Tuesday Fairies

Tuesdays are now our official art class day when the little one is napping. The class originated after our 6 week session of yoga ended and I asked the 3yr old what she'd like to do next. Art. I looked into programs at a museum school but I simply couldn't afford the price tag. 

Then I pitched the idea: Tuesday afternoons would be art class. I would officially teach and get materials together. I would stop doing "mommy things" (all the never ending chores are now titled in our house) and sit with the girls while they worked. The class would start as soon as baby E (15months) went to sleep and there would be snack. 


Last week we checked out a fun art book at the library, I may need to track it down for our collection but you can look at it here. It is a sweet spiral bound book of drawing and painting techniques that the kids can do with very little help from an adult. The book inspired us to learn how to paint and draw some fairies. 

We started with watercolor shapes. Basic head, triangle body, two wings, hair and a dot for the top of a wand. I brought out the hair dryer to speed up the drying a little and once the paint was dry we added our detail in pen. 


Tracing the head, dress, adding feet all made for fun conversation and a very satisfying product. I think I may have to go back and dabble now that the girls are asleep.

The beginning and an introduction

Updated - March 2012. I originally wrote this back in August of 2010 and it took me all this time to get my act together! A bit about me: 

I've been a dabbler and a starter all of my life. Jane of all trades master of none so to speak. My resume can be quite comical if I really lined everything up. Last week when I got a phone call (wrong number) looking for me to calibrate their plasma tv I learned that I didn't really know everything.

Over the past 10 years, I've done craft sales, holiday shops, gifts for friends, some etsy sales, commissions but nothing has taken off in a sustainable way. I would say mostly due to my lack of focus and my love of so many different materials I bounce around. I like the idea and the creative process. The production and detail not so much.

Fast forward a few years and I'm in need of a creative outlet and something to keep me organized and accountable. I have three daughters, one dog, two chickens and a whole lot of chaos.

So to begin my online journal I'm hoping to put out one or two posts a week focusing on my latest creative endeavors and to help shape some of my big ideas, maybe even get some of those projects finished. I reserve the right to dig something out of the studio, dust it off, take a pic and revisit the idea...like the hand sewn snowflake cards, or the piggy banks, or the turtle shot glasses.

Welcome to Isabelle Jane - the window into my creative energy and the mess that comes with it.
~Emily

Toad stools, castles and a turtle.

Miniature ceramic mushrooms made from stoneware, painted with an under glaze and then finished with a celedon. Great for terrariums and small magical places!

Boobie Beanie!

I've seen the idea of a boobie beanie on the web lately. Moms put a hat on their baby while they are feeding them and it looks like they are flashing their breast in public. A perfect combination of humor, inappropriate behavior, and practicality if you ask me.
This spring seems to be a world of babies in a my life and I have the itch to knit. Knitting comes in cycles for me and when I am in the mood I love it. Then the needles get put away and I don't think about them again until after Halloween. This year the knitting bug seems to be lasting a bit longer, hopefully long enough to get some baby gifts finished.
To find my pattern, I did a ravelry search and found a boobie project that was a little pillow, rather than a baby hat. The upside was that it started at the top and worked down, which I wanted to try. To count, and follow a pattern is fabulous but I often lose my place. This approach allowed me to concentrate on the nipple/areola part, adding stitches, etc quickly and then just knit and knit until I got to the bottom edge of the hat.

I took guess on the size, and with my size 8 needles, worsted weight yarn it is a 3-6mo size.

The best part of the project was shopping for the yarn: Me with a 3yr old and 1yr old in tow walk into a delightful local yarn shop. "How can we help you?" I reply with the standard, "just looking, thanks!" Well, the helpful women really wanted to help - they brought the kids toys, asked about what baby I was shopping for and wanted to know what color/weight I was looking for in my yarn. I gave in. I told them I wanted to knit a hat that looked like a woman's breast so when my friend was nursing it would look like she was exposing herself. First they looked at me like I had three heads, then nodded and went to work finding the perfect yarn. They laughed as they held up different balls of yarn - "does this look like a nipple? is this too peachy to be skin? how dark do you want it?"

It was fabulous and I'm sure they shared the story with their friends too.