Lost Friend, Found

The internet is a magical thing. Not only can you immediately view the menu of a restaurant you're considering patronizing for dinner, you can also do things like determine who's voice it is that you're recognizing coming from that weird lizard alien in "Land of the Lost" (for the record, Leonard Nimoy). The best part, though, for me, is the people you meet. I met my husband online. Highly auspicious and well-timed, meeting him has been, by far, my greatest use of the world wide web to date (and, having just celebrated our 3-year anniversary on Tuesday, continues to be).

I also met Sara Jensen online. After reading a witty tweet she wrote to Grace Bonney of Design Sponge, my interest was piqued. Like any good voyeur, I went to her Twitter page, wherein I discovered her location detailed as "a tiny island on a big ocean." I knew I needed to know more about her, and so, in my typical quizzical fashion, I wrote her, inquiring the whereabouts of said tiny island.

And that was that. We became fast friends. Turns out that island is Friday Harbor, one of the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest, an area that I've become increasingly interested in over the past year. We've kicked up a regular correspondence, IM'ing each other, twittering back and forth, and writing good old fashioned e-mails (the fact that she's shared my enthusiasm for a certain sparkly contingent of Pacific Northwest-situated bloodsuckers has only endeared her to me more). She's also mom to 2 year-old Henry (and wife to husband Thor-THOR, friends, THOR!) and has been an indispensable fount of wisdom, advice, and laughs on the topic of pregnancy and motherhood.

You can only imagine my profound delight, then, when I received the above canvas tote in this weeks' mail. Sara had written last week, asking for my mailing address, so I knew something was forthcoming, but I had no clue as to what. Her business, Lost Bird Found, produces some gorgeous goods, from textiles to book plates. I invite you to check it out. While you're out it, take a gander at her blog, a veritable visual feast of artistic inspirations and musings. I plan to fill that bag with any and all manner of groceries, purse-like items, and "Nugget" essentials. I love a big bag.

I hope to meet Sara one day, real time. In the meantime, I'll settle for the wonders of the internet. Like her business, she's one "lost" friend, now found.