So, I am not much of one for impulse buys, but
I just couldn't resist these cute slippers on sale for $9 at Target.
I haven't always been a slipper-wearing kind of person,
but my feet have started to hurt a bit lately with the
extra weight they have on them, so I thought some
slippers would be helpful. I also thought they would cheer
me up if I brought them to the hospital for the birth of baby boy.
Just thought I would share my special little purchase.
Have you bought any on impulse lately, and what was it?
I'm curious.
Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I've pretty much known
that I want to aim for a natural birth. I completely understand that
there are certain things beyond my control that would keep me from
having a natural birth...ie, the baby could be in harm somehow which
would make me need c-section, or the labor could go on for a ridiculous
amount of time to the point where I just couldn't possibly bear the pain and
need an epidural. But the thought of being hooked up to a bunch
of things and not being able to feel/experience what is happening
isn't very appealing to me.
I know everyone who is a mom or is planning to be a mom has a pretty
strong opinion on medicated or un-medicated birthing. And I also
know that ultimately when it comes down to it, all that really matters
is being able to birth your baby and hold him in your arms.
I just thought I would share what I have been thinking about
and how I am personally approaching it all.
I've been really blessed to have some people around me that
have done home births, water births and hypnobirths. Maybe that's why
the more natural approach seems more normal to me than to most.
I don't think you can plan on going into a "natural" birth without doing
quite a bit of mental preparation. For most people (including myself) there is a lot of fear
about the actual pain, and on top of that, our culture makes it seem
totally normal and acceptable to jump at the chance for meds.
So, I've been reading a lot, trying to educate myself.
About all the negative stuff that can happen,
which I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on and don't need to
pay much more attention to...and about all things you can
do to prepare yourself for a natural birth. A friend of a friend bought the
hypnobabies materials and had her baby a few months ago pretty free
of pain due to the work she did beforehand. I know not everyone has that
experience that does the hypnobabies work, but she did and I've been
pretty encouraged by that! I am meeting with her this week to hear more
about her experience.
I just finished the book Hypnobirthing. It basically emphasizes
working through the fears you have in regards to giving birth
and replacing negative connotations with positive ones.
Some of it seems kind of cheesy, but if you can wade through
that stuff, there is some really valuable information. It
has made me evaluate my fears and help me to start working on
what I need to do to truly relax my body. It's not really about hynotizing
yourself, but about re-framing your thought patterns. And learning
how to breathe! I am starting to become more aware of when
my body is tense and when it is truly relaxed. I am learning to be
more in tune with my body and baby boy inside of me.
Anyway, I could go on, but maybe I'll do some blog posts in the
coming days about what else I have been doing to prepare.
Baby boy is set to arrive in early May. I've been doing lots of other
things as well to get ready for his arrival. God has been doing a lot
of work on my heart.
Here are some other books that I have read that have been helpful:
Your Best Birth, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, This Blog post
Happy Valentine's Day!
I created the above card and sent it out to some friends and family.
I haven't sent out Valentines in a long time, but I really wanted
to this year. For one, I do stationery for a living and it's always
fun to get something in the mail! I think my grandma is the only
one who sends me a Valentine, but it always makes me feel so special
to know she took the time to do that.
We celebrated Valentines a bit early last night. Darren made me
a delicious roasted garlic chicken dinner with asparagus,
bread and little individual creme brulees for dessert.
We had to set up our table in the middle of our living room
because our dining room is currently painting headquarters for
our doors. We painted all our trim white, which means we have to do the
same to our doors :) Definitely not one of Darren's favorite projects!
We have been in the middle of re-doing our
bedroom and guest room getting ready for baby.
I will post the pics of the remodeled rooms as soon as they
are done. They are looking 100% better than a month or two ago!
We had a really great time together last night chatting over
our candle-lit dinner. Darren makes my heart very full.
I truly delight in him and love our time together.
We talked a lot about baby boy joining our family
and how our love is just going to increase.
Speaking of baby boy...here's a shot from today at the
beginning of 29 weeks. We can't wait to see his little face!
I recently hosted a women's craft night at our church.
I taught them how to make 4 different types of fabric and felt flowers
for hair clips, headbands and brooches. It was a lot of fun hanging out with
everyone and seeing what everyone came up with! I just love
some of the flowers the girls made! They are soooo easy and add
style to whatever you are wearing!
In other news, I have been doing LOTS of invites lately! Wedding season
has more than officially started! The invites below were customized from the Wildflowers
design I sell in my etsy shop! I am in love with the new blue bakers twine I ordered from
Divine Twine. 
Happy valentine's weekend!
This past Wednesday was my friend Liz's birthday.
She decided she wanted to celebrate by having a 1920's themed
party full of great food and parlour games! On Friday she cooked up a
literal feast for all of us, full of flavorful pork with raspberry sauce,
mashed potatoes, green beans, salad and bread. It was seriously
all so delicious! She even whipped up two desserts!
You can see my current belly bump in the pic (26 weeks), I wasn't really
in twenties gear, but I did wear a dress which is a rare occurence!
And take a look at my cute hubby, he is so handsome. He
got into character a bit more than me :)
After we ate we played "parlour games" from a book
Liz found at some thrift store last year. It's full of the games people
actually played back in those days. We played three ridiculous
games that had our bellies all hurting from laughing so much.
Thanks Liz, for being born and for hosting such a fun party!
We had a wonderful time!
All pics above by Eric Berget
Just thought I would share a few more of the new
designs available in my etsy shop. As always they can be
customized by color, font and of course wording! I have a few more to share...
but just have to wait until we have some sun to take the pics! It sure is
gray in Minnesota in January!
Lately I've had packaging on my mind a lot
so I thought I would share some ideas that I think are really cute!
I think good, creative packaging adds so much to your product.
I've been in the process of coming up with some new packaging for
my wedding invites. Once I have it all figured out, I will share with
all of you! Twine, stamps, and all the little details
can make packages so pretty!
1. Divine Twine (Baker's twine that comes in many different colors
2. Japanese Washi Tape
3. Calligraphy return address stamp
4. Decorative hang tags
5. Rubber thank you stamp
One of my favorite blogs is Young House Love. I'm sure it's one
of yours too, and if you don't know about it, I am sure it will be
one of your faves soon!
For a limited time when you place a wedding order
through my invite shop and mention YHL, you
will receive 10% off your entire order!
The invite above is one of my new designs recently listed.
I am going to have a full blog post up soon with all the other
designs!
So fun! Get shopping and send this off to your engaged friends!
24 weeks! Yikes, times is flying by!
My sweet friend Becca from Liminality has been taking pics
of the baby bump since week 20. She is a great photographer,
now officially on her own doing weddings, portraits, babies, etc.
If you live in the Twin Citites I would definitely recommend checking her out!
We were actually friends through the bible study at our public high school
and through our church and then lost touch until just the past year
or so. We were just talking today about how weird it is that we
are involved in each other's lives again. She was always someone
I looked up to in high school. It's cool when God brings people
from past phases back into your life.
I am doing lots of wedding invites right now, working with
lots of great brides throughout the US! I have more
new designs to share with you in the coming days. We just
haven't had any sun for me to shoot them in! If you know
of anyone getting married this spring or summer, send them
my way!
I've been thinking a lot lately about the upcoming year. Another year has past
and another year is upon us. Funny how fast time goes, it's something
I think about quite often.
This year is going to be different than any other year though, beacause
this year we will be welcoming a child into our family.
Wow!
I am normally pretty reflective, but being pregnant has made me even more
reflective. What kind of parents do we want to be? What kind of family
do we want to have? What if really hard things come our way? How do we want
our child to look back on his childhood? How do you raise a child to love and
cherish the mystery and beauty of God and our need for salvation?
I don't know why, but sometimes, as reflective as I am, it's hard for
me to be honest. I don't usually go too deep on this blog, maybe it's because
I am not totally sure who is reading and the internet often feels very
impersonal to me. Everyone puts out a lot of beautiful things, but rarely do you get
a glimpse of what people are really like...what they struggle with, what their
hearts really long for, etc.
I've never shared this but I have chronic excema (a skin condition). I also
struggle with anxiety at times and that tends to make my excema worse (because
I scratch to relieve the anxiety). My skin is so dry that I have always used a heavy cream to
moisturize it. The bad part about that is that it is has a bunch of nasty chemicals in it.
Therefore, I pretty much avoid chemicals in just about every other area of my life:
toothpaste, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, food, etc.
I have searched high and low for a cream that would work the same but have
natural ingredients. It is nearly impossible, and believe me, I have looked.
So, I have had to say to myself, "you are never going to find something just like
moisturel, move on and get used to something else."
So, that is where I am at with that. I have been using some natural creams that
don't work nearly as well, but it's something I need to do. And there are many
other areas of my life where I need to take the same approach. I feel like
I need to start making conscious decisions about certain things instead of letting
them steal my joy. This winter has been hard.
I am not sure if it's the pregnancy hormones or what, but being alone here
in my home office often feels very entrapping. I get out a fair amount, but I
really need to get out more to see people. Working at home has made me realize
how much I really enjoy people even I tend to be an introvert at times.
So, if you are still reading, thanks. I know I don't post blogs like this often
but I just feel like I need to. I am not one to make resolutions or really even set goals.
They tend to stress me out, but I want this year to be different. I have a baby
boy who I am going to meet and fall in love with. I have a husband who I am
crazy in love with and many other things to be over the moon about.
This year I want to:
Learn to navigate motherhood with joy
Develop more of a vision for my life
Choose joy in hard situations
Have a lot of fun with my baby
Grow closer to the Lord
Find more ways to serve others
Find a daily schedule that suits me better
Grow birdy blue
Be more authentic
Love Darren
Here's to a great 2011 my friends. Thanks for being a part of this crazy ride!
This past summer I came across the children's books by Elsa Beskow.
I am not sure why I became so enchanted with her work, but there is just
some quality to her illustrations that makes me so happy. They are just
so innocent and sweet.
Elsa Beskow lived from 1874-1953 and is from Sweden. I have Scandinavian roots,
so maybe that is another reason why her work resonates with me.
For our baby boy's nursery I may include some of these prints, but I am
not totally sure how I want to attack the nursery. I really love modern baby
design, but am also drawn to old looking things :) As you can tell I am
a bad decision maker! We have friends coming over in two weekends to
help paint, so I will have to make some decisions by then!
I've been scouring ohdeedoh.com here and there for inspiration. They have some
really cute ideas from real kid's rooms. Do you have any other places
you would reccommend looking for nursery ideas? I'd love to hear!
