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Well, after many, many months of planning and filming and editing, the day has finally arrived. Breathe. I always thought it would be so much fun to do my own cooking show. Since we recently moved back to New England, I thought it would be the perfect backdrop for this kind of show. There are 2 tiers of donations that we are hoping to raise money for (one for 12 episodes, one for 20). Essentially, these will be on-line webisodes hosted on a separate site. They will feature recipes, holiday & gift idea's and hopefully a  lot of field trips to some of my favorite places. For example, I talk a bit about this in my video but I'd love to take you apple picking and then show you how to make some of my  most favorite apple recipes.

If you are not familiar with Kickstarter or how it works, it's basically 'crowd funding' where individuals like yourself can donate to projects you believe in or want to succeed. There are rewards for different levels of pledging (although you can donate any dollar amount you want.) Our Kickstarter campaign will run for 30 days which means we have 30 days to raise money to make this show happen. Money is pledged (hopefully) throughout the 30 days the campaign runs, but you don't pay a thing if the project does not get 100% funded. So if on the 30th day we've only raised 99% of the money, the project essentially gets cancelled and no one is charged the money they pledged. 

As a person who has 'backed' (pledged/donated) to my first Kickstarter project over 2 years ago, I can tell you from my own experience that I've loved seeing projects become a reality and knowing that I played a very small role in making them happen. There are a lot of really cool, creative projects happening on Kickstarter. 

Anyway, if this is something you'd like to see and are in a position to donate (seriously $1 would totally help) I would be forever grateful. If donating is not something you are in a position to do right now, spreading the word about our campaign is just as valuable. I have my own network of people that I'm reaching out to, but if you are comfortable spreading the word (facebook, pinterest, instagram, twitter, etc.,.) I will thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

I was asked recently if I was nervous about launching this project and I have to say, I'm not. I'm going to work my tail off to get this project funded and if it doesn't get funded, I'll at least know that I gave it my very best shot and that I tried.  There's no failure in trying, right?

Thank you, thank you for reading my blog and being a support to me. I'm excited to see where the next 30 days take us.

To view my Kickstarter video & campaign (and to donate 🙂 click here. 

XOXO

Well, Kickstarter approved my project (yeah!) so we are tying up a few loose ends and we'll launch it all here on the blog tomorrow at 12:00 EST. I'll have links to where you can acccess the project on Kickstarter. See you tomorrow! XO

I feel like it was only about 45 seconds ago that we were ushering in August. September, I just want to say that I am so glad you are here (August, you were crap.) Please promise Fall will be better then Summer. That is all.

Yours truely~

XO

Tuesday was a rainy first day of school for the 2nd grader of the house. Puffy, cried-out eyes from a bit of a shoe situation but he made it. New school, new class, new everything. I thought my children were adjusting pretty well to the move back east but I think I was wrong. This one is desperately missing old friends & familiarity of well…everything. In short, he wants to move back to California. So we got that going on. 
My very outgoing, very excited preschooler is not so sure about this school business either. All the change is affecting her more than I ever thought. We are handling it all as gently as we can and letting the tears flow whenever they need to. A bit of a rough start I'd say but feeling hopeful that there are friends waiting in the wings to help ease these two into their new surroundings. 
I just hit the 'send' button on my Kickstarter project. It is now in their hands awaiting approval and as soon as I get the thumbs up, it can officially be launched into the world.  We've been working on rewards for pledges (can you say reusable tote bag??) and we've got some good things comming so stay tuned. Thanks to Kass for the sahweet design.

Enjoy your long weekend. We'll be doing exciting things like mowing the lawn with a possible pop-in to Home Depot to see what kids crafts they got going on Saturday. Jealous?

I took the children to our local library last week to check out some books & movies. It's a pretty amazing library with a lot of fascinating history. Thought you might be interested :) 

"On February 11, 1884 Mr. Edward A. Goodnow deeded to the town of Princeton a tract of land with a building to be used as a public library. The land is just north of the common and is part of an elevated plateau, commanding a “formidable view.” This gift was to be forever known as the Goodnow Memorial Building. The building with it’s square tower, semi-circular bay window, and shapely gable presents an architectural beauty.  The exterior of the building is lovely rose-tinted granite from Milford, Massachusetts in combination with Longmeadow brownstone. The roof is black slate from Monson, Maine.

Above the entrance to the library is a Howard clock tower, which to this day still strikes the hours on a fine tuned Meneely bell of a thousand pounds. The bell is inscribed “Goodnow Memorial Building” – “Knowledge is Power”. 
The library is furnished with brown ash shelving and library tables that were beautifully refinished during our renovation project completed in 2001. Reproduction furniture from the time period is found throughout the building. Decorative paintings add much to the beauty and completeness of the rooms, in addition to which is an effective use of stained glass.

Originally the east half of the building was used as a public library and the western half as a schoolhouse. Around the turn of the century the town built a schoolhouse for the students and the library took over the entire building. The east half currently houses all fiction, audio and video, young adult, and the director’s office. The west wing houses the non-fiction and reference collection, children’s room and technical service space. With the renovation we transformed the basement into a story hour room, kitchen, small meeting room and Historical Society space."
The day we went, we spent nearly all our time in the old schoolhouse area in the west wing, which now houses all the childrens books. There were puppets, rocking horses, puzzles, blocks, games, you name it. We had a ball and feel lucky we get to have this amazing piece of history as our local library. I'm getting used to this small town life. 

~XO

My youngest sister, Megan, got married on Thursday in Utah and I'm feeling so grateful that I was able to go to the wedding. It was a super quick trip, flying out on Wednesday night & coming home Friday morning. It was just Henry & me, but we had a great time. Neither of us wanted to come home. Megs, we are so happy for you & Eddie! We love you both so much! Congratulations & happy wedding wishes!

XOXOXO

Just wanted to pop in to say hi and I am still here. Our wonderful friends who let us house sit while they spent the Summer in Belgium returned and so we packed up our things and headed to our new place. 99% of our belongings are in a storage unit in Southern California still but we are hopeful we'll get them in the next few weeks. Until then, we are making it work as best as we can. But I cannot lie. I miss my sewing machine and all my cooking stuff. I just want to make…..something! Anything!I knew that my kids were city kids but it didn't fully hit me until we moved out to this sleepy New England town an hour west of Boston. They've never had a bug bite. Do they even have mosquitos in LA? I think at last count Henry had 27 bites. All 3 were bitten by wasps this week, too. And all 3 screamed bloody murder running to me with tears streaming down their faces. It sent this Mama straight to google: "homemade wasp sting remedies for kids." We went with the baking soda paste and it seemed to work out alright. They aren't used to being outside by themselves. I keep telling them to go out and play and they say "but who will watch over us??" I tell them, "You can't even see the neighbors, they live so far away! You'll be fine!" It's taking time but they are adjusting. It was time for us to get out LA and we felt so right about coming here (despite a LOT of 'are you crazy??') I'm also in the midst of launching my own Kickstarter campaign that has been months in the making. We filmed the video 2 months ago just days before we moved. Anyway, it's a cooking show- a web-series hosted by yours truely. It's something I've always wanted to do and I'll need your help getting the word out & funding the project. We are just working out a few kinks with the graphic designer & editor and we should be a go next week. You'll be the first to know. 

Pictures are from a day trip we took to NYC yesterday (yes, there & back in 1 day!) Kids fell in love and wanted to drive back the next day. Chris was there for an interview. We spent the entire day in Central Park at all our favorite places. Kate fell in love with the Alice in Wonderland sculpture and Henry was thrilled he just happened to be wearing his Beatles shirt for his "IMAGINE" photo.

We've got just under 2 weeks of Summer left before school starts for Henry. Apparently his old school didn't get the memo that we were leaving and have emailed me the past two days that he was either tardy or late to class. I'm sure it wouldn't have been the first of many emails/calls had we stuck around!

Oh one thing, I do have all my vintage sheets with me  so quilt kits are back in the shop. I got probably enough for 8 kits or so. 

Be back soon with Kickstarter info!

XO  

I'm on the Summer blogging schedule if you couldn't tell. Wednesdays seem to be my day. It's officially  August 1st. Does school really start this month? Have we really been living out of suitcases for the past 6 weeks? Is there no end in sight?  I've just been rotating the same 4 outfits. It works.  One major perk to being back here in beantown is that we are only an hour + away from Em. It's funny to think that she was my upstairs neighbor 7 years ago when both 0ur husbands were in school at UCLA. And now, here we are. All of us. It's awesome sauce.  We walked to the lake next to their house on Monday. Those are Ivy's cute legs doing a handstand. It was a perfect Summer day. Em's mom picked all those delicious blueberries while I sat in the sand and did not help one bit. Typical.  We BBQ'd and watched a movie on the barn. The best. And these two. Oh these two. Seriously? Pals for life.

Happy Summer! 

XOXO

p.s. Thanks for the scrumptious dinner on Sunday, Ellen. You get the award for coolest place EVER. 

We pulled into Boston around midnight on Sunday night. The trip was great- had such a fun time. A few minor hiccups towards the end, but we made it. I can't believe we are here. Honestly.  I'll tell you more about the trip soon; we've mostly loved being out of the car and are trying to soak up every ounce of Summer. Monday we went to the market, did heaps of laundry and went to the Minute Man Museum (I love that place.) They show an awesome movie about Paul Revere and the Revolutionary War. We are slowly teaching the children about the history here. It's really just one of the absolute best parts of Boston. We topped the day off with ice-cream for dinner, as one would.And night swimming. There has been swimming every single night. My children have turned into little fish! They have spent more time swimming the past 5 weeks then they have in their entire lives. I keep thinking they need lessons, then keep thinking we can teach them ourselves. I need to look into that and see what we need to do. The more time they spend in the water, the better and more comfortable they are getting. We should have this swimming thing down in no time!  Yesterday, I hopped on the T with the 3 children while Chris braved parking at the Public Garden. I have been wanting to bring the children here for years. I can't believe we are here.  We moved from Boston almost exactly 7 years ago when Henry was only 5 weeks old. Being here reminds me of being pregnant, expecting my first baby, doctors appointments and Brigham & Women's hospital (to name a few.) So many amazing & wonderful memories. Now he's 7 and we are back and get to share this incredible city he was born in. This city that we fell hard in love with 12 years ago. And I mean hard. When we left California, we didn't really explain to the children that we would more than likely never be coming back. I knew it would be too much for my sensitive Henry to bear and mostly because we didn't really know what the future held. We couldn't give definite answers. We told them we were going to Utah for a month and then driving cross-country to Boston. And here we are, trying to figure it all out, trying to make it work. And it's very, very slowly coming together.  I haven't missed L.A. for one second. 

(but desperately miss our friends!) 

2nd Leg of the 2012 Moore Cross Country Extravaganza starts now! Follow the trip on Instgram if you wish! Username: MorgsMoore

 See you soon!

XOXO