Sunday, October 14, 2012

Lately.




































Ahhhhh, it's good to be living in the most beautiful place in the world! It sure does make my daily walking goal a little easier when I have this to look at! Anyway, these days I have been feeling more and more pregnant and less and less ready for this baby to come... not the best combo ever. We have about 2 months to go! I will be at 32 weeks in just a couple days, the end is in sight! And it's freaking me out! 

This picture was taken last week at 31 weeks along. I'll give a bit of a detailed update... not going to use that little question format though, just going to wing it!

The last few days have been filled with zero lung capacity and lots of Braxton Hicks contractions! Not the most fun, but it's pretty cool to see how my body is already doing so much to prepare itself for labor. And now that this baby is getting big enough to totally take up any room my diaphragm may have had before, I'm looking forward to this baby dropping a bit lower! Limited lung capacity for an already asthmatic person is not very fun, but I'll get through it!!

I get totally freaked out whenever anyone plays Christmas music or talks about Christmas in anyway as if it's super close. Christmas time= Baby time. YIKES!

My diet has been fairly good. Lots of protein and I have been keeping up with my vitamins really well. I have been letting myself have coffee more often now that pumpkin lattes and Trader Joes pumpkin spice coffee blends are around! Everything in moderation, right :-)

ps- the Babe has hiccups right now. so. cute. 

About to have our third week of birthing class tomorrow! These classes are at our birthing center and have been amazing! I'm learning so much about how my mind and body deals with pain the best. It's scary to think and focus on the pain so much... but feeling better prepared has been very empowering! I'm realizing more and more that it is a huge passion of mine to help other women/ couples feel as knowledgeable and empowered as the amazing midwives, doulas and birth educators at my birth center have helped me feel! I would definitely love to pursue becoming a doula after this baby is born.

Ryan has been nothing but pure awesome.
Thank you dear brother for the lovely photo bombing.




Sure, it's hard sometimes when I'm feeling like life is unfair because he doesn't have to deal with all the "joys" of pregnancy. And I know I act like a total whiny brat A LOT of times, but he has been so amazing and encouraging though all of the times of feeling good and feeling not so good. He even painted my toe nails for me when I realized I could no longer reach :-) I love how confident he is in my strength and ability to have this baby. He totally gets it. Which is totally awesome. and sexy. Never once has he tried to talk me into birthing at a hospital, or questioned my convictions. Instead, he educates himself. He reads books about birth and being a good birthing partner. He's not scared of witnessing the birth of our son, he's even hoping to be the one to "catch" our baby!




































Had my glucose screening test done last week. I'm assuming all is well since I have not heard back from the midwife. Dang that drink was NASTY!

Also, cloth diapers. I'm in love with my cloth diapers. Talk about addicting! I already have about 20 now. I'm going to stop there because I know I wont need many more, and I'm going to leave some space open for gifts since I still have 2 baby showers coming up. Never know what people will give! I'm just hoping the kind of diapers I purchased actually work! I've been prewashing them, and it just makes me so happy to see all the cute little diapers up on the clothes line :-) This is what my living room looked like for about an hour the other day while the diapers were waiting their turn for the line..



































As you can see, we're doing cloth wipes too. Found a great deal on Etsy and now have about 30 wipes and have only spent $7 on them!

Okay, I think I'm finally out of pictures and info to share.... for now. I would love to get my act together and do a post dedicated to where we're living. Yountville is totally awesome beautiful, and well, a very weird place to live.

Hope this lovely October day finds you well! Ryan and I have plans to go "up valley" to see if there is anything fun to do in St. Helena today. We dont usually go north of Yountville, so we're excited! Peace and love to you all!

xoxo elyse

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Flowers and Acorns


























This is what I spend a lot of my days doing. More acorns and more flowers. constantly. :-) It's actually a lot of fun, and I have been having a great time getting creative with the flowers and trying techniques and designs that I have always been too intimidated to try!

























Every morning when I go on my walks with Bruce the Yorkie, I always make sure to do two things.... Pick a ripe and juicy fig to eat for breakfast, and to pick up as many acorn caps as humanly possible. I usually prove to be quite successful in both areas.
























I love these little acorns! I sold a ton of them last year to people wanting a fun center piece at their Thanksgiving table. They are just so darn cute and charming! Some are needle felted, some are wet felted.... all depends on my mood (and the state of my poor fingers). Who knew needle felting could be so dangerous?! My fingers are covered in puncture wounds. Maybe I'll stick to wet felting the rest of these babies until my wounds heal.

And these flowers! So much fun. I love keeping them out on display in the apartment because they're so colorful and happy.


Well, that's it for now. A lot of these flowers and acorns will not be available in my Etsy shop because most of them are for a custom order/ I'm building my inventory for a craft festival I may be involved in next month. But let me know if you are interested and I'll be sure to work something out! Happy Tuesday everyone! 

-elyse