My Mom's the greatest!

Alright, I'm writing ANOTHER post about the wedding, but look at the picture my mom sent this morning:

Tell me that's not the cutest thing ever! I think my mom needs to open an Etsy shop. She's an artist herself (a fantastic photographer), and her handiness and creativity is, I believe, the main reason I became an illustrator. Not only did we always have art supplies around the house that we could use (EXCEPT, of course, for the sacred orange-handled scissors!)- but seeing her always making and creating is certainly what led me to a creative life.

On another marriage subject, here's a question that I've wondered about for many professional women about to get hitched: What did you do/intend to do about the name change? I'm planning on (and I think perhaps lots of women do this?) taking my new husband's name, but keeping Jamieson as my professional nom de plume. Since my website, email, postcards- let alone my books- all use Jamieson. And I don't know about you, but I always get confused by, say, Jamie Lynne DiScala (Sigler?), or Courtney Cox-Arquette.

For the Birds

I have been distracted from my blog-reading and upkeep duties, as I've been preparing for my wedding in TWO WEEKS! My creative outlets have been of the crafty variety recently- including the centerpieces for the tables. When I say I have been making the centerpieces, what I really mean of course is that I made a prototype, then employed an Andy Warhol-type factory of sweatshop laborers (my mother, bless her) to do my bidding.

*Spoiler alert: If you are actually invited to my wedding & want to be surprised by the favors, don't read ahead. Second spoiler alert: If you're still waiting for your invitation in the mail... don't hold your breath.*

If  you'll remember from a few posts back, my invitations featured birds:

And since Martha Stewart says that weddings are all about the theme, I wanted to make something birdy for the favors/slash/centerpieces. 

Bird tree ornaments! That will hang from some dead branches from the yard in the middle of each table. Oh, don't worry, it's going to be pretty, you'll see.

That's me sweating! See, it's a sweatshop, get it? Two of my lovely bridesmaids are helping me out this shift. See, it's not really a sweatshop, I let them eat! ONE banana each.

Aren't they grea.. Hey, what's this! Quit goofing off! I don't pay you those bananas to monkey around!

Here is the tray of bird eyeballs (EXPERTLY hand-dipped by my dad! Who said I got my artistic bend from my mom?!)

Some birds with their nose jobs...

and some top hats...

...and 116-odd birds awaiting their accessories!

My mother really is a saint for making 97% of these birds- Thanks, Ma! 

I'll post some pictures post-wedding of the final displays!

Memory Lane

Greetings from Florida! I'm visiting my parents in an extended vacation/slash/wedding decoration-making frenzy. So, what better way to take my mind off of the 1001 things left to do than take a trip down memory lane?

My mom's a saver, and I came across this book that I wrote and illustrated in the third grade:

 

I distinctly remember this day in school! We had someone come into our classroom to teach us how to bind the books, and we had a nice selection of wallpaper scraps to choose from for the binding. I don't remember how long we were actually working on the stories, though...

A little discouraging to see that my humor has not changed much since the third grade.

I remember being rather proud of the viewpoint of this picture. The story lags a bit from this point on, so I'll skip right to the denouement...

I also remember thinking this illustration was spot-on in terms of feeling and emotional tenor, but I was frustrated that I didn't keep all the chairs on a straight line.

This illustration, I recall, I considered to be the crowning glory of the book, and perhaps of my artistic life to date. A silhouette, against a movie screen, complete with fine cross-hatching skills?!? Top notch.

I guess I do still have an interest in barnyard animals.

I had some blank spreads at the back, so I added some illustrations. I think I was reading a lot of books from the library with color plates at the time.

Ahh, memories!