Friday, February 22, 2013

A Gluten Free Family Day

With Emma and I  both staying away from gluten, we like to try and make fun and awesome meals leaving gluten in our dust! Emma (being 8) is very sensitive to people around her eating gluten, especially at school, where kids eat all sorts of glutanous stuff, but I try really hard to make things a bit easier for her. One of our favorite things to do is to raid the farmer's market on sunday morning and then have what she has lovingly named "fancy dinner".
Here's the latest...

Homemade pizza
Yum Bakery

Dessert Charcuterie 
I would love some awesome and fun new gluten free ideas to keep making life special for my fav kid- any thoughts?

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Custom Portraits Now on ETSY!!

The thing that I love most about illustrating is drawing custom portraits- the people that I have had the privilege to work with and get to know has been such a huge blessing! 
And guess what??!!

I have just launched Custom Portraits in my SHOP!!

I have been doing portraits for about 6 years and the very first one that I did was of my husband's 14 member family- back in 2008!


The Klassens, 2008
My style has changed since then, but the reason behind why I do portraits stays the same;
Family and friends are the most important thing to me and to lots of other people. To take the time to gather up photos and have someone draw a portrait shows thoughtfulness and care and is a special gift. (i don't say this to toot my own horn, but for all artists out there who do portraits!)

Here are a few of my more recent favorites!








If you are interested in a portrait of your very own, check out my shop here!


Friday, February 15, 2013

Moving Forward...

A little bit of change...
That's what I thought that things around here needed. That, and maybe a post or two...
So, to begin, a story;

A good long while ago (almost 9 years now!) I gave birth to my baby girl, Emma- she is my heart, my little ball of light. But she was not born entirely healthy. She was born with a spinal cord defect called a tethered cord and after a surgery at 2 weeks old and a surgery at one year old, she has overcome that hurdle in life and is now a non-stop dancing queen.
While all of this was going on, I was repressing every last drop. All of the doctors and consults and endless talking, all pushed as far down as I could possible push something- that's really far...
A little bit of time later, (during an extraordinarily  emotional moment) it all came rushing back. Ugh, what a time, it was rough, really rough. I suffered from some extreme anxiety, at times debilitating, and it was really scary.
A little bit of time after that, I sought help. I found a counsellor to help me think through and process everything and teach me how to cope with the ever present thoughts of anxiety. He helped me a lot- I mean a lot and the one main thing that has stuck with me through it all is to always keep moving forward, but to never forget to look back.

In honor of this personal truth,  I permanently etched a symbol of forward moving onto my wrist, a body part that I see about once a minute throughout the day, constantly reminding me of this truth.

Photo taken by the beautiful and talented Blair of Blair Marie Photography and styled by the lovely Alexandra of Pink and Honey 

And, in the spirit of change, I have also done a little bit of a rebrand to my blog and my shop. Something I have been working on for a while now, but have only just put the finishing touches on.  I'll show you that soon, for now,
HAPPY LONG WEEKEND!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Blue and Purple Wedding Stationary

Remember this post a while back...


Here are the results!





I think it all turned out so well, and I had a blast working with this awesome couple!
Congrats to A&C!!

Also,
I have had so much positive feedback about this personalized stationary that I have decided to add it to my shop! Check back soon!


Saturday, September 8, 2012

10 Years...




Did I tell you that my hubby and I just celebrated 10 years of marriage? Well, it's true- we did! 10 years together! And in all honesty, I wouldn't change a thing.






Whoa- things are different! I was 20 years old when I got married! 20!! I can hardly even fathom 20.
In honor of our 10 years, we headed out to our favorite place in the whole world, Canmore, for a week of hiking, spa-ing, and relaxing-
We also went in search of the perfect family photo (with our tri-pod in hand) and found this beautiful wooden gate along the train tracks to document the milestone.








- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Jenny's Shower

So this summer has been a busy one- and not really in that fun summery kind of way, but the "ah, work is killing me" kind of way. But it's ok- our little family business is growing like crazy and that is really exciting to be a part of- so I'm not complaining (kind of complaining) but between the busyness of work and the other actual fun summer things that we have done, there have be zero blogs.
The blog starts here people-


My lovely sister's bridal shower-




That's all for right now, hopefully a few more posts before the summer officially ends...hopefully.
































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Hooray!!

Guess what!!
We were featured on Wedding Chicks!!
Check it out here...
Its so exciting!
Thanks SO much to everyone involved in the shoot for inviting me to participate- and thanks EXTRA much to the ladies at Wedding Chicks for featuring our hard work!
I can finally show you a few pieces of what I created for the shoot-

The card and the paper bag envelope with a hand written tag

The "will you be my bridesmaid" card

Personalized stationary to give your bridesmaids as a gift