I own one pair of Toms and they are wonderful and comfy shoes. Their cause is amazing... so watch this video to see what they're up to for this holiday season and see if you can resist the urge to join the cause!

little surprise...

hop on over to anthropologie.com and on the "family favorites" page, click the "sam" at the bottom.

:)

UPDATE: There are a few weird spots from the kit, but not terrible. For $10, I think it was well worth it... although the saying is still true: you get what you pay for.

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Seeing that we are forecast to have our first freeze next week, it was about time for me to bring the plants inside for winter. 3 new planters, 1 bag of soil and a few casualties later, everyone is settled in their winter homes. It's actually kind of nice having some green in the house.

Also, I'm about to go and try a box highlighting kit, despite the many many horror stories I've read about the results. I'll keep you all posted.

Wish me luck!
sam

love them.

sunday dress with new necklace

i made this dress yesterday from scratch! i'd had this joel dewberry fabric sitting around since may with no plans.... so i decided to make a fall dress to wear with my boots!

it turned out really well and was comfortable enough to wear all day.

i also made it to go with my new necklace, hence the really low neckline. i went to jennifer's jewelry show on saturday and picked up this gem!
you can check out her stuff online at: joyella.etsy.com

now back to my quilt. :)
sam

we went out to brooklyn twice today... once to ikea and the second time to see a friend's jewelry and eat some dinner.

i'm still learning the lesson of how to dress in the rain here. i seem to forget that regular shoes are not an option when you spend so much time walking... although in my defense, my good rainboots haven't arrived yet (they got shipped on friday).

i'm recovering from a cold, but still working on my quilt. other than that, things have been pretty uneventful here.

hope everyone's well!
sam

New website is up and running!

After accidentally overwriting my main page a few weeks ago, I realized the easiest thing to do was just rebuild the site again. Plus the yellow was hurting my eyes. Also, I wanted to showcase some of the pencil drawings I've been doing lately, as they are my new favorite.

So hop on over and enjoy the new site. Please let me know what you think!

P.S. I also updated the look here. If you use blogger, you'll notice this is just a stock template... I will customize it to match the website at some point, but for now, this was the easiest way to get rid of the yellow.

Happy halloween week and get ready to vote!

back to texas

bryan got married two weeks ago, which was a major occasion for russ and i to travel back to austin and then out to the ranch.

we got to see an old friend in austin and have a great long lunch, which ended up feeling much more like an extended and restorative spiritual direction hour and consequently embodied all the things i remember and love about being in austin, namely a deep sense of safe and loving community, and a sense of pacing one's self, which i often lack.

the wedding was also a tremendously joyous occasion. bryan and kim seemed really happy and russ and i enjoyed getting to lounge around. there was something about being out in the middle of nowhere that brought out the "texan" in me. below, i've listed all the things i don't normally do, that seemed perfect to do at the ranch:

-drink lone star beer
-eat a hamburger (although the meat was from a local rancher)
-watch a football game (ut vs. ou)
-eat a kolache for breakfast

anyhow. i have some drawings to post, but haven't photographed yet, so hopefully you'll see them soon. for now i have to go frost a cake for a dinner party.

cheers everyone!
sam

new art, crafts, etc.

i've been making things again lately, but haven't been as steadfast in photographing and uploading them.

hence the flood of pictures i put on flickr today. you should probably check them out. you'd like them. the link is in the sidebar :)

so anyways, the main thing is some new paintings and my first foray into baby clothing (no, not pregnant, just gifts for a friend!). it's been a lot of fun and i'm excited to keep making more.

i miss posting on here, and if no one noticed it, just wanted to say i am aware that i somehow erased over my main page with a duplicate of my blog. i haven't fixed it yet because i think i'm going to refresh the look of my website anyway, so i'll do it all at one time.

hope everyone's well!
i miss everyone!

p.s. a tree fell on the kitchen of my mom's house in texas due to ike. she's fine, but they (like everyone) are without power for a while. how is everyone else faring?

keeping website.

changed my mind. :)

newest gocco print

limited edition of 6 prints.

in the hunt for my art supplies (funny how a move gets everything all jumbled up) i ran across a box of my previous journals. flipping through, i found this poem in my journal from last fall, a few months after my dad died. looking back on it, the words still resonated something, so i decided to make them into a print.

i'm not sure if/when i'll put it up for sale. let me know if anyone is interested in one.

hope everyone is well!
sam

trying to break my boots in before fall....

turns out, they are really comfy... just the heel needs some work.

this is kind of a fake post.. i meant to post pics of some of my new drawings/prints, but ran out of time and need to get to bed.

also, i'm re-purposing some african fabric into dresses. should be interesting!