last day of bed rest!

If a month ago someone had told me that I would need to go on a week and a half of bed rest with this baby, I probably would have been so excited at the thought of laying on the couch for days on end and watching movies. But then I got wicked sick for a week and did that anyway. I spent a week finishing up all of my library books and watching my Netflix movies. Once I was feeling better I was so excited to start all of my anticipatory baby sewing - plus, my back is finally feeling better so I was super game for camping out at my sewing machine.

Not so. Baby G decided to try to come a little early and my midwives prescribed bed rest until February 3, when Baby is officially full-term. So I settled back into my nest on the couch, requested new books from the library and frantically updated my Netflix queue. I have spent the last 10 days watching every and any movie, reading random books, finding crafts that I want to sew but can't yet and beating my husband's butt during some extremely competitive games of UNO.  As of midnight tonight, though, all of that ends and I get to be a regular person again. When I walk the dogs in the morning tomorrow it will be the first time I have set foot outside of our apartment since I went to my midwife appointment on last Friday. My spouse has promised me any kind of takeout PLUS frozen yogurt for dinner tonight as a reward for being successfully inactive for a week and a half (if you know my personality at all, inactivity does not suit me well... I have a bit of high-strung, nervous energy to work off most of the time).

Unplanned for down time has given me a chance to appreciate silly things in my life that I don't normally think about, though, so here is a glimpse of some happy things from my bed rest:

1. My weird dogs, who have been excellent furry companions for days on end.

2. The pdf pattern for these super cute baby sneakers that I bought from sewingwithme and can't wait to sew.

3. My parents, who are super nutty and felt bad that I couldn't go to the McCall winter carnival last weekend so they brought the carnival to me (Lincoln was less than thrilled about this).

4. My spouse, who loves me despite my currently massive dimensions and my ability to obliterate him at UNO MOD.

5. And, of course, the Bambino. Not that I have ever not appreciated this kid, but the last 10 days have made me so excited to meet it!

i can't help but love this.

This is a drawing by my friend Joyce Rice who lives in Chicago. I subscribe to her doodle blog, Teeny Robots, and you should too because a couple of times a week she posts hilarious drawings and paintings such as these. The dear husband and I think this drawing is so funny that it is currently the background on our computer. Go Extreme Brobots! And not only is Joyce a talented artist, but she is an awesome seamstress and has a great Etsy shop. Go Joyce, go!

I am at home and am extremely sick. Not fun. My crafting-to-sell has been put on hold until after the bambino arrives and then I have a whole arsenal of ideas to get cracking on. In the meantime, I have an awesome stack of Michael Miller fabric waiting to be made into crib sheets and changing pad covers and I splurged and ordered two pieces of fabric from Fabric.com which will be sewn into a carseat cover and a baby carrier. 

 

I am the most excited about turning the afore-pictured "Castle Peeps" fabric by Lizzy House into this awesome Mei Tai carrier that I bought the pattern for from Sew Liberated. Three cheers for baby sewing projects!

But until the sewing can begin, I need this head cold from hell to clear up so I can vacate the nest I have created on our couch and start being a real person again. 

Oh and by the way, our holidays out here in Boise were fabulous and I hope all of yours were as well! I really need to get into a better habit of blogging...

how bizarre, how bazaar.

Come to the Meridian Middle School Holiday Craft Bazaar (or the MMSHCB, as it could be conveniently shortened to. just kidding) this weekend if you're in the Treasure Valley and needing an awesome handmade fix. I will have all of my goodies there along with other fun folks from Idaho Indie Works. Some of the other vendors you can expect to see are my awesome mom with Geneva Designs (she has rad new crayon/playing card rolls), Asia with her Sinfully Natural soaps (they are so cute!), Cara with LuLu and ChaCha (if I have a girl, I may just buy up all of her inventory) and Sean and Christina with their Great Custom Furniture (that I seriously gush over everytime I see it. It makes me wish that I were childsize so I could use it myself).

Also, I have made some killer new winter cycling caps and they will be there too! If you don't live in the Treasure Valley, you'll be able to check out my new hats once they hit my etsy... which could be in a few weeks considering the madness of craft fairs, moving apartments and going to Minnesota that I have in my very near future.

Featured on PlanetGreen!

I had the joy of checking my email the other day and finding a message from the Etsy Marketing Team saying that they had submitted a photo of one of my hats for a handmade slideshow on PlanetGreen, a Discovery.com website. You can check out the awesome collection of handmade goodies HERE and see not only my hat, but also my lovely husband who's head it adorns.

In birthday news: my beautiful dog Lincoln turns three tomorrow. Unfortunately for her, all that this momentous occasion merits is maybe a can of dog food and an extra long walk. Three cheers for Lincoln!

And if it's not exciting enough that my dog is having a birthday... I have a new nephew! Welcome to the world, Miles Raymond Christensen!

leaves are falling!

How is it already October 3rd? I love it! We walked the dogs to the market the other day and Lincoln loved crunching through the leaves almost as much as I did. October is such a fabulous month, made even more fabulous by the fact that we are taking a trip to Portland in two weeks - right in the middle of October.

Life has been busy in Boise. I sent my first wholesale order of hats and bike gear to our friends at Blue City Cycles in Chicago. Owen and Clare started this shop about a year ago and since I have not been able to check it out yet, if you're in Chicago you should go and support their Bridgeport bike shop!

In a similar vein, as soon as Bricolage (downtown Boise, Bannock and 8th - underneath Thomas Hammer) re-opens on November 12th, you and all you love will be able to purchase bellefourche hats from their awesome little shop. Jules and Chelsea have come up with a great collection of local goods to pair with their own handcrafted items to make an excellent shopping experience.

I have come up with a fun new winter hat design but, of course, I forgot to take a picture of one of the new hats before I mailed them all to Chicago. Silly me. Fortunately, this week should see a few more hats made and if you want to head down to Idaho Indie Works on First Thursday (this week, October 7, 5-9p) you can see what's new in the bellefourche inventory.

So I realize it's kind of annoying to post pictures like this but I'm just pretty proud. Baby is still growing growing growing and you can finally kind of tell!

and you can see my new haircut, too!

yup. it's right in there.

A sad thing that has developed in my life is this: my spouse has been enjoying graphic novels and comic books lately and I feel left out. I mean, why can't I enjoy them too? Why don't I like them? I'm the girl who has read nearly every Orson Scott Card book. I love Neil Gaiman. This should be right up my alley. Oh, DC Comics, why do you make me feel so inferior?

And current favorite song: "Dance Yrself Clean" by LCD Soundsystem. I have come up with a perfect dance for it and do this dance whenever able. I have tried to teach it to the dogs but they seem to have four left paws.

Next up in the sewing scene: Top tube protectors. Cute kitchen towels. A hat for my own head (what!). More winter hats. I'm trying to be a busy bee.