Back Home, Back to Normal, and Back to Business!

Ahh...it's so good to be back...in so many ways. We're back from our Birthday Extravaganza mini-vacation to Central Texas (fabulous!), back to normal (pretty much) after the hurricane, and back to business with all things illustration-related and blog-related (finally!). The month of September was a blur and October is already half over, so it's about time!!

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Here's a little pictoral review of our my Baby's Birthday Extravaganza which included a small family gathering last Wednesday, his actual birthday. Now there's a man after my own heart...he's a chocolate-on-chocolate cake lover too - yum!

And, from the "you-never-know-what-you-might-find-at-a-garage-sale" department, we got a fabulous deal on an authentic Fender Stratocaster from a guitar collector with one too many - sweet! Great early birthday present for Sweetie! He's been wanting one for forever!

On Thursday we headed west to the sweet town of Fredericksburg in Central Texas - what a wonderful trip to a wonderful place!! The following photos are from in and around the awesome, rustic, pet-friendly, well-appointed, authentic log cabin that we called home for a couple of days (Cay Cay's Cabin) - we will definitely stay here again - it was so cozy and quaint and the owner was a doll - loved it!! Fredericksburg is famous for its numerous Bed and Breakfasts - you can hardly go wrong with any one of them...

I wish I had taken more photos of Fredericksburg itself - it is such a great old German settlement, nestled in the beautiful Central Texas Hill Country only about 70 miles from Austin. It is world renowned for its antiques, home decor, art, craft, and yummy food shopping... And, it is chock full of quaint old Texas limestone and Victorian-era homes in quiet neighborhoods If you ever have the chance to go, I highly recommend it!

This is just one of the bazillions of cute shops lining Main Street...

On Friday night we were treated to a fabulous show at the RockBox Theater - it was a Rock 'n Roll review show performed by an incredibly talented cast of singers/actors who have been together for 8 years and have made Fredericksburg their home. Their show rivaled anything I had seen in Branson, which is the closest thing I have to compare it to. John and I were laughing SO HARD during the many comedic touches throughout the show, and we were happily singing along with so many of our favorites anywhere from the 50's to the 80's. This is great CLEAN family-friendly fun and I highly recommend it!! Check out their hilarious spoof on Bohemian Rhapsody from YouTube (sorry, I had no luck actually embedding the video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-rc3QPR_OI

All in all it was a truly glorious trip - so much fun!! We can't wait to go again!!

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BUT, we were SO GLAD to get home...back to normal, back to business... It's been a weird few weeks of upheaval and stress and it is just so nice to just feel normal again.

I will be back to hosting "Tea for Two-sday" next week where I will introduce two new creative, lovely ladies to each other and to all of you - such fun! I will also update you on just what happened to our little shop after the hurricane. Also, I am gearing up to launch the 2008 Merry-Making Christmas Gift Guide - and I HOPE you will all participate again, plus many more - it was a blast and it was so great to highlight the handmade goods of my sweet talented blog buddies with absolutely no charge to them! If you participated last year I will be sending you an invitation to participate again soon - if you did not participate but you would like to or you'd like to know more, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email (see my sidebar).

Ahhh...it's SO good to be back....