New Website!

Hello!  This will be my last post in this space, as I'm excited to share that I have a new website! 

I'll be blogging over there, so please come check it out.  

Thank you so much!  xo

Amelia Louise

We are so thrilled to announce the arrival of our Amelia Louise, born after an extremely dramatic half an hour of labor.  8 lbs, 3 oz.  She was born perfect and healthy and we are so in love with her already.  We thank God so very much for her safe delivery.  Welcome to our family, little sweetie pie!  

Entering a new season...

We are feeling super sentimental about our last couple weeks (days?) with just this little guy in the house- I know things will be amazing with our new baby girl finally here, but it is such a bittersweet transition.  I have enjoyed the past two years so tremendously- at times it is so difficult to balance working from home and a chasing little one around, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.   I'm grateful every day for this sweet season of life and for the new changes right around the corner...  

Baby news!

I guess it is about time I share the news here that we are expecting our second babe, a sweet little girlie, at the end of November!  We are beyond excited and feel so completely blessed.  We can't wait to meet her.  

Some of you also know that we were involved in a car crash this past weekend, and I spent much of the day in the hospital Sunday, with the doctors busy slowing contractions that were brought on by the wreck.  Prayer would be so appreciated- that our little girl would keep cookin' for two more months and arrive safely.  We are so thankful for God's protection and provision, this past weekend and always.  

xo

Little Silas.

 

We are so thrilled to announce the birth of little Silas Nicholas!  7 lbs. 11 oz and 20.5 inches of sweet perfection.  There are really no words to express how thankful we are to have him here with us- what a gift straight from our Heavenly Father!  These pictures are from the day he was born, and I can't believe almost three weeks have passed since then- it has flown by at a surreal pace.  We can't imagine life without him.  

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above..." James 1:17

Photos by Tom Reich

babe.

I am so thrilled to make a little announcement here- 

My husband and I are expecting a little baby boy at the beginning of October- in just a few short months!  This baby is a long-awaited answer to prayer and we are looking forward to meeting him with such joy and anticipation.  I am so looking forward to this new phase of life, and I just wanted to finally share the news with all you out there in internet-land! 

Harmony....

I've been loving Fleet Foxes' new album so much lately, and it has reminded me of my extreme keenness for Simon and Garfunkel, developed increasingly over the course of my childhood. I have such fond memories of lying in the living room with my mother in the summer, listening to S & G albums. The harmonies on the title track of Helplessness Blues, in particular, are just so reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel, I can't believe it. And I love it.

Hello, Summer!

Hi there! Can't believe it has almost been three months(!) since I've popped in here. This has been an absolutely insane wedding season. I can't wait to share some of what I've been working on with you! I love my job.
And can you believe it is full-fledged summer already? At least here in Tucson it is. I'm determined to make the most of summer in the desert this year. Although I think that will entail getting myself up to higher elevations as often as possible and waking way before the sun rises to take advantage of "the cool" before the day begins. What are your favorite things to do to beat the heat? Ideas, please!
Top: Vintage postcard I found in NYC a couple years ago.
Bottom: Photo taken in San Diego last month.

greener grass...

I've been realizing more and more lately that I have an issue with contentment, and it tends to lead to feelings of restlessness; not appreciating the wonderful circumstances and situations I am surrounded by everyday. One of my goals for the new year is to appreciate being "in the moment," as cheeseball as that sounds, and one of the things I want to specifically work on is loving- really relishing- where I live. Living (and growing up) in Tucson, sometimes I get really antsy to live somewhere, well, greener, with seasons, and tree-lined streets, and fields of grass everywhere. But I forget how much beauty is right here, in my own city, in my own state- in our own little corner of the West.
The grass is always greener. This has a new meaning for me, as I try to train my thoughts to deliberately appreciate where I am right now, in the physical sense and in every other sense of the word. Nick and I plan to take some "local adventures" this year, exploring the beauty of the West as much as we are able. I'll be sure to report back!

sadness.

I normally try to keep the content of this blog fairly light and frivolous, but tonight my heart is heavy. Please pray for all of the people injured and for all of the families of the people who died in Saturday's terrible shooting here in Tucson. It is so difficult to fathom why something like this happened. The scene above (photo taken from the New York Times) is in front of Gabrielle Gifford's office, literally a two minute drive from our home. Please keep the city of Tucson in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to reel from this horrific event.

Magic.

Hello, friends! I just returned from an amazing trip to Rochester, where my close friend Shanna Murray and I stayed in the guest cottage of an incredibly beautiful estate, just dreaming, reading, laughing, talking, and oh yes how could I almost forget: producing our 2011 calendar for Hello Handmade, to be launched this coming Monday! It was magic. Just pure magic. I cannot wait to share it with you.

I am coming away from this retreat totally re-inspired in my work, and just blown away by the beauty of living life. I feel like I have so much to share. For now I'll just leave you with these shots taken from far above the earth....it is one of my favorite places to be. I always request window seats. There is something about it that gives me an incomparable peace, and I wish I had my own private plane so I could experience it more often. It is the perfect time to pray, to dream of things to come, to philosophize. I especially liked the scene out the window of my flight to Denver (pictured above), because it looked almost like something out of an aquarium, with the whale of steel perpetually floating over the clouds.

I can't wait to tell you more.

Stacks upon stacks upon stacks...

It's been a busy few months around these parts. So much going on. Sometimes a feel a bit like Sisyphus, can you relate? Never-ending stacks of envelopes, stacks of emails, stacks of laundry, stacks of dishes, stacks (in my mind) of things I'd love to do if only I had more time. What do you do to keep sane during busy seasons of life?

Oceans

Have you seen this documentary yet? It is amazing. Favorite movie I've seen in years. I just wanted to highly recommend it, in case you hadn't heard of it. It is still playing in Tucson at the Oracle View theater, probably for one more week. Great option on a hot summer day- watching underwater footage in an ice-cold theater can't be beat.

Exploring Tucson....

I was thrilled to see this extensive Tucson Guide on Design Sponge today....lots of my favorite haunts were listed, along with some ideas for new things to try, perhaps this summer. Check it out!

Illustration by Julia Rothman.

Hello, Spring!

Hello there, friends! It has been a while since I posted, and it is simply because I'm buried under a bunch of projects, just trying to stay afloat. I can't wait to share photos of some of the things I've been working on with you. For now, below is a photo of the tart I made for Easter morning this year, complete with mint from our garden. I hope you had a wonderful Easter, too! Here's to a refreshing spring, full of newness and growth.

Top photo from Gardening in Heels.

ducks in a row...

Happy New Year! It has been a while since I've posted, my excuse being the whir of the holiday season as it flew past! But I'm back, and ready to jump into a whole new year (decade, while we're at it!). How about you?
My parents generously helped us buy and install a dishwasher this Christmas, which has been the most wonderful gift ever. It has given us the gift of hours more time during the week to spend on other things besides dishes, and since it displaced the only drawers in our kitchen, it has kicked off a whole-house organizational spree. People always talk about "spring cleaning," but I think the dawn of a new year is the most perfect and fitting season to really make huge, cleansing changes in lots of areas- house and home, priorities, attitudes, etc. It feels good, doesn't it? Here's to the freshness and hope of a brand new January!

Image from Toast by Post.

So sad.

I was so disappointed to learn yesterday that Gourmet magazine will be closing its doors after nearly 70 years in print. This is my favorite magazine by far, and I will sorely miss it. Nick was asking what the big deal was since all of the recipes can still be found online at Epicurious, and he has a point, but I told him there is just something so satisfying about flipping through an issue, getting inspired, trotting to the kitchen with the recipe, and getting the pages all splattered with the evidence of a meal prepared with love. I'll take actual, tangible cookbooks and glossy issues of Gourmet any day over a recipe I have to print out on computer paper in the office.

We will miss you, Bellie.

This is a picture of Belle as a kitten.

It has been pretty sad around our house lately, as last week we had to have our little Belle put to sleep. She was only three years old. It is amazing how much you can grow to love the pets that live with you....I feel like there is a giant "Belle-shaped" hole in my heart now. But we are so very thankful for the short time we had with her. She was the sweetest little cat on earth.

quota reached.

Here is just a peek at the hundreds upon hundreds of towels that Shanna and I washed and ironed and cut and ironed again and hemmed while I was in Rochester. This is just a fraction of them. It was an overwhelming endeavor, but I can't wait to show you the end result! However, I just might boycott ironing from here on out, as I believe my personal lifetime ironing quota was reached and then more than surpassed during this project. I think Shanna would agree.
Photo of Shanna's attic taken by Shanna

No place like home...

I just returned from Rochester, New York, where I met Shanna Murray in person for the first time. We had an amazingly beautiful time together, as we worked like maniacally driven crazy people designing, printing and packaging some gorgeous items for the winter line of Hello Handmade. It was a jam packed couple weeks, but the end result was more than worth all the effort. I can't wait to show you everything a little later in the year! Shanna is a wonderfully kind friend and a beautiful person, and I'm so thankful for the time I was able to spend with her. It felt a little bit like a really long slumber party, as there were many times when it was late at night and we were up working hard and delirium got the better of us and we would melt into fits of giggles over really silly things. Those were sweet times.

All that being said, there is no place like home, and I'm so very, very glad to be back.