FREE AWESOME.

A couple weeks ago, it was my friend Jasmine's birthday. Last spring Jasmine and I pushed through an intense situation that 'sploded all over us with dreck. I like her - and you know why? Because she's truly awesome.

I made her a birthday card.

Derby rays of awesome.

Jasmine is a top quality human: she strives, she questions and she reaches out. She listens. She cops to it. She's a critical thinker. She plays Derby.

Maybe YOU know someone who is also awesome. Maybe you like their ideas, attitude or sense of humor, or even that they leave the room to fart. Tell them! Draw them a card!

Or you can use these - free awesome cards. (I am nice.)

Safe for work...or kids.

F-Bomb awesome.

Print, Pin or post one of these and tag someone that you think is awesome. Go forth and hand out the awesome freely.

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Parenting TEENAGERS.

Parenting teenagers is hard. But I was lucky; just before our eldest hit puberty, my friend Shelagh gave me some advice. "They can be horrible," she said, "but don't take any of it personally". This has helped me weather what I thought were some pretty difficult times with our first daughter.

However our second daughter didn't just hit puberty - she beat the living crap out of it, knocked it unconscious, and dragged it into her teen-cave. She owned it. Last week was especially, er... eventful, and The Huz and I were close to cracking. Another friend, Sarah, recommended this book: "Get Out Of My Life, but first could you drive me and Cheryl to the mall?", by Anthony E. Wolf, Ph. D.

 I began to read...

Somewhere in the deep, dark, and dangerous recesses of her teen-cave, the 15 year old girl knows that we love and care for her enough to cry ourselves to sleep. And even buy a book.

And to her baby self, this is AWESOME.

I think that we're gonna make it. It's not easy; we must let our teens go and simultaneously set boundaries for them. However unpleasant, it is probably normal for them to behave badly, call us names and refuse to listen. We stay strong and do our best to follow Shelagh's advice. For as much as our teens complain about the boundaries, they do kind of appreciate them. Even if it only indicates that we love and care.

Oh and the book is great.

Parenting teens nightmares? Please share!

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YOU. @gypsy_momma.

"Please!!! Please help me!! You gotta save my marriage!" cried @BigBadBooDaddy. "PLEASE DRAW MY WIFE!!!"

ME: Uh...you and @gypsy_momma are married...?

Okaaaaay, maybe Brian didn't use those words exactly, but the way he was goin' on in his tweets, I imagined him all tearful, dribbling and snotty. For whatever reason this poor dude believed I had the power to restore his matrimonial harmony. Okay.

And then Stephi herself posted a fabulous description on my I Draw YOU page:

"I had mentioned that I thought it'd be cool to be drawn by you, but was having a hard time trying to figure out how you'd manage incorporating giraffe-type legs under my bountiful body and flaming red hair with sparkly blue eyes, laced in crazy, all supported by big feet to keep me grounded."

Cha-ching!! Inspiration!

I handled everything except the big feet; call it ...artistic license. Stephi blogs at Perceptions of My Reality, where she tells "mom's side of the story". But on Twitter she's known as @gypsy_momma and she's easy to spot on account of the flaming red hair going so nicely with the #BlueTICK on her avatar.

Has this post saved their marriage? Did the marriage even need saving? Is this naught but an extravagant ploy to get an unsuspecting artist to draw someone and thereby win a bet?

Who cares! It was fun!

Please share.

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How YOUR KID Can Be AWESOME On April 22nd.

Here's a story that starts with drawings and ends with animation.

This is me a few years ago. Pretty bad, huh? I was down cuz I had a fantastic animation idea for kids but no matter how many grants I wrote, I couldn't find the money to produce it. Anyone who has ever written a grant knows how the Paper Monster tries to blow you away.


But I didn't give up!

I eventually found some money and kicked in a healthy chunk from our savings. Everyone helped with the production - my co-creator @RosieEmery, my husband, and even our kids provided the voices. We had fun working on it because we truly believed in the idea. We knew that young children learn best when they're having fun and this series of eight little films would have them smiling and learning earth friendly stuff.

We called it "The Little Earth Charter".

April 22nd is EARTH DAY. If your kid is in primary school, chances are their class is doing something for Earth Day. If your son or daughter brings this DVD to their class anytime around Earth Day, they'll be sharing the Earth friendly energy with all their classmates.

Behold the Awesome!

How much does the Awesome cost? Only $12.99.
Where can I buy this Awesome? CLICK!
What age group is this for? Preschool to 8 year olds.
Here's the first of eight videos.



So go and get your kid's Awesome. And I'll include a free "Earth2Rosie" postcard, while quantities last! Remember, this animation is for the kids.

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