family » The Daily Muse - The digital sketch book of designer Sierra Bailey

All consuming monster projects

Jan 052012

I've been immersed in a project all week which started out innocent enough. I simply began inputting data into a program to manage sales across multiple online stores, shows, my studio and the website. I already have everything in a similar program that I run my shopping cart through, but I have reached a point where I need a better way to handle the multiple revenue streams I have set up. Once this started however, a whole sub level of projects opened up which had to be dealt with before I could really continue. They are all useful to productivity and need to be done, some of it was for ending the year and taxes, some of it may be a more neurotic that I really need, but I have wanted it done...and all of it is tedious, time consuming and requiring hour upon hour on the computer.

Tonight while looking through recent photos, deciding what to use for this post, I was reminded of something that my sisters said when we were all together at my moms for Christmas. There was a party our last night and my mom had gone to bed early being exhausted from the very full week we were all home. I as usual, began the mammoth task of cleaning up. Without saying a word, my sisters gathered around, waiting for me to assign them tasks and and minutes later we all were happily tending to the areas we did best. Adam brought up that they let me boss them around and one of my sisters immediately replied, not at all. Sierra just knows what has to be done and what we do well, she's simply directing us where we should be.

The project I'm working on reminds me of that in a way. All of this other stuff keeps coming up and needing to be dealt with, but I just keep plugging away at each sub project, ticking it away where it should be and then continuing on with the course when its done. It feels even better to accomplish then cleaning the kitchen did!

photo taken by Thea (the fourth sister missing from the photo)

Magical silence

family, holiday No Responses »

Dec 282011

Whew...what a week! Every year I get a bit older and I crave longer and longer amounts of quite in my day. When you don't have any of it for a week...my goodness it's wonderful when it occurs again. After the final madness of shipping out holiday orders, traveling back to NY, being in a house with all of my sisters, friends and extended family and traveling back home to Texas, well lets just say that its lovely to be back in my studio tonight and I am immensely enjoying the silence.

I was hoping for a bit of a white Christmas while back in the Northeast, but it wasn't in the cards. I did however, get to hang out with some of my favorite people, see a few new movies and even go wedding dress shopping on my last (more on that later!).

I hope your holidays have been just as wonderful...

Recently in Instagram

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Dec 032011

What a week. I think my hard drive crashing was number three on my list of most stressful moments in the life of Manic Trout, coming in behind two floods...both causing my studio to be evacuated and one forcing me to move and the being a move of 2000 miles and having to keep my studio n a pod for a month. Thankfully I now have a new hard drive and as I back up weekly, I only lost a small amount of work.

While transferring photos from my phone this morning, I realized it been quite some time since I posted instagram photos. Speaking of instagram, have you seen followgram yet? You can access your instagram account from your mac, its awesome!

Anyway, here is what I have been up to the past week or so...

On the boat in South Padre on the Thanksgiving Moring

Faye who is exhausted after her first walk on a beach. There was a plethora of washed up jellyfish and fish carcasses that day to cause utter joy and excitement. All in all, a successful adventure.

A kite boarder setting up on the flats.

We had to stop at the tourist trap on the way off the island to photo the dinosaurs and other creatures...I personally liked the shark the best.

A pit stop for a big bag of pineapple oranges on the road home...so happy we did, yummy!!

When it gets down into the low 40's in Austin, the outdoor bars are still open as usual, so everyone is out on 6th street in parkas and scarves...still hanging around outside...freezing cold but reluctant to go inside...me included!

Faye and I had a lot of cuddle time this week while my computer was gone.

Part of the Manic Trout tent at Austin's First Thursday this month, I love doing outdoor night shows in December...we're sure not in NY anymore!

Adam and I had date night last night...burgers at Docs on Congress, an unexpected stop at the Big Top Candy Shop and then we were off to see Jack and Jill (the new Adam Sandler flick)...it was the perfect date and so much fun!

ps...I am manictrout on instagram!

The shortest week of the year…

daily muse, family, holiday, inspiration 2 Responses »

Nov 222011

I am hoping I'll have a chance to pop back in here in the next few days, but there is a pretty big chance that I will be mia until next Monday. Adam has been away for what seems like forever but had really only been a tad over three weeks. Funny, when we lived 2000 miles apart that was the shortest we were ever apart, but now it feels like forever. Well he finally will be coming home just in time to load up both of our cars with Faye and 5 of our friends for the 6 hour drive to Adam's parents home in South Padre. You can image the scene the Holiday is going to be when there are 7 of us rolling up to an already full house. Needless to say, I may be in the midst of family time and unable to work that much...then again it may be the perfect excuse for some alone time.

So just in case, have a wonderfully Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s finally feeling like fall!

Austin, daily muse, family, inspiration, Ramblings No Responses »

Oct 282011

The last two days have been finally feeling like fall here in Austin...I am wearing a SWEATER!! I was a bit sad when we came back from the cool temps of Colorado last week and it was down right hot here. I also got sick...which is now not so bad as the weather plummeted to 50 and I'm sure I would have ended up sick anyway. At least this way I'm already halfway over it. and rambling. So anyway...I'm all excited about fall and sweaters, slippers...blankets on the couch and Thea texts me a photo of her front yard covered in snow. Which was when I realized that I never get to see the first snow of the year fall on the leaves and all of that magical and beautiful stuff anymore. I was sad. However, this morning I woke up to a text from my mom. It snowed in Millbrook last night. A month earlier then normal. They are expecting an ice storm this weekend...

Wow, its amazing how quickly you can get over missing something! AND I can run around outside nice in toasty in a sweater.

I get to see fall foliage!!!

daily muse, family, inspiration No Responses »

Oct 152011

I have been so distressed to not witness the awesome fall colors of the Hudson Valley this year. However...Adam and I are going yo visit Thea at school this week (she only had to ask us to a dozen times) and from what I hear, Colorado gives the HV a run for their money on foliage. Yay!! Expect a flurry of photos next week of trees...

Off to the beach…

daily muse, family, inspiration, vacation No Responses »

Oct 082011

I know, it's October. Last year at this time I was in sweaters and boots frolicking in piles of leaves...well, I live in Texas now...and its over 90 degrees out today. Perfect beach weather. A month or so ago, my sister Gillian (the one in New York City) called to ask if she was remembering correctly that I went with Adam to South Padre Island to visit his parents this past June. She was delighted that she was correct because her bf Jav had googled the best places to go in October and South Padre came up. Random, yes...but only a 6 hour drive for me!

This weekend is the beginning of their week on South Padre, so Adam and I have a dog sitter coming for Faye and are packing up the car and heading down to visit our families and frolic on the beach for a couple of days. Yay! What are you doing for the long weekend?

Daily Muse: Fall footing

Austin, daily muse, family, inspiration, life of a designer, shows Comments Off

Oct 052011

I figure if I can't experience fall, I will at least live it though the blog...because I can.

I have a crazy busy next few days ahead of me, but filled with so many fun things that I'm all antsy with anticipation. Tomorrow I am participating in Austins First Thursday, which I think is basically a bug party on South Congress where all the restaurants, shops, and locals pour out into the streets the first Thursday of each month and hang out. If you're in the area, I have been approved to be in the Gibson Street Artists Market (by the dogs) so come by and visit!!

Friday I have a lunch meeting for a new project I am working on and then coffee with a new friend, squee!!

Saturday, Adam and I are off to South Padre to visit his parents and on Sunday, my sister Gillian arrives in South Padre too!!! I'm so excited to see her, it's such a change to go from seeing family all the time to only every few months, if that. I can't wait!!!

Last Hurrah in the Big Apple!

family, food, friends, OhThePlacesI'veBeen 3 Responses »

Jul 132011

This past weekend Adam was visiting and as he had never been to NYC and in a few short weeks, I will no longer be a resident of the Empire State, we decided to spend a long weekend in Manhattan. Without planning out anything before hand, we ended up fitting in a ton of stuff and I felt like I gave the big apple a proper farewell and at the same time giving Adam a proper introduction!

Friday night we checked into the Hudson in mid town and met up with Adams childhood friend Lindsey and my friend Matthew who I went to school with at Syracuse for dinner at Freemans Alley in the lower East side. After an awesome dinner, Adam, Matthew and I ventured off into the night to a pub where we ran into another classmate of Matthew's from SU...how weird is that? The boys were in the mood for some Karaoke, so we headed to 2nd street where we found both Karaoke and following an hour or so of questionable singing, a bar that the three of us lasted about two minutes in. At this point it was 2 am and where else would we have gone, but Times Square! We ate hot dogs under neon lights and then called it a night.

Saturday we had brunch with my sister Gillian and her boyfriend Javier and then headed off to the Central Park Zoo. It was the perfect size to wander around and not get overwhelmed and so much fun. The boys then wanted to check out the big Nike store, and Gilly and I perused Chanel and Miu Miu where I had no desire to look at Fall clothes as it was 95 degrees out.

After an afternoon out and about, we dressed for dinner and headed to The Porter House in the Time Warner building for oysters, the most delicious steak on the planet and fantastic scotch. I learned that I now prefer steak so rare that I should order "extra rare" so its not charred black and blue style. Mouth watering awesomeness is what it is.

I though of going to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolates, but we decided to go visit Gilly at the Shake Shack she manages and have a delicious shake for dessert instead. We also had Gilly there with us to take dorky photos of us...love it.

Sunday we went to a Yankees Game with Gilly and Jav, and it was awesome, they won...we had cotton candy, beer and hot dogs. It was perfect.

We meant to go home on Sunday night, but decided to stay on until Monday and I was so happy that we did! Jav lives in the Financial District so after the game we visited Ground Zero and wandered down by the water where we could see Lady Liberty off in the distance.

While deciding on dinner, the four of us played cards and had cocktails on Javs deck which was like a little jewel filled with flowers and teak deck furniture amid the mass of concrete around of us.

We opted on a fantastic Sushi restaurant with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge and copplestone streets outside the open doors.

After dinner, Adam and I headed back to our hotel and finished the weekend off with fantastic live blues at Terra Blues on Bleecker Street. We sat in candle light with a great selection of scotch and even managed to get a dance in before we called it a night.

It was an amazing weekend, the majority of it spent smiling like we are above and saying a proper farewell to nyc!