“Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.”

~Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Thinking a lot about this lately. Walls. How hard do I want to climb/push/chisel my way through? Why do they come, and when do they go down? Profound thought from Randy Pausch. Can’t say I have read the book, but now I am going to. Found this from my sister-in-law and had to post it. Gives me hope that brick walls only come down to the determined, faithful, persistent and passionate. What is on the other side is worth the waiting.

Found a new favorite vintage kids online store. Bianca and Family. Dreaming of redoing Addie and Ian’s room, and getting a whole lot of inspiration!

Billet Marion

Cyril Auvity

Matilou

Sarah Jane

More updates on the newsfront: Sarah Jane is in Paris…again! L’affiche Modern (English translation is “the modern poster”) is a French fine art print e-shop with work from graphic artists, photographers and children’s illustrators. Their prints are for adults and children a like, and they are now selling 4 of my prints on fine art poster paper! I am thrilled! The company contacted me a while ago, and everything has finally gone through! (Sending contracts and proofs from Paris and back does take some time!). I love their designs! And I love that I don’t have to package and ship anything I sell! This is so the way to go! You may remember Lilipinso & co. who is also distributing some other pieces of mine…also located in France. I may just need to be making a trip out there sometime…any excuse I can get, right? Check out the site here.

When I first heard about Stephanie Neilson (the plane crash, the blog, and her amazing family) I immediately noticed a few things. Besides how overcome and impressed I was with her family, I noticed their amazing family pictures they had taken only 3 weeks before the crash. I was smitten by how the photography completely captured the love this family had for each other.

By searching through Nie Nie’s archives, I found the info I had been searching for. Wendy of Blue Lily Photography was the talent behind the lens, she lived in California and she was coming to Utah in October. I couldn’t have felt more lucky. This woman is gold. She is magic even. She had exactly 1/2 hour with our family in the Orchards (she was only in town a few days and had over 35 families to shoot), which frankly I was terrified about (it can take me 1/2 hour to try and get my kids in the car! how could she capture my family in 1/2 hour!)

But like I mentioned before: Wendy is Magic. She LOVES kids and LOVES people and has a gift. These are just a FEW of the pictures I love. I am having the hardest time deciding my favorites!

If you are ever in the market for family pictures, find out her travel schedule. And get a slot FAST! She is quite the popular gal. Check out her blog here. Thanks so much Wendy! We love you to pieces!

In this day an age, we are split doing many things. No longer does the woman stay at home all day with the kids, she is homeschooling; or teaching music lessons from her home; or has a daycare; or she is a soccer coach; or even has a side business. Sometimes I forget all this since it seems times have changed all so slowly. (what? it isn’t 1952 anymore?)

And yet, we still want to dedicate ALL of our time to one thing inparticular. In my case, I want to be COMPLETELY 100% at home, or I want to dedicate an ENTIRE DAY to my art. I have talked about this before: times are different now. We are required to have split focus. I don’t believe that this requires a frantic, A.D.D approach to life. Quite the opposite. It requires us to be FULLY present in what we are doing in the moment. I have found that true satisfaction with a job or task you are doing is to be completely aware of that task (i.e. not coming up with your next blog post while you are feeding your children dinner…just feed your kids dinner, and enjoy the experience!)

Since our lives are scattered between so many things, being present is even more important. And also that much more difficult. Take being in a yoga class for instance. What is the main focus? Listening to your breath. The simplest most basic of functions can be one of the hardest to become aware of. Yet when we do allow our minds to only sense what it going on in ONLY that second, there is an incredible sense of wholeness and fullness.

Same thing applies to our multi-tasking. We must be living in the present in every task we are accomplishing to achieve that same sense of wholeness and wellness. And again…one of the most challenging things to accomplish. But during dinner I was thinking about the crisis of going to the post office yesterday and forgetting it was Veterans day which means my customers will get their packages a DAY late. By dwelling on that, dinner was a chore rather than a moment to connect! (I did realize my flaw early on, and completely enjoyed my husbands made-from-scratch lasagna…yummy:)…and seeing my daughters new found love of mozzarella cheese). But my point is, just because we multi-task doesn’t mean we have to think about all things all the time. Quite the opposite. We must think about one thing at a time, and trust that will be enough.

I didn’t think this post would be as long as it is: but my thoughts this morning were prompted by a blog post I read from a retailer of mine in the UK, Livy & Me. She admitted to going into teaching full time this year, and wanted to tell her customers (she is the owner of Livy & Me: unique baby gifts) that her store would still be going strong. She also referenced a site that caught my attention: Business run by humans: a site deticated to REAL LIFE PEOPLE running REAL LIFE BUSINESSES (which is most of us I think).

People aren’t going to get a recording when they call you, they aren’t going to get a template email…they are going to get YOU. And YOU is a busy multi-tasker full with many other facets of your life: something that you should be proud of…not stressed about. It also causes problems…like a few weeks ago when I was really sick, and spent the afternoon in the hospital…business slowed down a bit. And I had an upset customer. But once she knew I was REAL, and REAL LIFE happens, things were cool.

Being real for your customers is as important as being real for your spouse, or kids, or friends. So in a sense, what we do all day DOES fall under one umbrella: Being REAL. And oh, what a gift that is! And it can infact be a wonderful experience…but only when we take it one at a time, and live completely in the moment of what we are doing NOW. NOW is REAL. So, enjoy the now, and you will enjoy it ALL!

Happy thoughts and love!

xoxo

Sarah Jane

{Sorry! no pictures today! my picture insert button is asleep or something…guess that makes me real!}

This weekend, I was introduced to some great new ways to keep in touch on line. Though I have heard of Twitter for a while, I really wasn’t all that interested in finding out about yet ANOTHER way to kill time on the computer. Getting on the computer is hard enough around these parts! But after learning how it works, I have found it is even less time consuming than email, or blogging…and a great way to keep people informed about what is going on in your life…on your website…or blog. I am mostly going to be using it to keep you up on conversations that revolve around my studio, but I also want to keep in touch with you! With how busy we all are and yet how much we still want to keep up with each other, twitter is the best answer! Learn more about it here:

So, sign up, and FOLLOW ME (username: sarahjanestudio) And I will follow you back!

Sending happy tweets.

xoxo

Sarah Jane

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!

I have been waiting for this weekend for a long time…Startup Princess is having an all women entrepreneur retreat in Park City Utah this weekend, and I am ready to soak it all in like a dry sponge. The weekend’s topics: Learn the Magic of Marketing to Women Online. Speakers include Gabrielle Blair from Kirtsy and Design Mom, Holly Buchanan and Michelle Miller authors of the Soccer mom myth , Janet Meiners Thaeler and expert on internet and affiliate marketing. I am also so excited to meet some attendees there: Gwen Bell from Kirtsy, Marie LaBaron from Make and Takes among others. I plan on coming back with LOTS and lots to share! And if you are in Utah, email me. It may not be too late to come and join up!

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

Don’t forget to stop by the shop!

Christmas is here, and we all have our wish lists for our kids. Or, our kids have wish lists for us. Either way, here is a fantastic place to find creative play toys all in ONE place.

About them: “LivingPlaying.com is an online store providing high-quality educational and developmental toys, products, and publications that enable parents to teach, guide and inspire their children through creative play.”

Wooden kitchens, wooden cars, puppet theaters, unique decor, doll houses, construction toys, even montessori toys. My kind of store!

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

Thomas S. Monson

Oh how true!!! The total chaos around the house (like Ian pulling out the entire roll of toilet paper and his new found skill of sneaking utensils out of the kitchen and putting them in the washing machine) is simply physical proof that I live with angles. Funny angels. Clever angels. Know-how-to-push-me-to-my-limit angels…but angles. Oh…I wish they could just stay tiny forever! I just hope that when we are all big and fat and old, that we will still love each other just as much…maybe even more. But I sometimes find that hard to imagine! Just stay little!

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!

Take lots of pictures!

The dress came in the mail at 3 pm Halloween afternoon, and that was the end of being a Witch for the night! I actually video taped her opening the box…and Oh! The dramatic response when she saw what it was. What an amazing dress!

As we were putting the dress on, Ian ran back to his room, grabbed his “prince” crown and his blanket for me to tie up as a cape. He immediately bowed to Addie and asked for the next dance. He is such a romantic…and well, it doesn’t help that he has an Anne of Green Gables for a sister. And…well, I am not much better. I wonder where he gets it from!

This dress is a dream, and Addie is in heaven wearing it. We wore it trick or treating and let me tell you the comments we got! She was quite the featured trick-or-treater. (We only went to maybe 8 doors and took our time going door to door. They will get older one day and figure out faster walking = more candy) We ended up carrying her up each door step making sure she wouldn’t step on this masterpiece. And that is what it is. A masterpiece.

I still feel a little guilty for having such an amazing dress..and so popular at that! I am just tickled to see how regal Addie becomes when she wears it. Her manners are perfect, and she becomes royalty. And in response, Ian becomes royalty too. We are already planning a party around this dress! And oh, what a ball it will be.

Since we are getting our place ready to sell, I realized I don’t really have any decent pictures of my Addie and Ian’s room. It is quite a tight space: all of their toys, clothes and beds fit into this little space that I can’t even take a full picture of because I can’t stand back far enough! But Small Spaces require creativity, which is my favorite kind of problem to handle.

Details:

- “Manners can be Fun”: Anthropologie. Published in 1936. My mother used to read this to me, and I am sure her mother read it to my mother. Fantastic illustrations. We bring this down when the kids need a little more reenforcement besides mom and dad.

- “The LIttle House” is on my top 5 children’s books of all time. If you haven’t read this, you need to.

- Letter A: from Anthropologie. On sale for $6

- Toad likes to hang out up here, but he often comes down to play.

- Wooden display cabinet I hand painted a while back

- Babaar print: We purchased a print while in France at a flea market. I am sure you can get them in the states though. I just liked the size…and that it was from Provence.

- IKEA shelves are a lifesaver. Not only do they fit everything, but they are square. I like squares. And White.

-The felt Crowns are from Cakies. We love these!

-Vintage alphabet poster $4 at a book arts paper store

There are more details I didn’t catch here…but all the more reason for me to take pictures when we move into our new space!

Categories: just for kids, my family, on being an artist
13 Comments

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!

Remember the fun Addie and I have been having with Paper Dolls? Well, time to do some paper-dolling together. This is Mazie, named after my great-grandmother. Though I don’t remember her, I bet she was as cute. I may just get some paper dolls in the shop…all colored and ready to play with. But I thought I would test the waters first and also let you have fun coloring in all the details! Get some ideas on how they look colored here.

So have some spooky fun! This Mazie is a lot like my daughter…you never really know what she is going to wear…Especially for halloween. A vintage-y witch, a french Dutchess or Little Red Riding Hood. Have fun choosing! Download the Free HIgh-Res PDF file here.

Feel free to spread the word and tell your friends with a link here.

Happy Halloween!

Categories: just for kids, my art, updates
17 Comments

(Addie in my espadrilles)

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.

George Bernard Shaw

My motto of the week. For years we have been dreaming of a house. I personally, have been dreaming of a cottage cozied up in a deep green forest with only birds and deer for neighbors. And for the upteenth time, we are on the search to find it again. And I truly believe that what you want most will in fact become a reality as you turn that wish into action.

So, this week, is get the condo ready to sell week. I have high hopes to get some more wonderful treats out for you this week in the shop, and I will keep this motto close to me as I go for it.

This week I imagine:

A clean sparse apartment to show

New art and goodies in the shop

And maybe that cottage in the woods.

Or at least…A house with room enough to be a mom AND an artist. We have been feeling a little crammed lately, but oh so grateful to have a roof over our heads.

Here’s to dreaming! Make a wish, Make it happen!

Holy Cow. I really can’t believe it. But I have to tell you.

I actually WON the marie-antoinette inspired dress from Grosgrain. I am still a bit in shock! With 1,003 entries, the odds were as slim as they come! I never win ANYTHING, so actually, about 6 months ago, I just stopped entering my name in giveaways since it just seemed like such a waste of time. Well, this dress obviously caught my attention, and since I have a daughter who literally says things like “Oh mother, you truly look lovely today”, would sleep in necklaces and lace if I let her and can be found singing to her “true love” when ever she enters a grove of trees, I had to enter. Oh I am glad I did! I can’t wait to show you pictures after it comes in the mail. This woman is AMAZING and I think that she is pretty much a genius when it come to children’s design. Check out her other designs here. Oh…and the best part. She is opening a shop in two weeks! Oh the world is a sweet place.

I am really excited about this print. I remember as a girl sitting at my kitchen window at the snowy forest behind our house so calmed by the misty gray that winter brings. I really love the magic in the winter forest…so delicate and quiet. But then the Cardinal would come and draw my complete attention. He was like a sign of hope. My heart would race, and I would beg him to say a while. It amazes me the God would be so creative to think of making a RED bird that loves to come out in the white winter. He is such an artist:)

And so, this new friend of mine gets to meet this little fellow and share a moment. or two. or three. Just a stare. nothing more is needed to be filled with warmth of the red bird.

So…A new print for the shop! And this same image is going to be used for my GIFT CARDS coming up!! I am so excited! I think these are so precious, and I would love to get one of these in the mail, or as a present!

The way these will work is simple:

When you order the gift card, you will specify whether you want this emailed to you or snail-mailed to you. I will then write, or email you, the CODE that the recipient will use when purchasing. To redeem the gift card, all your recipient needs to do is to email me at the email listed on the card, and I will fill the order!

Simple, eh? Hope so! (there are more details in the actual listing in my shop)

Ahhhh….though it is still fall, this print is making me long for the quiet snow!