Family Portraits.

Last week, my dear friend from college called me up to say she was going to be in town for just the day and that she had one more slot left for a family photo shoot. It was totally last minute, and I tried to make every excuse under the sun not to go...It had been a full weekend, I had had a really hard day, and I knew it would be a scramble to get everyone ready, I would most likely have wild hair, messy kids and who knows if they'd be fed!

But we haven't had family portraits in years...and I always seem to be putting it off! No more.

Tara is amazing. I met Tara the same day I met my husband. We were in the same freshman year at BYU studying musical theater, and became fast friends. When it came time to create our senior projects, I wouldn't have wanted to pair up with anyone but her. I went on to perform for a bit, and teach voice, and she went on to tour and then to New York to get her master's at NYU. She is one of the most driven people I know! But after years of all that, she settled down and started a (booming) photography business a little after I settled down and started my illustration work. Funny how two girls who had eyes set for broadway so long ago, both ended up starting businesses that could support our families at home.  She looks through lenses and captures moments. I draw mine on paper.

So, these are the first pictures we've taken as a family since before Ella was born. And it's about time.

She does such a wonderful job just capturing the moments that count. No fluff. We just played in the meadow in the mountains, and she took pictures. My kind of evening.

Moments. Real moments. No posing. No fake-y stuff. Ask my kids to pose, and you get Charlie Chaplin.Well, that's cute too.

Thank you Tara! There are even more pics on her blog if you want to go see....they are bigger and and so precious!

And PS: (cause I know you will ask me!) Yes, she travels. It's so worth it.  So glad we scrambled in the car and made it happen. We drove home singing the whole way and had a pizza night afterwards. Perfect day.

Haunted House Halloween Cut-out

The past few Halloweens, we've started some fun making traditions. Remember these and these?

Well, we've also made these haunted houses, and I figured I should document it and let you in on some fun too!

So far this month, we've made about a dozen of these...so  many that they have even stapled them together and turned them into "Haunted House Book" collection. Each page sports a new variety of spooky things in the window. This is hours of entertainment for sure!

You can download the PDF download that I made here, and follow the instructions. But just to prove that it's simple and easy, here are some picture 'how-to's'

Cut out the template and trace onto black paper

Cut out the black paper (with yellow underneath to make a really cool candle it window effect!) We've traditionally just mounted these on white paper...so either way works!

Remove the yellow paper, and cut out the windows with an exacto knife

haunted house 7

Glue

...and then draw spooky window creatures!

There are really endless options with this template, so have fun!

And here is Ian saying "ONE picture mom. Just one!" What? I like to take a lot of pictures? No.

haunted house 2

Have so much fun!

Here's the download for ya:

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE

DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS

Happy Halloween!

Simple.

Hello!

Well, where did this week go? I've been crouching in front of a computer this week madly uploading, designing, and finishing up a website for Sarah Jane Studios. It's really wonderful to finally have a "space" for everything...all in one place. But wow....there are details that I had no idea about. Kinda like building a house.

"You mean I have 26 choices of light switch covers?"

Kinda like that. I just want white light switch covers. Just plain white.

Also kinda like when I went to get lunch boxes at Target for my kids the week before school. We've never done lunch at school before. I was loftily thinking there would be a few pails, some girl and some boy. Maybe I'd get lucky and find Shinzi Katoh at Target. I get hopeful like that.

But then I walked down to the school section and found an ENTIRE ISLE of all these soft, insulated, hard, colorful, strapped, velcroed, snapped, zippered, vertical, horizontal, super-hero, princess, gender neutral, animal shaped, mountain hiker, posh, cheap, comes with a thermos, comes without a thermos, looks-like-Mom-chose-this, looks-like-my kid-chose-this  choices and I was frozen in the the middle of the isle. Paper bag lunches were looking pretty good at this point.

Keeping it simple can sometimes be hard. Cause there is a lot of "fluff" you have to wade through to get there. That's where I've been all week. Trying to keep thing clean and simple.

When some of the pears were picked this week and laid on the table, it was like a breath of fresh air. Picking your own pears off the tree. That's simple. I hope this site does just that. Keeps things happy, inspiring and simply simple.

I'm not there yet. The blog is still messy, and well....my site isn't live yet.

But I promise it will be wonderful. Kinda like a really great weekend.

Happy Weekend!!!

xo

sarah

His Giant Pet

Every year that we've had a garden, we've grown a giant pumpkin. If you've ever grown a giant pumpkin, you know the risks involved. I mean, this is really risky stuff.

How get a pumpkin to be as big as possible has been the subject of many books and websites. And then, of course, there are secrets. Deep dark secrets.

None of which we know actually.

But...basically, you have to cut off all the pumpkins that grow on the vine, except for one. And you water and nurture and care for ONLY that one.

This is serious stuff.

(The joke is, that the summer Kenneth and I backpacked through Europe B.C. (before children), Kenneth grew his first ever giant pumpkin. We were gone for 6 weeks, and we asked my college aged brother to care for the garden, and pick any squash for himself. Well, he thought that the pumpkin was squash for picking. Kenneth had taken 4 months to care for that one pumpkin. But miraculously, a late bloomer appeared that was growing between 2 loose fence beams, and we actually had to alter the fence to let it grow. It of course never had time to get much bigger than any normal pumpkin, but that didn't matter. The pumpkin even had a name. Halloween came, and we took a road trip, in which this pumpkin was buckled in a seat belt and traveled with us. This is how we feel about our giant pumpkins, folks.In our house, it's as serious as growing children. Um....ok, maybe not that serious...but you get the point!)

Last year, Ian's giant pumpkin was rather small. Too shady. This year, it was Addie's turn for bad luck (although she grew a watermelon nearly that weighed nearly as much as she does!)

Ian has been caring for this big guy since April. Seven months has watered, tended to and checked on his pumpkin. If you have been a house guest in the past 7 months, you haven't been able to walk in the door without him grabbing your hand and dragging you to the garden to show off his pumpkin.  It's almost become a pet!

I have no idea how we are even going to get it inside. He's determined to carve it, but right now, we're not even sure if it will fit in the wheel barrel without denting a side.

But I don't think he really cares about that. Can you tell?

Keeping it real.

Hi you guys. I just came back from an awesome vacation. Well, STAY-cation. No work. No deadlines to worry about. No phone calls. Just home on a cold, cozy weekend with just the 5 of us. It was perfect.

We played, read, cooked, ate, roasted marshmallows, danced, sang, snuggled in blankets, and just enjoyed "being." We didn't even get in the car once. It was awesome.

Then I got on Pinterest, looking for ideas on how to "someday" finish the kitchen, and I got to thinking about all these "perfect" spaces that we are so used to seeing on blogs and all over the web.

Golly, sometimes I wish we could just see some jam on the floor in those designer room interiors! I mean, that would for sure give me a better inclination to see if that floor color would really "work" in my house.

And while I was getting ready to tidy up this weekend (singing along to the Weepies, and not really caring if I got to the bedrooms...this was a stay-cation after all!) I realized that this is home. I hate having a messy house. I really do. But I also know that I am REALLY going to miss it in 15+ years. Really miss it.

Toys on every floor in the house  means there are little people in my life who make me so ridiculously happy.

Crumbs on the floor means Kenneth made 2 loaves of fresh 5 grain bread, in which 1 was entirely devoured in 10 minutes. And what ever didn't make into little mouths, ended up on the floor. With jam, of course.

My shoes all over the house means I have girls who really like really to play Mommy. Lint on the floor means I have a really lousy IKEA rug that sheds. There really isn't anything too happy about that one, except that, well, we have rug.

Clothes that end up everywhere means I have really creative children who would rather  1) be naked or 2) be an impersonation of something besides themselves. Every. Single. Day.

Chalkboards  in most rooms mean I have chalk dust on my floors constantly. But I also get pretty pictures (and menus) all the time. Oh, and notice the french invitation to Addie's Cafe. Completely illegible and spelled wrong, but she reads it in a very french accent and it makes me giggle.

Corn that never got picked (I don't know if we just forgot, or never knew when the right time to pick it) means we have awesome fall decorations for our kitchen table now.

An overgrown side yard means there are magical pathways for exploring.

An un-weeded garden means that we spend most of our time picking and watering and preparing fresh veggies, rather than weeding.

And messy hair means I get great pictures out of my baby.

See? It's not so bad. I'm starting a revolution.

**And speaking of messy, I'm in the process of redoing my blog and building a website...so expect some changes, which I'll address very soon!**

things I wish I made.

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Ok. So have you been browsing over at the Children at Play Flickr Group?

Heavens to Betsy.

I just have to show you some of the complete wow-yummy-ness going on.

And this is just a taste...like a little sip of what's over there.Actually, it's just a taste of the girl stuff. There is just as much boy that I'm not showing you!

Need ideas for handmade girly Christmas presents? Click on over and get inspired.

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he's outside the box.

Last night (late!) while I was working, I caught wind that Steve Jobs died. While we all knew that he resigned from Apple, had been struggling with cancer for years, I felt the universe quiet down for a moment. I didn't even know him. Never seen him in person...I don't even think I've seen him in video. But I've read of his life, read his words, and seen his work (and listened to it!) And while it was late, I had to sketch out in my journal this quote that I've come to love so much.

The world is a different place because people like Steve worked hard, fought, tried NOT to fit in and make ideas happen. He came to earth with a mission. I love this that he said:

'We're here to put a dent in the universe' ~ Steve Jobs

After my car accident this year (did I mention I had two? The other was a snow related accident where  my car slid down a steep hill out of control and stopped feet before a big drop off.) Ya. It's been quite the year. I've wondered so much about those two close to death experiences, and while there are SO many ways I realize I have changed because of it, I really resonated with these words from Steve Jobs. Ever since those incidences, time is even more valuable. Fear is stupid. Or, if it's there, it reminds me that I am mortal and that I am in constant search for divine help. I am reminded that I came here with incredible potential to do good. And every minute that is sucked into mindless surfing on the internet (which happens!) or even time spent worrying or wondering about the future rather than just doing something about it, I get angry that there are so many distractions all around us to keep us from "making that dent in the universe."

And believe me, you don't make a dent from wishing for, hoping for, or following someone else's dent. It's yours to make. And when you remember that your life is a ticking clock with a buzzer that someday really will go off, it can easily, at least for me, keep me moving and making and shaking.

Steve Jobs. Mover and Shaker. Curious and Determined. Visionary and Realist.

You brought us the ipod. But more than that, you set a course and revealed a path we often lose sight of.

You will be missed.

Want to hang out in my studio?

Hello Friends!

Utah's channel 5 did a sweet little interview with me in my home studio last night (on their We Are Utah segment), and I wanted to invite you into my studio to have a look! Steve Olpin came to my house last month, and was so fun to work with. Working with a freelance videographer versus a news show host made all the difference, and I felt so relaxed to just spend time in the studio and reflect on my perspective on being an artist. And while I HATE talking about myself and what I do, it was really nice to put a little cap on why I do what I do, and how I got to where I am!

So, enjoy...and take this as a little open house invitation into my small studio space! Without, unfortunately, the hot cocoa and cookies that I'd have out if you really did come over to hang out.