October?!?

Hello!

I haven’t done one of these in ages— a mid-month blog post! How exciting to bring it back! Yay!

I mostly just want to talk about how excited I am for October, and all the fun stuff I’m anticipating!

First up, my Etsy relaunch! It has been a loooong time coming, and I am so excited to reopen my shop again. The launch date is set for October 1st, and the great news is that I’m ready! I can’t wait to share it, and I thought I’d need every bit of September to prepare, but nope. It’s all done! Thanks past me for working so hard before the move… Once I got everything unpacked and found my checklist it turns out I really was super close to ready before we suddenly decided to move across the country! I thought about going ahead and opening the shop up early, but I really like the idea of a planned launch date. I think in the past I was pretty random about when and how I updated my shop. But now I really like planning and being more intentional in my approach, including a set launch date. So October 1st it is! I’m so excited!

Next up, Spooky Scary movie marathon! Every year Mr. Husband and I watch as many Halloween/Scary movies as we can. I used to kinda hate scary movies, but now I love it almost as much as he does. We have a spreadsheet of movies, and weekly categories or themes. I’m really excited that we’re doing “Best of” this year to rewatch some of our favorites again. There have been so many movies in the past that were so surprisingly good! So I’m definitely looking forward to it. In fact, we even started our own Scifi September movie marathon. There is a bit of overlap between the genres, so I think this our way to start Spooky Scary without actually starting it a month too soon. (We are super late to the party but finally watched Pacific Rim, and it’s sooo good! And Pitch Black was not great, but way more horror than we expected so that was interesting! Also, Logan’s Run…just…what?)

Last but not least, Inktober! I love a good drawing challenge and the idea of drawing everyday (something I struggle with). Previous years, I’ve created my own themes for drawings rather than work from a list of prompts as is traditional. However, this year I’ve decided I’m going to try to follow #Mosstober created by Mossery, a sketchbook and planner company. I was intrigued by their list of emoji prompts. Yup, emoji! I think starting with imagery instead of words in intriguing, and reminds me a lot less of college art class assignments, like “depict ‘ethereal’ by cutting up really really really expensive color paper and gluing it together like you’re in grade school.” Fun fact: I was terrible at it, and have terrible craftsmanship where X-Acto knives are concerned. I will never become a collage artist… Anyway! All that is to say, I’m super excited to try to follow along on #mosstober. As is my tradition, I bought a dedicated Inktober sketchbook, this time trying out 9×12 bristol paper. (Bonus challenge: working in a large format!) Admittedly its not a Mossery sketchbook, not sure if that is against the rules. But I did order a couple of their mixed media and paint marker sketchbooks separately that I’m super excited to try out, so I think we’re square… Also, I’ve been working on drawing in a new-ish style for me, pushing the cute, cartoony elements in my work, so I’m excited to use Inktober as a way to practice and experiment! Yay! I’m definitely planning on doing a sketchbook tour when it is finished!

Anyway, I can’t wait for October. Also, FALL! I don’t know what to expect where we live now, but some of the trees are starting to change colors, so I don’t think we’re gonna like, skip it. So I guess I’ll be spending the rest of September stockpiling ink pens, watching the trees do their thing, and eating a ridiculous amount of waffles and pumpkin butter…. C’mon October!