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You know what’s not labour? Prelabour. So yeah. Nothing is happening here. I’m feeling pretty disappointed- I was really really positive the baby would be born this weekend, but instead I’ve just been sitting around having occasion contractions that go nowhere, and it sucks.

One thing that is really nice though is my mom came over from the Island to stay (if nothing happens, baby-wise overnight she’s going home and then she’ll come back when it DOES happen). Usually when she visits it’s just for an afternoon and usually when I’ve been working, so it’s been great to just hang out and talk without fifty daycare babies hassling me! Also, I’ve been trying to keep busy so I don’t just sit around and wallow about the fact that I’m still pregnant, so I’ve made SO MANY banners. I’ve actually almost finished all the orders I had from before the Jezebel post, which means I only have, oh…. twenty or so more to do (seriously I’ve sold like 20 in the last three days). Fortunately they are mostly quite small and/or simple, but I have made some more complicated pieces…

These were samples I did to show someone how they’d look, but on the strength of this I already have people interested in a banner of cats and a banner of fruits! Anyway I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend powering through orders since I’m absolutely positively definitely NOT having a baby. Nuh-uh. No way. Not gonna happen.

(Yes, I’m trying to reverse psychologe my unborn baby WHAT OF IT.)

No baby human yet but a baby dog:

(My mom’s shih tzu/bichon puppy Tess, she’s so cute :3)

I don’t know whether or not I’m going to get around to taking belly pictures today. I had a doctor’s appointment this morning and she said I could possible go into labour tonight, and then I came home and passed my mucous plug (SORRYYYYYY I know that sounds gross). Also, this happened:

… and my etsy BLEW UP overnight so I guess BYE BYE to my free time because I’m swamped in orders now. SWAMPED, it’s nuts! Of course this would happen right before I have a baby, haha.

P.S. the Jezebel commentary is positive, they were goofing around.

Sym got up extra early to do her chores so she would have time to put on these press-on nails, by which I mean so I would have time to do it for her. Oh and I’m not apologizing for my messy house in these pics. I’m a HUMAN BEING, dammit.

I’m officially skipping Halloween this year. I’m just too tired and pregnant to put up decorations, I don’t feel like giving out candy (our neighborhood gets so many kids it’s basically a full time job, haha) and I never got around to making my costume. Sym’s dad is going to take her trick-or-treating and I think I’m just going to hole up in my apartment and drink cider or something (probably work on orders for Christmas banners like I did last night, tbh). I am going to put up my traditional bamboo-and-spooky-caution-tape fence around the backyard to protect the grass from getting churned up, especially as it’s been wet and rainy all week, but that’s all. No flashing eyes, not glitter skeletons, no pumpkins, although I do invite you to check out what an amazing job I did last year.

Anyway I hope everyone who ISN’T too pregnant to function has a great Halloween!

When Taylor and I took our pre-natal class the instructor talked about how right towards the end of the pregnancy your HARD-CORE nesting instincts will kick in and you’ll want to undertake a bunch of big projects. She suggested that we resist this urge and take the time to relax and rest up, saving our energy for labour and delivery. Of course, me being me I was like…

… and decided to refinish a cradle. It was given to me by Sym’s grandma to use in our bedroom when Baby Laramie is very tiny, and while the shape was nice and it was in good condition, the colour was oogly and I got a bunch of splinters from it. Basically nothing that couldn’t be fixed with some sanding and painting! I’m ridiculous and thought it’d take me two days to finish this refinishing, but I kind of overestimated my energy levels and how tedious it would be to do all the little spindly bars, so it took more like two WEEKS. In the end it was worth it because I’m basically In Love with the results.

I didn’t bother taking before or in progress pictures because who cares. I mean, it’s pretty straightforward: sand off the old finish, a couple of coats of primer, a couple of coats of paint and boom, done. I considered painting the whole thing turquoise but in the end I went with light grey because I already had the paint (it’s the same one we used for Taylor’s desk) and I wanted to do this on the cheap.

I decided to add some cuteness with a little floral detail on one end panel in turquoise, yellow, and grey acrylic paint and black Sharpie. If I was more ambitious I’d paint flowers on the other end and maybe the rockers as well but I think I need to stop. I have other projects to do anyway, I mean, these hand-embroidered felt leaves aren’t going to assemble themselves into a mobile, are they?

I meant to take pictures & make this post yesterday but my hair was absurdly in need of a cut and the earliest I could get an appointment for was 5pm. Then when I got home I was too tired and sore to do anything but collapse on the couch. Actually first I collapsed in the bath and then I collapsed on the couch. Basically I was just collapsing everywhere.

So. 38 weeks! That’s pretty much done, I guess. My doctor seems confident that this baby will make her appearance fairly close to her due date (November 8th), so it could be a couple weeks more but still, she could arrive at any time, and you know what?

THAT FREAKS ME OUT.

I’m starting to get pretty nervous about this whole going into labour thing. When I had Sym, my water broke well before my labour really started (I guess I was having contractions, but so mild I couldn’t even tell), so I was admitted to the hospital basically right away and ended up being induced. I knew when the contractions were going to start, I was surrounded by medical personnel, everything was in a like… controlled environment with people telling me what was going to happen and when. So this idea of contractions just starting whenever they feel like it and timing them and everything is kind of making me bug out! (Obviously I know people do this all the time blah blah blah but I’M ALLOWED TO HAVE MY FEELINGS OKAY.)

Other than my omg feelings, we are pretty much prepared for the baby around here. I mean, I have to finish making the mobile I started and I want to get some little shelves and pictures for the nursery, as well as a side table that is proving ANNOYINGLY IMPOSSIBLE to find, but those things aren’t really important. The nursery is all done otherwise, and I’ve finally finished repainting the cradle to use in our bedroom (I was having trouble finding sheets for its little mattress and then I discovered a king pillowcase is exactly the right size- how cute is that??). All the bottles and clothes and blankets are washed. I have a basket of tiny diapers waiting on the change table. My mom has stocked up on the world’s best diapering salve for me and made curtains and a crib skirt and pillows for the nursery. Taylor has sorted it out with his office that he’s going to take a week off and then work from home for six weeks after the baby arrives, which is AMAZING- hopefully with both of us here night and day we can each get some sleep (lol yeah right). So I guess do your worst, baby, because we’re ready for you, as ready as we’re gonna be.

Don’t forget to check out my newest post on Least Likely about how to be a cool mom by letting your kid skip school! And while you’re at it, like our facebook page.

Thank goodness I have adorable baby bottles & an adorable bottle drying rack I mean how would the baby survive without these things???

Originally Sym was planning on being a dead flower girl for Halloween, but at some point she changed her mind and decided she wanted to be a cat schoolgirl instead. I’m not entirely sure what a cat schoolgirl is, but her grandma got her a school uniform to wear so today I made her some ears (the tail is still pending).

Georgie loves cat schoolgirls, apparently.

Of course, now that she has cat ears she wants to wear them all the time (I guess she decided I needed bunny ears to go with her cat ears).

I’m still undecided about dressing up for Halloween this year. I have all the things I need for my costume but I don’t know if I want to bother making it? I have so many other projects on the go right now (etsy orders, painting the cradle, making the mobile, blah blah blah), and I don’t even feel like decorating or handing out candy anyway. I’ve got the Halloween blahs, tbh.

So everyone knows that when you are pregnant you have MESSED UP dreams. I guess it’s a combination of anxiety and hormones? Anyway here are my top three weirdest dreams I’ve had so far.

1. I had the baby and she was perfectly healthy but tiny, like a baby kitten. In this dream everyone wanted to hold her and I was like NO SHE’S TOO SMALL BACK OFF (I feel like this isn’t far off to how I will actually react to people trying to hold my actual, normal sized baby, tbh).

2. I was this pregnant but still working and somehow it was the dead of winter? It was all snowy outside and I had to get like, eight kids ready to go pick up Sym from school in all their outdoor gear, and every time I thought I was done I’d find another kid who needed to get dressed up! This dream in particular pissed me off because I’m not working right now,s o why am I having work anxiety dreams? NOT FAIR.

3. I had the baby and it was a boy who had some sort of rapid aging disease where he grew to man-size really fast but still had a baby brain. Oh and he looked exactly like Taylor. This dream was creepy as hell, I had to do all the things you have to do to take care of a tiny baby but with a giant man MAKE OF THAT WHAT YOU WILL.

BONUS DREAM THAT TAYLOR HAD: I died in childbirth (wow, thanks) and he had to raise our baby on his own. He was really proud of his dream-self for not giving up and moving back to his hometown, but I just wanted to know if he was sad in his dream.

After my two crab-tastic posts last week I think it’s time for something a little lighter, so here’s a post literally entirely about SPARKLES.

I’ve been busting my butt working on banners recently. I got a TON of orders in the first couple weeks of October and I don’t want to fall behind and then go into labour and never get caught up once the baby arrives. I also don’t want to close my shop right now and lose all the good momentum I’m building!

Here are some things I’ve finished recently:

This is actually the first ever banner I’ve made for myself! It’s a mini banner in my new turquoise (more on that in a minute) and I’m going to hang it on the baby’s cradle, if I ever finish painting it.

Last Friday we had Sym’s birthday party- originally we’d planned it for November 2nd, but I started to get paranoid I’d go into labour and we’d have to postpone it indefinitely so I rescheduled it at the last minute. I made these mini name banners for her and all her friends’ goody bags, but unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the other ones before giving them away.

This mini banner is for my friend Melissa’s jewelry business. She has an etsy shop but also does craft fairs and wanted a little banner to go right on her table (she already has a full-size one). I’ve also finally put up a listing for custom mini banners here.

This might look like a regular banner but it’s actually EXTRA LARGE, with letters 5.25″ tall instead of 3.5″. People actually ask me quite often if I can make banners with larger letters, but the problem is that while they want the bigger letters, they don’t want to pay a bigger price so I generally never do it. This banner is for a feminist party, not a baby shower.

I am SO THRILLED with how this one turned out! It’s for a wedding; the couple used these cute little faces on their invitations and asked me if I could recreate them in glitter (OF COURSE I CAN).

Another craft fair banner! This one is for Rosie’s Meats (obviously), hence the cute little steaks. Kate has bacon pillows available in her shop now, and soon she’ll have mini meat ornaments of bacon, t-bone and ribeye (I’ve seen them and they are very cute).

And finally, there’s what I meant by new turquoise! When I got the new glitter colours the other week they were actually picked up by Sym’s dad and grandma at a store out in the suburbs. I was given one sample of each colour and then they went back to pick up more sheets of the colours I wanted (all of them!), but I didn’t realize until last week that they’d actually gotten me this extra colour which I’d never gotten a sample of! I falls right between the mint and the colour I’d originally called turquoise, so I renamed the old turquoise to peacock and this is the NEW turquoise.