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Monday, November 19, 2007

the never ending pregnancy...17 days to go

I know that every pregnant woman probably says this, but I the last days of pregnancy seem to go so slow! I'm really looking forward to actually having the baby now, like as in right now...tomorrow, hell even the next day, but sometime soon would be great (can you hear me kiddo?) Here he is at the last sono back in early October:


Yes, that's a full head of hair, and with those cheeks there's no doubt who's baby it is!

Our baby shower was back in Ocotber, definately the bigest party we've had at our house so far! It was really great because we had family from both sides, friends from work, and dear friends, all of whom had never met before, so it was interesting to see the different parts of our life converge on this one day. A great time was had by all...here are some highlights:


We received many beautiful and thoughtful gifts. Many thanks to all that were there to share the great day!

This time of the year is always a little sad for me, yesterday would have been my mother's 69th birthday. Of course, now more than ever, I wish she were still alive to see all of this. I have picked out a special picture to put in the baby's room, it's of my grandmother, my mother and me as a baby. So that he will always have her there to watch over him. Happy birthday mom, we miss you.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Only 66 days to go...holy cow!

Wow, I can't believe that it's October 1st already! What happened to September?? Now that school started I feel like I've been on a speeding train! I am happy to say that things are going very well with the baby...he's moving around an incredible amount (usually when I'm trying to sleep!) It is truly the most bizarre thing to see your stomach move like that. I've been trying to play tag with him. A kick on the bottom right usually means I'll see a hand on the upper left just under my rib cage, so I try to wait for him and tag his hand when it passes by! The baby movement totally freaks out my husband though! Every time I get him to put his hand on my stomach and the baby moves under it, he flips out! I think he believes it's going to be like that scene from "Aliens" where the creature pops out of the guy's stomach. I'm just amazed by the whole thing.

So a whole lot of events have gone by since I last blogged. We've attended 2 weddings, one for my husband's colleagues from school, and one of his good friends, Adam (on the right).

Now the blue dress is totally attack of the Mommy boobs, because was still trying to fit into an old dress. That was at the end of August. I gave up the fight and actually bought a maternity dress (my first piece of maternity wear!) which I wore to the Adam and Christina's wedding (on the right) . I still have one more event to go to, later in October, so I knew there was no way in hell that I would fit into anything other than a maternity dress. It's actually quite a pretty dress an feels like a nightgown. As you can tell from the pics, Eric was one of the ushers in Adam's wedding party. t was a beautiful day with the exception of the slight detour we had to take to the hospital (!) just after the ceremony. I won't go into the all the details here, but needless to say everything is absolutely fine with the baby, and the doctors and nurses in the Maternity urgent care were wonderful! One of the nurses was so nice she even agreed to take a photo of us as we made our way back to the wedding! Other than that, the wedding was wonderful, and we were so happy that we were able to share in their special day.
Since it is September, school has begun once again for Eric and I. Although you can't tell it by the weather! It's been so warm and pleasant here, definitely an extension of the summer. We'll be closing the pool soon since we really have not had the time to go in since the week after school started. Although we seem to always get that last blast of Indian summer here in the northeast sometime in October. I love this weather, 75 and sunny does me very well. The new school year is treating me fine, I really like my students and the new classes I'm teaching (Fashion Design and Jewelry Design). The fashion classes are working on International Mood Boards right now and the Jewelry class just finished Peyote stitch bracelets. These photos are showing off the finished bracelets!

Besides school, we've finished painting the baby's room...being all artsy fartsy I had to pick 2 different colors to paint the room, so 2 walls are like a pistachio green and the other 2 walls are a light ocean blue. When the furniture gets delivered I will post some photos. Baby shower is this weekend so I'm hoping to have the furniture delivered before then. Sonogram tomorrow, so I'll definitely post and update the Flickr account with new images of the baby! I'm still trying to get better at posting here more frequently.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Peaches, Artwork and assorted stuff...

I have to get a lot better at posting on the blog, I know. Anyway, here is a bunch of stuff that has happened in the past month. Baby is doing well and getting big (and still a boy!) My in-laws were here for two weeks and basically bought anything we wanted for the baby (THANK YOU!!!!) So we ordered a crib and furniture for the nursery, we got lots of cute baby clothes, and (thanks to a tip from another pregnant girl I took a class with) some great gently used items from craigslist! We got a spare stroller and car seat for my husbands car, and a bassinet. It was a lot of fun (and exhausting) to shop, but as my due date gets closer, I realize how much more I still have to do!



Except for the past few days the weather has been lovely here, I've had a chance to relax and hang out by our pool (knitting a blanket and working on a tan). My tomatoes are finally starting to ripen and we ate an orange heirloom one with dinner last night! Luckily we live close to the East End farms and can partake of some of the locally grown goodness! We went peach picking in July at Lewin Farms. It was a nice day and not too hot. I made a simple peach cake from about half the peaches, which we brought to our friend's, Adam and Chris, wedding rehearsal party. It was a big hit!
Besides teaching 4 classes this summer, I had the opportunity to take a graduate class at my Alma mater LIU/C.W. Post. The class was on papermaking, and non-toxic printmaking techniques. Although it was exhausting (45 hours over 5 days) everyone in the class was extremely prolific and I created over 50 sheets of handmade paper, about 25 mono types, and another 20 pulp paintings. It was awesome. I'm currently framing some of the work for an art faculty exhibit at my school at the beginning of the year, and then it will be hanging in my home. It was very inspirational and the professor, Rick Mills, was my professor over 15 years ago when I was an undergrad. I dug out some of my old work to share with him. You can check out come of the work on my flickr page, they're under a set call Artwork 2007.


That's about it for now...I will post some more by the end of the week.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

It's a BOY!!!!!

I'm really trying to get better at posting more than once a month, but it's so tough lately. So we had the 20 week sonogram today and found out that out baby bean is officially a BOY!!! I was convinced it was a girl, but to my surprise (and my husbands shock) turns out I was wrong, because we saw it all! You can check it out on my flickr page (I've updated with scans of the sonograms). But most importantly everything is where it should be, and in perfect working order. We were able to see the heart, kidneys, brain, aorta, stomach, the umbilical cord, everything! The heartbeat is going strong at 150 beats per minute. The technician measured the tibia bone on the baby and she seemed to think the baby is a little further along than originally thought (which is what I thought too, but I listened to what the doctors originally said). So the baby may become by birthday present this year! Otherwise everything is fine. I feel very good, my energy has come back though I still feel like I need a nap at like 7pm! I started knitting a baby blanket about 2 weeks ago (not knowing, I picked a nice neutral coco brown color), which I am hoping to finish by next week. Then it's onto baby hats (I can't wait to make the umbilical cord hat from the first Stitch n Bitch book!) and a sweater pattern from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. But at least I have the rest of the summer to do all that. So now it's onto picking out a color scheme for the baby's room (I'm partial to sage green) and getting some of the essential stuff (car seats, bassinet, furniture, etc.) But more on that later!!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

long time coming....

So I haven't blogged in like 6 weeks, because this is truly the most horrendous time of the year for me. But I have survived the end of the year art show, finals, grades and I now look forward to a fun summer of teaching classes for teachers, and taking a few classes myself (papermaking, printmaking, glass fusing/slumping, jewelry design.) All cool stuff. The best, coolest part of the summer is that I am now finally able to tell everyone that I am having a baby!!! SQUEEEEEEE!!!! Yes, I know that I cannot truly believe it, even though I have photo proof! I will post some pics of the last ultrasound on my flickr account and post one here as well. It is all going very well, and in a few weeks we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl. I know that there are a few people out there who think that's wrong, but I am a slight control freak, plus it seems like it makes everything so much easier. My husband and I have discussed names already and we're prepping the "baby's" room to paint and get new carpeting! It's going rather fast. I'm almost finished my fourth month. And (don't shoot me for saying this) I've been very lucky in not having any morning sickness or any other major problems. I'm hoping that bodes well for the rest of the time. Anyway more later on everything!

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Entirely too busy...

I am almost comatose, although I have had more stressful weeks, I am definitely done. A very exciting week nonetheless. One of the students in my department WON the Congressional Art show. Her artwork, a charcoal drawing entitled "Waiting for Dinner," will represent the 2nd Congressional district of New York. It will hang for one year in the halls of the US Capitol in Washington DC. She also received tickets to fly with her parents to Washington DC for a special artists reception and lunch with Congress. (The tickets were compliments of Southwest Airlines) Very exciting time for our school. For myself, I was finally able to find a used Ashford spinning wheel on e-bay. It arrived Tuesday, and I put it together. I just haven't had the time to sit and spin. Maybe Sunday. I'll post some pictures over the weekend showing off my new (used) wheel.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Llamas baby!

Wow, it seems like every time I sat down and tried to add a new post, something else came up. Anyway...it's Thursday evening, and I am wiped out. This has been a ridiculously busy week and it is not showing any signs of letting up. As part of my job, I take care of getting student artwork to various shows that come up during the year. As I mentioned in my earlier post, 2 students from my school won some major awards at one of the bigger high school art shows on Long Island, and the reception this past Sunday was wonderful (hot and crowded, but great!) Now this week brings 3 more art happenings, a local gallery hosts a show for surrounding high schools, that had to be delivered on Tuesday. Today we actually had work picked up for us...we had participated in a joint project with a local park called the Common Ground, which is short is a reflective garden dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives on 9/11. This project involved the ceramics teacher whose classes made nature-inspired mosaic stepping stones (24 of them from scratch! not with pre-made tiles), the painting teacher whose classes created famous art scenes (like Starry Night and Christina's World) on industrial garbage cans, and the technology teacher whose woodworking classes created bird and butterfly houses. So all of these items were picked up from the high school today to be installed in the park. Lastly tomorrow I have to deliver 15 artworks to the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport, for the Second District Congressional Art Show, hosted by our local Congressman Steve Israel. And of course this weekend brings with it the opening receptions for both of these shows. I will need a vacation very soon.



So last Sunday I went to a llama shearing at my LYS. Tabbethia (in the blue behind the llama) taught my spinning class earlier in the year. She owns a farm where she raises and shows (among other animals) llamas. She brought two of her award winners to shear behind the store.
That's WMF McLellan (Mac).
And this is:



MHF Double Take!

Now I grew up in Brooklyn, and the closest I've ever been to a llama was probably in a zoo, but...

here I am with Tabb and Mac! He's so soft and really friendly (and sort of smelly), but it was so cool to see her shear them. I will post all the pics soon on Flickr. I guess that's it for now...I will try to post some more over the weekend. It's supposed to rain so we'll see.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Joining the blog world

I finally figured out that I should have a blog, not for any great, important reason, but hey why not? I'm hoping it will give me chance to record some thoughts not elsewhere noted and post some fun pictures and whatnot. Anyway...it's a gorgeous Saturday here in NY and my DH is outside clearing up some of the debris from the storm we had last week. Notice I'm inside, on the computer (I'm supposed to be doing laundry, heh!) I just got back from my sock knitting class at Rumplestilskin Yarns. This is the second class I've taken and I feel pretty confident now about following a pattern and all that. Up until this point I've been just a simple knitter (scarves, blankets, etc.) except for occasional forays into more difficult stuff like a bag from Pursenalities (that I still have to felt!). I also recently learned how to spin, which leads me to the third coolest thing that happened to me this week (I'll detail the other things in a few). I took a spinning class in January and it's loads of fun, but the spinning wheels are heinously expensive when you purchase them new, so I have been haunting e-bay for a used wheel. I've bid on at least 6 wheels in the past 2 months, but to no avail....until today!!! I finally won an auction for a reasonably priced Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel. YAY!!! I'm so excited because I have lots of awesome fiber that I ordered from some etsy shops like Funky Carolina and Sereknity, and now I will be able to spin as often as I want! So one of the other awesome things that happened this week is that 2 art students (11th graders) from my department received the wonderful news that their artwork had been accepted into a juried art show sponsored by The Heckscher Museum, and beyond that one of them received a monetary scholarship award, and the other a special achievement award for his ceramic sculpture. The opening reception and awards ceremony is tomorrow, so I'll update some more with photos then. I should go get started on the laundry but before I sign off for now, I have to make mention of the fact that I'm listening to probably one of the greatest albums (IMHO) ever: The Wild, The innocent and the E Street Shuffle. There are no words to describe how stunning the music is. Before I die I want to learn how to play the opening piano part on "New York City Serenade". Later.