projects and pups

in the midst of all of this baby prep, i received a letterpress printing request! i told my client that i was due soon, and thankfully, the news didn't scare her off. after all of the logistics were figured out, i'm ready to start working on her project. i'm so excited and am looking forward to sharing the results - although it might be a little while :)

i'm also mulling around another project - some letterpress birth announcements for the kiddo. i have a general idea of the design, but haven't committed it to plates yet since we won't know the details til after the baby is born (obviously).

the pups are being cling-ons. i think mia is more clingy than normal. i wonder if she can sense what's happening. i kinda doubt it. i do think that they are going to adore the baby. especially once the kiddo starts eating solid foods. i'm sure we won't need to buy napkins - the dogs will take care of vacuuming food bits.

"weekend" adulting

our "weekend" was busy - i say weekend with quotation marks because it happens during my hubby's scheduled days off, instead of the traditional saturday and sunday. we were SUCH adults and did lots of adult stuff. for example, we took my car in to have the brakes checked & serviced. we grocery shopped. we went to my 38 week doctor's appointment. we checked the mail. and i even dropped by the legal office and had some advance directive papers drawn up. super adult. i should wear a cape.

with our guess-timated due date just two weeks away, i've been fervently working away on preparing for this kiddo's arrival. according to our last appointment, it could be any day now - although we've heard that generally first time moms go a little longer, around 41 weeks. hubby was pretty thrilled with the news that the baby could come any second...and has proceeded to tell me to go into labor. now. right now. i love that he's so excited to meet our baby. and we are both incredibly anxious to FINALLY find out if we have a boy or a girl! i would post a recent pic or two, except that i don't have any new ones where i'm wearing something other than sweatpants. i'll try to get a good one before the big event.

short book review

i just finished the lovely book "Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother" by Beth Ann Fennelly. it was so sweet and compassionate. one thing i've just realized, now that this pregnancy is nearing the end, is that i haven't focused enough on being kind to myself over the last few months. while i have given myself breaks and countless naps, my mental dialogue hasn't been terribly positive. i'm a worrier - thankfully, hubby helps soothe some of my worries. most of the books i've read about babies/pregnancy haven't been very supportive - i know they mean to be, but the focus on the medical & physical side of things is overwhelming.

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"Great with Child" was a breath of fresh air - it was filled with kind advice and funny, touching stories. it was as if Beth Ann was writing to me. i heard about it through joanna goddard's blog Cup of Jo - go here for the post about the book. if you are looking for a good book to read during your pregnancy, i highly recommend it.

lately...

well, i'm a week away from being full term (37 weeks) and i've been running around the house frantically organizing stuff. my mom says it's nesting. but when i asked hubby, he said "ehh, you've always been like this." so i don't know. what i do know is that we have more dog hair tumbleweeds in our house than i've ever seen - even though we cleaned approximately 3 seconds ago. which means one of two things: our dogs are shedding more or they are shedding the same amount and all of that hair was eaten by the carpet of our old house. (gross.)

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i've been toying with revamping the blog and am getting an idea of how i want to set it up. nothing too crazy, but a blog facelift would be nice. i toyed with blogger a little bit, since my lack of web design skills are keeping me from doing anything major. i've looked at the designs of blogs i admire and wondered "how did they do that??" taking on another project doesn't seem like the wisest idea at the moment, but it's good to get the wheels turning now. has anyone else switched from blogger? or designed in dreamweaver & uploaded your results? any tips?

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when i woke up this morning, i had a hankering to do some art stuff. i've had an idea for printing some small book covers for quite some time and spent the morning sketching out the new idea. i think i'll get back to my roots and carve this guy from a lino block. partially because i am impatient and don't want to wait for a letterpress plate to arrive. that, and i'm feeling guilty about letting my beautiful new-to-me press sit in my studio.

short book review

i finished reading my first kindle book: MWF Seeking BFF: my yearlong search for a new best friend by Rachel Bertsche.

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rachel moves to chicago to be with her boyfriend, who becomes her husband, and has a wonderful job...however she misses having close friends nearby and realizes how difficult it is to make new friends as an adult. so she sets out to find new friends by going on 52 "friend dates" for a full year.

i think a big reason i enjoyed it so much was due to how lonely i've felt living in a new place. since i'm rather introverted, i have a hard time putting myself out there. i loved the way rachel describes her dates - how awkward she feels, how hard it is to reach out to new people. it gave me some ideas on how to meet new people (now it's just a matter of getting out there and talking to people). she has a very positive outlook on the entire process, even when things don't work out exactly how she wants. i'm not looking for a new best friend, but a few new friends would be wonderful.

things i miss about alaska

dry weather - this includes my clothes feeling dry after being put away for a day, towels drying overnight, the lack of heavy thick air. i'm already sick of constantly feeling damp and gross.

cable tv - a luxury, i know. but even having a handful of regular channels without cable would be nice. especially if we didn't have to pay about $500 to get the regular crappy channels. hulu has its moments, but it doesn't work half the time - even though we are paying for the service.

grocery stores 3 seconds from the house - i miss being able to run out to pick up simple things like benadryl, sour cream, half & half, or peas. now, i have to drive 20 minutes to find out that the store is out of sour cream - for 3 weeks straight.

healthy dog food - it was nice to have a selection of good meals for my pups. if we wanted to mix stuff up, we could try something new. now, we order food a month out and hope it gets here on time. feeding our pups healthy food is just as important as feeding ourselves & our soon to be born baby good food.

coffee - lattes on every street corner and good coffee availability (steamdot and kaladis). not that i've been able to drink coffee due to the pregnancy, but having to wait 4 years for a decent latte instead of a couple more months is depressing.

our local breakfast place - being able to throw on some sweats and drive a minute up the road to have some delicious greasy spoon chow was the best.

lack of mold - the disgusting mold that grows and regrows constantly and makes us sick is probably the most frustrating and soul sucking part of living here. we clean and clean and clean - it seems like we clean everything all the time, to the point that we don't have time to enjoy ourselves.

our old house - i loved our house. there were so many memories wrapped up in our home - it's where we got engaged, where we brought home our puppies vito & mia. i knew we wouldn't be there forever, but i guess i just wasn't quite ready to let go.

winter - the snow and ice and cold is something i miss more than i anticipated. i actually like the cold. i like wearing sweaters and drinking hot drinks. playing in the snow with the dogs was a blast. freshly fallen snow is beautiful.

and of course my family & friends. no explanation needed....i just miss them.