Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's out there! I spent the day with my mother and sister Thea, basically in the car. We drove to Boston to go with my grandfather and aunt to visit my Nana's grave and then were off to Worcester to watch Holly coxen one of her last races for Marist Crew. Then home again...I think we were in the car for 9 hours...a long day, but nice family bonding time. The above photo is from mom's wedding in 2004...hair lengths have gone up and down and Thea has grown about a foot since then and Gillian is sneering at the camera, but its the only photo of the whole crew of us, and Nana was there.

In case you were curious...Holly (sister 3) is far left with hair piled high, Brandi (step sister 2) is next in dark green, Thea (sister 4) is in pink, Sheryl (mom) in greyish blue, Gloria aka Nana (Sheryl's mom) is in olive, Gillian (sister 2) is in white, Serena (step sister 1) is in black...and now she is a mom too! and last in orange is Me...Sierra (sister 1). That's a whole lotta ladies!

Tis the season to photograph flowers

Oh boy, its that time of year again, I almost decided against it, but then last week I realized that I had fans, so why deprive them of this seasons blooms as seen through my lens?

I want to see YOU in your favs from Manic Trout!

I just realized that I have no photos of anyone in their favorite lovelies from Manic Trout...sad. Please send me pictures, I want to see them so badly that I will send you a voucher for 25% off of your next purchase if you share your images with me...sound good?

Memories of May

The month of May still evokes the end of the year in prep school for me...the lush fields we would frolic through in the lazy afternoons of exam week and basically breaking as many rules as possible out and about on the 500 acres of woods, fields and rambles that the school sat upon. I stumbled upon these photos by Nico over at Foto Decadent and was transported back in time 15 or so years...

Man I wish I had a bigger studio!

I have mentioned before that I not only love to paint big, but I bought a small truckload of stretcher bars and canvas in order to do so about 18 months ago...well, what with all the jewelry making going and packages being prepared, I simply am not left with the room to actually paint all of these canvases. *sigh*

Then I was on Decor8 today and saw this from the Australian Vogue Living:


My oh my these are beautiful!

Ok, I don't have enough ceilings to even store canvases this high, which is why I need a big industrial studio space...or a barn..but still...I keep joking that on sunny days I should just haul my easel outside and paint in the driveway...well its starting to sound like a good idea...

Ruffles and Feathers, Oh My!

Oh yes, I have not forgetten...here is a new DigiSketch!!!!!

Top Five

I've had Nick Hornby books on the brain recently and my Sat night reading Tom Robbins on the couch made me think about my Top Five Living Authors (its all about High Fidelity), the authors that I jump up and down for when a new book is coming out and have read everything they wrote thus far...so here it is

Top Five Living Authors

1. Davis Sedaris
2. Laurie Notaro
3. Nick Hornby (duh)
4. Tom Robbins (double duh)
5. Douglas Coupland

*Simon Doonan will make that list if he keeps up what he has been doing...

I wasted an amazing amount of time creating the little book collage up at the top there...oh yeah.

Today was one of THOSE days

You know those days? The ones when you realize that it really is all happening? That you are following your heart and your dreams are maybe going to happen? A taste of what you wish for each day occurs and you want to weep with joy and happiness that the years you have sacrificed having a life may actually one day result in what you have imagined in your wildest fantasies? I had one of those days. On top of that, I managed to communicate with or hear from almost all of my favorite people, some via the computer, but I'll take what I can get! Here's to good days, to good friends, to following your dreams, to the wonderful people that are supportive of you doing so...and to many more days with this many orders!

Manic Trout is in great company today!

Such exciting news today!!!!! Manic Trout has the Mirela Sweetest Thing Earrings on InStyle.com today! In the Hot Finds section (which also went out in the newsletter today), the earrings are the only jewelry item in the Flirty Florals slide show, also shown are Stella McCartney platforms, Top Shop skirt, Lois Vuitton bandeau and Julie Haas dress!