TOMMY AND I CELEBRATED OUR NINTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY last week. wren’s memie and papa came down to stay with her while we left for a quick overnight trip to napa. it was our first time leaving wren for more than a few hours. in fact, i believe we’ve only left her twice in the past THREE YEARS to go out for a date. this getaway was kind of a big deal! not a single concern or worry popped into my head leading up to leaving, but the moment we put our bags in the car, and i heard her little giggly voice echoing from upstairs down into the parking garage, out of nowhere i started crying. i couldn’t believe i was crying! i knew she was going to be okay, and she would have so much fun with tommy’s parents, but i missed her so much. tommy admitted to it too. he encouraged me on the drive and i soon felt ready to drink wine and take on the town. i’ll admit, we did talk about her the entire trip. i even found myself looking over the kids’ menu at lunch, and searching for kid-friendly activities in the hotel’s guide book. at one point we both agreed that next time we should bring her…because kids + napa are a good mix? we are out of our minds. that probably explains why the hotel had zero recommendations for family activities.

we stayed at the hotel yountville (highly recommend) and had an incredible dinner at bottega. michael chiarello was kind enough to stop by and introduce himself. he also mentioned i look like his cousin. afterwards we whispered like two school children and pretended like it was no big deal that we just met him. we then stopped talking because there was more food to eat and who has time to talk when there are freshly made donuts sitting right in front of your face. ohhh, my michael-chiarello’s-cousin’s-face enjoyed those donuts.

fun memory…the last time we ate at bottega was a few weeks before wrennie was born. we sat next to a nosy couple from new jersey who insisted on knowing the baby’s name. we reluctantly shared the two top-secret names we were deciding on (WREN or EVERLY), and they were so sweet to give us their brutally honest jersey-accented opinion.

we had a wonderful time in napa – and it was the perfect way to start the new year refreshed and ready to take on all that God has planned for us – but my favorite part was coming home to beautiful wren.

observation: napa, while peaceful and beautiful, is painfully small and just as painfully boring. unless you like to drink endless amounts of wine, you’re pretty much left sitting on a park bench looking at vineyards, mainly bare vineyards and tons of town construction if you’re going during the off-season. are there any hiking trails? coffee shops? is it possible we just missed the fun spots? would love to know more about that for next time.

IT WAS A SUCCESS! my first craft faire went really well. we had fun with friends who came by to visit and some who stuck around for a few hours when it was slow. in all, it was definitely worth the hard work. i made great sales and new friends, and hopefully future projects will develop from new contacts. i can’t imagine doing renegade at this point though, with the workload that went into this tiny craft faire. we’ll just have to wait and see…

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? i got out of the house…on a friday…in the evening?! what? yes, and it was great. i somehow managed to get ants in my pants too, what an experience.

a friend of a friend threw a house concert with molly jenson and tommy, jeremy and charles opened. the guys are now on twitter – by the water tower. their new site coming soon.

so let me just tell you what’s going down next year at this time…mark your calendars, Lord willing, i’ll be at renegade 2010. that’s a big goal, i know! lots of work, i know!!!

saturday was exhilarating – just like christmas morning ‘86 when i got a talking cabbage patch kid doll AND my first sony walkman – absolute spastic body-gyrating excitement. surrounded by amazing talent and creativity, i couldn’t keep a focused mind on anything. i’m pretty sure i clipped the heals of at least twenty folks with the stroller. we darted from booth to booth like hummingbirds in search of sugar water. i mostly led the frantic pace, tommy and wren didn’t seem to mind too much. we went with some friends who were just as crazed, we were all overwhelmed and way too excited to focus on one thing for more than ten seconds. the downside was that i didn’t take many photos as planned and i forgot to purchase most of the artwork i had intended to buy later in the day. devastating.

best parts of the day: finally met my paper pal adriana from in-vita paper studio. met matt cipov {LOVE his creatures of the deep and zombies} chatted a bit about future projects and told him that even though a few of his creatures are a little too scary for wren’s room right now, we’ll enjoy them elsewhere in our home. also met the very talented lorena siminovich from petit collage. chatted with a nice gal from etsy, forgot her name, but scored some yummy handmade chapstick. and finally, made a purchase for wren’s room, that cute whale above by handmade julz. everyone was very friendly. a great, positive vibe.

we couldn’t end things without a bang though – massive blowout care of wren right before we left. fortunately, everyone waiting in line at the changing table was patient {thanks adriana and calvin}.

next year can’t come soon enough.

1.) unexpected short hair cut + hot summer nights = very tall bedhead in the morning! so sexy hot.

2.) the heat agitated my sweat-susceptible wrists, making computer work painfully uncomfortable (and sticky) against my desk – partial reason why i closed up shop for most of the summer, couldn’t work under those conditions!

3.) summer footwear has taken an awkward and embarrassing toll on my left foot proving once again to be THE SUMMER OF THE BUNION. fortunately, we are only weeks away from IT being tucked safely into a cottony sock until next year.

4.) i discovered pre de provence soap, h&m, the magic of peet’s coffee, alta plaza park, nathan oliveira, and raisin bread – but not all at once – it takes an entire summer to appreciate such a list.

we celebrated our third anniversary friday night at town hall – the only place i’m comfortable consuming a 1500 calorie bowl of cream at one sitting. although, tommy and i did share, so i guess it was only 750 calories.

behold, savage carnivores, devouring skin, meat, tendon and marrow. if we’re paying six bucks a leg, we’re sucking it dry. passersby stared, a few looked repulsed, others stopped to ask us if it was good. unfortunately, the suckers who listened to our greasy-lipped, “it’s sooooooooo good!” probably got the runs afterwards too.