fawn&forest

...to me. I am 28 today.

Birthdays are fun. Your very own special day to celebrate life. My birthday always reminds me of how thankful + enormously blessed I am. No fun to be grouchy + dull, anyways. 

And while I'd really like to have a hefty glass of Prosecco (ahhh, sounds so refreshing...suppose i shouldn't while pregnant!) I'll settle for a sparkling water-something and a nice gooey extra chocolatety homemade birthday cake made with the sweet help of my 2.5 year old.

Though I totally would have liked to have been invited to the train birthday party (pictured above)! Check out that train cake! Banana cake trains, indivudual servings and not an excess amount of frosting for the kids. I perhaps would forgo the Thomas the Train theme, but what the heck. To read more about this fun party + for the reciple, check out this blog. 

We've teamed up with one of our favorite kid blogs, Bloesem Kids for a little giveaway action to round out the month of April.

To be a part of the fun, take a trip over to Bloesem Kids before April 30th to find out how to enter to win a copy of Nikki McClure's The First 1,000 Days journal. Thanks Irene!

When Eliot was a newborn everyone told me the first year will be over before I know it, they grow so fast. It wasn't until I was putting away the newborn clothes + pulling out the 0-3M size that I really realized Eliot really was new + different each day. He was growing. Fast. And I had not even taken him to the photographer yet! In my sleep deprived daze I was not quite ready for him not to be a newborn. 

And those tiny hands and feet! So in addition to sniffing the sweetness of baby skin until I was over the moon, a bit of detailed documentation was in order. Geared with a big tub of  Model Magic by Crayola  and determination, I put my plan in action. Every three months I would smoosh Eliot's tiny little hands + feet into the clay and at the end of the first year display them in a specimen box.

A big tub of the Model Magic in white has 4 individual packages of super light weight air-dry clay. Using one package for each 3rd month was enough clay for 3 hand prints + 1 set of foot prints.  I found it beneficial to make 3 sets of hand prints as, in the quickness of working with tiny hands, they don't always turn out as you would expect and grandparents will always appreciate a set of handprints. I did not cut out a particular size of clay for each handprint (but a circle or rectangle would work), but rather rolled out a ball about 1/3" thick into an organic form, as shown above. For the footprints (not shown) I rolled out a 5x7" rectangle, 1/3" thick, which ultimeltly ended up being big enough for Eliot's 1 year old foot.

To assemble the specimen box, I adhered orange cotton fabric to the inside back + sides of the box. Using a date stamper I dated each handprint with a small piece of paper, tacking it in place with a pin. Before adhering the  handprints to the background, I wrote a  simple descriptions of each age on a paper card (for 6 months, "silly + thinking about crawling") and glued it to the background so it would appear behind the handprints when fully assembled. With a big glob of hot glue, attach the handprints in place. Using another bit of paper, I titled the collection with my son's name + birth date, attaching it to the inside of the box.

Another option would be to create specimen boxes with each month's hand + footprint displayed together. If you cannot find a specimen box big enough to hold your precious collection, use a clear acrylic box frame as I did. It's a bit more work figuring out how to repurpose the frame, but creates a very streamlined presentation as a result. Clear acrylic box frames are available in a selection of sizes, perfect for this project.

Fun. We'll have to have another Memory Keeping week as there are still so many good ideas, projects + products to share!

Memory keeping meets organizing + recycling: keepsakes in a jar. I'd like to think I came up with this idea all on my own, though I am certainly not the first one to put tiny memories in a jar and call it a keepsake!

For this project you can use new, empty jars or recycle one of those  condiments jars from the fridge.  With a clean jar in hand + tiny bits of this or that (relating to a particular time or event) + a bit of paper to create a tag, you're set. Place the goodies in the jar, write something meaningful on the tag and in a snap you have a very sophisticated keepsake.

I was initially inspired by Eliot's first trip to the beach last Summer. I could not part with all the smooth rocks + pieces of shell Eliot's little hands discovered on the beach (in addition to the sand that inevitably ends up making its way home!). With a stash of little jars I was saving for something, and the goodies from the beach, the first memory jar was assembled. I have yet to complete the rest of the memory jars that I have saved bits + goodies for. Once complete, however, it will be quite a lovely collection.

What is your fondest memory of pregnancy?
My fondest memory of pregnancy would have to be the photo shoot we did of my big belly. We went to magical gardens in Austin on the waterfront with a talented photographer friend. The sun filtering through the trees painted in an incredible mosaic of greens, and the photos turned out equally magical. We still have some hung around the house and they always make me smile.

How has motherhood inspired you?
When I first decided to create The Essential Pregnancy Organizer, it was just my over-organized side and my design background coming together for what I thought would be a little project. With over 125,000 printed now and more on the way, our child as an inspiration has turned into a full time business. Apart from that, the daily realization that this little creature absorbs everything we say or do is a constant inspiration to be better people in every part of our lives.

What was your favorite part in co-authoring 40 Weeks +?
The creative process of working with a co-author is very rewarding for me. Much of my design business is just me in a vacuum, in a sense, so when I have the opportunity to work with someone else and enjoy the back and forth process of creating and refining something new, it's invigorating and professionally very rewarding.

What will you organize next?!
We're now moving in a direction that I'm excited about but never would have anticipated. We had a breast cancer survivor approach us with her plan for an organizer. She developed most of the content but wanted help with designing, publishing, and distributing the book, and we're delighted to work with her. With the help of some sponsors we'll be making the organizer available for free to women with breast cancer. It feels great to be involved with such an important project, and we're so inspired by this woman we want to make her story and excellent organizing tool available to women who need it most.

The other new development is directly in line with the first two organizers. It's called The Essential Toddler Organizer, and as you might guess it picks up right where the second book left off. As with the first book we had moms write and say "Please write the next book, I want these tools next year". So we have The Essential Pregnancy, Baby, and now Toddler Organizer, which should be out this fall. I don't know if we'll go beyond that, but we have some general family titles in the early development stage. If you have ideas of your own for organizers you'd like to see please send them to dani@essentialorganizers.com.

Thank you Dani for being a part of memory week! (Picture on left of Dani and her son provided by the author.)

It's funny how counting time in weeks + months becomes completely normal. When you're pregnant + asked how far along you are, it's "ohhh, 34 weeks!". After your baby is born + asked how old he is, you reply "ohh, 13 weeks" or "27 months!". Interesting what motherhood does to you mathematical abilities. 

Photo journaling is another take on recording the growth + development of your child in the early years. For my pregnancies, My husband takes a snapshots of the progression of my belly, each week marked with a post-it note with the appropriate week jotted down.  Of course as a follow-up after our son was born, I took photos of him every week for the first year. I dressed him in a  white onesie + stuck a post-it note with the corresponding week to him, having him sit in the same chair.  In his 1st week picture he was less than thrilled being propped in a chair + was sadly screaming. For the 52nd week photo, Eliot is wearing a party hat + walking away from the chair he sat in every week.

The images of the sweet little girl above is another great example (images via flickr). Using the same orange chair + a pile of softies, Mom + Dad took a similar picture each week to reflect the development and personality of their daughter. Click on the link to see the whole collection.

When planning your photo journaling project, be sure to take into account the location + backgrounds that will be in the photos. Uniformity + unclutterd backgrounds is key. Having an object (stuffed animal or small toys) for your child to interact with displays their personailty + development. 

Another dedicated idea is to take a picture of your child each day of their first year. This is exactly what new mom Raya at Paperpony blog has done, titling the series 365:a baby's first year. Photo journaling like this is more about the day to day details than the  weekly growth. The overall effect will surely be a stunning collection of your baby + you'll be thankful to have all those detailed images.

Having a complete set of 52 weeks or 365 days is priceless.

You may find yourself sitting + staring at the Binth Baby Book before you actually muster up the courage + the perfect pen to start writing. It's that beautiful. It seems as if it was specifically made for your child, family +  story. A family heirloom? Certainly!

The woodland-ish theme + gentle earthy hues, designed by Binth, gracefully take you through the first year + beyond. One of my favorite aspects of the book is the two pages of the family tree. Nothing puts the stamp on parenthood more than filling out your child's family tree for the first time. The book also provides ample blank space in the back for additional writing, photographs or to use as a guest book for all those 1st birthday party guests.  

In the most inspiring meaning of the word, the Binth Baby Book, is quite serious. Screenprinted by hand on recycled paper + artfully bound, the simplicity of the designs + thoughtfulness of the inscriptions inspire a stillness. Filling up this book with endless amounts of unorganized gushy rambleings and random bits seem somehow out of place. It is however, the perfect place to record the simple beauty of the new life of your child. 

My endless amounts of unorganized gushy rambleings + random bits in the Moleskine notebooks have comically served as the rough draft counterpart to the simple beauty of recording life + memories the Binth Baby Book. Perfect. 

Welcome to Memory Keeping week! As I mentioned in my previous post, I have become borderline obsessed in the memory keeping department.  I am not a 'scrapbooker' (which is the latest craze it seems) but a run-on sentence writer of motherly love mixed in with saved receipts, garment tags and other seemingly useless but meaningful scraps.

One of my favorite memory keeping books is the Moleskine. It is simple, unassuming + fresh. The history of the Moleskine itself is also quite special + it is available in a wide variety of styles + formats. 

To document each of my pregnancies, I have used small sketchbooks, dedicating each open set of pages to a week in the pregnancy. In addition to weekly entries I have also written about our family, preparing for their arrival + decorating the nursery. Along with each weekly entry I have glued a small picture of me + my progressive belly. I will write more about photo-journaling later this week. But as you would guess, my husband takes a snapshot of me with a post-it note (with the corresponding week written on it) on my belly. I then include the post-it note in the book along with ultrasound images, doctor appointment cards + strings in accordance to the baby's aproximate length each week.

I could not stop there! To document the first years, I have used large blank notebooks. As it is, I have filled 2 Moleskines for the first 2 years of Eliot's life. Mostly writing + as I mentioned before, scraps of this + thats. In the first year, I would write a weekly entry about what exiting + monumental event happened (which of course, something huge really does occur each week!). In the 2nd year, I made monthly entries, taking notes on post-its to remind me what actually happened, later taking the time to write a month's worth of memories + other funny things I would certainly have forgotten if not written down.

Could I reasonably stop there? Nope. Now that Eliot has past the 2 year mark, I have continued in a 3rd Moleskine. 

The best friends of my Moleskines? A mechanical pencil + a lovely cup of decaf.