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!

Have I mentioned before how much I love this little friend family? Why yes, it seems I did. Friends for practically half our lives, our second annual girls’ weekend has come and gone, was much too short, and super fun and silly.

This year we headed to a gorgeous cabin in New Hampshire, and Natalie joined us (well, she was there last year, but not, you know in person)! I think she’s a fan of the tradition. It took her a good 36 hours to warm up to everyone, but once she did, she had a great time. For the last few hours. Oh well, at least now she’ll be really excited to see them again when they come a’visiting. And we know she’s good at traveling and adaptable to sleeping in other beds and houses. Win! My dear darling Stephanie posted a little about the trip on her blog, too.

I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. A list will do!

1. turns out I love being a mama. YAY! (not that I doubted that I would, but I’m pretty glad that I do.)

2. a tree fell in our backyard 2 nights ago. crazy, right?

3. my aunt moved her shop to an amazing new space! It’s called Ikonium Studio and it’s at 69 Church Street in Lenox, MA — Go visit! There you will find contemporary and traditional Turkish and American fiber art and craft, amazing Turkish rugs, as well as some fantastic paintings and a few things made by other crafty folks and yours truly.

4. I’m doing a show in 2  weeks! I haven’t really gotten back to work yet (still resisting, enjoying “maternity leave”!) but I have to. Today. The show is sponsored by BerkshireMade; Handmade in the Park, downtown Lee, MA, Saturday August 7, 10am – 4pm.

5. tomatoes! summer! swimming!

6. I am told our miss Natalie is very “advanced” — large for her age (10 weeks!), but also strong, smiley from day one and super talkative for weeks now. Also sleeping a lot, but I wont get into that, for fear of being stoned by other sleep-deprived mamas.

7. did I mention summer? With that comes weddings (that we have missed, boo!) and visits from friends and family, barbecues, birthdays of some of my favorite people, craft fairs (I’m only doing one, but you better be visiting lots!), farmer’s markets, tag sales (no, haven’t been to any, but we will), vacations (maybe next year?), and the Berkshire Fringe (starts next week!)!

Yay, Summer!

It’s this weekend! It’s going to be AWESOME. I can’t wait to see/meet you there! yippee! (I’m table #84! Near the Theramin!)

I was at Twist this weekend! I did not take any photos!

It was wonderful, though, and I had lots of fun chatting with customers and friends and my fearless helpers and fellow vendors (why are you all so wonderful and fun to be with?!) — and thankfully some of them captured the day in pictures. You can see a few nice shots on fellow vendor Maeg’s blog, including a photo wherein I appear to be as humongous as the Sasquatch on her t-shirt, but that’s ok — there’s a baby in there (Did you hear?)! I was so grateful to be able to spend the night with my lovely friends, too, so I didn’t have to drive back and forth Friday night/Saturday morning. They showed me the sights in Florence and Leeds; I’m definitley going to have to go back for some swimming this summer!

So yesterday I spent the day lounging and doing not much of anything, in an attempt to recuperate and get some energy back. John and I had a lovely and gluttonous brunch at the Dakota restaurant, followed by movies and tv-on-the-internet and a leasurly stroll or two around the neighborhood. One of those was at sunset and the sky was so darn pink, it was quite amazing! And again, I didn’t take any pictures. I’ll try next time, I really will.

I am so thankful that I sold almost all of my new holiday ornaments (little stuffed birdies!), but now I need to get back into making-mode for Mass MoCA this weekend! My back is still bothering me, though, and I’m trying not to aggravate it and make it worse. I am going to attempt some gentle yoga today; I really need to get back into that. And apparently back into taking photos for you, too. Like I said, I’ll try!

here I am. But sort of wishing I was still here:

with these lovely ladies:

sigh. We had a great time up in the woods and mountains of Maine. It was a quick visit, with a very rainy day for our one full day, but we made the best of it.

We have been friends since High School, and I find it most amazing that we are still in touch. What’s more, we are probably closer, better friends now, after all these years. We can make each other laugh and cry even harder than we used to, and it’s sometimes even harder to say goodbye. Why don’t we all live closer, ladies? I’m so lucky to have Stephanie so nearby, and I think we will get even closer once I’m a mama, too. But wouldn’t it be nice if we could all get together like this all the time? I’m missing you all muchly!

hehe. We had a GREAT time, which may or may not have included moose and lobster hats, lots of snacks, squash and salad, a selection of board games, a rousing round of charades and a dance-off. More photos here.

First of all, thankyouthankyouthankyou for all of the love and support and congrats on our big announcement. It has been so fun to see (here and on facebook!) that you are almost as excited as we are to welcome the little bean to our family! I promise to post updates when I have ‘em, but for now just know that no news is good news and everything is progressing along nicely.

Secondly, they’re everywhere! We have lately been infested with ladybugs. It’s really odd, but it seems to happen every year. Some kind of migration, I guess? Do you have ‘em, too? I don’t mind them, but I feel bad when they get trapped inside. And I hate the way they smell, (and my sniffer is more sensitive than usual — chalk that up to another pregnancy sypmptom they don’t tell you about!) so I hope they say outside!

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aaaand thirdly, I’m off this weekend on a little mini-break with some of my best girls! We are headed to Maine, to a little cabin in the woods for a little R&R — and thankfully dear Stephanie has offered to drive, so I don’t even have the 5-hour drive to dread! I will hopefully have some photos to post from the trip next week (I’ve been having some issues with my camera and my computer, but I think they are mostly workable, if totally annoying).

Have a great weekend!

We’re off for a whirlwind long weekend in Washington, DC tomorrow! yippee for vacation! I’m not bringing my computer, and I’m really going to try to only use my iPhone for directions and looking up yummy places to eat and such. I am looking forward to being a bit unplugged, and just enjoying being with John in a somewhat unfamiliar setting, exploring and enjoying. He doesn’t like getting his picture taken, but we’ll see if I can sneak a few shots in. The forecast calls for not-too-hot and chance of fully-sunny-day each day (ok, chance of thunderstorms, but I’m trying to be POSITIVE, ok?).

I’m also really looking forward to stops in the new National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Who know what we can cram into 3.5 days, but I’m hoping quite a bit?

See you next week!

p.s. the train photo above is because we’re taking the train! Yay for not driving! The image is from a project I did last year as part of my “Photography for Graphic Designers” class — check out the whole-shebang photo set from that class here.

p.p.s. We might not be in the Berkshires this weekend, but if you are, go ahead and visit the newest bestest restaurant on the block, our friend Bjorn’s Nudel in Lenox, MA. They just had their soft opening today; Congrats, yo!

love and hugs and giggling and friends and art tears and and fun and craft and joy and water and trees.

It is so hard to put into words the magic (yes, I said magic! Alchemy? Sparkles? Joy?!) of Squam Lake and the Squam Art Workshops. So until I can put it into words, even though this was my second time there and I should be able to synthesize it into words now but I can’t, you can see my photos on my flickr here. This session was similar but also so different, so special in its own way. Some of the same people, many new faces and quite a few folks who I felt like I already knew. I kept having the “don’t I know you from somewhere?” conversation, and it went both ways; we both felt familar, but there was no way we had met before. Ahh, the bliss of kindred spirits.

I also want to say a huge thanks to everyone who came out to the Squam Art Fair and loved on my crafty goodness and took home some goodies. I am so thrilled that a handfull of my birdies will be living in loving new homes and my art will be gracing the walls of some really rockin’ creative souls’ homes. You all blow me away.

And the teachers, the Teachers!

Lizzy House (top) and Marisa Haedike (above), you are so amazing beyond words. Thank you for imparting your knowledge to us in such a kind, thoughtful, joyful, eloquent way. You are both such fantastic artists and it was a joy to meet you. I am a better person for knowing you. And I hope to be a better artist, armed with some super tips and techniques that you brought to us in your classes. These women are both forces of nature to be reckoned with, but bring such compassion to their interactions and relationships, and every piece they create has such meaning and feeling behind it. I can only hope to expand on what I learned from each of you.

We also had the honor of being joined by the fantastic Ms. Jonatha Brooke again this session, who continued the tradition of serenading us by the bonfire on the first night, and brought tears to our eyes once again with her songs of trust and pixie dust throughout the weekend. Lovely seeing you again, dear soul!

I am so thrilled to have been mentioned on the Fiber Farm blog and the sweet “loving it” section of SouleMama, Amanda Blake Soule’s blog as a result of being at the Squam Art Fair. Fiber Farm was part of the Art Fair on Saturday, and Amanda was part of the books and authors forum on Friday night at Squam, and I had the pleasure of meeting her at the book signing. What an amazing and lovely woman; I so plan on using her creative-family-raising ideas someday with my own family. She is such an inspiration!

ok, I guess I did have some words to describe it. And I’ll bring you more later, but for now be sure to enjoy my photos. Here are some of the work I created, too (top two from “Create a Painting in a Day” with Marisa Haedike, and bottom is the result of both “Pattern Design” and “Block Printing Fabric” with Lizzy House):

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I love your thoughts on homesteading/our house, etc. — thank you!

I have yet to wrap my mind around the rest of my thoughts regarding this, but I surely will get back to that one of these days.

Today, I’m here:

It’s actually in much better shape now, this was a shot (with my new fisheye lens adapter!) from last week when my studio re-hash project started. I’m working AT my desk now, which is very exciting. The hall is full of stuff looking for a new home, but the studio is in pretty good shape. And now all mine, after I moved John (with his permission of course!) and his computer down to the living room. I had a heck of a time getting a wireless adapter to work with the PC, but it’s now working and mostly reliable. And now I can make as big a mess as I want and not worry about John having to navigate it, just to do his homework.

Last weekend, we were here:

In Burlington, Vermont! Having fun playing with the new fisheye (I hope my nose isn’t that big in real life…?) and visiting the lovely Sarah G. and her man CPCC, who recently celebrated a birthday on San Patricio’s day — happy b-day, CP!

We had a great time, resting, rejuvenating, trying to pretend it was spring and walking too far in cold wind along lake Champlain. We even got souvenir rosy wind-burned faces! It was sunny the whole time but really really still winter coldness. Sarah’s apt. has a great view of the lake, the Adirondacks and the sunset — lovely!

As I mentioned previously, Twitter has been helping me express myself more concisely — but, not being online for a few days was really nice. Therefore, I’m here to say I’m taking a little blogging break. Not that I’m so frequent a blogger anyway, but I’m often feeling a little guilty about not posting more often. I also have a fair coming up soon — The Design Hive Market in Cambridge on Sunday April 5th. This all leads me to the conclusion that I’m going to be back to posting here around then, maybe before the fair, maybe after, or maybe I won’t be able to contain myself and will be back even more frequently or soon — who knows!

see you then, then!