I FINISHED- and just in time for Christmas :)

Hooray! I stitched my last stitches at 9:30pm Christmas Eve. I have put probably over 50 hours into this baby designing, sketching, sewing, stuffing, beading and embroidering! I'm so happy it's such a hit with my sweet little girl who loves to sing her ABC's :)

Penelope finding it under the tree

Excitedly flipping through it and pulling her favorite little turtle guy out of his pocket shouting "A TOORRRDLE!" (She rolls her r's and d's) :)

Back Cover

Detail on back cover.

For closer pictures of the little figures look at these posts here and here

HOPE YOU HAD A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

52Q: What's your favorite holiday?

I suppose this one's a no brainer. Actually my friend, Emily asked me to make this prompt for her art journal challenge for this week. She's had her adorable little baby boy, Banjo and has had a few guests fill in while she spends mommy time with him and her girlies. I feel very honored! She's a sweet friend and an amazingly talented and creative individual. So here's my question going out to all her 52Q friends....

What's Your Favorite Holiday?


and here's my painting...

Seth sketched out a witch like this in the summer time when I was designing my Halloween advent calendars and I asked him for some inspiration. We have very different styles so his sketches didn't quite fit into my calendar, but I thought it would be fun to resurrect his witchy sketch and make it more my own.

My reason for picking Halloween...

"I've always loved Halloween!
My birthday is in the month of October (born on Friday the 13th!)- so as a kid I was pretty sure that made me spookier than others. Each year I get the "Halloween itch" around July. It starts with little sketches that become paintings or other projects like the Halloween calendars that I made with my sister this year.
I love sewing elaborate costumes. We have an entire closet of costumes in our guest room. My husband loves Halloween too so it makes it even more fun. I love seeing the creepy little drawings or books that my kids make up this time of year.

It's definitely a family affair in this house."



For fun here are some past Halloweeny stuff around here.

Seth enormous Halloween family portrait (3 feet by 4 feet)


A vampire family (probably my favorite costumes I've sewn)

Only mom's happy in this one I guess. :)












The two that like to ham it up the most...









Here's Seth famous pirate costume I sewed for him back in '05. This year Penelope is going to be that same kitty that Kendyl was. I can't believe how quickly time flies...


fun with decorating...

...and a silly spider that finds his way around our house to scare unsuspecting victims.
(This is our little on-going family prank. We move him around the house and try to freak each other out- Seth was awakened by him hanging above him one birthday breakfast day.







And just so you can see we are pretty normal the other 11 months of the year- here's a regular looking family photo. :)

A Few New Paintings and Penelope's Smile

I've been working on these paintings, but was only part way through on all of them and then I just finished these three around the same time so here's a few at once. I have a couple more that are part way as well that I will post in a few days when I finish. These are for Emily's Art Challenge this year of 52 Questions...

52Q- Week 6: If I could do it all again, would I change anything?

I took a photo of the miniature grandfather clock that the the clock store owner gave me when I was a little girl. I still have it and love looking at it. It's one of my favorite things.

52Q- Week 8: What was the last thing that made you laugh?

Here's a photo of our little Penelope laughing and I threw an extra one in of the look she always gives us when we are holding her. She's just so darn cute!

52Q- Week 11: What keeps me awake at night?

This is now found on Kristen's blog. :)

52Q- Week 5: "How Do I Feel Today?"

52Q- Week 4: "When I look into my eyes, I see...."

To view all the other people's entries you can click on this link to the flickr group here.

52Q- Week 3: Do I Believe in Fairies?

This painting is described in my journaling on the back, but it basically says that I believe in fairies with all my heart. :) The painting is of Christmas Eve 2007 when Makenzie lost her tooth and we had two visitors to our home that night. We wish we could have been there to see Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy sit down to a quaint tete-a-tete over hot cocoa and sugar cookies. I'm sure the Tooth Fairy decided on drinking herbal peach tea while Santa enjoyed his hot chocolate. In the journaling I mention video footage that we caught that night of Santa Clause. If you'd like to see that you can follow this link to it here.

Makenzie and Kendyl's 52Q Art Challenge Tags

Makenzie and Kendyl have joined in with me in Emily's art challenge this year. They are doing them on little tags and linking them with a ring. Here's what they've done so far. It's so fun to do it with them at the table and see what they come up with and how their little minds and hearts work. I know they will cherish this little journal when they are older. It will be a little chunk of themselves to remember and giggle at.

Makenzie's first tag: Wishes for 2009?
I love her spelling- adorable. Looks like we'll need to get her a pony this year to make her wish come true. :) Anyway, here's a translation of the back of her tag:
Ponies have been my favorite animal since I was a baby. I guess you could say I'm pony crazy.

Makenzie's second tag: Are you Afraid of Change?
On the front of her card she drew a picture of Daxton (one of her best friends) scoring a goal in soccer in the snow. She's on the edge by the chain link fence building a snowman all by herself. On the back of the card she says that yes, she is scared of change because she hates that now Daxton plays soccer during recess instead of playing with her.
(Don't worry too much though- they've worked out a deal that he will play with her 2 days in the week and she has 3 other boys that she plays with everyday so she's not alone- just missing one of her favorite buddies.

Kendyl's first tag: Wishes for 2009?
She of course wishes for a unicorn and for her birthday to be everday. What a wonderful idea. :) On the front is a drawing of her and her sister holding balloons and wearing their pink flower dresses- how lucky. I like how she made the horse stickers turn into unicorns by drawing them on.

Kendyl's second tag: Am I Afraid of Change?
The front of the tag is of her thinking about that question and then on the back she did her best to spell out that no she wasn't afraid of change. Her reasoning she told me was that she wasn't afraid of butterflies changing to have wings or for princesses to turn into other princesses that were their friends. hmmmm I'm sure it makes perfect sense to other 5 year olds. :) Too cute.

From here on out, I'll just post their cards on the posts that have mine. I'm so happy they want to join in with this. We're having a lot of fun together.

52Q- Week 2: Am I Afraid of Change?

For my art journal card this week I tried something new. First I painted the picture on the left for the front of my card. I wanted to use butterflies to represent change and how it can teach you new things, helping you to grow and become a more beautiful person. I also painted a "looking glass" that I ended up putting this week's question inside. I wanted to represent how change leads to adventures (like that curious Alice has). Next I used this painting that I made of stripes and superimposed it behind my butterfly painting in Photoshop, erasing some parts of the painting and messing with the opacity. I found I liked the color scheme better when I changed the hue and saturation of the top painting.















Combining the two gave me this...

It really was fun to learn more in Photoshop and try new things. Below is the back of my card with my journaling for the week. I put Penelope's footprints on there too with an ink pad. I'm so glad I thought to do that so I will always have it as a keepsake. She really is the sweetest most beautiful baby.