Feeling incredibly lucky today! Reached another new first for my Etsy shop… one of my items was featured on the front page of Etsy this morning!!! And even better, it was in a treasury celebrating Canadian talent alongside several other local Alberta teamies! Do you see it there, in the second row… one of my cozy cowl scarves? Oh, doing a happy dance in my sewing room still (or as much of a happy dance as I can manage these days… more of a waddle or sway)! Thanks so much, Darcy, for including me in this treasury!
Photo by Scott FrankMy poor neglected blog. It’s not the only thing that has been neglected a bit these days. Between a major lack of energy and increasing discomfort, I feel like I’ve been continually simplifying my days. And I’m okay with that. There’s been lots of time spent sitting by the Christmas tree reading my “baby” manuals, lots of naps, and small constant steps towards getting some things for baby made. My pile of little crochet baby sweaters has grown just a bit and there’s a freshly sewn stack of flannelette receiving blankets and burp cloths ready to be used. A few more projects sit waiting to be tackled in the coming weeks. All simple things. Some baby legs made from kids socks, some flannel baby pants, reversible pants for a little babe named Simon, and perhaps a little fleece outfit to bring baby home in (if I have time). I also have grand ideas for some pretty fabric wall hangings for the nursery. Some of which I hope to do after baby comes, when I need a little craft project to save my sanity. Since I don’t know what we’re having or what baby’s name will end up being, it makes it hard to do a project involving baby’s initial or name, which is what I have planned. Hence, having to do it following baby’s arrival.
Oh and there’s been some Christmas baking and lots of Christmas snacking these days too! My idea of a perfect morning at this time of year, is nibbling gingerbread cookies and sipping a coffee by the Christmas tree before the sun comes up. So peaceful! To cut down on a bit of the baking work, my mom and I made some cookies together and just shared the finished batch. Way less work than each of us making a batch. The two of us are a real hoot in the kitchen in right now! Between my “baby brain” and her “chemo brain”, we should probably have someone else supervise us. But the cookies turned out delicious in the end, so no harm done. Just lots of laughter and silliness. That’s really the best way to make cookies!
Compared to past years, I really didn’t do much Christmas “making”. At 36 weeks pregnant, I kinda knew that would be case. Hubby took on the role of Santa’s little helper and put together most of our gifts for family and friends. We usually try to do as many handmade items as possible, but again, I’m okay with simplifying that part this year. Still plenty of handmade goodness going on… just more nuts & preserves than sewn things. I DID manage to write up a ton of Christmas cards, which always seems important to us to do. So I can rest easier with that complete (sorry if some of these arrive late).
There’s been quite a bit of reflection these days too. My small family feels even smaller since my brother passed away. Although, it will grow soon enough. It’s amazing how much hope and joy and love this little babe can bring, and it’s not even born yet. Just wait until it comes into this world! And yes, it will be a sad day tomorrow, the first Christmas without Blake. Although we spent some Christmas days apart over the years, he always made an effort to video chat or call. So it will be strange tomorrow not to hear from him. Instead I’m trying to get used to hearing from him everyday, in my heart and memories.
Wishing you and your loved ones, a very special Christmas!
P.S. The beautiful photo above was taken by Mr. Scott Frank, close friend and talented photographer. He did an amazing photo shoot with Marcus and I recently to capture the three of us (baby belly included). The results are just so wonderful! It made such a huge difference, having a friend take these types of photos because he knew how to capture and bring out our personalities. So grateful to you, Scott! You can follow along some of the adventures in parenthood he and his wife Shauna are experiencing these days on their blog. And one day soon, hopefully, Scott will have an honest-to-goodness website for his photography and design business.
Had a lovely surprise today! And of course it was perfectly timed too, as all thing seem to be. Was feeling really down about my Etsy shop and wondering what to do with it in the New Year. And then, it happened. Something that has always felt soooo far out of reach… one of the treasuries that I curated ended up on the front page of Etsy!!! Can you tell that I’m just a “little” excited about it?!
Silver Head To Toe is a New Year’s Eve/holiday party themed treasury. And so as this year comes to a close, I can happily say that I achieved two of my big goals with my Etsy shop. First, I sold an item to a complete stranger from another country. Check. Done. Second, managed to have one of my treasuries featured on the front page. Check. Done. There’s lots of other little achievements, of course, but these two were actually written down in my list of “I know I have reached a level of success, when…” items. Huge thanks to all those Etsy folks who viewed, clicked, and favored that treasury! Made my day and gave me just the positive boost I need to head into the New Year.
So the Etsy Alberta Team organized a secret Santa exchange. I haven’t done a secret Santa for years and the Alberta Team is such a treat to be a part of, I signed up. Still waiting to hear if the teamie I sent a gift to has received it yet, but in the meantime, I got a surprise email from the teamie who was given my name. Jacinda is an Edmonton based designer whose shop, Periwinkle Pixies, specializes in digital artwork. She had the best offer for me! I got to pick two of her digital designs as my secret Santa gift! Now, that might not seem as exciting as receiving a gift in the mail, but I think it’s kinda funny, that the one person who used to work for a stock photography company and has a real appreciation of typography got matched with someone who does digital design & typographical artwork. Oh the randomness of this small world!
Here are the two designs that I picked for my gift… the first, a poster that greatly reflects my approach to life and the second, a set of vintage inspired recipe cards, with sassy quotes:
Thanks so much, Jacinda! Can’t wait to get these printed in the near future!
Phew! All my Christmas craft shows are done and the holiday shipping deadlines have passed (that includes Canada and the USA). Which means if you were still thinking about purchasing items from Canadian Etsy shops with the hope of them arriving by Christmas, you’re probably out of luck. This is about the time when postal services and customs offices start backing up and chaos ensues. That is, unless you have that extra bit of money to request courier services. OR take an even easier route and purchase gift certificates from Etsy shops. How novel! Emailed directly to you or the recipient, with a 24 hour turn-around. Sounds pretty perfect to me at this point. I am happy to report that Bubblegum Sass offers $25, $50 and $100 gift certificates (or any other $5 denomination, just contact me and I can set up a custom listing for you), wink-wink, nudge-nudge.
Here’s a lovely collection of gift certificates available through Etsy shops. Quite flattered to be included here. Thanks Wax and Wane Wands!
The “P” of course being “party”. A couple weeks ago, some friends organized a Pinterest party, with Christmas as the theme. Drinks and snacks were inspired by recipes found on Pinterest and each person who attended brought a Pinterest inspired craft project to work on.
Now if you don’t know about Pinterest yet, well, you’re behind the times and should check it out. Basically you are bookmarking things you’re interested in (whether it’s tutorials, recipes, products, design ideas, beautiful photos, whatever inspires you), but instead of just bookmarking that link, it is saving an image to post to a “design” board. So you can organize your “pins” into categories and have a lovely visual reminder. I use it mainly to collect tutorials and project ideas. Of course, you follow other Pinterest members and get to see what they’ve pinned. It has made me realize how much I miss seeing beautiful photography on a daily basis. When I worked at Veer and Corbis that was something I took for granted. Pinterest has allowed me to re-experience this a bit, as I see all the gorgeous photos pinned by others.
For my party craft project I brought along buttons (go figure), pins and foam balls to make Christmas ornaments. The result can be seen above. Don’t they look like gumdrop candies? Inspiration for this project was found here. They’re a bit heavy, so I skipped adding a ribbon to hang them from the tree (we usually get a real tree, so ornaments need to be fairly light). Instead they will be used to decorate our fireplace mantel. You can see some of the other Christmas projects I’d love to make this year on my Christmas board. Realistically though, I’m more likely to tackle some of the projects for baby in the little time that we have left before its arrival. With some Christmas baking thrown in the mix, of course! You can see the rest of my Pinterest boards and I’ll try to share any of the things that do get made in the coming weeks on here.
Already have a Pinterest account? I’d love to follow you. Leave a link in the comments. Wanna get a Pinterest account? Don’t be intimidated by the “Request Invite” thing… it’s super straight forward and fairly quick.
Can’t wait to read to our little baby! Hubby and I are such bookworms ourselves, it is definitely one activity we look forward to embracing even more and using to bond with our child. Loving all the vintage picture books on Etsy these days! Need to pop down to my parent’s basement and snag some of the Golden Books!
Somehow, today marks the beginning of week 33 of this pregnancy. I’m really not sure how we even got here. What a blur the past few months have been! I simply couldn’t ask for a more healthy and uncomplicated pregnancy. Sure, I have to have a c-section, but that’s not the end of the world. Baby is super average in all regards, developing along just as expected and, besides tiredness, I’ve been quite healthy and feelin’ good. Managed to survive six Christmas craft sales, with one left to go. AND we still don’t know what we’re having (boy or girl), which is becoming more and more exciting as we approach the delivery date!
Baby fist giving momma a little punch
The nursery is all painted, the furniture picked out, but not purchased yet. Car seat, stroller, and bassinet are waiting to be used. We’ve hired a postpartum doula, AJ Appleton, to give us a hand during the first few weeks and I look forward to getting to know her more as we go forward. Our prenatal classes through Alberta Health start up next week and towards the end of December I will be getting a lesson in breastfeeding from our doula. Our dear friend Scott will be doing a photo shoot for us, capturing the baby belly and some family portraits of the *three* of us (mama, daddy, and baby belly). My amazing friends and family are hosting a baby shower and it will just be so nice to see everyone before the Christmas holiday craziness gets into full swing. All the bits and pieces seem to be coming together. And it’s a good thing too, because we have less than six weeks till baby arrives and once we throw Christmas and multiple birthdays into the mix, December is sure to go by quickly. I can’t recall if I shared my c-section date here on the blog… it is set for January 12th. A Thursday. One week after my mom’s birthday (what a special gift to her this year).
This sweet little treasure was made by Jana Pruden, a crime reporter for the Edmonton Journal (go figure) and one of my favorite designers at the Make It show. It was truly wonderful to have our booth right next to hers and I watched the love and detail that went into everything she made right before my eyes. All the little details, from the wooden ironing board in her booth to the clothespin tags to the vintage fabric she wraps each purchase in, are just perfect. I’m seriously very inspired by the whole experience she offers customers, not just the product. AND this is just a hobby for Jana! She hand embroiders a whole variety of images and text on various items (pillow cases, hankies, aprons, bloomers, etc). I put in a special request for this hankie, a jackalope on linen, which she whipped up one evening. Many thanks to her for that! It became a sweet little anniversary gift for Marcus (the fourth year is apparently silk or linen gifts). Of course, the hankie came complete with instructions on how to use it for more than nose wiping purposes.
Now, as for hand embroidery… Sublime Stitching is THE place to start yourself off on the right foot. Jenny Hart will get you set-up with super hip and sassy patterns, plus, there’s kits if you want to start off that way. I’ve had my eyes on many of the patterns available through Sublime Stitching and I might just have to get back into doing some more embroidery. Seriously, who can resist the Sexy Librarians or the Dia de Los Muertos. Oh and perfect Christmas gift for hubby… the Meaty Treats.
