Photography. The good kind.

While I was at ALT, I met such talented people. One of which was Sarah Wert of Modern Kids Photography. I'd visited her blog before (fantastic!) but I wasn't familiar with her work until now. And I love, love, love it! She was so willing to take a headshot for me (out in freezing cold I might add!)

Here are some more of her wonderful images. I've been craving good photography, as I've been without a good camera for so long. Aren't these precious?

If you are in the San Francisco area and could use some great family photography, you're in luck! I am so glad I got to meet Sarah in Salt Lake City. If only I had had my kids with me!

But the good news is, I am finally getting a new camera after my last DSLR died. Horray! I'll be posting more on that soon! Has't the digital DSLR changed the world? I mean really....there were such fewer options before it came around for the semi-professional/serious amateur photographer. Isn't it amazing? Do you have a fav. camera? I'd love to hear!

xo

sarah jane

A little super hero in me.....

My kids play super hero all the time. But one is usually the hero, and the other....his wife.

It's really cute, you know: Addie in her apron and clip-on earrings goes around making beds and singing tunes while she scrubs the floor with a pretty fabric remnant of mine.

Ian karate kicking imaginary villains out the window and clearing all evil out of the house while showing off his latest moves.

Put them together, and you have a turbo-deep cleaning-master-super-force.

That's what I am hoping to be over the weekend. Some weekends are for playing, but this one is a deep-cleaning and project making!

I hope you have a fantastic weekend! What about you? Are you working or playing this weekend? Hope you're playing...but if not, throw in a few karate kicks and a cute apron, and you'll be singing a tune for sure.

Embroidery love.

Wowzers! Thanks you guys for all your enthusiasm for working on embroidery with me! I had over 140 of you wanting to embroider for me to get my new spring designs out....yahoo! This is going to be so fun. If you haven't gotten an email yet, I'll be sending the rest out by tonight. And if this time doesn't work out, I have another project coming in April, so stay tuned! This is really so super exciting, and I am so ready to get these new designs out:) And most go with my new fabric, so doubly exciting! Stay tuned!

**If you want to still help, send me an email, but at this point the project is full. But I'll be saving your email for the april project. Thanks!

Wanna do an embroidery project with me?

Hello! So happy today is a friday. It's snowy and cold, but somehow I don't mind because there's a weekend. And weekends are usually busy here..but it's a weekend. And somehow that word just makes it all better. Yes?

So, this weekend, I am going to be working on some designs and projects that will be ready for spring. Which isn't that far away (even though it's freezing here and it's hard to believe). And I need your help. I am getting some new embroidery patterns ready for the shop, but I am hoping to have quite a few designs....and I don't think I'll be able to hand embroider all of them in the next 3 weeks.

So...I've posted this on twitter, so some of you are already in on the deal...but I am proposing an embroidery Sarah Jane swap. I need some help with getting embroidery finished in exchange for a complete set of free embroidery patterns, and some other goodies.

If you are a die hard hand embroidery gal, or just really love a good embroidery project (oh...and these are easy. Nothing complicated, I promise!) please email me and let me know if you are interested. I'd love it! And, I'd love to see people come together over some fun embroidery. I love it. I love that it's like drawing...just with thread. It's the perfect activity for 'before spring' weather too, yes? Yes. I agree.

So, send me an email, and I'll send you the details. This will be super fun...don't be shy! I'd love to hear from you. Hmmmm...I like this idea of working on a project together as fellow blogger friends. We should do this more often. Ooooh...ideas brewing. Well...send me a note and we'll chat!

Happy Friday all!

xoxo

sarah jane

Wanna design fabric?

I just got an email this week from Michael Miller letting us know that we can finally spread the word!

This is pretty amazing. A chance to design a collection of fabric with Michael Miller? I feel SO lucky to be one of their designers (even though I haven't even seen my own fabric yet!) and honestly, they are so amazing to work with. I feel seriously so, so, so happy working with them!

But there isn't just a one win prize...the top 10 finalists get some pretty sweet deals too. You can read all the deets here.

Go crazy! Start designing!

Organizing all that pretty stuff.

Pinterest. Have you heard? I just discovered it in January...maybe I'm slow...but I'm hooked.

Basically, it's an inspiration board for your online collections of all that stuff you love online. Being an artist, I'm constantly bookmarking, saving and downloading files that inspire me, give me some reference for a project I'm working on, or just plain make me smile. Huge problem solved! No more clogging up my "ideas" and "reference" folders on my desktop...now keep it all online, in categories for you  to reference!

It's seriously brilliant! I can just 'pin' any image I see online, and it goes right into my pinterest board. And it's a great way to keep track of the location of the image as well, so that you can find the original location as well as give credit to the original creator.

But beware. It's rather addicting. You can follow other people's boards, and make all sorts of friends...it's a heck of a lot of fun.

Do you have a pinterest board? Wanna follow mine? You can see it here. And if you have one...I wanna see:)

I just love brilliant people who think of these things. Don't you love smart people? The ones that make your life so much easier? I do. I love pinterest.

Drawing every day.

Ahhhhh.

I  just came back from a 3 day weekend with my husband. No kids. Just us! Oh my. I love  my kids....but getting away is really good. We haven't done something like that in 3 years...and it was much deserved! My poor sister might have had the biggest dose of birth control after tending them for the entire weekend, but hey. She's 20...so that's good:)

Over the weekend I caught up on much needed sleep. But I also allowed myself to draw and doodle with no agenda. Being a working illustrator can be a challenge because it's hard to justify the time to just "play." No agenda. No deadlines. Just play.

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And this weekend, I recommitted myself to doing just that. I need to make time to doodle more, play more, discover my art more. That sounds really easy, but when I only really get 2 hours to myself at night to work, playing is hard to justify...as well as hard to find. But I also know that creativity isn't something that just comes. Even for someone like me, who thrives in creativity, it doesn't come naturally all the time. It takes constant effort. And that is what I hope my commitment to draw every day will do for me. Running a business and raising a family  and working on books and fabric, keeps me from drawing for just me. No one else but me...for sheer pleasure. And that's made me a bit down. So....here's to making it happen!

Finn's Room.

I love seeing room tours. Don't you? This orange and grey nursery was featured on Oh Dee Doh yesterday, and when I caught sight of it I fell in love.  I love how she incorporated the "Take Me For A Walk" print. (I think that's an 11x14 size if I'm not mistaken).

And the colors work great. Some of my favorites.

Lillie did a great job putting this room together. You'll have to check out her blog and  photography too. Her photography is super wonderful!

Finn (don't you love that name?) has a great set up. I'm still working on ours...but I go back and forth too much with what I want. I admire Lillie for just going for it!

Thanks for sharing!

**If you have any prints of Sarah Jane art that you wish to photograph and share, please do! I love seeing the spaces you put in them in and how you choose to display:)