Merry Christmas!

For Any Bookbinders

So is anyone else addicted to these blog giveaways? this one is super cool so I'm going to link it. If anyone is a bookbinder you will appreciate this japanese paper giveaway. I just started working on making myself another sketchbook using a new method I found of making bookcloth. This method uses heat n' bond and tissue paper. I'll post a picture when I finish which might be a while.I usually just glue my fabric straight to the chipboard because bookcloth is so pricey but you have to be careful what fabric you use. Rice paper is really nice because it is a) beautiful, b) flexible and c) strong.

I'm also learning to make cloth diapers and use a sewing machine again. Life is very interesting.

Some Great Books

Here are some great books (which, by the way, you can order from The Silver Chair and get 20% off cover price and free shipping for locals):

1.Billy Collin's Ballistics -this is poetry but your will love it. Everyone has to love Billy Collins' poems. They are cheerful (usually), understandable and brilliant all at the same time.

2. See and Sew or Sow and Grow by Tina Davis- These are learn to hand sew and how to grow plants for children. They are so great. highly recommend. Renata is getting See and Sew for Christmas because she has been asking to learn to sew forever. (We have these at the store and the Zwerger book below.)

3. Quentin Blake's Tell Me A Picture- this is a great kids book about how to enjoy paintings. He goes through a bunch of illustrative paintings and has drawings of children making reactionary comments about each work on the next page. In the back are short synopsis of each work too but the point of the book is to let kids enjoy artwork for what it is not giving them facts and history till they are interested. great book for before you go to a gallery.

4. Lisbeth Zwerger's Hans Christian's Fairy Tales. She's such a great illustrator that this is a beautiful book.

Christmas Presents

These are the cool wooden swords I got from the etsy seller Smile Moon Woodworks. They are only $12 + shipping and he personalizes them by wood burning their names in them for free. He was really nice so I highly recommend him.

I also made these shaped crayons by melting down bits of crayons into cookie cutter shapes for the kid's stockings. This was a bit tricky. I highly recommend using a mold like a candy mold. I took cookie cutters and molded foil to the bottoms (after trying just laying them flat and having the crayon melt under them into one big sheet). I stuck them on a foil lined cookie sheet (they will leak).Put a bunch of crayon bits in each mold and I did like colors because the ones I tried with all different colors became an ugly brown color when they melted together.I melted the bits into two layers because them weren't fat enough at first. You just melt them in the oven at 200-250 degrees for about 10 minutes, let them cool and pop them out. You will get residue on your cutters so I recommend getting cheap ones at the dollar store or thrift store. It washes off but still feels a bit waxy.

The Little Swaits

Here are pictures of the brood. The kids are showing their superhero figures they just got for the first week of Advent.
Here is my butterball. Look at that belly! I can't get a good picture of him smiling. When he is smiling I get the wrong angle. So you get the wide eyed look. He is about 18lbs (I think) and almost 3 months.He lifts his head and pushes up on his hands to look around but hasn't rolled over yet.
Here are the boys in their footy PJs.They were such a novelty for me as a kid because you could only wear them a couple of days of the year in Florida without sweating to death. I love them.

Temari

Aren't these amazing. They are an old craft from Japan called temari. These are from Julie and Co.'s shop on Etsy.

Crochet

I've been enjoying Christmas shopping and "window" shopping . Here is some crochet stuff I thought was cute from Two Seaside Babes . I have a hard time buying stuff for the boys, but love finding stuff for Renata. I did get these wooden swords for the boys and the seller, Smile Moon, woodburns their names for free.

I am so glad our denomination has made these.If there is one thing I need help with it is learning to sing better especially for my poor children's sake.

Happy Thanksgiving

Renata made our name place settings including pictures of each of us. Here is mine.
I'm thankful to be a mom.

St. Jude's Modern British

I was checking out one of my favorite blogs called yarnstorm and the author, Jane Brocket, was asked to compile her top 10 most beautiful blogs. They are very interesting to check out. I recommend it. My favorite was this blog from the St Jude's Modern British gallery. Here are some of the works from it. My favorite is Rob Ryan's papercut work (above image). He does these from cutting paper and then some are displayed in their original form or made into silk screen prints. Most use words as part of the design.

I also liked Robert Tavener's work like this one, "Horseguards Friary Court".

and John Bryce's woodcuts of London.

So I've gotten more than one complaint that I have been lagging in the area of posting on my blog. I just tried to sit down and post 5 minutes ago only to have the dryer signal go off and have the baby start crying. Even as we speak I have to take a break because the baby I am jiggling on my knee is still crying.

1 hour later

Ward is really cute now. He smiles a lot and is cooing back at you when you talk to him. It makes up for the late night fussiness.

Today I was playing with the kids and I saw these two puppets we have, an alligator and a monkey. I picked them up and was playing with them and the kids loved it like crazy but Georgie looked a bit nervous. He finally blurted out to me, "I scared, Mama." I make the alligator pretend to bite them/ tickle them and the monkey read to them and is sweet. George said," I don't like alligator. I don't like monkey." ( this is George's new favorite phrase, "I don't like ..." it is very annoying when dressing him. i.e."I don't like this shirt ,Mommy.") He didn't even want to go to sleep with the alligator in the room. I had to bring them both down with me. Poor guy. I really didn't do anything scary with them but he is so firm in him belief they are real. I tried to show him how Mommy makes them move and talk but he was still scared. I told him to go to his big brave brother Joffre if he was scared.Joffre Jr.'s chest visibly puffed up.

Speaking of Joffre Jr. , he was asked by his Dad if he wanted to tag along to a girls birthday party and play with the girl's brothers or stay with him at work. He looked at Joffre, put his hand on his cheek, and patted it saying , "Some other time, Dad."

Renata is drawing all these fun drawings. It is really fun to see what she comes up with. My favorite is a mountain chef in a kitchen with stove and fridge cooking for 3 girls in the background.

Things I want to buy for someone's baby

These are all from Etsy sellers. This baby blanket is from La Lune Designs.


These Mei Tai carriers are really great. A friend gave me one and I really like it. This one is from Wildoats Diapers.
These are crocheted and you can buy the pattern. The girl shoes and adult shoes are super cute too. Thanks for posting about these, Bethany. I love them. You can buy them from Sylver Designs.Beneath the Rowan Tree makes these funny felted balls. They have an amazing nativity set. This just makes me laugh.

Amoretti: A Very Oxford-ish Purse

Amoretti: A Very Oxford-ish Purse I really like this purse this week . Check this one out.

Family pictures

Scarf

I finally finished a scarf for Renata. it's not quite as fun as this scarf I saw on Etsy.

The Sleeping Giant

I recently pulled out this print from when Joffre and I were in college. I think I'll try some more monoprints soon.

tattoo

My father-in-law sent me this fun Frida Kahlo fake tattoo. (On a side note I despise Frida Kahlo. She and her husband, Diego Rivera, were adulterous and full of ugly ideas. Unfortunately, some people see a similarity between Kahlos surrealist work and mine but I refuse to acknowledge it. I'm much more medieval.) ( I do like some of her imagery even if she was ridiculously self absorbed.)

On a different note, Renata is drawing all kinds of fascinating drawings. It is fun to see what influences her to draw. She saw an orange with a Halloween face drawn on it with marker as if it had been carved. So she did a drawing of oranges with all kinds of different faces on them . they were wearing lipstick , of course.

Georgie is fascinated with shoes. Everyones' shoes but his own and always on the wrong feet. Here is a fun picture.
Joffre jr. has discovered the fun of taking your shirt and putting the neck on the top of your head. I can't think of how else to describe this but it is funny.

Ward is big and cute. Smiling a little and charming me with his dimple. He also likes to smack his lips after nursing .

Amoretti: And the moment we've all been waiting for . . .

Every fortnight Bekah Merkle posts a "purse" giveaway from her website and if you link to it you get 2 chances. She has a new line of clothes coming out and they look really fun. So check it out.
Amoretti: And the moment we've all been waiting for . . .

Here are some pictures I finally got off my camera. Ward is now 4 weeks old and he is 13lbs, the little maniac. He is BIG. So far he's pretty good too, not too fussy. His favorite fussy time is 11pm-2am which stinks but seems to be getting better.
The pictures of Ward in brown are from his baptism. I kept getting a great shot of him and Joffre then as I would take the picture he would cry. 3 times. So I put up the crying one anyway.

Women on Waves

This article amazed me because of the audacity of the Dutch but it is really sad that the Spanish seem interested in liberalizing their laws anyway.

The Great Revenant Link Contest

Check this out and while you are there listen to the podcast #10 on avocados. (At top click on "podcasts".) It is quite fun.

From Joffre

Hey y'all, we'll be holding a drawing on Friday 10/10, with some great prizes! All you have to do to qualify to win is link to www.therevenantculture.com on your website or blog, then post the link at the revenant culture blog in the comment section for this post.

There will be three prizes drawn for. The first prize is a $25 gift certificate to Greer's fantabulous wine bistro BIN 112. The second is a $25 gift certificate to Silver Chair Books. The Grandest of Grand Prizes is a small linocut by renowned Greenville artist Mark Mulfinger, entitled Big City Nocturne, and valued at $175.

So just link to us and let us know on the blog! We'll post the results on Friday the tenth.

Floppy New Baby

Here are some pictures of Ward at about 4 days. He already had hit 9lbs 8oz by 5 days. He gained instead of lost weight at about a rate of an oz. a day. Yep, he's a Swait. Now if I could just lose the weight at the same rate.


You can see his sexy birthmark in this one. (The bottom half of his left cheek. He also has a dimple on that cheek. )

Ward Christencynd Swait

Ward Christencynd (pronounced "christenkind") Swait was born Sept 18 at 8:51pm. He was 9lbs 2 oz (my biggest yet) and 22in long. His chest was 15in which is apparently amazing. He was my most difficult labor 3 days and 2 1/2 hours of hard pushing. I got really weak at the end and had a rough time of it and when he came out I realized why. He was a big baby even 2 weeks early. I had to push for his head, shoulders, AND butt. I'm so glad he's out and healthy. He has a whopper of a birth mark on his cheek and neck. I can't find the attachment for the computer to my camera but I'll find it soon and upload some pictures of the cutie.

Gag Me with a Spoon

Gag Me with a Spoon

I'm sitting here having contractions, yes I said contractions (very exciting), and I feel compelled to comment on Hirst. Damien Hirst, Mr. Formaldehyde, is the artist who puts dead animals in huge glass boxes of formaldehyde, creates "dot" art, spin artist (yes, like you do for a dollar at the fair) and sells it for millions and not just normal contemporary art millions but record millions for any art work. What the hoodie-hey!!? This is my favorite part, he delegates all the making of his work to minions. He doesn't even pour in the paint into the paint spinner himself. He just signs it when it is done. Go to the zoo; go to a science lab but please stop supporting this idiot.

The Crafty Crow

I really like this blog, The Crafty Crow, for kids' crafts (not that I've had time to do any of them but I'm filing away ideas for later.). She has some fun ideas and good links too. A lot of "I remember doing that." I'm dying to find a bunch of these huge boxes and do this box mansion.

Renata is also totally taken with Star Fall. It is a learning to reading website with games.

Computer Woes

Our computer hasn't been working so well and finally died the other night. So I haven't been blogging or getting my email much. I also can't get on facebook because I can't remember my password. So nobody feel neglected out there.

I'm also not caring about much right now except wanting to get this baby out. I'm as big as an elephant and I still have 4 weeks to go. I was measuring 37 weeks today which is good because I'm 36 weeks. Maybe, just maybe I'll have one early baby.

We still haven't settled on names especially boy names. We have a girl name, Mara or Mary Esperanda Swait. Joffre wants to name the boy Phineas except spelled the Portuguese way, Fineas. I like Fineas but I'm not crazy about the middle name he has picked out. It will be interesting.

Renata just turned 5. I have pictures I was going to post but, I haven't figured out how to do that with this computer. George will be 2 on the 14th of this month. I had this idea it would be good for me to have this baby in October (my due date is Sept 29) so I could keep the birthdays spread out a bit but now I'm thinking shared birthday parties would be fantastic. the sooner the better.

Paintings

Some nice paintings I found at a contest website. This is by a Jim Wodark.


This kitchen one is by Robert Spooner. I looked up more of his work but wasn't excited by much of what I saw but I love this one. You should click on it and look closer.

Pool Fun

Fun and even more fun if you take off your bathing suit!