Above my studio room, in the eaves of the roof, a nest was built.  And day in and day out, I have heard the flapping wings of the Mama bird come in and out, working hard on building that nest. And then this morning, in the new light of Mother’s Day, there was this incessant chirping above the ceiling from what seemed like a nest full of baby birds. Addie and I went out to check, and sure enough, that hard working black bird became a mother today. We sat on a quilted blanket under the tree and watched that mama bird fly off and catch a worm, and then fly back to her nest with chirpy, hungry babies waiting inside. She would fly off again, and 4 minutes later be back with another worm. We watched for over an hour and a half while this new Mama diligently fed her new babies…in and out of the nest, never resting.  Me, with my huge belly and baby kicking; addie with her 4-year old motherly tendancies; and this new black bird mother….all enjoying a springtime mother’s day. It was so magical and slendid! Besides the incredible dinner, and three hour nap I got, it was the best mother’s day present to see new birth and a new mother in the nest above my studio window. Motherhood is magical! Happy mother’s day to all!

This blog post is VERY over due! So many of you have been asking me a bout my “BOOK” and with my internet troubles, I have been rather behind the times in chatting about this!

To clarify: No, I don’t have a book chalk full of my illustrations for children, but rather a non-fiction hardback book of mom-to-mom tips on pregnancy with spot illustrations throughout.

Full of Life, the book I illustrated for Nancy O’Dell and published by Simon and Schuster was released about 2 weeks ago and is doing great! It is currently #17 on Amazon’s Hot new releases in it’s category. But I will be honest: my illustrations have nothing to do with it! It helps that Nancy is a huge celeb in the Hollywood scene and has a great following.  I was asked to illustrate 7 chapter headings, and a few icons through the book with Nancy in certain positions during her pregnancy. It isn’t really a showcase of my art, rather spot illustrations in black and white. But it was a great experience to work with the publishing industry….something I really hope to do more of in the future.

Nancy O’Dell is quite the celebrity and has been on a book signing/media tour since it came out. I haven’t had contact with her during the creation process (thus the role of art directors and editors) but I have watched her progress online since the book release. On April 30th, she promoted her book on the Martha Stewart Show for their Baby Shower episode. I was just tickled to see this picture of the book I illustrated in the hands of Martha Stewart! Can you see it? it is a bad photo, but the best I could find. The Empress has no idea who I am, and my name is only in small print on the title page, but still. I am entitled to a bit of butterflies in my tummy, right?

It was such a great experience to put this book together. Like I said…don’t go rushing to see it for the illustrations (there are so few) but do go check it out for you or friends who are pregnant! It is really a GREAT book! 

I am just so grateful for the taste I got of the book creating process, and I hope to get into that more now that Baby #3 is coming soon (8 weeks and counting!). I love my ETSY shop, but children’s book illustration is my ultimate goal! But in the mean time, I had a little “Martha Stewart touched something I made” moment and as stretched as it might be, It did make me blush! And really, I am still blushing. Thanks Simon and Schuster for a great opportunity!

Well, This is a huge shop update, and I am super excited! The design above has been in my head for months now. I have always loved Family Trees, and  have been wanting to have something in my children’s room for a while now, but most designs are super boring and drab and don’t have the LIFE that a family tree should have..nor would they be fitting for a child’s room. My grandmother has a beautiful illustrated photo family tree in her home, and inspired me to make one perfect for children. No scary dead people here!

These are 3 generation charts: room for your children to see their parents, their grandparents and their great grandparents.

Pink and brown version.

Vintage summer version.

This is a tricky project for me, since I really can’t do much personalization of my products…but I am going to offer personalized Pedigree charts for a limited time, and see how that goes. As well as two sizes…8×10 and 11×14.  All this is a trial for the next month, and depending on how they do in the shop, I keep things simple and not have as many options.

I also have a huge amount of new stationery…with some products so many of you have suggested! I now have cards of my calendar set that turned out really nice. I have them in sets of 24…2 for each month.

In addition, new thank you cards, invitations, announcements and happy birthday cards.

This is just a taste…there is more in my shop!

But the best news of ALL is

The 2 for one sale I am having at the same time! Yahoo! I have to say thank you to all of you friends who come and visit and have supported my work here. I am just really so thankful for this journey I have been on, and have been able to share with all of you. Thank you so much!

HOW IT WORKS: any two products you buy from my shop, you need to *MENTION* the third product of EQUAL or lesser value (in the ‘message to seller box at the time of purchase’), and I will send all three to you straight away!

Sale ends Friday April 10th.

All items will be in the shop by this evening!

Thanks again for all your wonderful comments, and emails and support. Honestly, I can’t thank you enough!

Cheers,

sarah jane

SHOP HERE.

I am nearly done with my new spring stationery! For the first time, there will be stationery for ALL ages! But of course, I did add some invites and cards good for all those spring babies coming. (My little egg has nothing to do with my excitement or anything:)

The image above most of you haven’t seen before…unless you have scrolled WAY back into my archives. This image is my first elephant and bunny image that first inspired me to create Wellesley and Winslow: the elephant and bunny pair I love so much. This image somehow never made it into the shop, so I am super excited to bring them back in!

I have more to reveal later this week! Shop update is scheduled for Friday April 3rd.

Happy Spring everyone!

One of the ‘projects’ I have been filling my time with is getting more interesting product photography for my shop. Oh boy. I love taking pictures, but this is something I am not an expert in! I am hoping that I have had some happy accidents!

The color of my walls (we are renting) doesn’t work with my art and products very well. So, my sister and I went shopping for yards of interesting fabric. We didn’t have a lot of time, but what we came up with worked pretty well! I rented some big studio lights from a local photography shop to help enhance the natural morning light in my home, and we did the best we could! I would have liked to get a fancy camera in addition to it all, but we did the best we could!

I have used a 50 mm lens (the only lens I have that allows the most light!) and went at it. Oh, I wish i had all the time in the world to learn all the things I want to about photography! Hopefully these will do for now!

I hoping to get a website up and running by the time this baby comes, and so this is all in efforts to get one going soon.

And of course, this was all done in my family room, with my darlings running about. Most projects are done this way around here. And they of course wanted some camera time too. They are my best products really. The only thing is, they are not for sale! Sorry.

Ok! Due to popular demand, you can now make your OWN art gallery. All you need to do is click on the links (don’t click on the picture: too small), download the image and follow the instructions! Horray! Have so much fun…there are so many others you can make, but for those of you who prefer tracing, this should be a lot of fun!

Sparrow Template

Seal Template

Elephant Template

**EDIT: And yes, I am VERY aware that the bird template is a swallow, not a sparrow. This only goes to show the state of mind a mother can be in when she has her 2 toddlers crawling on her while doing art projects! I could go in and change this posted picture, but instead, let it stand as proof that I am mother and often make silly mistakes at the expense of just getting projects finished in time to please excited little ones!

I have kept a little secret for a bit here. I have been doing a lot of illustrating…but instead of for the shop, it has been for my first book! I just got word yesterday that it has been sent to the printers, so it is official!

Here it is!

Full of Life: Mom-to-Mom tips I wish someone had told me when I was pregnant

Written by Nancy O’Dell

illustrated by Sarah Jane Wright

Published by Simon & Schuster

On shelves April 09, 2009

I have goosebumps all over. I haven’t been able to say anything for so long, and it feels so great to finally get this out in the open! Nancy Singer contacted me a while back about working on a pregnancy book, and by December it was official. Nancy O’Dell, the ever popular celebrity icon of Access Hollywood had her first baby over a year ago, and decided to write a book about pregnancy including all the bits no one seems to be writing about. Mom-to-Mom tips she calls it. She has done a great job!

I was committed to illustrating this book long before I knew the author. And then to find out that the author was a huge celebrity…and that I needed to make the illustrations look like her…I knew I was in for a fun adventure. The editors needed black and white chapter headings with a few icons along the way and I had a great time working together with them on the project. I will say, that illustrating a REAL person forced me out of my own personal style a bit (no generic vintage faces here!) But I am glad. I learned a lot a long the way!

I am sold on the author/illustration business. I love designing new products, but book illustration is so amazing…especially when working with a fantastic group of people…all passionate about what they do. I can’t tell you how invigorating it was to get emails first thing in the morning from NYC with tips and corrections that would steer the ultimate vision for the layout. Soon I hope to get more into illustrating children’s books, but until then, I feel really grateful to put my name on a fantastic publication. Thank you Simon and Schuster for giving me my first chance in the industry!

I feel a huge sense of relief that this is all over with. It was a fantastic experience to be illustrating this pregnant woman while I myself was feeling my own baby kick in side me. I had a huge connection to the material which was so magical! (although, depressing at times to think that there are people in the world that DO look that beautiful when 9 months pregnant!)

It sure wasn’t easy, but it was a wonderful challenge! Note to self: DO NOT…and I repeat…DO NOT illustrate a book while throwing up and pregnant, packing up and moving your home, catching walking-pneumonia, taking care of sick children, moving into a new home or over the Christmas holiday. Oh boy. I think I will try and avoid that next time! In this case, miracles happened and now a life long dream of mine has come true….

I am a published illustrator!

(You can see the book online here.)

OK. I realize my posts as of late are a bit on the family side of things. Life is mostly family around these parts. But amidst the unpacking and moving and getting over winter colds…oh and makin’ a baby, there has been a bit o’ art. And because we are family here too…I am taking opinions. Kinda like, “High-heels or flats with the dress?” Although, it’s not shoes we’re trying on. Maybe both don’t work, but one has to be better than the other.

Thoughts?

EDIT:

(Added later)

Best of both worlds?

do share.

via ohdeedoh

via www.rebeccafromtheheart.blogspot.com

I have been getting some images from my customers of how they have framed and hung the prints they bought. It is so fun to get these! I wanted to share a couple…don’t you love how these are displayed? So different from each other…but so unique. I love it. I would love it if any of you have any photos of my prints framed and up in a room, that you email them to me! It would be so fun to make a customer collection! Not only that, but I am a sucker for looking at how people decorate…I find it so inspiring! Thus my addiction to design blogs! (Oh…to get past the boxes so I can decorate my own space!)

Happy thursday folks! I am feeling the weekend love already:)

OK, here they are! February shop update! New valentines designs and a new postcard to cheer up the coldest of us! I plan on shipping a bit more than usual to make sure everyone gets their valentines in time! Come on over this afternoon for the big shop update!

But first, head over to DESIGN MOM’S Valentine Giveaway. My cards are included in a FAB gift set that could be yours if you comment! But don’t wait too long…valentines is ONLY 10 days away:)

Thanks for all the nice comments on the new designs! You guys are the best! Happy Valentines!

Thrilled to be drawing again. Here is what I came up with for Addie and Ian’s party invites. They are 12 months apart and a few days, and so this year we are sporting a combined party complete with lollipops and sweets of all kinds. I can’t wait to see what we come up with…a Hansel and Gretel theme is coming to mind! Now to start the baking…

The month of the romantics is coming soon, and I guess the most romantic issue of Romantic Homes couldn’t wait…since the February issue is already out on the shelves. I was THRILLED to see that they included my “This Much” card as a valentine favorite! I have been so excited to wrap up these cards and send them to new places and to new customers. No worries though…I have plenty! This is the first time any of my products have been featured in a magazine, and I couldn’t be more tickled! As much as I handle and see my work everyday, there is something about seeing it in a magazine that makes me tilt my head to the side and say, “Did I create that?” It is something like a double-take or deja-vous. Kinda surreal.

But thank you Romantic Homes for your generous feature! February is coming fast, and Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. I have grand intentions of getting some more sweet valentines into the shop…let’s hope this week fares better than last (our house has been quite the sick house!!). My hand is itching with new ideas….

Cheers!