October

Well hello!

Happy October to you!

How was your September? Mine was a bit of a rollercoaster, if I’m being honest. The shifting of the season, returning to work, ongoing grief and bits of joy; it's all over the place. Standing in my garden, eating vine-ripened tomatoes with the sun on my cheeks while grieving the state of the world pretty much sums up the whiplash of our current reality. The coexistence of beauty and terror is constant—and feels increasingly harder to reconcile.

Getting back into the groove after my August break took a series of pep talks, to-do lists, and a lot of reminder alarms just to keep my brain on track. My urge to float from project to project as I please is quite strong—even on a good day. I had to put on my boss pants* and really force myself to stay focused.

*My boss pants are actually a pair of Adidas sneakers that I wear when I need to get serious. It’s a silly trick I learned years ago, and it’s wildly helpful if you have ADHD tendencies. Sneakers mean business!

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An Unexpected Guest

Work aside, something strange and delightful has happened: I’ve been adopted by a pigeon.

As I write this, she’s sitting in a Le Creuset baking dish turned bird bath on the railing just outside my studio. She’s staring at me intently through the sliding glass door—now cloaked in cautionary sticky notes, my attempt at avoiding a repeat of her day-one glass-door mishap. I mean, who hasn’t walked into a sliding glass door? We could all use a sticky note from time to time, right?

Her name is Teenie Turner, but I mostly call her Pidgy. She’s completely free to leave, but instead prefers to perch on my shoulder while I pick tomatoes or prune the hedges. She spends a lot of time watching me draw and seems to have a personal vendetta against one particular No. 2 pencil.

Steady Progress

The past few weeks I’ve been diligently working on the 2026 Moon Phase Calendar. As you can see above, nearly the entire process has taken place under the watchful eye of sweet Pidgy. I even found some long strips of carving material tucked into her nest.

I'm still carving out all 365 moon phases, but I’m so close to pulling the first proof print! I plan to open up preorders later this month, once I see how the print turns out, so I can start shipping them in November. How exciting!

Last year, I didn’t even start the calendar until late November—and I clearly remember swearing I’d never, ever do it again. But here I am: ahead of schedule, and loving every minute of the process. Time really does heal all wounds.

Perhaps the real lesson here is that the work feels 10x less stressful when you plan things out, stay relaxed, and give yourself the time to enjoy the process. I wonder if future Kari will remember that...

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•IN THE STUDIO•

Vine Ripened

I had the pleasure of tattooing a visitor from Chicago this past week. She’s taking home this perfectly ripe vine of cherry tomatoes—a forever time capsule of summer. On her other arm: a tough and tender protector.

If you have a PNW adventure planned, maybe you need a souvenir tattoo?

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Thanks, as always, for being here. Wishing you a gentle month as we ease into Fall.