The last week has sort of been a whirlwind but at the same time, last week seems like YEARS ago.

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Last Tuesday, the day that Seriously Delish was released, I went to Tampa to kick off my little book tour.  I was scarrrrred. Also, I was lonely. I figured it would be no big deal to go by myself (after all, I love being by myself up until the point where I can no longer stand myself) but it was hard. For some reason I felt ridiculously ALONE. It was weird. Something funny: I swear the baby KNEW that I was feeling all out of sorts because it was kicking like crazy. Nonstop. Maybe comforting me? I dunno. I like to think.

The Tampa signing was so much fun though and I seriously CANNOT THANK YOU GUYS ENOUGH for coming!! I still totally think I am going to walk into an empty room one night (could still happen for sure so I should probably shut up) and you have no idea what it means that you guys are actually buying this book and coming to talk to me. Also, I can’t even stand how much I love that when you DO come talk to me, it’s about TV, makeup, shoes, donuts or denim jackets. I feel like you are my best friends.

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This Tampa event took place at Inkwood Books and OMG, I think I rambled about four or five times about how that book store was the store of my dreams. This will be a recurring theme, I’m sure. For years, I’ve written about the feeling I get when I walk into bookstores or libraries – a mixture of feeling at home and a mixture of intense excitement because I just love books. This store… was too cute for words. The owner, Stefani, made a bunch of recipes from Seriously Delish (the mac and cheese, grilled fruit salsa, bacon biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, something else I can’t remember – wah!) and right before the signing I demoed the cover of the book! The whipped goat cheese toasts with warm vanilla berries.

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Something super fun was that my friend Julie drove a good way to come see me AND she brought me her famous doubletree chocolate chip cookies (yes the ones that I destroyed with salt in yesterday’s post) – she brought extra cookies and then certainly helped the next day during my flight delay. They are so delicious I can’t stand it.

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A lovely girl named Lauren brought me these donuts (I think from dough??) – one was peanut butter cup and one was obviously covered in bacon. I almost cried.

Let me just say that I was in Tampa for less than 24 hours… and around 12:30 in the afternoon when I went to take a walk? I saw a group of people doing freaking BOOTCAMP, OUTDOORS, in like 100 degree heat. I died inside for them. I don’t think they were eating donuts.

Even though I had such a blast at the Tampa event when I was back in my room all alone, I was feeling all weird again! Then I saw the seriouslydelish hashtag on instagram and was blown away. YOU GUYS!

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For real. If you’re making something from the book or if you’ve just received your book, hashtag it on instagram with #seriouslydelish. Or put it on the facebook wall. Or tweet it. Or heck – email it to me!!

Made.my.night.

From there I went to Houston – oh wait, how long have we been friends? Like five years. So you know that I am not a fan of heat and hot weather yet I went to Tampa and Houston in the first week of September. It wasn’t terrible. Says the person who happily set the AC in the hotel rooms to 64 degrees.

The night I got to Houston, I hung out with Rachel and we went to Grub and ate these ridiculous cheese fries. I should use the word “ate” loosely because we pretty much just BS-ed for two plus hours which took up more time than eating.

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This was too awesome and amazing for words because I’ve admired Rachel from across the internets for like almost five years. This girl can WRITE. Annnnd she also made the s’mores stuffed strawberries from the book – you probably should take a look.

On Thursday, I got to see one of my most favorite people ever, Bridget. We ate cupcakes at Crave and also had… wait for it… CUPCAKE LATTES. Yes. You read that right. Cupcake lattes. Which I believe are flavored with their frostings. It was embarrassingly perfect and wonderful. Also I could have easily scarfed another cupcake, which made me feel more like myself since I haven’t wanted sweet things while being pregnant. A second also is that I want to open a bakery like this but like… just open it and not have to do the work. And eat cupcakes always.

on life lately I howsweeteats.com

on life lately I howsweeteats.com

Speaking of being pregnant, I ended up buying a bunch of maternity (and some non-maternity) clothes a week or two ago after being like oh… perhaps I need some semi nice things to wear other than my five-year old lululemon crops because those probably won’t do well in public. I’ll tell you about them in a pregnancy update! I took some photos, but let it be known that I can’t take an outfit photo to save my life. Actually literally, probably. If it came down to it, I wouldn’t survive.

After that wonderful afternoon with Bridget we went to the signing that night at Blue Willow Books. GAH. Another too cute, adorable, in-my-dreams bookstore. Like can I just own one of these so I can walk in everyday and stare in wonder? It was awesome and thank you so so so so so much to those of you who came!! And to those of you whose books I signed in the store if you couldn’t make it. I got to sign the wall right under Cokie Roberts, though I really wanted to climb up the ladder and sign the ceiling.

All I want to do is be able to go places and MEET you. I want to talk to you and spend time with you because you’ve made my life twenty million times better than it was and I feel like I owe you the universe.

On Friday I headed back to Pittsburgh where I promptly collapsed on the couch and couldn’t move for about six hours. I just couldn’t even lift myself up off of the pillows. But I had to! Saturday was my first signing in Pittsburgh and it was easy to say I was the most nervous for it out of everything. Because I like… live here. And know people. And get shy and uncomfortable and afraid. I told everyone that in Tampa and Houston too, when they asked if I was nervous and I was like… not really… at least not until Saturday when I have to go HOME!

It was really a ton of fun – because all of my closet friends and family were there – and lots of local people that I got to meet and be real life friends with. My metallic sharpies ran out and I have to say that I’m semi-disappointed in their lifespan, albeit how gorgeous they are.

AND. Please take a moment and be sad for how big the face baby has become. Right before this photo he told me he “just ate a bunch of gummy snacks.”

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UGH. Is this the longest and most boringest post in the history of ever? I wanted to document it though and share and again say thank you, thank you for coming to see me and support me and everything. I promise I will be done being a broken record soon. You can find more pics on instagram if you’d like to follow along.

And! If you’re in NYC, tonight I’ll be signing books at Whisk (Manhattan localtion) at 6PM and there will be foooood. Thursday I’ll be speaking at 92Y, Saturday I’ll be signing books in Cincinatti and Sunday in Cleveland. All details can be found HERE. If you guys have any questions about the book tour, etc – leave them below! And let’s not talk about how many times I’ve wrote “singing” instead of “signing” in this post – I certainly won’t be singing anywhere anytime soon. Unless you’re in my car or my shower. Which would be creepy as hell.

And now I’m going to attempt to resist eating peanuts from the mini bar at midnight.