Birthday Party Giveaway

Two years ago today, I took a really, really big leap of faith: I started selling my art work. I had no idea my art would be accepted or interesting, but I did it anyways because I had to. Part of being an artist includes a need to share, give and express. Opening my ETSY shop 2 years ago filled that need.

And it's been 2 years! What started from a corner computer desk in our small apartment bedroom has grown to a 4 person operation. I have met some incredible people, made valuable connections and have grown so much as an artist since that day. I am so glad I made big leap: it was scary, but oh so worth it. It's been an incredible journey for myself as well as for my family, and I want to thank you for your support! It has meant so much!

*You must indulge me for a second while I take a couple lines to thank the person who is responsible for why I am still here: my incredible side-kick and better half. My husband has been so generous with his efforts: countless dinners made, laundry done, floors vacuumed and children tended to so that I could squeeze in "just one more hour" of time to my passion. Without him, I would have burned out long ago. But he believes in me and has encouraged me the whole way. When I have wanted to just give up (and there have been a few sleep-deprived moments of "why am I doing this" kind of talk) he has been my cheerleader. And somehow through it all, we have had time still to be together as a family, run a small business, have a third baby and manage normal (and magical) family living. We have been truly blessed. He is my best friend.

Ok! Now for the fun stuff:

Every Party needs party favors...and this is a good one!

The Giveaway includes:

Gifts from my shop as well as Warm Biscuit Bedding Company: a wonderful online store...one of the first in the market to offer personalized and custom gifts and decor for children. My products have been in their online retail store for a while now and I have just loved their company. You are just going to love these:

A set of Matruoshka dolls

and 3 darling suitcases. You can't pass this up!

a Personalized Family Tree and

and a set of 10 Halloween Cards from Yours Truly.

• All you need to do is enter a comment below (just say "Hi", smile and wave...offer a suggestion...or just say "Happy Birthday")
• Thursday, I will present the winner here on the blog. Make sure to include your email address in your comment.
• Entries are valid through Wednesday at Midnight (EST)

But of course, we can't all win this one. So....

THIS WEEK ONLY:

FREE shipping atWarm Biscuit Bedding Companywhen you make a purchase and mention: Sarah Jane as your coupon code

and...

BUY 2 GET 1 FREE in my shop!

• Purchase TWO items in my shop.
• At the time of purchase, MENTION the FREE item you would like in the message to seller box.
• FREE items can only be equal to or LESS than the other items purchased.
• There is a cap of TWO free items for the entire order.

But remember: every good party comes to an end: Wednesday October 7th at midnight (EST) is your last chance!

Have fun everyone. And thanks so much for all your wonderful support and e-friendship (is that a word? well, it is now...and it's meant so much to me!)

Spread the word, and have fun at the party!

xo

sarah jane

My second set of hands.

Meet Emily Smith.

Over the past nearly 2 years, I have gone solo with printing, corresponding, updating, recording, illustrating, ordering, stocking and marketing. It's been great. But add 3 babies, illustrating a book and trying to squeeze a shower in every day, and it was obvious that I needed help. I have had April take on the printing jobs, and I just hired a new shipping hand whom I love, but Emily oversees it all. Some of you may have already had responses from Emily via email, and I wanted introduce you. Say Hello to Emily!

Isn't she wonderful?

Here's are some interesting facts about the woman keeping me together these days:

• She is the 7th of 10 children.
• She worked for General Electric for 10 years as a human resources manager.
• She lived in Boston for 10 years before getting married and starting her family.
• She now has a great husband, 2 boys, 2 horses, 1 pony, 2 cats, 2 goats and a dog. (City girl meets country girl!)

And my favorite interesting fact about her:

• She was the widowed Margaret Rey's roommate (the author of Curious George no less) for a year while she lived in Harvard Square and took care of her out of house needs until she died (for which she has some pretty amazing stories no doubt!)

Emily is amazing and will be keeping things moving for me. So say "Hello!"

Birthday giveaway!!!

Well. I'm here. I've left my 20's and have just stepped into the great-wide 30's. I've heard your 30's are the best years and I think I might even be a little excited to try them on for size. Experience tells me I don't really have a choice in the matter. So....big THREE ZERO here I come! So....wanna party with me? Presents are necessary for these kinds of events! And I can't help but to give some away today. I was trying to decide what to give away, and I just couldn't. So I am letting you choose! Well, two of you!

Two lucky winners will get this:

$50 gift card to my shop!

To enter:

All you need to do is leave a comment and you're in! And as a return favor, I'd love to see you add my blog to your side bar or links. Spread the word and let's have a party here:)

The giveaway will go until Friday at 10pm MST and I'll randomly draw numbers out of a hat and announce the lucky winners on Saturday. Best of luck to all!

But, since all of you can't get a party favor, I will be adding a free card of your choice to all orders made through Friday. All you need to do is mention "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" in your order, and the gift is yours!

Best of luck to all! Let's party!

Groups and such.

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!

Photoshoots.

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.

Cuts.

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

oil love.

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!

Startup Princess Reatreat: feelin' the love.

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!