Purplebabydaddies has landed in Ann Arbor

We made it and we are on step 19 of the 26 steps that it will take for us to be completely settled into our new place in Ann Arbor. We have been shuttling between our friend's farm in the country and Liz and Dylan's in Ann Arbor. Our friends Ireta and Eric live near East Lansing. We have set up a temporary work space in their corn crib and we are staying in their queen-sized camper that they set up for us, complete with windchimes, outside dining area, and twinkly lights, before we arrived. It has been lovely, wonderful, sleeping weather in the 50's-60's and the corn crib is sheltered, breezy, wonderful. The dogs are in heaven.

On the weekends we come to Liz and Dylan's and take care of the kids from Sunday evening to Monday early afternoon. I am in heaven of course, feeling so much better and you've heard that saying...."If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!!!!" Couldn't be truer. As much as we loved the Keys, it just isn't fun if no one is around to enjoy it with. We are both very happy to be back up here. Ann Arbor is a very cool town. I feel as though we are back in civilization. We aren't done with Florida. We'll probably try to do a winter (January- April) in Florida and the rest of the time in Ann Arbor when we figure out how to do it. For the next couple of years it will probably involve some kind of camping where we can work set-up, but we want to be closer to everyone in the Jupiter- Stuart- West Palm area, 1-3 hours away, as opposed to 5-6 hours away from everyone.

For now though we are waiting to move into a house that won't be available till the middle-to-late September which is a 5 minute drive to Liz's, 30 minute walk, and 2 blocks from downtown Ann Arbor, which is an exciting, thriving city that we love. We will be renting the downstairs of an old Victorian and having our art studio in a stone barn on the same property, which was built in the 1870's. The barn has a big wood furnace. We are psyching ourselves up for a chilly winter....but you can all laugh at me....we are looking forward to it. I quess I have more north in me than I thought, I am actually looking forward to the change of the seasons....and with menopause in full swing, the cool fall is welcome to come on.

Moving out of our house in the Keys was a bit of a nightmare. It was so hot and so buggy and there were so many details, plus we were finishing work for the shows we had scheduled up here and for our wholesale accounts. It was not fun (at all), but we managed to make it. We drove straight through- 32 hours, in a 17 foot U-Haul, pulling our car, with our three dogs and Pippin who is my friends dog (because we were delivering him to his mistress in Michigan). AAAArgh! Those are 3 weeks of packing, traveling and unpacking that I will be happy to block out.

We've done our two shows, one the weekend of the 4th and 5th that was a stinker and one last weekend in northern Michigan that was as good as usual....thank goodness.

Mom and Dad and our close family friends Gay and Bill Browne came to the show and we went out to dinner and roared with laughter throughout the dinner and generally disrupted the restaurant with the non-stop humor at our table. I am happy to report that my mother is as feisty and willing to get into the raucous humor as ever. God, she scared the hell out of all of us.

So now we are back in Ann Arbor. We had a sitting night last night with the kids and I am on the computer for the first time in forever, since my computer has been zapped by lightning and I haven't had a chance to have it fixed. Liz is taking Michael to Cedar Point on Thursday and we will take care of Juniper and then next Monday we are all going to our favorite camping place on Lake Michigan. Doug and his family are going to join us, Mom and Dad will rent a hotel room nearby, and with any luck Lynne who is coming to visit for her birthday will be able to come for a night or two. We wish Mary and her family could come too, but they can't make it, unfortunately.

I will post pics as soon as Liz wakes up. I have some pics of the camping set-up we have at our friend's house and some of the art fair this last weekend.

I feel as though we have recovered from the past year. We are still bruised by our failure, but have regained our stamina and hope. We are going forward, taking the lessons from the failures and successes we have had, and re-inventing what we are doing in a more effective way. We hope to have at least another 20 years to make things right and continue to grow as artists and a business.

By the way, it was so good to hear the news about Aunt Margie, just wonderful. And Carol, that mural is teriffic and the pics of Jake....what a doll! I've missed being able to do this and I'm happy to be back on the blog.....love you all- leslie