:: in which we pick up where we left off and i thank you with a special reader-only sale ::

this thing happens whenever i've been away from the blog too long: i feel compelled to create a post that sort of rehashes what i've been up to during my absence.

as if the reason you read this blog is as a summary of my daily calendar rather than as a fascinating whirl through my daily (weekly? of-the-moment?) brain-state.

i know list posts are all the rage and supposedly so good for your search engine ranking or some such nonsense, but seriously friends: you don't want to read my "this is why i haven't written in two weeks" list, do you?

and yet i'm surprisingly unaware of my own current brain-state since i haven't been around here checking in on it and all. which is a problem for those of you hoping for something fascinating and inspiring, and which is perhaps more of a problem for me who was really banking on coming back to the blog all fireworks-and-air-pistols.

alas.

instead i bring you this:

i am very very very proud of myself these days. i haven't mentioned it yet around here because i've been quite wrapped up in trying hard to forget all about it as it occupied the better part of my waking brain power for the last two months, but i finally went live on saturday with the overhaul of my e-commerce site, upupcreative.com.

the overhaul i figured out how to do all.by.my.self. i coded. i queried. i uploaded and downloaded and upgraded and patched. i kicked that shopping cart software's ass all over the internet and taught it how to behave like a proper, well-designed website.

each time i look at it i'm struck by two things:

how awesome it is, and how many more things i want to do with it.

go check it out, won't you? with features like everyday savings, simplified color choices and wording customization, and more, i think you'll find that this isn't your mama's e-commerce site anymore.

oh yeah, one more thing. because i love love love you guys and totally appreciate that you don't seem to have disappeared even though it was probably starting to seem like i had, i've got a special little offer for you:

now until sunday, october 24th, save 25% on any sapsucker cards bought from the new site using the code sapsuckerholiday at checkout. it needn't be a holiday card but it always could be. and remember: this doesn't work in the etsy shop.

ENJOY!