Samantha
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illustratorsam.bsky.social
Samantha
@illustratorsam.bsky.social
75 followers 30 following 510 posts
Color Engineer. Illustrator. Macrame artist. (Former) BookTuber. Find me across the Interwebs: https://linktr.ee/illustratorsam
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illustratorsam.bsky.social
My morning beverage: single shot espresso over Nestle hot chocolate mix, mixed with oat milk. 😋😘
Hand awkwardly clutching a mocha/espresso/iced hot chocolate drink.
December 15, 2025 at 1:26 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
It’s the end of my private student loan era: final payment posted on Monday.
Screen snippet from my student loan payment receipt. Text reads: Request Loan Payoff & Make a Payoff Payment Step 4 of 4: Confirmation Please print this page for your records. {payment completed} Blue box text with little check mark ✔️ : Thank You! Your payment has been successfully submitted.
December 10, 2025 at 10:04 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
We’re experiencing flurries right now. Me, wanting to know how long this weather will last, checks her weather app: “cloudy”
Screen capture of weather app current conditions. Gray overcast background with text saying it’s 25°. “Partly cloudy conditions expected around 3pm. Wind gusts are up to 6 miles per hour.” No note about flurries or all the snow clinging to the asphalt. 🤨😑
December 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Glitz’d!
Pink lit Christmas tree, dressed with ornaments. Sleeping gray cat in the foreground, on a couch with a pink ghost blanket.
November 29, 2025 at 12:56 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Couple more angles.

It’s fully lit, but it’s hard to capture for some reason.
View of my pink “snow” flocked Christmas tree side profile. Standing in front of a window in a living room. The side of a couch and white bookcase are visible behind the tree. View of pink lit and faux-snow flocked Christmas tree from the couch. Dark gray cat is sitting on the back of the couch admiring the tree.
November 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Tree up.
Top half of pink flocked lit Christmas tree in front of a window. Not yet decorated.
November 28, 2025 at 10:23 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
This is why I’ve fallen back in love with Shaw’s: I save so much by shopping off the flyer and never setting foot in the grocery store.
Screen capture of a digital receipt for a Shaw’s grocery pickup order. $89.31 is reduced to $47.03 by shopping through the flyer on the app. Bottom is the checkout button.
November 16, 2025 at 2:13 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Emily Gilmore is gold, all the way up to the end.
Photo from Gilmore Girls still 2016 reboot (episode 4, “Fall”). Image of Emily Gilmore sitting at a table saying “It’s all a big pile of bullshit.”
November 2, 2025 at 7:01 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Emily Gilmore is my favorite character. Vulnerable Emily rounds out snarky Emily.
Video still from Gilmore Girls season 7, episode 13. Image clip of Richard Gilmore in a hospital bed with his wife Emily seated to his right. A tender moment for the couple.
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Wish Rory had Lucy and Olivia as friends earlier on in show… like when she first entered Yale. Paris is a LOT and Lane is off doing her own thing and these girls are sweet.
Screen clip from Gilmore Girls season 7, episode 7. Three girls sitting on a bathroom floor talking about their post-grad careers. Rory (right with pink strips in her hair), had a mini breakdown over everything coming to an end.
October 27, 2025 at 11:20 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
We’re back at it: failed attempt at a cappuccino.

Technically second attempt. Tried yesterday, but the milk separated weird. Zero foam.
Cappuccino mug of espresso & “milk” with spoon handle poking out. Mug is sitting in front of a dish rack full of cutlery and the handle of espresso portafilter.
October 26, 2025 at 2:24 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
I ship Lorelei with Jan/Carolyn! 😂

This episode (season 6 finale) is full of gems!
Photo of a video still from Gilmore Girls season 6, episode 22 (season finale). The phot shows to women in a car. The first seated in the back seat is Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) being psychoanalyzed by Carolyn (Melora Hardin) who’s seated in the driver’s seat. This scene follows after the group leaves from a dinner with Lorelai’s parents.
October 26, 2025 at 2:05 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
It’s Jan!!! 😆
Scene clipping from Gilmore Girls season 6, episode 22. Image shows two people (woman left, man seated uncomfortably right), having cocktails in the poshly decorated Gilmore Family parlor. The woman to the left is named “Carolyn Bates,” acted by Melora Hardin, who’s best known as “Jan” the psychotic regional manager in the tv show “The Office.” She is playing the character of a psychiatrist that Emily Gilmore is trying to set up with Christopher (right, David Sutcliffe), who’s Rory’s biological daughter.
October 26, 2025 at 1:58 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Richard & Emily Gilmore’s gift to Yale is a building named after their granddaughter. The family discusses/debate the absurdity of the typography.
Photo of a still from Gilmore Girls season 6, episode 22 (season finale). Photo of 4 people sitting in a mansion parlor having cocktails discussing the building model in the center of the room (sitting on a coffee table in the middle of the group). The title of the building says “The Rory Gilmore Astronomy Building.” The text “Rory Gilmore” is larger than the rest of the building (and the neighboring windows). The group is discussing the typography and while Rory (seated lower right) is showing signs of embarrassment.
October 26, 2025 at 1:47 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Rory’s face while being lectured about virginity by the Gilmore family reverend is the best! 😆 #GilmoreGirls
Photo snippet from Gilmore Girls season 6, episode 7. The sour look on Rory’s face is comical! She is sitting at an elegantly decorated dinning room table listening to the family’s reverend lecture about saving her virginity. Written on the screen: “Once you give it, it’s gone. You can’t re-gift it.”
October 21, 2025 at 1:22 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
We briefly had some sideways rain. We were entertained.

Happy Caturday!
🩶 Astro
Backside of a gray American Shorthair cat, seated on a mustard yellow back-cushion of a sofa. The cat (named Astro) is gazing out a window, distracted by rain. A tropical themed scratching post sits in the upper left part of the frame.
September 6, 2025 at 10:59 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
I live Trader Joe’s cruciferous blend so much!
Close up of Trader Joe’s cruciferous lettuce/kale/cabbage blend. There are a couple tiny “sprinkle” tomatoes peeking through the mix. Mixed with Newman’s Own ranch dressing. Air fried chicken nuggets are close by.
September 6, 2025 at 7:18 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Fairly productive cleaning day: got my to-do list completed with exception to windows. Another time.

Landlord kindly dropped off garden spoils which will be consumed throughout the week.
Twig basket filled with garden vegetables. Spoils from my landlord’s garden include: - 3 summer squash of various skin smooth-bumpiness - 1 “eight-ball” squash - broccoli - assorted mini tomatoes hiding behind the broccoli. Trust me, there is a LOT! Yea, the highly flammable basket is sitting on top of my stovetop just for this quick pic. It was off and hasn’t been used in 4 days, so fire risk was incredibly low. The basket has been returned to the owners and the veggies are living their best life in a ceramic dish… or have been eaten.
August 17, 2025 at 11:37 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Completed 4 books this weekend! 📚✨True: 2/4 were nearly finished carryovers from the week, and one was 150 pages, but still…
Snippet of my reading journal. Dot-grid notebook with crudely drawn monthly calendar between a double-page spread. Each book is assigned a random marker color and I track how much I read every day. Yes, Monday has a pre-planned audiobook in the queue, so it’s loosely marked. 😆 The day is still young, so I will write in how every many pages I complete in my current read before I go to sleep, or when I wake in the morning.
August 10, 2025 at 8:59 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
My official reading mood noodle, 5 months late.
My reading mood tracker from 2024, c/o StoryGraph reading tracker software. Shown in the image is a line graph pointing out that I maintained an average, somewhat level mood, until the end of the year. The x-axis shows the months of the year, but the y-axis is unlabeled. One can surmise that the higher the line climbs in the y-axis, the more pleasant the reading content. I can explain that December crash… I was reading a lot of nonfiction, specifically for the Morbidly Curious book club, and I ended the year with Challenger by Adam Higginbotham.
June 2, 2025 at 2:50 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Private student loan number 4 (of 5) is officially declared “paid in full,” according to the automated system. 🤖
The automated response I received from my student loan service… wrangler? I don’t know what the sole purpose of this company is, other than keep all my private student loans clumped together in one spot. To summarize, I read the note as if read as a robot, monotone and artificial as though shredded by the blades of a fan: “we are reaching out to you to discuss your extended warranty… congratulations. You no longer have to distribute funds to this loan, but this does not extend to other loans we may still be servicing for you. Pleasant day. End page 1.” “Page 2*: one line of loan data pertaining to what loan was paid, but no information as to the final amount paid, because hahaha.” *not shown here.
May 30, 2025 at 1:48 AM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
I didn’t like how I sweetened yesterday’s iced latte, so I made a Nutella alternative mixed with my sweetened macadamia nut milk. Sweet but not overwhelming or artificial tasting. It’s perfect! 👌
Nutella iced latte & Astro (shark fin gray & white American domestic cat). Nested on my mustard colored loveseat. Cat’s tropical scratching post in the corner of the room, adjacent to a window. Ariel view of my Nutella iced latte with a single cinnamon roll resting on a clementine colored saucer. The saucer is reading on a gray-mustard-teal-white splotchy sofa pillow. The iced latte is quite frothy.
May 26, 2025 at 1:09 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
First hand-crafted iced latte of the year! Inspired by “Coffee Creations” book gifted from @amarshallwriting.bsky.social 🫶
Classic (unstirred) iced latte in a glass mug, sitting atop a box covered with a reproduction of Claude Monte’s painting “Wild Poppies Near Argenteuil.” Very fitting for Memorial Day weekend.
May 25, 2025 at 1:35 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
What started as a trip to get a water filter turned into what it would look like if I were trying to acclimate a new cat.

Happy Caturday!
Caturday haul! I broke my vow to not shop Walmart to get a filter for the cat’s water fountain. They sell the fountain but not the filters… okay. Since I was there, I picked up: - 2 cat-scratching beds (their favorite!) - Squirrel & raccoon replacement toys (also a favorite) - Hand soap for the human (me) From PetCo: - New water fountain (please keep stocking the filters!!!) - Salmon flavored cat snackies (royal blue bag… not to be confused with the tuna flavored, which of course I did) Pictured above is all the stuff I purchased (listed above) during my brief shopping trip, semi-neatly stacked on my car’s passenger seat. It looks like provisions for getting a new cat. It’s not! I just can’t NOT spoil my cats.😸😸
May 24, 2025 at 11:00 PM
illustratorsam.bsky.social
Happy Indie Bookstore Day!
Two hardcover books resting on a sage green ottoman while a gray and white cat named Astro, stands up off camera to smell the picture-taker. Books shown: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor and Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Books were purchased in participation of Indie Bookstore Day from Balin Books. Bookstore bookmark shown. Two hardcover books and bookmark resting on a sage green ottoman. Books shown: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor and Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. Books were purchased in participation of Indie Bookstore Day from Balin Books. Bookstore bookmark shown.
April 26, 2025 at 5:10 PM