Baby Ben is one week old! Benjamin's birth story

Hello, friends! Thanks so much for all of your good wishes on his arrival. I want to write down his birth story for my own record more than anything, but if you want to follow along too that's fine by me. :)

Friday morning started out early--I had to get up at 5:30 am to call the hospital to make sure they still had a bed available for me. It was nearly midnight by the time I had gone to bed the night before and I had strange dreams all night long so that early wake-up was rough! We got ready and The Mister and I headed to the hospital, admittedly a little bit late. ;) We got there a bit before 7:00 am and got all checked in. Headed up to the OB floor and dressed in my gown and poked with an IV (my least favorite part of the whole experience is the stupid IV!)

My doctor came and broke my water around 8:00 am and I was started on pitocin right afterwards. They started out low with the pitocin because it took them ramping it up a few times before the contractions even started (I texted my mom at 9:39 saying I they were moving very slowly). Finally they got the right amount of pitocin and the contractions really started. I breathed through them for several hours and then finally the anesthesiologist came in around noon to give me my epidural. Phew! That was such a relief.

The nurse checked me and I texted my mom at 12:39 pm that I was dilated to a 7. The epidural was funny this time. It took more on the left side than the right, so while my left leg was pretty dead, I could still feel the contractions on my right side. They were minor, mostly just annoying. During the last two births I've been able to nap once I got the epi so I was really hoping for that extra rest after my scant sleep the night before! This time, the epi made me feel very relaxed and kind of fuzzy-headed so I wanted to nap, but every time I'd just about drop off to sleep either my blood pressure cuff would take a reading or I'd have a contraction (and feel it on the right side) or one of the machines would click and make a noise. Annoying!

Right around 1:00 pm, I started to notice that I could really feel the contractions on my right side and they were getting longer in duration and much stronger. Rather than just being an annoying feeling of pressure, they were now hurting. I tried hitting my button to up the amount of epidural and waited 15+ minutes to see if it would help, but it made no difference. I decided to call the nurse and ask if I could flip over sides to see if that would make a difference. While I was waiting for her to come in and help me, my mom left to go to the cafeteria to get lunch. The nurse came in and checked me again and said that the reason I was feeling pain was because I was dilated to a 10 and it was time to push! The Mister texted my mom at 1:30 to come right back. The nurse called my doctor and we waited for her to get to the hospital.

The doctor got to the hospital a bit after 2:00 pm. They got everything all ready to go and then I started to push just after 2:35 pm. Benjamin Donald was born at 2:51 pm after less than 15 minutes of pushing, which is definitely my best record so far! He was purple as a little beet for the first few minutes, then he pinked right up.

Benjamin weighed 8 lbs 0 oz and measured 21 inches long. He is my biggest baby and shocked us all with his weight, even the doctor! I had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and his size was estimated to be in the low 7 lb range, so he was much bigger than we expected.

Because of his quick trip into this world, he had a little bit of bruising around the top of his nose and forehead but at least his head wasn't as cone-shaped as usual since he didn't have to be squished for very long! He was born with long, ragged *sharp* fingernails and scratched up his pretty little face in no time flat.

Because of Ben's quick delivery, my recovery has been surprisingly easy, for which I am thankful! We stayed in the hospital until Sunday morning and then came home. I've felt really good and have been enjoying being able to bend over and reach my feet again. The things you take for granted, right?

The last few nights have had the usual newborn-sleeping speed bumps. I've gone between being desperate for sleep to having ridiculous insomnia. He sleeps and I can't. I sleep and he won't. I know we'll get things worked out eventually, and I'm so thankful that my mom is here to help as The Mister's work schedule has him out of town and unable to take any time off. I don't know what I'd have done this week without her!

 We're so happy that baby Ben is here!

It's Baby Day!

By the time you read this, I am most likely already at the hospital, getting ready to be induced! I have a 6:30 a.m. date with an IV full of pitocin. I'm more than ready to say GOODBYE to the heartburn, swollen ankles, snoring, indigestion, belching, and all of the myriad other rotten things I've been experiencing during this pregnancy. I'm more than ready to say HELLO to my sweet new baby boy and to start this new chapter of our lives. All day long yesterday all I could think was, "Starting tomorrow, everything changes." It truly does but I don't feel nervous at all--I know this is the right thing for us to be doing and I know this is the way it is supposed to be!

Ready to DO THIS! Wish me luck! :)

Thrifting 1, Pottery Barn 0

I got the new Pottery Barn catalog the other day and was flipping through it when I stopped on this image:

That is their Colorful Cafe Glassware. A set of six of the aqua goblets sells for $57. It reminded me an awful lot of my recent thrift find:

Wouldn't you agree that the goblets second from the right are a darn good likeness of the PB version? And don't forget that I bought 30 pieces of my beautiful aqua colorful cafe glassware for only $15!

Thrift shopping for the WIN!

Goodbye and Good Riddance to you, 2013

One year ago we were staying with my folks in Utah. It was in the middle of a freakishly cold snap with temperatures in the teens (or below) and lots of snow on the ground. My dad and The Mister went out into the snowy backyard and lit off fireworks while the rest of us enjoyed the show from the cozy indoors. The fireworks were so beautiful reflected against the sparkly snow!

This year our plans are even more low-key. I spent the morning at the big antique mall checking out the sales. I bought a few treasures to keep, but the vast majority of what I purchased is meant to be repurposed and resold at next year's Christmas market. I did have fun wandering the aisles and looking in all the booths--the mall is in an old grocery store space so it is HUGE and I spend about 2.5 hours in there, poking around to my heart's content!

Tonight, I'll make dinner (nothing fancy) and I think we'll break out Maren's new copy of Just Dance 2014 Kids and then call it a night. Being 36 weeks pregnant does not exactly put me in the mood to stay up all night long partying.

As for 2013, I can't say I'm sorry to see it go. It has absolutely been our most difficult year so far. We've lost two good men unexpectedly (my grandpa and The Mister's father), said goodbye to our beloved Bronco doggie (also unexpectedly), spent extended periods of time apart as The Mister has been away for work, dealt with a hole in our basement floor for 10 months and the attendant frustrations and ridiculousness with that whole fiasco, and had our new house deal blow up in our faces less than a week before closing day. I have been sick and uncomfortable and cranky since the very beginning of this pregnancy and have pretty much hated every single second of being pregnant. There was plenty more bad or frustrating or annoying or expensive stuff that happened but these are the major things.

Sadly, I don't think 2014 is going to be better. At least I won't be pregnant anymore but I'll have a newborn and all of the difficulties that come with a new baby. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm dreading going back to middle-of-the-night feedings and hauling around a heavy baby carrier and changing poopy diapers. We're still in limbo about the new house and have no idea when or what kind of resolution will come to that situation. There's other stuff hanging over our heads as well and it's very possible that a year from now, I'll be telling you that 2013 was a picnic compared to 2014. Wish I could be more optimistic (I'm normally a very positive person, I swear!) but I'm not facing the year to come with excitement about all of the possibilities the future holds--more with dread about the difficulties sure to come. Maybe time will prove me wrong. I sure hope so.

"Elf"-themed Ugly Sweater Party

PHEW! This afternoon I finally dropped off my 3 boxes loaded with wrapped gifts to be mailed to our extended families in Utah, and now I feel like I can relax a bit. I'm still not completely ready for Christmas--no matter how much I try to be organized and have lists, I still feel like every time I go shopping I somehow manage to forget something, which is so aggravating! I've been to Target 5 times in the last week and a half and I never thought I'd say it, but I think I'm sick of going to Target! LOL The combination of a late Thanksgiving and doing the Rue de Noel market along with being 8+ months pregnant has made it hard to feel on top of things. Having those boxes out the door really does help my stress level go way down!

Even though it's kind of late in the season for parties, I wanted to post about last year's "Elf"-themed sweater party that I helped decorate. I didn't get around to posting it last year before Christmas and I didn't want to hold onto it until next year. I have some dear friends who have held an Ugly Sweater party for the last few years. Last year I helped my friend organize the party and decorate for it. We had other festive plans that morning so I didn't get to go as all-out as I would have liked, but I still managed to add a few fun touches that referenced the movie.

 A quick centerpiece for the food table: an Elf-green cake plate topped with fake snow, a silver Empire State Building ornament, a homemade snowglobe with "New York City"inside, a bottle of maple syrup and candy canes.

I hung hand-cut snowflakes and paper chains like the ones Buddy makes in the movie.

 

I will totally admit that one of my contributions to the buffet was a meat-and-cheese tray, purely so that I could make this sign to sit next to it.

My other contribution was a batch of hot chocolate cupcakes with teeny tiny marshmallows on the frosting!

I made two other signs with quotes from the movie. Luckily my friend had a few Santa decorations out that I could put them near.

An Ugly Sweater Party definitely requires a photo booth so that there is a photographic record of all of the heinous outfits the guests wear. I made some Elf-themed props for our photos.

Last year we also decided to incorporate a White Elephant gift exchange into the party activities, which ended up being pretty darn hilarious--so funny, in fact, that I was too busy laughing to take any photos of the 'gifts'. (Two words: Shake Weight.) However, I do have photos of our other two party games: the spaghetti challenge and the burping contest.

The spaghetti challenge was not for the faint of heart. Or digestive tract. 

Each willing participant got a plate of spaghetti, liberally doused with syrup and garnished with mint M&Ms and broken cookies. First one to finish their plate was the winner.

Or the loser, whichever way you look at it.

It was horrifying. Horrifying but HYSTERICALLY funny. The next game was the belching contest.

Participants were allowed to choose from a variety of 2-liter sodas (all chosen for maximum carbonation) and then graded on duration, creativity, and volume of their resulting belches. Extra points given for style. Although two men participated, please note that the winner was one of the lovely ladies.

She got to take home this lovely custom trophy.

Due to my busy November and December, I'm totally off my game in the ugly-sweater-thrifting department. I should have been out there looking back in November when the racks began appearing at the thrift stores but I was too busy at home hot-gluing things, and now I'm paying the price because there are no more ugly sweaters to be found! My big belly makes it even trickier to find something to wear so I think we're going to end up recycling last year's models--thank goodness I didn't get rid of them.

Tomorrow morning is the Ugly Sweater Run 5K (see last year's report) and I am having a serious "what was I thinking?" moment about it. Running it in my condition is obviously out of the question, but even walking 3.2 miles sounds like sheer torture at this point when the fastest I can move is at a moderately swift waddle. Back when I signed us up for this I obviously forgot what it feels like to be 35 weeks pregnant! The Mister and Maren may decide to run it but Porter and I are going to take it easy. Heck, I may just be one of the cheaters this year and cut it short. I will definitely be taking my camera and hopefully I'll have some awesome pictures to share again this year!

Rue de Noel--what I made

If you follow me on Instagram, you have already seen most of these pictures already because I had fun posting the items I made before I packed them away in my boxes to take to the market. I made a ton of stuff and even though it was so much work, it certainly is FUN work!

One of the things I had in my stash was a bag full of covered buttons that I'd covered with scraps of feedsack quilt squares. I made them earlier this year and then stuck them into a bag in the closet because I couldn't figure out what to do with them. I pulled them out and made two different types of items to sell:

the first is these bookmarks. I had a box of huge oversized paperclips in my stash and the buttons fit perfectly on top of them. I was afraid that glue alone wouldn't hold the metal together and would look messy, so I ended up pulling out my soldering gun and soldering the paperclips to the backs of the buttons. It looked a lot neater and hopefully they are nice and secure! I packaged them up by folding a piece of old book paper and clipping the bookmark to the flap, then wrapping the whole thing in a self-closing cellophane bag. I wanted these to be able to be given as gifts and thought they might be more appealing to shoppers if they already looked like they were ready to give.

The other item I made with my buttons (once I ran out of paperclips) are these hair elastics:

I had purchased the elastics on post-Christmas clearance last year so they were in my stash as well. I packaged them on old Flinch playing cards and put them into cellophane bags as well.

These are one of my favorite things that I made! I used some of my old milk bottle caps and some magnets from my stash and created refrigerator magnets. For packaging, I had some old metal game tins that I bought from the dollar store back when we lived in Georgia, 10+ years ago. I covered up the graphics on the lids with cute vintage-style scrapbooking paper, stuck the magnets to the metal and packaged the whole thing up in a cello bag. I had enough magnets and milk caps to make only 4 sets and I must admit I was a little bit surprised that only one set sold! Oh well, I thought they were so darn cute that I'm happy to hang onto them for a little longer.

These snowman tags were one of the very first things I made to sell. I raided my collection of mother-of-pearl and shell buttons to create the snowmen and made their hats from an old Bingo card that I cut up. I stamped the 'snow' on the kraft tags with white ink and tied the tops with two different colors of seam binding ribbon. I sold out of these on Friday (the proprietor of a very upscale antique store bought most of them--I know she was planning to mark them up hugely and resell them but I'm flattered at having something of mine in her shop!) and these are one of the things I made more of on Friday night to take in on Saturday.

Several years ago I bought a bag of balls of crochet string at a small-town thrift store. I've used them as jar fillers before but this year I decided to make them into snowmen! Their hats are made from old wooden spools of thread and black checkers and they have vintage glass buttons on their bellies. These both sold (as did the tree in the pink LuRay sugar bowl, the tree in the white ceramic trophy, and the clear paint can full of vintage Shiny Brites that are sitting in the background)

I also had enough of the big thread balls to make one big snowman! He has arms made of brown floral wire and carries a glittery cupcake pick tree, which is a bit hard to see in the photo. His face and buttons are all vintage (his nose is an old celluloid button and his tummy buttons are glass). His hat is my favorite part--I was stumped what to use because a spool would be too small. I used the text-a-friend option for help and after I thought about it for a few days, I found an old gelatin mold in my stash that was just the right size and shape. I covered it with black glitter (thanks, Shara!) and added a vintage holly leaf thrifted earring. He didn't sell on Saturday and I'm not sure I really mind because I love him! Now I get to enjoy him for a while.

I raided my vintage canning jar collection and made the few clear ones I have into waterless snow globes using bleached and glittered bottlebrush trees, fake snow, glitter, scrapbooking rub-ons, and various lace/ribbons/seam binding and old bling earrings. These are hard to see but they have little sparkly stars dangling from threads glued inside the lids.

All of these except the pink jar sold. Surprising to me since so many people are into pink vintage Christmas decor!

These cute jars with red lids had wider mouths so I was able to fit a tree and a cute vintage plastic deer inside, along with some cute vintage spun cotton toadstools! Both of these jars sold.

When I ran out of big jars, I moved on to the wee jars! The salt shakers were from a garage sale a few years back--they're special because they have beautiful mother-of-pearl shakers lids! You may have seen the teeny jar on the right on Melissa's blog--she came and visited me on Friday! All three of these jars sold, in addition to the salt shaker's mate.

And two more, one in an old olive jar with a red lid. Wish I could find more of those because they sure made cute little snowglobes! Both of these sold as well.

For a few years now I've been collecting thrifted silverplate sugar bowls and cups to use for holding bottlebrush trees. This year I finally got around to making them! Some of the trees are actual vintage (thifted) and some of them are new trees that I bleached and/or dyed. All of them are decorated with vintage feather tree ornaments and mercury glass beads and other trinkets like sugared bells or tiny reflector flowers. All of these sold except the gold and silver tree that is second from the right. I also made some smaller trees in thrifted vintage Lefton candlestick holders, but I didn't get any photos of those.

Another jar with a deer and a tree in the middle. It's sitting on a pair of vintage books I bundled together and tied with jute. Every single thing in this photo sold!

More bleached and glittered trees. These topped vintage wooden spools of thread and were fancied up with seam binding and a bit of vintage bling. I made 8 of these and all but one sold on Friday. Friday night I found more trees and spools in my stash and made up 9 more of them to take in on Saturday, and all but one of those sold too!

I made three ornament wreaths this year using tinsel, wreath forms, and ornaments that I already had. The large pink wreath in middle was the first to sell, and it went early on Friday morning. Unfortunately, it's the only ornament wreath that sold, which is a pain because they are a drag to transport and store given their fragility. However--having those big, shiny, beautiful wreaths at the back of my booth was 100% worth it even though they didn't sell, because of the amount of people they brought into my booth to look at them! I believe I was the only one at the market who had any ornament wreaths and they were so pretty and eye-catching that they really worked well to draw people in.

Even though the ornament wreaths didn't all sell, the two wreaths I made using vintage light bulbs did both sell, as did 2 of the 3 vintage-style dangly ornament things I made (you can see them near the top, hanging between the big wreaths).

And of course there were banners. This one was my very favorite and it was also the very first to sell! I don't have any more of the red and green diamond ribbon but I think I have enough of the other materials left that I can make one like this for me to keep. I used vintage bingo (actually Beano!) cards for the base, red glass glitter on the letters, my favorite black and white striped ribbon, hand-sewn red crepe paper ruffles, and cute green vintage-style washi tape to make this one.

This one sold too. It had glittery silver letters, iridescent ribbon, jewels, beautiful felt snowflakes, and striped ribbon. The banner pieces were covered with canvas and now I wish I'd bought more of those because they were so fun to work with.

I loved how this one turned out! It wasn't what I had started out making but it turned out so cute. The black stripes in the middles are covered with tiny black jewels and there are glittery black balls on the bottom of the points. I am in love with tissue fringe and used it on several of my banners. This one sold.

This one didn't sell, and I'm kind of surprised. The colors are bad in this photo but those circles are red and aqua peppermint swirls that are actually from a package of Martha Stewart coasters I bought post-Christmas last year. The pennants are glittery silver paper and I used some red striped and aqua ribbon as well as red tissue fringe.

Another one of my favorites--this sold before I even had a chance to pin it up on my board! I had some green bingo cards in my stash that were perfect bases for the metallic red and silver striped paper rosettes, glittery silver letters, green tissue fringe, and glittery red balls. This one had glittery red polka dotted ribbon and green ribbon with red stitching. It was so fun to mix and match ribbon for all of these banners!

There are many more things I made that I just didn't take individual photos of, but that I can see sprinkled around my photos in my previous post: vintage-style foil-covered cardboard bells adorned with vintage Christmas corsages...greeting cards made with vintage sewing pattern girls...book bundles with red and green Readers' Digest books...glittery vintage cookie cutter ornaments and garlands...tags with trees made from folded vintage sheet music...tags made from vintage button cards...rickrack flower pins...Christmas card holders made from vintage folding rulers...stationery folios covered with old sewing patterns and tied with vintage cloth measuring tapes...all of it SOLD! I do regret not getting photos of all of the banners I made that sold but I didn't have a good place to take them before I packaged everything up and then things literally sold out of the boxes before I had a chance to pin them on the board on Friday morning. I took 15 different banners/garlands and I brought home fewer than 5, so those were good sellers and they're one of my very favorite things to make because they're all one-of-a-kind.

I'd definitely love to do this market again next year, so I'm already trying to think of things I can make so that I can take advantage of post-Christmas sales to stock up on materials and supplies. And I think next year I'll start making inventory in June instead of in November!

Rue de Noel antiques and artisans Christmas market report

Well, it's been a week and I think I'm finally recovered enough to report on how my Christmas market went! As a recap, December 6-7 I participated in an 'antiques & artisans' market called Rue de Noel. It was pretty much the sole focus of every minute of free time I had for weeks. The market itself was held indoors, in a vacant retail space in a mall that used to house a Borders bookstore.

There was plenty of space and the aisle were nice and wide. I had many customers tell me that the arrangement was much better than the previous year's market, when it was in a much smaller empty retail space and it was so crowded and jammed with people that they couldn't even shop. We were allowed to set up our booths all day long on Thursday, which was a lifesaver!

On Wednesday we had a huge snowstorm and then that night the temperatures plummeted. The high temps during daylight on Thursday were in the single digits and the parking lot was snowpacked, though the roads were clear. The mall is WAY across town from where I live--a good 35-minute drive, if there is no traffic and if you take the pricey toll road. It took us 2 trips with 2 cars completely full to get everything over there and loading and unloading all of the boxes in the frigid temperatures was no picnic, let me tell you!

Thankfully, with the help of my husband (and the neighbors who watched my kids and let us borrow a truck at the last minute) I was able to get my booth completely set up Thursday night by about 9:30 pm so at least I didn't have to get to the market until 9 am Friday morning to put the finishing touches on everything.

Friday's and Saturday's weather forecast was pretty much the same as Thursday--high daytime temps in the single digits, though much of the day it was below zero. I was so worried that nobody would venture out in the nasty cold weather and I would have a repeat performance of last October's market, where all of my preparation was ruined by the stupid weather.

I needn't have worried, however, because the shoppers turned out in droves! There were so many people waiting to get in the doors the first morning that we let them in 5 minutes early so they didn't have to wait in the cold any longer. My booth was completely slammed just a few minutes after opening and it didn't let up for a couple of hours!

I was absolutely floored at how much stuff I sold on Friday. In fact, by Friday afternoon when things started to slow down a bit, I started to freak out that I wouldn't have anything left to sell the next day! In my downtime I began making a list of things I had at home that I thought I could bring in to sell. I didn't get home until about 8:00 pm and frantically started pulling things out of closets and ransacking my own Christmas boxes to find things to sell! I hurried and was able to make a few tiny things--my husband and even my sweet dad stayed up until midnight with me, sorting buttons and tying ribbons on tags. I got up early the next morning too and put together a few more things to sell so I was able to make the booth look not quite so picked-over.

Saturday was just about as busy as Friday. Tons of shoppers in the morning, and less of a slow-down in the afternoon. Having the market at a mall was definitely a huge advantage because we got the people who came just for the market as well as the people who wandered in from the mall entrance as well! And thankfully for this 8-months-pregnant lady, I was just around the corner from the restrooms and had a great booth neighbor who watched my stuff while I ran to use the facilities!

Things slowed down a lot on Saturday evening. The Mister had to work all weekend long but was able to get out a bit early and come over so that I could have a break and finally walk around and check out the other booths. The market closed at 7:00 pm and my dad brought my kids, and they all helped me break down the booth. Loading up was definitely easier because I'd sold so much inventory, but again the unbelievable COLD made things less than pleasant when the guys were trying to shoehorn everything into our 3 vehicles so that we would only have to make one trip. Then once we were home, we had to completely unload all the stuff into the house. We were all frozen and exhausted by the time all the work was done that night.

In all, the market was a WONDERFUL experience for me! I still can't believe how much I sold. It's funny to look at my photos now and see that almost everything in the pictures sold! I had a mixture of handmade and vintage items, and the majority of the handmade stuff was made with vintage materials. My sales on Saturday were not as high as they were on Friday and I firmly believe it's because I had just run out of things to sell! I absolutely think that if I'd had more stuff to sell on Saturday, I would have sold it. I just plain ran out--in fact, nearly everything that I hurried to make or to dig out when I got home on Friday night did end up selling on Saturday, so it's a good thing I took it with me!

Really, it's a good problem to have--selling more than you expect. I wish I'd been able to make more inventory but honestly I did the absolute best that I could have. I'm actually really proud because the vast majority of things I made were done with materials I already had in my vintage Christmas and craft stashes! I had to purchase another bottle of Mod Podge and some tags, two spools of ribbon, a container of plaster of Paris, a package of bottle brush trees, a large package of chipboard letters and fewer than 5 sheets of fancy scrapbook paper. When you consider the amount of stuff that I made, I think that's pretty remarkable! That goes to show you what kind of a craft/vintage Christmas pack rat I truly am. ;) But see--it all got used! Sometimes it takes me 10 years to get around to using something (like the rub-ons I used on some of my snow globe jars) but I do use it...eventually!

This post is already long enough so I'll do a separate one to show you some of the things I made to sell.