Good morning friends! I wanted to fill you in on another place to come and visit:

Join my group here for great ideas on framing and decorating with the art from my shop.

And if you have photos to share, please do! The more the merrier.

And come be my FLICKR friend here and keep in touch with my photos.

Are you a FLICKR junkie? Me too. No dieting here folks. Just love.

Happy Day to you all!

Categories: inspiration, my studio
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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.

We just cut 7 1/2 inches off Addie’s hair over the weekend, and she loves it! We love it! The Little Miss no longer has her baby hair attached to her head, which makes me a bit sad. But oh she is so cute!

Speaking of cutting things off, I am taking a break here for the next week. The internet seems to be the #1 place to check into these days, but I am needing a mandatory diet for 1) to make sure my inspirations aren’t coming strictly from a screen (the WEB’S image overload can be just that…overload!) and 2) to get some necessary projects done. With only 3 months left in my pregnancy, I have given myself some big deadlines so I can be free to mother my little one with as few distractions as possible.

So this week, there are new designs on the agenda, as well as some other less interesting but mandatory projects. But I will be back soon, hopefully with some pretty exciting updates! Spring designs are coming, and I think you will love them! So check back soon! My internet diet can’t last too long…I absolutely love keeping in touch with you guys! So, farewell blog world…time for a brief vacation!

xoxo

sarah jane

Categories: my studio, on being a mom
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We are in the middle of it all at the moment…moving I mean…and though I love the idea of being out, I am not loving the idea of living with boxes and junk everywhere. I do love that I have been able to uncover some things that I have had to put away for a while. My oil paints. After Addie started walking, I realized that I would have to find another way of making merry…thus my present photoshop addiction. But it is in oils that I first started my painting adventures. Sure, drawing is always first. But I was lucky enough to start private art lessons at the age of 10, and after one painting in acrylic, my teacher let me switch over to oils, and I have been hooked ever since. The smell, the feel, the sheen…oil paint is honestly sacred to me:)

I haven’t painted since 3 years ago today when I finished my first and last portrait painting. It was a Christmas present for my husband. I can still remember Addie crawling at my feet while I painted this!

I think that this other painting was also done that same month, my last landscape painting since the day I put my paints away.

And today, when I pulled out my paints from storage, I was wishing I could get my hands dirty again. Messy and DIRTY. Someday! Small space living allows room for the most important things…and someday, this will be important again. But right now, I would rather have my babies crawling at my feet…but oh, the smell of these tubes did give my heart a flutter!

This past weekend I was the luckiest duck. I was able to attend the first Startup Princess Retreat in Park City Utah at the Zermott Resort, and oh! What a blast! It was a small group of no more than 35 people, and honestly, felt like one big sleepover. Such amazing energy and charisma in this group: a fantastic mesh of fun personalities. I miss you ladies already!

Topic of the weekend? Social networking and marketing to women. Guest speakers came from all over:

Holly Buchanan: co-author of the Soccer Mom Myth, and founder of Marketing to Women Online; from Richmond, VA: fabulous presenter and got us all thinking about how we present our businesses to every type of woman.

Barbara Jones: Founder of the One2One network offering products that match your business in order to get feeback and increase your own social networking. Such an amazing background in the music industry, and such a doll! This woman is Gold!

Janet Meiners: SEO guru and writer of Newspapergirl; Such great info on how to get people to find you on the web.

(gwen with Kelly Anderson: founder of Startup Princess)

Gwen Bell: Social networking queen (voted one of the top 50 most influential people in social media); Member of the Kirtsy Team, twitter expert and social enthusiast. This woman has done it all. If you ever get a chance to meet this woman, do! www.gwenbell.com

(Me with Gabrielle…she has the greatest hair!)

Gabrielle Blair: Design mom and co-founder of Kirtsy. Need I say more? Just a doll! Shared her story about starting her blog and kirtsy and gave some fantastic tips on blogging. She is a gold mine of info and resources!

And all these women were just so open and shared advice with us one on one the whole weekend! We went from professional acquaintances to great friends in just an instant.

And those who attended shared nearly just as much. We had time to get to know each other and share ideas too. I met some awesome women with some amazing companies! I hope to be sharing more about them in the coming weeks, as well as some great info I gleaned from the weekend.

And especially, a HUGE thanks to my husband who watched the kids (fed them Baskin robbins, KFC and spent the day at the children’s museum) while I was with the girls. He is the BEST dad!

Biggest benefits: being in a close knit group with women just like me: social, creative, wanting to share their ideas with others. We were all just a bunch of humanistics, concerned mostly about building good relationships, which is what this whole blogging world is really all about!

Thanks ladies for an incredible weekend! Can’t wait to share more about what I learned! If you missed this weekend, I hear through the grapevine another is being planned for January! Get on board!

Don’t forget! The BUY 2 get 1 FREE sale ends Saturday night!

Don’t forget to stop by the shop!

Much awaited: Cards are here! These packs were so much fun to put together. Most of my cards just come with cards and envelopes. These have an added bonus: pretty box and gift tags to match! I had a lot of fun making these! I wish you could just see them in person. They are just yummy.

“Winter Cheer” Stationery Set

“Handmade Just for you” Stationery set

“Wellesley and Winslow Christmas Post” Stationery Set

I hope there are more Holiday cards coming, but I as far as “sets” complete with gift cards, this is it folks!

And while we are on the subject of GIVING….

How about a BUY 2 GET ONE FREE sale? Sound good? It does to me!

Just purchase TWO products, and mention the THIRD product in the message to seller box at the time of purchase, and I will include it in your order! Quesions? I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks to those of you who have been so patient waiting for these! Happy gift giving!!!

Have fun in the shop!

Have you ever tried Googling that phrase? I have. I know. A little embarrassing. But the truth is, you can’t really find an answer to that question. Experience is the only teacher.

Well, I guess if you googledd that phrase now, you would find this.

I was invited to be a guest blogger at Le Papier Studios, (A DARLING shop by the way…get your christmas goodies here!) and I spilled the beans about balance, and life and priorities and trying to live all three roles.

Something I hope to learn more about everyday. Life is meant to be lived…and when life is busy, there is no reason you still can’t enjoy it all. So…here is my two cents on the subject. (Ok…more like 10 bucks…it is a bit long, but then, couldn’t we all write novels on this subject?)

Enjoy!

In all the hustle and bustle of cleaning out closets and getting our place ready to sell, I forgot to mention this incredible Handmade Holiday Gift Guide over at Bloesom Kids (my FAVORITE blog by the way). She has included my Calendar…Thank you Irene! But all the other items she has included are so darling! So unique and great for you and the kids. Click here to get connected to list of items and their online locations! Oh, and check out her most recent post today…an OPEN house with the makers of LMNOP magazine. I love peeking into people’s homes! So much life and creativity here! But thank you Irene for the mention!

They are here! Another bookplate (which I wish you could see in person…they are DARLING!) and 2 more cards for the shop: “I love my sister” and “I love my brother.”

I also have both of these prints for sale together as a set like the other elephant and giraffe set. So fun! Oh…and there is more coming soon! I am signing off to get back to work! xoxo sarah jane

Hello, Hello! It is so exciting to have a more personalized space here. I hope you can come often, pull up a chair, and have a chat. Here you will find the latest on being a mother of two lively toddlers and the newest designs and illustrations for Sarah Jane Studios. Come as often as you like!

The month of July is filled with lots of fun surprises, so come back soon. You will notice a few new features, including the option to add your email to my monthly newsletter. Sign up for the latest updates in the shop and in the news!

Thanks to all you readers for your ideas, support and friendship! Being a mom and being an artist and business owner make for a lot of adventures, and I am happy to share the ups and downs. Thanks for sharing your stories as well! Stay for more blogging fun and lots of new designs coming soon!

Thanks for stopping in, and feel free to invite your friends! I’ll put the kettle on, and hope to see you soon!

xoxo,

Sarah Jane

Getting back from a big break is usually the pits. Laundry, unpacking, going through mail, and adjusting to boring “REAL LIFE.” This time, I got to get busy filling orders, and let me just tell you…It is good to be back. Thanks to so many of you for patiently waiting for your orders. I really didn’t think that I would get any orders while I was gone. But, 35 packages and 67 orders later, I guess I was wrong.

This stack would have taken me like 73 hours to fill 7 months ago when this all started. Not only was I working in a crammed corner of my bedroom (shhhhh…don’t tell any one that) but I was just getting used to all the ????

?What shipping materials are best?
?Return address labels?
?How should I pack multiple items together so they are safe?
?Where is the tape!
?How many sharpees can I go through in a week?
?Am I out of cello sleeves already?
?The post office closes in 13 minutes. Can I make it?

Wow. I still consider myself in the ’start-up’ stage, but those days were the REAL startup days. Yikes! I have learned a lot about shipping and packing since then! It still is time away from drawing or creating, but I love to see all my prints making new homes somewhere else.

So thanks to all of you who made orders while I was gone. They have been sent on their way, and I can officially start getting artsy again. Ahhh…yes. My sketchpad and I have a date:)