And the winners are...

CONGRATULATIONS to

CHLOE who won the 1st Grand Prize with the most votes on her photo "BB", pictured here again! You can see more of this super cute sport princess at her mom's blog here.

and ANA won the random drawing for the 2nd Grand Prize! You can see more of Ana at her mom's blog here!

From what I can see, these two girls are real Sport Princesses, with posts about the fun girl stuff they do (ballet, dance, girl-ness) but sports too! (soccer, baseball, fun outdoors!)

Both girls win $250 and all sorts of fun Sport Princess gear including a custom Soccer Princess dress!

Thank you to all the participants in the photo contest - you will all get a free Soccer Princess book when it is published. It is being illustrated again right now, and lots more fun news coming out about it soon! We will be kicking out a new format on the blog in the next week with each day dedicated to a different aspect of sport... fun... education... photos, stories, book news, and more:)

THE new illustration style =)

Real quick, I just received this tonight... *much anticipated*... I saw the model sheets of the sport princess characters from this illustrator, Kristin Abbott, earlier this week, and loved them right away. You can see more of her portfolio at http://www.abbottillustration.com/. I wanted to post this full illustration so you can see the new style we are most likely going with for the Sport Princess series! We will have an official decision by Leo Publishing Works next week, and then after some minor tweaks to the characters themselves, new BIO pictures and style on here, soon.

More details to be continued...

UPDATE: it's official, Kristin Abbott is the new illustrator! We will have new character bios and images up as soon as they are completed... finalizing now!

The many faces of The Soccer Princess "Jo"

I don't know why I've put this off... because from what I've heard so far, this news I'm about to share has been received enthusiastically. And now that I'm looking through older illustration examples again, I'm getting a kick out of this thing called starting over. Since getting signed with my lovely Irish Literary Agents... and in talking to several overseas publishers and marketing companies at the London Book Fair, I heard a consistent message:

"LOVE the idea. Illustrations look a little old or off for the younger target audience though. Change that and you have something that could go international, too"

And then it hits me, too, as so apparently obvious that I don't know why we didn't see it sooner. So with the big picture in mind, and what's best to get all our little girls to love sport princesses and spread the idea... we all agreed to push off the first publication date of The Soccer Princess, (still in 2010!) while we start over on the illustrations! It was perfect - blessed - timing at the Book Fair, because my publisher had just received the proof sample from the printer in Minnesota, and we were at that point to either plow forward with the printing, or make any revisions.

I'm waiting for a new sample illustration from a fantastic agented illustrator right now that we've been in negotiations with, and my publisher will be able to make that decision by the end of next week. In the meantime though, I want to show you several of the faces of Josephina that I've received since the beginning from different freelance illustrators!! The first two (uper-amatear) drawings are my own... how I initially pictured Jo. The rest are several different styles and mediums based on different artist perspectives!

Have fun looking through all these examples!! I would LOVE your feedback and opinion. Several of these are obviously not her exactly, but some are closer than I originally considered... is there a style here that you love for little girls? Is there one that you think is close? Or right on? Have your daughters look through it with you too!

Stay tuned as we continue the search for the right match......

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

H.

I.

J.

K.

L.

M.

Girlie girl pink princess fairy store in London

Wait, did I fail to mention pink and girlie?

I came upon this Mystical Fairies pink princessy shop yesterday in the village of Hampstead, London. And even though this kind of store is everything that I am NOT, I couldn't help but go inside! I thought of Avery, mostly, and ... okay... basically every little girl in the history of mankind. I have to say I was awe-struck at once, and wish I could show you a picture of the intricately princess'd inside (Trust me, I tried and was almost taken out by a pink tutu'd glitter employee)

The shop itself wasn't that large, but wall to wall tea sets, dolls, ballet girlness, gowns, glitter, fairydust makeup, hair accessories, princess jewelry, purses, sequins, canopies, etc ... and even hanging from the ceiling were glittery branches holding fairies, butterflies and girl wonder-ness.

My mum bought a new fairy teaset for the girls, and invitations to a teaparty. The checkout employee had ringlets, tiara, and a tutu.

So if you know me ... it wasn't long before I started feeling claustrophic as the walls of pink and frilly started crashing in on me... my breathing quickened and I had to go back outside into the fresh air. I felt like I needed something to redeem myself... like... find a sport store and buy a new jersey, or drop down in that village alley and start doing pushups. I wonder if this is how dads feel when in this same situation? Where did my girlie girl gene go? Did my sister get double? All I know is ... we do things for our girlie daughters because we love them, and we know they love the pink girlie princesses, so of course we oblige! But I would openly embrace it, love it, delight in it TOO if it had more of a tomboy edge on it.

This is what it would look like:

HOT pink and brown

glitter football stripe sticks

pink sporting goods, cleats, socks, bats, balls,

vintage pictures of Sport Princesses on the walls... and sport pennants... and framed jerseys... and merchandise

Green turf floor with white 10 yard lines on it

The jewelry would be sport wristbands, headbands, leatherbands, soccer ball earrings

Princess gowns next to the sport jerseys and crinoline

and a high def tv on the wall playing sporting games so the dads would still feel manly and embrace going in, too.

Sport Princess Football Referee Signals... Videos!

Want to learn different football referee signals from 3 year old Football Princesses? Watch these super cute videos below! The youtube link is pasted above each video so you can share with your friends and family! Send me your cute girl sport videos and we'll share on the blog!

Part 1: Mackayla: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVi0f4ZajUI&feature

Part 2: Avery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfHU71L0Mh8

What's in a Sport Princess?

She's not afraid to get dirty...

She prefers to be outside whether it's rain or shine... running, playing...

She's determined and competitive,

Brave and adventurous,

More likely to pick a fight and stand up for what she believes in than sit and watch the world go by!

She'll wear glitter and ribbons with her football jersey...

Pink and ruffles with her soccer cleats...

Bubble gum and curls with her baseball hat and bat.

And her daddy's favorite sport team shirts... with flowers in her hair.

She would rather camp in a tent than sleep on fluffy mattresses in a luxurious bed,

Would choose a ponytail anyday,

And prefers running around with the boys than sitting inside with the girly girls!

A Sport Princess is glamorous, fancy, and girly.... yet hardcore, adventurous and outgoing!