7 a.m. snippets.

ian

7 am

Ian: Good morning mom. I'm a cat.

Me:OK. Good morning my cat.

I roll out of bed with the baby.

Addie + Ian: Meow Meow-mow meeeee-ow. (Translation: Can we listen to Mr. Mistoffelees? {from CATS})

We are listening to Andrew Lloyd Webber and dancing like 8o's rock star cats all before breakfast. I love my life.

Breakfast.

Me: Ian what do you want for breakfast? Toast or fruitshake?

Ian: Cheese and spicy stuff. And beans.

Me: We don't eat salsa for breakfast.

Ian: I want salsa for breakfast.

Me: (remembering that Ian usualy eats nothing for breakfast) OK. I'll make you salsa for breakfast. (Hey...at least it's fresh from the garden salsa, OK?)

Ian: (after getting his plate of food) I want a popsical.

Me: No popsicals for breakfast. Eat your salsa. (Did I really just say that?)

Play time.

Me: Ian, come here. I just finished cutting out your paper doll.

Ian: No mom. I'm fishing. (His fishing pole made out of a fabric tape measure clamped to a small pencil sharpener for the hook).

Me: Where are you fishing?

Ian: The Nordic Sea.

Me: What are you fishing for?

Ian: Alaskan bears.

Me: Did you catch one?

Addie interupts: No mom. Our family is allergic to bears.

Well, then. That's that.

What did you do this morning?

New for fall.

just stay little girlweb1
paperdolloctcrop
boyprints

Whew! Lots of new things getting added today...and happily...mostly for boys! Horray!

Items will be added all day today, so thanks for your patience. There are a few more things you need to watch for...like the full paper doll set, and a couple of other things. But for now, this is it! And yes, there is a dinosaur in the studio. Can you believe? We must have dinosaurs for the boys. It's a must. And don't you love that dress at the top of the post? If I could sew a dress for Addie, that would be it I think. I am just really into felt flowers at the moment.

I hope you enjoy! See you in the shop.

xo

sarah jane

My second set of hands.

emily

Meet Emily Smith.

Over the past nearly 2 years, I have gone solo with printing, corresponding, updating, recording, illustrating, ordering, stocking and marketing. It's been great. But add 3 babies, illustrating a book and trying to squeeze a shower in every day, and it was obvious that I needed help. I have had April take on the printing jobs, and I just hired a new shipping hand whom I love, but Emily oversees it all. Some of you may have already had responses from Emily via email, and I wanted introduce you. Say Hello to Emily!

Isn't she wonderful?

Here's are some interesting facts about the woman keeping me together these days:

  • She is the 7th of 10 children.
  • She worked for General Electric for 10 years as a human resources manager.
  • She lived in Boston for 10 years before getting married and starting her family.
  • She now has a great husband, 2 boys, 2 horses, 1 pony, 2 cats, 2 goats and a dog. (City girl meets country girl!)

And my favorite interesting fact about her:

  • She was the widowed Margaret Rey's roommate (the author of Curious George no less) for a year while she lived in Harvard Square and took care of her out of house needs until she died (for which she has some pretty amazing stories no doubt!)

Emily is amazing and will be keeping things moving for me. So say "Hello!"

Paper Dolls

Here are 6 very curious children who love to play together. They love to make things: make believe, make-up stories, make crafts, make food, and all sorts of other fun play. Each month, I will be adding new clothes (appropriate for the season) to the shop. You want to know the best part about it? The clothing will all be PDF downloads so you don't have to even wait for shipping. Just print them out yourself, as many times as you need (to ensure you have plenty if that exacto knife goes astray!)

What I can't decide, is if i should make the dolls a download. Would you want them shipped to you on super great paper for ensured sturdiness, or to print off your self? Opinions please:

I will have a mighty grand shop update on Tuesday morning. I'm a bit behind schedule, but I don't think you will be disappointed!

Tuck me in.

Another image I have had in my head for ages it seems. It was a lot of fun to do some digital quilting! I am asked every night : "Mom, kiss me again" "Mom, snuggle me" "One more hug" : Words I never want to forget. I also hope with this print to satisfy most family combinations: red hair, dark skin, etc. I hope to be having a big shop update by the beginning of next week! So stay tuned!

Early Beginnings.

{Denslow & Caledecott}

Inspiration comes (for me) from a lot of places. A book, a goodnight hug, my childhood memories, a fabric color combination, my children's interactions. I can't really say that there is any one specific source of inspiration since it is all tied up into who I am and what I experience. But I will say, vintage children's books are at the top of my list. I was notified about this site from children's illustrator Carin Berger, and I couldn't be more delighted! White Ravens, a collection of children's books from around the globe, is a library of children's books online from around the globe spanning back to Caldecott himself. Do you remember when I posted about this other site? The Rosetta Project is another site that is dedicated to saving the old and treasured children's books. A very noble venture indeed!

What I love about studying these books, is to find the relationship between the books that we read now and these very first children's books. They are like the parents of what we read to our children. I just get goosebumps when I think of storytelling to children in its very earliest beginnings. In fact, I am so fascinated by it, I own the oldest children's book I know of. It is so old, it's not even a children's picture book (they weren't even invented yet, I guess you could say). I wish I could take a picture, but it is currently safe in a box from our last move. It is a church song book for children written in 1741. It is in very poor condition, but the handwriting of little Margaret, the owner I am sure, is plain to see on the front page. Sometimes I feel sad for little Margaret who only had a songbook of rules to memorize (all about behaving well) and didn't have the luxury of reading THE VERY HUNGRY CATAPILLAR or AMEILIA BEDILIA. Did she ever get bored of what was, and wish she had books about what could be? I wonder how her era of literature would have been altered if she could have gotten a hold of HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON. But it was of course, only the beginning. And I like to imagine what it must have been like for those first children readers to witness children's picture books in the making. A lot had to happen in publishing and creativity since my little Margaret 1741 friend, and I am glad to be on the other side of it. But we all know, to create the future, we must learn from the past! So, hats off to the inspiring past! And to you, my Margaret friend, thank you for participating in the earliest of children's literature. It had to start somewhere!

Weekend wrap-up.

There are days that just get you all fueled up, and Friday was just that. I went to the Startup Princess Touchpoint event (a conference for entrepreneurs) and was so delighted to meet Heather Bailey in person. She spoke twice during the conference and I also got to chat with her a bit one-on-one. What a treat! She is just as warm and genuine as she comes across in her blog. I was so impressed by here incredible work ethic, dedication to her family, God and to her talents. She is one smart cookie, I'll tell you that. She was able to show us her new line of fabric coming any day now (she says she is just waiting for it to come in the mail!) and it's just darling. I'll let you check out her site for her to do the telling, but I was once again so impressed by her ability to create what she loves and what other people can't wait to get their hands on. She shared a lot of her journey from before she even started a business until now. It was needless to say, very inspiring!

I was also able to meet up with so many great blogging friends. In the picture on the left, you see Marie from Make and Takes, Allison from Petit Elephant, and Kami from No Biggie. It was so wonderful to meet people I only t get to read from on a screen...meeting in person is the icing on the cake! Thanks Startup Princess for such a great event!