say: Bring on the new year. <\/p>\n I’m sure part of my excitement is that our Candlewick book (see kicks two and three!) will be released this year. Whoa. <\/p>\n 5)<\/strong><\/font> I’m working this week on 7-Imp’s 2012 recap—I hope to post it tomorrow—and it reminds me how much I love writing about picture books. And having such smart people over here at the 7-Imp salon to talk about them. <\/p>\n 6)<\/strong><\/font> My eight-year-old daughter had two things on her Christmas wish list: LEGOs and a book light. I love that kid. The book light was for all the times she’s told to stop reading in the back of the car after the sun’s already gone down. <\/p>\n The seven-year-old had a TWO-PAGE wish list. With COLUMNS. I love her, too, and she knows it, even when I say things to both of them like, “whoever brings me my [fill in the blank here — usually, it’s ‘big, warm blanket’ or ‘slippers’] will be my favorite kid.” <\/p>\n 7)<\/strong><\/font> My last kick? When my girls sleep-over with their friend, but mama stays, too, and the two mamas of the girls have pizza and wine and watch movies and just totally crash. A soul needs that every so often, especially after holiday chaos. That’s what we did last night.<\/p>\n I LIED. THIS IS MY LAST KICK:<\/strong><\/font> If you watch anything this week, watch this<\/a><\/strong> from author\/illustrator Christoph Niemann<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? Also, Happy New Year, you Imps! What are your “resolutions”? I’m putting that in quotes, since I refuse to say it. Really. The poor resolutions of the world. So much PRESSURE put on them, bless their hearts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Click to enlarge) Instead of featuring a brand-new picture book today or an up-and-coming illustrator, I’ve got artwork from one of my favorite picture book artists, Elisa Kleven. The new year is upon us, and when I thought about sharing artwork as we edge up on 2013, some art that would buoy our spirits, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/2-scan00012013.jpg\")
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<\/center><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/champagne2013.jpg\")
2)<\/strong><\/font> Betsy Bird and I heard from our editor just this week that our manuscript needs no more revising<\/em> (!) and is where it needs to be and is ready for copy edits. <\/p>\n