Issue 24::REST has hit the newsstands and hopefully your mailboxes too! I love this issue for so many reasons - obviously the great content - art and craft and food and so many great stories. I love that I was able to rope my nieces into a little photoshoot, and I love the look on their faces when I showed them themselves in the pages (see them snuggled into the blanket above!). I love the little lavender tuck-in pillow that Kata Golda made for us (available in the pages as a pattern, and in the shop as a kit). I love this cover art, wrapping up our year of work with the wonderful Lisa Congdon. But perhaps most of all, I love that this issue made it out the door and finally into our hands. Each issue has something about it that stands out - a particularly challenging story, a photoshoot gone awry, or (the worst) an error that we missed. But this one? Oh gosh, this issue barely made it out the door! The week we were only deadline found our assistant editor out of town, and our copyeditor, marketing manager, and myself without power and often without cell reception. Our designer held down the fort, taking communication in any and all forms from us whenever we could manage. There was lugging of computers to places where internet worked, and all of that in between shoveling out flooded basements and candlelight. It was an epic feat, this one little issue, and I couldn't be more impressed by and proud of our team for pulling it off. (Please, please don't tell us if you find any typos in this one - have mercy on us!)
The irony of the theme word for this one is not lost on me. I remember choosing it well over a year ago and thinking that it was just what we should all be doing this time of year as we come in and hunker down, catching our breath from the busy seasons before. I thought too, that it isn't often the case for us this time of year - that we're so often rushing around and that this word and this theme and the content within might be a nice reminder for us all to pause and slow down. Little did I know, of course, that when this issue launched, I'd be deep in the middle of one of the biggest projects I've undertaken and getting very little rest! We open on Cove Street in Portland in just five days and there is so much still to do! All fun and good and very exciting. And I am doing my best to remember to rest in the little moments of time we can find. A good reminder.
This issue also wraps up year six of Taproot, which is just unbelievable to me. It has been a wild ride, this journey, and I'm so grateful for your support in making it happen and making it grow. Next year, we stretch our wings in a the physical world with this new space of ours, and in the magazine, we grow to six issues a year, starting in January. There is so much goodness yet to come!
You can find REST (the magazine!) on our website now!
