photo friday

The second week of my photo challenge

6. dinner:

Past
A gluten-free spinach gruyere quiche I made
last summer.
Present
My favorite side dish: baked sweet potato fries with
garlic mayo dipping sauce.
7. button:
Past
My pre-pregnancy belly button
Present
I have an awfully sizable box of buttons in my
linen closet…yet I don’t think I’ve ever replaced or
repaired a button. Hmm…

8. sun:

Past
I took this in my father-in-law’s backyard 
4 summers ago.

Present
What I’ve been looking at all winter: a sunless sky.

9. front door:

Past
Front door…to a POW prison. 
The Headlands, San Francisco.
Present
Front door knocker.

10. self portrait:

Past
Taken about 4 years ago.
Present
Tired mama eyes.

photo friday



The first 5 days of my photo challenge


1. your view today:

Past
This was the view from our honeymoon villa in Antigua.
Life seems so simple and calm with a turquoise backdrop.

 Present
Bare trees, winter sky, my backyard.
2. words:
 Past
A print I made for a friend’s bedroom. Love me some mantras.
Present
Another mantra. One I’m trying to remember these days as I sit here
all pregnant and artistically unproductive.
3. hands:
 Past
Daily meditation does a body good.

Present
I had to take my wedding and engagement rings off last week on
account of pregnancy swelling. So sad. Now I wear them around
my neck. And I desperately need to clean them…so dingy, no sparkle.
4. a stranger:
 Past
He was very eager to pose for me.
I took this at the San Francisco Pride Parade one year
when I was living in the city. 

 Present
Stranger….in my belly. Who is this little person? I can’t wait
to find out.
5. 10 am:
Past
10 am in Washington, California. Drinking
some coffee by the river on a camping trip.
Present 
10 am these days includes sitting on the couch,
drinking 3rd trimester tea and writing my blog.

photo friday



I’ve seen this photo challenge around this month and have decided to give it a go because my photography (both as a personal obsession/hobby and career-wise) has taken a definite backseat these past 29 weeks of pregnancy. I never intended for that to happen, but what can you do? Life happens, pregnancy surprises you and knocks you off your feet when you never expected it to. So, the challenge. I’m going to start taking daily pictures on Monday and will be posting each week’s photos on the next 4 Fridays. I also thought I’d add a twist by doing past and present examples side-by-side for each subject matter.


I am also challenging myself to open my damn artbin and get these pregnant hands all painty. The baby’s room needs some handmade mama art so I’m going to attempt to bring art and photography back into my life simultaneously. 


let the decorating begin!

Hallelujah, the nursery is done! Well, it’s now a blank slate for my decorating that is. I told Alex last night that I think the nursery was his pregnancy—it caused him so much physical pain, there have been surprises at every turn, it’s been exhausting, and it’s taken so many long months to create.  

Up next, a homemade crib skirt and window treatment thanks to the lovely Hannah J. Here’s the fabric I chose for both:



And now that I have empty walls to fill I have no more excuses to procrastinate on making some art! It’s time to crack open those art supplies for the first time in my pregnancy (that’s so depressing). 


The nursery may not look like much right now, but believe me it’s an entirely different room than when we moved in. Originally the walls featured tan wallpaper on two walls and bookcase wallpaper on the other two walls. Here’s where we started (poor quality photo taken with the former owner’s belongings still in it):



We pulled down the bookcase wallpaper only to find some terrifying 1940’s teddybear themed paper. The walls were basically beyond repair, but we decided to forgo the recommendation that we put up completely new walls (in retrospect that probably would’ve been easier, faster and cheaper…..sigh) in lieu of slightly imperfect patched walls.



Notice the lovely lime green baseboards, which matched the lime green ceilings, trim and doors…lovely…



And now:


The above is the most amazing sight I’ve seen in months! I can’t explain the happiness I felt when Alex revealed the new room after spending 4 hours on his hands and knees scrubbing the floors clean. And then to watch him with his father and brother putting together the crib and dresser yesterday….it was like taking a tranquilizer after months of wondering if this baby would have a room before she was born.

escape



This is the week that my house is full of construction workers…and it’s just about as fun as I anticipated. On the one hand, it’s great to get so many big projects out of the way before the baby arrives. On the other hand, I am in full-on nesting mode and although it’s a bloody zoo in here, I do not want to leave my house. But, after two days of dealing with loud, crazy, inappropriate construction workers who like to hit on me and discuss my pregnant body and breastfeeding with me (seriously, I thought I’d be safe from being hit on because I’m pregnant! so creepy) I’ve had enough. This mama bird is fleeing her nest and heading to Upstate New York for a few days. I’ll be blogging from the road…

placenta art


Before I got pregnant, I had no idea there was a list of things you could do with your placenta. In fact, I wasn’t even entirely clear what a placenta was. I quickly learned all about placentas, but was not prepared to be questioned about it in the that way I have. When I switched midwives about a month ago, the new practice asked me what I wanted to do with my placenta once it was delivered. And then at Christmas, there was a long discussion over dessert about my placental intentions. I have mad love for the miracle organ my body has manufactured, but how far does that love go? Does it mean storing it in my freezer, making art prints out of it (see above), planting it under a fruit tree in the backyard? I really don’t know. All these questions got me thinking so I started researching it and couldn’t believe some of the things I found—preserved placenta necklaces, placenta teddy bears (the idea is too grotesque for me to handle so I couldn’t bear to post a picture—if you’re curious, click here), encapsulation (which involves ingesting pills made out of your placenta to help your body re-acclimate after childbirth), and sautéing it up with rosemary and garlic (hold on, nauseous now…). As squeamish as this topic makes me, I obviously found it intriguing enough to research:)  

random baby cuteness

I got this “baby bouquet” for Christmas, something I’ve never seen before (the flowers unroll into clothing). So much cuter than a three-tier diaper cake! I almost didn’t want to ever disassemble it.

house projects

There is SO much going on in our house right now. It seems all the major house projects we’ve had in the works for a while are all reaching critical points and will be finished within the next few weeks….from nursery renovations to dinning room renovations to new doors being installed to a new heating system that will turn our house into a complete construction zone for an entire week. I absolutely canNOT wait for the house to reach a place of calm, something I haven’t experienced since we moved in. 

Dinning room renovations: deciding between these two colors…

Martha Stewart Fennel Seed

Martha Stewart Bayou

And hanging this chandelier:



This week, my husband will put the finishing touches on the nursery renovations that he has been working on for months! It’s been frustrating all around to transform that room into a usable space, and my husband’s limited free time has not made it any easier. But, the walls and ceilings have been de-wallpapered and patched and the room painted a comforting shade of buttery cream (color on the right, Benjamin Moore Sugar Cookie). It has just enough yellow in it to bring a little sunshine into what is a very dark room. The next step is moving the crib and dresser in and working on the MANY decorative touches I have dreamt up. The first is choosing the main fabric for the room, out of which my amazing and talented friend Hannah will make curtains, a crib skirt and possibly some throw pillows. Here are the fabrics I’m considering:




Another idea I’m contemplating is hanging handmade 3D flowers on the walls. Either small ones like these above the crib:

Or large ones like these, which I’d hang in the corners or on one wall of the room (these are hanging on the wall at the amazing coffee house/restaurant/art shop/general store down the street): 




Then I’d like to recreate this painting that I will hang in a gallery display on one wall of the nursery with other pieces of art I will make/buy (painting by Mati Rose):


Another piece of art I’d like to recreate using fabric:


Phew! Lots going on in this house! I will post the end results soon!