I’m giving away a 2012 calendar to a lucky reader this week! The calendar features 12 watercolor paintings of wild edible plants, it measures 4-1/2″ x 11″, spiral bound and ready to hang. {They are available to purchase here, there’s as printable version, too!}

Entries are open through Monday January 9 at 12 noon EST (entries are closed). Just leave a comment on this post to be entered & tell me your favorite thing about 2011 and what you’re most looking forward to in 2012.

For me, my favorite favorite most amazing thing in 2011 was beginning to have conversations with my little one. For reals, she’s a PERSON with THOUGHTS and feelings and dreams and joys and hurts and questions questions questions. It’s so amazing to finally be able to hear all about them. She’s still working on her sentence structure (”does I have a sister?” was the best question yesterday. My answer? “no, you don’t have a sister” and her reply was “no, I don’t. She’s at work.” Hah! I guess “work” is where people are when you can’t see them? Pretty good).

And what are we looking forward to in 2012? All sorts of big things. Growing my business in ways I have only dreamed of. Making real plans, accountability, scheming and ACTING on these plans! Yes, so I suppose what I’m looking forward to in 2012 is action! Last year was a looking-inward hibernating sort of year, just reveling in our little family life and developing a rhythm to that. This year we’re adding to that rhythm and it already feels really good. Yay 2012!

**update: the winner is Samantha! Congrats and thanks to all of you for playing along!**

New painting! Available as a print in the shop, and the original watercolor painting on bristol board is available, too.

My new favorite book is a cookbook. What’s happening to the non-fiction and self-help books that are piled by my bedside? I tend to fall asleep whenever I think about reading one of those these days. And, well, I’m a mama, trying to make healthy food for me and my family, that is also delicious and easy to prepare. Is that so much to ask?

Enter “Super Natural Everyday“. Thank you, Heidi Swanson, for making the book I didn’t know I was looking for. Gorgeous photos of yummy food, easy to follow recipes with a mix of my standby ingredients and a few new things I’m nervous to try. Everything (really, every single thing) I have made from this book is delicious. And seriously easy to make, entering our weekly and monthly meal roatation.

I’ve already made the Miso-Curry Delicata Squash (my photo of it above) twice already, and I just got the book from the library a few weeks ago, finally purchasing my own copy this week. YUM.

I was going to reopen my Etsy shop this weekend.

But instead, I’m going to cook, and clean, and sort baby clothes. Do yoga, share photos, send presents to new babies and friends. Buy wedding gifts and eat brownies. Pet the cat. Try to be nicer to my amazing husband. Plan a beach vacation. And maybe even watch some “Master Chef” on hulu. I am keeping busy and learning to live a little simpler and enjoy spending time with Nat and John and friends and our dog. I have been mending toys and clothes, but I haven’t made anything in over a moth. And I’m ok with that.

It’s some sort of transition and I’m embracing it.

If you had told me a few years ago, or even one year ago, that I’d be leaning away from owning a small artistic/creative business to be a “homemaker” with a part-time job in someone else’s business, I would have probably said you were crazy. But here we are. I’m trying to go on a low-stress diet, and I think it’s working. More-or-less, of course.

For now, it’s a wait-and-see, and that’s really ok. Isn’t it? I still have big things up my sleeves, and I’m not abandoning the creating or the business I’ve built, but I’m pushing it a little farther back on the shelf I put it on last month. I hope it doesn’t get too dusty up there, but I think I know how to clean it up if it does.

It’s finally (finally!) truly, really, actually summer here in the Berkshires!

Everything is green and lush and buzzing and blooming and chirping, and we are swimming as much as possible and we are enjoying the company of friends and family, and sitting on the deck, and watching fireflies.

This summer is different than other summers, though. We are also going to bed early and chasing a little girl who desperately wants to run everywhere, but really isn’t quite able to. She gets to frustrated when we slow her down! But of course with running-when-you-really-don’t-know-how comes falling, and crying, and new bumps and bruises. Her knees are bruised and she has another one on her cheek, but she doesn’t care! The girl has practically no fear! Unless, of course, you are a stranger, who your mother might leave you with. Then you are scary and horrible and how-dare-you. But that’s just the way it goes. If you are within mom’s reach, everything must be safe. Ah, if only it were so, little one!

But we are also enjoying seeing the excitement of summer through her eyes. She was so little last summer that she didn’t really get to experience much of it, except being really hot all the time (it was so hot!). But this year is different. She is walking and running and talking and experiencing all there is to experience! The world is so exciting to her! And I want to keep it that way.

So we are retreating this week, going to pretend we are also on vacation! This was a little idea I had the other night — we live in a place where thousands of people come for vacations every summer. Why not join them? And we have some family coming in from the west coast, some of whom have never been here, so I’ve decided Natalie and I are going to join them on some of their vacation! (I hope they don’t mind if we tag along?!) This might include, but is not limited to, swimming a lot, hiking and canoeing (ok babies might not come canoeing!), visiting our local museums and galleries, shopping and maybe eating too much, but definitely lolling around, chatting, drinking lemonade and resting. Oh and of course not working. That’s the part I really like. Lately I have been in a constant feeling-guilty-if-I’m-not-working-but-not-having-time-to-work mode, and it’s getting a little exhausting. So here’s to letting myself off the hook and going on staycation! Have a happy 4th, y’all!

Untitled, a photo by Crafty Maven on Flickr. Berry-bowl by the inestimable Alex Watson

This is the time of year the Rainer Cherries appear in our supermarkets. I live on the opposite side of the country now, but back in college I was in the Pacific Northwest, reveling in all its beauty and bounty.

I have such great memories of driving out to our favorite lake for a swim, stopping at roadside farm-stands to buy a bag of these beauties to enjoy as our post-swim snack.

We also spent some time on the shores of Puget Sound, foraging for wild Salmonberries — I highly recommend that if you ever get the chance. Oh and don’t get me started on Marionberries! (and Marionberry pie!)

The days were hot and dry in the summer, so surprising to this New Englander who knew only the Northwest of movies like “Sleepless in Seattle” and books like “Snow Falling on Cedars” — I think I was ready for thunderstorms every day. We probably had 4 in my whole time there.

So here’s to sun and summer and swimming in wild bodies of water (we did try to paddle our inflatable raft in Puget Sound once — that was a bad idea and thankfully we were tied in. Reckless college kids!)!

Natalie’s favorite berry is “black” — blackberries by the handful, saying “black black black!” She can’t say the “berry” part yet, multi-syllable words are tough. But she’s working on it. And “strawberry” sounds a bit like “srawmb” — I’ll take it!

Last Thursday this little baby turned One!

I hardly believe it. How far we’ve come!

We had an awesome party on Saturday, thrown my my amazing mom, Natalie’s Grammy. It was lots of fun, full of family and a few friends. She loved having everyone sing to her! It was so funny to watch her notice that they were all singing, TO HER, TOGETHER! she loved loved loved it.

And she even ate a little bit of her low-sugar cake thingy (more like a frosted pancake, perhaps? It wasn’t bad, though) that I made for her (we made traditional cake for everyone else, but she’s still not had much sugar so I thought I’d keep it that way a little while longer!).

She also loved opening presents. We were sure she’d only open a few and get distracted, but she was all like “what’s next?” That is, until she opened a doll stroller. ALL SHE EVER WANTED. Once it was set up she practically jumped over me to get to it and start pushing it around! Too cute. She kind of wants to push it from the front most of the time, but who am I to judge?

Our babybear is growing up so fast!

I made a little list not long ago on the other blog of things she can say, but now that she’s officially one, here’s a list of her accomplishments thus far:

• Things she can say: hi, Dada, Mama, meow, arf-arf, kitty, doggie, baby (bebe), na-na (i.e. Natalie, or “give it to me/Natalie”), me-me (”Grammy”), duck, owl, down, no, yessss, that.

• Other sound effects: mmm (”moo”), brmm (tractor, car), wee-wee (as in “this little piggy went to market”), an awesome pig snort, a slurping pretend drinking sound, lip-smacking pretend eating sound, a horse-foot clicking/clopping sound, and she bounces up and down like she’s riding a horse when she sees one.

• Sign-language signs: milk, more, food/eat, water, baby, sleep, waves hi and bye, and she points all the time.

• Record # of hours slept at once: 13

• She has been feeding herself since she was 7 months old. She hasn’t mastered the spoon yet, but can get tiny pieces and big pieces and all in-between. She loves most things she’s tried, but her favorites are broccoli, cucumber, bread, banana and pasta (a girl after her Dada’s heart!). She is not fond of cheese and I’m ok with that (cheese being one of my weaknesses, something I’m working on giving up!). She also loves graham crackers, well really any kind of cracker, pizza crust and tiny sips of green juice. She drinks water from her straw cup, and gets really mad at any kind of non-chewy sippy cup spout or having to tip a sippy cup too high. Can’t blame her.

• No crawling, lots of walking — almost running now. She can roll both ways like a champ, and almost does a somersault when she falls sometimes, but not on purpose! The day she got her stitches she learned to get herself up from the floor to walking. She can climb small steps but hasn’t even tried the stairs (thank goodness!).

• She likes to use her imagination and feeds her toy animals and dolls all the time. She’s also started trying to dress and undress the dolls, and has been trying to help dress herself for a while now.

It’s kind of like she’s a KID. Unbelievable. hehe.

being a mama is really hard work. No doubt about that. So firstly, Happy Mother’s Day to all you mamas out there! Wow, I mean… I knew it would be hard, but there’s nothing that can really prepare you for the difficulties of little sleep, not knowing why your baby is crying and separation anxiety, not to mention baby illness, bumps, bruises and even the occasional hospital visit.

And then there are the day-to-day decisions. I feel like I’m constantly making decisions, about what to do to keep her happy, well-fed, appropriately clothed, well-rested, appropriately stimulated and educated. And that’s all before breakfast. Haha, I kid. Well, not really. I think for me that is the hardest part, being always “on the job” and constantly making these decisions, weighing all the options and choices. There usually isn’t one right answer, so sometimes it’s even harder to just choose what is right at the moment. And don’t we really all know that the best is probably the one that feels best? The one where you feel at ease and confident? I try to keep in mind the best advice I got about parenting, from my maternal Grandmother (Natalie’s “Merney”), that I know more than I think I do, and that I should trust my intuition.

This is all leading up to something I’ve been doing. I’ve been diving headlong into nutrition research. I have been charged (you know, by the universe) to make nutrition decisions for my daughter, as well as for myself. For her for at least the next 10 years, if not 10 more. I paint pictures of vegetables, but I always felt like something was missing. And I think that something is the knowledge behind the suggestion to “eat more veg”! I have known for a while now that I’m not interested in feeding Natalie cow’s milk or much meat. I wasn’t really sure why, but it just felt right. And I want to know why, and I want to have the facts to back up these somewhat intuitive decisions.

So I’m reading and watching documentaries and dreaming of taking this and this course at Kripalu when I have the chance (i.e. when Natalie is weaned and I am able to take the time away from her). I am so so lucky to live in an area full of healing centers like Kripalu, the UltraWellness Center and Canyon Ranch. I can’t wait to learn from them and get involved with the work they are doing.

It’s just the tip of the proverbial iceburg, and I have just *started* reading them, but the books I’m finding the most inspirational at the moment are Crazy Sexy Diet and The China Study, and if you are remotely interested in health and wellness/nutrition, or just, you know, interested in not getting cancer or dying of heart disease, do yourself a favor and watch (and put into practice some of the information in) the documentary Food Matters (on netflix instant!). There are lots of other books and movies on the subject, some of which I mentioned in this post so long ago.

Rock on, and go make  yourself some green juice!

Natalie enjoyed her first trip to New York City this weekend! We had so much fun as a little family of three, visiting some of our favorite friends from the West Coast, plus some other favorite friends in Brooklyn, and eating sushi with Natalie’s Uncle Ed, who is a fancy architect down there in that big city.

She loved napping in her stroller among the white-noise of the city, and even sirens and noisy gross motorcycles didn’t wake her up! (Though we had to cover the stroller with John’s sweatshirt to get her to stop watching the people and fall asleep!) She especially loved all the dogs. And meeting our friends Nik and Susan; they had lots of fun together, and we miss ‘em already!

She also got to hang out in Prospect Park with our friends Sara and Pete, who she totally loves!

This was definitely the first time I’ve gone into the city and not shopped or gone to a museum. It was kind of odd, but also sort of nice to just chilax, walk around and visit with friends. Oh and eat good food, of course. We had brunch at the Great Jones Cafe, and awesome sushi at Blue Ginger. YUM!

We also decided to drive in, which as new for us but AWESOME. It was sunday so relatively “quiet” and easy to find parking… win!

And the winner is…. Jean!! {I am so excited to send this off to you, Jean!}

Here’s her favorite holiday crafting memory:

Jean has a wonderful craft business going, Woolart, but I really hope this book helps her out in her pursuits of more craftiness in her future. We had the pleasure of seeing Jean at the BerkshrieMade Holiday Craft Show a few weeks ago, and got some awesome fulled booties for Natalie, an ADORABLE owl hat and a cute cute diorama ornament from her! I trust she’ll have more goods for sale in her Etsy shop soon… as soon as she gets a little free time from running her new farm in Maine, that is!

As for me and my favorite holiday crafting memories? One of mine is quite similar to Jean’s, actually! Every year my brothers and cousins and I would gather at my Grandma’s house a week or two before Christmas to decorate gingerbread cookies, as described in this post from last year, including listening to “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” and the Chipmunk’s Christmas album.

that's me, gazing up on my brother's cookie decorating. Circa 1984?

I also loved making these little paper Easter baskets with my other Grandma every year. We would cut out little eggs from colored construction paper, to place inside our baskets made of paper stapled together to make a pouch, decorated with a drawn-on basket-weave pattern. I really thought those were the bees knees. I’m totally planning to make them every year with Natalie when she can, you know, wield a pair of scissors, or, um, talk.