swallowfield :: jennifer judd-mcgee

in my studio this morning

i'm getting ready for some very special guests in my studio this coming week.

this is a lovely tribute. fight for your right to party. (thanks betsy.)

happy sunday everyone.

recently

i haven't been taking too many photos lately, and it's been bugging me. so i'm trying to pick up my camera a bit again. this is a little piece of my sea urchin collection.

some stuff i've been appreciating lately:

a mighty girl. what a great resource.

my pinterest boards. i fell in (like everyone else in the world) and i can't get out. it's so well laid out and visually pleasing to me.

beginners. i just finally got a chance to watch this lovely movie, and i thought it was excellent. one of the best movies i've seen in ages. my love for christopher plummer is deep and long standing, and he was especially good in this film.

minding your mitochondria.  inspiring + interesting to me as someone with MS, but good food for thought for everyone.

draw something. SO MUCH FUN. that is all.

 

in the studio

a tidy (ish) studio, sunshine, new art from ashley anna brown and emily demsky, fresh ranunculus flowers. happiness. i'm feeling inspired.

 

quick photo wall project

i wanted to share a little project i just finished that turned out pretty nicely.

i wanted to hang some family photos on the walls in our new house, but i wasn't especially excited to hammer 75 nail holes into the fresh pristine paint. knowing us, it will only be pristine for a few more months anyway, so why speed up the process of trashing it?  also, i've been really bad about printing photos on a regular basis since about, oh, 2003 or so - when i got my first digital camera.

 i used big huge labs mosaic maker and created three 12x12" photo mosaics. one for my daughter, one for my son, and one of them together. i used a variety of photos from the past several years. i chose the layout option called 4x4 with large center, but you could do it however you wanted. i kept playing with the layouts until i was happy with them, then ordered the prints. i've never ordered prints from them before, and i am happy to say the quality is nice. the total for three 12x12" prints, plus shipping, was $48.00. once they got here i bought three simple white 12x12" frames - found on sale at ac moore for $7. each. total cost for the project: $69.00.

the kids love them, and so do i. and i am always relieved  to actually finish a project and not have it sit in the corner, mostly done, mocking me. not that that's happened before or anything. not that i have several boxes in the basement labeled 'projects i have abandoned and feel guilty about' or anything.

lovely.

i really love craspedia. they're so beautiful and spare.

when these lose their color i might try to make a felted bouquet.

catching up

well, september has gone by in a flash.

since i last wrote, i...worked on a book cover, sent the kids off to school, flew across the country by myself, visited with some of my favorite artists + friends, went to my stepbrother's incredible wedding, really enjoyed san francisco, flew home, ran through the philadelphia airport, got sick, lost a friend, celebrated another friend's first birth, moved into our house, kept working on art + ideas, unpacked + got reunited with my favorite things, went to a memorial service, attended cross country and swim practices and events, was pleasantly surprised by some new art opportunities, cooked some good meals in my new kitchen, put one cat to sleep and got reunited with the other one after a year, and celebrated several birthdays. and that's just what i can think of right off the bat.  the big stuff.

october, you could ease off just a little. i'd like that. we haven't even been apple picking yet.

i'm not complaining. life is full, sometimes more than other times. this month it's been extra full.

hello september

we're getting really close to moving in to our new/old house. the addition and renovations are almost done. we move a week from today! i am both excited and terrified by the prospect.

the photo above  is our dining room ceiling. i am loving the dark charcoal gray paint - it felt risky when i picked it, but i am super happy with it. the light is from schoolhouse electric.

i'm off to my stepbrother's wedding in san francisco this week, so i am not sure how soon i will be in this space again. i hope you have a great week!

spring-like activities

hello! i hope you had a good week.  we're on vacation this week and planning to enjoy the spring weather as much as we can. i got a new bike, so we've been having fun taking some short pedals around together. and my brother is running the boston marathon today - he raised over $12K in support of the MS society - so the kids and i are having fun tracking his progress online. (he's doing really well so far!)

we also dyed some eggs:

and then we decorated a few too:

there is something incredibly pleasing about dying eggs. i never get tired of doing it each year.  :)  i did get tired of blowing out the eggs, though. i only did a dozen of them, but my eardrums are not fond of me for it.

ps: i made some new card sets

have a great day!

 

 

all sweet things

it's school vacation week this week, and i have a house full of kids - friends are visiting from portland and getting to meet some of our new local buddies, too. it's cold but sunny, so i keep sending them outside every little while - this house is not so big, after all, and i can only take so much crescendo. but everyone is happy, and i am loving the chaos.

i posted a new card set in my etsy shop this morning -

i really love how these came out.  it feels like sending a little sunshine right through the mail. you can get them right here.   ((and speaking of sunshine in the mail, see those lovely lemons in the background? i was the dumb-luck winner of a big old box of lemons from sarah and her backyard lemon tree, lucky lucky me! it was ridiculously exciting to get those in the mail here in maine in the middle of winter. i am thinking of trying to make lemon curd with some of them later today.  thanks again sarah! ))

:::::::::::

i now have an art agent for licensing and illustration jobs! i am very excited to be working with lilla rogers studio.  my stuff should be up on their site in the next month or so, but for now, you can email them if you have a project in mind! i've been wanting to do more of this kind of thing, but not wanting to worry about all of the paperwork that comes along with it, so i think this will be a great partnership.

everything is going to be alright

loving my friend jenn's organized collections. she got a fancypants new camera and has been experimenting with it with great results.

i don't usually like to write product testimonials, but i wanted to mention, apropos of nothing, that i recently ordered a mounted print from plywerk, and it is truly beautiful! nice customer service, a lovely, quality product, and humorous emails. win. i will definitely order from them again.

hope you're having a nice day!

snowy day

 

snow day today! we're still in our pjs, drawing, painting and listening to audio books. we might bundle up and venture out to the library later. i think we could all use a few more days like this, here and there.

i got two lovely cookbooks for christmas that i've been enjoying looking through this morning, too. momofuku and barefoot contessa's back to basics.  do any of you have favorite recipes from either of these?

stay safe if you're snowed in, too.