hello eveyone!

This website is about to disappear.

My new website which will be up and running soon enough is karichapin.com.

The only thing there right now is a an outline of the design and some awful photos that rotate, but still.

Check it out!

So you can go ahead and remove cupcake show from your bookmarks. This is the last post from here.

I’ll miss cupcakeshow a lot. While this is my fourth attempt at a blog, it has been my number one favorite. I started it right when Eric and I met. It has been with me from New Hampshire, Alabama and back to New England. I blogged here from four other countries and from 14 other states. I wrote about my engagement, my wedding, my work, my future, our puppies, our moves. Someday I’ll go through my wordpress archives and move those posts over…

Anyhow, out with the old and in with the new. I'’m looking forward to lots of great things in 2009 and I hope you’ll all join me over at my new spot.

Thank you!

XOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOX

Hello Friends!

Quite a lot has happened to me since I last posted, and some of the things deserve their very own post, but let’s face it - I’m very lazy. So this post will just be super long.

First of all and perhaps most importantly, fall is here.

I am trying really hard to ‘notice’ the seasons which were a big part of why I wanted to leave the West and come to New England. Yet every year I get so excited for a new season, that once it appears, I am so anxious for the next one to begin. I found myself falling (har har) into this old behavior last week when I asked Eric when he thought we would get the first snow. He said maybe the very end of October or November and I started whining. Then I realized that I was rushing fall, which hadn’t even officially started yet! So I took a few steps back and started to notice all of the details this year. I have collected acorns, photographed the leaves changing and pointed out the difference in the sound of the wind and breeze. In the spring and summer you can hear the wind and watch the leaves move. In the fall, you can hear the rustle. You can hear the dry leaves move and it is so different from spring/summer wind that it blows (what a punny poster I am!) my mind each time. I love smelling the neighborhood wood stoves. I bought Baxter a new sweater. Next week we will go apple picking and I’ll make a pie, which other people will have to eat as I don’t like cooked fruit unless it is berries. But I’ll bake a pie anyhow. Maybe we’ll even make some cider or apple sauce.

Earlier this month I attend an Artists Retreat. This experience deserves a whole post of its own, so stay tuned. One of the highlights of this for me though was driving one of my favorite bloggers to the airport. We had a good time in the two or so hours it took to get there. She was the keynote speaker and I felt like a fan girl, but I think I played it cool. Until I write a proper post for SAW, Here are some photos of the beauty there:

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I went to my father’s house in New Hampshire for one night and the next day I took myself to Boston for some light shopping. I needed some shampoo, and I hate to pay the shipping charges for Lush, so I figured a 45 minute detour was a good trade off. I had a really great day. I went to Lush to get my shampoo and my fancy deodorant and then I went to Anthropologie. I was hoping to find myself some beautiful office supplies, but no luck. I also went to Sephora and learned all about Bare Minerals makeup. I don’t wear make up very often and I needed a lesson and some tips - because soon I’ll have a reason to wear it more often. More on that in a minute. It turns out that I am medium skin toned, and here I was thinking I was fair. Huh. I’m glad I got some real help. After that I went to the big Barnes & Noble to browse the craft book section at my leisure. Without Eric being there and wanting me to hurry up. I ended my tour of my favorite shops with a long session at Paper Source, where again I couldn’t find any cute office supplies (that I could afford). I mention this day because I always like being in big cities alone. Sure it is great to share the day with people you like, but I love getting lost and wandering and eating in cities all by myself too.

Before I got back into my car I stopped for a long time in Boston Public Gardens. I sat on a bench, watched squirrels and people and drank a coffee and ate a pastry. I saw a squirrel hop up on a bench and steal an entire sandwich from a ladies purse. She knew it was happening and laughed. I tired to get a photo, but it took me too long to get the camera out of my bag. Squirrels are quick! And brave!

I sat near two people who were doing yoga in the sun. I watched them for maybe 45 minutes and these two never changed position. They had ramrod straight backs the entire time. And ducks and birds were all of the ground, but stayed away from them. It was hard for me to leave because I wanted to see how long they kept this up. I really admired them.

Also this month I found myself in two of my favorite cities with one of my favorite people. Laurie and I spent some time in Portsmouth, NH and Portland, ME. We went to art galleries, ate two yummy meals at Friendly Toast, bought some art work, and Laurie even got new shoes. I didn’t take any photos while we were there. Wah wah.

Eric and I went to the Big E. We saw a butter cow, lots of livestock, ate gross (but yummy!) fair food and went into all of the state buildings.

We also went to The Mount, the home of Edith Wharton. I was pretty disappointed by it, but I did enjoy the grounds very much. Did you know that Edith Wharton is credited with establishing Interior Design as a career choice? Thank you Edith!

Lastly, I have some big news. A lot of great stuff has happened to me this month (travel! fancy shampoo that makes my hair look great! onion rings! I have read 12 books! I met a blogging hero! I spent lots of time with someone I like! Fall happened!) but one other thing happened that I feel sort of shy about, and while I’m not ready to go into lots of details just yet, (trust me, when I’m ready, I’m sure it will be all I talk about), but um… I got a book deal. On July 31st I submitted a proposal for a book idea that I’ve had, and I found out on September 16th that it was accepted. That’s right. I sold a book idea and now I’m writing a book. A BOOK. So yeah. This changes things for me in a big way and one of those changes is a new website. By the end of October, Cupcake Show will be no more. My blog will move over to a different website. Also, I’ll be posting quite a bit more than I do now.

Thank you September. You’ve been awesome.

P.S. If you’d like to be notified about my new website, please leave a comment here. Cupcake Show has been hacked (which is why you see that random code by my header) and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to continue to post here very much. It was super hard and required lots of help just to write this post. So if you want to know what my future plans on, please let me know.

I nabbed another treasury a few days ago. I think it is up for the rest of today - so click on over and check it out.

I really think the cowl is going to find it’s way to me this winter. Maybe in white though.

Hello Birthday.

Here are a few of the photos I styled and an article I wrote for a magazine this spring. I’m hoping more than just my mother will enjoy taking a peek into my new “career”. As a result of this, I have actually picked up more work as a stylist, which is great.

That is my actual wallet in the third photo. At the shoot there were several Queen Bee wallets to chose from when we were staging the shot, but my wallet just happened to look the best. And as a product shout out in general, I love everything by Queen Bee. I have two bags, one for my laptop and one for my Marantz recorder… another laptop back pack type of thing and both Eric and I carry a Queen Bee wallet. So does my mother come to think of it.

This is part of what we were selling in our yard sale. We had a dining set and a washer and dryer and loads of chairs on the front steps of the church.

All in all it went really well.

What we have left will be donated to the library, the woman’s shelter and the theater company I used to work at.

I’m glad it is all over now. I’m so tired and achy.

Whenever I get to choose dessert, if it is available, I will choose raspberry something or other. I’m not picky about what form raspberries come in, but my favorite is pie.

And this my friend was the best pie I’ve ever had. My friend Laurie’s friend Sarah made it with raspberries they picked that very afternoon. Seriously, if other people had not been around I would have eaten the whole thing, and when people later asked where the pie went, I would pretend not to know what they were talking about. I’d have been all like, “Pie? What pie?” Sarah was sweet enough to give me the last piece and I had it for breakfast the next day and I made Laurie take this picture of me with my pie plate so I could relive the memory.

If I was not already married, I would try to marry Sarah so I could have her pie making self around year round. It was that good.

Dear Universe,

Why can’t I learn to leave well enough alone already?

Please advise,

Kari

I made these cute pencil jars from recycled glass candle jars… which we also use as drinking glasses and a toothbrush jar - and vintage wallpaper samples.

Click on our Etsy store link on the right over there to see them in our store. You get one jar and five different inserts so you can mix it up.