custom widgets and libglademm

Hi all

*Sorry if some of you are getting this message a few times.
I mailed the wrong list*

I was told by Murray to use the derived widget technique to
implement custom widgets in libglademm. I have looked at
the example, but STILL do not see how to use this technique
to make custom widgets. 

I thought maybe I could derive a widget from drawing area
(because initially all I really want to is draw things in
different colors), but then I noticed you need a window to
do the drawing. 

So then I derived a widget from window instead. For some
reason though, my overloaded on_realize and on_expose_event
methods aren't being called automatically. 

Anyone ever done this? ANY advice welcome.
thanks
Damon
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