The Toymaker's Journal

To Amuse and Delight.

[thetoymakers]

[thetoymakers]

My cat at midnight. There's no food in his bowl. I have been judged and found lacking. Peak disappointment.

[thetoymakers]

36 years ago I married a guy. He reads books, does dishes and can fix anything. Sometimes life just gives you a win.

[thetoymakers]

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

I made a page of tiny paintings, cut them into stamps and pasted them into my Little Book of Ideas.... for no other reason then it made me happy to do so.

[thetoymakers]

Do kids deserve to have a life now?

[thetoymakers]

“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.” ~ Walt Whitman

[thetoymakers]

Preparing a talk for Cal State University Fullerton on Monday. Keep a sketchbook, be flexible, learn new skills, ask for what you want, never forget who you are.

What was your biggest takeaway from college?

[thetoymakers]

“It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”

~ Maud Hart Lovelace

[thetoymakers]

So, for reasons, my art is being shown in at the Shanghai International Illustration Art Expo 2026GAF. I am totally stoked about it and is something I never would have predicted when I was younger.

[thetoymakers]

“Politeness is to do and say the kindest thing in the kindest way"

[thetoymakers]

[thetoymakers]

"Happiness comes through doors that you didn't even know that you left open"

[thetoymakers]

We are the music makers,

    And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

    And sitting by desolate streams; —

World-losers and world-forsakers,

    On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers

    Of the world for ever, it seems.

[thetoymakers]

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. ~ Dr. Seuss 

[thetoymakers]

My friend made this from a painting I did of Baby Sam. I hope you have a wonderful week

[thetoymakers]

The best strawberries I've ever eaten and it's February. What is this magic?

[thetoymakers]

Actually went out for a walk. “The bee’s work is a quiet reminder of the sweetness that comes from effort.”