Finding space to work and how to make bats look nice?

"Bats fly in the sky when the sun goes down" says Jamilla's mother.... 

"Zip, zip, the bat flies, in a shape like an '8'....."

Challenge: How to find room in my little bitty but cute house to spread out my sketches as I work on my new illustration project- Jamilla Does Not Want A Bat In Her House, for the Baha'i Publishing Trust? I have some space in the office I share with my hubby, and I'm used to drawing on a drawing board on my lap, but in this case I need to spread out now and then, just to see the progression of things! Soooo, I cleared off my beautifully long kitchen counter and yahoo! I have a great space to work on! No problema!

Also another question I've had is to how to illustrate a children's book that includes a bat, without making it look too halloweeny.   So I googled up images of bats and am working on it! How cute is my bat?




Another challenge that I'm imposing on myself is that I want to include borders that utilize cut paper designs as well as silhouettes of bats- since I've had so much fun in the last year doing what I call silhouette designs, inspired by my silhouette work. More of that to come! Exciting!!!!