The chef party.

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a brother and sister who loved to eat sweets and loved to cook and make things together. So they decided to have the perfect sweet-eating, food-cooking, craft making birthday party.

It started out with mother making a table filled with sweets and good things to eat. But since she learned long ago the beauty of delegation, she miraculously found the best sweet-making queen in the land to make the cupcakes for the party. Queen Dusti at Tres Sucre went above and beyond with her strawberry frosting, white chocolate dipped, sprinkled covered marshmellow cupcakes. The most divine in all the land!!! (Seriously folks....we're talking break every new years resolution good! She caters...call her up and get some!)

Next the children each got their own apron to wear and take home for the party which were lovingly (and a little too quickly) made by Mother and Sister.

But every chef needs a chef hat, so we started the day with making paper hats. You know...it makes the food taste better when you where them!

Each child made their own personal pizzas, with pre-made dough provided by Father, the royal chef of the land. There was plenty of cheese for all!

After the pizza making extravaganza, the children had an in door picnic eating their hand-made pizza's. But they were also sitting a little too close to the sweets table, and soon claimed to be full enough so we could move on to the cupcake eating!

Wishes were made and candles were blown (spit on rather...thus the INDIVIDUAL cupcakes rather than a large CAKE until children are AT LEAST 6) and tummies were happy.

Presents were opened.

Presents were then worn

And played with

And then it was pinata time...with even more sweets for the already full children!

Hug and laughs and happy chefs left with happy tummies and happy treats. But of course, we couldn't be finished with the party until a proper balloon release.

And after all was said and done, the brother and sister said good-bye and thank you, closed the door and snuggled a happy mother and father, who knowing they had to clean up the mess from 10 creative chefs, snuggled knowing they had two very special children who were going to live another year of happily ever after.

The end.

Closer than friends.

Click here to watch 2 minutes of happy.

Today an ETSY friend sent me the link above and said it made her think of my Wellesley and Winslow images (my elephant and bunny...which I must be honest are my favorite images and I have big plans for the two of them). I saw this video and totally ended up in tears...good tears...this is a happy, INCREDIBLE 2 minute clip. Amazing. Infact, I think I need to start working on Wellesly and Winslow a bit more before bed tonight.

Sugar and spice.

Thrilled to be drawing again. Here is what I came up with for Addie and Ian's party invites. They are 12 months apart and a few days, and so this year we are sporting a combined party complete with lollipops and sweets of all kinds. I can't wait to see what we come up with...a Hansel and Gretel theme is coming to mind! Now to start the baking...

The real stuff.

For Christmas my mother-in-law sent me a few thrifted book finds, which I LOVE! Vintage children's books are an obsession of mine. Everything...the text, the printed images, with the children's figures being my favorite. Every once in a while you can still find some with great color. Here is one she sent me from 1929. So sweet, and precious to have something so loved for so long.

It is one thing to see these images online (my favorite pass-time on the computer when I have time to waste is find more vintage children's illustrations!) but seeing them on paper is totally inspiring.

Posting these up makes me want to dig into my vintage children's book collection with my sketch book and a cup of warm raspberry tea. (I will have to post more of my favorites sometime!) What a lovely way to spend the afternoon! I am needing some inspiration for Addie and Ian's birthday invitations. Signing off to get lost in literature!

Romance, Romance.

The month of the romantics is coming soon, and I guess the most romantic issue of Romantic Homes couldn't wait...since the February issue is already out on the shelves. I was THRILLED to see that they included my "This Much" card as a valentine favorite! I have been so excited to wrap up these cards and send them to new places and to new customers. No worries though...I have plenty! This is the first time any of my products have been featured in a magazine, and I couldn't be more tickled! As much as I handle and see my work everyday, there is something about seeing it in a magazine that makes me tilt my head to the side and say, "Did I create that?" It is something like a double-take or deja-vous. Kinda surreal.

But thank you Romantic Homes for your generous feature! February is coming fast, and Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I have grand intentions of getting some more sweet valentines into the shop...let's hope this week fares better than last (our house has been quite the sick house!!). My hand is itching with new ideas....

Cheers!

Happy site Friday: remember the milk.

Over the Christmas break, I made sure to pick the brain of my extra-efficient-super-techie-really-organized-oober-up-on-the-latest-everything-brother and asked him his favorite form of keeping track of all his tasks. I knew I'd love it as soon as he told me what he uses:

"Remember the Milk."

"What? no really...what program do you use?"

"Remember the milk!"

That is so my life. I mean, Forgetting the milk!

I knew I could totally trust my brother since he is also all about SIMPLE and cutting back on all the extra stuff when it comes to trying to stay organized.

It is an online simple task list, which I love since I am all about the old fashioned paper and pen task making. It's been a week, but I AM IN LOVE! It is so simple, and acts just as you need it to...you can easily categorize, customize, etc. It can even show up as a side bar to your gmail account, which acts as a perfect place to dump more tasks in after going through your email. genius. I love smart people who come up with these things! Best part, you can also access without the Internet! My life has been SO much more manageable this past week! And I just love that I don't feel like I have to be all organized to be organized...you know what I am talking about. Those task programs that require you to think like an organized person to be organized? Ya. Not for me. I never thought a cow could be so helpful.

So, just passing a long another happy site this Friday! Happy weekend, and happy list making!

We're back!

Well, that was a long break! I didn't really intend to stay away that long...it just sorta happened! I noticed however, that most of the blogging world took a good long break over the holidays so I am not feelin' so bad. Something happens when I am on vacation...I go on VACATION! I have always been blessed to just relax when I need to, and in this case, staying away from the internet was my version of relaxing:)

We had a magical Christmas with my parents! I hope you had a splendid holiday too! 2 weeks of catching up with each other, snugging in pj's, cooking, eating, playing, site-seeing, and movies.  The perfect relief after a big move!

Well, we are back now, with more to think about than we left with, namely: warped hardwood floors in our previous place from internal water damage that we haven't closed on completely, frozen pipes in our new place requiring Kenneth and I to be up till midnight with blow dryers to the water pipes and boiling water down the tub (it was -9 degrees last night!), the flu and cold bug keeping my kids hot with fevers and up in the night like newborns, a house full of boxes and life to jump back into! Whew! Welcome home!

But despite the warm welcome home, we are so happy to be home and together! Staying up with hot babies is quite a wack at my pregnant body which needs sleep, but it also lets me snuggle them all night which I know will only last a few more years! There is nothing like being a mom. The hard and the wonderful are often disguised as the same thing!

Well, that was a longer "I'm Back!" than I was intending, but I mostly just care at making sense at this point (3 hours of sleep does wonders for your mental cohesiveness!).

Hope you are all well, and THANK YOU THANK YOU for your sweet congratulations on the pregnancy! You are all so thoughtful!It was so wonderful to read all of your comments!

Have a great week and come back over! I am back to regular blogging! Stay tuned for artsy news coming soon!

xoxo

sarah jane