11/30/09

Handmade Holiday Giveaway

I first found Lindsay's beautiful ornaments two years ago when I was running the RVA kit club and still frequently scrapbooking. Her handmade ornaments caught my eye with their bright color schemes and vintage feel. I have a soft spot for miniature trees, I suppose.




Her Etsy shop, Other Such Nonsense, is full of handmade holiday cards, ornaments, and wall art in bright, beautiful colors. We just received our second ornament from Lindsay last week and already have it displayed on our tree. It's perfect for Ruby's first Christmas!


Lindsay is giving away this beautiful, pink WISH ornament to one of my readers. All you have to do is leave a comment sharing a favorite holiday memory from your childhood and I'll randomly pick a winner on Wednesday.

I finished the construction part of our Advent calendar this afternoon! I've wanted to make one for a few years now but never settled on an idea in time for December 1st. I finally gave up trying to figure out an insanely creative, beautiful, AND simple way to make ours and settled for a simple design that I finished in about two hours this afternoon. Breaks for tending to children included.

Be back soon,
Rachel

Last Chance For December Sponsors


If you've been considering a blog sponsor spot, today is the last day to secure your place for December. With 2,500 to 3,000 hits a day your shop is sure to get a lot of holiday traffic! Check out our ad inquiries page for details and then be sure to e-mail Leigh-Ann @ FreckledNest (at) gmail (dot) com today!

xoxo,
Rachel

11/29/09

Dreaming of a White Christmas?








source


source

When I was young my family would go to a tree farm near our Northern CA home and cut our own so Christmas time always smelled like pine trees but these days we have an artificial white tree that is full of bright vintage ornaments. Last year I pruned the large pine tree in our front yard to make a wreath for our porch so we still got a little whiff whenever we'd come home. This is how our tree looked last year.

If you're a tree putter upper, do you have an artificial one or go au natural? See you tomorrow with more!

xoxo,
Rachel

That Was Nice


We had a full week of family from both sides (though not all of them), just enough great food to have enjoyed the holiday without feeling like stuffed turkeys ourselves, and some down time this weekend to catch our breathe and get some work done. Ruby went with us to see New Moon and slept through most of it like a champ! She woke up with a piercing cry about thirty minutes before the end so I spent the rest of the movie bouncing her on my shoulder in the walkway. We decided Edward looked just as good from down there.



Sebastian and I put up the Christmas tree together again this year and didn't break any of our vintage ornaments! His strategy was to place as many on one branch as possible and then move a few branches over and do it again. It got to be a little crowded about three feet up so I would rearrange them when he would go get another ornament but he would come back to those same spots every time. He kept telling me he was so happy for Christmas time because he could throw snow at Scoop (Bob the Builder) and that the tree looked perfect. I'm so glad he gets as excited about trimming the tree as me and I hope we have many more Christmases with memories of overloaded branches and empty boxes of Shiny Brites stacked around the room.



This afternoon we're going to attempt to paint a wooden train, make stockings from wool suits, and any other fun projects we can tackle in between newborn naps. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are ready for all Christmas, all the time!

xoxo,
Rachel

11/24/09

Where To Begin...


So much to catch up on after three weeks away! I've missed you all but I really enjoyed all of my guest bloggers' posts and was really inspired by their tutorials and links. I'm so thankful for their willingness to fill in for me while I focused on our new little girl. Jen, Jenny, Ashley, Ruby, Mandi, Vivs, Candace and Dylan, thank you for the gift of time! Now it's time to share how it all went down.


Unlike my first pregnancy, warm up contractions with Ruby started around 36 weeks and grew more frequent the closer we got to the 38-39 week mark. After two or three days of thinking 'this is it' and frantically cleaning the whole house, Brett and I decided to take a step back from the edge of insanity and go on with life as normal until the contractions stopped me in my tracks with seriousness. My due date rolled around, family came in from out of town, and the contractions maintained their teasing.

I woke up in the morning on Saturday, November 7th with the Black Eyed Peas song 'I've Got A Feeling' running through my mind. I tweeted about it, ate breakfast, and then watched Sebastian play in the front yard. It was a gorgeous Fall day. Around 10:30 a.m. I felt a contraction that made me sit up straight and wince a little. Two strong contractions later and I decided it was time to record them. Sure enough, they were coming regularly about 6-8 minutes apart and lasting about 20-30 seconds. I told Brett but we decided he probably still had plenty of time to go to the YMCA with Sebastian to get in a workout. I was off to take a shower and get the house picked up. Just in case.

He hadn't even pulled into the parking lot of the YMCA before I called him to come home for moral support because my contractions were about five minutes apart and getting stronger. The next 40 minutes were nuts. I was ordering him around with jobs to do while I wiped down counter tops, cleaned the bathroom sink, picked up the studio, and put away laundry. I knew I only had about five minutes of work in between each contraction so I made sure I was always somewhere that I could squat and relax my muscles. We finally called the midwife and nurse around 12:30p.m. and then called my dad to tell him to text my mom that I was in labor. She was currently 40,000 feet in the air on her way to see us!


Our nurse, Beth, showed up at the house while Brett was getting the laboring tub filled up with water. She checked my vitals and then helped Brett with the tub. My contractions were now strong enough that I needed to lie down to manage them and asked Brett to stay close to offer counter pressure on my lower back where I felt the most pain. He was great and remembered exactly how to help me through them. I really felt like we were a team working to bring this baby out. Twenty minutes later Brett's mom and then the midwife arrived.

I got into the laboring tub soon after as my back pain was getting pretty intense and was able to relax in the warm water by hooking my arms over the side and relaxing my stomach and back muscles. Despite having learned a few pain management methods, the only things that worked for me were counter pressure on my lower back, visualizing the wave of each contraction, and low deep moans. I sound like a water buffalo when I'm having a baby. The midwives didn't need a monitor to show when they started and stopped because I was providing plenty of audio in that department.

I felt the urge to 'go to the bathroom' but didn't want to get out of the water. Lori told me it might make me more comfortable if I tried so after a contraction I was helped out of the tub and towards the bathroom (dripping wet in my skivvies and sports bra) and had another four contractions in about two minutes. Beth later reminded me that changing positions brings them on faster. Once I got back in the tub things got serious and I started feeling like I couldn't do it any longer. The pressure was getting stronger and I knew I was in transition. My water broke and relieved a little pressure but I was starting to need some direction from my midwives who had stayed pretty hands off until that point. Lori told me I needed to decide where that baby was going to be born. In the tub or in my bed.


It was a short walk from the tub to my bed but the significance of changing locations with each stage of labor wasn't lost on me. We were getting closer! Lori checked me for the first time to see how far along I was and enthusiastically told me I was at 10 cm and could push when I was ready. The problem was I wasn't ready.

I got on all fours to let gravity help me along and could feel an incredibly sharp pain in my lower back that made me want to yell, "Just pull her out!" Brett wasn't allowed to counter pressure any more since it could work against her moving down the birthing canal. I remember everyone being on the bed around me encouraging me to bear down and push through with each contraction. I was very aware of the sounds outside, the cold wash cloth being held to my forehead, my hair being a complete mess, and the bright sunshine that filled the room. It was beautiful but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to push her out. I was suddenly scared of the pain.

I finally got rolled onto my back again and in a matter of minutes I was moaning and groaning and yelling and finally able to push. Brett told me one second he couldn't see anything and the next second her head was out! Another push and at 3:46 p.m. she was mine. All 9 lbs of her! She was placed on my stomach and Brett cut the cord and other than being slightly blue when she came out, scored 9's and 10's on her Apgar. She was a loud little thing, just like her Mama. Labor lasted five hours and sixteen minutes and I know it's because those weeks of contractions had done a lot of the hard work beforehand. My mom arrived thirty minutes after she was born. We did the usual weighing, measuring, smiling like fools, and enjoying the natural high that comes with a new life in the room.


Our midwives stayed until about 9:00 p.m. that night making sure we were stable, giving us post-natal instructions, helping Ruby and I get a sitz bath, washing our sheets and towels, emptying the laboring tub, making sure we took to nursing, and sharing stories about other births. It felt so warm and comfortable and familial and Brett and I felt so thankful to have had the birthing experience we were hoping for.

Recovery has been speedy thanks to some homeopathic remedies and plenty of help from family, and despite being sleep deprived and smelling of milk and spit up most of the time, we are completely enjoying life with a newborn.

xoxo,
Rachel

Style School


Elsie Flannigan and Leigh-Ann Keffer are teaching an online class together that is all about discovering and developing your personal style. They are offering 30 projects as well as regular homework that will be showcased in your Style File binder to help you visually keep track of progress and leave you with something to refer back to when you're done. It's spread out over a six week period, as per usual, and will also include 10 interviews full of personal style questions and answers from myself and some of my favorite online friends!


I can see this class being great for those who love a little direction in the realm of fashion and home decor but I also think it would be a great way to realize your strengths and weaknesses in the crafting department in order to better develop your artistic style and branding. Here are a few samples of Elsie's and Leigh-Ann's projects.





Check here or here for more details and your chance to join in while class spots remain available. I'm happy to be contributing with three projects of my own this time around and hope to see you there!

xoxo,
Rachel

11/23/09

Bashful?



Anthropologie

I've got about four different posts half finished to share with ya'll but my brain is having a hard time developing cohesive paragraphs so I'll work on that and be back later tonight with something a bit more personal.

Monday=put up some Christmas decorations and assemble crib while drinking hot chocolate that has gotten cold because one of three people needed my attention.

* My ankles and finger joints are back!
* Ruby is beautiful.
* Sleeping on my stomach again, if only for thirty minutes at a time, has been glorious!
* I can reasonably fit into ONE pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. You don't know how happy this makes me since that didn't happen for MONTHS after Sebastian.
* My favorite part about Thanksgiving is the mashed potatoes and pecan pie. And being with family. But I really love that pecan pie.

xoxo,
Rachel

11/20/09

knitting? you can do it, too. (and a winner!)


Hello again! It's Jen from HeyJenRenee, wishing you a happy Friday. I was thrilled to see all of your comments on my guest post from Monday – thanks so much for all of your kind words!

Since there were several people who said "I want to learn how to knit!", I thought I'd throw out a few easy ways that you can get started. (Because, trust me – if I learned how, you can too.)

1. Visit your local yarn shop. I can almost promise that they offer beginner classes that can get you off to a solid start. Often, if you purchase yarn at a locally-owned shop, they'll offer free assistance should you run into trouble with your knitting.

2. See if your city has a knitting group. Meetup.com is a great resource to find local groups of women (and men too!) who schedule small gatherings at coffee shops and local hot spots to knit. If you're lucky enough to find a group like this, you'll surely make some great new friends and meet lots of knitters who will be more than willing to help you out if you get stuck with a new stitch or need a little help getting through your pattern. (They'll also hear you out should you need to vent about your day.)

3. Join Ravelry. This should be a requirement for everyone who knits or crochets. Ravelry offers thousands of free patterns and an online community where you can find anything and everything you could ever imagine to keep you inspired. It's also the perfect place to keep track of all the fun things you knit. Take a photo of your finished projects – especially of the things you end up giving away. It's all part of your knitting history.

4. YouTube. Rachel would agree – you can find awesome video tutorials for almost any knitting/crochet technique or stitch on YouTube. And you can replay them again and again until you get it, in the comfort of your own home.

5. Hit up that friend or family member. Do you know someone who is really great at knitting or crochet? Call them up and ask them if they'd be willing to give you a beginners' lesson. Meet them on a cold winter day and maybe offer to buy them a cup of coffee in exchange for their wisdom.

It may or may not be a bit chilly where you live, but around here it's starting to get downright cold. I'm obsessed with chunky knits, and I know I'm not the only one because they're everywhere. I'm addicted to knitting enormously long chunky scarves. (I'm not even going to tell you how many skeins go into one of these!) Here are a few other knits that have caught my eye...

Deena and Ozzy blanket scarf.

Flocks Urchin Pouf. (I am obsessed with these!)

Super-easy leg warmers, pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

Adorable nautical-themed crocheted ornaments.

This fantastically cushy colossal cables throw from Anthro? Yes please.

If you knit, you can totally make something similar for yourself using chunky yarn. Try this free pattern – Sutter's Mill Throw – by Lion Brand Yarn, photo above.

And now, for the winner of the chunky red cowl giveaway ... (courtesy of random.org)


EMILY!


You are the winner! Email me your shipping address (jgeigley[!at]gmail.com) and I'll send the red cowl your way. Thanks so much to everyone who entered. Stop by and visit me at HeyJenRenee any time. And a huge thank you to Rachel for this fun chance to be a guest blogger. I had such a blast!

11/19/09

old quilt...new life {part2}

Hey all...Ashley from Under the Sycamore here. I am back to share a few more ideas on giving new life to an old (beyond repair) quilt. After I made the first cut the rest weren't so hard. I quickly noticed that though most of the quilt was falling apart there were a handful of squares that could be saved. Since the quilt was old much of the fabric was too thin to survive being washed - which is highly important in a home with 4 kids. So as I cut away, I stashed away a beautiful pile of good condition squares:


I plan to make a quilt out of those squares and added ones, but can't decide if I should use a new, modern fabric or use some of my vintage sheets. What do you think?
After cutting the squares to save, I removed the batting and backing...which left me with a good size pile of backing. I wanted to find ways to use even scraps of the fabric, so here are so VERY simple ideas:

1. Old Window Dry Erase Board
I made a 'dry erase' board out of an old window. Since I was using it for a message board I opted for burlap (not to distract from the writing) and then added a small cut-out from one of the quilt fabrics. You can find directions on making a board like this from Orange Poppy via Design*Sponge. My window was bought for $5.00 and had concrete on the back holding in the glass. I chipped out all the concrete to be able to remove the glass and repair the fit (it was a little loose). I also added hooks to the bottom of mine.

2. Quilt covered Coasters
I made simple little pockets with a ribbon tie, then slipped square coasters inside. The batting in my quilt was so old it was just flat enough not to cause an issue with balance, but thick enough to help with condensation from cold glasses. Again...the tie cover was to allow for quick and easy cleaning in the event of a spilled drink.

3. Fabric Ornaments
Here I used some of the backing fabric, tore it into strips, twisted the strips and hot glued them to a glass ornament. I also spray painted the top for added color. I will say while taking a photo of it, I dropped the ornament on a hardwood floor...the fabric gave it added protection and it didn't break. Another plus with kids in the house!

4. Sewn notecards
For this project I simply stitched small pieces of scrap fabric to notecards I had already embellished with paper and doilies (paper kind). The added texture and dimension just makes them a bit more fun.
5. Ruffles on clothing
Now I only share this idea...not so much how mine turned out. I attempted to add a little extra to a plain white tee, but mine isn't working so much. I know a lot of you are seasoned seamstresses so you can take this idea and run with it....
Rachel, thanks for the opportunity to guest blog...it was fun, but I sure am ready to read your posts again! You've been missed!