Oh, hello there! The three of you who are actually still reading, I mean! Nice to see you. Yes, I know it seems like I’ve dropped off the face of the earth, but I have a good excuse: I’ve been sick.

Ok, well, I was sick… about a week ago. For two days. Vomit is not a real motivator, you know? The winter malaise, it lingers.

So to give this poor neglected blog a feeble jump-start, I shamelessly stole this meme from Schmutzie. I’m not normally a fan of the meme (I insist it should be pronounced “mee-mee,” because doesn’t that just make more sense? Most memes are all about “me me me me,” but I’m told I am wrong, wrong, wrong) but this one caught my eye because I didn’t have to think very hard. I like not thinking right now.

A – AVAILABLE: Not so much lately. It’s partly the “I want to hibernate” factor, but mostly because I’m just busy.

B – BIRTHDAY: January 24, 1983.

C – CRUSHING ON: I have no idea. Sleep, maybe. Sleep is sexy.

D – DRINK YOU LAST HAD: Soda water. Water with bubbles: Badass.

E – EASIEST PERSON TO TALK TO: Tim.

F – FAVORITE SONG: I have too many… but right now, “Swim” by Jack’s Mannequin.

G – GUMMY BEARS OR GUMMY WORMS: Worms!

H – HOMETOWN: North Amity, Maine–a teeny town known for… well… not very much.

I – IN LOVE WITH: My kid. She’s too cute!

J – JUGGLE: Bwahahaha, that’s a joke, right?

K – KILLED SOMEONE: Wanted to? Sure.

L – LONGEST CAR RIDE: Maine to New York, overnight, with the whole family, on very little sleep.

M- MILKSHAKE FLAVOR: Chocolate.

N – NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: One–I still can’t resist calling him “widdle brudder” even though he’s now a grown man who’d probably appreciate a slightly less juvenile nickname.

O – ONE WISH: To be content.

P – PERSON YOU TALKED TO LAST: Mr. Tim.

Q – QUESTIONABLE LIKE: FarmVille. I feel dirty just writing that, but I can’t resist a good simulation game.

R – REASON TO SMILE: The baby is asleep, and I have a whole hour and a half to myself before bedtime.

S – SONG YOU LAST HEARD: Times They Are a Changin’

T – TIME YOU WOKE UP: 6:30 a.m.

U – UNDERWEAR COLOR: A funky retro pattern in orange and blue.

V – VALUES: I has them.

W – WORST HABIT: Biting my fingernails.

X – X-RAYS YOU’VE HAD: My teeth and my left foot–not at the same time.

Y – YOYOS: I’m familiar.

Z – ZODIAC SIGN: Aquarius

I’m doing the birthday thing this weekend! As of this afternoon, I can no longer pretend I’m in my mid-twenties… I’m officially on the downward slide to 30.

Tim and I had a date night to celebrate. We finally saw Avatar (I think we’re the last people in the world to see it) and the verdict was… eh. Not bad, but it didn’t live up to the hype for me. Obviously the special effects were fantastic–a tech geek’s wet dream–but I found it difficult to get attached to the story. There was a lot of yawning on my part, although in fairness, I was up way past my bedtime (I know, I know, you envy my level of cool). Personally, I look forward to seeing what other producers do with the same technology, but with a less predictable script.

Not that I’m complaining! I’m pretty sure I would have paid 6 bucks to watch three hours of C-SPAN as long as it got me out of the house. Again–envy me!

Aside from that, we’ve been taking it easy. Yesterday we visited the local farmer’s market, then checked out the Orono thrift shop, where I found some super inexpensive clothes for Ellie. I’ve been working on custom orders, one of which I can’t wait to show off. It’s been a crazy month for my business, but it’s a good crazy!

Now I’m off to finish a slice of the delicious double-chocolate cake my wonderful husband baked for me. I am one lucky birthday girl!

I think the winter doldrums have finally set in. I’m all about soups and casseroles, hot baths, and tucking myself into bed with a book… basically, anything to avoid thinking about the vast expanse of white outside my door. I’ve also been super busy with custom orders this month, so I’m spending a lot of quality time with Illustrator.  I’ll post some samples at Calobee Doodles later.

In the meantime, while I crawl back to my cave to hibernate, you’ll just have to suffer with cute baby videos like this one:

I collect links the way some people collect magazine clippings for an inspiration board, and Google Reader allows me to star and share interesting tidbits I find as I’m reading. Here are some of my recent favorites:

• How to make ice lanterns, at Design Sponge – A glittery consolation prize for living in a place where you can’t feel your fingers six months out of twelve.
• Dash and Albert rugs, featured at Maine Maven – Kristen always knows where to go for yummy Maine finds. Ever since we redid our downstairs in hardwood, I’m on the lookout for inexpensive coverings, and these colorful throw rugs will do the trick.
• Little Leg Warmers feature at S. Jane Craft – I’m not usually an impulsive shopper, but I loved LLW’s work the moment I saw it, and knew I had to have this quilt and pillow set for Ellie’s room. Brooke’s designs bring a fresh, modern twist to the traditional quilt.
• Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische, featured at Poppytalk – A new day, a new drop cap–and an excellent way to spruce up your blog. I may need to design and employ some fancy drop caps for my own sites, come to think of it.
• Michael Cogliatry Photography at The Shiny Squirrel – A nice mix of the everyday with a touch of weird–just to my liking. Visit his professional Web site to see more.

Find these and more at my shared favorites on Google Reader!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of dentist appointments. Last month I finally made the dreaded phone call to see a dentist after several years of pretending my teeth were invincible… I called a new practice I’d heard good things about, secretly hoping they wouldn’t be able to get me in for a month. Of course, they scheduled an appointment for the next day. And the universe laughed at me.

See, I had a somewhat traumatic dental experience with my wisdom teeth in my first year of college, so I have a little phobia when it comes to people messing with my teeth. What I neglected to remember was that regular checkups mean less trauma in the long run!

Ironically enough, the verdict was one cavity for every year I hadn’t had a cleaning (which would be eight, but who’s counting?) So for the last five weeks, every Monday morning has started with me in a dentist’s chair having something drilled, filled, poked, scraped, prodded, and stabbed (I suppose the day can only get better from there, right?)  It wasn’t as bad as I expected, but it certainly wasn’t a tropical vacation. They filled the last three cavities this morning, and now my molars are practically bionic.

I’ve learned my lesson. The floss and I are going to get all buddy-buddy in the years to come, because as much as I like my new dentist, I don’t want to see him every week!

We were basically snowed in last weekend, which wasn’t so bad except I started going a little stir-crazy, having been cooped up for a week with that pesky virus. Thankfully we weren’t lacking for amusement… Ellie’s new-found walking abilities are certainly entertaining, and Tim and I had a Dexter marathon. Dexter was one of those shows everyone told me I would enjoy, but I’m a wimp about trying new things–yes, even when it comes to television. I think I’ve been scarred by Tim’s unapologetic love for really bad science fiction movies.

Thankfully I have good friends (hi Danielle!) who force me to try new things every once in a while (and it doesn’t hurt that she brought pizza–I’m a sucker for pizza). Of course, this means we have one more TV show to add to our regular roster, which is growing a bit longer than I’m comfortable with. We abandoned paid TV over a year ago, but you wouldn’t know it thanks to Netflix and Hulu. In fact, I probably watch more TV now than I did when we had the dish. The not-so-shortlist:

• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report
• House
• Californication
• Scrubs
• Ghost Hunters (yeah, I know, shut up)
• Nip/Tuck
• Modern Family
• Better Off Ted
• Supernanny (no, really, shut up)
• Dexter

I have to admit, I cringed a little writing some of these down, and this doesn’t even include my secret penchant for bad reality TV (think 16 and Pregnant). I may have to give a couple of these up. Obviously I don’t watch every show every night, but that’s still a lot of time with the boob-tube. On the other hand, most of what I “watch” is background noise while I’m working.

What do you think? What are your guilty television pleasures?  Or are you one of those wholesome folks who shuns the idiot box entirely?

Apparently it’s that time again, although I maintain that I lost half a year somewhere in the shuffle… it can’t be 2010 already.

2009 was a mixed bag… there were many new and exciting experiences, and equally as many challenges and stressors.

• Let’s get the obvious one out of the way: We had a baby at the end of December 2008, and she’s still alive. I could probably stop this list right here and consider the year a success. Watching Ellie grow into a walking, talking toddler was easily the most fun part of 2009.
• I survived the summer from hell while keeping my anxiety at a relatively healthy level (read: I haven’t chewed my fingers off yet) which is a huge improvement over the me of years past. I learned a lot about myself over the months and months we spent on the Web site overhaul project, and work gave me something to focus on besides new mommy paranoia. Professionally it was a challenge, but ultimately it was worth it.
• The creative spark returned! My Web sites and my shops were a bit neglected during my pregnancy and in Ellie’s first months, but now I’m back and it feels goooooood.

I’m not much for New Years resolutions, but one thing I need to work on next year is quality time with Tim. We see a lot of each other because we work in the same office, but most of our conversations revolve around work. I need to remind myself that being in the same room does not necessarily count as quality time, and it’s OK to let Ellie spend the evening with a friend so we can have a date once in a while. Danielle was kind enough to take the babe off our hands the other night and I was giddy like a schoolgirl at the prospect of a dinner! In a restaurant! Without a baby in tow!

This trend needs to extend to other parts of my life, too… not just for time with Tim, but also to remember to take time for myself. I swore I’d never be one of those women who forgets about herself in the process of raising a kid, but it’s surprisingly easy to do.

We plan to ring in the year watching Dexter and eating ice cream. I might even get crazy and stay up ’til midnight. Happy New Year, all!

We had a lovely holiday… unfortunately since then I’ve been sick with a nasty cold, so blogging has been low on the radar.  I’m feeling better now, though, thanks to lots of rest and tea.

Ellie very much enjoyed her second “first” Christmas. Her actual first Christmas was a non-event, given she was only 5 days old and I was barely conscious that week… all I remember about last year’s Christmas Eve was going to bed at 6 p.m. in an effort to get 2 solid hours of sleep before Ellie needed to be fed again. Woohoo, party time!

This year was obviously a lot more fun for all of us. Ellie was spoiled with gifts from Santa, friends and family (the birthday-Christmas proximity will treat her well in coming years), but mostly she had fun hanging out with her grandparents and uncle, entertaining everyone with her new tricks. She even started walking (!) on Christmas Eve, which was a big surprise. We also had a belated Christmas tree with Tim’s family which was very nice, but I forgot to bring the camera–story of my life.

Here are some photos of last week’s tree:

Something I’ve been meaning to do for a while is illustrate a calendar, and I figured the easiest way to do this would be to make a desktop wallpaper with a calendar each month. I’ve posted January’s at Calobee Doodles:

Ellie persevered through a cold and enjoyed her birthday very much. We didn’t get as many photos as I meant to (too busy running around fetching things) but our good friend Danielle held the camera and got this sweet video of Ellie’s first* “Happy Birthday” chorus and her first taste of birthday cake (courtesy Daddy’s excellent culinary skills):

* it was actually her second. We forgot to film the first one, so we all sang it again.