Hi friends! First of all, a HUGE thank you to all of you who have pre-ordered cookbooks!!! It's incredible to see the love and support you all have poured out to this project! In just 2 days, we've already reached nearly $10,000 (1/5 of our goal!) with 154 backers. So excited to see this cookbook becoming a reality, thanks to you all!! Keep spreading the word...we still have 40 more days and $40,000 more to raise. We can do it!!!

We spent most of yesterday in the car driving from Raleigh (with stopovers in Durham, Asheville, and Knoxville) to Nashville, and we didn't get in last night until midnight! The drive from Asheville to Knoxville is GORGEOUS - the road winds through the mountains and sometimes you can see the fog hovering over the trees. We drove through there last night at dusk, which was pretty magical. (Elise filmed a little video of the drive which I posted on Instagram and Facebook, if you want to see!)

I'm realizing that trying to blog from the road is a tad bit harder than you might expect, especially when you're spending much of your time either driving, prepping or cooking for dinner parties, and coordinating upcoming dinner parties. Not to mention making time to document the trip as you go! I had every intention of blogging every single day, but I might just have to settle for every other day (or whenever I have reliable Wifi!). On this road trip – and in life in general – I am really trying to embrace the concept of "good enough" over perfection. It's amazing how much joy can be robbed from potentially amazing moments when you focus on the could haves and should haves. This cookbook journey is about pursuing a dream, following God, and sharing the vision of the table with all of you – NOT about looking back and saying I checked off every item on my to-do list.

Picnic-Beausol

Speaking of amazing moments, our Road Trip Dinner Party #2 was held Tuesday night at the lovely Beausol Farm outside Raleigh. It was STUNNING, thanks to both the dreamy garden setting, and Megan's lovely picnic-style low table setting. I cannot wait to share pictures and stories with you all next week! It was so fun being with the Gilgers, and meeting their wonderful friends in Raleigh. I am blown away by everyone's hospitality and generosity there. On their street, all the neighbors are friends (in fact I stayed with their sweet neighbors Tara and Ryan) and hang out on each other's porches – having wine at night or coffee in the morning. As much as I love NYC, there's something really appealing about that picture of community.

So I have a really story to tell you all...but you're going to have to wait until tomorrow to hear about it! Let's just say it involves me being on TV...for the first time!! Once today, and again tomorrow. Hilarious. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. You never know what a day will bring!!

xo, Anna