baby sleep and baby teeth

Ivy and I had a bit of a rough morning. She didn't want to follow her usual morning nap routine and got very cranky. I finally got her to nap by 1pm and we had to abandon our plans to go to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) to see the Picasso show. I had lovely visions of Ivy napping in the stroller while I sipped an Americano in the cafe on the 5th floor contemporary gallery, looking out over Grange Park and downtown. Phooey. A clingy, crying baby is SO EXHAUSTING! My brain and eyes are sore and my head is feeling the approaching thunder storm. I'm hoping the skies open up tonight and Joe and I will sit on the front porch with some wine and watch the rain.

(The pillowcase in the photo above features a print of Toronto's CN Tower breaking apart by my friend Jennifer Castle.)

I came across this image today on Pinterest of a child's skull with both the baby and adult sets of teeth. Just looking at those humungo teeth hovering up in the jaw brings me back to the pain of my wisdom teeth trying to grow horizontally in my jaw. I would dream of teeth all night long and have a painful, clenched jaw when I woke up.

Ivy's bottom teeth poked through when she was about 8 weeks ago. The drool-fest hasn't started again yet to signal the impending arrival of her two top front teeth.

bye 4 now

drooling over these ssssssuculent succulents

I spied this photo on Pinterest tonight. Can you believe how big these succulents are?  I love how sculptural they are, their weightiness. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Then again, living in Canada our succulents die off in the fall and regrow every spring, so they stay fairly small. It didn't occur to me that they could keep growing endlessly!  Gorgeous!

This photo is from the website of a succulent farm in California called Succulent Gardens. They grow over 400 varieties of succulents!

Succulent Gardens sells these succulent wall hanging kits for DIRT CHEAP. For a 12x12 kit that comes with the frame and over 100 cuttings, it's only $106. Whaaaat?   Crazy cheap, eh?  I have to do my research about how well these bad boys will overwinter inside the house.

Here's a gorgeous succulent wall selling on Etsy for $500

This next one is a little weirdo...

Succulent dog made by floral artist Holly Vesecky for the grand re-opening gala for Los Angeles County's Natural History Museum's Beaux Arts Building. 

bye for now...

losing my sh*t over these ceramics

I've been making/learning/doing ceramics for the past couple of years at Central Tech high school's adult night program. The school has an amazing ceramics studio with a huge and wicked high fire gas-powered kiln and great 70s glazes.  The classes are more like a 3-hour open studio. Amazing for me because I love to tune out and work with my hands. 

I have only been hand-building up until recently. If you don't know ceramics, you either work on a wheel or you don't, and when you're not using a pottery wheel that's called hand-building. I've literally got boxes of hand-built ceramics I've made, a lot of it OK and some of it I really like. I'm making a vow right now to post some photos of my ceramic work this week!

I've dedicated the 9-week session I'm currently doing to learning how to throw on the wheel. Damn, is it challenging. But, I love how messy it can be (think the scene from Ghost) and how much concentration it requires. No idle chit chat with the other students (who almost all happen to be 70 year old ladies!).  I've decided to let go and not focus on producing actual work and just concentrate on technique and learning. I find the physicality of throwing and the intense concentration required to be very relaxing in a way, especially after a baby-oriented day.

Back to the topic of this post. (I sure as heck am not losing my sh*t over my own ceramics. haha)

Tonight I stumbled upon the Vitrified Studios shop on Etsy. WOWZERS. I am in love. Such simple shapes, contrast between flat and glossy surfaces and beautiful repetition. 

Nesting tray set made from black clay. The exterior is unglazed and the interior has a glossy black glaze.
These would look great with succulent arrangements.

black clay jars with cork stoppers.

Porcelein jars, again with the mix of flat and glossy glazes.

This series is beautiful. The mix of dark clay and glossy white interior is blowing my mind. 

Bye for now. I'm going to go in a corner to pout because I am so jealous.

Poop

So, I'm sure you're wondering about the title of this post.  I had a post about my trip to the Aberfoyle Antique market yesterday (and my first full day away from Ivy...) but I saw this print of a little ice cream cone pooping in the I Love Doodle shop on Etsy.

(... i should probably add that I just downed a big glass of wine on an empty stomach while watching a very emotional episode of Coronation Street...)

Everybody Poops print from I Love Doodle shop.

As anyone that spends a lot of time with babies knows, poop is a constant topic of conversation. Well... perhaps for some people with babies it isn't, but in my house it is... (as with a lot of scatological humor)...This may be too much information (tmi) for some, or relatable for others, but Joe and I often let each other know the details of Ivy's poop.  You can tell a lot about the wellbeing of a baby (or anyone, for that matter) by the look of their poop!

When Ivy was first born, I had some breastfeeding issues/milk supply issues, so our midwives were paying close attention to Ivy's pee and poop output.  We were filling out a little chart, detailing her little black tar poops. Then, for a few days, no poop!  Our midwives were worried, and of course, so were we. We checked each dirty diaper with anticipation, crossing out finger we'd find some poop. A few days passed and we were so worried.  And then she finally pooped! While Joe and I were sitting on the couch together, staring and cooing at wee little Ivy, she pooped all over us!  

I am elated that Ivy finally pooped!

Joe is also very excited.  Yeah for Ivy!

Why am I telling you this...?  Oh yeah, so after seeing that cute little ice cream cone pooping, and downing a big glass of wine on an empty stomach, and thinking about Ivy's poops, I decided to searched "poop" on Etsy and found this: 

Unicorn poop

A balloon dog pooping

A crochet pattern for a big poop

Rainbow poop charms

I am a little confused by this one. Someone is selling a Coprolite pendant
and apparently coprelite is agatized dinosaur poop?

Gotta run. Dill pickle chips are calling my name...

wondering what my kid will look like....

When I was pregnant I think a part of me was so nervous about everything being okay with Ivy that I didn't really picture what she would look like.  I remember showing my mom my 20 week ultrasound and her first reaction was that she had my nose. Looking at Ivy's side profile in that ultrasound pic now I totally see how she looks so much like me.

Now I spend so much time staring at Ivy, wondering what she's going to look like. Like most babies, she was born looking like her dad (nature's way of preventing dad's from rejecting their young?), and now I feel like she's really morphing into a little mini-me.  

When I first saw this little American Apparel model, I immediately thought this little lady was Ivy's doppelganger.  What do you think? 

American Apparel kiddo

 I am constantly looking at toddlers and trying to picture Ivy running around, talking, playing with other kids.  Snot running down her face, drooling, stomping on adult's feet...  toddlers are so punk rock... doing it their way. I love it. 

Here are some other toddler models that I find hilarious.

Vintage shorts by Oh Sydney

Floral dress form Salvage House

Cute ketchup and mustard top from Salvage House

Dress from Little Vintage Me

No Kidding summer collection

Another outfit from the No Kidding summer collection

Ivy's hand-me-down and handmade nursery tour

My dad made our crib!  So talented...

Three generations... photos of my nana, my mom and me as little girls.
The mocassins on the right were made for Ivy by my friend Allison and the little white mocassins were my sis-in-law Julie's when she was a baby.

Ivy adores this geometric mobile from Artecnica.  

She also loves this fisher-price wind-up musical TV.  

This dresser was in my room when I was a kid.

This activity centre thing was in Joe's crib when he was a wee babe. 

I started collecting these big-eyes kid pictures when I was a teenager and I have a huge collection of them. 

I love these ones because I like to think they look like Joe and I.

This rocker belonged to my Papa, who died about 10 years ago. It was the chair he sat in every night. I recovered the cushions with fabric I found at Ikea.  This rocker is the perfect breastfeeding chair. The quilt over the back was made for Ivy by my Nana. 

Ikea wall-mounted spice rack as front-facing bookshelves.  The dog and cat embroidery was made by my mom and hung in my room as a kid. My dad made the frame.

I went to a huge kids garage sale last weekend and found this awesome dinosaur dress.  I can't decide whether to keep it for Ivy or sell it in the shop.

I also bought these barrettes. Now Ivy just has to grow some hair! 

Found these little rain boots too.

My nana's friend gave us this kiddie set of two chairs and a table.  Awesome, eh? 

SLEEP!

I have never felt so consistently tired in MY LIFE than I have in the past week.

Ivy has decided to completely abandon her well established and amazing sleep routine of sleeping 5-7 hours straight each night (for a few months it was even 8 straight hours). For the past two weeks or so she has been waking up EVERY HOUR!!!

I haven't made a post for days because my brain has been sleeping while my body has been walking around like a zombie.  My limbs hurt, and so do the back of my eyes.  

But she always wakes up with a huge smile, and then beams all day long.  Oh Ivy....

I put up some new listings today...

Boys collarless denim shirt
4-5T

Red and white gingham dress
1-2T

Handmade royal blue cardigan sweater with plaid buttons
6-12 months

80s swimsuit
12-24 months