I like Etsy Treasuries...

...and I get a kick out of finding out that someone's chosen to show my work in their treasury! A peace theme...


...a little bird theme...


...a fabulous mod theme...



Thanks to e&e bungalow, littletilegnome, starwillowstudio, starletta and TheHopeJar, who recently included my cards in their treasuries!

"Before"

I'm going to show you my new studio when it's been completely overhauled, set up, decorated and organised to the nth degree – so it's only fair that we should have a "Before" shot to compare with the "After" that will eventually appear.

Consider this the badly-lit shot of the glum-faced model failing to suck in... Nope, can't do it. It's still looking all fabulous and full of potential to me! I promise, it will be genius in a month or so.

FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS

I just got off the phone and that's how much "bond" the state of Mississippi requires to register the business down here! Five. hundred. dollars.

I opened Pepperina Press in Washington State last year for the princely sum of, oh, $50 (yes, that's just 5-0).

But for the privilege of doing business in Mississippi, I have to part with $500. Which I don't get back unless I close the business (uh, no) or move out of state (don't tempt me).

I mean please, don't beg people to come back down here and start businesses and help rebuild the economy if you're just going to pull this kind of trick once they're here.

Apologies for the rant. Ah Mississippiiiiiiiii... why can't you behave?

Moving In

This weekend, while other people went fishing and to the movies and out to bars and riding in parks and did all kinds of other fabulously relaxing things, we moved into our house. And... we moved into our house.

We went to Sherwin Williams and Home Depot and scrubbed cupboards and went to the storage place and carried boxes and assembled furniture and unpacked boxes and did trash runs and met neighbours and emptied suitcases and arranged the kitchen and swept and mopped, and met with security people and cable guys and cleaned the bathrooms and unpacked more boxes.

et cetera....

We're still working on it. It's really hard but that's offset by the excitement element – all the planning and decorating and the wow, this is really ours feeling. My least favourite parts are the moments where you find yourself surrounded by half-unpacked boxes, open cupboards and chaos, and you think this.will.never.end.

Disorder makes me deeply nervous, and it renders Nathan slightly unhinged – so for us moving house is awesome.

Yeah. If Nathan's ever-amazing dad hadn't driven down from Dallas to help us, we might well be rocking in the corner by now, and need some therapy.

Oh – the picture above shows part of upstairs. The architect who designed this house was known to have an abiding affection for angles and interesting (but functional) floor plans, so it's tough to show the full effect. The picture below is our bedroom. Those curtains have got to go. The very small girl can stay.

It's still not Take Your Baby To Work Day...

A little picture of Berry supporting our troops -- or rather, our troop (yes, just our favourite one) off to work to support her. They run a mutual admiration society.

I'd like to also mention that this terribly attractive "front yard" is not our fault. We've been living in Air Force temporary lodging while waiting (and waiting and waiting) to move into our new house. This picture was taken then.

My first ad!

I've done my first advertising ever – thanks to the lovely Sarah, who writes For The Love of Birds. It's a great blog with hundreds of gorgeous and fun bird-themed finds. That's my ad in the top right corner.

Exciting!

Registry: yay!

I've always wished someone would invent an Etsy gift registry, so when I saw someone mention that the official Etsy blog was publicising a new registry idea I clicked right over to see what it was about. My Happily Ever After card came up on the screen and I thought, Oh no this link's taken me to my own shop – but no! Etsy staff had chosen my card to go with the story! I was thrilled.

Also thrilling is the fact that you can now set up a gift registry for Etsy items at MyRegistry.com. Genius!

And do I have gifts? Sure I do. Here, have some Card Candy...

Sailing

{Berry – in the orange lifejacket – and her new-best-friend Lily set up camp by the snacks. Clever girls.}

We went out on an old-style schooner in the Gulf of Mexico with a bunch of people from the hospital. I thought it was ambitious taking the kids along (Berry in particular, maybe!) but things went well till the last half-hour of the 2.5 hours. Boy oh boy was it hot and airless. Blazing sun and not a breath of wind for the sails. But we saw lots of dolphins (woohoo!) and met some great people who've just moved down here, like us.

Also, the pelicans made an effort to be picturesque...

4th of July

Happy flag-waving, Americans!

Enjoy your freedom and your startlingly unfettered access to all kinds of fireworks.

In Australia, that'd never fly...

Back to New Orleans

We went back to New Orleans. It's been almost two years and thousands of miles since Hurricane Katrina sent us to the other end of the country, but despite all the changes it still felt like an old friend. A bit like coming home.

New Orleans was the first place I lived after moving to America, and it took me a long time to realise that really, New Orleans is a bit like a country of its own. You won't find a city like it anywhere else. I know, I've looked.




The people and the buildings and the culture and the city as a whole have all taken a battering, through Katrina and ever since. But it's the kind of place that's hard to keep down. Some parts of it will never be the same again, but I'd like to think in the end the optimism and irrepressible spirit of the people will win out.