Outside: autumn leaves

Well, autumn is upon us, so that means it's time to wander around outside with the camera...

 reflections

 oak leaves in autumn

oak mix

propeller

Where have I been?

D'oh.

It is apparently exceptionally easy to get out of the habit of blogging. Probably because blogging is kind of hard. I mean, if I went out and took fabulous beautiful photos every week and spent a lot of time on "social media" making nice with everyone else - then people would visit here and leave nice comments.  Or if I was famous - well, I imagine that simply helps — assuming it's like good famous and not D-level reality tv also ran famous or something.  If I was into fashion — you know, I guess that's what the young ladies do... except that just not my thing.

So, I'm guilty of not blogging here and I do openly admit that not writing anything and just posting a something on tumblr seems to be a lot easier. That and tumblr is searchable so random people have a greater chance of finding your content. 

But anyway, it's September because I dropped off somewhere in August. It would be nice if I had some story or pictures about some fabulous vacation. But I don't. I didn't go anywhere. I was somehow busy between work and life and home.  There was a lot of overtime (aka 6 day work weeks), and some home drama. The latter I should have probably not mentioned, because apparently it's an unmentionable thing. It's not a divorce or domestic incident or fire or natural disaster, and no one is injured or ill or fired or boozing it up or anything particularly interesting... it's one of those dumb things that apparently you're never supposed to speak of. And I know this because I have mentioned it casually to a number of people that I know and they look at me as if I just told them that so-in-so is (insert scandalous thing). 

Let's just say that in the month of August, as I have been doing in very small increments for the past year, there was a sudden burst of cleaning... because someone seems to have a little problem parting ways with things that ought to be thrown away. Before there were tv shows we just called it the Mess. There's less of it now. There may have been some words exchanged and some strained faces every time Wednesday rolled around. And I may have gone on clandestine missions and snuck garbage bags out of the house, but there ought to be a clear path to the fuse box. And we are no longer not throwing out junk mail, because that was some moronic bullshit. If I am writing out a check every couple of months for the garbage man to come take away 3 bags of trash every week, then, 3 bags of trash are going to leave every week until I run out of stuff that needs to go.

Otherwise, in another 10 years we would have qualified for an episode of one of those shows, although we don't have any cats or rats or insect problems... although someone may be crushed to death someday by totes of craft supplies.

It's difficult to explain to non-relatives how there have been arguments and hurt feelings and dirty looks over throwing away empty shampoo bottles and milk jugs and  plastic bags.

So, that was August: work, cleaning, and exhaustion. Also, it was still too frigging hot.

And now it's September.

Anyway, I have been drawing and writing on and off when I'm not trying to catch up on sleep or think of how to better organize the thousands of things we have in this house... and one of the things that I endeavored upon was a new etsy account. Yeah, I know, like I really need another one.

esotericSarah — my photography will be slowly matriculating there because I actually opened the account with a completely different intention, and maybe, just like I thought last year - I'll get back on track with that project in January when my schedule clears out...

I laugh as I type that. But all the cleaning that I did in the month of August and throughout the past year was a bit of a journey in an attempt to live a happier, neater, better life; with some level or organization and planning. So, while I may look back on my summer and recall it being too hot to do anything and spending a lot of time with a the vacuum cleaner and a spray bottle of cleaning fluid - it was a path towards a more functional home and a more functional home life, where things get put away and there's a place to put things that we actually use.

Plus, I have 12 pictures to draw in less than 3 months. Eek! Good thing I have most of them sketched...

Hope everyone had a good summer!

inspiration and iphone cases

I don't actually have an iphone. In fact, I may be one of the last people on earth living in a first world country under the age of 40 and over the age of 8 who does not possess a cell phone.  I'm just not that kind of a person. The people who need to find me know how and where to do so.

However, seeing my illustrations and photography on an iphone case does kinda make me want one just because...

spring sycamore

ginkgo potpouri

intricate lace

sunshine flight

cardinal couple

You can find all these at http://society6.com/SarahKnight/

It was a decent week, the weather has finally cooled down.  There were way too many 90˚F+ days this summer for my liking. 65˚F to 80˚F is really ideal...

Anyway, in the sweltering sun of Monday morning I thoroughly washed the car, inside and out.  So, you know, if it rained - you know why.

And then I got the oil changed.

While I was sitting there is the waiting area at Chrysler I churned out 3 sketches.  I have less than 4 months to produce 12 illustrations for my calendar, and since I hadn't really been working on anything up to this point - well, it's time to get going on this yearly project.  At the very least, I have vague ideas for 8 graphics so far. Now I just need to sit down and draw them out.  Fun stuff, and possibly more obscure / quirky / eccentric stuff this year... I always had a penchant for out there kinda things.

Speaking of which - this is my new work in progress: esotericSarah

I like satire, parody, comedy... motivational prints? Maybe not so much, hence satire.

Anyway, I spent the day vegging in front of the latest episodes of "The Closer" on onDemand. I'm going to miss that show.