UP.

The other night, I looked out my window, and all the light around the house was orange. Sunsets. They make me so happy. But this was post-sunset. Dusk. My favorite.

When we were house hunting, we had our usual specifications we were looking for. Room count, square footage, schools, etc. But on the top of my list was light. Windows and sky. And trees. It's like food for my soul. Finding a house where you could see the sky in any room of the house was as important as getting a house with a dishwasher. It took us a long time to find a house!

But we did. And today I was reminded just how much I love what happens in the "up" space of the world.

When my husband and I were dating, he mentioned to me that he had done an experiment where he spent a day walking around and always looked UP. Never looked down at his feet while he was walking, but always looked up. We must have been in college at the time, and so we were walking around a lot. But try it. When you are walking down your hallway even. Look up. It does something to your mood. And it doesn't even have to be at a gorgeous sky. Although that helps. Looking upwards has always helped me from getting too serious about stuff. It really works!

September gets me excited. There's magic in the air, and I love the fall season coming. But it also has me looking at to-do lists a lot more than I have been over the summer. Ahhh....summer. I've found it important to look up.

Well, except for when I am around little people. And then I look down. A lot. But when I look down, I see this:

And that has me feeling pretty up too.

Happy weekend!

{And thanks for all the "BE...." love! I hope to have them in the shop at the end of September as well as a bunch of other new fun things! I'll post more soon...stay tuned!}

Living life on purpose & other inspiration

Good morning all! Thanks so much for the great response to A Christmas Goodnight:) It's always a bit nerve wracking to share even a little bit of something that I've been keeping a secret for so long. I have so much more I want to fill you in on, but until then enjoy these last few weeks of summer...I promise I won't bug you about Christmas for at least another month:)

I wanted to share a few posts with you that are floating around the www today.

Ashley of Ashely Ann Photography (LOVE her blog and photography!) posted this great post of how she turned this free downloadable quote of mine into a canvas print which she embellished with hand stitching. Doesn't it look amazing?

{All Photos, Ashley Ann Photography}

I have my print behind glass in my kitchen...always such a lovely reminder to wake up every day full of love and purpose.

I made this print several weeks ago, but it has meant even more to me the past 2 days after recovering from a could-have-been-fatal car wreck. I'll spare you the horrific details, but let's just say it involved a bouncing metal pipe coming towards me on the freeway while going 65 mph in morning rush hour traffic. My car was totaled, 3 other cars were involved, and after spinning across 3 lanes of traffic, I walked away unharmed. Needless to say, I've been recovering on all levels, as you never expect to go through something like that. But if ever there was a shake in my soul to live my life with no regrets, it's been these past 48 hours. I can honestly say that I love my children every day like it will be my last, simply because I have always been so aware how fragile this life can be. But until you go through something like what I did Tuesday morning, am I shaken into living my life for God and my family with even more love than ever. The kind of purpose I didn't even know was in me. But now I do.

So...ok...onto happier things, Ashely is hosting a giveaway to get one 16x20 canvas print which you can use to print out that same quote. Isn't that great??

http://barij.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8347b268b53ef014e8ab28384970d-pi

And other lovely things going on in blog land, We Love French Knots hosted this great interview with me on Tuesday. Interviews are fun, because I get to share things I don't normally talk about here. Enjoy!

(Sorry I didn't link to it earlier...I was rather busy tuesday!) Bari J, a fantastic fabric designer and embroidery designer, started this fantastic Stitching Blog and has been relentless in filling us all in on all things stitching. Check it out!

{Overall Baby}

And guess what else you are making? I had to share these gorgeous photos of more wonderful projects you are making with Children at Play from my Flickr Group. You are all so talented and inspiring!

{Overall Baby}

Love to you all! Hug your babies. Live your life on purpose. Make your home beautiful. Inspire someone else. Be creative. Thank God every day for all his mercy. And laugh a lot. Amen.

Oh, and don't forget about the great giveaway over at Ashley Ann!

xo

sarah

Doodling in color.

I think about color a lot. As an illustrator who takes drawing very seriously, color is something that has always taken second place. As I've grown as an artist, and forged my path for where my art wants to go, I've learned to apply design and color in balance with my drawing, and it's been so enlightening. Rather than thinking of the subject of the piece I'm working on, I've learned to think about color just as early on in the doodle stage. And because of the handy-dandy computer, I can play with color a lot faster and it's not as intimidating when trying to come up with color palettes.

This is a color palette I'm seriously in love with at the moment (well, for the past few months) and I can't get it out of my head. Gorgeous, isn't it?

{Bottom images: here, here and here. Also collectively found here.}

Quilt Story.

Wonderfully handmade loveliness is just starting to come in on the handmade front with Children at Play.

Quilt Story designed this quilt pattern around the Playhouse and  Meadow line of Children at Play, and they turned out so darling! When I designed this line, I wanted to have the images useable for applique and fussy cuts too...so this was so fun to see!

You can get the pattern from their site here.

Do you have pictures you want to share? Hop on over to my Flickr Group here and here. I know it's early on...but I can't wait to see what you design! And send me a note too...I'd love to see them!

xo

sarah

"Hi! Come play at my {doll}house!"

When I was gathering all my little inspiration pieces for my Quilt Market Booth, I knew I wanted to find and fix up a wooden doll house and wallpaper it with my designs. I had a really strict budget, so I looked at everything from Craigslist to discounted amazon deals. I just couldn't really seem to find the right one! And weeks went by, and my weekly peek into thrift stores and my local classifieds produced nothing. And then...I found it. Forty bucks landed me this old (HUGE!) wooden dollhouse, furniture and an entire bucket of barbies.

There was A LOT of work to put into it, but that was just what I wanted: A fixer-upper. There were plexi glass windows to pop out (they were cracked, chipped and painted), trim to paint, floors to scrape and polish, and a good 3 coats of paint on the outside to hide all the dings and poor paint jobs over the years. And that still hasn't made it spic-and-span. There are more touch-ups to do, but we finished it enough for  Quilt Market. Horray!

Little did I realize that it would take 4 people on and off for 2 weeks to make this turn into the Doll House of our dreams.

Because the Children at Play collection nearly didn't arrive in time for market, I decided to design my entire booth with paper. Oh, those were scary days! A fabric-less booth for a fabric show? It was time to get creative. And wallpapering a vintage dollhouse seemed to be one of my ways out of the mess I was in.

Thankfully, the fabric arrived at my doorstep a week early, but the dollhouse was still a head turner!

At the last minute, because there are so many rooms, and I wanted to show off the wallpaper job that Lindsey spent hours doing (we literally cut strips and glued into place each print...and most rooms boast crooked corners and frames!) we decided to light it up inside. My Grandmother has the most fantastic dollhouse, and it's lit up, which makes all the difference in the world.

But we didn't have ceiling space to spare, so we found these IKEA L.E.D lights that are flat and have a long cord with a switcher attached. Ba-Bing!

This dollhouse was rather well loved when we got it, and there are some parts of it that we just won't ever really be able to fix, but that's the charm!

This is my favorite room of the house. The study. I seriously wish I could have that as wallpaper in my own house! Meadow in Green is one of my favorite prints. And making this dollhouse with the Children at Play designs on paper was so much fun! I spent hours matching the colors to the fabric, but it was all worth it! And as you can see...don't look too closely...this house was in such bad shape, it's going to take a few more weeks to get it proper for close-up photos! Part of me wants to keep is just as is to always remember the crazy sleepless nights in the weeks before market. Like a token, you know?

There were some parts of the house that were un-salvageable. Like the wool fabric that was glued to the gorgeous hard wood floors? We Old-Englished some of them, but the main rooms were completely defeated. Thank goodness for discarded carpet samples that happened to be edged in the exact size of the house!

There is still decorating to do...curtains to add...picture frames to put up....and paint to touch up. But I don't even have curtains up in my own house yet! Or picture frames for that matter! (They say it takes a good year or so to really move into a house, right?)

So thank goodness for colorful, lit up dollhouses that 3 children can play in at the same time. We're having thunderstorms and rain all week, and this dollhouse is getting just the attention it needs!

Happy Weekend!!

xo

sarah

Making.

POST EDIT: Warning...this post might be rather jumbled and is a true stream of conscienceness. But the truth is, it's something I don't talk about much, and I need to. So. There you go.

With our new house, one of my priorities was to have lots of places to make together. As a working artist, you'd think that would be a simple and obvious request. But as a mother and with this little business of mine, I'm often surprised how hard it really is for me illustrate while my kids are making. I can embroider, sew, do crafts and draw bits and pieces of projects we do together, but I don't usually get a chance to just have my own drawing time. Maybe it's cause they are still so young. Maybe it's because when we make together, I'm teaching and guiding (and cleaning up!) more than not. I think mostly it's because now that I get paid for what I illustrate, I can easily fall into the mind-set that drawing is "work" and not "play." And since most of the day is filled with playing, and lessons, and cooking, and cleaning....I often forget to let myself just PLAY!

Sitting down with my sketchbook to fill some pages while the kids create beside me, is usually followed by Addie wanting to color in my sketchbook instead of hers...which I love. So I let her. I get out another sketchbook for me (I have several that I float between for this very reason), and then Ian's pencil breaks and I need to run downstairs to grab a sharpener. And then Ella wants to color on Ian's paper, so he goes up in the cupboard to find some more. But in the mean time, he wants to sculpt. So we set up the table for clay. And then I open my sketchbook while the kids are playing, and water spills all over, and clean it up. But before I do, Addie wants to rip out her page in my sketchbook to hang on the wall. So I rip it out, and then Ella is hungry. And when I get her some raisins, the others want some too. And now it's lunchtime. And I think I've maybe started drawing a small little head with shoulders, with a scribble of crayon next to it. And so it goes. It's almost like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."

I absolutely love being creative the kids, but, I'll be honest... I haven't really found any solutions to getting real art work done except for when they are tucked soundly in their beds. I wish it weren't so. But I've also come to the conclusion that making time isn't about getting any particular project done...it's just about making. Which, hello, is the fun of it, right? But even though I get to be creative at night, I've made it a point to be more creative and draw while they are. And even if I never get to turn a page in my sketchbook, I've seen how valuable it is to draw for myself while they are creating. Instead of only teaching, or giving ideas,etc. I am making more of a point this year to let them see me drawing.

Which actually brings me to another topic: often, since they know mom can "draw anything" ...it's actually a fine line I walk with drawing with them. Often when I do draw, they just ask me to draw for them. And when I stand off and let them come up with their own ideas, they can sit at the table for a really long time.

But, seeing mom draw and mess up is something we're working on right now. Even last night's bedtime story was about a time when I learned that all art is beautiful and mess-ups only lead to new ideas. It's really amazing to create and teach my kids about creation...their needs are always changing, and so are mine. I love it.

So it's funny...even though the house is filled with tape and scissors and glue, and there is a constant source of pencils & paper in any given place in the house....even though we make together all the time and do creative  projects together....sometimes I forget to just forget about my "projects" and just play just like my kids do. Silly, really.

So, I'm putting pressures of deadlines aside, and just playing more this year. It's more important than I ever realized to say it out loud...kinda like losing weight or giving up caffein. So, there. I said. it. But truthfully, like any profession that you love...once it's something you get paid for, it's easy to forget to play. Something that a busy mommy can easily forget. Man! Why do we forget so easily? Being a responsible adult is nice and all, but isn't playing what makes it all worth it? So. Playing. It's good. And it needs to be given a bit more attention. I can just here the Goddess of Play now. She's saying, "Thank you. It's about time."

Today.

Memorial Day.

When I was a child, it was just another day off. One day closer to summer vacation.

But since, it's turned into a wonderfully sacred day of remembering those in my life who aren't with me any more, and who have lived remarkable lives...the kind I want to be known for living. Every year,  we arrive at the cemetery early...as the sun is rising in the east behind the mountains. Every year I look forward to the quiet, the green grass, the sun streaming across the flower covered lawns. I get to be silent, remember and look back.  But somehow, each year on this morning, I find myself looking forward; renewing myself to living the life I was born to live. Being more of the person that those who have since gone on have inspired me to be.

Today I'm thinking about renewal. Mornings. Isn't is interesting? Mourning= Morning. There are a lot of people I miss, but each one has inspired me to take a little courage and live more fully.

And I'm thankful.