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A belated happy holidays and happy 2014 to you all. My own holidays haven’t been particularly successful: I forgot how stressful it is to travel with a one-year-old, then I broke my pinkie toe and it suddenly became impossible to travel at all.

I had a lot of high hopes for getting work done during my Pennsylvania convalescence, but the crutches, pain pills and babies made it hard. Anyway, the silver lining was I got to spend an extra ten days with my parents being an only child (first time in 29 years). Tomorrow, however, I’m heading back home and to reality. Between the one-year-old, the three-year-old and a bad foot, the day of travel has potential to be pretty rough. Wish me luck!

Great day yesterday—I got to spend it in the TQ offices with my red pen! We’re proofing the Winter issue and it looks amazing! It is, obviously, the Olympic issue, and I’m proud to report that I wrote one of the cover stories, about local athletes who hope to compete at Sochi. It was so interesting learning about the athletes’ experiences: So many of them have dealt with injuries (some fairly horrific ones), others do charitable deeds with their competition winnings and others are just so excited about their chances to compete on a world stage.

Some other articles that are really great pre-Olympic reads as well as plenty of interesting Tahoe-centric reads. One more proofing day next week, then this magazine is ready to go!

I am sadly overdue on my updates! In my defense, I’ve been traveling, working, writing and found out a few months ago that I’m pregnant with baby #2. All of that, combined with a rambunctious toddler, makes my free time fairly nonexistent. However, I’m done slacking! Anyway, as I’m currently working on my articles for the Summer issue of TQ, I wanted to make sure that I updated with the Mountain Home Awards, which came out a month ago and is always my favorite of the TQ issues. As always, the photography is gorgeous (please check out the glass home featured on the cover!) and I am inspired to remodel. I wrote three of the Home Awards pieces, all of which feature really incredible homes. The most unusual is the Ward-Young home in Martis Camp, which boasts a curving roof line, exotic materials and a very funky theater room.

Me, Nora and our sea turtle friend

It appears the vacation is definitely over! Last week, I was going for my last walk on a sun-drenched beach in Hawaii; today, I am huddled indoors trying to avoid the wrath of the biggest storm we’ve seen this winter. Being housebound is definitely not a bad thing though: While Nora sleeps, I’m finally getting a chance to catch up on old invoices and looking toward future projects. My biggest to-do item is to get started on my novel again—I let it sit just a little too long and now have no idea where it is going. Well, time for some hot chocolate and to hopefully find some inspiration!

Well, not really something to brag about, but my picture of the Washoe Valley Fire taken from my porch on January 19 is on the RGJ website, available here. Here’s hoping that the rain and snow we’ve been promised comes through quickly and extinguishes this before it can do any more damage!

Happy 2012 and hoping the New Year brings you all health, happiness and prosperity! Topping my resolutions is to finally get my novel completed. In the past few months, I decided to change viewpoints, which is kind of like starting from scratch. However, I’m more than 12,000 words in and pretty excited about how it is now shaping up. Hoping the momentum continues throughout the year!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here! Between the start of the holidays and visits from family, I feel like we’ve been pretty nonstop. Nora started walking about a month ago and has quickly moved on to running, which definitely adds to the chaos! With everything happening, I haven’t done too much writing, though I am working on three write-ups for the TQ Mountain Home Awards. The houses are all located in Martis Camp and are all very cool: An interior design project by Cathy Nason, a Ward-Young home defined by its curving copper roofline and a Clare Walton–designed mountain-style bungalow that sits on a small lake. All beautiful houses—and all inspiring me to tackle some renovations at my own home!

I just entered my first writing competition! I submitted a 4,000-word short story in the Writer’s Digest thriller category. Months ago, I scribbled down a few paragraphs about a murder with the first scene taking place in a library. I hadn’t touched it since then, but when I decided to write a short story, that premise came back to me. I’d never written anything that I considered thriller or suspenseful, but had a fun time writing it (then less fun editing it again and again!).

Tuesday marks the start of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I’m planning on kind of participating—I have a work in progress that I’d like to complete enough (like get to at least 50,000 words) to begin the rewriting process. But best of luck to everyone who takes the full challenge!

The glass hallway in a Greg Faulkner home allows more light (and a sense of vertigo) in the home.

It’s my favorite time of the year—not only are the aspens changing color and the temperatures dropping, but it’s the season for the TQ Mountain Home Awards! This year, we’re checking out about 20 homes. I missed the first two days of touring (including the glass house in Crystal Bay that I was pretty bummed about!), but tagged along on Thursday to see a property in Northstar and about seven at Martis Camp. Martis Camp is remarkably impressive. At a time when building has stalled around most of the country, the development, located near Truckee, has some 80 multi-million dollar homes in various stages of construction. What’s even more incredible to me is that the people who are sinking all this money into the houses will probably spend no more than 10 to 15 days a year in them. Regardless, it makes for very interesting touring.

At Northstar, we viewed a very impressive remodel by Diana Vincent of High Camp Home. While it was an alpine style home, she used light-colored woods and rocks to make the house feel lighter than the traditionally heavy Tahoe feel. In Martis Camp, we visited one of interior designer Cathy Nason’s home (always nice), two Greg Faulkner–designed projects (SO thoughtful and impressive!), a Clare Walton lakeside home, a Mark Tanner rustic/industrial house, Ward-Young home with curving copper rooflines and the Martis Camp Grand Lodge, where we were treated to an excellent lunch! I’ve learned a lot about architecture in the past four years, and I can actually see the shift in architectural trends—how big wrought-iron fixtures are giving way to recessed lighting, barn door sliders are being replaced by pocket doors, glass tiles are taking over from travertine, and massive 8,000 square foot properties are downsizing to something a little more livable. Another tour next week, then I get to call dibs on which houses I’d like to write up!