Hey fellow traveler

Mama here. Currently nursing almost 14 month-old, sniffly Emmett and typing one handed. It is lambswool grey and drizzly here in my hometown of Portland, OR. The TV show is more spot-on than caricature. On this 10 day trip I’ve overheard such gems as “I’ve always wanted a jumpsuit” and “I mean, we are lucky to be very focused on grass-fed, certified organic, free-range, rural consumerism”. I love this town where i had my salad days, but i am deeply grateful to be living in sunny Austin, TX where tacos abound and people are living in a more casual swing.

sweet pic of Bug that my sister, Marisa McClellan of foodinjars.com took!

Bug and i will be headed back to Austin on the 30th whereas Papa will go to San Diego to play a rocking New Year’s Eve show with Steve Poltz. I plan on baking some GF pumpkin bread, walking around our sweet 78704 neighborhood with the pup, writing some songs during naptime, and taking each day as a gift wrapped in news print.

As soon as Papa gets back we are diving headlong into mixing the new record. Mixing means finding the right home for each sound; putting the guitar at the right volume so the vocals can be heard (and more importantly, felt), adding tambourines & chimes like sprinkles, seeing to it that the album is more of a cohesive whole as opposed to a bunch of sounds clunking around in the same time signature. It’s crucial. I can’t wait to hear the final product myself, but i am more excited for the 644 people who pre-ordered the record on Kickstarter to hear what we’ve made. I hope they like it half as much as i’m proud of the thing. That would be a win. Here’s a picture of our amazing folk choir, and yep that is a finger in the upper left corner: