Cooties

I don't know about you, but my elementary school experience would not have been complete without these things. You fate was in the hands of the cootie catcher! And you did not want to get stuck picking the flap that led you and all your friends to belive you were going to marry to dorkiest boy in school. Can you say embarrassing?

Well now that we are all grown up and super mature, we still make these awesome little predictors of our future. We are just classy enough to do it in letterpress now, well at least Sycamore Street Press is.

Gotta love it! Entirely sophisticated right? I think I am just going to have to make one and keep it on my desk for inspiration. It's nice to have reminders to stay playful. 

I bet you are thinking to yourself, "I wish I remembered how to make one of these!" No worries. I got your back. In case you are wondering Ruffled has a tutorial! Their intention is that you use them at weddings for menus and such, which would be cool but I am way more into just playing with them. 

Drop me a line when you finish! I would love to see your creations. It would be a worthy follow up post. 

Have fun! Ohh and don't forget to put an ugly boys name under one flap, you just have to!

{image cred: Sycamore Street Press}

Punctuate away, 

Jessie-Lee

Illustrations with Attitude

I have been seriously swooning over some great illustrators lately. I'm always totally jealous of illustrators, I never had the self confidence to find that "style" every illustrator needs to embrace to call themselves credible. Just not my thing, therefore I lust.

Brendan Wenzel looks to be developing himself as an illustrator. His blog heeds some amazing illustrations, just not a lot of info. Maybe he is going for the let my art speak for itself approach? Check out the links, see what you can find!

At any rate I am going to show you his amazingness...

Don't they just make you smile? I feel especially cheery looking at them, I just want to name them all and turn them into my own personal animal clan. They just appear like they have something to say.

It looks like our mysterious artist man is trying to start an Etsy shop. Keep an eye on it, he may post more in time. Wouldn't these be super cool for a kids room?

{image cred: Brendan Wenzel}

Punctuate away, 

Jessie-Lee

P.S. Mr. Wenzel, if you Google yourself and you come across my little piece of the internet, give us all some background!

On a More Personal Note...

I pre-apologize for any ranting that may occur on this post.

Today I want to formally reflect on a very personal note in my life. My parents divorced when I was 16. Big deal right? Something like 50% of the marriages in the United States end up this way, and by NO means and I trying to cry about me being the only poor kid out there. I just want to reflect a little bit. I was older when my parents split. While it was no shock or surprise that it happened, the after effects were not the happy peace my sister and I had been looking for in all the years before. But here we are seven years later, and the same battles that were waging during the marriage are carried on as my sister enters her college years. All I can say about that, is I need to make the choice to personally remove myself from those problems. I cannot and will not be present for another four years of this situation.

Without all the gory details, which I am sure by now you have decided you have no need to hear I am going to get to the purpose of this post.

I was affected in what I thought were different ways from that of younger children, even my own sister. I didn't realize until I started researching for this post that it is a universal feeling. Anyone who has ever had to deal with these emotions on a daily basis I am sure, will be comforted by this post.

I wanted to explore children's art today. Children's art is sacred in my mind, they are so fearless, so unafraid to just pick up a crayon and draw. They don't worry if they make someones skin purple, or if their nose looks too fat for their face. They use art as it is meant to be, a creative outlet for their thoughts and emotions. And it's honest, oh most importantly, it's honest! It's comforting in a way. As an educated but aspiring creative professional, it grounds you, it forces you to go back to your roots and realize why it is that you are doing this in the first place. It is almost backwards. As an adult, to look back on children's artwork you realize that you don't have to be so precise. Let loose!

So let's take a look at how children perceive such a fragile state of affairs.

These images are just so genuine, and it is a comfort to know that children of divorce at any age all feel the same way.

These postcards come from a website that I will, from now on, frequently visit Postcards from Splitsville. It is just an amazing feeling to know that you are not alone, and even at 22 seven years after the incident, you can still feel that way. Getting people to change is hard, and I know I have all but given up on my own parents. Expression like this gives you hope to keep going. It is OK to live with these feelings, you are not the only one experiencing them. The comfort in that is priceless.

{image cred: Postcardsfromsplittsville.com}

Punctuate away,

Jessie-Lee