I'm so excited! You've been asking, and we've put it together: The 2015 Sarah Jane Calendar. Twelve of my newest illustrations...one for each month. It's lovely! It comes with a string, ready to hang.
There is a limited quantity, so hurry before they are gone!
Happy Holidays everyone, and I hope you are enjoying this lovely month of December.
Calendar available here.
Black Friday Sales are here! And we are offering a huge discount to the entire store. I hope you enjoy this final sale of the year! We are so thankful this holiday season for all the support you've given, and we are so happy to say thank you this weekend! In addition to wallpaper, prints and necklaces, we have sale items that are new as well as downloadable Christmas items!
Happy Holiday season to you all, and enjoy!
xo Sarah
It's been a while since I've made new paper puppets in the shop! They are one of my best sellers, and I know you have so much fun making these! This summer, we had an amazing Midsummer Event that I helped to host, and I made these articulated puppets for the event. And now you can print and download them! It's a little late for Midsummers, but these puppets are perfect for a folksy halloween!
There are four characters from the play A Midsummer Night's Dream that I felt were the most fun. I actaully was in this play in highschool and it was such a great experience! It's so playful and fun, and timeless!
The story is that The King of the Fairies (not shown) wants to seek revenge on the Queen of the fairies and orders Puck, a spritely elf, to make a magical flower potion and use it on Titania so that she falls in love with the first thing that she sees. Puck has mischieviously turned Nick Bottom's head into the head of a Donkey just for fun, and places him in view of the Fairy Queen. Puck requires the help of the fairy to carry out the plan, and it ends up being a hilarious whimsical practical joke!
I hope you enjoy making these puppets! They are printable on any home computer, but I do suggest that you print on heavier paper so that the puppest can hold their own weight when help upright. You will need to purchase mini-brads to fasten them together (available at any craft store in the scrapbook deparment). You'll also need a pushpin, scissors, tape and a wooden dowel or stick to hold the puppets upright if you so wish.
The download also includes a procenium incase you would like to create a staged event!
These videos below were SO fun to make. Stop Animation is a new creative addiciton of mine, and it makes everything come to life! Trisha Zemp and I had so much fun putting this together. She's amazing to work with, and we had a l ittle too much fun.
(there are two videos FYI...the second is a white starting screen:) My kids love making stop animation videos on the ipad, and these puppets would be so much fun to make movies with. Check out all the other puppets I have in the shop! I hope to be adding more in the weeks and months to come!
Purchase and Download your puppets here, and you will get an email automatically in your inbox with the 7 page document ready to print out!
This thought has been consuming me lately. And it's been changing the way I think, and do things.
As I've been focussing on living more diliberately in all aspects of my life, this thought has been my anchor. Life is so full, isn't it? While I'm constantly recentering and focussing on my priorities, it's easy to feel like it's all consuming! All good things mostly:) but even too many good thing can be daunting!
But then I remember that "this" is what I was designed to do! And it's amazing what that simple thought can do.
Whatever your "this" is, know that you were designed for greatness and that you have access to everything you need to be who you were designed to be!
Love to you all this weekend!
xo
sarah
I don't seem to get my whole family in one picture very easily. Maybe it's because there are 6 of us, or because I'm always the one behind the camera, or maybe it's because life is always so full and someone is always scurrying off somewhere too fast! Probably All three:)
It was so wonderful to get family pictures with Tara B Photography! She and I went to BYU together studying musical theater, and now we each have our own creative businesses at home. I love watching women do what they love from home. It's the harest thing...but so rewarding. Thanks Tara!
Lately at home, things have been full. Very full. And I'm once again learning to find the balance of work and life with a new baby in the family. Motherhood is #1 in my book, but so is my illustration and design work. It's all so integral to me, as so much of what I'm learning as a mother influences what I want to say as an artist. I'm truly blessed.
This past year, I've had struggles with post-partum depression on and off. And it's something I have taken very seriously. The stress of young children and babies on your body, mind and spirit is very real. No matter how much you LOVE being a mom, and love your kids. Believe me. When it hit me that I was struggling...I mean..I love my kids! I prayed for each one of them! I struggled with infertility...so how could I possibly be suffering from this?
Turns out, stress...good and bad...messes with your body. And the reality of business and work and motherhood and no sleep and 4 very needy and tiny people to care for took it's toll on me.
I don't say this to complain as much as I just want to share the "real" part of what I do and how I do it. I really believe that none of us do what we do professionally with out some kind of personal set back. Or set backs. This one for me, has been very challenging. Albeit not SERIOUS, it's been a challenge that has required a lot of thought, diligence and perserverance.
My Post Partum Depression was kind of mixed with a bit of anxiety and adrenal fatigue too. Hard to say what exactly was what. But they all have similar symptoms, and so I'm just going to call it Post Partum.
How I've managed it so far:
1) Medical Help. First thing I did was to see my Dr and get my hormones checked. I was able to take care of a big bulk of it from managing my hormones, and I'm so grateful for that. I was also able to see that I was low in Vitamin B12 and D3, which are vital in maintaining positive moods and energy.
2) Sleep. It was so important that I take more off my plate so that I could rest. Naps were key. My body needed to heal and regulate, and sleep was paramount to that.
3) Home Help. One of the hardest things I did was get a nanny a few months after Anders was born. I felt like I was giving up! But sleep was SO important, and I needed someone to watch Ella so I could sleep when my baby slept. So important in those early months. Now that Anders is older, I have help at home so that I can work within a schedule, which has helped tremendously.
4) Diet. I'm not in any way consistent here, but eating a whole foods diet was huge in healing my mind, body and spirit. Cutting the sugar and processed foods...of any kind...worked wonders. Not the easiest for me to maintain, but every effort made a difference. I've been following Deliciously Ella and Sarah Wilson for some time now, and they are my heros.
5) Slow Down. This was a hard one. I am a workaholic (in a lot of ways) and it was really hard for me to admit I needed more time to get illustration and design work done. Allowing myself to be abit slower, put things aside and actually say no to some projects was key.
6) Love Yourself. In all the whirlwind of a first year with new baby and recovering from a bed ridden pregnancy, I realized that some of my depression was from how long it was taking to heal and get back to normal. I was comapring myself to other women, who of course weren't having the same life I was, and was feeling like I was falling short. Bad Form!! Treating myself with love and respect for all that I was doing well took a while to learn. But so key in healing from PPD.
7) Massage Therapy. I found an amazing massouse who I went to in order to help me with all those pent up emiotions that I knew were still inside even after I had "healed." I could just "feel" that things were still stuck in there, and I needed help getting it out. It was amazing! Your body is such an amazing machine, and after a month of getting massages, so many of my symptoms were improving.
8) Support. I'm super lucky that I have a rock-star husband who "gets it" and is my partner in crime in every way. We pick up eachother's slack. He's never made me feel ashamed for the times I wasn't able to do as much as I usually do. He's the one that's been my therapist through the really dark times and my cheerleader throught the bumpy ones.
9) Simplifying. You don't have to have 4 young children and run a demanding business from home to get yourself out of balance. Life is full for all of us, and is unfortunatly becoming the norm for many of us. Reading ESSENTIALISM was a turning point for me (I'll talk more on this later) and learning how to focus on what's most important,and letting everything else fall to the wayside.
10. Unplug. One of the best things I did this summer was spend it mostly away from technology and out in the great outdoors. (One of the main reasons I blogged less this summer!) It sounds so simple, but really, getting out in the elements and just being surrounded by God's beautiful creations, did wonders. We went back to my home town in Maryland and did a family camp in the forest and I couldn't have been happier. Since then, taking walks, watching the sunset, and being in the sunshine have been wonderful.
Now, I'm going to be really clear and say that I never had PPD to the point where professional help was needed. I'm just mentioning these things in the case that there is someone else out there that needs to read this and can find help through some simple and basic help!
I'm still learning how to make sure that I'm taking care of ME through all this (I tend to be the give-give-give type). And all that takes sensitivity, hard work, and a lot of listening, prayer and love. But it's vital to being successful in all aspects of our lives, and I'm so happy to report that I've made it through the hardest parts, and am now determined to thrive through this next phase as I keep up my quest for happiness and wellness in all areas of my life. I have a few more things that I know will help me more that I haven't done consitently enough to mention like exercize, herbal supplements, and meditation...all of which have helped So much! I just need to make them a more daily part of what I do. I'll report back when I have more of success story there:)
Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share? I know this is a topic that is complicated yet so far reaching. It's not easy for me to share, but so important to! I'd love to hear your experiences as well. Love to you all!!
xoxox
Sarah
This week marks 7 years of being my own business. 7 years? Crazy. More on that later. I have lots to share!
But it seems like after all this time, with more and more work to do, I'm finding it harder and harder to share here in this space! With the loads of work that goes on behind the scenes here in the studio, it's just not happening as much as it used to at the moment. When you are illustrating books, designing fabric, writing books, finishing up custom work, and designing new collections there seems to be little room for anything else at the moment:) It might be time to hire some interns for that. Something to think about!
But there is still time to doodle! Here's a little doodle that makes me happy today.
I'll be sharing more about my 7 year journing this month! And I'll be celebrating with you! Yay!
xo Sarah
One of the reasons I've taken a bit of time off blogging, is simply because life is SO full. All it took was traveling during the summer months where I didn't have my good access to wifi and a computer as much, and my routine of showing up here was broken. No regrets really, except that I realized in those months, how MUCH time was being deticated in my life to things I felt I SHOULD be doing, rather than what REALLY mattered to me in my family and in my career. Case in point: I often feel I don't have time to truly get down and dirty in my creative process because of the contant distractions of kids and family life, yet if I were to add up the total minutes and hours spent on my phone or doing completely unessential things in my day, it would total up to just the amount of time I need in my day to make progress in my art! How is that? It's more than just "priorities" it's about proactively protecting your time, and allowing space in your day to deticate to the things that matter. Much easier said than done!
But as I've been studying this principle of LESS, BUT BETTER in my own life, I've felt the need to document my journey a bit more and share what I'm learning along they way.
In May, when my sleep deprived from the newborn stage, busy and full life came to a head, I started realizing that I was having mini panick attacks from all that there was to DO. I have always known that I can't do it ALL...but I am such a driven, passionate person, it's really hard to convince myself of just that!
Enter in Greg Mckeweon with his new book Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less (instant New York Times Best Seller, and an instant following of 2.5 million readers on his blog). I ran into his wife, who was a fellow musical theater student with me in my BYU days, and she told me about the book that just came out. I instantly bought it, and devoured it, and knowing that Greg was a brilliant mind, but also a father of 4 yound children living in the Sillicon Valley, I found his book extrememly relevant.
Since that point, I've actively been making changes in my habits and life that allow for more productivity to happen, while doing LESS in a given day. Something that I've actually been striving to find over the past few years, but never could find the resources to really make it relevant to my daily life.
I'm going to be sharing my journey here, in hopes that there are other women who can improve their level of happiness and satisfaction in their lives by disciplining our lives to truly get out of it what we want. I'm convinced that successful family life and successful creative business building doesn't have to be synonomous with overwhelmed, overtired and crazy living. It's something that I've felt I've managed well, but needs to be better for me to really feel like all that I have been pursuing is truly successful to me.
As I document my journey to maintain a level of happiness, wellness and productivity that allows me to keep my priorities of being a happy mother, happer person and successful creative, I hope you'll join me and add your experiences! This is a conversation that REALLY needs to be had...espeicially when we are sucked into the culture of information overload, idea overload, and just overload in general. We can't do it all. Yet, we are subconciosuly sold the idea that doing more will get us more. I've been seeking the proof that doing less is actually better, but hadn't found the documented proof until I found this book.
How to weed out the trivial many and focus on the essential few...while still being present...and successful...in your creative industry, your home and your personal life. This has been my quest this past year, and I want to take you with me.
Are you in?
xo
Sarah
Image: {Greg McKeweon and his wife Anna with me and my husband after Greg's Keynote address}
How's this for some happy friday news?
Design Mom is hosting a Giveaway of my wallpaper here. The giveaway ends today, or over the weekend...it's unclear...so hurry on over!
I'm so excited to share more images of the wallpaper. It's been a dream to work with! Fabric wallpaper and decals that are peel and stick, removeable, reusable, wrinkle-out-easy, nearly impossible to rip (At least I haven't yet, and I've been pretty rough with them) made in the USA, eco-friendly and kid safe. The colors are gorgeous, and I honestly couldn't be happier with this new line!
