Poor Ian’s moustache had so much attention it needed a tip jar.
The secret is out.
Now the whole internet knows my super power: Bourbon.
Pig Party at work
I now work half a block from a used bookstore, where I can never find the books on my list. They have VHS tapes though.
Haute dogs! The Special and The Michigan @ Underdogs.
What could possibly get the Sampsons out of bed and into South Philly at 8 in the morning? Federal Donuts.
This is a cross stitch kit from Mill Hill that I finally finished for a Christmas gift. It took epically longer than I anticipated, but I can’t resist anything with a cardinal on it.
MASSIVE UPDATE START NOW
Oh, where to start? This winter picked me up and took off with me and I’m slowly making my way back to the internet. Enough preamble?
Ian decided in August that he was suddenly and desperately ready for graduate school, like yesterday, so we plowed through selecting some schools, compiling a portfolio, I scanned, filled out paperwork and made a complex Google Doc spreadsheet because that’s how I say I support you. He applied to eight programs that range from painting, drawing, sequential art to this-isn’t-really-illustration illustration degrees. (Illustration as Visual Essay? Illustration Practice? Is this the age of post-illustration?) So far, he has heard from one, MICA, where he has been accepted! The bonus about this option is that it is semi-commutable from Philadelphia, which is important because of the next paragraph.
I got a job! A great job. A dream job. An uh-oh, we might get stuck forever in Philadelphia kind of job. I am now the Production and Sales Assistant at Quirk Books! If you don’t already know and love this publisher for their designy, quirky, reliably fun books, you should. Leading up to my interview I read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children which just made me want the job more. The simplest way to describe my job, which I call Master of Loose Ends, is that I help courier books from concept to book (or ebook) sitting on the shelf of your local bookstore.
If that weren’t enough, I have also taken over as Exhibitions Chair on the board of Philadelphia Center for the Book. It’s a two year position that I’m excited to sink my teeth into this spring. I have a committee and plans and a big three ring binder full of ideas.
And I started teaching weekend classes at Rittenhouse Needlepoint. I taught Embroidery for Beginners in December and am teaching a few Bargello classes this winter.
And we got into TCAF and SPX so I need to be all comics all the time when not doing the above mentioned things.
And now is the point where I show you enchanting pictures of long walks in Philadelphia and East Coasty dinners and baked good feats but I haven’t picked up my camera in forever, I know, I’m sorry.
(The only other things you need to know are that I’m reading Moby Dick, the NYT Magazine pile on our kitchen table from the last year, 1Q84, and I can’t stop watching my new favorite thing ever, Until the Light Takes Us, still.)
