Hard Week
May 8, 2008
*sigh* It's been a hard week over here, so sorry I have been absent on the blog.
First, I got sick and tried to kick it with natural methods (rest, Echinacea, Advil), but that didn't work. So I went and got antibiotics since I have a wedding this weekend and need to be at 100% for that.
Then, B started throwing up this morning around 4am and hasn't stopped. Maybe a reaction to the antibiotics, I don't know, but he didn't even keep down the frozen milk I had. It breaks my heart to watch him be sick - poor little guy.
To top it all off Forest is at a conference on the East Coast so I am missing him through all of this : ( Thankfully I am down at his family's house and they are giving me lots of help.
On a happy note, B rolled over all the way for the first time on Tuesday, yay! Everything pretty much went downhill after that.
Hope to be back next week with a healthy body and baby, and maybe some wedding pics from this weekend.
5/9 UPDATE: Forest's mom is now feeling sick with the flu! Lord help us. Thankfully Forest caught and early flight home and will be here in a few hours.
Posted by raya 10:12 AM 4 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
Meet My New Best Friend
February 14, 2008
I can't believe he is already a week old! Everything went really well and he is a healthy, healthy baby boy.
Thanks for all your thoughts and well wishes on my previous post It was so fun to come home and read all the comments you left - and very hard to wait until now to post a photo, but I needed to rest and recover. Adjusting to motherhood is, well, an adjustment but I am feeling much better today than I was at first. I will probably be light on my posting for the next few weeks, but I am starting a fun new daily post that will hopefully start soon so at least I will be doing that. I have lots of other projects I'd like to start, but know that my most important project is getting to know this little guy. He owns me right now, which is just fine.
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!
Posted by raya 1:36 PM 36 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
365: A baby's first year
February 7, 2008
I think it will be fun to look back on this year and see all the events, mundane and exciting, that took place. For all you baby-less readers do not worry: These posts won't take the place of my regular posting and hopefully they will be somewhat interesting images to look at. I'm also hoping it will be an exercise for me professionally and challenge me to create images that go beyond just "cute" photos of a baby's face. Photographing babies can be pretty easy because they are...babies, but some of the more impactful images I've seen are so much more than that.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy. Here is the first photo, taken not two hours after he was born. I think Faith had the camera for this one and I just love it.
1Posted by raya 9:36 AM 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: 365: A baby's first year, Family Life, With Child
Baby Time
February 6, 2008
The Paper Pony is going to take a short break so Raya can HAVE HER BABY! When she comes back she'll be a momma. Have a great week and look forward to posting some good news soon.
xoxo
Posted by raya 7:25 PM 21 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
Drawer Lining
February 5, 2008
Taking a tip from Grace's DIY drawer lining, I bought this paper to line the drawers in B's wardrobe.
I love it and it matches the colors in the room - chocolate brown and light blue. Pretty much my favorite color combo ever. These were also our wedding colors : )
Posted by raya 1:19 PM 4 comments Links to this post
Labels: My Home, She's Crafty, With Child
Fitting
February 1, 2008
Well, not really fitting me that well anymore, but I thought this shirt was fitting for our current situation.
Posted by raya 11:18 PM 1 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
DIY Draft Blocker
January 30, 2008
Now that a baby is going to be living here in just a few weeks I am starting to realize how cold our house is. This is mostly because we have the original windows from 1951 in our bedrooms and they are pretty much worthless at keeping cold air out. You can actually hear & feel a steady stream of air blowing in. And our one wall heater doesn't do much except heat the 10 feet surrounding it, only to have that little bit of heat escape right out of our inefficient, energy-wasting windows.
I made these simple draft blockers for B's room and am going to make them for ours as well. They already seem to be helping and they're an inexpensive solution until we can replace the old windows with new ones.
To make them I measured the length of our window casing, then divided that equally into 9 (because I wanted 9 different panels, but you can use as many or as few as you like). I then added an inch for seam allowance in the width and cut each panel to be 6" long (also allowing an inch for seam allowance). I sewed all the panels together by the 6" sides, folded it over and sewed around the raw edges, leaving one short end open. Then I filled it with rice and finished off the last raw edge by hand.
I think I also saw something like this in Lotta Jansdotter's book, but they're pretty simple so you really don't need a pattern. It's also a good way to use up your scraps.
Anyway, this is probably one of the oldest tricks for keeping warm air in and cold air out and I only wish I had thought of it earlier. Hopefully this will help keep our little one warm and cozy during these winter months. And maybe I won't have to wear my bathrobe and Uggs around the house all day like I have been.
Posted by raya 9:10 AM 8 comments Links to this post
Labels: My Home, She's Crafty, With Child
38 Weeks
January 27, 2008
Posted by raya 1:15 PM 7 comments Links to this post
Labels: With Child
Corinna Corinna
January 22, 2008
I've been looking for a good black handbag that I can fit all my junk in, but that is also easy to carry around all day (meaning it has a shoulder strap). If I was made of money I'd probably buy this one:
It's the Chain hobo bag by Gucci and it's beautiful. It also costs twice what I paid for my first car and since we don't have a money tree growing in our backyard it will probably never live in my closet.
At one time I had big dreams for this bag. My friend Amy went on Identity last Spring and I, along with her husband and our friend Mark, were there to appear on the show as her support team and help her win the cash - 100 grand to be exact. I told her all I wanted for spending two days in a 12 x 12 secluded dressing room was this bag (and a nice vacation to some exotic island), but that didn't quite pan out...I don't think that game show is coming back by the way, and for good reason - she was robbed, I tell you. Robbed!
Anyway, I spotted a version of this Anna Corinna bag in an issue of Real Simple while at the hair salon today and discovered that Blue Bee in Santa Barbara sells it in black. It's a nice leather bag, the same size as the Gooch and about 1/4 the price. You can fill it full and carry it by the hand straps, or fold it over and use the shoulder strap.
I could save up for this one and it wouldn't take me two years. Plus, for a bag I am going to use on a daily basis and have for a long time I think it's worth the investment. A handbag is one wardrobe piece where Quality, not Quantity applies for me. I'd rather have two nice handbags than 10 adding up to the same cost.
OR, maybe this could be my push present. I'm not really serious about that, but have you heard of this? Have you or any of your friends received a gift for carrying and delivering a child? This was complete news to me, but apparently it has become quite popular. Tell me your stories - I'm so curious!
Posted by raya 9:32 PM 12 comments Links to this post
Labels: Let's Talk Fashion, With Child
Sick day
January 16, 2008
Despite my belief that when you get pregnant you also get a force field around you for 9 months that protects you from all disease, I managed to wake up this morning with a sore throat and a stuffy nose.
I had planned a different post today, but apparently I need to chill out for a bit. So I'll be unplugging for the rest of the day and lying on the couch, gargling salt water and drinking plenty of tea with lemon and honey.
Hope to be back tomorrow : )
Posted by raya 1:11 PM 5 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
35 Weeks
January 8, 2008
Posted by raya 12:46 PM 10 comments Links to this post
Labels: With Child
Favorite Blankies
January 7, 2008
On our new favorite chair. We had a shower with Forest's family over the weekend, and what can I say except they know me well. I mentioned to Forest that I'd love to have an Eames rocker for the baby's room and so the whole family went in on one for us. Forest's sister's father-in-law is in the furniture business and is a big Eames fan himself, so he used his connections to make this chair possible. I feel so blessed to have such a caring family. Thanks David and everyone!
Also, thanks to Forest's family our baby will have no shortage of favorite snuggly blankies. We went from very few to this giant stack - a few of them handmade by various talented women in the family. I can't wait to cuddle B in any of these.
Speaking of handmade, we have been given some beautiful handmade gifts and I'll be doing a post showing all of those off. I am consistently blown away by the talent all around me. It's just amazing.
Posted by raya 10:48 AM 6 comments Links to this post
Labels: My Home, With Child
32 Weeks
December 21, 2007
Posted by raya 1:37 PM 5 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
Baby Shower
December 10, 2007
Saturday we had a co-ed shower at our house given by our dear friends Amy & Lindsay (who both have good blogs btw, they just need to post more. Maybe if they weren't spending all their time planning parties for us they could - sheesh).
The decorations were so fun - grays, oranges & blues & dots. Very chic and a good balance of masculine/feminine. Lindsay and Amy thought of everything - even matching the desserts to the theme - mochi balls in shades matching the rest of the decor.
I think some of Forest's friends were freaked out about attending their first baby shower, but when I told them there would be beer they seemed okay. And we did crafts - who doesn't like crafts? I am not huge on shower games, so instead the girls set up tables with paint, stamps and brushes to decorate onesies.
They are all hanging around the house and I need to take some photos. We have quite a creative group of friends I will say. Some inappropriate, but creative nonetheless : ) On top of everyone coming over to celebrate and hang out with us for the afternoon we received so many generous gifts. Our baby is going to have the biggest shoe collection! Which is just fine with me.
Posted by raya 12:09 PM 6 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
30 Weeks
December 6, 2007
Posted by raya 7:52 AM 8 comments Links to this post
Labels: With Child
Handmade is the Best
December 5, 2007
I received these handmade burp cloths from Sara and just had to share. The colors, fabric, everything...perfect. Somehow she finds time to sew beautiful thoughtful gifts while taking care of her two sons and being pregnant. They just had a little girl - check out the third photo down, what a doll.
Thank you Sara! I will have to think up something extra special for little Gigi : )
Posted by raya 3:28 PM 4 comments Links to this post
Labels: She's Crafty, With Child
Tori Higa
November 21, 2007
I've been so excited to share these beautiful invitations Tori did for us. I met Tori through Flickr when she happened upon my photos of Abbot Kinney in LA and through that I discovered her wonderful line of stationery.
Definitely check out her site - torihiga.com. My current favorites are her Vintage Map Travel cards and of course this...
We are having a co-ed shower with our friends here in town and thought it would be fun to include both of us on the invitation. Tori's drawings are so modern, simple and fun - and doesn't it look like us?
Anyway, this was such a delight to receive in the mail and a fun way to start off the celebration of this little baby about to be.
We are about to leave for Thanksgiving - we have about a 6 hour drive to join Forest's family up at the cabin so I need to get off the computer and get packing, but just wanted to share these with you before I left. Happy Thanksgiving to all and be back next week : )
Posted by raya 12:02 PM 6 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, Link Love, With Child
Baby Bassinet
November 18, 2007
Rumor has it my mother-in-law found this Pottery Barn bassinet used for $75 (normally $369!). We've been trying to purchase as many used items as we can for the baby (to cut down on spending and consumption). I'll admit I am REALLY picky about baby stuff and how it looks, etc..and any affordable bassinets I've found are usually covered in frilly lace or are just...not acceptable for my decor and tastes.
This is pretty clean and simple. Yes, it's pink, but my sister-in-law will use it for her new baby girl until we have our boy, then we'll recover the pads in another fabric or order the blue set.
Thanks Teresa!
Posted by raya 1:51 PM 1 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
28 Weeks
Two trimesters down...one to go.Posted by raya 1:40 PM 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, With Child
Baby Shoes
October 31, 2007
I might like them more than grown up shoes. These were at a kid's consignment sale in Ventura this weekend. They are pretty much brand new and Forest is a big soccer player, so he'll be just like his daddy. Aw...
Posted by raya 10:06 AM 3 comments Links to this post
Labels: Family Life, Look what I found, With Child
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