From the Compost Heap header. A pencil style illustration of a compost heap with flowers and plants growing around it. A bee buzzes by and a white rabbit hops by.

Creative Chaos

The self seeded sunflowers between overgrown garden beds are thriving. Grass overgrows the beds.

How about an old fashioned update from my creative compost heap? 🌱

We haven’t done one of those in a while.

First, some recent posts from my microblog (the kind of things I used to post from social media.)

The Garden

Our chaos garden turned feral. Some real life updates.

The birds are loving it. We’re even learning to identify some by their bird call with the Merlin app.

Brick house with an undulating garden bed overrun with grass. A black armillary sphere and purple russian sage pierce the weeds.
Birdhouse gourds growing up gazebo of green pipes (a greenhouse without the plastic cover added) and a white metal house planter I thrifted beyond with morning glory leaves twining through

Creative Chaos

I’ve accepted that I can’t always work in my lovely studio. So earlier this year I set up a workspace in the living room. And I am getting SO much done.

This summer I’ve made lots of progress (from this chaos) on Entwined & Ember. Now that copy edits are done I’ve started book design for Ember.

Here I am sorting the prompts into their final order.

Art or Trash?

Sometimes being an artist means preserving paper towels with blueberry stains.

Just me? 😂

Papertowels with blueberry stains on a glass oven cooktop beside a bunch of bananas and a papertowel with a note that says, "Do not throw away!"

Best in 3D

I won an award in the local art exhibition I was in.

I should really add that to my CV.

Here’s the post they did about it on Instagram.

An embroidery frame holds a cross stitch that reads "I'm Fine". A second image shows the reverse which is a tangled mess of navy blue thread.

Neurodivergence

At the end of my Spectrum zine you’re invited to make your own spectrum and send it to me. The very first came in from Liz Getty.

Watercolor wash in a spectrum rainbow spilling outside of a pencil circle. Text reads: Most days feel like my being is seeping outside the lines, though the lines don't feel like they belong. The artist is Liz Getty.

I love where Liz took this. You are so much more than what fits within the lines. 💫

Seaborn 🌊✨

Want to read a shiny book about queer pirates and magic?

I’m hosting a read a long with some of my Wheel of Time friends. We start in September so there’s plenty of time to pick up a copy.

Join us!

The read along will be hosted on Discord and Storygraph. Hit reply if you have any questions.

Seaborn by Michael Livingston book cover. Blue background with gold details and two pirate ships: one sailing and one flying.

Just for Fun

The Great Sword Heist of 2025 ⚔️ Someone’s sword collection was stolen off their walls while they were sleeping. They’re having a great sense of humor about it.

Last One Laughing, UK 🇬🇧 If you love British comedy like Taskmaster you will love this. Some adult material so not for kids.

A poem about railway cars. 🚂 We don’t have enough trains in this country for my taste.

Ways to Support drawing of a white rabbit hopping into flowers
Two zines and magazine clippings on a wooden desk with scissors, gluestick and pencils. Both zines titles are cut out magazine letters: Chaos Gardening with leaf rubbings and Spectrum with a hand painted watercolor color wheel.

Psst…

I’m also trialing a new type of 1:1 support over email.

You can ask me about creative projects, neurodivergence, self publishing, home education, or chronic illness.

If you want to help me test this idea (for free!) click here.

Here’s a little video I made about how it works.

I appreciate you.

Sarah signed with a swoopy S

Cross Pollinate 🐝