thank you for calling but...

Is it just me?
or does calling someone and NEVER getting a person at the other end make you crazy too?
I am not talking about a government office or customer service, I am talking about calling a human, someone you actually know, someone who might be 2 people, someone who might be dating your father and someone who might even be your father...
how much more annoyed might you get if you are not just calling because you feel like saying "hey", but because either both or one of these someones actually ask you to call, repeatedly?
Me? I get annoyed.
So, whether it's because you are so popular that you get countless inbound calls per weekend (icpw- just made that up!) or because you are being stalked by a psycho and feel that you must turn off both your landline ringer and your cell phone, why o why on earth do you ask me to call?

By the way...the lame excuses, the giggles and the snippets of information that boil down to "we are so into eachother that we just can't pick up a call"  don't make it better. ew.

i didn't mean to, but i fell in love

I was in Burlington VT yesterday and my Mom and I bought Tess the most darn adorable clothes I have ever seen! (by my Mom and I, I mean I was there, she was buying!
gotta LOVE grandmas!)
Baby Gap was having this amazing 50% outerwear sale (Tess didn't have anything warm enough for our arctic weather yet). I also finally found the most perfect buttery soft worn in jean overalls for her (lined in soft soft grey cotton), in the boys section.

Yes, I know, she's a girl, you might be saying, stop with the jeans and tees,
But I can't ok? I just can't!
I am a jeans freak myself and I am not about to dress my baby girl in frou frou party dresses when her favorite activities are drooling, rolling around on the floor and rubbing just about everything on her gums (which comes full circle, back to the drooling)...oh, and did I mention that she LOVES intercepting the spoon full of green mushy organic peas as it is about to hit her lips so that she can then crinkle up her little nose and laugh while she spreads the green mush all over the place? yep, she LOVES doing that!

So, here are a few more of the fabulous purchases that
grandma made for her absolutely perfect grand daughter;

an adorable green empire waist tee
a chic cordoroy button up the back top.

Over at Old Navy we found these 2 adorable thermal button front onesies!

I would have happily snapped pics of Tess in all her new things,
but she is busy doing this right now:

But Wait! The baby clothes are great,
however this post is about falling in love.
I walked into Sweet Lady Jane on Church Street,
(a store I have loved for many years)
and as I am still not doing much me shopping,
because I am still feeling pretty blimpy with big ole' nursing boobs
(that was probably TMI, sorry), accessories are key at the moment...
Well let me tell you, even skinny, I would have fallen in love with
this wonderfully gorgeous OMG!!!
(I am calling it an OMG because bag, in this situation will just NOT cut it!)

(especially in the dark brown!, though all the colors are fabulous!)

it is unbelieveable!

the most buttery soft leather you have ever touched (with amazing detailing and worn-in goodness) and there is a shoulder strap you can hook on for a more messenger style
(yeah, messenger? who am I kidding? ...) It is actually the most sophisticated "comfort piece" I have ever seen!

Anyhow, I just can't get it out of my mind and it is just not in the budget and that totally sucks and so I will simply covet right now while I share my anguish and heartache over it with you!

(the photo does not even do it justice!...and it might even make me look kind of skinny because it's huge and so beautiful that you focus on the bag and not my chubbiness!)
(had never heard of the company before Monserat de Lucca, apparently Anthropologie carries some of their pieces too).

b boy in the capital!

...while baby Tess and I were busting our butts selling selling selling at the show in DC last weekend, Daddy B Boy was outside busting some moves...

Back from DC!

We made it back! holy crap that was a whirlwind!
There is alot to blog about, including follow up on the aircard, the credit card processing, chef ROCK STARS and doing a retail show in general, however, here is a peek at what the booth ended up looking like...I am not one to brag, but I think we definitely had the best looking booth! (Tess was very excitied about that!)

our back wall with sharpie "mouldings" and a foamboard shelf/built-in thingy

the whole booth and bit of our Salsa neighbor's booth

some quality time with my chisel tip sharpie...

While most of you were busy enjoying Halloween I decided to spend some quality time at home with my jumbo chisel tip Sharpie. I am an admitted "HalloWinch" (my friend Stephen's word- perfectly describes me!) I am enjoying the very short time I have to not "do" Halloween with Tess, so until I have to, I am doing other very important tasks during this very special night for so many of you (whatever!).
In getting ready for the Metro Cooking Show in Washington, this Halloween night, I decided that it was the perfect night to get some architectural elements done for the booth, just me and my Sharpie! Something impactful, easy to transport and cheap!
Here's what I did.
I went to Staples and picked up one of those extra large pads of paper (the ones you can hang on an easel to do presentations, 2 ft wide by approx 3.5 ft tall).
I then started to measure out my Mouldings...

Then I started to fill things in...

I was not concerned about perfectly coloring in the lines, as a matter of fact, I was going for this "sketchy" almost "cartoonish" look.
Here is the finished product!

Once I had finished one, I put another sheet over it and simply traced the lines and did it again and again and again- yes, this was a long Halloween night!
Anyhow, the point is, I have mouldings for the booth now!
You will see the results very soon in photos, but basically, I will be using pushpins to tack these drawings all along the bottom few feet of our white foamboard walls to add some depth and architecture to our space, also, everything in the booth will be black and white except the products, so they will really pop!
upshot? cool mouldings, very transportable (just roll them up!), inexpensive (the cost of the notepad and the sharpies, I did go through 3 and my time? forget it! I didn't have to dress up and that's priceless!)
what do you think?