i have been home from my Salt Spring Island adventure for several days and am happy to have received a number of requests for more dolls. I have been overwhelmed with my new fabrics taking a long time to choose but finally cuts have been made and the dolls are in the works. Thank you for your comments, photos and requests. A new batch of dolls will be available in the shop the 2nd week of September. I will be more specific closer to the date but for now i’m off to catch a ferry for another summer holiday. Enjoy your weekends!
Congratulations D&L. It was a perfect and beautifully sweet wedding ceremony which made the long wait and minor detour worth getting there and away. What a gorgeous gathering place, delicious meal and truly lovely couple.
i love this shot;
We were in Bellingham overnight to visit family. i like hanging out in Fairhaven when the sun is shining and Little A also thoroughly enjoyed the day.
washing in the fountain;
For the past few months i have been shipping fabric to my sister’s place to save on shipping and it was better than Christmas picking up my loot!
i am spending most of today washing, ironing, folding and loving every moment of it. Don’t pinch me.
i assumed i would breastfeed just as i assumed my babe would be born at home. i did not anticipate mastitis 7 times nor did i realize how exhausting and drained i might feel. i curse those fuzzy soft lit angelic images you see of a mama and babe nursing. That’s not real! at least not for me or most moms i know nursing their first newborn. it was downright painful, irritating and awkward and i think normal. i was well educated in pregnancy and birthing well before and when i conceived but i never paid much attention to breastfeeding until the milk flowed (or stuck). i am lucky to have had the resources and supportive community (see discussions/finding your tribe to connect with your own community!). Not for a moment did i ever consider not breastfeeding but the support and reassurance was just really nice and helpful. i thought that i would nurse my son until he was 2. That was the goal. Through many breastfeeding phases it was a relief and finally enjoyable when my newborn boobie monster grew to be a gentle, respectful nursing toddler and so we continued on and on and on. He recently turned 3 and we are still nursing. In the past few months and with thoughts of conceiving another i have been feeling quite “done”. i look back on this experience with Little A and i feel grateful and proud. These little boobies have made a lot of milk. i have had some anxiety about weaning but as we are in the process i’m feeling that it is all in good slow time and going both smoothly and gently. Last night and a few other random nights we decided not to have milk to go to sleep as usual. He cried for only a moment and said “but we have to every nighttime!!” so we talked about it as we have been more frequently….i tell him i want for him to have milk too but that slowly i am making less and less and soon there will be none. He realizes that i’m on his side and he calms. i massage his back, we hold hands and rather quickly he falls asleep. In the night when he wakes i have been telling him that i am too tired to nurse and that i need sleep. He’ll yell at me for 10 seconds and then he’s fast asleep again. i am so ok with that. i have been getting more consecutive hours of sleep than i have in 3 years though i still wake in the wee hours and get up to putter about some. i’m feeling good.
This shot cracks me up - breastfeeding in the early days; 
everyone! for your comments from yesterday’s post. We are all fine and dandy here now. Little A is completely unphased. Traumeel works brilliantly and the swelling and bruising is healing well. My mom was in town for my cousin’s wedding so she was around to help while i hopped along.Thank you all for your kindness.
What is it in the air? it seems that accidents are happening all around me. i have this sense of unease and caution. i had a wee accident a few days ago; pulled a metal door over my flip flop adorned foot and then had to push it back over it to get it unstuck. OUCH! There was immediate bruising and lots and lots of blood and swearing. Little A was with me and i tried to explain to him that while it really hurt in the moment i was really going to be ok. We were at my wholesaler for herbs and acupuncture supplies so there were several gals there helping me out. He seemed calm, quiet, observant as i bled and swore and tried to clean myself up but the blood kept coming and so i just had to sit there on the floor for awhile with pressure and ice. Little A was right beside me and then out of the corner of my eye he stumbled and fell, hitting his head on the corner door frame behind him. i went to help him up and realized that he was not ok, eyes rolling and slow convulsions. As i hollered for someone to call 911 a million things went through my mind; panic, confusion, regret, fear….it was the longest 3 seconds of my life and then he was fine, crying a little and nursing but then saying “mommy i’m ok”. He was indeed ok. i was not though. i am still not ok as i remember the look of him laying on that floor. i’m sick with the thought of it but as part of the processing i suppose i need to write about it. My little munchkin! i wanted to smother him with so much love and he just wanted so badly for everything to be fine, to not have the attention. With my mind racing i tried to casually bandage up my foot while scanning him for pupil dilation, slurred speech…. i didn’t even know what exactly. i talked on the phone with 911 but everything really seemed fine so i told them not to come. i felt that he was safe and wanted to respect the space he wanted. Shortly after we left is when i melted, pulled the car over and was on the phone with Alistair, crying and needing so badly to cry and release but also feeling the need to compose myself so as not to scare Little A anymore. It was such a long drive home in traffic. i have been crying so much about it, feeling really shaken and that` night i had continuous nightmares of losing him in crowds and feeling so much loss and disbelief. In retrospect i think that he fainted. He was tired, hadn’t eaten a whole lot and i think he was worried about me and overwhelmed by the blood. He wouldn’t stop looking at it. He did hit his head as he fell but it wasn’t a hard hit and i recall asking myself in the moment “how could such a light hit to the hard occiput cause such a reaction?” i really think he was fainting when i initially thought he was reacting to his head being hit….confusing. scary! i realize also that i was in shock and it took a long time to physically recover. i kicked myself that i didn’t have my homeopathic kit on me and as soon as we were home i dosed us both with Arnica and rescue remedy. After all this i just want to cuddle up with him and take him all in. Crazy enough i put off cuddles and spent the whole day away from him and at my cousin’s wedding. It was a great distraction from the overwhelming stress i’m feeling but now in the middle of the night i feel once again uneasy. i am also grateful. So grateful for health and ability to heal.
my munchkin now; and then
a sweet wedding;
a little distraction;
and some color that makes my day - this was taken at our little friend’s super fun 3rd birthday party last week;
i could not resist to make one or more of these after seeing this. I’m not the only one in love with them. He even helped me stuff them with wool and added a bell in each belly which gives a little rattle. Matryoshka have been a favorite toy of Little A’s for a long time, well since Auntie gifted him this set from her holidays;
i am quite caught up in the trend and anxiously waiting the arrival of a few more matryoshka fabrics. Did you know Ikea even sells these modern multi-ethnic versions?
Sarah has a pretty sweet little set of nesting dolls stamps available here.
A little history for you matryoshka fans.
AND finally meet Annushka;
Isidora and Filippa! They will soon be up in the shop. They were so well adored here i had to make some available to share and besides i like to make several of something.
The weather has been cooler and a warm oven in the AM is a great way to start the day. Little A is happy with the project, papabear likes home baked muffins and thinks i don’t do it nearly enough and i like the flow including the clean up and sitting on the porch for breakfast. i always feel like if i don’t do anything else productive at least i made muffins. recipe below.
i love this series of photos that papa bear took of us baking in our pjs;
Blueberry Muffin Goodness;
3/4 c butter at room temp +more for pan, 3 c flour (i combine 1c spelt flour, 1c whole wheat and 1c all purpose or some other combo..) 2+1/4tsp baking powder, 3/4tsp salt, 3c frozen or fresh blueberries, 1-2tbsp sugar (the recipe calls for 1+1/2c but i just can’t do it and the blueberries make it sweet enough. i use brown sugar or sometimes a molasses sugar or stevia drops), 3 large eggs, 3 tsp pure vanilla extract and 3/4c milk(i usually mix rice milk and avalon whipping cream because that’s what i typically have in my fridge).
Preheat oven to 375F. Generously butter a 12c muffin pan. In a medium bowl whisk together the dry goods. Toss the blueberries in a separate bowl with about 2tsp of the flour mixture to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the pan when cooking and put them aside.
In a larger bowl beat butter with an electric mixer. Add your selection of sugar and beat about 3 mins. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating until combined. Mix in the vanilla. on low speed (i have only 1 speed so whatever) add the flour mixture until just combined. Add the milk until just combined (do not overmix). Using a rubber spatula fold in the blueberries and divide into muffin pan. Bake rotating half way through until muffins are golden brown (about 30 mins). Transfer pan to wire rack to cool. Turn the muffins on their sides in the cups and let cool. Eat them up!
Picnic; I had been planning a picnic of sorts with some mama friends and wee ones for some time. It’s challenging to co-ordinate schedules and naps but we pulled it off - mostly (we missed you A&B!). We snacked and chatted between toddler interruptions and played in the sand and it was lovely. I’d like to do it again some time soon.
Another snack plate. He looks pretty happy here so i suspect he’s found the yogurt covered raisins;
