Highlights, From a Very Fabulous Book Tour

The first half of this year, my friends, has been full of travel to promote my new book, and the best part has been getting to meet all of you. Now that my book stops are over and I have a moment to take a breath, I’ve had a chance to look through all of the photos from the various cities and the fun I had getting to hug ya, eat cupcakes with ya, see your pretty babies, make lip gloss out of beet juice, and make a lot of new friends in airports. So today I’m going to share them with you.

This is the very first book I ever signed. It was at Book People here in Austin. The day a book comes out is weird. You feel like the earth should shake a bit because it took so much out of you… but instead you just sign a book.

But then this starts to trickle in. All of the fabulous pictures you sent me that made me laugh. Thank you for buying the book, taking silly pictures, and making me smile along the way.

Y’all seriously slay me sometimes.

I loved visiting Chicago, which clearly deserves its name as a windy city.

And I really went through a lot of sharpies. I’m happy to say that I will be removing them from the bottom of my purse for a while.

I signed at the fabulous Junk Gypsy store in Roundtop, TX.

These gals are so fabulous, I love their TV show and who they are.

And I cruised on over to Lafayette, LA where they had the most delicious treats.

And all THREE of my babies, er… I mean books.

This fine gentleman put it best, he said “Modern Pioneering is like my Boy Scout manual on speed.” I loved him.

I loved jetting over to New Orleans and passing out wonderful gift bags full of treats.

And the very appropriate wine we served.

This event was hosted at the W…

I signed LOTS of books…

Answered lots of questions…

And got to meet awesome gals. OH! And I got caught in a shoot out. Of course.

NOLA in short: I got caught in the middle of a shoot out, drank 25 cent martinis, ate the world’s best sweetbreads, was dusted in powdered sugar. New Orleans, was REAL!

Then I headlined at the Austin Food & Wine Festival.

Did all kinds of stage demos from the book, like how to make a watermelon keg.

Sat on some fun panels.

Rocked the Rock Your Taco competition.

Here my team of fab ladies sported my new line of T’s.

And I signed lots ‘o books.

Then there was Houston, at Tootsies shop.

And a sea of gift bags.

And some seriously fabulous ladies.

Likes hundreds of them.

And a fun Q&A demo where I taught ’em all how to make homemade lip gloss… out of beet juice.

And then Austin! The best part about doing a signing where you live is that you get to hang with your pretty friends.

Here is the moderator trying my lip gloss out at the demo.

And the fab readers were…well…fab.

And Mrs. Sauer’s 4th grade class at Saint Andrews was one of the highlights. I talked to them about book writing since they were learning about it in school and they had LOTS of questions. And stories to tell. Lots.

Dallas was wonderful too.

Long time readers came from very far and weathered a REALLY crazy tornado and power outage to be there.

Another brave soul.

And more wonderful swag bags thanks to Riceland and Weston Products.

I loved San Antonio too. Cause there were cupcakes. And sweet baby girls.

In case you’re wondering, my hand is permanently in a claw position from all the signing.

But I got to see this wonderful gal who came to the signing for my last book also, and she’s so wonderful.

Then I did a little private signing in Austin at Raven & Lily for the Tidbits VIP members.

And you awesome people sent me more awesome pics of your pups who have good taste.

And then I got to spend early July at my very last stop–South on Main in Little Rock where I threw on a head mic and did a Q&A to a full house.

They put Sage Sugar from my book in the gift bags along with a wonderful copy of the Oxford American.

After the Q&A, I taught the full house how to make a watermelon keg. And tried to help a guy orchestrate a proposal to his girlfriend who was excited to be there… except she didn’t want to get on stage at all, and so it was rather funny. (They did get engaged later just no thanks to me).

And some friends hosted a killer after party on a rooftop.

I will look at these past six months through rose tinted lenses… because even though I get tired and sometimes just want my own bed, y’all are what make me excited to hop out of it every morning and inspire me to create, challenge, be challenged, and take on new adventure.

Love you lots and look forward to seeing more of you in new cities soon, or at one of my Adventure Getaways. Til next time! XO.