Ugh! What a week!

Shrouded by Leaves - ACEO/ ATC
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

I have some wonderful fresh ACEOs left and one mid-size, but other than that they are all oldies but goodies left. I haven't been in this position since the beginning of the year when I was sick puking three times a day. I may have some small 4"x4" pieces that I didn't get to scanning that I may go through today if I have the time. But I am pretty much out of stuff from my last printing (way back in mid-July) to list.

This week has been very hard. It started with me feeling overwhelmed with keeping up with the baby and trying so hard to keep the house clean and never having time for myself. I ended up pretty depressed for a couple of days. Snapping me out of that depression was a bad case of Mastitis, the key word in this illness that I had no idea about until I got pregnant is "tits". This illness is some serious business. Wednesday I went to bed with a fever and the chills on top of the pain and I woke up barely able to move with sweat pouring down my back. I can't remember the last time I had a fever, and this one was bad. Jon had to stay home because I was completely incapable of caring for myself much less the baby. I had one duty and that was to feed her. And even there he had to help me as much as he could. I called my doctor right away at 8:30 in the morning but got the bitchy receptionist. She left a message and told me a midwife would get back to me. Two hours of misery after still no call and this seemed odd so I called back. She basically told me that they were busy and I would just have to wait. All day I waited. My fever broke for a bit and that is the only reason why I put up with waiting, that and I was scared that if I tried again this woman would give me grief again. I fell asleep and around 5:30 received a call from a very upset and apologetic nurse. Apparently the incompetent and world hating receptionist had shoved the message in her box in a way that she totally didn't see it until just then as she was leaving. She talked to me about my symptoms and then consulted with a midwife before getting back to me. They agreed to put me on an antibiotic since my fever was returning and called it in so I wouldn't have to come in or wait until morning.

I see my midwife for the final six week appointment either next Friday or the one after that. If that receptionist is working then I am tempted to give her a "fuck you very much" goodbye. All the nurses, doctors and midwives there are wonderful. But the receptionists and people in billing are just terrible. They are either mean or incompetent. Or sometimes a lovely combination of both, like this woman.

Now as much as I want to clean up I need to take it easy and keep my stress down. I can do the basics but today I take care of the baby and myself by resting. Having me ill is not only hard on me but it is hard on Jon.

His Final Days as the Baby

Love Bug
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

I actually had to put something in the bouncy seat for the baby just to keep this little guy from crawling into it. Cute as it is seeing him in it he needs to be kept out of the babies things because soon he will not be the baby anymore. I got him in June of 2000 and he has been with me through a lot and boy is he one moody little guy! But I love him and I hope he handles the adjustment well. Especially since now he is the only cat we have left. Burrito would have been fine with the baby, she was always rather indifferent to changes as long as she had the back of a sofa to sit on she was happy.

I'm ready to have my body back. I know that the labor will probably break my body even worse, but at least then I can start the healing process. Right now I just feel stuck. The idea that I could actually print yesterday was such a pipe dream! It wasn't hot like it is today so I started tidying my studio so I could either print or carve. My press had some junk on it that had to go and so did my desk. After about fifteen minutes of this I was completely exhausted, my hips and back were killing me and my joints hurt. Even sitting wasn't good enough, I needed to lie down. It is very frustrating to say the least. And i feel so guilty for being such a slacker.

Today is my last appointment with the midwife. I'll get checked out to see if I am any further along but I doubt it. Since my midwife Lara wasn't on the schedule I probably won't see her again until after I have had the baby. But the other midwife I have taken a real shining too will be inducing me on Monday so all is not lost.

Today is Jon's last day at work before he takes leave for the baby! At the latest even with a difficult labor we should have her by Tuesday! I get chills thinking about it! We will use these last two days to go over the house for any final preparations and then on Sunday we go in to get things started. I could go into labor then but most likely I will go home to sleep then come back in on Monday for an inducement.

I hope everybody has a great weekend! I will keep things updated as much as possible! Expect baby pictures soon!

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Now playing: Jens Lekman - A Sweet Summer Night On Hammer Hill
via FoxyTunes

Eviction Papers Served

Sleepytime Tea (with chine colle)
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Good late morning to all.

As I sit here drinking my morning tea I want to give a bit of a shoutout to the wonderful TeaNoir from Etsy who sent me some lovely tea along with a handmade stuffed platypus for blee the other day. I ordered from her a number of months ago and she remembered what my favorite tea and gifted me with some. Have I ever said how Etsy is filled with many wonderfully kind people? Well, it is! Thank you doll! Her "Juicy" tea is a lychee flavored tea and it makes the best iced tea.

I'm feeling a bit better emotionally ever since I called the midwives yesterday to talk about getting induced. Let's just say that I didn't have to fake breaking down over the phone, all the frustrations came out with Judy. She is one of my favorites and she talked me out of inducing right away and giving blee a few more days to come out on her own. But since she is working on Monday and that is the day before I am 42 weeks anyhow we did schedule an induction for then. So eviction papers have been served. It is such a relief to not only have this date but to know that even worst case I get to be induced with somebody that I know, trust and feel very comfortable with. I see my normal midwife Lara tomorrow for a standard visit. If I go into labor prior to Monday I really hope she is working!

On Tuesday my good friend Chuck came for a visit from NYC and I was able to meet up with him, Mary and some other people for dinner before they all went to Karaoke at the Milky Way. I was certainly not up for that part but dinner was great. I got to handle and play with an iPhone for the first time and that was a lot of fun. I was pretty down on them before despite my love of iPods because of the price but now I get it. I still think they are too rich for my blood, but I admit that they are damn sexy little machines that I will covet from afar.

The last of my pine cone pieces sold yesterday and this is bittersweet. I am both happy and sad about it. That they are popular is great but now they are gone and I don't know if I can print in this state, but I would really like to have some for the Open Studios at the end of September. Since it isn't too hot today I may try to do some printing. Am I totally insane? I miss it so but it is murder on my hips and the rest of my poor broken body.

Still Waiting - Life on Hold

SPT belly
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Going to see the midwife (again) tomorrow at 10am. If anything interesting happens I will let you guys know. Here is hoping that my body has made some progress getting this kid out. I had a call tonight from the leader of my former mom's group and she was perkily telling me how her first came two weeks early but she had to wait for her second who only came two days early. Poor thing. Yeah, not what I want to be hearing right now. Everyone please mentally get together and will this child out so I can try to be a person again.

Gotta package up a small but of course very important order before I go. Been a bad girl and have waited a few days to send it. Sales have been pretty decent for me this month despite how much scaling back I have done promoting and listing. They are slowing down more and this is good, I want this because it means I have control enough to keep things slow and manageable during this time and the time to come. I would much rather be able to slow them through lack of promotion along with a notice in my shop about what is going on than putting every 116 items into edit mode! But of course there is that little insecure voice inside of me that cries just a little.

I know, totally silly and best ignored.

So this picture is of me drinking the last of the raspberry leaf tea last night. I have decided that this is bullshit labor tea. It certainly does seem to bring on labor pains as it has the three nights I drank it and the one night I abstained I had none. But you don't see me with a baby either do you? Basically I get the pain and it leads nowhere. This tea lead to some rough nights thinking I might be going into labor only to have them vanish into thin air. I do not recommend this tea to any of you expectant moms. It is a labor tease.

I'm not very mobile lately. Blee feels like she is about to fall out of me at times when I walk and I get some serious pains. I entertain myself with youtube a bit. I'm currently pretty obsessed with Flight of the Conchords and this is the song that is currently stuck in my head.

"These aren't tears of sadness cause you're leaving me.

I've just been cutting onion for a lasagna. For one."

That and the end are my favorite bits.

The Weekend is Over

Dragonfly over City
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

Monday morning. Hope everybody had a good weekend.

My baby shower on Saturday was a whole lot of fun even though I was a bit of a zombie for it after having another rough night sleeping. The shower favors that Kate made for me went over really well. Thanks Kate! My friends officially have a sense of humor. I got some much appreciated baby stuff, but more importantly got to spend the afternoon relaxing around girlfriends. Some I hadn't seen in months. Two came all the way from Brooklyn for the shower. There was a lot of tasty food that I didn't have room to eat much of and crafting that I was a bit to brain fried to do a good job with. I made a collage of cut out paper cherries. Why cherries? Because I was eating cherries and that was about how creative my brain was willing to get. But it was great fun and then I went home and crashed.

Last night we sucked it up and made a quick IKEA run right before closing to get curtains and a rug. The rug selection totally sucked so we just ended up with curtains, but we now not only have curtains for the babies room and my studio but for the entire place except for the kitchen. Like real adults! Too bad Jon lost my power drill and we have to borrow one from a friend to put the curtains up. My dad offered us a free drill but we have to wait until he visits to get it because he won't mail it. But a good cordless drill is expensive enough to wait for.

I want to work on carving that block but I still feel crappy most of the time plus I don't want to get woodchips all over my studio before the guy from the Boston Globe comes today to photograph me for a Daily Candy article. I actually need to tidy up my studio a bit today because it is not currently photo worthy. But neither am I so we can match.

I have a seriously unfun pregnant lady task today and see a midwife tomorrow to complete it. I'm ready to get off this ride now thank you very much. Blee, consider yourself served an eviction notice. Thirty-eight weeks is plenty! At this point I know all you are doing (besides making me sick) is packing on the pounds. At least I was able to sleep through the night last night. First time in awhile.

On the plus side I have lots of cool art recently listed and being listed in my shop right now from last week. Including this piece that I love and a favorite that has already sold.

I shipped out a birthday gift to my soon to be eight year old sister in Illinois. It is a Princess Peach game for her Nintendo DS. Her birthday is on the 12th and I am hoping blee beats her! Or maybe I could hold out long enough for them to share. I think my sister would get a kick out of that. She is a sweet kid.

Gotta get to cleaning!


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Now playing: Everything But The Girl - no difference
via FoxyTunes

Friday Afternoon Thoughts

Maple Leaves Fall in the City
Originally uploaded by m.Lee

The day is nearly half over at this point. Hope everybody is having a good Friday and it isn't as hot as it is here. And if it is hot like here you are enjoying air conditioning like I am right now.

Yesterday was a rough day for me. A crash following a very good Tuesday and Wednesday. I credit a lot of that to getting such a poor nights sleep the night before. And that has me wondering how I am going to handle the many nights in a row for possibly months at a time where I don't sleep well when the baby comes. But the difference I think (hope) is that I slept poorly because I was sick. Staying up or getting up often to feed and care for a crying baby doesn't sound like fun. But getting up in pain often only to end up puking up acid at 3am is something different. Especially since it didn't really go away after that. The entire day my stomach continued to give me issues and as a result I barely ate.

Despite feeling bad yesterday I managed to squeeze in a burst of energy and work at the very end after snacking on some string cheese and cashews. I got the pine cone block nearly finished carving and plan on finishing it up after I write here. And I feel good that I managed to save the day a bit in the end and I slept well last night. Other than waking up to pee often and general soreness I was fine.

This morning we saw the midwife and it went well. Except when I asked her how big she thinks the baby is going to be she kind of chuckled and said big. I still have about a month to go in theory and she thinks blee is at least 7lbs at this point. And Jon thinks she was underestimating to be kind. She said she would like it if I don't carry blee the full term and gave birth around 38 weeks instead because of her size. I fully blame Jon for this. He was a big baby. I'm gaining so little weight at this point that I think my body is actually losing weight while the baby packs it on. I am just not eating much. I have one odd craving and that is to munch on ice. It isn't even because I feel overheated, I just enjoy it.

Sorry that this was such a babytastic post. At least there is some pretty art to look at while you read it. This piece was one of those pieces that I had sitting around unfinished for months not knowing what to do with it but knowing that it would be beautiful once I figured out how to finish it off.

I hope to have more new pieces by Monday or early next week at the latest. If my midwife wants me delivering at 38 weeks that means I only have about two weeks left and I had better use them wisely!

Stamps!

More carved blocks
Originally uploaded by pinkbathtub

Thanks to everybody that wished me well yesterday. I had a much better night sleeping last night and feel much better this morning as a result. It is a amazing how much more rested one can end up feeling when you don't wake up to puke in the middle of the night!

Anyhow, I am inspired by this gorgeous set of stamps by pinkbathtub and the stamp making photopool on Etsy. Stamping is so similar to what I do yet so different.

The cheap Speedball stamp material I picked up at Michaels sucked just like I feared it would. I made a decent "thank you stamp" but it isn't very crisp and it really does feel like it is about to fall apart if I don't treat it very gently. A corner (that is not part of the design thankfully) already broke off. I knew the pink stuff is better but they didn't have any plus it is so much more expensive I thought I would give this stuff a go. Plus these inspiring and well carved stamps are not pink so maybe it isn't so bad. Found out they are not carved in the white (actually off white) Speedball material but a totally different brand. A brand that Dick Blick has so I picked up one small block of the pink stuff and one small block of this stuff so I can compare.

My replacement gocco supplies came in the mail yesterday so I can get back to experimenting with that. But of course my studio is too much of a mess right now for goccoing. But I will clean it and get back to messing with it because I would like to see it work! If I do ever get it to work I have this thought of combining gocco printing with stamping. I think it could be cool.

Jon is working from home today and is going to come with me to my appointment with the mid-wife. Just a standard visit. He'll get to hear the heartbeat again and that will be cool. It always is.

Yesterday I decided to raise the price of the piece I blogged about. I've never sold a piece that size for more than $15, but I have grown to love it so much that I just won't part with it for less than $20. I was rather nervous about it when I first made it, about the colors that is why I started with such a small piece. But being a bit daring with color paid off and I ended up with some really strong pieces and that is one of them. One thing I am loving about that ginkgo block is how it works so well for so many different sizes of paper. Anything up to 9"x12".

I hope everybody has a lovely weekend. I'm probably not going to post again until tomorrow. I have a lot to do and have been quite tired lately.