Community Garden 2015!

Hello Spring!



Yesterday was Memorial Day - the official unofficial start of the safe-to-grow-things-outside season here in New England! This is the first year I don't feel completely behind schedule working in the garden. I was able to get out early and turn the bed over before our first group clean up day. Some of the other gardeners even remarked how EARLY I had gotten started on my plot! [insert smug garden expert face here]



We had already started a few seeds indoors and when we went off to Baltimore last week, I put them in the ground under some scrappy little tents. This is my second year starting tomatoes from seed and I hope they are as successful as last season!



Everything is blooming! The tulips are goneby but irises are opening, the lupine are incredible and the poppies are getting ready to burst their little fuzzy pods. And I should mention the weeds are also having a great spring. Despite the fact we haven't had real rain in ages. I heard last night that we are 5 inches under where were should be for rainfall since March 1st. Oof. Needless to say, we are going to water pretty regularly.



This is our plot currently. I am starting some climbing vines under those water bottle greenhouses. The bottles are more to protect the seeds from digging squirrels than anything else but hopefully they are also helping to keep some moisture in. The tiny tomato babies are also out there. And I planted seeds for: echinacea, calendula, chamomile, beets and peas. Bulbs for ranunculus and freesia are at the close end. The sedum and black-eyed Susan that Bill gave me last year are doing GREAT.



I'm trying to keep up with my garden journal this season. I always start strong and fade out as the season wears on (how many times do I need to put "went to weed and water - AGAIN" in the log?) but this year I hope to at least keep track of what grows and what doesn't.





I posted some of the pages from my previous garden journaling efforts in my Behance portfolio.

How is YOUR garden growing? :)
~Sarah

More Illustrated Travel Writing - online edition!

In my various searches for travelogues, I've recently come across these online sources of inspiration and travel stories...

Regina F. Silva's Wedgienet...

This woman keeps little sketchbooks of beautiful drawings in both a realistic style and as cartoony icons. There haven't been any posts tagged with travel since the end of last year but the older ones are great!


Katie Turner's My Week in Bologna...

I love the color palette and sketchy almost frantic style that this journal is drawn/written in! If you like Italy and/or traveling to go to art fairs, this one is for you.

Alissa Duke's amazing Travelogue

Paris! In great detail! You can see all of Alissa's 2007 trip to Paris in this Flickr set. I love her classic sketch-y on-site drawing style.

Lucy Knisley's Tanzania Travelogue

This is a paid download type of deal. For $8 it's a steal. Lucy's work never disappoints and this little book is full of beautiful illustrations about her trip to Africa.

SIDE NOTE: I just realized these are all by ladies! I don't TRY to seek out travelogues by women specifically but thinking about it, most of the things I've linked and archived are by female travelers. Interesting.

And lastly, during my scrolling through Pinterest, I've been collecting images from travel journals and techniques and location-inspired sketches. You can see them here.


Happy traveling (in the comfort of your own home)!
xo
Sarah

More about Illustrated Travel Writing - a video!

As you very well know, I love illustrated travel writing. Tonight as I was strolling along on tumblr, this video by Lucy Knisley popped up. (I have one of Lucy's books - French Milk - in my collection and it is definitely one of my favorites.)

It's about twenty minutes of tips and general how-tos about keeping a travel journal and the video itself is illustrated - how appropriate. The tips are pretty universal regardless of your drawing experience or travel plans. Miss Knisley is a pro and it's fun to hear how she goes about recording her experiences.



I love seeing other artists' process and it's so inspiring to see some peeks behind the scenes - er, pages - of one of my favorite traveloguers.

I hope you're traveling and drawing too. I added a couple more books to my illustrated travel writing library and will be posting about them soon!
xo
Sarah

My Own Illustrated Travel Writing

A couple of days ago I posted a list of my growing collection of illustrated travel writing from other artists (it's here). I also have a small collection of my own writing/drawing travel journals. I currently have three (Ireland, Canada and Alaska) and I'm planning to add another (Europe) this year!



IRELAND
My 2009 trip to Ireland for 10 days was with three very close friends and included my 29th birthday. We traveled around the whole country and keeping this journal was the best decision I made when planning to go. I just re-read it last night and was reminded of so many great little moments I had all but forgotten - a lemur fell into a pond!

I kept track of places we went and food we ate. The little maps and weather reports are my favorite parts of this journal.







CANADA
Confession time: I did a TERRIBLE job keeping this log during our trip to Vancouver (and the Olympics!) in 2010. In my defense we were rarely indoors. Our hosts are amazing, active people who planned so many adventures for us. My photos from this trip are great but the journal is lacking. I think I chronicled just a handful of days and most of those pages were composed on the plane ride home!





ALASKA
This is the first trip during which I decided to BRING IT with my diary keeping. I knew we would have a home base most of the time (the home of the friends we were visiting) so I brought my watercolor set and my Instax Mini instant camera (and some washi tape). Because it was a very special trip I tried to keep track of everything we did.

The Alaska trip was chock full of the great outdoors so my book included a few 'animals we saw' lists and little watercolors of scenic vistas! (Alaska is breathtaking, by the way.)





After returning home I used Blurb to turn my journal (plus my photos rom the trip) into a little book to sell and share with the friends who traveled with me.


I like that I can clearly see the evolution of how I keep track of my travels. After seeing how pencil gets so smudgy over time, I switched to ink for the text and the Alaska trip is in color (!) and is much more image-heavy. Working in pen also makes me more aware of my handwriting so the AK book is the easiest to read. The Vancouver trip was a whirlwind that didn't allow for great record-keeping but other than that I think I've done a pretty good job! [insert self back-pat]

We are planning a trip to Europe in September and aside from making a dream list of places we'd like to visit, the only prep I've done is to plan some art supplies for the travel journal-keeping. Recently I was gifted a beautiful set of French watercolors from a beloved friend and I treated myself to a BIG A3 folio watercolor Moleskine. My past travel books have been spiral bound but I've fallen in love with the watercolor paper Moleskine uses in their little books so I'm going to give this new format a try.



Now that my art supplies are stacked up, I just need to pack a couple pairs of underwear and I'll be ready to go!

I'm not sure where our autumn trip will take us exactly but I hope we have plenty of down time (on the train maybe?) so I can keep up with my travel writing, drawing and painting! Wish me luck!

xo
Sarah

A Very Special Project

Hello Friends!

Last night I started working on the second half of a big project. The first half was keeping a journal full of words and photos and watercolor illustrations while I was on my trip in Alaska back in June. This second half is scanning and editing the journal so I can make it into a little book for others.



The book will definitely be going to family and the girlfriends I took the trip with - but I'm also going to make a few extra copies to sell. I'll have them in my Etsy shop and at the Bazaar Bizarre before the holidays.



I hope others are interested in reading my scattered travel notes and looking at photos and paintings. It was an incredible trip and I know I didn't do it justice, but I tried.







xo
Sarah

If I had an orchard I'd work 'til I'm sore...

Hello Internet!
We are facing a week of rain ahead of us. Not great for outdoor activities but great for plants!



Early on Saturday I went to the community garden plot to turn it over...




It took about 2 hours. I got rid of a lot of old kale and so many dandelions. At one end I saved the two strawberry plants and a couple kale plants. After I was finished I walked to City Feed to get myself a big chai and to get Curtis a big sandwich. They had a few types of seeds for sale so I bought a packet of peas and planted a few rows when I was on my way back home.

I've started a Garden Journal for my planty adventure this year.

Keeping a journal is something I've always wished I was better at. I'm good while on vacation. My travel journal for my trips to Ireland and Vancouver are very thorough but daily life is harder for me. I hope I can keep this up. I keep going back to the journals of This Chicken and Geninne for endless inspiration. Those ladies are PROLIFIC and so talented. I love the density of design and text - like every moment of every day has been cataloged and saved for the future.

This weekend also involved some good work with the BBB ladies, pancakes with C and Elise, starting a redesign of the ol' website and quality time with the kitties.

Also exciting! We're going to see Fleet Foxes tomorrow night! The new album is so beautiful and moving. Required listening for forest strolls and wandering in meadows. I think of them as one of my most favorite Spring Bands and I feel so lucky to see them during this damp, green, newborn season.

Lovely little video found on Vimeo:


Lyrics from Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues:

...If I know only one thing, it's that everything that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable often I barely can speak
Yeah I'm tongue-tied and dizzy and I can't keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues, why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf
I'll come back to you someday soon myself

If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm raw
If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm sore
And you would wait tables and soon run the store

Gold hair in the sunlight, my light in the dawn
If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm sore
If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm sore
Someday I'll be like the man on the screen...