Nursery Mobile.

 Hello. We have been so busy getting every last minute detail in order for baby that there has not been much time for me to finish this one item. A few weeks ago I posted about my baby shower and am back to show what I did with the pieces of my decorated chandelier afterwards.

 

 I really wanted to make a mobile to match the nursery's decor; so I saved all the pieces off the chandelier after the shower, added a grapevine wreath and some pretty scrap ribbon. 

 Here are what the animals look like close up. They are made with shrinky dink plastic. Originally I was going to do the entire mobile out of shrinky dink.... Then I thought that perhaps breathing in melting plastic might not be so good for myself or the baby (face palm); I switched to card stock to make the leaves for the rest of the mobile and tied them in groups of 3 and 4 using embroidery floss to make a leaf chain. Hmm, the pictures might illustrate that better than my description. 

 Next I tied them all to the wreath keeping in mind how I wanted them to look when I hung up the finished project.

And The pretty ribbon worked lovely to hang the finished mobile to the ceiling. And at long last it is done! Not much longer and we will be welcoming our son into this world. I am so excited to meet my little Red Panda. Take care!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

 Happy Saint Patrick's Day. This is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to post our nature table today. Wherever you are have a blessed day.

Baby Shower!

 Warning: This post has many pictures and is very long!

My dear friend SARN was so kind to throw a baby shower for us. After many months of planning the day of the shower arrived. The day was filled with laughter and love. This baby has many people who have stepped in and are fighting for the title of Grandma. Bear's mother gracefully sat and took it all in with a warm smile. She is the only person who has a true blood right to the title since my mother has opted to not be a part of this child's life. I let them all banter back and forth about this for a while. There is Nana, and Nona, and Grandmama, and Grams, and a whole army of Aunties, and so on and so forth. I don't know how I will keep them all straight in the end. What a lucky little boy this is to be so loved. You are all so precious to us. Thank you for being a part of our lives and letting us be a part of yours. Thank you for your love.

 The Decorations: The shower was a tea party and the decorations were based off of the nursery's decor. The leaves and animals hanging from the chandelier are going to be part of a project in the near future, so please check back in a week or so.

 SARN made these  trees for the shower and insisted that I have some of my felt table puppet animals present as decorations. The whole things was adorable.

 This owl greeted people as they came in my front door. I am tempted to leave him up.

 I had a hard time weeding out which decorations to post. There were so many trees, leaves, little animals (felt and paper), and so on and so forth tucked around the house. It was truly  beautiful.

 The Food: I have to mention the food. Everyone worked so hard. Even though my midwives have put me back on a dairy and gluten free menu I was still able to enjoy a lot of these things. There were a lot of finger sandwiches, berries, cookies, a few other sweets, and of course 4 different types of tea.

The Games: We played a few games such as:

      Hot Dolly. We passed around a dolly and everyone had to say a boy's name in alphabetical order before they passed it on. There could be no repeats. The timer went off every minute and whoever was holding the dolly when it went off was out. The last person standing won.

 Daddy knows best. I made a list of questions up for Bear to answer. Then I made a multiple choice list to go with them. The guests had to guess which answer they thought Bear answered. It was not necessarily always the right answer and it made for a lot of laughter. The person with the most correct won.

  Guess the Baby food.  There were 10 jars of baby food without the labels  They were numbered 1 -10. The guests had to write what they thought each food was without opening the jar to smell or taste. The person with the most right won. 

Our Wish Tree. This was not really a game but it was so beautiful I had to share. Each guest was handed a leaf and a ribbon at the start of the shower. On one side they wrote their name and address and on the other side they wrote a piece of advice or a wish for the baby and soon to be mum. Later in the shower we collected them, read them out loud, and tied them to these branches. There were so many beautiful things written. When I can finally bring myself to take this beautiful tree down, the leaves will be saved in a memory book.

The Gifts: Thank you everyone for your generosity and love. There were so many beautiful and thoughtful gifts and it was hard to pick what to post; but since this is largely a crafting blog I chose to post these two. This hat, sweater, and booties set was made by my lovely friend L. You can feel the love stitched into every inch of this set. L is a master of all things yarn. I know this set will be loved and carefully folded away when our son out grows it to save for his children one day.

 This amazing baby quilt  was made by my friend SARN. It is breathlessly beautiful. I had to take a picture before years of love turn this blanket into a velveteen rabbit. I know it will be treasured by my son. It is already a treasure to me. 

 The Favors: These adorable buttons were to perfect to pass up. I found them on Etsy at Pandalove Shop. The owner of the shop was very helpful and wonderful to work with. I know I will be going back for party favors in the future when our son is old enough to have birthday parties. 

We put the pins in bags with a few chocolate eggs and a little raffia to look like a nest. I think everyone was happy with them. They certainly were adorable. 

Thank you everyone for making this such a beautiful and memorable day. I know that there were a few of you who could not make it but wanted to be there. I know your love and support was with us in spirit. I am so lucky to have so many beautiful friends. I can't remember ever feeling such a beautiful outpouring of love like that. The whole day I felt like I was wrapped in a cocoon of love, laughter, and comfort, but most of all love. It was the type of shower every woman dreams of and I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and now these beautiful memories to look back on for many years to come. You are all my family and I love you all. Thank you and God bless.

Feeding Geese and Soul

I've had so many posts and crafts I've been meaning to get to, but nature and pregnancy have had other plans for me. However, this weekend Bear and I escaped to feed the ducks along the river. It is a favorite winter past time of ours, but problems with this pregnancy have been preventing us from getting out. It came to a point, bed rest or no, I just had to get out. We took it slow and easy. Usually there are hundreds if not thousands of ducks here, but this year we only found a small flock of about 8 Canadian Geese. They were happy for the bread. We were happy for the stillness and the sound of the river flowing around the ice. It's such a peaceful activity and it helped us take our mind off of the looming threat that we may have to go too another state to have our baby. Things have not been going well. There is a specialist who can help us but he is in another state. It's all set up. If things don't improve soon we will be making a road trip; but for now we are thankful for the small things, sharing a quiet walk along the river, the sound of running water trickling under ice, and for a handful of geese. Wherever you are, have a blessed day and be well.

Goodbye Old Friend

 

When I was 12 my best friend was hit by a pickup truck while she was out riding her bike. She was my only friend at the time. My grief and loneliness was so consuming that my parents agreed to let me have a kitten that I fell in love with at a local farm and feed store. The kittens in the litter were the grandchildren of the farm cat that I loved to play with when we went there. The kitten that picked me was the first to walk in his litter. He had the cutest little nose that was half black and half pink. I named him Jake. How little I knew then how deeply this cat would touch my life.

 

 Shortly after getting Jake I joined a youth choir and made many lasting lifelong friendships but Jake always held a special place in my life. Over the next 20 years he became my confidant, my emotional support, my mischief making conspiracist, my playmate, my personal comedian, and my dearest friend.

There never was a more gentle, loyal, loving, and caring cat. He loved everyone but especially babies and young children. For the past year he has been slowly going down hill and this past Thursday it was discovered that he had an aggressive type of cancer. He stopped eating and his hair started to fall out in clumps. Things moved so quickly and we knew it was time to say goodbye.

 Yesterday he was put down using an in home euthanization service. We did not want to traumatize him with one last car trip. We wanted him in familiar surroundings. He died in my arms surrounded by love. When he was given the first shot (a sedative) he wrapped his paw around my leg and gave a hug like squeeze and for the first time in a long time he completely relaxed. It was then that I knew how much pain he had been hiding from us all along.

 This is the last photo of my dear friend. It was taken Christmas morning while he waited for his Christmas treat. He was the most beautiful cat ever. I miss his bright eyes, clear, sparkling, golden, and filled with love and trust to the end.

I miss you Jake. After sharing over half my life with you the house seems so empty without you here.I know you are at peace and no longer hurt and that brings some comfort. You were the best of friends the dearest of companions and there will forever be a cat shaped hole in my heart now that you are gone. One day we will meet again. I will find a small grey cat waiting outside the gates of Heaven with a sparkly angel sock as a gift and together we will go over the rainbow bridge and into whatever adventure comes next. Till we meet again my beautiful friend, goodbye, and know that I will never stop loving you.

Reading to Baby

 One of my delights during this pregnancy has been reading to my growing baby. When I first found out I was pregnant I picked out two books to read every day to my baby. The Tomten and the Fox by Astrid Lindgren is one of them.

These are two little table puppets I made for when my son is older.

I love this book. It has a beautiful and rhythmic flow to it, and I have a feeling this story will be with us for a long time. I've read that babies start to recognize voices and word patterns starting at 20 to 25 weeks in utero. By reading to your children while they are still in the womb your baby can connect with you, recognize your voice, and (if you use the same books over and over again) the rhythm will help sooth them even after they are born. Even Bear has read to RP a few times and RP does recognize the sound of his Poppie's voice now. This is such a lovely way to bond with your baby before he or she is born and I highly recommend this to mums everywhere. I love these moments and will miss them once RP is born, but then we get the joy of reading to him while holding him in our arms.
Take care and have fun!

Epiphany Contemplation

This is a little late but I wanted to post about Epiphany anyway. We only began celebrating Epiphany three years ago. The day is a day of quietness and contemplation for us. We have incorporated other annual traditions into this day and love our new family tradition. For the past 6 years we have brought in the new year by taking down the Christmas tree and decorations, this we still do, but we leave the nativity up till the 6th of January now. I bake banana bread (we didn't like the King's loaf recipe) and the house fills with the wonderful sent of baking and newness. This year we were unable due to pregnancy, but for the past 6 years we have gone to the river to feed the ducks in the winter. We've incorporated that tradition also into our Epiphany celebrations. It's quiet and simple, but we like it this way. At the end of the day, just before bed, the nativity gets wrapped up and put away till next Christmas. It's so beautiful that I have a hard time wrapping it up and putting it away, but it makes it that much more special to set out the next Christmas season.

How does your family bring in the New Year and/or celebrate Epiphany?