Hey Trace, where ya been, girl?

Let me answer that with a photo montage! 

I have been falling in love with Zoey, my newest niece, born Sunday:

I absolutely love the hospital new-born baby visit. I think there may be nothing in the world like being allowed to view, hold, coo and speculate futures while the baby is less than one day old. I adore coming into the room where the baby is resting in this plastic hospital bed, which reminds me of the plastic packaging on a Barbie box. She is so new, so fresh, so perfect. Her skin is so perfect; she makes me want to spend my next paycheck on facial moisturizers. 

I have also been nursing Carson (translation: worrying my head off and driving back and forth to the vet and waiting for at least two hours-per-visit):

He's the big black one. I snapped this a few days ago as I was about to load him up for another vet visit. He's not doing so well, but we are hoping he might show improvements in the next few days--he just came home from a 24 hour stay at the hospital. You know, this guy drives me nuts sometimes, and I hear myself saying things like "this is the last dog we'll ever have!" And then something like this happens and suddenly I hear myself saying, "but he's only 9 years old! I thought we had at least another 4 or 5 years left!" I certainly love this guy. He loves me, too. And I'm so glad to have him home. 

That cat in the picture is up for grabs, however. Email me if you are interested in a 13- year-old grouch who hasn't landed one in the litter box in about a year. 

During my travels covering most of the freeways in Southern California this past week,  I saw this:

My-o-my-- Californians are certainly tuned in to vintage automobiles. More so than New Yorkers, I think. I see something like this several times a day. This one was special. It was orange. And looks like the Dukes of Hazard, right? My daughter was baffled as to why I was taking a snapshot of this car while driving, we discussed it for a long time. She is beginning to catch on: mommy's a little wacky sometimes.

My sister and I found a few hours to sneak in some shopping this week, so I have to mention my new favorite store--Madewell. It's been around for a few years but I've only recently had enough access to say it's now on my list of go-to shops for easy to wear, of the moment, but never fussy clothing. They have a website that you can browse, but you can't shop it quite yet, apparently that is coming. I also love the store interior (it's white, how did you guess?) and snapped this when the sales gal wasn't looking:

Yup. It's a ceiling fan. It's awesome!! It's huge! what the heck would I do with that? Nothing, probably, but I would really like one of these:

Little ceramic pendant lights. Anyone know where to get this guy? I'm on the look-out!

Well, that's me. Looking for inspiration, anywhere I can find it. Now I'm off to buy some anti-wrinkle products. . .