The past two weeks have been filled to the brim...lots and lots of studio time, but tons of fun fit in there too!
Are you on Instagram? I am @manictrout, look me up if you so desire!
The past two weeks have been filled to the brim...lots and lots of studio time, but tons of fun fit in there too!
Are you on Instagram? I am @manictrout, look me up if you so desire!
I really need to remember to post my instagram posts on a more regular basis as its been over a month since the last post and there were just so many to choose from! I had issues editing, so this post is a tad long, but its been such a busy month!!
A glimpse at the weekly market which I am a proud part of...all local artisans, all hand made. On the corner of Gibson St and S Congress. I'm there almost every Saturday (I occasionally have to switch to Sunday when I have scheduling conflicts).
They're baaaaack! Adam and I were equally excited to find these at Big Top Candy Shop.
Flowers "just because" are my favorite reason for flowers.
As you already may know, I said yes!
I found the coolest wrapping paper, it was super thick, pretty and REVERSIBLE! That part was an awesome surprise, I picked it out for the white side with the fonts, but loved the red as well!
Thea snapped this of Gillian, Holly and I in the post Christmas clean up. I love that we're in teh crowns from our crackers still...its perfect and the only photo I have from 5 days at my moms with all of us. That's sad!
Wedding dress shopping before heading home to Texas. ps...this is the dress I will be wearing in September!
A very quite New Years Eve with us both being sick. We made it to Madam Mam's for dinner though and it was as awesome as always!
What I looked like in the last hours of 2011.
One of my moms delicious Apple Pies in progress...Yum!
Are you on Instagram? I am @manictrout, look me up if you so desire!
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 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!
Wow, what a month! There has been so much going on that I can't even remember all of it! Besides all of the stuff I have been doing not work related, Manic Trout participated in Austin First Thursday in the beginning of the month and will be again this coming week! I am also super excited about the which were released this month that I'm really proud of, yay!. But the best part of the month was seeing not one, but TWO of my sisters, how awesome is that??? I think its much more fun to show you, not just tell you though, so here are a few glimpses of what I have been up to for the last month...
Tati and I went to and enjoyed all of the sights and fun that we could find.
The awesome ceiling at one of my favorite restaurants, ...the best Thai food I've ever had.

Ok maybe I had enjoyed a few scotches at dinner, but I was really excited when I realized that Adam and I both wear colored shoes all the time.
At my first NFL game...the Texans vs the Steelers. It was insane and I loved every minute of it!
We went to the beach!!! Gillian and Jav went to South Padre Island (where Adam's parents live) for a week, so we drove down to see them for a few days of it and it was awesome.
Thea was jealous of our visiting with Gilly and a bit homesick too, so we headed off to Boulder, Colorado a week later for two nights and three jam packed days with Thea. That's the view from our hotel, it was gorgeous!
Yeah, my boys got skills. Boulder was basically one big playground for handstands, look at the face on the little girl in the background watching him!
A habit I can't seem to quit. These had a citrus cream cheese frosting...SO yummy!
We arrived back in Texas to Adam having a houseful of out of town guests and basically it was non stop chaos for the week. Even though we were able to hide out at my house some of the time, it was a lot to take. I managed to go outside alone with my coffee for 10 minutes one day before we headed out to an all day fundraiser.
I got a text while getting my hair cut asking if I wanted to have date night that night, so I had a blown out for the first time in a few years...its so fun to look so different for a night!
The chaos of out of town visitors has finally subsided and since I've been sick all week after a particular germy person sat behind me on the plane, I have spent much of the past 36 hours sleeping...and eating Halloween candy that I bought "just in case" I got Trick-or-Treators. So excited for Halloween tomorrow!!!
I have forgotten to post recent Instagram photos, oops! Most of the last two weeks have been consumed by moving in and setting up my home and studio (those photos will be their very own post). However, I still have found time to do some fun things, including going to ACL (Austin City Limits Music Festival) for the day last Sunday...and that was a whole lotta fun! So here is a wrap up of most of the past month...
A show I did in early September, Saturday Vintage Market.
Proof that Fall has officially arrived...oh and fyi...I have gone back to a healthy candy free existence. Back on the wagon...for now anyway.
What I'm doing 90% of the time...when I'm not in my studio anyway.
A rare break for happy hour. Herradura Margarita with Strawberry Puree. Yum.
A little bird joined us for breakfast at Austin Java. He was polite and didn't beg...much.
It tried so hard to rain and rescue Austin from the drought.
At ACL...I think we were at The Broken Social Scene here.
Tati and I went out for a girls lunch on her birthday!!
Yay, my inspiration boards are back!!!
I've had more fun than O thought recently...woo hoo!!! Have a great week-end friends!!
Its no secret that I am smitten with Instagram...it's my absolute favorite thing about the iphone and its making me take photos more often which is a goal of mine for this year. I love to see what other peeps are snapping and have found so many beautiful photographers out there because of it...yay!!
Adam got me into Instagram and we actually compete over who gets to photo the things that we do, so I will have to get his version of the trip at some point, but for now here is our road trip from Millbrook, NY to Austin, Texas in Instagram format...
The night before we left, I picked up Adam from Westchester Airport. He was stranded in Chicago between flights all day, and ended up getting in super late...as did many flights due to thunderstorms. I joked that I felt I was waiting in line at school parent pick up. We got on the road at about noon on Monday after tear filled goodbyes with my nearest and dearest.
We had decided to go into nyc and have lunch with Adam's cousin Grant on our way south, not really on the way and we hit rush hour traffic pretty bad, but as we left and drove by Newark, NJ I snapped this shot through the sunroof, so it made the traffic worth it.
We continued to Baltimore for the night to visit one of my Besties, Jess and her family. I went to SU with both Jess and her husband Steve, and I love to visit with them and their hilarious daughters Zoey and Kira...we had so much fun and stayed until early afternoon on Tuesday.
We only drove a few more hours and then stopped in Salem, Virginia for the night where this Krispy Kreme photo which I snapped for my sister Thea was the highlight of our 16 hours there.
Wednesday we had a pretty strong start to driving but then decided that it would be fun to spend the night in Nashville...which was an awesome idea. Nashville was where I discovered that my dog is a snob. The night before in a little motel that smelled kind of damp, she refused to eat and just laid on the bed pouting. Well, in Nashville, the minute her toes hit the marble floors of the Hilton, she changed her tune. Faye was prancing up a storm! She was quite taken with the living room in the suite, especially the couch pillows and even managed to conquer walking through the revolving doors!
We had a great night in Nashville, Faye was happy...we ate a great dinner and saw live blues at two bars! I was glad to finally get a chance to check out Nashville, but kind of sad as we both knew that the fun places we wanted to stop at along the way were now behind us...and all that Thursday had to offer was 15 hours on the road...

We stopped for lunch in Knoxville, TN. I fell in love with this building and we made friends with a budding furniture designer.
We arrived in Austin at about 1:30 am and its been quite an adventure ever since! I'll be back soon to update you on whats been going on!!
Do you use Instagram? I would love to see your photos too! You can find me as Sierra Bailey @manictrout
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!
I'm home! Texas was wonderful...beyond wonderful, but now back to normally scheduled broadcasting. One of my goals with the blog is to start to use more of my own photos, and luckily my recent travels have stimulated both my subject matter and my desire to click away. Wednesday I explored the Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin and was overjoyed with the amount of steps and paths to nowhere...nothing like feeding an obsession!
I was a bit scattered at the end of week. I lost an entire day traveling and then had to jump right back into a super busy weekend and never got a chance to post the last two days...so I will now.
Lavender seemed to be not on my radar or non existent, what's up with that?? I did the best I could and here's what I came up with...my personal fav is the "shoestring" of bats across the sky, we were lucky enough to be in Austin at the right tome of year to see them, yay!