Tecumseh Art Walk

I have been busy printing this week. Prints, cards, bookmarks, more cards, more prints... Because I am one of the artists who will be at the 3rd Annual Art Walk in downtown Tecumseh, Michigan. The event is from 6 - 9 pm on Friday, 30 April 2010. If you're in the area, I invite you to stop by!

I will be at "Timeless Stitches" (112 N. Evans Street, Tecumseh, MI).

(this is from last year)

For more information on the Art Walk...

The official City of Tecumseh website:
http://www.downtowntecumseh.com/downtown/art.htm

Or read about it on the Tecumseh Herald:
http://www.tecumsehherald.com/node/3629

send some flowers...

It's been dreary, foggy, and rainy lately. Perhaps these are those vaunted "April showers." I suppose I can only hope they will yield some "may flowers."

In the mean time, I have been working on card graphics. So I have spent much time on the computer scouring over my numerous photos of flowers.

Anyway, I am one of those people who just likes pretty pictures. And, admittedly, I have something of a black thumb when it comes to cut flowers. The ones that grow outside — those are fabulous, they get water & sunshine, and well, nature takes its course. Inside, I do far better with fake flowers...

When it's just me and the camera and then the computer and photoshop — that's when I can do something beautiful with cut flowers.

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GIVEAWAY

Send some flowers on Mother's Day give-away. The winner gets to pick one of these cards (or any 1 of the cards available for sale in my "sarahknight" shop on etsy) — which I will then send to them. You can choose to have the card blank on the inside or let me know what message you want printed there.
The cards measure 4.5 X 6.625 inches & are printed on 115lb paper w/ a slight texture.

To enter: send an email to sarkni@live.com with the word "give-away" in the title.
The winner will be drawn at random next Wednesday morning (28 April, 2010) — at which time I will email you (because to send you the card I need an address).

I don't have a mailing list, newsletter, or forward email addresses, or anything spammy like that. The email is exclusively for the giveaway.

Sunshine Sight at Big Cartel

"Sunshine Sight" is now open on Big Cartel.

I have been looking for a new, different, or alternate venue to sell online for some time now. I haven't stopped looking, but I've decided to throw down some roots at Big Cartel and see if it works out.

I found the place when I was looking for a former fellow 'Etsian' a while back. There used to be a seller on etsy called "artandghosts." I remember 'hearting' her shop when I first set up shop there... and at some point I went back through my etsy favorites and discovered that she had disappeared from the site. Fortunately, as she is quite talented, she's not dead or anything horrible like that. She simply moved on. I found her on her blog: http://artandghosts.typepad.com/ which was where I found her Big Cartel shop. I was intrigued. And so, I decided to learn more about the site....

I also decided — around last October — that I wanted to come up with a different name to brand my artwork and products. "sarahkdesigns" is literally something I scrawled onto a piece of scrap paper in the breakroom at work one night when I was trying to come up with a name for a seller account on ebay. Remember when ebay seemed like a good place to give it a try? Yeah.

While sarahkdesigns is obvious — I am Sarah K, well, it's so obvious that other people use it too. It annoys me to google myself and find other people. That and my name is Sarah Knight, which is apparently like the "John Green" of female names. It's not quite "John Smith" common, but my — there are a lot of us Sarah Knights!

Besides that, I have looked around etsy at the successful print sellers usernames. While there are the folks who simply use their first name, there are more that don't. Creative folks like theeye, BirdNerd, strangefascination, arabbitgirl, ThisYearsGirl, mincingmockingbird, atwhim, and papermoth (to name a few) have more branded identities... So, I needed something more original, more arty, and less generic. I also decided to make this decision around Halloween, I'm not quite sure why.

I was going to pick "A moment's sunlight." Why? Because it's my favorite line in the Youngblood's song "Get Together" — which I had stuck in my head for weeks after having seen the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" — which is one of my favorite books. It's a long name though.

So, I was brainstorming alternatives and through the process of elimination (again, while at work in the middle of the night) came up with Sunshine Sight. It's got that lyrical quality to it — not unlike "plastic acid" but apparently doesn't quite seem like such a stoner drug reference. Plus "Sunshine Sight: illustrations by Sarah Knight" conveniently rhymes with my name.

Sunshine was also apparently the runner-up to "Sarah" when my mother was deciding my name. Sunshine Knight - get it? Oh, Mom.
And, as someone with an openly sarcastic streak, Sunshine has always been the de facto sarcastic nickname bestowed upon me by co-workers. As someone who enjoys their sarcasm, I find that amusing.

So, I invite you to check out my Big Cartel shop: Sunshine Sight

I apparently also decided to open on "Earth Day" : )
So, go outside and wish the earth a beautiful day today!
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I also invite you to participate in my giveaway
The winner will receive a free Mother's Day card
You can read about it here: send some flowers giveaway

Send some flowers!

Christmas seems to be the only holiday to which I am not oblivious. The rest of them seem to sneak up on me — no matter how hard I may attempt to be aware. Mother's Day is next month.

Conveniently, or perhaps by happenstance, since I have been doing a lot with photo manipulation recently, I have been working on designing cards. I have always been planning on making cards, it's just that it seems that something always comes up and I always put it off.

So, over the last few weeks I've been measuring my envelopes (I have a lot of envelopes!) and formatting sizes, and doing math, and trying to find suitable paper to print them on. And then there's the boring part with printer color profiles & printer margins...

Anyway, making the graphics is much more enjoyable, and since Mother's Day is approaching I decided to focus on the florals. You can send her flowers that require no watering : )

1 2 3

4 5 6

7 8 9

The cards measure 4.5 X 6.625 inches & are printed on 115lb paper w/ a slight texture.

GIVEAWAY

I have also apparently decided to do a giveaway, the winner gets to pick one of these cards — which I will then send to them.
To enter: send an email to sarkni@live.com with the word "give-away" in the title.
The winner will be drawn at random next Wednesday morning (28 April, 2010) — at which time I will email you (because to send you the card I need an address).

BTW, I don't have a mailing list, newsletter, or forward email addresses, or anything spammy like that.

Eventually, these cards will be available for sale at my "sarahknight" shop on etsy.
Remember your Mother this Mother's Day : )

Outside: the Magnolia

Having finally mastered various settings on my camera, I actually had high hopes for the magnolia this year. Unfortunately, this was not a stellar year for the magnolia.

Now, it is of no fault of the bush itself, as it produced a large number of buds as it does every year. No, this was all the Michigan weather.

Usually, the magnolia gets to have at least 1, if not 2, good days of blooms. It starts to get warm outside. The buds develop, they're nice and pink. The weather holds. The buds open. The bush looks all nice and pretty for 2 days, and then: bam, windstorm or cold spell! And the petals brown and fall to the ground making a spectacular mess.

Not so, this year. No, this year the tree formed buds, and literally, the day they should have open ed — it froze. Damn weather.

Nonetheless, I got some shots of the blossoms, trying to shoot around the brown ones. The first shot was taken out the kitchen window, since that bush is about 20 feet tall and there's no way I can stand that high...

The magnolia always ends in a spectacular mess. It's pretty in its own way, assuming you're one of those free thinkers that doesn't believe in raking leaves (points to self). Amusingly, those leaves among the petals are actually the ones the magnolia shed last fall. And now the violets are starting to sprout!

Hopefully, if you had a magnolia the weather was nicer to yours.

Outside: cherry blossoms

Cherry blossoms are so beautiful when they bloom. We have two cherry trees in the backyard. They are different varieties, so they don't bloom at the same time. One of them has the sweetest fragrance. Both of them are the delight of the bees. Anyhow, they both have white flowers. So, if I want images of pink cherry blossoms, which I happen to think are gorgeous, then I have to go wander into town...

Which is what I did.
It's nice to be able to stop working and go outside for a stroll (with the camera) every now and then.

I invite you to check out this lovely treasury by theeye: Ground Control to Major Tom
It features my "the house" print : )

Hopefully spring is in full bloom wherever you are, even if it is simply in your imagination.

Outside: Bluebirds, the Treasury, & the Voter

It's been a wee bit warmer recently, and the pair of Eastern Bluebirds have been establishing their territory in the backyard. Every once in a great while the male will let me stand really far away and take a photo... just every once in a while.

This is a shot of eastern bluebird eggs in a nest in the nest box (from last year). It's called "nest" and is available at my "sarahknight" shop on etsy

"nest" is also featured in this wonderful treasury of bluebirds & butterflies by Starzyia
I invite you to go check it out : )



My "say's phoebe" print is also featured in this lovely treasury "Cloud Watching" by Polestar



I invite you to go check it out : )

And, of course, I encourage you to go vote in this round of the etsy "voter." It's called "What's in Your Ideal Garden." And one of my pieces, "Happy Together" is in contention! So, yes, I'm asking, begging, pleading, & otherwise strongly encouraging you to go vote for my print!

When logged into your etsy account you can vote here:
http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=101

The Etsy Voter

I encourage you to go vote in this round of the etsy "voter." It's called "What's in Your Ideal Garden." And one of my pieces, "Happy Together" is in contention! So, yes, I'm asking, begging, pleading, & otherwise strongly encouraging you to go vote for my print!

When logged into your etsy account you can vote here:
http://www.etsy.com/voter_list.php?ref=voter&room_id=101

I've been busy lately, but I have gone out & snapped some shots in the yard. It's been pretty chilly here lately. It warmed up a little recently, but not soon enough for the magnolia blossoms, which are now brown... cursed weather.

I also invite you to check out this marvelous treasury by rawartletterpress!

Outside: forsythia in bloom

So it's raining and gloomy outside right now. I suppose those are the "April Showers." Eventually those should yield some "May flowers." But in the mean time the bushes in the yard are moving ahead with spring. This year the forsythia had a nice showing of flowers.

Anyway, before the rain started I snapped some shots:

Hopefully your plants & flowers are enjoying the unusually warm weather.

Outside: red-winged blackbirds in the marsh

I live out in the country, so I drive through the country quite frequently. There's a lot of farmland around here. In fact, there's a farm field on the other side of the backyard. And just across the highway there's a fen.

Anyway, I have a full time job and work many miles away from where I live. This means driving through a lot of farmland on my way too and from work. There are many different routes to my job, and there are many different things to see on the way to or from work.

One of those things is a pond. I actually stopped there with the thought of photographing the swans who happened to be hanging out in the water. But I ended up spending more time focusing on the flock of red-winged blackbirds hanging around in the cattails in the marsh in front of the pond.

Red-winged blackbirds are a surreal bunch. I heard someone describe their call as sounding like "aliens." It's quite an experience of sight and sound. This is what one bird sounds like (click). Now imagine that multiplied by 10. It's like a sublime symphony.

I hope you go out and enjoy the harbingers of spring!