the panic sets in...

alright, it’s been a while.

i'm going to catch you up on things AND, wait for it, announce the giveaway winners! but, you have to listen to me ramble on first...

time to get back to regularly scheduled programming here on le blog.

truth be told, I’ve actually started this blog post about 11 17 different times, and all those drafts are currently just taking up space in my blogger account. i thought it was high time to follow through, fingers crossed i finish before someone wakes up from her nap. (side note: that it did not happen, this is seriously attempt #17.)

recently I was talking about my new “schedule” and feeling as if everything was finally getting easier. by everything, I mean my balancing act of new mamahood and the workathomeparttimeasacreativeartist/businesswoman thing. oh, yeah, that thing. but then, i was knocked right off of my tight rope when the tooth fairy, monster came to visit us. this, of course, meant that he kicked the sweet little sleep fairy out of our house, which is too bad because she was such a welcome addition to our nutty little household. she was the reason things seemed to be running somewhat smoothly for a while. and by smoothly i mean the laundry was getting done, i was even able to get into the studio and finally finish it... it's been way too long in a state of recently rearranged disarray. that nice fairy was also to thank for my new found clear mind and lack of less noticeable dark circles under my eyes. (another side note: by clear mind, i just mean a less foggy, certainly not as sharp as it used to be, mind)

don't get me wrong, it's not that things aren't good, in the big scheme of things all is well and i have absolutely nothing that i can really complain about at all. but, on this, probably the 37th day not sleeping through the night, things can start to get fuzzy and negative in my tired mama mind.

on a more positive note, silly excuses and complaining aside, spring is finally showing itself around here in new england. finally! the singing birds, yellow daffodils and warm sunlight on our (much less bundled up) walks are brightening our days lately. what a difference!

and yet, there's more goodness. and i've been totally holding out on you...

drumroll please...

i am holding my book in my hands. yes, the real live book. it feels so good! i absolutely love everything about it. really, truly do. i'm still pinching myself! you can get a peek inside over here. but here's the thing -

i go back and forth between feeling so incredibly thrilled that i pick up ada and we swing around the house doing happy dances, which, of course, she loves. it's been like this for the past couple of weeks. (yes, i know! it's true, i've had a copy that long! see, totally holding out on you!) but then, things shift, like yesterday when i unexpectedly had a few emails from people telling me that they, too, had my book in their hands. a cold sweat came over me and i felt like i was going to throw up! what's wrong with me!? i wrote a book for other people to read, now they are reading it, and better yet telling me nice things about it... how do i respond? i panic!? goodness. something is seriously wrong with me.

just this morning, as i was telling thea about my panic/craziness and i exclaimed -

but, this means people are going to know all about our "secret project! "

she, of course, thought that was completely hilarious and encouraged me to chillax and *know* that it is all going to be okay. (just for the record she didn't use the word "chillax", but that is my assignment for myself)

i think it's just the whole "giving birth" to the book thing, it's been such a long process, one in which i put in so much time, energy and love into those words and pages... i just hope it is going to be received with open arms, that it will inspire its readers and be loved right back. here's hoping...

time to set it free, right?

i have no choice! it is on the way...

* * *

ok, back to business.

the giveaway! thanks so much to all of you who participated and told me about your favorite meals! it was such fun to read all of your comments... such delicious ideas!

without further ado, the randomly selected winners are~

the winner of mb's book is: dawn wilson! yay! mb will be sending you the book!

the winner of my print is: sylvia! congrats to you sylvia! i am SO going to try your avocado/garlic spread this summer... yum! :)

*dawn and sylvia- please be in touch with me via email and send you addresses!

now, if you didn't win, don't dismay, just stay tuned as there will be another upcoming giveaway or two here soon!

* * *

see you tomorrow for some friday fun.

xo *s

ps: i'm going to go chillax now... ;) thanks for listening!

you are here

ada and me

(she's in the beco)

i'm standing on the edge of the country with my feet in the ocean

i'm standing on the part of the map where it goes from green to blue

those are lyrics from the song you are here by the band, wait for it, lunch money. that's right, we're now loading up the ipod with kid songs! this served as the soundtrack for our road trip to and from north carolina. we played it over and over and over again. ada loves the music now, and luckily, so do we. i even caught my husband playing the cd in the car when he ran out to do an errand, alone, as in, no baby to hear the baby music! it's that good.

i've finally loaded the first half of my squam by the sea pictures up on flickr. and, of course in the 7 minutes i had to blog on friday, blogger was down. argh! so that's why there was a delay. i've also been working hard to have computer free weekends and focus on other things like continuing to unpack and set up our house. it's long overdue, we've been a wee bit busy, but i'm so happy to finally be getting the time to do things such as hang a curtain in our bedroom and a coat rack in the entryway. yup, those were the two "big accomplishments" around our house over the weekend.

we also had some dear friends visit on saturday with their little 3-year-old boy. it's been a couple of years since we've seen them, and it was just such a wonderful thing to pretty much to pick up where we had left off... albeit this time with a 3-year-old and a 5-month old thrown into the mix, but it was nice to catch up as we all strolled around town, went out to lunch and showed them around our neck of the woods.

many more pictures from our time at the sea over on flickr

it's a cold and rainy monday here in new england. some places nearby even got snow! i'm trying to stay inside and cozy while i work on my calendar. i love how 2011 is coming together so far, i think you will too.

xo *s

{8 things}

okay, so i seem to avoid blogging when i have too much to say. does that make sense?! probably not, but it's what i did last week. i returned from squam with SO much to say that i just felt overwhelmed and didn't say anything at all. silly me.

i'll get there this week, i promise, but let's just say for today that it was a fantastic time. having ada in tow with my mom made it really great, only a wee bit tricky here and there. grammy sally and ada b made lots of new friends as they strollered around while i was teaching, and i believe that ada was the second most photographed thing after the lake. so we coined a new term: babyrazzi. * to any of the people who were taking pictures~ i'd love it if you would like to share a picture or two that you captured of ada at squam! thanks! : )

{8 t h i n g s}

i did instead of blogging

last week:

monday:

brought ada to her 4-month check-up. (shots. yuck.) then, i did a lot of squam laundry. everything smelled like wood smoke from our fireplace. we had a smokey fire the first night which turned into a big old smoke fest with alarms and all. we ended up having to open the doors instead of getting warm. thank goodness for space heaters. well, i should really say space heater, because when they gave us another we blew a fuse. adventures.

tuesday:

vacuumed my house. this was WAY overdue. ada slept durning the whole thing. it's true you can vacuum around a sleeping baby. what a fun fact! and yes, it took most of my day.

wednesday:

gave ada a bath in her tub. yes, she's had a bath before, but this day marked the first bath where she didn't scream through the entire thing. no arching out or giving me the evil eye either. oh, and neither of us were in tears this time by the end of it all. we even had fun! she smiled and chatted and played... although not evident from this shot, it's true. hooray!

thursday:

my sister came from colorado to met ada for the first time. we've been having lots of fun with auntie heather! my sister is going through some big and brave life changes and we are so proud of her! she recently quit her job, is moving back east, and just today, started an MBA program in boston. exciting things are afoot. yay for my sister!

friday:

heather, jesse and i went to see one of our most favorite guys... it was so fun to see him in person! i love him even more. our bets that he would be wearing jeans, cowboy boots and an untucked white button down shirt were spot on. i'll upload a pic when i can to prove it.

also,

* ada and i went for lots of long stroller walks each day

*i dropped my camera and broke it. yup. (hence, no pictures from squam to share yet, but i'm working on getting them off of the memory card... )

*on those walks i came up with about 62 blog posts in my head that i never had the time to sit down and write.

as i promised my squam students, i will be a better blogger. so with that, i'll see you tomorrow!

xo *s

ps: i wrote this on monday afternoon, got ready to post, and then was sidetracked... so here it is on tuesday am! ah! more soon...