And then there were 4! We welcomed our little Fox into the world April 25 and have been happily tucked into our nest getting to know him and love him more and more by the second.

Now that I'm at 39+ weeks, I've had a few calls and questions about how I'm feeling.  I thought I better drop in here, though, and say I'm just fine. No signs of labor yet, aside from my constant pleading that "today be the day".

I've been speechless all week. Each day seemed to start with a different tragedy on the news. I take time, gather my thoughts, look forward to the next day and hear of more sadness. In some ways I'm glad Baby Fox is waiting his full term; he won't feel the immediate tension of the cruelties of the week. As one friend reminded me, "He's in a safe and beautiful place right now." Stay nestled and happy in there, little fella, and I'll try to be more patient with your arrival.

A few more clothes

This dress is another variation built off the Dear My Kids' pretty ruffled pinafore wrap dress. I took off the wrap front and added giant keyhole to back. The keyhole was meant to make the arms easier to get into, but I made it a little lower than I should have, so I added some pleats to close it up a bit. Now it's a perfect-for-summer dress.

I had a yard and a half of navy flocked dot cotton fabric and decided to try my hand at something else, so I bought Figgy's Ayashe blouse pattern. The pattern has a few different finishing options, like a bias tape neckline or a mandarin collar; I went with the bias tape neckline and elastic waist. The instructions of the pattern are quite detailed, but as a hobby seamstress, I don't always have the patience to get that "pro" finish. Let's just say I fudged a few steps with the serger. The way the sleeves were attached was a different process than the method I was taught, so I used the more familiar method to me. They turned out just fine and I'm pretty sure the results would be identical either way.

Next up? The Oliver + S Sailboat Top (with short sleeves), then maybe onto a few pairs of shorts/skorts.

Clothes for the kid

Hopefully I'll be pushing out a baby mid-Kids' Clothing Week Challenge, so I wanted to get a head start and use up some of the fabric stash I have on hand to clothe Mabel this summer. Plus, sewing has been a good excuse to sit on my rump and make things without the effort of renovating another room in the house.

A little bit of the sewing I did: The Pretty Ruffled Wrap Pinafore minus the ruffle. It was too snug on Mabel, so it will be a gift. I liked the fabric so much, I used it for the second version, too.

Pattern minus the wrap, shortened to shirt length and a gathered ruffle at the bottom. This one was a birthday gift for a friend of Mabel's. The crown was part of the gift as well, and just a little something I made up on my own.

I made a purple gingham shirt just like the middle one, and then this madras version. Shorter bodice, longer gathered torso, added pockets and fudged some fluttery sleeves. It's a far cry from the original pattern, but built from the same concept. I made one more tunic (without the wrap) in this Merlot swirl pattern (Jenaveve Collection by Valeri Wells for Free Spirit Fabrics).

Now I've turned my attention to shirts with sleeves to outfit M through the summer. Wish me luck figuring out how to read the Figgy's Ayashe pattern. The pattern itself is written really well, but I have a feeling there will be numerous user (that's me!) errors.

The last mile

Sixteen days until my due date, and over the weekend all motivation to finish the bedroom flew out the door. There was about 3 square feet of floor left to paint, and there are papers to shuffle, file, or shred, and a few tools to clean up. There are also some holes to fill in on the walls and touch up with paint. This is what Charlie calls "the last mile", it's when things become "good enough" and I get tired of a project and call it finished.

See? This side of the room is where the floor paint needed finishing (which I did last night!) and some final purging and organizing needs to be done. The clothes on the arm of the chair and the empty pillowcase on the ottoman perform as cat scratch detractors. We'll come up with something prettier over the next couple days, I'm sure. If not, I'll get back to the project in 3 years, when I can tell Fox to go play with his sister.  For now, it's good enough. 

Belly Time

Everyone say hello to giant baby Fox.

We're officially at 37 weeks today, which means we've reached full term. While I say I hope Fox is early, it's only the impatience of a few months of poor sleep, continual hip pain, and a belly that arrives in a room five minutes before I do that hope so.  I want him to be happy and healthy on that great big water slide into the world, and if that means 40 or 41 weeks, so be it.

I've read and memorized every "signs of labor" site on the web, at least the ones that had somewhat reputable sounding names. What do you mean I can't will myself to go into labor? 

Other thoughts on Week 37 (and/or) the 3rd trimester:

Baby Center explains week 37 in layman's terms.


Though in more casual terms this is about right...looks like A Lovely Lark is a week ahead of me (and yes, I'm jealous of that fact).

But if you really want a straight shooter account: AlphaMom knows what it's all about. Her Windex example is the equivalent to my pacing back and forth for half an hour in front of a desk that needed moving right. then. or. I. was. going. to. move. it. myself. On my shoulders, if need be.  

Fox made an appearance in this pic (striped sweater, lower left).

Playing House

Enough with the sale talk, I know. Bit by bit, small investment by small investment, we're getting our room finished.

I found a good deal on velvet World Market curtains in "Latte", 2 neutral beige 3x5 rugs on clearance with free shipping from PB Teen, and stalked Craigslist until I found a glider that was good quality and affordable. The glider is a little awkward, visually because it's red gingham and the rest of the room is neutraled out and somewhat modern. I'm not sure how to tone the the "country" look down. Any suggestions?

We already had a mid-century walnut dresser, mid-century teak desk, and 2 Adrian Pearsall end tables (all found over the years on Craigslist). Charlie made the sconces out of ipe wood. My knot painting, still unfinished, hangs above the bed, and an affirmation banner from Secret Holiday hangs on the wall across from the bed.

So far everything else is pretty sparse and I like it that way; we have too few "sparse" spaces in our house. I think I've told Charlie every single night before bedtime that I like our grown up bedroom. It's fun to play house with him.

Don't forget the sale!

Don't miss out on the original art available in the shop! Everything is irresistibly priced!

Ch ch changes

Mabel drew a picture of her little brother, something Charlie and I both celebrated somewhat quietly. A drawing felt like a huge step in the direction of acceptance: acceptance that change is on it's way, and will (has) arrive with the arrival of a little brother.

It's been trying, interesting, and a slowly evolving experience letting Mabel know she has a safe place with us and will not be replaced by her brother. M's first reaction was that she didn't want a brother, he must be a sister. She eventually accepted that he will be a boy, but firmly (and often) let us know she would not be sharing her strollers, her toys, or anything else of hers with him. All the while, when I sit on the couch and she snuggles up next to me, Boy-in-my-Belly maneuvers into a ball next to Mabel, so my belly is bulging off to the side. I think he already knows and loves her voice. We point it out to M, doing our best to know she's an integral part of the family.

Following a link from Aesthetic Outburst, I landed on Molasses Candy. It's comforting to read stories of similar anxiety over transition and celebration of artistic expression. Her post on drawing faces inspired me to look into the stages of children's artistic development. I loved reading this blog post from The Wonder Years about the Pre-Schematic Stage.

Winter to Spring

It's not so easy to put a picture of myself online, but I also don't want to hide behind cute pictures of Mabel (though I think they're far more interesting than pics of me). I don't look in full length mirrors very often, so sitting in front of one for an hour and a half (yes, it takes that long for me to get a hair cut) provides a rare opportunity for self-scrutiny, but here I am in the car post hair cut.

Not only am I simplifying our "stuff" and purging the studio, I'm shedding my own layers in preparation for the addition of the new branch on our family tree. I had well over a foot of hair cut off! A literal weight has been lifted and I'm ready for another weekend of house preparations. Out with old winter drab, and in with a cool and fresh spring!

Super Duper Sale!

I still don't have all of the prints in the shop that I've found while re-organizing the studio, but I've put a lot of them up on the site. The pink and black bird is from 2007 and I only made a handful of them with the intention of keeping the print limited. I thought they'd sold out long ago, but lucky you, I had a couple hidden away!

Not so costly Curtains

Judging from the number of inspiration boards I've made lately, I have a little too much down time at work. Now that we're settling into the new bedroom, though, I've realized the roman shades don't make the room dark enough at night for me, especially in winter, when the trees don't block the commercial lighting in the neighboring parking lot.

I've been traveling 'round the 'net looking at curtain options and I'll tell you what. Curtains are expensive, and I get tired of them too easily to invest $300 in a single window.  Theoretically I could make some myself, which I haven't ruled out, but here are a bunch of store bought options that could work without adding to my to-do list. Let it be known, however, that $45 for a single curtain is well out of my price range. Whatever happened to sets of curtains, people??

Vintage-style curtain options:
Pottery Barn Mini Stripe Drape in Raspberry $44.99/panel, sale price, 84"
World Market Victorian Garden Jute Curtain $34.99/panel, 84" length
Ikea BJÖRNLOKA $14.99/pair ($30! for both windows!)

Modern curtain options:
West Elm Scribble Window Panel $39/panel, 84" length
Crate and Barrel Norah Curtain Panel $59.95/panel, 84" length
Ikea MALIN TRÅD $39.99/pair

And a few affordable Target options from their new Threshold line. These are all under $30 per panel. Still, 4 panels and $120 later, I'm not sure I love any of them that much.

In the meantime, I'm thinking hanging a sheet with some safety pins will work just fine. Do you see a pattern or style that stands out?

Fox's Lair

We have a clearance sale going on in the shop until mid-April, when things will be shut down so we can welcome kiddo #2 into the world with minimal distraction. Check it out, all the 8 1/2 x 11" prints are marked down to $10! In order to set up our new bedroom, I've disassembled the computer and printers to move to the old bedroom. I print each larger print upon order, which means the larger prints won't be available again until some time after Fox's arrival.

Interestingly, we haven't created a nursery for him. We worked and planned so much for M's nursery and never really used it as one, it just functioned as a studio decorated as a nursery. Carried over from that experience, we haven't felt the pressure to get a space ready for him. Since finding out #2 is a boy, I've been sorting and purging the attic full of M's old clothes and nursery items, keeping those that are unisex. Thankfully we're all set with clothes, sheets, and toys.

After a little time over at the Lay Baby Lay blog, though, I realized there was something missing. One thing I wish we'd gotten for Mabel's nursery was a comfy, sleep-in-able glider/rocker and ottoman. The Eames rocker just didn't work out for those exhausting nights of rocking M to sleep...I can only imagine how nice it would be to snuggle up into a cushy arm chair rocker and lull myself to sleep snuggled up with both of the little ones.The dream of a modern, clean lined glider prompted me to pull together a few ideas for Fox's room.

Now, if I sell a measly (ha!) 50 prints in the next 5 weeks we just might make that dreamy glider happen!

a. Little Castle Charleston swivel glider; b. Brainstorm Print and Design Plant and Animal print ; c. DaVinci Jenny Lind Crib (we've since passed the crib M used along to her cousin, looks like it's pretty easy to find a similar one on craigslist); d. A + B + C pillow from Land of Nod; e. shaggy orange rug we already own; f. And just for the sake of pulling the look together, swatches of brown (gray or navy would also work) gingham crib sheet and chambray for the crib skirt. I have no real source for those, I just like the pattern and color plus we have an abundance of white crib sheets.

Co-Sleeping Transition

The room as it has been for the past year.

We've been working on making Mabel's room a bigger part of her life. Although we've had it decorated and set up for her, we have been co-sleeping since she was about 4 months old. We started transitioning M to her own bed about 8 months ago, then the first trimester icks kicked in and I wasn't up for any sort of change. As my belly goes from giant to gargantuan, and since we went from king sized bed to queen, sleeping has been a little tight. Now we're back at transitioning, which hasn't been particularly easy (neither C nor I thought it would be). I've been sleeping in her room, so I'm still close by, but told her at the outset I would sleep in there 8 times. Other than that, we've been trying different tactics to make our little one feel more like her room is her special place.

One of my first thoughts was to let her pick out the sheets for her bed. I started looking around at sheets online, but decided I wanted to feel them before splurging on sheets. I also couldn't imagine a good way to present the options to Mabel in a way that felt tangible. By the time we'd receive the sheets she would've forgotten all about them, and the novelty of making her own choice would've long lost its sparkle. 

Garnet Hill Painted Ponies ($68 for twin sheet set); Land of Nod Field Guide ($69.00 for twin sheet set);  Circo Pretty Horses ($17.99 for twin sheet set at Target);  Land of Nod Princess and the Pea ($79.00 for twin sheet set)


M and I took a trip to Target and made it to the bedding section just in time for an emotional collapse of her 3 year old spirit; sobs followed by a determined declaration that she was not going to sleep in her own bed.  I realized the choices were far too overwhelming, the change was too forced feeling, and we went home without the sheets. Fast forward to yesterday: another trip to Target. I had it in my mind that we were going to pick out a set of solid sheets for her bed and use fabric markers to make them her own. Straight to the solids, I asked if she liked the pinkish color they had, she said she wanted the blue ones. Blue it was! En route leaving the sheets, though, we saw another set with a cute little horse pattern and she said she wanted those, too! Success!

We're 3 nights into the transition, and it's been tough on all of us. I know co-sleeping is a touchy subject and everyone has a different opinion, but there are many different approaches to parenting. Plus, as my dad says, "There are enough ways for everybody." So yeah, we're finding our way. 

Progress

We picked up the new bed this weekend, but since we're still switching the studio over from this room to the former bedroom, we haven't finished painting the floor...which means no rug in the new bedroom yet. Still, it's progress.

I had a chance to work on the knot painting again, while the little one tested out the new bed (nap time!) but made it too mauvey/muddy for my taste, so let's just consider it still in-progress.