San Francisco International Gift Fair, here I come!

You know what is super-completely and totally the awesomest? Today, I drove my truck around INSIDE MOSCONE CENTER! I wish I had a good photo for you but I super-completely and totally did not want to get yelled at by a Teamster.

A letter.

Dear Gap,

Must boy's bathing suits have pockets? What purpose could they possibly serve other than the transport of sand into my washer?

Love,

Rebecca

So, anyway....

So, anyway.... Now I have to go camping. Can't say that I'm a fan.

I just really don't get it. I don't get why you'd want to take the entire contents of your home - but not the good stuff, not the knives you actually want to use, or the bed you actually want to sleep in - into the non-wilderness and sleep next to your car. But some people like it.

And since I live in a kingdom with three kings, all of whom like camping, camping I will go.

I think this is their revenge for all the times I've made them accompany me to the fabric store.

Bedouin tent (which would be more my style, camping-wise) photo here.

Busy Beeing.

I have been a busy busy girl. Well, in between road trips and vacations and general summer momishness. Onevermind. I have a big-ass wholesale show in a week and I'm barely ready. But I do have a new wholesale catalog! It's on my website. Super-exciting - I know! It's almost like a real business!

Anyway, this is what I've been working on....

4. Visit tide pools

Summer mom rarely wakes her little ones up early - and if she does, you can be sure it's for a very good reason....

Reviews were mixed and comments ranged from "Ew, it's slimy!" to "Can we go now?" Summer mom doesn't mind - she knows that if there's no complaining, she's not doing her job.

And look, a rare photo of my kids And me - see how happy they are? I think this was taken right after I promised them pancakes. One million thanks to Julie who made coffee, found us beautiful tide pools in lovely Carpinteria, CA and took the photo above. XOXO!

Of course, purple.

Because I find it covers the grey so beautifully.

Foil hat, please.

Remember my fireplace? Whatever, Pottery Barn. I hate/love it when you steal my ideas.

Hem av Bill och Joanne

We are back from Ventura, where we stayed at the luxury resort Hem av Bill och Joanne (aka Julie's parent's house). We had the most summerish of summer mom days.... breakfast, playground, lunch, beach, dinner, swimming pool, bath, bed. There was a general air of maternal leniency, marked by the allowing of small people to eat Cheerios for dinner and to swim until dark. Also, Margaritas! and my most favorite of all activities - rummaging thru Joanne's stuff while she is not home! Please see above: selected glances at a turn-of-the-century photo album. That she keeps in a Zip-Lock bag. As you do.

Home.

Omy, but I love California. Even this much maligned stretch of I5 is lovely golden rollingness with swaths of verdant irrigated green. Lovely even at 70 miles per hour through a bug-splattered windshield.

Seamus: If more than one mouse is called "mice," why isn't more than one house called "hice?"

Me: Good question.

We are bobbing along like so much flotsam in the north/south flow of water and power and freight.

Fin: Are we almost home?

Me: A little while more. When you see the windmills, we're almost home.

338 miles to Ventura.

It's only 338 miles to Ventura. My kids are like: Whatever Mama, we barely even have time to watch two movies. Where's a gas-station bathroom? Let's touch everything!

8. Eat breakfast lunch outside as often as possible.

I had the best of intentions, but it turns out that breakfast is more of a free-range four-course affair that must be accompanied by cartoons. I know I shouldn't let them watch so much TV, but cartoons with breakfast, during the summer? It's kind-of one of the better parts of childhood.

Plus, unlike the rest of the world, we're having rather a cool summer, so it's about 52 degrees out at breakfast time.

Lunch - my darlings - lunch is always eaten outside, at the little table on the front porch, which is the best room in the house right now. And lunch is always delicious.

OmygodFinally!

I believe that man will not merely endure. He will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

- William Faulkner

Finally, after all this time, I get sports. Finally I understand the passion - seeing the most ebullient triumph and most bitter disappointment in the same place at the same time was just stunning and beautiful and amazing. It made me love the world and mankind. Thank you, World Cup. Also, I might still be the teensiest bit tipsy.

Volunteers!

I was pulling weeds in the side yard, behind the compost pile, where nobody goes and thus the weeds have grown taller than me (it was hard work and a little terrifying) when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but five hale and hearty tomato plants. Now, the place where I was pulling weeds - in the side yard, behind the compost pile, where nobody goes - is actually the site of the previous compost pile, so I shouldn't really be that surprised. But really, these secret survivors are thriving and covered in flowers and fruit.

I think I might start watering them.