One Month

Baby X
Well, baby's first month flew by in a flash, as usual. I'm sure next time I look at her she'll be huge and doing some amazing new tricks. You can't look away for second! She still has no name, which I hear is completely ridiculous at this point (everyday, from everyone I meet). Soon, very soon.

In the meantime, I finally listed some of the new goodies I've been working on for the shop. I love the new sweaters. I love making them. Most of them require lots of different skills, so I don't ever get bored with them. From the moment the yarn arrives at my door from Rachel-Marie I'm excited about those little sweaters. Unfortunately, since they are each unique and rather time consuming, I tend to become very attached to them, so hard to see them go after all the time we've spent together. I have to say, seeing a little one wearing the sweaters makes all that sadness melt away though.


So sweet! I knit each one freestyle, that is, I just start knitting and see what happens. At first I thought I should try to write down the patterns as I go, so I can duplicate the sweaters later, but I get so easily bored creating the same thing over and over again (as I've experience with my beloved seamonster collars). I'm happy with my decision to keep them OOAK, it makes kids feel extra special knowing they are the only one to have that particular sweater.

In other news, the fam and I will be heading out to Pittsburgh for most of August so any orders placed during August won't ship out until late in the month. Bummer, I know.
Have a loverly weekend.

Baby No Name

Here's a little video of the baby, still no name yet but she's a little cutie. She's wearing the newborn T-shirt I embroidered for her and it fits her like a sausage casing. She's also sporting her little diaper cover by bundlesofjoy.etsy.com which was on my Etsy wish list- thanks aunt lian!

The Birthing Quilt

The Birthing Quilt, originally uploaded by LittleLumpkin.

It's finally completed. After 6 years of working on it. I started this quilt after the birth of my first child. We had planned a home-birth but ended up with a ton of interventions and a cesarean. For a long time I blamed my fear of motherhood and birthing on the "failed" outcome. But then, over time I came to realize as I now realize about everything- All things happen for a reason. My first birth experience led me to begin this quilt. I wanted to reflect on the power it takes for a woman to give birth and the incredible link we must have between own minds and our bodies at the time of birth. They must be working together through the whole process. The way I explored this concept in the quilt was through the use of vines which represent being rooted in ones self. I felt like the the vines growing up around the birthing mother signified her connection to the earth and the birth as an ancient ritual. I also used the embroidered Joan of Arc quote "i am not afraid, I was born to do this" as a background element and it becomes the mantra of the quilt. It doesn't matter how many times one gives birth to a child, there is always that element of shock and fear which must be overcome while your in the thick of it. It's that mind/ body connection.

When I became pregnant with my second child, I again began working on the quilt. I spent many hours thinking of the inspiration behind the quilt and hoping to finish it for the big event. My first VBAC. This time i was going to concur my fears and embrace the birthing process fully. Follow my bodies lead and let nature take its course. My second birth was amazing, everything I could have hoped for. The quilt was however was still not completed. Later that same year when my husband Kurt died, I assumed i would never finish the quilt. I assumed I was finished having babies (a crazy thing for a 26 year old to assume, I realize, but being a young widow is a tough thing to wrap your head around).

When I dug the birthing quilt out three years later, I intended to finish it in earnest this time. I unfolded it from storage and discovered that the safety pins with which I had secured the fabric layers had rusted and left spots of orange throughout the quilt top. At first I was disappointed and I think I actually cried upon seeing those spots thinking I had ruined the quilt by storing it so hastily. Now, I love those tiny rust spots. Suddenly the quilt was alive. It had aged along with me over those years between my last baby and this next one. The quilt had weathered the storm with some scars to show for it, just as I had.

Six years ago, Kurt helped me paint the figure of the birthing woman, because I couldn't quite get her proportion right. At the time I started the quilt I didn't like the fact that I needed his help, I wanted to do it all by myself. That sound so childish now, but that's the way I felt. Now, three and a half years after his death, as his older brother Lorenz and I prepare to welcome our first child together into this world, I am again reminded that all things happen for a reason, and Kurt's contribution to this quilt is priceless to us now.

It feels so good to have completed this quilt. It will hopefully be a source of inspiration for my children and their children as they grow and experience the birthing process- becoming mothers and fathers themselves.

It's storming outside now. A lovely moody night to birth a baby, I think. My contractions started last night and have been coming slowly but surely all day. This labor is slow and seems to have started only as my body's reminder to me that I need to stop running around trying to prepare for this baby. So I'm staying cozy in my little nest of a bedroom tonight, hoping to hold my new baby soon.

bye bye for now

ahhHHHHH freakOUT!

Ok, so it's T-minus 14 days until baby. There is a full moon on June 18th and that is a mere 3 days before my actual due date. I'm suspecting maybe the baby will be joining us on that day. No kidding. In which case I'd most likely be perfectly capable of attending my sister-in-law's wedding taking place on my actual due date. In these last pre-baby days we are planning on setting up the playroom and I still have to get the baby clothing back in action. Diaper service is on stand-by for the first couple months and all of our other supplies seem to be in order. I'm also hoping we'll finally set up the balcony of love this weekend. Everything is coming together. The last crafting projects I'll be working on include finishing up a couple flower girl dresses, finally finishing M2's quilt and starting on lumpkin #3's baby quilt.

Here's a sneak peek at M2's quilt which I've been working on since before her birth. It was supposed to be done for that birth, but it never happened. It started as a personal quilt of mine to reflect on M1's birth and to inspire me as I prepared to attempt my first VBAC with M2. Since M2's birth was such a magical moment in my life I decided that this art quilt will be hers. Not exactly a warm cuddly baby quilt like the others will have, but I never got around to making her one of those because I was student-teaching up until the last day of my pregnancy with her. I may actually finish her quilt which I also call the birthing quilt this weekend! After about 6 years of construction, that will feel so good. It will hang in my room for the next couple weeks and serve as my inspiration for this next new birth adventure.
More on the Birthing Quilt in a future post.

Today it is sooo hot. I actually turned on the AC so I can stand the work it will require to set up the playroom. Ugh, it's still awful. We are going to go out into the world of industrial AC in a couple of minutes. First stop- Salvation Army's anniversary sale- every thing's 1/2 off today. I need some wool pants to cut up for my woolie diaper covers I'm making. It will probably be pretty crazy out there today. Later today we're going to see Brigadoon at the Fulton Opera House. Oh! here's another great tip for Lancaster city living. Every first Saturday matinée performance (2:00pm)of any play at the Fulton is a "pay what you want" show. This is a great way for young families to get a chance to go to the theater with the kids without breaking the bank. I love exposing the kids to the theater, but honestly, there is no way I'd pay $30 to see a show that they might get bored half way through or someone might have a fit and then I have to leave. The girls love to see the fancy theater and all the wonderful actors and costumes. We get all dressed up and feel fancy for the afternoon. And "pay what you want" means just that, folks. If you can only afford $2 a ticket, that's OK with them. They also have an interpretor doing sign language for that show, which is also cool. Aside from that I've always loved Brigadoon and now the girls do too.

It should be a busy day, hopefully we'll be able to hit up the pool sometime this weekend, I really want to get some use out of that maternity suit this time around. The girls need to work on their swimming skills too. I hope you have a lovely weekend. If you're around here, enjoy the sweltering weather!

Craft show weekend

We had such a busy busy weekend and I barely had a second to rest my bulging belly. On Saturday we went to CAM at Eastern Market and set up the little Lumpkin stand. It was such a fun event, I wish more people came. Actually, I wish more people just knew about Eastern Market's gloriousness period. Unfortunately it's in it's third year now and every time ask someone about it they say " oh yeah, I've heard of that I always mean to go but I forgot" well trust me, if you go that first time you'll be hooked. It's just such a great experience. It really feels like a community run institution there, like you're part of something wonderful when you take part. OK, anyway, the rain did not hold out as I had hoped and the day was rather stormy. So not many people+ bad weather= sorry sales, but the rest of the vendors made it an event to remember. I got a bunch of fun stuff from the regulars there and a couple of new items from people I never met before.

On Saturday, I was very excited to have some time away. The last road trip before baby arrives. We drove to Philly for the Art Star Craft Bazarr and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the vendors still had tons of merchandise left over from yesterday because they all got rained out too. We even managed to get there early enough to get a free goodie bag packed with postcards and buttons and lots of junk. The Bazzar was at Penn's Landing this year and the water and the breeze was lovely, although I saw quite a few vendors chasing their wares down the sidewalk as it got caught in the breeze.

These were my favorite vendors:


1. Sarah Ashley Terjanian
She had really interesting flowy dresses that were completely designed and hand made by her using fabric which was also designed and printed by her, they were really nice pieces of art. Unfortunately slightly out of my price range:(

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2. Owly Shadow Puppets

Andrea Everman was there with her lovely laser cut shadow puppets. That is truly the perfect use for a laser cutter, I think it's the best use ever actually. There were lots of laser cut goods there but none as original and useful as these whimsical shadow puppets. Although I didn't purchase any puppets this time, I DID buy one of her screen printed Shadow Theater fabric panels. Evidently she sell a little theater for placing in a door way on a tension rod, but sometimes the prints have minor flaws and so she sells them to crafty people at deep discounts for use in making their own custom theaters. Stay tuned to see what I do with mine!

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photo from http://www.angryolive.com
3. Angry Olive
I really loved this stand and I'm really mad because I seem to have lost the card I got from the girl. Anyway, she makes very original kids items that are actually priced accurately reflecting the time, skill, and materials it requires to craft a truly high-quality children's heirloom. I had a real appreciation for her work, and I almost bought a little cotton baby bomber hat, but I'm holding out to see what she puts in the etsy shop she's said to open shortly.

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4. Sweet Pepita
A fellow yetilovessemonster member, and oft mentioned cake recipe source for my vegan baking needs. I finally got to meet Shannon Delanoy of Sweet Pepita yesterday. I didn't even know she was going to be at Art Star and I forgot to mention to her that I just used her vegan cake recipe fro the yeti blog for Lorenz's b-day cupcakes the other day. I bought one of those little organic pixie hats for Lumpy#3 and I am very excited about it. all of her items are very well made and extremely reasonably priced. I like that she uses recycled and organic fabrics because that's something I've been trying to transition into with my own business.

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5. The Blackspotbooks
This little stand had very nicely crafted blank journals and unique jewelry. Some of the journals were only and inch tall and they had nice ratty tattered pages and rustic leather covers. I enjoyed them. They also had a beautiful 8 week old baby and I'm still in awe that the mama looked so great only 2 months after birth, but that's a side note. The craftsmanship was commendable.

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Overall it was a lovely weekend full of crafty goodness. As for my own crafting, I spent a couple hours before bed making this "God of Wrath" dress for M1 to wear today for her school play. She requested skulls embroidered on it (if I had time-she's so generous) but left them out because it turned out to be a pretty snazzy little dress. Even though it's a bold color with some spooky stitching it could still serve as a fun fancy dress, but probably not with the skulls. Plus they would have looked cheesy. I was amazed that it actually fit her so well when she tried it on this morning. I didn't use a pattern, I just tried to eyeball the size compared to another loose dress she has. I didn't feel like messing with buttons and zippers so I made the neck and bodice plenty roomy for pulling over the head. the fabric is an old round tablecloth someone gave me. I tried to incorporate the existing serged edge into the design so I wouldn't have to mess with sewing a neat hem. It turned out really nice I think. I'm going to the second performance of the play this afternoon. I'll be sure to let you know how it went.
Bye for now.

CAM- City Arts Market Saturday

If you're in Lancaster this weekend you should stop by the Eastern Market for it's opening weekend. This year they are calling it the City Arts Market (CAM) It's everything you love about Eastern Market(food, organic produce, flowers, music) and 50+ vendors(including me) and performers. It's fixin' to be a good time I think, maybe not for the full term pregnant ladies among us, but we'll survive.That's right! Officially full term on Saturday.
That's unbelievable especially considering the amount of scares this baby has given us. I feel pretty good, I'm still up and about doing work and stuff around the house, but my hips are killing me and the pressure on my pelvis is worse than I remember with either of my other pregnancies. We are all really curious to see who has been in there all these many months. M1 wants a sister (she's practical and worries that we'll have to get all new baby stuff) and M2 wants a brother (she thinks that we need more boys in the family so Lorenz isn't completely outnumbered). I'm happy either way. I have always felt like I'd have a boy with every pregnancy and they always turn out to be girls so I guess I'll assume it's a girl since I feel like it's a boy? Whoa that was confusing. Either way we haven't officially decided on any names yet. I really have my heart set on the boy name I've chosen but my girl name changes everyday. Who knows? And Lorenz might be taken off the naming committee because his suggestions are insane- I'm surely not naming my son Duke Leto Atreides. Surely not.

Speaking of Lorenz- HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY Today!!!
(not that you ever read this)
(Haha! On the swing at the Herb and Garden Faire)

In crafty news, I am working on a new little Lumpy project that involves some organic cotton and batiking. Hopefully that will go well, I did all the dyeing yesterday, and today I'll do some wax removal and hopefully some sewing too. I hope these little guys turn out as cute as I envisioned them.
Also, if baby allows(and it better) I'll be heading to Philly to visit the Art Star Craft Bazaar and yet another pregnant pal there. If I feel ambitious Sunday morning maybe I'll whip up some vegan donuts for the prego vegan. I'm hoping to be at the Bazaar early enough to score one of those free goody bags!
ok, that's all for now.
And make sure you stop by CAM on Saturday it should be really fun, I'm sure the rain will hold out!
Bye Bye!

Recycled Tomato Planter!

Well, I'm a serious sucker for infomercials, I rarely indulge but I often fester away coveting the most silly contraptions. This time I came very close indeed to purchasing one of these
upsidedown tomato planters. I resisted the urge an decided to try and make one using junk I had around the house. It took me a couple hours yesterday morning and the aid of this diagram
I also used the etsy plastic fabric making tutorial. I also made a bunch of modification to the original design. Then I put it all together into a nice little slide show for you! I hope someone else make one too. I planted two cherry tomato varieties and one plum variety. My planter ended up being a little smaller than the original planter, so I don't want it to get too heavy. I just planted them yesterday and already the leaves of the tomatoes have begun to grow upwards towards the light. I'm planting three other tomato plants in the ground nearby so we'll see if I really get more yield faster with the hanging planter as the commercial suggests. Please let me know if you make one too! I'll keep you updated on my tomato growth.
Have a nice day!