eat! craft! live!

:: photo Friday :: he's here!

nope, no baby yet

Still awaiting the arrival of our littlest family member... (The photo is of E when she was born...)

And I must admit, I'm getting a bit impatient and, er, grumpy, about it. It's hot. It's Maine! It's not supposed to be hot! We aren't prepared for this! We have no air conditioning! I know, I know, I'm incredibly lucky not to be carrying this child in a third world country where it's hot and nobody has air conditioning...or running water...or access to healthcare...I know.

But it doesn't make me any more comfortable...

I feel a little bad for even complaining, and not just because of those reasons above. But because technically? It's not even my due date yet. Technically, I'm not due until Friday. Thing is, I fully expected this baby to be here by now. I expected little E to be late, and she surprised us all by showing up a bit early. Not much, but a bit. And, based on what little anecdotal evidence I could gather, I expected that this baby would be no later than she was.

But he is.

And I think that's why I'm frustrated. My road map is gone. For the first, I was open to anything - I expected her to be late, but I knew that really she could come at any moment and I was OK with that. However, having done it once before, I rather expected the experience to be similar. And now that it's not, I feel a little lost. (And hot. And uncomfortable. *ahem*) Rationally, I know that every baby, every pregnancy, every labor is different. And I know that this little guy will arrive as soon as he's good and ready.

My map has gone out the window and I'm having to readjust and accept that things will happen when it's time!

In the mean time, though, I've been having little sales in my Etsy shop to brighten my day. (I love getting little "You've made a sale!" notifications. Also, we really could use the cash. *ahem*) So if you're in the mood for yarn - and who isn't in the middle of July, right? - head on over and enter coupon code BABY30 for 30% off anything in the shop. A few of my favorites have sold out over the past week or so but there's plenty of goodies to be had still! The sales will continue until baby H decided to come on out and meet us...

mail organizer

What's this? I made something? No, couldn't be!

It's true. I made this mail organizer a while back after seeing a photo of Danielle's lovely versions last year.

You can find the tutorial here. There's not a lot of sewing involved - some but not much. There is, however, lots of assembling and hot gluing and that sort of thing. The whole thing comes together relatively quickly, as long as you can find everything you need for "ingredients" and don't accidentally forget something and have to go back to the store or misplace your staple gun and have to borrow one or realize your hot glue gun must've been disowned during one of many moves, necessitating yet another trip to the store... I mean, not that I know this from personal experience. Ahem.

I just got sick of stacking mail on top of the television or losing magazines and bills to a toddler's grabby hands. This is a lovely solution. It is on the other side of the wall from our front door and high enough that no little ones will be sticking their paws into it anytime soon.

I will say, however, that this particular DIY project was really just a labor of love and did not save any money in the long run. (Especially due to needing a new glue gun...ahem.) But, while I may have been able to pick up a cheap(er) mail organizer in the office supply aisle at Target, it wouldn't have been nearly as cute or personalized as this one. I do love it so!