Centerpiece

Last night I was looking for the pictures of the strawberry jam I swore I took to share with you. I made the jam but apparently forgot to take the pictures. 

So tonight I am going to share these centerpieces instead. We made them for a good friends surprise 30th birthday and they turned out great. 

We bought the bandannas at a local chain craft store. They are cotton and come plain or with a traditional bandanna print. To tie dye I use Jacquard Procion MX Dye. If you have never used it before you will not be dissapointed. It puts Rit dye to shame. Im just saying. 

I will warn you, wear gloves or your hands will be multicolored for days. And don't forget to protect whatever you are working on. My laundry room floor is also rainbow colored from the dye.  

There are tons of colors to choose from and they all turn out so vibrant and saturated. 

A few flowers in a mason jar and a tie dyed bandanna and you have a beautiful centerpiece. Plus the bandanna and the flowers make a great take home gift for your guests. Or you could just hoard them all for yourself and use them for funky table napkins. 

You Are a Child of the Universe

This photo was taken a week before our world came crashing down. 

We were on our first family vacation in Nags Head, NC and waiting the arrival of our 2nd baby due the day after Christmas 2012.  Life was grand, Robert was home from work travel and we had 2 healthy kids...so we thought. 

When we got back from vacation we went for our 20 week ultrasound on August 6th to find out the sex of the baby and put to rest the great circumcision debate Robert and I were having. The tech found something wrong, called in the doctor at the sonogram office who mentioned I had low fluid and called my midwife. At this point we didn't think much of it and waited for what to do next. The midwife sent me straight to a specialist in Annapolis to get a better look. It was at the specialists office they dropped the bomb. 

Bilateral Renal Agenesis, also known as Potters Syndrome. Our baby had no kidneys, nothing, not even a speck of a kidney. That is what was causing the low fluid. They told us it was "not compatible with life" and there was zero chance our baby would live. I could feel the baby move, it was most certainly alive. What happens with Potters Syndrome is that the placenta keeps the baby alive until birth. Once born, due to the lack of kidneys and no amniotic fluid the baby's lungs are underdeveloped and the baby will die. There is also greater chance the baby will die in the womb or during birth, but if born alive will live only a few hours. 

We were given two options, carry on or decide on an early induction and end the pregnancy. This has got to be the biggest mind fuck ever in the history of all mankind. My baby was alive, its heart and brain were all there and working perfectly, I was keeping it alive but when it is born it would die, and they were giving me the option to make it happen sooner. We went home and I cried myself sick and spent the next few days trying to figure out what to do. Ultimately we decided to let the baby decide how long he/she was going to live. It was not our place to decide to take this child's life. So now we wait and while we plan for a birth we are also planning for a death. We love this baby and we wanted this baby and we are going to give it all the love we can until it grows wings and flys away. 

Never in a million years could I have predicted this and I would not wish this kind of pain on anyone but I keep telling myself there is a reason, there has to be to all this, this baby will change our lives forever and perhaps the lives of others and for that it will all be worth it. 

I keep coming back to one of my favorite poems, Desiderata, and a line in it gives me great comfort:

"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should."

Swirl Me Around

I found this dress junking in Nebraska with the grandmas. I originally thought it to be a wrap apron and bought it for that purpose but when I got home and did a little research on the tag I found out it was a Swirl wrap dress. I think it is from the late 50's. There were some issues with it. One of the ties was torn clean off and there was a rip in the side. You can see the mess in the photo below. 

I ended up buying some new pink fabric to replace the ties and mending the hole with the super awesome darning stitch on my sewing machine. Excuse my pasty white arms.  

Here she is, all finished and brought back to life. I love the huge front pockets.  

So who wants to take me out on a date so I can wear this lovely frock?

Fruity

All I can think about these days is food. Good, fresh, yummy goodness. Being pregnant and all, and past the sickie days I just want to stuff my face all day long. I guess nursing a babe and growing a babe makes you insanely hungry. 

I was blessed to find this amazing you-pick blueberry place 20 minutes from my house. Fresh, not messed with, not sprayed, local berries. What more can a girl ask for. I went 2 times before they were gone and picked 10 pounds total. 

This is five pounds. I ate a bunch fresh and froze the rest for eating later. Hopefully they will last until winter, when blueberries are hard to come by and cost a bloody fortune. I have been trying to be better at buying what is in season and storing for the rest of the year. It's hard to judge just how much you need but you have to start somewhere. If 10 pounds doesn't do it I guess I will just have to pick 20 next year. 

My little Lilly is a ham. Always in the middle of my photos.  

A Sad Day

It's a sad day when you break a piece of vintage Pyrex. Especially one you never got to use. As a general rule I don't spend so much on my Pyrex or, anything for that matter that I would be devastated if it broke. Most pieces are $5 or less and purchased at Goodwill. I buy things we use and are not afraid of using.

But the sting is still there. So long my friend.  

Chocolate and Bacon

This is one big bowl of deliciousness.

I wanted to learn to make popcorn the good ole fashioned way, in a big pot with some oil. I just learned how many nasty things are in those microwaveable bags of popcorn and figured this had to be better for you, cheaper and just as easy. 

I had a hankering for something salty and sweet and what better for salty than bacon and chocolate for something sweet. So I made the popcorn with a little coconut oil in a big pot. Its not too hard once you get the hang of it. I did burn the first batch to a crisp. Then I threw in some really crispy fried bacon and shaved dark chocolate over the top. Delish. You know you want some. 

Can you see it?

A friend asked me to mend her favorite pair of jeans. How could I say no. It's a matter of life and death when your favorite jeans are on the fritz. 

There was an L shaped tear that started to fray. At first I thought I would slap one of those iron on patches on the inside and sew around the tear leaving the frayed bits, but then I started tinkering with the darning stitch on my machine. Holy smokes, I am in love with this stitch. I cannot believe I have not used it before. It fixed the hole and you can barely even notice.  

Just like Where's Waldo, can you find the mended hole? 

I have big plans for this stitch in the future, very big plans.