Amidst all of my mama duties Craft Hope is in full swing with it’s latest project and the book release. Last week I had a Craft Hope book release party with my homies here in Austin. I really love my peeps.

We had the party at the Lustre Pearl Bar downtown Austin. Such a neat little bar with hula hoops and a ping pong table outside. The inside looks like something straight from an Anthropologie catalog. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

This is the ever so talented Dana from Dana Made it. She’s got a great pattern in the book. I’m so glad our paths crossed, she moved to Austin, and we’ve become friends. She’s one inspiring gal and super sweet to boot.

And this is Dusty, my sisters boyfriend. He’s super cool and in a band. Hi Dusty, welcome to chikaustin!

We spent the evening under the stars just hanging out. My friends and my family that have been there this past year when I needed them most.

My hot tamale sister and my brother came out too. It was even his 22nd birthday. Where does the time go?!?

And without further ado we have a winner! Winner, winner chicken dinner! The winner of the Craft Hope book is Karen who said “Oh, I would love a copy! Fingers crossed!”

I hope you are all having a great week!

So where do we start? Hmmmm…. we got back from our trip a couple of weeks ago and were exhausted. This is Chloe and I in Alabama. It simply was the most beautiful trip as I was able to connect with many online friends along the way. While on the trip I was able to do some work for Craft Hope and somehow manage things from my phone. I will do a trip post after I get all the pictures edited and uploaded. That all got pushed to the back burner as soon as we got home.

This is when things started to get busy. While on the trip we decided that we had met the goal of the relief organizations in the gulf and had received over 70,000 washcloths. Simply amazing. So we halted Project 8.

I got home from our trip and the very next day pictures started showing up on facebook and I started receiving messages that the Craft Hope book was out. What?!? The official release is August 3rd (tomorrow!!!) , but books started showing up on shelves and making their way into living rooms. So stinkin’ exciting. Needless to say things went from zero to sixty in about thirty seconds.

The next couple of days we launched Project 9. Chloe turned 10 months old. Yes, already.

Just today Lark Crafts announced their Month of Hope to highlight the charities in the book, the designers, and the inner workings of Craft Hope. You can see my interview here to kick off the Month of Hope.

And so now here we are. The book comes out TOMORRROW officially! It’s quite surreal to say the least.

I am doing a giveaway on the Craft Hope site for a signed copy of the Craft Hope book, but you know what? I’m doing one here too and I bet your odds to win just might be higher with fewer comments. I’m just sayin’. Just leave a comment on this post by Friday (8/6/2010) at noon and I’ll draw the winner.

Hope you are all staying cool as these summer temps heat up. We are gearing up for Makena starting kindergarten this fall. Things are certainly going fast.

Bright and early tomorrow morning we hit the road for our two week whirlwind tour of Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. These are the books that I’m throwing into my bag. A girl can never have too many shoes (ahem) books. I’ve spent all day packing while the kids run in circles around me taking things out of bags. Right now I’m typing this up real quick for you so you won’t think I’ve fallen off a curb. Chloe is under my desk at my feet and keeps popping up to give me zerberts. Funny baby.

We are all really excited to hit the road. The trip is comprised of many mini-trips to see friends and family along the way. We’ll be spending time with family, many bloggy friends, my Craft Hope book editor, and Mickey and Minnie Mouse at Disney World.

We are heading east on I-10 and making stops in New Orleans and Gulport to deliver towels for Craft Hope. I am feeling awfully fortunate that we’ll be visiting The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies and get to see the oil soaked turtles first hand. I’m going to be taking loads of pictures of course and making my way to the beaches to see the devastation. I’ve been talking to my kids for weeks about the turtles that we are helping through Craft Hope and we’ve been reading books nonstop about the sea life. I’m so grateful that we will all get to see the turtles.  I’m also getting to meet Kim, who is helping me run Project 8 for Craft Hope!

We’ll be visiting family in Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina. Then we are dropping down to Charleston to visit my editor and spend a few days in her beautiful city with her family. Disney World is next followed by a visit to New Orleans to the Audubon Zoo and Aquarium. We are rounding out the trip in the Bayou of Louisiana to spend the weekend with Beki and Cathy’s families all in one big house. Wahoo! Excited doesn’t even come close to how I feel right now.

I would love tips on places to go in these cities. Any cool shops I should know about? Any fruit picking along the way? I know… random.

I’ll take a million pictures and will certainly have stories to share. Friends, I’ll see ya on the other side. Have a great couple of weeks!

No one told me that baby number 3 was going to be the most active, adventurous of the lot. She falls right in line with the others, rarely complains, spends most of her day chasing her brother and sister around, and putting every single object into her mouth. She’s just shy of 9 months old and she has five teeth, cruises around furniture, and is ready to rock n roll. She loves to dance, tap on the piano keys, yell at the top of her lungs… pretty much makes her presence known wherever she goes.

She is into everything. Pulls down baskets. Eats dog food. Pulls things off the counter tops. Tries to climb the stairs. Dives right into a bowl of popcorn. Literally. She really is a riot.

And this is what best friends look like. Makena has made her first best friend and they are attached by the hip. Already sharing clothes, trading toys, and sleepovers. Staying up late dancing in her bedroom, girl talk, giggles. I remember those days so vividly from my own childhood and look forward to her making memories and friends that I still have today. Thank you Facebook for that.

They even let little brother in for a picture. Sweet, sweet girls.

We are going to be hitting the road in a little over a week for a Griswold style family road trip. We’ll be traveling the Southeastern U.S. for two weeks with three kids five and under. Call me crazy! It’s going to be one wild ride. So that means I have one week to keep chugging along on Craft Hope, get packed, and ready to roll. No time to dilly dally.

You’ll need one can of limeade, tequila, triple sec, and your frozen fruit of choice (or not). Pour the can of limeade in the blender. Then fill the limeade can will tequila and add it to the blender. Then fill the limeade can half way with triple sec and add it to the tequila and limeade. Mix. This recipe will make two pitchers of margarita.

Now pour half of that very potent mix into another pitcher and set aside. Keep in mind, if you put this mix into the fridge there is a good chance someone will mistake it for lemonade and pour themselves a glass only to be very, very surprised. Not that something like that has ever happened in my house. Never. So label your other pitcher with a poison symbol. It’s STRONG.

You should have half of the mix left in the blender now. Add however much frozen fruit you’d like and then top the remainder of the blender with ice. Blend. Add more ice if it’s not thick enough.

Pour yourself a glass and take a glass to your neighbor… they’ll appreciate it. Never say I haven’t taught you anything useful in this chikaustin space. Have a great weekend friends! We are enjoying the World Cup and I’ll be sporting my England jersey today. Don’t hate. Has anyone else noticed that the noise at the soccer games sounds like a swarm of bees? Just me, oh okay. Kind of reminding me of the chicada infestation here in the hill country. But that is a story for another time. Enjoy your weekend friends!!

I have searched far and wide for the best sauce recipe and believe I have found it here. And being Italian, I’m picky about my sauce. I usually triple the recipe so that I can stock pile bags of sauce in the freezer. All you need is a food processor and an afternoon and you can make enough sauce to last a couple of months. Let the food processor do the work for you.

I typically make sauce with Italian sausage and eggplant parmigiana. I’m a HUGE eggplant fan and even make eggplant sandwiches with crusty Italian bread the next day. Yummy!

So here is my bonafide-straight-from-Sicily-family eggplant parmigiana recipe. Delish.

Make the sauce using whatever recipe you’d like. Of course I love Giada’s recipe.

I like to buy two eggplant so I’m guaranteed leftovers. The more eggplant you buy, of course the more you’ll have. Peel and then thinly slice the eggplant about 1/4″ thick. After all of your eggplant is sliced, heat up a skillet full of olive oil to lightly fry the eggplant. Dip your eggplant in scrambled eggs in a bowl and then fry until golden brown in the skillet.

This is what the entire production looks like on your stove top. It’s greasy, messy, and has the best smell around.

Once all of your eggplant is done cooking. Layer in this order: sauce, eggplant, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese. Repeat. Continue doing this until you run out of eggplant and top with a good amount of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted.

This is the face that stares at me the entire time I’m cooking in the kitchen. My Juicy Baby, appropriately named by a good friend of mine. She is one Juicy Baby.

A shiny new piece of flair just for you. Always thinking, planning, scheming we’ve decided to launch Craft Hope for the Earth for natural disasters and man-made disasters that affect our environment. You can find the embed code for you website on the Craft Hope page in the sidebar.

Sometimes I read a blog post about Craft Hope and think EXACTLY! Jessica described what we try to do so beautifully… “What I love about Craft Hope is the acknowledgment that there are many sides to healing. As artists and as citizens, we need opportunities to create solutions, not just support them. Taking the time to cut and hem rags from old sheets, or crochet hand towels, makes us feel connected to the problem and to each other. Even more, it empowers us to use our collective talents to engage in new situations we might not otherwise take responsibility for.” Thanks Jessica!

This time we went with the kids preschool and they were able to learn about the benefits of ladybugs in the garden. Then the kids got to release their own ladybugs.

Each kid got to fill up their own container of strawberries. Keegan picking the smallest ones he could find. Makena looking for the most ripe, largest strawberries.

We buy what we can from the farmers that sell their fruits/vegetables on the side of the road to support the local farms. And we’ve got a garden going, just hoping it doesn’t peter out with the summer heat. Little things that I’m hoping to teach the kids about our world that will ultimately make a big difference.

Speaking of, I’m working on a new button for the Craft Hope site. A ‘Craft Hope for the Earth’ button. Thinking this will be a new and exciting direction to take Craft Hope. Following along with Craft Hope for Haiti and now the Gulf Coast Oil Spill, there will always be something we can step up and do for the earth. I hope to have it ready today on the Craft Hope site.

Makena just graduated from preschool and it breaks my heart just a little bit. I’m just so proud of the girl she has become. Lover of nature and life. She really takes it all in. I simply love this picture of her. It’s exactly what I want to do some days when it rains.  Her school did an end of the year party where the fire department came out for a water party. A beautiful way to celebrate a great year.

And now trying to decide what we are going to do with our last summer before Makena starts kindergarten. Looks like we’ll be spending most of our time at the lake and the library for their summer reading program. All the while balancing an 8 month old’s nap schedule. I’m still looking for other free things in the area. I’m kind of starting to get the idea that things really take off once your child enters elementary school so honestly I’m just enjoying these last couple of months with her at home.

The past two weekends have been spent down at the lake with family and friends. It really is my favorite place to be these days. Our neighborhood has a lake park in a cove on Lake Travis and it really is the central meeting place for everyone. And I certainly feel blessed to have this in my own backyard.

All of this lake time means that I’m marching around chasing three kids in a swimsuit. Not my favorite pastime, but I’ve been working hard to get my butt back in shape after being pregnant for the past few years. All in all, I’ve already lost around 80 lbs. since Chloe was born. I don’t really ever like to talk about my weight, but I’m kinda proud of myself these days and feel good again. I didn’t do some fancy diet. I still eat what I want when I want it! I’ve lost it all from cutting my meals in half and walking over an hour every night with Chloe. We do a sunset walk around the lake and it’s really my only ‘me time’ of the day. I need that. We all do.

This past weekend I met up with my first ever best friend. We were friends before we were born, our parents were best friends back in the 70’s.

We lost touch in junior high and ended up reconnecting on Facebook. Turns out she and her mom live here in Austin too.

So we went to lunch on Sunday, just us girls and our moms.  Just like old times, twenty years later. I missed her and am so glad she’s back in my life.

I feel like I’m constantly playing catch up in the space and I want to try to be here more often. I’ve started to feel so connected through Facebook that I’ve been ignoring my chikaustin blog and it’s really the only way I document our kids lives. I don’t scrapbook and I’m terrible with picture organization and photo books. The thought of getting my kids pictures organized gives me so much anxiety I just walk away every time. If any of you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Pfew! Well that was quite the post. Thanks for sticking with me!

We have also redesigned the Craft Hope website to make it easier to find pertinent information. I would LOVE your feedback on the site as our needs are always changing and we are growing.

Now go sign up and cut up some rags! Little things make a big difference. Get yer kids involved. Please.

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” — Dr. Seuss