for the baby...

one very nice thing about this summer has been the extra time i've had for prenatal yoga and swimming and sewing baby clothes! i've surprised myself by how much i am enjoying my sewing machine. i think i anticipated liking it and using it occasionally... but sewing something daily has become such a part of my routine that if i don't use it for a day i feel a loss. all this to say i've been creating quite a few things for this baby.

Moon loves these soft toys i made with some fabric remnants and extra stuffing from the boppy pillow.


this is an ikea find from a thrift store. it's real wood and while i didn't intend to alter it, i couldn't resist making it black. (and it will probably be a year before we actually need it/use it...)


the boppy pillow...


while i didn't craft this, i did find it (very cheap!) and think it is adorable.


a couple onesies i did create... (i've done several with the bird and a few with the french lettering)



when i discovered how easy these newborn hats are to make.... well, let's just say we have plenty.


pants are what i have sewn (clothes-wise) the most of. they are quite easy and all these were made out of recycled t-shirt or other shirts from moon or i.


this is my favorite from an old cashmere sweater (had a hole in it and i never wore it). sooo soft and will be nice in the winter, i'm hoping.


decided to try some baby shoes... a surprisingly simple pattern to follow and needed very little fabric. these are supposedly newborn to 6 months or so.


we are still in the deliberating stage of all this.... i think we've got the girl option, but the boy is a bit tricky.


and now for the little one themself... the 3-D ultrasound images were a bit strange to me at our 20-week ultrasound, but we had another one a couple weeks ago and as the baby is now bigger the images seem much nicer to me. you can begin to see the little person...

these past few months...

...have gone by so quickly.
We've been busy.

To start... this little person came into our life.
(well, he or she is not on this side of life until mid-october).



And now I look more like this (ok, a bit bigger than this).



In the meantime, I've been to CO twice.
Moon came once
My first trip was a surprise... with my siblings... to our parents.
a very special time
in a very beautiful place





And now that it's summer
Moon has finished his first year of this...



And we are happily preparing for a baby
With some baby space creating
(baby's closet... not exactly "room" in our case)
(don't worry... they won't be sleeping in there)



And lots of sewing for baby in this wonderful corner
with all my free time
(more pictures on that to come later)



And we've even found time
on our more beautiful days
to go strawberry picking locally




and that more or less sums it up.

There will be more to come as our summer unfolds...

more of the coast

We've spent even more time on the coast lately... two trips in the past few weeks. Maybe it's because Portland's winter seems to be taking over our spring... it's been a particularly overcast spring thus far... and getting to the coast seems to help. Our good friends Sam and Susan came to visit for a week and among seeing all that our city has to offer, we wanted to take them to the coast for a day. We had a beautiful (and windy!) day for it.





Then last weekend Moon and I went to a favorite coastal spot for a night... it's a beautiful drive and it was fun to get away. One of my favorite parts about the place is that it is right on the coast, so if we leave our balcony door open we can hear waves crashing against the rocks. I fell asleep while Moon stayed up and watched a movie in bed. And the door didn't get closed. The next morning I felt as if we had camped (though the bed was a bit nicer than camping)... our room was cold!

a table for 10

we have a table for 4... we can always get a couple more around it if needed, but on this past friday we needed a table for our first, big dinner party in our new space. with a little combining of table + desk it turned out. i even pulled out my recently inherited silverware for the event! (we did have to borrow a chair, however, finding 10 of those around our space was tricky).

on the coast

i'm not quite sure where january went.
but now that february is here... we are enjoying a weekend at the coast. cannon beach is where we find ourselves for a couple days. it's good to stop and feel renewed. we're at a coffee shop for a bit of studying and grading and then will need to take a long walk on the overcast beach. i'm bracing myself, just a little, for the next few weeks... really until spring break. it just seems this will be a busy time for me in teaching. one day at a time feels about right. lately i've been planning two weeks worth of meals at a time, accompanied by two weeks worth of grocery shopping at a time. i feel like this may just have revolutionized the domestic side of my life... it works so much better than i thought it would. maybe it's easier in the winter with a slower cooker to rely on?

well... now to that walk on the beach.

christmas vacation, part 2

10 things i loved...
1) the ace hotel. well-executed in just about every way.
2) even some sunshine is great. enough to give us a vitamin d boost before our portland winter.
3) the lemon tree outside our room... gathering them, packing them, and then making a christmas day tarte au citron thanks to them.
4) the tandem bike... such a lesson is working together! but very fun and, what can i say, moon is a good driver. (i just need to lighten up).
5) hammocks and ping pong. (and a good book for reading poolside).
6) drinking wine on our patio. and drinking stumptown coffee in palm springs!
7) moon singing karaoke to lessen the pain of all that rain.
8) bingo night! (in such "ace style" it was certainly the most fun i've ever had playing bingo).
9) easiest flying in and out experience ever. could grab a taxi an hour before the flight!
10) having all that time with moon! (wait, i think i am writing my list in the wrong order... this would definitely be #1). he can make any travel experience an adventure... and fun.

christmas vacation, part 1

actually, the real part 1 of our trip to palm springs would be pictures of rain. and more rain. and flooded streets. and some more rain. and the "history-breaking-we've-never-seen-this-much-rain-in-southern-california" rain.

but the part 1 that we want to remember is of the sunshine, the pool, the palm trees, the beautiful dessert hills, riding a tandem bike along the streets lined with mid-century-modern homes, and overall just taking a break with moon was really wonderful.
(i also want to remember moon in his ace-hotel-outfitted dessert style robe... as seen to the left).

merry christmas!

(our cards will be coming to you soon...).

heading south

i suppose we are a bit untraditional. most people want to head to cold weather for christmas... skiing, big coats, lots of snow, and cabins. well, we had a pleasant dose of a colorado thanksgiving and that will suffice for this holiday season. we're excitedly traveling to palm springs for several days next week. we have a small "vacation fund" as part of our budget. and we've never had that before. in the past we've just traveled when we needed to for whatever reason we had. but we knew that during this more stressful and challenging phase of our life we might need to take a break and there wouldn't be a "good reason" (like visiting family, work travel, etc). so thanks to the ace hotel we'll have a place to stay, and well, we know it will be at least 60 during the day and there will be some sunshine... and the pools are heated. (and there will be bike riding!). i think that's all we need (and of course each other). merry christmas!

boulder, co

moon and i spent an afternoon in boulder while visiting my family in colorado for thanksgiving... a favorite coffee spot, lunch, and a stroll down by the snowy boulder creek topped off our time.

thankful

...for family, for mountains, for fresh colorado air, for funny and charming nieces and nephews, and even for football.

food carts...

...how we love their presence in portland. though rare it is the day we can go out for lunch monday-friday. but this past friday we did. we ate korean fusion. very good. and it was a bright, sunny, cold fall day.

climbing

it was a beautiful day. saturday. i was planning to stay home and relax in the afternoon while moon had plans to rock climb with some other students from his class. it occurred to him that i wasn't doing much and he asked me if i'd like to join. i declined. then he said i really should come... i was kind of talked into it. and so i went. well, we climbed for a long time. i repelled. twice. my fingers felt sore. my arm ached. but it was a great time. and it was dark before we got home.

how are the heart and lungs doing?

my day in seattle...

my school sent me (and a couple colleagues) to a conference in seattle. i decided to take the train and leave early so i could spend the day in the city, before getting the hotel, and spending the next day at the conference. i'm so glad i did. i actually ran into a friend at the train station at 8:30am. we were both headed to seattle for work things. but we had lunch together when we arrived--it was one of those unexpected and nice moments. and at the end of the day, i was reminded that i really do like seattle.