Forest Friends Dress

Here in my new entry in the spoonflower fabric design contest.

Vote HERE. (psst. I'm Star Primm)

The theme is "Children's Clothing", and the assignment was to design a piece of children's apparel with pattern pieces and instructions all on one yard of fabric. I made a little dress that will fit 18 months - 3T, and it features my watercolor illustrations of some tiny forest friends. I made a prototype out of white muslin, and it fits my little Isabelle just perfectly. I am still waiting to receive my printed fabric, so once it arrives I will post photos of the finished dress.

forest friends dress, originally uploaded by mytinystar.

July 4th is Almost Here!

The other night I was in a patriotic mood and I did these little watercolor paintings.

I am so excited for our small town celebration!

Some of my most memorable 4th of July memories:

-The showering sparks of the overhead fireworks (and the occasional ground explosion)

-Driving the horse carriage carrying the mayor and his wife (and not killing anyone)

-Being a Floozy in the Melodrama!

-When I was 8, I used cardboard, scissors and tape to transform my bike into a beautiful horse and ride it in the parade dressed as a cowgirl (I made it half-way and flicka fell apart)

-Mmmmm, shaved ice!

-Watching the rodeo (wishing the greased piglets would get away and run free)

-Skinny dipping in the dam (what's more American?)

-The Fish Pond (I always wanted to be like Polyanna and pull out a full sized porcelain doll)

-Selling watermelon wedges and dill pickles all day and making about $3.50 (anyone remember the size of the watermelon wedges on Polyanna? Mine were the same size, and about the same price)

-Sparklers, Flowers and Snakes! Oh, and smoke bombs on occasion.

-Being hot, sweaty and sticky, and not caring one bit!

I love the 4th, and I hope my children can share some of the same memories!

I hope you all have a lovely Independence Day!

New Watercolor Collage

Watercolor Collage 7" x 8"

Here is the story of my new watercolor collage. It was going to be just a watercolor, but Isaac got a hold of my large scalloped paper punch, and chomped holes in the corners. I wasn't sure of what I should do, it was a mess, so I cut out around the image which somehow survived. Then it evolved from there, but no sooner had I put the finishing touches on it and laid it down to dry, the little monster threw a ball across the room and knocked half my desk, including the painting to the ground. After some touch-ups, it is finally done, and hopefully safe from the rapscallion, but is anything safe....really??

I need help with a title for this little painting.

Any suggestions?

A Mother's Love

Here is my new watercolor illustration titled

"A Mother's Love".

I will have prints and cards available in my shop just in time for Mother's Day.

A Gift for my Girl

For my daughter's 8th birthday, and as a baptism gift, I painted her this picture. She loves it, bless her heart, and has it hanging by her bed. She noticed the hands on the clock straight off and asked if it was also a reminder to get to bed on time. That girl doesn't miss a thing! She says the sweetest prayers, and always remembers what is important.

Happy Birthday sweet girl, I am so proud of you!

Sweet Hour of Prayer - Mixed Media - 8x10

I used watercolor, ink and colored pencils on smooth bristol board.

There is a story behind the shell sitting on the clock shelf.

Prints will be available in my shop soon.

A Jungle of a Baby Nursery

Here it is! The reason I haven't been doing much else lately.

This was made for a custom order, and it is a safari/jungle themed nursery set with appliqued animals, matching stuffed creatures,

and coordinating wall art of course.

Okay, I got a bit carried away, but I love how it all turned out.

The blanket is all quilted by hand, and the stuffed giraffe, monkey and elephant are made from my own patterns and were sewn with coordinating fabrics. The bumper has appliqued animals parading all around the crib, and I had to paint some happy little watercolor illustrations for a finishing touch. The fabrics I used are all various Amy Butler prints with a little Heather Bailey as well. All the animals were taken from my sketch book, and frankly I think they are so happy to finally be free range! One lucky baby gets to sleep in this fun and colorful set.

Now I plan to spend a few days catching up on my housework, then back to creating more messes and fun things!

Balance

I have started on multiple posts, but keep getting pulled away by various things, well I guess I shouldn't call my children things. I have been trying to achieve some balance in my life. I'm not even close to getting there, but I am working on it. The main basic areas that I am trying to find some balance with are: my children, my creative time, housekeeping(bleh), my husband, my spiritual well being, and my physical well being.

My little darlings only have a few basic needs: food every couple hours or so (nursing baby requires even more sometimes), diaper changes, baths, spill wiping, clothes washing, hand cleansing, more spill wiping, book reading, spelling correcting, horsey-back rides, hair doing, nose wiping (bleh), dish washing, prayer listening, song singing, apple cutting, banana peeling, snuggling, blankie finding, bug catching, okay, okay, so pretty much all my attention while they are awake! I love being a mom, really, and I wish that I could absorb myself completely in my role as mother, but I love those moments that I have to draw, paint, sew, and such. Sadly, these are things that I find difficult to do while my 2 youngest kids are awake. My 7 year old would love to create all day with me if she could, I hope the other 2 grow to be the same.

My creative time: The scale is definitely tipping in this direction lately, thus the desperate need to find balance. Some days it is just a countdown until bedtime so I can work on my newest idea, isn't that terrible. I seriously have 100's of ideas a day, I sure wish I could plug a flash drive into my ear so I could remember them all. I try to focus on other things, but it is so hard, I just want to do "my stuff". I am still waiting for my birthday present, all I asked for was a whole day (except for small nursing breaks) to work on my projects, I hope that day is soon!

Housekeeping - this has got to be my weakest area! It seems that the vacuuming can always wait another day, and what's the point of making a bed when you will just be messing it up in a few more hours? Clean laundry mountains are fun to jump in and make tunnels through, if I folded them too soon, what fun would that be? And there is always the fridge mystery game, how long has that been there, and what do you think it once was? It doesn't help that I am a pack rat with a kagillion hobbies!

My husband - Poor dear, he is very sweet and uncomplaining most of the time. I think he is just grateful that he is not the mom. I really need to work on making him feel more loved and spending more quality time with him.

My spiritual well being - Another area that needs improvement, there are lots of things I know I need to make more time for. How does anyone do it all? Are there people who do it all?

My physical well being - Aackk! I have some very sporty friends who are as fit as fiddles, and they haven't rubbed off on me yet. Since baby #3 I find that my metabolism has slowed down considerably, and my love for all things sweet has not slowed one bit! I am mentally gearing up for some major steps in the physical area of my life, but I lack the motivation and time of course.

Does anyone else find it hard to have balance in their life?
Am I the only one trying to hold my self-esteem together while seeing all the areas that I am lacking in? I hope I am not alone. I think we all have strengths in different areas so that we are forced to be dependant upon each other and help one another.

Please give me ideas on how to find more balance in my life, and feel free to come help me clean my house, I'll trade for artsy fartsy parties!

Well, it took me all day to finish this post working on it a minute here and there, and I still need to set aside some time to list some of my creations in my shop. I have quite the accumulation to list! I am working on some commissioned projects as well, but I will be updating the shop as time allows tonight and tomorrow so check back soon.

I suppose I should post a picture.
We have been obsessed with baby animals lately. Here is my baby giraffe watercolor, and if you look at my recent puppet post, you can see who he is patterned after. I thought he would look so cute is a baby nursery. I have a whole pile of baby animal sketches that I did a couple months ago that I am finally adding color to and getting ready for the shop. Have a happy day! Star

My Favorite Things ~ And a Giveaway!!!

Hello friends! I have been working on a set of prints that I am so excited to show you.

Sophia and I love to watch The Sound of Music, and we drive the rest of the family crazy as we sing the songs over and over. We were talking about how many of Maria's favorite things are our favorite things, so I started a-sketchin'. Here are the first 5 in the set of, I think 15 I am working on. The image is 8x10 with a white border.
My giveaway this weekend is the winner's choice of one of my new "My Favorite Things" prints.

The winner will have their choice of background colors, cream, tan or white.

The watermark will not appear on your print.

All you have to do to enter is place a comment on this post telling me one of your favorite things. Then on Tuesday the 15th, the Random Number Generator will choose a winner. They will also be available in my shop very soon.

Raindrops on Roses

Whiskers on Kittens
Bright Copper Kettles
Warm Woolen Mittens
Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with Strings

These are a few of my favorite things!!! (Yea, I'm singing it)

Here are the different background colors.

As I sit here singing, I am reminded of a multi-family camping trip we went on a few years ago(Woohoo, Detroit!) where I fashioned lederhosen out of plastic tablecloths and duct tape for the whole family. Why, you ask? We were the evening entertainment one night, so we composed and sang Sound of Music spoofs, complete with killer dance moves. What a show!!! We called ourselves The Voncrap Family Singers, but edited it to Voncamp.

My brother, Mindy-in-law, and Sophia.

Sorry to inflict our silliness upon you.
I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

New Girls in Shop

I just listed these cute little girls in the shop. Gray Elephant 5 1/2"x7 1/2" Original Watercolor

Reading Rachel 5 1/2"x 7 1/2" Original Watercolor

The Thinking Bench

Sophia asked why she was so sad, I told her that she's not sad, she's just thinking.
It looks like a good bench for thinking, don't ya think? Maybe she's thinking about her cool cowgirl boots, or perhaps she's imagining a way to escape from those curly vines when they attack;)

Cherry Pickin' Sisters

These are my "Cherry Pickin' Sisters". When there are two sisters there is usually a glamorous talented one and a practical helpful one. Except for me and my sister, she is the glamorous, talented, practical, helpful one, and I'm the one eating all the cherries! This piece is a watercolor, and was inspired by some fabric I have been using to sew Isabelle a dress. I love cherries! I love sisters! Oh, and I made that glamorous/practical thing up.

Goose Girl

"Don't forget to walk the goose!" her mother called. This is "Goose Girl", it was inspired by the flocks of Canada Geese that have been cruising our town. It is so wonderful to see and hear the birds again! My favorite part of this painting is the knit skirt, it looks so cosy and hip.