a belated happy independence day!
here we are on the morning of july 5th and i have absolutely no news to share. alas!
i have had a feeling that the sprout will be the late-to-the-party sort and that is totally ok. except that we’re getting antsy! and i’m not sure i’m comfortable with the thought of a ten pound newborn…

oh he won’t be that big. right? right??

anyway, here’s my little place holder update for wondering friends and family, complete with a little tiger (stripes!) that i made this week. the pattern is from here.

all is well! but unless something very exciting happens, or i become incredibly bored waiting, there probably won’t be any new updates until little man has made an appearance. take care, buddies!

yesterday was make music new york! day and in spite of the crappycrumbtastichorrible weather and the fact that once again, the L train was not running out in our neck of the woods, i was determined to make it over to sodafine to check out erin’s lineup. i’m glad we made it because the weather kept temporarily clearing and we were able to catch two and a half of the bands, which the sprout either really loved or really hated, because he was dancing up a storm to some major feedback. we also got to chat with nicole of astulabee and see some pals we haven’t seen in months, though they live just a few stops away. every time i think about moving away from new york (and this is often) i worry that i’ll feel so lonely and isolated, since most of my friends live here now. then i remember that i rarely see them anyway because this is new york and everyone is busy!

well, while we were in williamsburg, i dropped off the two patch kimono sleeve ts and the last quilty t with the lovely miss erin, so if you were wondering about them, you will just have to waddle (oh, i’m sorry, i’m the only waddler here) on over to sodafine to take a gander.

in baby news: two weeks left! though a certain buddy’s mama is placing bets on the 7th, so two weeks, give or take a few days. hopefully! we’re readier than ever, so i’m going to try very hard to stop telling him to keep cooking. don’t want to make him think it’s not ok to greet us when he’s ready. we’re ready, little man! though we probably won’t use it for a little while, we now have a fancy yellow stroller, courtesy of grandma and grandpa soles (woah, that’s weird to say/type) and yesterday we ordered a bouncy seat from mini jake, using the gift certificate the greenpoint girls so kindly gave us. we’re ready! that’s all you need, right? oh yes, and lots of love floating around. we’re more than ready to do some major fawning. and he’ll be born with a name tag, right? that’s what we’re hoping for, at least.

some pressies we’ve received this week:

crazy bear blankie and crocheted bunny from our friend marcie, mama of karie.

the heather ross unicorn fabric in blue! and the thistley one too! thank you thank you, sweet rebecca!

doing laundry and puttering around today. sewing a bit, packing my bag sort of…generally milling about and trying not to be nervous. suddenly i’m nervous! it’s all people magazine’s fault. i skimmed one yesterday and there was a sad sad story i won’t even talk about in detail that put sad thoughts in my head. but this is no time for sad thoughts or worries! no way. dooce’s new arrival post has brightened my outlook. look at that baby. omg.

hello hello!
just a couple of shop-related things:

1. last week i dropped off one breezy tank and three (yes! three!) rompers as well as a bunch of valerian cards to the lovely and wonderful treehouse on graham avenue in williamsburg. there is a small, a medium and a large romper for your perusing delight. there is also a very entertaining and sweet siri to chat with, so please do take a gander if you’re in the area!
i really should have photographed these things…you’ll just have to trust that they’re cute.

2. you may (or may not) have noticed that most of the items in the etsy shop have been deactivated for the time being. there is still a little less than one week left before the official temporary closure, and there are still patchwork tops and many cards available.

that is all the shop news for now.
in baby news, we are 37 weeks exactly today, which means FULL TERM. on friday our midwife estimated that he’s about six and a half pounds right now, and will likely be an eight pounder at 40 weeks. this is fine by me, as i keep hearing stories of ten pound babies who come out with long fingernails and hair and woah. that sort of thing makes me think twice before eating more brownies. but it doesn’t necessarily stop the brownie eating.

today my midwife had a midwifery (i love that word, it’s pronounced midWIFFeree, like wiffle ball) student shadowing her and she was so sweet and enthusiastic and NEW to the whole thing that i almost wished she were my usual. of course, part of this probably had to do with the fact that upon measuring my belly, she proclaimed it to be a “beautiful belly!” and then got all excited when the sprout kicked her (as he is wont to do) and declared him to be a very active and strong baby with a great sounding heart, as though she didn’t see/feel/hear this all the time. i think my midwife maybe could tell i was having more fun that usual, because she told the student not to give me a big head about my lovely belly. hmph!

she’s not bad, though. actually, i’m glad i’ve got the most experienced of the midwives (or so i’ve been told) in the practice. it’s just nice to be treated like an impressive specimen every once in a while, even if they are just being nice.

this post was going to be about how i’m trying Very Hard not to be overwhelmed by how much we need to do in the next 5 weeks, complete with semi-charming photos of our sadly neglected apartment, which has not received any attention since we finished painting the bedroom over a week ago. but that seemed a little too overwhelming, so let’s focus on what *has* been done, or what is at least in progress.

these are a top and a dress, two among a handful of items i worked on this past week, between some yoga and lots of naps. i plan on finishing these two tonight and posting them to etsy tomorrow, some time between doing some laundry and general tidying.

i’m also working on a batch of rompers for treehouse! it definitely feels as though the sewing time is coming to an end very soon. there’s so much to do! oh, there i go.

*****

this weekend was all about our intensive two day childbirth preparation classes at the hospital and i really had no idea what to expect. though some combination of wacky tv sitcom style antics and ultra boredom was my fear, we were pleasantly surprised to be not only entertained and informed, but also comforted to just hang out with 6 other couples, all worried about the same things, all being reassured by a competent and confident doula/teacher who was completely on the same page regarding what ian and i want from our experience. now obviously when i say that, there should be an implied understanding that things don’t always go as planned. we know that. we’re open to that. but like most people, we have our preferences and i have been more than a little worried that giving birth in a hospital was going to prove to be a huge challenge to my plans and expectations. we were taught the best methods for firmly yet gently making sure that the hospital staff don’t pressure us into any unnecessary interventions. if you’ve seen the business of being born, you know what i’m talking about. all that said, it’s my intention to do this without drugs and with as much freedom as movement as possible. at this point, i’m more afraid of a tube in my spine than the pain of childbirth. we’ll see if i change my mind! oh, what fun!

34 weeks and 3 days.
little sprout is getting bored, i think. he’s taken to keeping me awake at night, kicking and dancing and generally causing a great ruckus. he’d better not be making plans for any sort of early escape. we want him fully cooked and in july!

this is how i spent my memorial day weekend. or at least, this is how i spent yesterday. well, this and making banana walnut muffins, which are my new best friend/worst enemy.

did you read the article in the new yorker from…i dunno…maybe a week or so ago, about the marshmallow test? these muffins have me thinking a lot about that test and deferred gratification and thus, my life in general. these muffins send me into a pit of delicious despair. these muffins are almost gone. i know i should save the last two for ian, but will i be able to resist? only time (by which i mean a few hours) will tell. wish me luck! perhaps if i act as though the fate of my future success rests upon my ability to resist the muffins, i could choose to have, oh, i don’t know…almonds? rice? orange juice? instead. we really need to go grocery shopping. though i think there are ingredients for chocolate chip cookies!

but i digress.

two new patch kimono sleeve tops are in the etsy shop, both in size medium.

more sewing will be done today! i’d like to go outside, but it’s threatening to rain anyway and um, apparently i’ve reached that stage in pregnancy in which one’s legs and ankles and feet become horrifying and puffy. the only shoes i can wear now are these funny metallic and floral cut out sandals that i bought last summer when i was working at oilily because it was raining and i didn’t want to get the shoes i had worn to work soaked. i secretly like them a lot, even though i’m aware that they’re a little bit awful. and now i’m really glad to have them because not even my bass flip flops fit. only 6 weeks left! omg.

hello! ohhh i’m sorry for being such a bad blogger! it isn’t even that i have nothing to say or that nothing’s doing–so much! all the time! i’m just Tired. but in a good way! not complaining.

friday, my oldest (uh, longest-running?) friend, karie came to town for a baby shower that genevieve so kindly hosted for the sprout and me on saturday. it was so sweet and amazing and though these things tend to make me Very Nervous, we were surrounded by some of the most awesome ladies of all time and received some of the very best and sure to be most treasured handmade gifts. it feels sort of strange bragging about them…sorry! but i was so blown away.

honestly, when we found out that we were with sprout, i was a little bit embarrassed and nervous to tell friends and family because, let’s be honest here, though we had talked about it quite a bit and planned on raising Future Sprout, this little guy caught us by surprise. true to form, (or at least, old form, which i am slowly but surely un-learning) i expected judgment and wagging fingers, so the outpouring of happiness and support has been overwhelmingly wonderful. thank yous, all around.

anyway, i don’t want to gush and mush too much right now! there’s other stuff, right?
right.
stuff like…fixing my serger!!!
the parts arrived and i seriously doubted that i would be able to put them all back into place properly (not knowing where in the world that spring that shot out had come from) but i did! and lo, it works! and it is good. so i posted some more undies to etsy yesterday and today i am going to try to finish a wholesale order of patchwork undies. completed cuteness to be revealed tomorrow! or at least, in-progress cuteness.

and i desperately want to make some more tops for the shop. and work on sprout’s quilt (though he now has two AMAZING quilts and the baddest rasta baby afghan ever) and maybe some other things…? before i become so blimpy i can’t even sit down. we. shall. see.

oh and one more thing that i just discovered: modish wrote about dear birthday yesterday! so sweet. thank you!

oh wait, i lied. one more thing: did you know that you can subscribe to etsy shop updates via your rss reader? like bloglines or google reader or whatever? i discovered this a while back, but hadn’t put it into practice until today. it’s nice for people like me who have so many favorites that the originals get lost, since etsy organizes them chronologically by when you added them (annoying! alphabetize!). to subscribe to your favorites feed, just go to your favorites page and click on “subscribe to favorites feed” in the upper right. you can also subscribe to individual shop feeds on that shop’s main page: it’s the last link in the right hand column. sorry if this is old news to you etsy pros, or completely baffling to non-etsy users. i’m a big dorky blog reader, so to me it’s a rad feature that allows me to while away Even More time in front of the computer! yes!

also, can you tell that my former etsy ambivalence has been erased by the etsy bug? it’s true. i’m not sure it’s entirely healthy, but i’m a serious convert.

it’s so gorgeous outside and i need to putter around the apartment, organizing, straightening, making, but i want very much to go outside. or to have a reason to. but if i do, i know i’ll just come home with more plants and really, we’ve got enough responsibility at the moment.

so i’m inefficiently doing a little bit of everything. here are two squares in progress of the sprout’s quilt that i started this morning. i’ve never made a log cabin quilt and i’m certainly not making this in any strategic manner. it will be as messy as any quilt i’ve ever made, but maybe slightly more interesting? we’ll see. i was inspired by a natural colored cotton and liberty print quilt i saw at sweet william (cutest store ever) a few weeks ago and was sorely tempted to just copy it outright, but no, no, no. while i have tucked in some of the same prints (i’m only using what i have on hand anyway) and the color scheme is similar, the sprout deserves his own, unique, mama-made quilt.

so speaking of the sprout, he’s pretty much all i can think about right now, so apologies if posts are a little baby and nesting-centric. it’s bound to happen, right? i’m ordering him an organic sheepskin from england. just need to pick out the fleece we like best. i’m crazy, i know. but something is telling me that this is something he needs. more than say, diapers. or a crib. which we don’t have yet because now i’m wondering whether or not we should even get one right away. we’ve been getting all sorts of wonderful advice from friends who have done this already. most of it makes me feel better. almost everyone says not to bother with a crib right away, since apparently mini ones don’t like them anyway. this is good news because i am somewhat obsessed with getting an organic crib mattress because i am (possibly) a sucker and am frightened of foam and chemical fire retardants, and non-toxic crib mattresses are Pricey. that is an understatement. i think our mattress cost less than most of these things. of course, our mattress is a foam and chemical-laden box of carcinogens. but it’s old, so it’s been airing out for a while, right? right. baby will be fine.

sheesh!

was that fun to read? i’m sure. ok! i think the cabin fever is eating my brain. going outside now.

oh! but somehow i managed to find the part needed for my serger on the sears website and have ordered it. now we must wait and see if i can fix it myself. then i will be inspired to sew for dear birthday again. the etsy shop needs an update. it will come.