Last year I was contacted by J, who has SUCH an awesome personality! I loved her immediately. She and her now-husband J have an adorable baby girl together, but they just hadn’t gotten around to marriage yet. Once they’d made it official, they decided to throw a reception to celebrate with their family and friends.

We decided to do an announcement and invitation to the reception featuring their daughter on the front. As you can tell by her “finally!” thought bubble, J’s got a great sense of humor. :)

Their wedding took place overlooking their small town in Texas.  To set the scene, I drew some local cacti and added a little wooden sign with the name of the area.

On the inside, J & J are pictured, celebrating.  :)

There are three main landmarks in their town, so we made sure to bring special attention to them.  :)

Thanks J!  I had an awesome time working with you, and I just love how this turned out!  :)

Uh, yeah.  That’s not what happened.

I didn’t anticipate that my life would change dramatically right away.  I am sure this doesn’t happen for everyone, but heck–it sure happened for me.  I found out I was pregnant, and literally two days later I started throwing up.  By the next week, I was so exhausted that I could barely get off the couch.  Even doing the laundry was both mentally and physically draining.  Accomplishing my long list of goals for early 2010?  Not going to happen!  I’ve been in maintenance mode.

Now that I’m four five months (what is up with the way they calculate pregnancy months?!) into this pregnancy, my mind has cleared a little bit (although I did recently mail a letter to my mom and address it to myself–oops!) and the daily sickness seems to have gone the way of the exhaustion, thank heavens.

So now, with about 5 months until my due date, I’m finally thinking about my business and re-thinking my goals.

Part of this process involves thinking about maternity leave realistically.  I’ve asked various people for advice on this and have been very unhappy with their responses, which have ranged from “plan?! You can’t HAVE a plan!”  to “working at home with a baby is an impossibility until at least 7 months.”  After hearing those responses,  I was left feeling kind of powerless.   After all, even though this seems like overkill to me, who am I to argue?  What do I know?  I’ve never had a kid.

Well, I’ll tell you what I do know, actually.  I know that, at the end of the day, this is a baby.  As Y said, it’s not like we’re battling wildfires every day.  It’s definitely going to be hard, but seriously?!  I can pick up my work for a few minutes and then drop it again when I have to take care of the baby–I don’t need 8 continuous hours of work, and I’m not doing brain surgery here.  Furthermore, I know that I will have the help of my husband, in addition to both my parents and my in-laws.

I also know that this business isn’t a hobby for me, and I feel a great responsibility to my clients.  And having my business sit idle for months on end isn’t good for the business, it isn’t good for me, and ultimately (because I’ll get cranky), it won’t be good for Little Stinker.  The other thing?  I can’t afford not to work for that long.  But the real big kicker, the one that squashes all the negative advice, is this: I know that there are women who have done it, and I can be one of them.

This afternoon I was able to talk to a good friend of mine, who also happens to have a 7 month old baby.  She made me feel a LOT better about what having a baby is all about, and actually reinforced some ideas I’d already had (mostly because my mom told me).  For the first few months, the baby doesn’t need to be entertained that much.  It’s mostly about figuring out how to get them to sleep, how to cope yourself, and letting your body heal.  Once they get to be 5-7 months old, though, they start to need more attention.  They want to be entertained.  And that, my friends, is when I think working from home will be rough.  But I’ll cross that bridge later. ;)

I also was very lucky to call on some inspirational and intelligent women from the wedding industry last week (thank you Michelle and Caroline!), who were very reassuring about my ability to keep running my business and take care of the baby.  Because I’m not the only one who has gone through this or will go through this in the future, I figure I’ll post about my experience here on the blog every now and again.  Maybe someone through Google will find my learning experiences helpful.  :)  And hey, I bet I’ll have a few funny experiences to share, too. ;)

In other news, I hope you are all well!  Thank you again for your supportive comments on my last post.  You guys are awesome!

However.

The project I was referencing in that post is definitely the biggest, and I’m going to tell you about it today.

How about I give you some clues, first?  Okay, here’s the first one:

I didn’t want to tell you about this project until I was pretty darn sure it was going to happen.

Yeah, that was a lame hint.  How about another one?

This project affects two cats, a dog, five chickens, and a lot of people.

Maybe you might be feeling a little bit closer to knowing what’s going on, but just in case…

This project has involved me sitting around on the couch, watching a lot of Law & Order: SVU on Netflix streaming while trying not to puke.  In case you were wondering, yes, I do sometimes watch TV while drawing.  However, I don’t usually do it from the couch, and my job definitely doesn’t make me want to puke.

Got it yet?

No?

Okay, how about THIS one?

hahahahahaha.  That one was pretty clear.

Yep, that’s my news: Y and I are having a baby!!!  We found out in mid-December when I was five and a half weeks along, and we were both surprised and very happy.  This was definitely in the plans for 2010, but we were very lucky to have it happen in 2009 instead.

So here are the details:

• I am now 11 weeks pregnant, and Little Stinker is due August 16th.
• We have had two ultrasounds, and the last one was really cool: the baby was actually moving around in there quite a bit, and we got to hear the heartbeat!
• This baby has knocked me on my keister.  I didn’t have enough energy to tweet (thanks to everyone who asked where the heck I was, by the way!), let alone blog, which is why I seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth.  Thank goodness the holidays are a slow season for business-related projects!  I’m starting to get my energy back, though the 24/7 nausea is still around.  And that, combined with the fact that I don’t have to hide this news anymore, means I’ll be around again.  :)
• We don’t know the sex, but we definitely want to find out.  The appointment for this is in late March.  We don’t particularly care whether it’s a boy or a girl, but we can’t wait to find out.
• The baby will be a Leo born in the year of the Tiger.  Apparently this is very good news because the baby will get along with both Y and I.  As my friend Lisa said, it will be a Liger.  And really, that’s just awesome.
• Our parents are very, very excited.
• I will be taking a maternity leave, but I haven’t quite got the details of that worked out yet.  If you have a project you’re thinking of starting after August, though, you might want to contact me sooner rather than later!

I think that’s it!  I’m really, really excited to make a lot of cool things for this kid!  Whoohoo!!

I am really excited about a big ‘ole project I’ve been working on since mid-November.  It’s taking a LOT of time and energy, but I think it will be worth it, and I think you guys will be really excited to see what it is, too (I hope, at least!). I should be able to reveal what’s going on in a couple of weeks (I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon!), so sit tight.

I actually have a lot of cool things planned for 2010.  I can’t wait to share everything with you guys when plans get more settled.  In the meantime, how about a fun project from last year?

When I was contacted by W & M last year, I immediately loved them.  W’s got one heck of a sense of humor, and both of their personalities immediately jumped out of their emails.  I wanted to be their BFFs (but I’ll settle for Facebook pals, hahaha).

W & M wanted to play off the theme “Opposites Attract” for their Save the Dates.  Although they met when they bought identical townhomes, their personalities and interests are totally different.  The theme made for a really fun project and a super cute Save the Date.

I drew W & M in front of their individual townhomes  with objects that describe their interests on either side.  And, as you can see, W’s sporting his motorcycle leathers (and I love M’s dress, don’t you?!).

W is a total adrenaline junkie.  He loves motorcycles and sports of any kind.

M on the other hand, is more my speed.  She’s into reading, shopping and an awesome collection of high-heeled shoes.

The back of their card features their cats, which are hilarious.  One is totally tiny, and the other is gargantuan and sleeps in really strange positions!  Super cute.

I love drawing custom illustrations for people with big personalities.  It makes brainstorming for the right idea really fun, and the end product is always super unique.

An awesome gift for people who are hard to buy for is a family portrait. This year, I worked on several family portraits as holiday gifts, including this super cute one of the P Family:

The daughters split the cost of the family portrait as a gift for their parents.  What a thoughtful idea!  I’m sure their parents will love it (and I can’t wait to hear their reaction!).

It’s too late to have an actual portrait finished by the holidays, because the design and printing process can take up to six weeks.  But it’s definitely NOT too late for a family portrait gift certificate!  I will work directly with your friend or family member to create a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork of their entire family (or of anything they want, actually).

The Family Portrait gift certificate is $300 and covers both the cost of the drawing and printing in any size they want on high quality art paper or canvas.

Each gift certificate is printed on thick, beautiful art paper and presented in a fun, colorful envelope.  I’ll send the gift certificate to you, or directly to the recipient.  And for those of you who are SUPER late?  I can send you a full resolution image of the gift certificate to be printed out on your home printer and presented to your loved one moments later. I’m Jewish, so feel free to contact me as late as Christmas morning–I’ll have the image to you in no time.  ;)

See?  Last minute gifts can still be thoughtful!

This time last year I shared my favorite Carrot Soup recipe. It’s still one of my staples, soup-wise, but I’ve added a couple more to my Fall/Winter arsenal. And because they bring me so much joy, I’m going to share the recipes with you, right here, right now: Potato Corn Leek Soup, Carrot Soup and Curried Cauliflower Soup.  I’m about to devour a bowl of Potato Leek Soup as we speak, actually.

Those of you with CSA boxes will be happy with these recipes, too, because they utilize delicious in-season veggies like cauliflower and leeks, that you might not know what to do with.

Potato Corn Leek Soup

My current favorite is the Potato Leek Soup.  This recipe was served at my friend Karen’s birthday a couple of years ago, and I’ve loved it ever since.  The original recipe is from Cooking Light.

image from here

Ingredients

• 2  tablespoons  butter
• 1  tablespoon  olive oil
• 1 1/2  cups  coarsely chopped leek (about 1 large)
• 1/2  cup  finely chopped celery
• 1/2  cup  finely chopped red bell pepper
• 2  cups  whole milk*
• 3  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
• 3  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 2  cups  fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears)
• 2  pounds  cubed peeled Yukon gold or red potato
• 1  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4  cup  finely chopped fresh parsley
• 3  tablespoons  chopped fresh chives

Preparation
Heat butter and oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leek, celery, and bell pepper; cook 4 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring frequently. Combine milk and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Slowly add milk mixture to pan, stirring constantly. Stir in broth, corn, potato, salt, and freshly ground black pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until potato is tender. Stir in parsley and chives.

*In my kitchen, I almost exclusively substitute 2% milk for whole milk and heavy cream.  I personally don’t think cream or whole milk is worth the added fat and calories.  This soup is fantabulous with regular milk.

Carrot Soup

Last year’s favorite (and still obviously in the top 3) is my Carrot Soup recipe. The original recipe is from Moosewood Restaurant.

image from here

Ingredients

• 2 pounds peeled or scrubbed, chopped carrots
• 4 cups stock
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 medium potato, chopped
• 3-4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1-2 small cloves crushed garlic
• 1/3 cup chopped cashews
• 2 pinches of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon dried mint
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 cup milk

Preparation
Place carrots, stock, salt and potato into a medium sized soup pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer it for 12-15 minutes. Let it cool to room temp.

Saute the onion, garlic and nuts in the butter until the onions are clear. You can sprinkle in a little salt to help draw the moisture out of the onions. Towards the end of cooking, stir in the nutmeg, mint and cinnamon.

Use an immersion blender to puree. Whisk in milk. Garnish with toasted nuts, some toasted bread crumbs, grated parmesan, or eat just as it is.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Last year we received a giant head of cauliflower in our CSA box, and I felt totally stumped.  My dad always hated Cauliflower, and growing up I decided I hated it too, despite never having actually tasted it (I trusted my dad, what can I say?).  When I used it to create this Curried Cauliflower Soup, I was blown away.  Apparently I don’t hate cauliflower after all. The original recipe is from Vegetarian Times.

image from here

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
• 1 medium tart apple, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped (1 cup)
• 1 Tbs. curry powder
• 1 clove garlic, sliced (1 tsp.)
• 1 large head cauliflower, chopped into 1-inch pieces (6 cups)
• 4 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 tsp. honey or agave nectar
• 1 tsp. rice wine vinegar

Preparation
1. Heat oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté 5 to 7 minutes, or until soft and golden. Stir in apple, curry powder, and garlic, and cook 2 minutes more, or until curry powder turns deep yellow.
2. Add cauliflower and vegetable broth, and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes. Cool 20 minutes, then blend in food processor or blender until smooth. Stir in honey and vinegar, and season with salt, if desired.

I hope you guys love these recipes as much as I do!  And please, if you have your own favorite soup recipes, share in the comments!!

J & C contacted me and asked if I could base a save the date drawing off of the famous American Gothic painting by Grant Wood.  They had a few extra details to add: for example, they wanted to include their awesome kitties, and they wanted to change their outfits to be more personalized.

I love how it turned out!  Even the kitties are holding on to the pitchfork!

I am Jewish, and I guess I figured I would marry someone Jewish; Christmas isn’t part of my past, and I never thought it would be part of my future.  Growing up, I always felt left out during the holiday season; one of the great tragedies of my childhood was being forced to go Christmas caroling with my girl scout troop.  What the heck is wrong with “I Have a Little Dreidel,” I ask you?!  Don’t tell me that song sucks compared to Jingle Bells.  Everyone wants a dreidel made out of clay, dammit.

As I got older, my feelings of sadness turned into resentment; I still don’t understand why Christmas music starts in November and Target starts decorating in green and red starting in September.  And after working at Paper Source and being forced to listen to Christmas music 10 hours a day for an entire month, my resentment turned into full-blown hostility.

Y, on the other hand, loves Christmas.  Every year, he hosts a “Cousin Christmas” (now Chrismukkah, because of me) for all of his cousins, which involves gift exchanges, a white elephant exchange, and lots of food.  He loves everything about the season: everything from stocking holders to santa hats for the cats.

Our first holiday together included such hits as:

• Sara feels like a traitor as she hangs a Santa ornament on a Christmas tree
• Sara insists on getting a BLUE tree skirt for said tree
• Sara tries her hardest to “get on board” with Christmas by making stockings out of felt, then feels dejected when she looks around her own house and sees stockings, a tree, and a lot of red & green.
• Sara is secretly thrilled when her parents send a box full of gifts wrapped in Chanukkah paper, along with sugar cookies shaped like Stars of David.

But my quiet bitterness was interrupted by Y, who seemed to totally understand that celebrating Christmas (and not complaining incessantly) was really hard for me.  And to this day, his gift of a gorgeous menorah is one of the most meaningful things he has ever done for me.

We’ve been together for five years, and each year I’ve tried to make a bit more effort to enjoy Christmas–both by decorating the house and trying to squelch my inner hostility.  Last year, I made a “Happy Chrismukkah” sign and a giant sparkly “OY.” I gave Y a personal ornament for the tree, and tried my absolutely hardest not to get all Grinchy on him.  This year, my mom and I erected the tree and set out the decorations the day after Thanksgiving.  I still have mixed feelings, but I try my hardest not to show them.

Yesterday I read a post over at Not Quite Betty Crocker and started thinking about holiday traditions.  Marisa talked a bit about her own Christmas traditions growing up, and her apprehension about spending the holidays with her husband’s family instead of her own.

My family doesn’t have too much in the way of holiday traditions, mostly because Chanukkah isn’t an important holiday for Jewish people.  I do have some favorite memories of the holiday season though:

• For a few years, we had a nice dinner with friends on the first night of Chanukkah, complete with gelt and dreidels.
• Going to a movie on Christmas Day.  When we first started doing this, the theaters were empty because everyone was opening their gifts.  As I got older, though, (enter bitterness) the selfish people who had a great time opening their presents would all RUSH to the movie theater, making sure it was hard for us Jews to get a seat and enjoy the only good thing about Christmas.
• Lighting the menorah with my parents and our dogs.  Allie, one of our dogs, would howl to sing along.
• My mom and I each buying a new ornament for our Chanukkah bush, then setting it up together

I am really happy that I have those memories, and really, it’s kind of sad that Chanukkah’s not a very big deal.  My favorite holiday is always Passover: that is the holiday that means “family” to me.

But now I’m thinking about our future holidays.  My friend Marianne absolutely adores this time of year, and I think it has a lot to do with her memories of family traditions.  Last year, Jen suggested that I invent some of our own traditions–and now I’m taking her advice.

I am now making it my personal mission to make December our own month of Chrismukkah.  Here is how I’m going to do it (otherwise known as The New Stinkerpants Chrismukkah Traditions):

• Invent Santaberg.  He is a Jewish Santa.  I don’t know what he looks like, but I think he will definitely be very fat, have a big white beard (and possibly Payote) and a yarmulke.
• Have Cousin Chrismukkah every year with Yorkey’s cousins.
• Have a Chanukkah open house on the first night of Chanukkah every year.  Invite all of our friends and family over to enjoy appetizers and cookies and karaoke (Y’s parents love karaoke).  Every night of Chanukkah, have something special for dinner–maybe our future kids will get to choose their favorite dishes so everyone has something to look forward to.
• For Christmas Eve, everyone gets a new pair of pajamas and a new pair of socks.  If we can find some that are not super Christmassy, I will not be bitter (I swear).  Watch a movie.
• For Christmas Day, open stockings and gifts, then have a big brunch.  Put out a puzzle to work on and hang out.  Maybe decorate a gingerbread house.
• Have the entire family come over–aunts, uncles, cousins, kids, etc–for Christmas dinner.

These are my ideas for new Chrismukkah traditions, which I think will make me excited about this season instead of inexplicably hostile.

What are your family traditions for this time of year?

If any of you are readers of So You’re Engayged, you may have seen my guest post yesterday about Wedding Invitation Wording.  A lot of the brides and grooms who come to me for their illustrated wedding invitations already have their invitation wording worked out, which is fabulous.  But if you don’t, you might find some of these tips helpful.

Wording for wedding invitations can be a laborious process of answering questions like, “who is paying for this wedding?” and “do we include my ex-step-dad?”  At the end of the day, most of your guests aren’t even going to notice it; in reality, the wording for wedding invitations tends to matter most to people in your immediate family (read: the people who think their names should be on the invitation and may be offended if they’re not).  As you will soon find out (if you haven’t already) weddings are usually end up being about family, so sometimes it’s best to err on the side of honoring your close family members, rather than doing what’s most simple (just because you don’t feel like dealing with it).

If you’re a non-traditional couple, things might be a bit easier for you because you’re not concerned with formalities (ie, whose name goes first, whether you write “two thousand twelve” or “two thousand and twelve”).  In case you’re curious, you can find a full list of the “correct” etiquette for wedding invitation wording from Martha Stewart.

Meanwhile, I’ll share with you guys some of the choices my previous clients have used, and a few of my other favorites:

Short and Sweet:

Together with their parents
The Couple
invite you to celebrate their wedding
Date, Time
Location
Dinner and Dancing to Follow

or

The Couple
invite you to share in their love
as they celebrate their marriage
on Date at Time
at Location
located at Address
Reception to follow

or

The Couple
joyfully request the pleasure of your company
at their wedding celebration
Date, Time
at Location
Address
Dinner and Dancing to Follow

A little bit more involved:

Because your love and friendship
have helped us become who we are
we invite you to share in our joy
with a celebration of love and commitment
Please join
The Couple
Date, Time
Location
Address
Reception immediately following

And for something extra cute and personal, list some of your favorite things to do together:

They have been
scrabble opponents and biking buddies
cat parents and business partners
but most of all they have been best friends.
Please join
The Couple
as they come together in marriage
Date, Time
at Location
Address
Dinner and Dancing to Follow

If you’re willing to think outside of the box, you can come up with all sorts of fun and non-cheesy ideas. For a few more ideas, check out:

• the Knot
• My Personal Artist (Michelle is my buddy on Twitter!)
• About.com
• Offbeat Bride

If you would like to include your family members (especially if your family is large or complicated), you might check out this page, which has pretty much every combination you can think of.

Did any of you create wedding invitation wording that you truly loved, or have you come across something creative?  Of so, I’d love it if you would share in the comments!

This year we hosted Thanksgiving, which was our first major family event.  I have to say, it was a big success!!  I created a heavy-duty Google Doc that kept us super organized (including timing for when dishes went in the oven, etc), and all of our dishes were served warm and tasty.

I made most of the side dishes, and Y was responsible for the mashed potatoes and the turkey.  If you follow me on Twitter, you might already know that we have a turkey fryer, which we tested a few weeks ago.  It was a little crispy the last time, but this time it was totally perfect.

Y spent a pretty penny on a Heritage Turkey from Marin Sun Farms.  I wasn’t morally opposed to eating him because he had such a wonderful life, so I tasted a little bit of turkey–and I have to say, it was delicious.

And of course, with the responsibility of hosting comes the responsibility of decorating.  I drew us a little turkey to be our mascot.  He held up a sign to identify each of the dishes:

I think my turkey’s name is Fred–and as you can see, he is also a Heritage Turkey.

Below is a photo of the Chestnut and Apple Stuffing I made (I changed the recipe a bit so it was vegetarian).  I also made a Vegetarian Strudel, Green Bean & Artichoke Casserole and pumpkin and vanilla ice cream sandwiches (I just put ice cream and pumpkin pie filling between two graham crackers).  Everyone said things were delicious!  I am proud of us.  :)

In addition to our turkey mascot, I decorated with orchids and decorative gourds:

and I used chalkboard paint on glasses I bought at World Market to create useful place cards:

I have to say, it really was an awesome Thanksgiving, and we had a great time hosting it for our seven guests (from both my side and Y’s!).  I wouldn’t mind hosting it next year, too!

How was your Thanksgiving?  Are you guys ready for Chrismukkah/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/The Holidays?