And the lucky winner is: Alison, who had this to say about Fall.

“My favorite part of fall is the fact that the shade FINALLY offers some relief from the hot sun! I live in Arizona… fall is so ‘relative.’

So get back to me with your super-secret mailing information so I can stalk mail this out to you.

It’s a good thing I checked my calendar yesterday since I was due in for my glucose test and a big old shot of Rhogam. Good times!

I ate a large plate of french toast (with cinnamon swirl bread from Big Sky, thank you very much) with 1/4 cup maple syrup and a tall glass of juice.

Naturally, it was delicious, and I’m incredibly grateful that I don’t have to drink that nasty looking orange syrupy stuff that it seems everyone else has to (thank you midwives!), but do you know how much 1/4 cup of syrup really is?

A. Lot.

I was all jittery until mid-afternoon when the protein finally began to counteract the sugar. Anyway, good good good times. And my apologies to anyone who met up with me while I was all hyped up.

Just a quick post because I have to fold my laundry (such a housefrau today). Don’t forget to enter the contest to win all sorts of glamorous and decadent prizes from yours truly. Today is the final day!

And Saturday’s festival was no exception. Such fun! Such great weather! Such good sales!

Honestly, such a great crowd came out and they were all looking to shop. Shopping plus supporting local artists and musicians? That’s a very good thing.

Thanks to all who stopped by my booth. Maybe it was what I was selling, maybe it was the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies I offered, but I met lots of new people and sold lots of good things, so much so that I only left my booth once (with the exception of bathroom breaks because, hey, seven months pregnant here…) for a quick tour around the grounds. I saw a lot of good things and truly wished I had more time to shop myself. Meg’s booth looked very enticing (great to meet you in person, if ever so briefly!), and though I didn’t see your booth Jen, it was great to meet you as well.

And now I’m enjoying a very lazy Sunday, mainly because I’m too exhausted to do anything else. When Dash wakes, we’ll go for a visit with Dan and Alex who we do not visit with enough.

Finally, to celebrate the return of the camera (or rather, the purchase of a new battery charger), here are some highlights from the past week or so.

Get mad when I turn around from cooking to find this? Nah, it’s much easier to just laugh and find the camera as quickly as possible.

As far as my family is concerned, this is about the best Fall/Winter meal there is. Roasted Veggie Pizza made with your very own hands. So so good.

Just one view of my booth at Picnic yesterday. Looks a bit picked over already so this must have been taken an hour or so into the fest.

And this is what I did whenever the booth was empty. Arrange. Rearrange. Repeat.

Happy Sunday everyone.

Ok, in spite of the fact that the camera battery charger is still MIA (and therefore I cannot put up any new photos, including those of the fabulous prize package I’ve put together for you), the Pay It Forward contest must go on!

Bit of history…. I won this PIF contest a couple of weeks ago and, as part of winning, I must now hold my own contest.

Here’s what you’ll win: a bit of vintage, and a bit of new. A bit of crafty, and a spot of tea. A bit of silly, and a mystery item from the contest that I won.

That’s the new rule that I’m instating here. If you win, you must choose one item from the package to pass on to the person who wins YOUR contest. It can be the same item that I pass on to you or it can be something else entirely. Your choice.

Other rules:

1. Respond here with your name and email by Tuesday the 16th of September. Also please share your favorite aspect of Fall. Mine is the smell of freshly picked organic apples. Yum.

2. A random comment will be chosen on Tuesday using a random number generator. I will contact you for your mailing address and send you out your prize. If you’re local, I’ll contact you to set up a coffee date.

3. You agree to choose one item from your package to add to the package you will create for the winner of your contest.

That’s about enough rules, huh? Time to comment and get on the PIF train.

Happy Friday everyone! It’s a lovely sunny day here and I’m celebrating by putting my feet up and catching up on email. And doing a little thinking, always a dangerous thing.

Tomorrow is my birthday and it seems I’m turning a bit older. Apparently, this happens every year. My 32nd year will be celebrated with a prenatal massage (yes!) and dinner out with Neil. Dash will be home with his grandparents, which is close to the best thing ever for him.

Any talk of birthdays always makes me think of birthdays when I was a kid. Big parties, presents, and a day that was all about me. And how I wanted wanted wanted things for my birthday (and sometimes even got them) and how it’s really not like that anymore. Adult birthdays are less about presents and more about spending time with the people you care about. For instance, no one really asks what I want for my birthday anymore, nor do they expect to hear that I want a Strawberry Shortcake doll.

But when it comes down to it, wanting doesn’t go away, does it? I still want all kinds of things. An elliptical machine, a new house, a housekeeper, and this beautiful thing from Ban.do:

These are the kinds of wants that come with explanations like, “with an elliptical I could work off all the baby weight after Pickle is born,” or “we have a lovely home but it’s not quite right for our growing family,” or “If we had a housekeeper I could spend more time with my family or building a business,” or “with that peacock feather thingy in my hair, I’d be unstoppable.”

And it all seems so rational, right? But they’re still just wants. I could get by without them, I just don’t want to.

It makes me wonder… if I made up a list of every single thing that I want and I somehow got them all, a near impossibility… how long would it take me to start wanting something new?

What about you? What do you want? How do you cope with want vs. need vs. just chilling out about it?