Ready Steady

As of his two-month birthday/check-up on the 14th, this little baby is 11 lb 14 oz and 23 inches. He has gained exactly 2 pounds and exactly 1 inch each month. What a steady little guy.

Sometimes You Just Have to Make a List

A LIST WITH PHOTOS OF WHAT I'VE DONE THIS MONTH
because my brain can't handle putting together paragraphs

1. Birth Announcements: Not the most original ever, but I think they turned out pretty cute. And it gave me an excuse to buy some Martha Stewart ribbon from Michael's.



2. Christmas Cards: Also not super exciting. Had to do something quick. Next year I hope to have time to do something a little more fun and 'me'.



3. Christmas Decorations: Just a couple of my favorite ornaments, both new from last year.




4. Not Running: Um yeah. This photo speaks for itself I think.



5. Etsy Store - I'm hoping to open an Etsy store sometime in the next couple of months. Of course, that means actually having product to put in the store. Which means making things. Hmmm...

6. At least I'll have a sweet logo. My fabulous cousin who is a fantastic artist is helping me with that, seeing as how I can't draw even a little bit. So, that'll be good.

7. Oh yeah!! And also -- this is probably the most exciting thing to happen to me all month -- I got an email from Superbuzzy, and guess what!? Their warehouse is now in Ventura!!! Sweet Mother of Mystery I'm stoked. They used to be up in Portland and I dreamed of maybe someday getting to go visit. But now they're just a quick jaunt up the road! This means no more paying for shipping AND I get to see what I'm buying before I buy it. Woot! I love you Superbuzzy, see you soon!

8. Pretty much the best ever: Ruth got me these bookplates from The Paper Princess that I've been wanting. Mine have my name on them of course, but my camera battery died so just use your imagination



9. For William: Ruth gave Will these adorable little fruit dolls. I am so in love with them. They are made by Under The Nile which means they are 100% organic cotton and part of the 13 Village Project.



I got these amazing books for Will -- How to Behave and Why, How to Speak Politely and Why and Manners Can Be Fun -- by Munro Leaf (cool name) of The Story of Ferdinand fame.



I also got him this maple teether and fish rattle from Nova Natural.



10.William & Santa: I'm not sure Will was very impressed.



So that's it from me until next year! We're leaving for Utah tomorrow and will be there until the 30th. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a white Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!

Advent-tageous

Ok, How cute is this advent calendar? Jenny at allsorts just posted the pattern and I'm so making one. It'll probably take me all month but it'll be fun to have next year!

I'm also working on another felt stocking so that William has one at home and one at Grandma's house in Utah. I hope I get it done in time -- it's hard to do much of anything around here. Everything is slowly accomplished in 5-10 minute breaks when we're not nursing or playing. Good thing this kid is so cute.


I went running this morning for the first time in basically year. Holy crap. I'm so out of shape. No big surprise -- but it was pretty ridiculous. I've got a long hard road ahead of me.

But for now, William and I are going to walk down the street and finally mail some things while I listen to music very loudly. My dealing-with-stress method of choice? Denial and Distraction.

Hello December

Home.
Thank you all for your concern and love. The situation isn't something I can talk about now -- or hopefully ever -- but I do appreciate your messages. Truthfully, out of everyone affected by this, I'll be affected the least. I should be grateful for that even while I do hurt for the others. This will end up being a pretty long, drawn-out thing and all I can hope for is for us to make it through. It's completely out of any one's hands at this point. Thank you so much for your friendship though, all of you. You girls are the best. Please don't worry about me.

So, on to something else now. Thanksgiving. We spent 8 days in Utah with my whole family and we had a blast. We flew up and William did great -- he slept the entire time on all four flights we had up and back. My side of the family got to meet Will for the first time and everyone was stoked and loved him (of course).

So, I'm a huge procrastinator. I've been getting better in my old age, but I still do it from time to time. I planned on getting all these birthday presents done before baby showed up but kept putting some of them off and now they're late. I finally finished these two aprons that were supposed to get to Kelly and Christie last month. Oops! Forgive me, I have a new baby. At least now I have an excuse for procrastinating. :) Also forgive the bad photos. It was really bad lighting. The pattern is based pretty much on the Vintage Apron pattern in, of course, Bend-The-Rules.


(Pretend to be surprised when these get to you, girls. They're going in the mail today!)

Will and I took a walk today. It's pretty chilly and windy, but the sun and sky are beautiful. It was really nice and helped me clear my mind a bit. Though it was depressing to put on a sweatshirt that used to be too big, only to find out that it's pretty tight now. I've got some serious work to do on my fitness.

Happy December all!

We Are Broken

It's an interesting thing to have your heart broken. For the world you thought you knew come crashing down with one sentence. That's all it takes -- just a few words in a stupid text message -- to destroy everything.

It's an interesting thing to find out something so huge and so devastating that you can't even comprehend that it's real. It seems like a nightmare in the back of your mind until you think about it again and realize that it's not a nightmare -- it's really happening.

It's an interesting thing to hurt so badly for another person that you can't possibly hold yourself in one piece. To feel such despair and helplessness that you will surely split in two.

It's an interesting thing to have your trust shattered in one of the few people you should be able to trust the most.

If Only Time Flew Like a Dove...

1)The above baby. And the little name stool that he received as a gift. It's from www.hollowwoodworks.com. Just look how excited Will is about it!

2) A brilliant idea invented by the lovely Sheena and shared with me by Kelly: A spoonful of peanut butter and chocolate chips -- better than a Reese's PB Cup! And always available (not necessarily a good thing. Especially when one has a significant number of pounds to lose.)

3) Pushing Daisies - This show is on Wednesday nights on ABC and it rocks my world. After Gilmore Girls ended the TV world seemed a bleak and dismal place. Luckily Pushing Daisies showed up to save the day. If you haven't seen it yet you're really missing out. If you need further convincing, the pie diner owned by the main character is called The Pie Hole. Hello? Awesome.

4) Finding long-sleeve shirts for under $3 at Target.

5) "Island" by The Starting Line. Go listen to it now. We saw them open for Paramore (another of my favorite things) last weekend. The rest of their music is just whatever but "Island" is excellent.

Oh Goody.

Alright, so you realize that you'll have to put up with a gratuitous number of baby photos now, don't you?
William had his 1 month check-up yesterday and has gained exactly 2 pounds (9lb 14oz) and grown an inch (22in). He's getting so big already! What the heck?

Okay, Suzy tagged me, so that's why we're here (well, and cause I had to show off the above photo)...

A. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
B. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog, for these rules.

1) Giving birth has made me realize that I can do anything. Being in pain and working that hard for that long made any other possible task seem like a piece of cake! I feel so much more confident in myself now. It's amazing. I've never felt like this about myself before.

2) The holidays haven't even happened yet but I'm already starting to feel that let-down/post-holiday depression. Thanksgiving is next week! And Christmas will be here and gone so fast. The first couple weeks of January are always a bummer. Everything is just going too fast for me. Can't the holiday season last a couple more months please?

3) We've already discussed this at length here, but can I just express one more time how much I love anything with pumpkin in it? I mean really now. It's such a delicious squash (is it a squash? or what?). Kelly made a pumpkin soup while we were staying at her house and it was so so good. And I had a pumpkin scone from Starbucks today for "lunch". Give me more pumpkin stuff please.

4) Speaking of pumpkin scones, that's really the last thing I need to be eating right now. I have a large number of pounds to lose post-baby. The "oh, I'll lose the weight after I have the baby" mentality is just plain stupidity. It would have been much easier to have been anal about everything I ate WHILE pregnant so as to not gain the weight in the first place. But somehow the fact that I KNEW that even while doing the opposite didn't have much of an effect.

5) The loveliest golden glow is coming through the living room windows right now. I wish a photo could acurately capture the moment. Some things just have to be lived though.

6) I procrastinated (what?! me!? procrastinate?! that's un-heard of!) the making of two birthday presents and didn't get them done before William was born. And now it's taking me a million years to get them done cause I'm only able to work on them for 15 minutes at a time. So now one of them is going to be late. Dag yo!

Good thing I only had to think of six things -- I was struggling to think of that many AND William just woke up so it's time to go. Goodness I have the cutest baby in the world. If you need proof, please go back to the beginning of this post. See? Told ya.

I tag Christen, Alissa, Ruth, Lisa, Trevor and Adelyn!

Happiness Is...

A cloudy, cold, rainy day.
Stew on the stove.
Rolls in the oven.
A sleeping baby.
A clean house.
A good book.
Cuddling with your best friend.

What I've Been Doing

Uh, okay so last time I checked we were still in early October and now it's suddenly November 5. What the? Somehow having a baby, having a nearly constant stream of visitors and then leaving town made the entire month disappear. Yikes. I'm totally weirded out about it being November.

John, Will and I are currently out in the beautiful Inland Empire staying with our fantastic friends, Ryan and Kelly and their four kids, while John and Ryan work on a job. We've been here for about a week and a half. It's been interesting living out of a suitcase with a 2-3 week old baby but we've been having lots of fun and these guys are more than hospitable and accommodating. It's never been so easy to stay away from home! So thank you Kelly and family, for the room and the delicious dinners and not minding that I've been mostly laying around and reading and nursing the always-hungry baby.

So, needless to say, there have been no crafts going on around here besides the tiniest bit of knitting (this little fox) but lots of nursing the babe and reading and trying to sleep when Will is sleeping.


My friend Nellie sent me Twilight by Stephanie Meyer for my birthday last month and I didn't start reading it until last week. I had heard very mixed reviews about it so I was pretty unsure what to expect, but, after reading a few chapters I really got into it. I finished it in a day and a half and then had to venture to the Waldenbooks in the fabulous Hemet Valley Mall to get the two sequels -- which I then finished reading in a day each. Even though they're "Young Adult" books and the writing seemed a bit juvenile at first I ended up really liking them, obviously. And want more please. Who knew that I'd be a little bit obsessed with a book about vampires? Who am I?

Yesterday we took William on his first of many, many road trips. Since we're out here in the desert already, we decided to go to Joshua Tree National Park . It only took us an hour and a half to get out of town -- having to first stop at Walmart for a road atlas and some blank video tapes (while I nursed the baby in the back seat of the car), Walgreens for emergency diapers (I panicked when I realized I'd only packed 3 diapers. I'm still working on getting this whole packing for a newborn thing down), gas, changing William's diaper and clothes in the back seat of the car while in line for the car wash, Starbucks and McDonalds. William slept the entire drive, only waking up to eat once, and then again when we made him wake up to try to take pictures. He wasn't very happy about that. Oh yeah, and of course as soon as I went to eat dinner.

In true road-trip fashion our meals were unhealthy and weird. Breakfast: Egg McMuffin for John and a donut and tallnonfat4pumpnowater Chai Latte from Starbucks for me. Lunch: A $5 "Hot and Ready" pizza from Little Caesar's, eaten in the parking lot of Vons (who can resist the power of a sign twirler on the corner?) Dinner: Big Boy Original Hamburgers from Bob's Big Boy. Clearly, my post-baby diet plan was foiled once again.

Here's some pics for ya'll.






I'm desperately hoping November won't go as quickly by as October did. I'm so not ready. Not ready for birthdays this month, flying to Utah for Thanksgiving (though I am really looking forward to it), William turning a month old, Christmas, or deciding what the heck I'm going to do for employment. Time is going too fast!

Happy November anyway!

Look What I Made

My favorite project for sure. Sweetest boy in existence.

Just Some Stuff

My view from the couch while my mom makes us dinner. It's amazing. Dinner is being cooked and I'M not doing it!



Isn't this too cute? My mom is making the baby a quilt and is working on putting the top together today. I just love these reproductions of 1930's fabrics -- I'm really excited for it to be done! And she just made us a dinner of stew and biscuits. We're in heaven over here.


My swollen foot with a sad broken-ish toe.
So, no baby, but there was some excitement last night. I somehow managed to kick the leg of my bed as I walked past. I have never been in so much pain in my life and I can't imagine labor being any worse. John actually thought I was in labor when I hobbled out to him trying not to cry. Wow. I just can't explain how much it hurt. We thought I broke it (I did hear a "crack" when it happened) and contemplated going to the E.R. But, John bandaged my two toes (the nail broke on one of them, and also managed to cut into it's neighbor), got me some Tylenol, and put an ice pack on my foot. Luckily, I was able to go to sleep pretty quickly and it only hurts when I walk now. So now I waddle and limp. I feel attractive and graceful. Also, I have no feeling in three of my fingers on my right hand. Come out baby!!!

Due Date

Well here we are. October 10. No sign of baby, but I'm being patient. He'll show up when he's ready.

There's really not much to say! My mom's here and we've been working on some different projects to pass the time. She bought me a rocking chair which came today. John put it together and I'm sitting in it now -- I'm so happy to have it!

Hopefully next time you hear from me it'll be a baby announcement!

A Bunch of Rambling and Talk of a Delicious Soup

I just had to write and share my excitement. It's COLD outside, people. Now, understand that by "cold" I mean "under 70 degrees". The fact is, it's 68 degrees. I know that in most parts of the world, 68 degrees is nowhere near cold but to me, here in this land of fiery temperatures for 98% of the year, it's downright chilly.

Evidence: I had to wear a jacket when I went for my hair appointment.
Conclusion: It is chilly.

This thrills me to no end. There are LEAVES on the GROUND, thanks to the breeze. I have all the windows open and...I am not sweating. That is definitely news worthy considering I've been a sweaty, gigantic walrus for the past several months.

Also, the google weather thingy says it might rain. It's blue-skied and sunny right now, but there are some fluffy clouds around the edges so...maybe?? I do hope so.

I made Bean and Bacon Soup (from Real Simple February 2005) last night for dinner. I've been making it for a couple of years now and it's absolutely my favorite -- with a big chunk of sourdough bread to dip in it. I always make a double batch and then freeze what we don't eat the first night -- this way we have 3-4 two person meals ready to go. And this is a soup that's always better the next day or two weeks later. It is so so good.

I want to make an apple pie right now. And wear boots and tights and a sweater. And go on a hay ride and rake some leaves. And then sit by a fire this evening and drink a hot beverage. With my family. I miss my family.

At least my mom is coming tomorrow! We pick her up from the airport at noon and I'm counting down the hours. This is only the second time she's ever come to visit while we've lived here so it's very exciting.

I have a couple of projects to finish but I'm not feeling very motivated. I need to sew two birthday presents for next month so that I don't have to worry about it then. At least the cutting is done. I DESPISE the measuring and cutting part of any sewing project. If I were rich I'd hire someone to do it for me, cause seriously, it drives me insane.

Alright, this is turning into a bunch of rambling. But I just had to share the good news -- 68 degrees! I'm going to go sew for a bit and then lay on the couch for a bit, now. Hopefully we're going to go see The Darjeeling Limited tonight -- but it's only playing in Santa Monica and Century City, so we'll see if I'm feeling up to the drive tonight. It'll most likely be our last childless Friday night and the last movie we go to for awhile so...we've got to live it up!

Have a fabulous weekend my friends! Hope it's fallish where you are.

Yellow Buttons

As promised, here are photos of the Vintage Car Coat that I finished last night. It still needs to be blocked a bit to even things out, but I'm really happy with it!

The pattern and yarn are from the package that Lisa sent me several weeks ago. I got the entire thing done except for the collar and the seaming and then of course ran out of yarn. I ended up having to order another ball from the UK but luckily it was neither too expensive nor did it take too long to show up in my mail.

So, that's all the excitement around here. Had a doctor's appointment this morning but no news. We're just patiently waiting! Time to lie down...

Hi, Did You Miss Me?

Unbaked pumpkin pie is one of my favorite colors
Hello, no baby here yet. He's not due until next Wednesday anyway so...I need to be patient. I'm really tired of the swelling and the being a beached whale and whatnot but, I'm happy to wait for him to come when he's ready. I just hope it's sooner than later. :)


Please take note of the best looking pie crust I've made to date. It's only taken me 14 years to get to this point.
We've apparently started a tradition of having a Pumpkin Party every year at the beginning of October. This was the 3rd year we did it and I hope to continue. Pumpkin is just too yummy to not celebrate! We had Ravioli with Sausage and Pumpkin Sauce (I forgot to take a photo but believe me, it's delicioius. Please try it!), green beans, baguette and of course, Pumpkin Pie. In previous years we've also carved pumpkins but, that just wasn't going to happen this year. And when you have your Pumpkin Party, don't forget to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.



I did decorate for Autumn though and it's so fun. It's 85 degrees outside and we have the AC on, but at least it looks somewhat fall-ish in here.

I've also done quite a bit of sewing in the past few days but unfortunately, don't have photos of it all cause my brain is pretty spacey lately.



First is this Bath Caddy for all the baby's bath things (we don't have enough cupboard space for anymore towels or toiletries) which will hang from the closet door. This pattern is from Amy Butler's In Stitches and the fabric is from superbuzzy.com. I was WAY intimidated by this project. It entailed using interfacing and canvas and boning and had about a million steps. Yikes. But I did it! Sewing certainly has taught me some good life lessons: don't get overwhelmed, take things one step at a time, take risks and to pay attention to details. They really make all the difference.

Exciting News: Our good friends, Cary and Erin, beat us to the punch and had their baby boy yesterday -- 11 days early! I finished the blanket for Quincy (hi, cutest name ever) last night and sent it out in the mail this morning, totally forgetting to take photos first. I used the same Scalloped Baby Blanket pattern from Bend-the-Rules Sewing that I used for this helicopter blanket but in these fabrics I ordered recently from superbuzzy.com. Just use your imagination. :) Congratulations, little family! We can't wait to meet the new guy!

Finally, I also finished another project yesterday but I can't show you until the end of January when my friend Nellie's baby arrives. It turned out so cute! I want to show it off right now!

Alright, well this pregnant lady needs to go lay around some more. 39 weeks! I'm definitely feeling every one of them right now.

Take care! Check in tomorrow for pics of the knitted Vintage Car Coat. Darling!

Belly, Cake, Mail

Dear Baby:
Please come out soon -- but not too soon. I'm tired of being tired and heavy and puffy with water. I'm tired of having achy joints and ligaments. I'm tired of waking up at 3am to take Tums. I'm tired of being hot and uncomfortable. I'd much rather be able to hang out and take care of you. So please come soon. How does next Sunday sound?
love, Your Mommy



Yesterday was John's birthday and I made him this coconut cake. I actually started it on Wednesday. It was a long process, but the results were worth it - it was very yummy. I got the recipe from a food blog that I read regularly: Creme Puffs in Venice. She always has the yummiest stuff.



And, I got some mail! This package arrived from Christen with lots of fun things -- a sewing and a knitting book, a piece of darling fabric (with birds on it, of course), some trims (Christen -- where did you get those??) and a couple of Stamper's Sampler magazines which Christen is the Managing Editor of. Fancy, right? She's famous. I feel so cool just knowing her. And this package was so much fun to receive! Thank you lady!

Alright, I'm off to lay on the couch -- I feel especially light-headed and yucky today -- to look at the gray sky out the window. That's right, it's totally overcast and cool! I'm so happy. Just yesterday we had the air conditioning back on. Crazy weather.

I Think Anthropologie is Trying to Kill Me (Or, Please Give Me My Body Back ASAP)

Oh my. So, does anyone know any sort of magic spell or potion that will get this baby out and give me back my body from a year ago -- instantaneously?

I made the mistake of going to the Anthropologie website last night and about died. The new fall stuff is like...a dream come true. I've always like their clothes but this is just over the line, I tell you. Unfortunately, these clothes and my post-baby body will be coinciding at the exact wrong time. I think this may be punishment for some past indiscretion.

Okay, is that not the perfect color of orange? And shouldn't I be wearing that while walking around Northern Utah in the leaves and drinking a chai from Citrus and Sage? Yes, is the answer to that question.
Clearly my body isn't cut out for those skinny jeans, but the yellow top and the jacket are just too much. Give me!
This is the outfit I'll wear when we go out for lunch and yarn shopping.
That's me going to a holiday party.
I think this ensemble speaks for itself.

So really now, I'm not joking. If you have some sort of secret body-restoring potion and several thousand dollars, please send them my way.

Much appreciated.

In other news, I got my superbuzzy order today! Woot!! And a package from my mommy with baby stuff. Yay! I love mail. Have I mentioned that?

The Pillow Covers Saga Continues and Then We Eat Some Cookies

So, life is pretty funny. After spending over 3 months looking for the perfect pillows for our new sofa, I ended up trying to just make something similar to what we were looking for. They were pretty good, not perfect, but we were happy with them.

Well, yesterday we stopped by, on a whim, Restoration Hardware just to see their new fall stuff. We parked directly in front of the open store doors and both of our jaws dropped. The pillows on the sofa just inside the door were EXACTLY what we had been looking for all of these months. I was actually kind of mad that I had spent so many hours looking online for pillow covers and then so much time and some money making pillow covers only to then, less than a week later, find exactly what we'd been looking for this whole time. *Sigh*

So we bought the covers and they're amazing. The weirdest thing about all of this though, is that those four covers were the ONLY ones in the store -- we bought the displays. We looked in their catalogue and online and they're nowhere to be found. Spooky, right? It's like we were in some sort of alternate dimension and were supposed to find these. Eek!

Anyone need 4 brown and white pillow covers? Cheap as free!

Hopefully you won't hear any more about pillow covers from me ever again.

Okay, changing subjects now. As soon as September hits, I want to make and eat anything and everything pumpkin flavored: Raviolis with Pumpkin Sauce, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Scones, Pumpkin Lattes, Pumpkin Pie, etc. So, on Saturday I had to make these cookies. They're pretty much the best cookies ever -- really they're more like little cakes. I found this recipe in Martha Stewart Living in the October 2004 issue and had it sitting in a binder full of recipes to try until last year when I finally made them. And my goodness. They are dangerous little devils. I was going to link to the recipe for ya'll but I can't find it. It's on the Martha Stewart website somewhere but I am too lazy to go through the 1600 results it came up with. They are well worth searching for though. (EDIT: Morgan found the link! Go here for a recipe for heaven!)

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

And one more thing before I'm off to bed, this darling butter dish that Ruth gave me for my birthday. It's from Anthropologie (of course) and I've gently caressed it and wanted to buy it for probably the past year, every time I go there. But, I already had a butter dish so I passed. Girlfriends are the best for buying you things you don't actually need and wouldn't buy yourself. This dish makes me smile every time I make toast. :)

I probably use more butter now than I used to.

Oh Autumn!

"To be interested in the changing seasons is...a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring."
- George Santayana

I love that quote. And though I truly do love the changing of each season, I must admit that I am ardently in love with Autumn. And this year the first day of Autumn seems especially magical to me as it lands on my wedding anniversary. It couldn't be more perfect.

I'm not sure what we're doing today to celebrate -- just being together with no distractions. No computers or cell phones or other people. I'm so looking forward to it.

So, with that being said, I'd better get off of the computer and into the shower so we can leave. This is our last anniversary without kids -- such a weird thought.

What do you think of the new fall colors around here? As soon as fall hits, I'm ready to be wrapped up in orange and brown and gold, sweaters, hot drinks and cold hands, pumpkin flavored everything and shuffling through crunchy leaves. I love you Autumn.

And most of all, I love you, John. Happy Anniversary.