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. :)

ALL SOLD!

Hooray! My calendars are all sold! I wish I could have made 100 more because it's so fun to send them off and picture all the little happy fingers playing with them. I'm so happy to have pieces of my heart sent all over and to have it connect with people's childhood memories the way my mom's Christmas advent calendar did with mine. I feel so lucky. :)

Today I am sending off the last 3 I had for sale to Hawaii, Canada, and California.

Guess I better get crackin' on that Christmas design. I'll work on it throughout the year instead of making a month of intensity and sleep deprivation. :)

Thank you for all the emails telling me how much you like them!

Happy Halloween!