Check out the succulent and cactus arrangement I made

My bro-in-law, Dave, asked for succulents for Xmas. If you've read my old pre-pregnancy blog, Visual Treasurez (bontemper.blogspot.com), you'd know that I am a little obsessed with those weird and wonderful plants. My front garden is full of sedum and hens+chicks, which I've tried to grow indoors in the winter with not very much luck. The sedum die pretty quickly and the hens+chicks grow that phallic flower shoot and are done. For Dave's gift I checked out a local florist and found beautiful arrangements, but they were so expensive. I just bought a couple succulents and cactuses, some cactus potting soil and made my own arrangement in an oversized bowl. I also added a little ceramic pyramid sculpture that I made. I topped it off with white gravel I bought from the florist.

Xmas fun + Addicted to the iPad

Hi
Friends,

Christmas is so much more fun with a baby. Life in general is so much with a wee kiddie! No joke, I can't believe how much I am loving hanging out 24/7 with a little version of me (with a little bit of joe in there too, of course). Ivy has forced me to abandon my hyper multitasking ways and focus on something other than myself. I feel more relaxed and patient than I have ever felt in my life. It feels FABULoUs!

We spent our first Xmas as a threesome running around visiting family in the burbs. We all received some great gifts. I'm planning on posting some photos of a few tomorrow. Ivy got three very special homemade gifts - a sock monkey made by her uncle Dave, a photo album/scrap book made by her auntie Jules (littlemisspartyand.blogspot.com) and a stunning knitted blanket made by her aunt Emily.

Joe gave us an iPad and a subscription to the new York times! Here are some photos of ivy I took today with the iPad...

vintage baby finds and foxy quilt idea

Here's a sneak peak at a couple pieces of clothing I picked up while thrift shopping last weekend. The purple corduroy overalls and the cozy wool vest (I think the tag is in swedish) were both under three dollars.  I scored huge finds this weekend. I'm hoping to post photos soon. (did i tell you that I have new plans to start an online Etsy shop with vintage baby clothes? more about that later...)

It's a few days to Christmas and Ivy present is far from being finished. A little too ambitious?  I am determined to finish this diamond-patterned quilted play mat. I even bought red and white polka-dot patterned waterproof tablecloth-type material from ikea for the underside of the mat so we can take it to the park and use it on the grass. 

Here's my inspiration, from the blog Urban Patchwork. 

Earlier today I somehow ended up on the website of Little Studio, a Swedish printshop (I think I  followed a link from DesignMilk). I saw this print, called Little Fox, and immediately thought of how great the simple, blocky design would translate so well to a multi-square quilt.  Def. a contender for my next quilting project, if I survive the stress of completing Ivy's play mat for Christmas!

By the way, Ivy's in the sling as I write this.  Awwww... too cute!

Baby leggings

Ivy and I were surfing the interweb today and found these baby leggings. I bought two pairs, a grey and black striped pair (not shown here) and the white with red hearts pair in the bottom right, for about $8 on ebay.

the babe is 2 months and totally awesome

hello friends,

Ivy has been in the outside world for a little more than two months!  The fact that there is a little human that looks like me (and my hubby) in the world, that I am rarely more than a few feet from day and night, still blows my mind.

I'm on my way back to feeling like myself again... went to the Y and out to dinner with friends, sans Ivy. Being away from her helped me to reconnect with my old self, but coming home to her was soooo unbelievably nice.  Ivy and I cuddled up on the couch together and watched late-night TV while Joe got his turn to go out and have drinks with friends.

Now that the shock of having Ivy is starting to wear off I'm feeling more like myself and I've never felt happier or more relaxed. It helps that Ivy is such a relaxed baby most of the time... and being with her, being responsible for a new little human, forces me to slow down and focus on the simple things.

I came across a post from the blog Oh Joy that mentioned this print from the French online store OMY. During the daylight the owl is sleeping, and at night he's awake!  Tres cute.

OMY.fr

Some other stuff from OMY:

I want this shirt!!!

what a weirdo mask!

I almost like this baby's chunky wrists as much as this rad splatter design.

toy stuck to my butt and x-rated flowers

today Ivy and i went for our usual walk...

and little did I know I had one of her wee toys (a wrist rattle) stuck to my butt almost the entire time!

we saw these x-rated flowers on our walk. yikes!

multi-tasking mommy stylezzzz

i've taken multi-tasking to new heights...
i didn't mention that my last post was written while I was also pumping (as in pumping breast milk, not pumping iron), eating apple sauce and using my foot to rock Ivy in her vibrating rocking chair.

(by the way, if the mention of breast pumping gives you the willies (ie. makes you uncomfortable), you may want to consider not reading future posts. Because for at least 6-8 hours of my day I am a milk machine, I decided I had to "go there" with my posts)

As I write this I am wolfing down swiss chard-lentil-chickpea power stew that I made and froze in my last week of pregnancy, putting thank-you notes in envelopes and, of course, writing this blog.  Ivy is upstairs sleeping in this god-awful overload-of-cuteness swing that Joe and I bought last week for 200$ out of sleep-deprived induced desperation.

My amazing sister (in-law) Julie gave me this photo after Ivy was born.  This house is where my man Joe, Julie and their brother Dave grew up in east Toronto.  Their dad (who passed away a few years ago) wrote "it's a girl" on the outside of their house with thick tape after Julie was born.  Isn't that awesome?

This blog post is going to reflect my scattered brain right now... I'm trying to play catch up for the last month of not posting.

Here's Ivy and I the first time I carried her in this amazing ring-sling my sister-in-law gave us.  I've been making sure to leave the house at least once a day, most often I go to The Common, my local coffee shop. Yes, I am obsessed with their coffee.  We've been getting free copies of the Globe and Mail delivered daily to our house, so I've been in the routine of getting a coffee and sitting down to read the paper, with Ivy in the sling. which  feels like pure luxury. I never thought I would have relaxing moments like this with a newborn.   (Note my super-pale lips from my insane blood loss after Ivy's birth. I will tell you about that in a later post.)

Over the thanksgiving weekend Joe and I took Ivy on here first field trip to the High Park zoo.  As you can see from the photos below, she had a blast!

gotta run, the wee bebe is calling my name...

The bebe's name is Ivy and she's a month old...

hi!
It's been a month an two days since I've written a post.  So I was right, i was in labour when i wrote my last post!

Ivy was born at home, in our bedroom, at 6:49am on Sept. 17.

Here's Ivy just after she was born.  That's my hubby Joe and one of our awesome midwives, Angela, from Kensington Midwives.

Ivy's birth went very smoothly.  Of course, it was painful, but the guttural cavewoman sounds I learned in Sasha Padron's prenatal class that Joe and I attended, and of course, support from my man, got me through.  The experience is unexplainable... time is warped, the mind reframes the pain so that I never fully recalled how painful a previous contraction was while experiencing the next one.  Did that make sense?  I would say that a natural labour and birth is a truly psychedelic experience.  

This photo, taken probably less than a minute after she was born, is proof of how much my mind was truly blown!!!

I haven't decided if I should share a more detailed "birth story".  I'm still trying to figure out what kind of "mommy blog" this will be, how much of my new mommy life I will be revealing.... I've got some thinking to do.

I will share this... Ivy's first non-black tar poop!  

Here is a photo of Ivy now... what a babe!

I'm off to my first parent meetup group (The Mamas and Papas of Trinity-Bellwoods) at Trinity Bellwoods farmer's market.   I'm a bit nervous to dive into the world of the stroller gang, but my friend Amanda (who blogs for Diaper-eez) vouches that she's met some nice peeps at the group.

over and out....

Crossing my fingers this is LABOUR!!!

Hi friends!

Ok, so tonight/tomorrow may be the day... I think I be experiencing the beginnings of labour.  My mom came over to keep me company today. We went out for lunch, where I started feeling kinda woozy, crampy, pressure and heavy.  We went into a few stores after lunch and I felt some funniness happening. I was a little worried that my water would break, and my mom just said "wouldn't that be a great story to tell!". I kept telling her I wanted to get going and she kept distracting me. By the time she dropped me off a few minutes ago I was feeling a bit worse.  I'm pretty sure I'm having light contractions, but haven't timed them.

I'm crossing my fingers that labour is near!!! So excited!! can't wait to meet our little lady!

'

I saw these geometric puzzles on Oh Dee Doh.

cat stevens + red raspberry leaf tea + danish wolf pillow

Hi friends!

No baby yet.  Last night I felt nauseated and just downright cranky. All through the night I was feeling really crampy, drifting in and out of sleep, wondering if I was having contractions.  I genuinely thought I would be in labour today, but no such luck.  I do, however, feel all weird and heavy, so maybe tonight will be the night.  After I finish this post I'm going to make sure everything is all set in our room for the home birth, and then make a batch of peach muffins, drink a ton of red raspberry-leaf tea and rock out to some Cat Stevens:

Oh yeah, and check out these awesome pillows by Danish design shop By Nord.