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.