fun

Teaching a baby how to eat watermelon is an experience I hadn't thought about before it was necessary. As she attempted to take a big bite of the rind, I thought, oh that's right - babies don't get taught the basics before you are allowed to take them home. 

spring forward

 She looks more like a little kid, less like a baby lately. She likes to carry things around the house, sometimes her babydoll and sometimes a napkin, both equally valued.

I have been very quiet on the blog lately, and that's because who has time for blogging when there is work to be done?  (not that blogging isn't work, I mean that it isn't my work.) 

Coming Soon:
 new cards, tea towels and -the big news- silk scarves! Maybe. If I like them.  I'll know next week. It's a work in progress.

8 months old. Working on crawling. Wearing an outfit of mine from babyhood. Sweet baby head.

kitchen update

Looks like someone has been slacking on the kitchen remodel updates. Never fear - a lot has been happening in there. I hastily snapped some pics yesterday, but this weekend I will take a better survey of the goods. It feels so warm and nice in there already. 

The walls are a really rich – you guessed it – grey. I know. We paint everything grey. We tried other colors and this one just seemed right.  The doors are in, the cabinets are up, the floors are down, the light floods in and Nori torments himself with squirrel watching in the mornings. 

The outside is AMAZING. Look:

The rail isn't totally finished, but the important thing here is that the top of the rail is wide enough to hold a cocktail. 

In other news, guess who started clapping yesterday:

tummy time

Can you believe she is already almost 7 months old? I can hear her downstairs, babbling away and likely rolling around or practicing sitting upright by herself. The babysitter is here today, allowing me to do things like work on the 2012 calendar, new tea towel designs, and photo editing. The photo editing is a procrastinatory break from the illustrations, but every artist needs her muse, right?

Are you following my boards on Pinterest yet? There are some pretty fun things happening over there...

happy mother's day

We spent the weekend in Fall Creek, WI, where I encountered a collection of tiny horses, 

many musical instruments,

and a little baby who loved being surrounded by both.

bless

My mother made this baptism gown from her mother's wedding dress, and all of the grandchildren have worn it for their baptisms. For a million reasons that I won't get into here, we are choosing not to baptize Ava, but I couldn't resist getting her picture in the dress anyway. So beautiful. 

baby sneaks

When I was 15, I found these tiny baby sneakers at a thrift shop and have saved them for this day ever since. They are too big for Ava right now, but I am pretty excited about rediscovering them this morning.

They were stored cleverly with a small box of my own baby momentos, where I also found this little pj set that must have once been mine. I'm going to wash it and try it on Ava. Is that creepy? A little bit.

I also came across the huge box of well organized letters and notes that I have saved from the 3rd grade on. I'm talking full 5 page love letters to tiny little notes written on a page corner and tossed from two rows over. Notes passed stealthily in class, shared with friends, and responded to with "yes", "no", or "maybe". Notes accusing and gossiping and experimenting with ink colors. The good old days from before the internet and cell phones. The 80's.

guest posting...

Well, let's set aside the fact that I can't seem to keep up with my own blog and head over to Little Lottie Loves to read about my thoughts on collecting art for kids! Charlotte asked me to cover for a day while she's out of town, and I couldn't be happier to oblige. 

Thanks Charlotte!

5 weeks

almost ready to start some new projects, but for now this little bunny has my full attention....

3 weeks

Ava is three weeks old today and I am already amazed at how quickly time is passing. 

This is a blanket I knitted at the end of the pregnancy, waiting for her and watching Dexter. Nothing like serial killers and heavy gauge knitting needles to occupy a brain.

Babies are much easier to photograph when sleeping. Less fist-pumping and growly faces. 

 xo

big love

Ava is 11 days old, and she already looks so different to me. Things we are learning about her:

- She is a noisy sleeper. She growls and grunts and kicks and flails for a good part of the night. She also makes tiny bird noises that make my heart explode.

- She loves music. Tom plays records for her and she seems to be really listening to it. The first song she listened to was The Girl from Ipanema:



- She doesn't like mommy to do anything but hold her. I need a new sling so we can have a compromise on that one, since I am a busy body and need to be moving around more than sitting on the couch. We have the Moby wrap, but I don't think either of us really likes it. We ordered a Bjorn and I would like to try a simple ring sling. Once we have that sorted out, we will be back in business!

In the meantime, I am still shipping orders as they come in so there should be no delay for my etsy customers. The challenge is getting new items listed, but that will work itself out soon enough....

We are expecting a record amount of snow today and tomorrow, so it's a good thing I am still on doctor's orders to take it easy - cookies and tea are in my immediate future...

Ava Winter

Ava Winter has arrived! She was born after 11 hours of labor, under a full moon.

These first few days have been unimaginably beautiful, exhausting, challenging, and amazing.

I couldn't ask for a better partner in life than Tom. I am the luckiest.

We are so happy to have you here, Ava!

year end

A little peek at the baby's room. The walls were already this color and I feel like it makes the room really calm. It's a good sleeping room. 

My 2011 Wall Calendar is shipping for FREE to the U.S. this week, through December 17. I'm down to the end of the box! Thank you to everyone who has already placed their orders and left such sweet comments about it. It's my favorite one so far, and I already have plans for next year...

7 weeks

well hello there.

I have been a busy bee over here, shipping 100 calendars all over the world. It blows my mind that someone in Singapore will have my calendar on their wall in a few days. It's kind of like a little piece of me  gets to go too. And after several hardcore days of collating, packing and wrapping the calendars, checking names and addresses off lists, printing labels and sealing boxes, a little piece of me did go out with each shipment. 

This year's calendar was different for me because for the first time, I had someone else do all the printing and cutting. This meant a financial investment and risk on my part, and that was a hard thing to do. I had saved money all year to take this leap, but I was afraid to let it go. I had a lot of encouragement, and at a certain point it became clear that if I wasn't willing to invest in myself, why should any of you? So I did it, and I am so glad I did. This experience has set me up for more risk-taking and plans are in the works to take all of this to the next level - more production of more ideas and more to share with you. 

My birthday is this weekend, and for the first time, maybe ever, I don't care. I am the youngest of four, and I think this contributes to my annual anxiety over my birthday - does anyone care that it's MY SPECIAL DAY? The day that I reflect on what I did with the past year, whether I made good choices, where my benchmark is compared to what I wished for in previous years? I know - self-important, much?

This year I will be 32, and I feel like 31 was such a great year that I can't ask for anything more. I did good things this year, and somehow rather than make a big deal out of my birthday, I kind of want it to pass quietly, so as not to disturb the upward march to More Good Things.

Speaking of good things (are you still reading? This is a super long post), in about 7-ish weeks I will have a baby. Forever. I will be a mom. A parent. To a human. Last week in birthing class we watched a video of a birth, and as I looked around the room to see if anyone else was as grossed out as I was, I realized that maybe I'm not entirely suitable for laboring. I decided not to do it. This baby can just stay put, or be born through reverse osmosis, because there is no way I am pushing a human out of my vagina. 

On the flip side of that, I have watched this birthing video multiple times, and it makes me cry each time and then I feel like I can produce the human. It's so beautiful, and not gross, and there are no gaping vaginas.

november shower

Enjoyed my second baby shower yesterday. We are now 8.5 weeks from baby-time, and I am going crazy with excitement. Luckily, things around here are busy enough that the time is flying by and I know she will be here soon enough. 

We had beautiful weather yesterday, so my rooftop garden party was even better! Wonderful girlfriends, lots of fuzzy baby things, and non-alcoholic champagne made for an excellent Sunday. 

Thanks girls!!

the nursery

clockwise from top left: "Much Love" print by ashleyg, "Flock of Swallows" mobile from Anthropologie (purchased!),  Elephant clock from Rare Device, "Ampersand" letterpress print by gemmabear, "Punch Drunk" pom mobile by PomLove, "Rainbow bobbles" knitted baby blanket by rocketandbear, "DwellStudio Silver Lake Crib" from Target (thanks Dad and Carla!), "DwellStudio Silver Lake Changing Table" from Target (thanks Cheri and Tom!),  Saarinen womb chair (already own and love), "Fauna Pico Pillow" from Design Public, "Diamond Jungle Dhurrie" rug from Anthropologie.

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A few people have asked what my plans for the nursery are. I'm not into the fantasy baby room idea for two reasons: 1. Tom and I have to spend time in that room so we should like the look of it, and 2. Babies don't know the difference. Do you remember anything from when you were in a crib? Me, either. So the room will have baby things but really it's just another room in a house inhabited by adults.

The walls are already a nice warm dark grey that we both love, so that will remain as is (I'll locate the color name - it's by Benjamin Moore). I was at first trying to shun the pink theme, mostly because I don't know about the whole girl=pink boy=blue idea, but it turns out that I like hot pinks and peachy pinks a lot, especially with grey. I'm choosing things for the room that are not so much "baby" as "kid", meaning that these are things that will grow with her. I'm sure there will be plenty of baby things mixed in here, but I can see all this stuff in a little girl's and even an older girl's room too. 

The funny thing is that we plan to have her in our room for the first few months at least anyway, but designing this room is just plain fun. In another week I will be able to start pulling it together - can't wait!

to do

Cheerful Quilted Playmat : Purl Bee

I love this project from Purl Bee. Adding this to my list of things to do in the next 4 months, which is quite a long list, possibly the longest to-do I have ever undertaken. If you don't see me for a while, that's why. I have to clean out every nook and cranny of our house and rid myself of things we don't need. I have to de-clutter our lives so that we have room to play on the floor and to adjust our clocks to the clock of a new human. I have to ready us for an event that will change everything, already has changed everything. I have to make room for baby.

I started yesterday by attempting to clear out the guest room. This was a silly practice of pulling all the large things out of the room, only to place them in the hallway with nowhere to go. Sorry, chair. Your time here is up. Sorry, lamp. Your shape does not work for us anymore. Sorry rug. Your colors are not right for this baby. 

Once most of it was out, I began to lose my mind because now? Now all this stuff was taking over our living room and dining room and then the crib arrived. Oh hello crib. I am itching to get the crib set up and really get this nursery in order, but. BUT.

It turns out that the other giant item on my to-do list is also the largest piece of art I have ever attempted, and the only wall in our house that will accommodate its largeness is the wall in the guest room. The wall where the crib belongs. The work I will be doing is a commission, due in the next 6 weeks, and its dimensions are such that our little house can almost not contain it. Except this one wall. 

So, the crib will have to wait, and the house will be in disarray, and last night I dreamed that all my hair was grey. This is not to say that I am sad or even frustrated - not at all. I am freaking exuberant over here. Glowing. Skipping. Because yesterday we learned that in 4.5 months, that crib will hold our baby girl.

PomLove

I love these poms by etsy seller PomLove. Perfect party decor. I might make a few for the baby's room, but why take the time to make them myself when these are just right?

If you're feeling crafty though, here is the Martha Stewart tutorial on how to make them yourself:

www.marthastewartweddings.com

snuggly

This is the cutest little snuggly wrap ever. Our little one will arrive in January, which is great because I love babies in footie pajamas and cozy blankets.

Baby Barolo Bunting does not fall under the category of "necessary" at $235.00 but it's so darn adorable.