Catching Up… a rambling post that you should probably skip if you value your time

Hello there, friends. :)  I am back from my fall off the edge of the earth.

I *just* remembered that I have a blog.  And that I have a lot of unfinished projects pertaining to said blog.  And that it’s always after I prematurely announce said projects (migrating printables to new site, opening Etsy store, upcoming blog posts, etc.) that life takes over and everything is left half done.  Sigh.

Will I ever learn?!

I have not forgotten that I am pregnant, although I may be in denial about how much energy it takes to grow a baby and how having a body twice its normal size can considerably slow a person down.  And I may have forgotten once or twice that I have a husband and son.  Apparently pregnant me is not all that big on reality… preferring instead to escape into a good book or barring that, escape by being just grumpy enough to scare everyone away for a while.

I have been about as stellar of a wife and mother these past few months as I have been a blogger.  

(M kissing Baby – my view from above… this happens all the time, proving that M is much, much sweeter than his mama, and that I do not deserve such a blessing.  I love that boy.)

 

The first 4 to 5 months I was miserable and somewhat depressed – for a variety of reasons:

• Going cold turkey off of all caffeine
• Going off my tiny little sleep helper (and mild anti-depressant), also cold turkey
• Hence, not sleeping!  (A big one for me, just look at my blog title.)
• All day “morning” sickness and fatigue
• Lack of activity because we weren’t sure how much I should be doing (I was on some sort of bedrest my entire pregnancy with M… and strict bedrest – no sitting up, lying on left side all day – the final 3 months)
• The messy house that resulted
• The lack of social interaction that resulted
• Beating myself up for not being totally joyful despite all the above circumstances – what kind of mama am I if I’m not happily sacrificing anything and everything for a new baby?  (Now this is NOT at all what I would say to someone else in the same situation – sacrifice is sacrifice and not pleasant by definition – but this is what I said to myself… because I am crazy that way.)

I was given the okay to do more about a month ago (we are currently at 29 weeks), and things have brightened up since then.  We did take a trip to Missouri to visit my family prior to that (in which I did nothing except sit on my mom’s couch and eat home-cooked food), and since being given the okay to do more I’ve felt better.  But I can’t do all I want to – I get tired!  I’m huge and I move much, much more slowly!  I’m temperamental and emotional and you’d be surprised at how much time goes by during a good crying session, or how much time the endless apologizing takes up!  My feet swell up in the middle of productive times and I have to go lie down and put them up instead of actually accomplishing something – curse those feet of mine! 

But, I’m back on caffeine and that makes things a little better.  No sugar, no salt, hardly any carbs (I’m borderline gestational diabetes, and have had some bouts of high blood pressure)… so you are not going to take my one cup of weak coffee away from me.  No.

Maternity clothes have been the bane of this entire pregnancy.  My tummy will tolerate no elastic.  Frankly, it complains about anything other than ultra-soft woven cotton or knit fabric.  So, dresses would be my friend, wouldn’t you think?  Except they are so expensive!!  And the ones from when I was pregnant with M fit my expansive middle okay, but there is no space, at all, for the girls, if you know what I mean.  Or, as M says, pointing a wiggly finger in the general direction of my chest, “those round things that have gotten so big”.  (Indeed they have, M, and thank you for noticing.  But please stop trying to cop a feel every time you stand next to me in church.) 

SO… I have been sewing up a storm, and neglecting everything else.  Snipping tight-busted-dresses into halves and making them into soft-waistbanded skirts, altering other skirts so they have soft waistbands… sewing some things from scratch, and even drafting my own patterns.  Whew.  The energy that was going to go into creating baby things for my store (and my baby) has been re-directed into a desperate attempt to clothe my growing self.

I’ve learned a lot, and have been frustrated a lot, but I have a working wardrobe and that is what matters.  A wonderful friend sent me a fancy dress and two extra skirts plus a couple of t-shirts, and I think I am set until the end of this here thing, unless we have cold weather because I have no pants that fit.  But I’m not thinking about that. 

Busy, busy, busy, I’ve even made two pairs of dress pants for M, which he decided to outgrow within 2 weeks, thankyouverymuch. 

Wanna see some of what I’ve been up to?  Of course you do!

Starting at the top, going to left to right:

• cotton dress, fully lined, made from a maternity pattern which had to be altered 10 times in order to not look like a tent.  However, I LOVE how it turned out.
• quick dress I made from a t-shirt and cotton fabric – no pattern, just wrapped that fabric around my waist and gathered it to the t-shirt – love this one too!
• no pattern skirt made from soft, soft microfiber fabric with a knit waistband – sooooo comfy
• another comfy skirt made from a dress I cut in half, with another comfy waistband.
• skirt from my friend that I altered to have yet another knit waistband (can’t see it in the pic, but it’s a wonderful long, soft, slinky skirt.
• shirt from a pattern that I altered to have a gathered neckline – so cute and simple, and LONG enough to cover my tummy; why are maternity shirts never long enough??
• another long shirt made from the same pattern as the pink dress
• an attempt at capris – fully lined – from a pattern I drafted myself using measurements.  They are far from perfect.  Pants are a hard thing to get just right.
• shorts sewn from another pattern I drafted myself – love them.  Flat-front waistband with elastic in back, I wear these every day.  They really need to be washed.
• A little nightshirt for M from the softest knit cotton ever.  Also drafted this pattern myself – with raglan sleeves, which were super easy.
• Current project – more shorts for myself
• Next project – maybe a dress, maybe another top
• brown dress pants for M
• black dress pants for M

And all of that within about 3 weeks.  Are you impressed?  :)

Hope you are having a wonderful spring/ beginning of summer!

Have a beautiful day!
Nicole :)

What Mama’s been working on

 

I’m so happy with how this turned out, and couldn’t resist showing it to the world. :)

If Baby is a boy, we will use M’s baptism outfit for him (which just happened to be Daddy’s too, so it’s very special!), but if baby is a girl we will use this:

Now, I am a simple sort of girl, so this is about as frilly as I want anything to get around here.  Isn’t it sweet though?  And I designed it myself, so I like to stare at it in amazement every once in a while.  There were times I did not think it would even resemble a dress.  It still needs buttons on the back, but otherwise it is finished. 

It’s enough to make me ok with oceans of pink (well, ponds maybe) around here, if we are blessed with a girl. ;) 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Inspiration…

I struggle with depression.  Have I mentioned that before?  I meant to write about this, especially in relation to post-partum depression, at some point this year, but well, the year seems to have gotten away from me.  I’m not going to write much about it in this post either because, oh la la, it is just not something I want to get into today.  Some day though, I promise! :)

{By the way, it is not uncommon for women who have fertility problems to have trouble with depression too – an imbalance in hormones can wreak havoc on our bodies, minds, and souls in many ways.}

I am usually able to keep it at bay, without drugs, although I do take a very, very mild dose of an antidepressant to help me sleep.  Sleep is so important.  So are vitamins, outside time (I need to work on this!), finding the right pace for my days (not too busy or over-extended, not too empty), time spent nourishing my soul with prayer and inspirational reading, keeping a focus on goals, and making sure priorities are kept in proper order.  It is possible to still be a good mother and wife – a wonderful mother and wife – and fight depression at the same time!

One thing I’ve often noticed about myself is that keeping all of these things going (the things mentioned in the paragraph above) is much easier when I am in the middle of reading some sort of helpful book about motherhood, the spiritual life, homemaking… anything along those lines.  And if I’m not currently reading and enjoying something like that, lack of motivation and then depression can settle in pretty quickly.  I’ve always considered this to be a weakness of mine…  And then I began reading Jamie Martin’s book, Steady Days: A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood.  (You can find Jamie here, here, and here.  She is amazing.) 

I’ve had this book on my to-read list for ages.  Recently, it finally seemed like the right time to pick it up and immediately I was struck with her acknowledgement of the power of words.  And it’s true.  Words put together in the right way can have real power.  I feel like this is something I’ve always known, have perhaps even mentioned myself, but somehow this time I realized it in a completely different way.  God uses the words of others to lift us up and encourage us and keep us going.  It’s a wonderful gift to have these words, and it is not a weakness to need them!

Jamie mentioned making a box full of quotes that inspire her.  If it is good enough for her, it’s good enough for me. :)  Just thinking about doing this made me feel more calm and peaceful… the idea of having something to look to on those days when I need an extra nudge upward so I don’t find myself spiraling downward… what a blessing that would be for my whole family.

So I bought a little wooden box at Michaels and decorated it with some paint pens: Hee hee – it looks to me like something my 10-year old self would have made, not exactly the piece of beauty I had envisioned, but it will work. :)

And I began filling it up with inspiration:

Now I’m off to tell Jamie about it and give her back a little of the encouragement she has given me. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Mama’s craft time – A Silhouette for Father’s Day

  

I’ve been meaning to do this project ever since M was a little guy.  Finally I’ve gotten around to it, and it is going to make a fabulous Father’s Day gift!

I remember my Kindergarten teacher doing this with all of her students (what a patient woman she must have been!).  She used an overhead projector, and had each child stand in front of it in order to cast their shadows on the wall. She had large pieces of black paper taped to the wall and she traced the shadows onto them.  My memory is a little fuzzy about how exactly she traced the shadows onto the paper, but I remember standing very still and how absolutely adorable the finished pieces were, and how much my parents ooh-ed and aah-ed over it. :)  I’d guess they were about 9" X 12”, finished.  I decided to make a much smaller version for my husband.

To do this with M, I first had him stand in front of a sunny window, showing his profile, and snapped a quick picture:Much, much more do-able for him than standing still for a long time!

Then I played around with it in my photo-editing software so I could see the details and have good contrast, and eventually printed it out at the size I wanted.  I had already bought little wooden plaques at Michael’s, the faces of which measure 3”x3”, so I cropped closely around M’s profile and printed the picture out at just under 3”x3”.   

I (oh, so carefully) cut out the profile, then taped it, photo-side down, to a piece of heavy weight black construction paper, and used a sharp pencil to trace around his profile, adding in eyelashes for definition of his eye area.I placed it face down, by the way, so when it was finished the opposite side would show him facing the same way as the original photo.  That’s not necessary, I guess, but somehow felt “right” to this OCD mama. ;)

I ended up (after several that weren’t turning out just right) using a craft knife for the detailed areas.

I carefully cut out his sweet little silhouette, decoupaged some patterned paper to my wood pieces, then decoupaged on the silhouette.  I finished it all off with 3 coats of clear varnish.

 

 

 They are a little shiny because the sealer hadn’t dried yet. 
I just couldn’t wait to take pictures!

Sweet, no?  I made one for myself while I was at it because I know the one for Daddy will be going to his office.  And then I made one for my parents.  I’m on a roll, anyone else want one?  Heehee. ;) 

If I do this again in the future, I will probably go with a larger size as the detail areas were really hard to get right.  Overall though, I really enjoyed this mama-craft! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

How Lent Went (3)

:) 1. artwork    2. lenten tray    3. countdown cross

The Jesse Tree has been such a meaningful part of Advent in our home that I thought perhaps we could do something similar during Lent.  I searched and searched and searched some more, but couldn’t find anything that seemed just right for us.  So, of course, I ended up making something of my own.  By the time I had everything figured out and ready to go we were well into Lent.  But it has turned out great, and we’ll use it for years to come, I’m sure.

I decided to use a flannel board as our background; it just works so nicely, and I like having the softness of felt pieces to place on it.  A simple flannel board is super easy to make!  Ours is about 30” high and 20” wide.

I cut a large cross from brown felt and tacked it onto the board.

All of the pieces we put on this were made by printing pictures and images onto transfer paper (like for t-shirts), which I then ironed onto white felt. 

We began with this little piece, made for Ash Wednesday (although, as I mentioned, we were a bit late): 

Then we had tiny little flower bulbs, numbered from 1 to 40 for the days of lent, and we placed the correct one on the cross each day: At this time we’d also read the Bible reading for the day, or, if the story seemed a little too much for M’s understanding, we would read from our Little Acts of Grace book. 

Each Sunday we read two of the Sunday readings - one Old Testament story and one New Testament story - and placed small pictures illustrating the stories on the flannel board.  Here are the ones for the second Sunday – Moses striking a rock in the desert and water coming out for the thirsty people, and Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman:

 

Sundays are not part of the 40 days of Lent, so no flower bulbs those days.  This is how it looked about one-half of the way through:

We also had some special pictures for Holy Thursday (The Last Supper), and Good Friday (a crucifix):

Then Easter morning came and…

Alleluia was freed from it’s little tomb and placed high on our board:

And…

All the flower bulbs had burst into bloom!

A picture of the empty tomb was in the center of the cross:

It was really beautiful, and such a nice way to really make Lent this year a more meaningful part of our life.

This went over pretty well with M, although he does like the Jesse Tree more, because he gets “a yummy piece of candy” every day. :)  I felt like something was missing each day with just putting a flower bulb on the cross.  I think it would be nice to add something else – perhaps a list of little things to do, letting M pick one per day at the same time he places the bulb on the cross…. I’ll have to think about this some more! 

Just a little feather to put in your cap and think about… I am planning on making this available as a printable eventually, with more detailed instructions, daily readings, etc., and I plan on making a complete second set and holding a giveaway for it on my blog sometime early next year. :)  So if you are interested, make sure to check in around early February in 2012, if you can remember! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)