Just for a second...

I just had a flash of wishing that Lydia was five so we could play with this Calafant cardboard treehouse. But I got over it. That will come fo' real, sooner than I want. Still cool though. Maybe I'll get one for myself at Moolka.com.

All pieces are made from pre-cut and pre-punched sturdy white cardboard and can be put together without glue and scissors. You can decorate it with watercolor or acrylic paint and then play. It's a craft and a toy! Plus, when it's finished it life cycle it's 100% recyclable! What a great time to be a kid!

It was a scorcher...

This weekend was hot. And we were out in it. Doin' stuff. Gardening. Raking. Watering. But Miss Lydia V. was just chillin'. After a nap we filled up her new WaterWheel Play Table and she went to town—splashing, dunking, dipping and sipping. It was a huge hit. I highly recommend it.

I wish I had been successful...

... at teaching myself to crochet when I was on maternity leave. Because if I had been I would make this:

You can buy the PDF crochet pattern for this ridiculously adorable capelet by leila & ben on etsy.com. I think I need to find a crochet class. Hmmmm.

If the shoe fits...

Well, mine doesn't anymore. I never believed it could be true but I think my left foot DID get bigger when I was pregnant. And is it possible? But I think my right foot got smaller.

I just bought a pair of Women's Converse® One Star® Skimmers in Glitter, which are ridiculously cute/cool. Normally a 10, I ended up buying a 9 1/2 because when trying them on in Target the 10 was flying off my right foot while the 9 1/2 on my left seemed to fit OK. But now my poor left foot is suffering. Out of the store, my big toe is smashed up against the end of the shoe and more than once I've checked to make sure I bought two shoes of the same size. (Yep. 9 ½. 9 ½.) The only explanation is that post-pregnancy my feet are two different sizes. (I really should go check on one of those foot-measuring devices to be sure.) I'm actually considering buying a second pair so I can have a good fit. 9 ½ for the right. 10 for the left. Crazy. But maybe worth it, because they're oh, so cute.

blogging withdrawal

I'm feeling behind. I have so many things to blog about and so little time...

1. the garage studio project wrap-up post
2. my new glass kiln, which is technically a Christmas present, so I guess I can wait to post on that until Christmas has arrived (but it's already in the newly finished garage studio folks! V. exciting!)
   
3. wind-powered donuts (yes, wind-powered donuts AND espresso for that matter)
4. a new recurring theme post "LoVE Loves..." where I detail Lydia Violet's latest obsession. Examples of posts that are waiting to be written: LoVE Loves... Papas paintings, her newly discovered feet, Lydia the Tattooed Lady, etc.
5. Lydia Violet in general. The only regular blog time she's getting lately is over on Baby in a Carseat. I think she's actually going through withdrawal herself.
6. I've been reading a great book, Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business and I have no time to say all the great things about it that I want to. Sigh.

Well, that's six things (a total of eight potential posts, one of which I've already begun writing), just six, out of the dozens that are swirling around in my head. I've got a break from work coming up over the holidays. Rosie Bee will be visiting from England for TWO WEEKS!!! Maybe I can get caught up then? Though, her visit I'm sure will generate all sorts of new potential topics. Sigh. I really need to figure out a way to get paid to keep up with this blog. Then all my problems would be solved.

Click on my ads people! That'll be a start. :^)

Eco-Fashionistas

Way back, when I used to work at The Nature Conservancy, I had a colleague who, while a dedicated conservation marketer by day, was starting her own jewelry business on the side. Well, she's since left her dot org day job and taken her jewelry dot com endeavor by the horns.

But that, by no means, means she left her altruism behind her. She and her friend Meredith now run Moonrise Jewelry full-time and her entrepreneurial efforts are to be admired. Not just because she's taken the brave step of starting her own businesss but because this is no regular, run-of-the-mill jewelry line. As they say for themselves, Moonrise is an "innovative jewelry brand blending artistic design with community development, ethical sourcing, and environmental stewardship."

And, to be guaranteed, this is no hippy-dippy, sculpey clay bead jewelry. Their line of necklaces, earrings and bracelets ranges from elegant to funky. (Well, these are what I consider elegant and funky. You'll have to make your own aesthetic judgments.) Essentially what I'm saying is, if you're still in the market for holiday gifts you're bound to find something for every fashion-forward environmentalist you know at www.moonrisejewelry.com.

And, not only can you buy their jewelry confident that the product is making a positive impact on the communities where they does business (all their materials are ethically sourced and all of their designs are handmade by local artists who have been trained at the Moonrise Jewelry studio), but you can also take part in their philosophy by hosting a fundraising jewelry party in your home—a Moonrise Circle Soirée—where 15% of the total sales will be donated directly to the charity of your choice.

But don't take my word for it. Visit their online store yourself and listen to those that know: Meryl Streep or even the Lazy Environmentalist.

Podee on the Go

On the way home from Elochka B's 5th birthday party and Lydia is chowing down on her Podee. This thing is a life saver. Otherwise she be starving and bawling as I tried to hold a bottle at just the right angle, which would only make her gassy anyway. Love it, love it, love it.

I want this!

Maybe you've seen the commercial for this on TV. The FLY Fusion Pentop Computer. It's so totally cool. You write and, in layman's terms, when you sync it up with your computer it converts what you've written to typed text. So, say, if I was away from my computer, and I got a burning idea for a blog post, I could write my thoughts down on a piece of scrap paper while they were fresh in my mind and then when I got home I could upload it from the pen. Shazam! Again... so cool.

The geek gurl inside of me... must... have... this...

If you must have it too, you can buy it at Amazon.com

Podee to the Rescue

Sometimes, when you don't have enough hands a Podee can come in "handy." It's a hands-free bottle. Today is little L°VE's first time using it and judging from the look on her face... it's a good thing.

Jungle Swing

L°VE loves BFF Rose-Maya's Fischer-Price Rainforest Swing. It's got jungle rain noises interspersed with what sounds like gamalon chimes. It reminds me of Bali and puts her right to sleep... though I guess you wouldn't guess that from this picture.

The Next Esther Williams

Today we finally took Lydia Violet to the pool. I've been wanting to do this for what seems like forever and today we finally got it together enough to go to Olney Indoor Swim Center during rec swim. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and she's a complete natural. In fact, her breaststroke kick is quite amazing for someone so young. Seriously. It's like she doesn't even have to think about it.

So, we did a little kicking and a bit of laying back in the water with her head all the way back. She was really relaxed. I even tried a little full body rotation to mimic the backstroke. She loved it.

We didn't go underwater at all because her doctor said at her last appointment that she might be tempted to drink. With all the chemicals in the pool that's a big no-no.

All together it was about 6 or 7 minutes in the pool for her but pretty good for a girl's first try. I'm ordering a book from Amazon—Water Babies: Safe Starts in Swimming—that will tell us all we need to know as we move forward.

After that quick dip I went to the lanes and swam 500 yards while Dima and Lydia watched. Wow, am I out of shape! I remember the days when that was just my warm-up for practice. Hopefully I'll be getting to the pool more often for both Lydia and myself.

White Noise

Lydia loves the sound of the vacuum cleaner. It's a sure fire way to get her to conk out.

But as we learned ahead of time from our good friends Claire and Ed, you can't run your vacuum cleaner to make the baby fall asleep all the time. You'll wear the belt out. So... we did what they did, we bought a vacuum cleaner CD. This is ingenious! And since we've now been telling other friends about it they are all confirming that they too knew the secret.

In fact right now I am blogging and LºVE (Lydia Violet Ekzarkhov) is in her co-sleeper dreaming of the vacuum clearner induced womb. I think that Melba might like it too, because she's laying here on the desk with her head next to the baby monitor sacked out.

We also bought dishwasher and rain and thunder. Thus far the vacuum is helping me relax too and therefore fall asleep faster, which is a must, I'm finding when you're on a 3 hour feeding schedule.

itsy bitsy g

I think we've decided that the gdiapers are still a bit big for little Lydia. She's still not 8 lbs. yet so we're going to wait until she's gained those last 5 ounces and try again.

gdiaper #1

Well we did it. Lydia V.'s umbilical stump fell off yesterday so we moved to the gdiapers this morning. Right before the lactation consultant and her Dr.'s appointment. She looked super cute in her little blue "g" pants.

Ultimately they were put to the test. Explosive poo just as they were calling us into her appointment to be weighed. We bagged up the flushable liner and brought it home with us to test in the toilet. Rip, swish, swish, flush and down it went. Success!

Now we just need to watch the video again because I don't think we got the liner in the pants quite right. Or she's just an extremely wiggly girl and she got it twisted up all on her own. Either way, very exciting.

last minute purchases

Our gdiapers [What's a gdiaper? Read g... what a cool idea] starter kit arrived this week. Just in time. We probably won't use them the first week or so, one, to allow the baby's belly button to heal and, two, to allow Dima to get used to changing a diaper.

We're still waiting for our Dunstan Baby Language kit to arrive. Supposedly this will tell us exactly what all Baby E's cries mean. People either love it or hate it apparently. I hope we love it. It would be awesome to have an accurate translation kit when we're in the midst of severe sleep deprivation. When I'm exhausted and at my wit's end I want to know that that particular cry means "I'm hungry" vs. "I've got a big surprise for you in my diaper."

In our final acts of shopping for our impending delivery we also got:

• our car kits, complete with sun shades and mirrors,
• a set of blocks that make a Russian church, with minarets and everything, and
• our biggest splurge yet, a new camera, which Dima quickly fell in love with. It's an Olympus E500. It's lovely and will help us capture all those precious moments.

baby e's room

In response to popular demand and by virtue of the fact that we finally finished decorating and organizing.... photos of the baby's room.

The crib, from Christina and Mike and my
framed glass scraffito tiles.

I made these tiles in my intermediate
fusing class at Weisser Glass Studio.

The changing table from the Bobos, Baby E's
going home outfit and a soft and lovey lion
for snuggling.

Shelves. Glorious Ikea shelves.

The Poang Ikea chair.

The West Elm mobile put to use.
Love this. It casts really cool
reflections on the walls as it spins.

My old wardrobe is now Baby E's.
I wrapped lengths of ribbon around
the door and attached shower cards
with tiny clothes pins. On top, two
lengths of fairy lights with chinese
globes. The whole string is on a
switch. It works great as a nightlight.
See below.

last minute shopping

Yesterday I ordered our gdiapers starter kit and the Dunstan Baby Language DVD. I'm sure I'll have all sorts of things to say about how they both work... once we're actually using them.

slowing down

I've been a bit blog-slack lately. I'm tired. And not feeling especially creative, which makes blogging more challenging. Not sure if this is purely a symptom of pregnancy or if I've just hit a lazy streak. I'd like to think it's a symptom of coming into the home stretch. So since I've been slack...

I took the Envirosax shopping at Giant and Target. What fun! I felt so socially responsible. And the checkout lady seemed pleased to be packing up my purchases in such visually pleasing sax. I also pimped them to the ladies at Catch Can, a little boutique that is next to our favorite weekend breakfast place, Kay's Diner II. Who knows? Maybe they'll start carrying them.

what's good for the garden...

So we're having a bit of a drought... and we also just happened to put it a bunch of new landscaping. As such, having seen our last water bill, Dima and I have been talking about getting a rain barrel.


Ideally I'd love to have a xeric garden (there's a house on the way to the hospital that we LOVE. We call it the Ikea House and their yard is xeric.) or at least one full of native plants that requires less water. (Well, IDEALLY I'd like to have a garden that looked great and required little work to keep it that way. Thankfully Dima seems to have inherited his mother's green thumb. So he's the gardener.) But with this house, at least with our newly planted "curb appeal" beds in the front, xeric and native are not key words.


So the rain barrel search is on. I found a great buying guide online. Most of them seem to have screen guards on them, to keep pests and mosquitos out, which in our yard would be a concern. We'll see. A 65 gallon one ought to do it, right?

the blessed arrival

My Envirosax finally arrived today! They are so awesome. I can't wait to go grocery shopping.