Fabulous Home Birth Mom of the Day: Joely Fisher

Actress Joely Fisher gave birth to her second child, daughter True Harlow, at home in February of 2006. In an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she spoke about the experience:

"I had this miraculous birth....I decided to have her at home and had a lot of friends around and of course her father was there. And of course, the doctor, the doula, the midwife, the butcher, baker and candlestick maker." (Via The Celebrity Baby Blog).

Highlights From My Babywearing Stash

Inspired by Stephanie over at Adventures in Babywearing, I made a little Photoshop collage showing the MVP's of my baby carriers. From a couture ring sling, to my Babyhawk, to the ever-trusty ergo, I think this shows that in under a year I have become a bona fide bw fanatic!

If you babywear, tell me about your stash...which styles of carrier are your personal favorites and why?

Top, left-right: My dad wearing the Kiddo in The Ultimate Baby Wrap, me and the Kiddo playing piano with the Hotsling, a sleepy night out on the town with our Bronwen Handcrafted Vera Wang brocade ring sling.

Bottom, left-right: My favorite for versatility, the Didymos Waves wrap; demonstrating a fun back carry with the Ergo; a snapshot from the early days of babywearing showing the now-retired Baby Bjorn; and T wearing the Kiddo on the subway in our trusty Babyhawk Mei Tai.

Le Premier Cri

pink + blue + happiness

Pretty Things...

I just wanted to share some pretty things I saw on the web today:

Papercuts from Elsa Mora:

A stylin' mama and her cartoony-cute kiddo on Face Hunter:
How-to-recover-a-lampshade instructions at Apartment Therapy (pretty and helpful!):

Love To My Honey On His Birthday

Pouch Cuteness

I just read about this Puj Baby Sling over at Ohdeedoh. The fabulous juxtapositions of contrasty (Amy Butler, yum!) fabrics really caught my eye. Also available here.

Decor Envy

*sigh*

photo by Ngoc Minh Ngo, via Desire to Inspire.

Morning Cuteness, Craziness, & Sass

Etsy Find of the Day: A Sense of Place

I am LOVING these beautiful, haunting images of the homes of Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. Photographed by Susana Raab using a Holga camera, the limited-edition, 8x8 prints are available on her Etsy shop for $35 each. I'm trying to pick my favorites now. (Via Apartmenttherapy).

Eudora Welty's Kitchen, Jackson, Mississippi

Eudora's Library

Telephone, William Faulkner's Rowan Oak, Oxford, Mississippi
Flannery O'Connor's Bedroom, Andalusia Farm, Milledgeville, Georgia

Vintage Breastfeeding Ad Campaign

I found images of these vintage (1992 - that was 16 years ago already, people!) posters on Media Materials Clearinghouse, after glimpsing one yesterday on the blog Homebirth: A Midwife Mutiny. Aren't they fab? Someone needs to do a reprint!

Update: Some are available for purchase, here.

Wanderlust

A sweet little print to remind you of some marvelous places. (Via Apartmenttherapy).

Win This Painting

Elsa Mora is giving away an original painting! All you have to do to enter is click here and leave a comment. She's announcing the winner on Monday.
While you're there, be sure to check out her incredible Frida dollhouse, which I posted about back in November.

Ooh La Lomo!

Ya'll know I'm a Diana camera fanatic...so imagine how excited I am to see this pretty li'l brand new model, the Diana Dreamer, available for pre-order at Urban Outfitters.

Ebay Find of the Day

The winning bidder won't get Tim Gunn for keeps, but they will get to have a lovely lunch with him at the Bryant Park Grill in NYC! Bid here.

Science on Our Side

I was pleased to see the following two items in the New York Times yesterday:

Breast-Feeding Tied to Intelligence

and

Mother’s Touch Helps Cut Newborns’ Pain

Read all about it!

Your Daily Dose of Cute, Brought to You By The Kiddo...

Love This Look

Spotted in London and posted today on Face Hunter.

Mother's Day Reflections

I had a wonderful first Mother's Day, with my only un-granted wish being that I could have hugged my mom! However, we did share a lovely phone conversation, and I was inspired to dig up one of our first photos together:
This was taken on November 28, 1978, when I was two days old! I love you, Mom!

While we're still on the subject of Mother's Day, and because a few people have asked, here are the words that I composed and spoke yesterday at the Mother's Day Blessing at Saint Bart's Church. I was asked to give an offering expressing gratitude as a new mother, and this is what I said (while the sleeping Kiddo nursed in a sling!):

"I would like to offer these words as a grateful meditation on being blessed with the experience of being my Kiddo's mom. At the same time, I intend for my words to serve as an acknowledgment of all women experiencing the joys and trials and personal growth of new-motherhood.

Some things that motherhood has brought me and for which I am grateful are:

my child's love, his trust, his exuberance, his complete honesty, his boldness, his zest for exploration, his sense of humor, his love of music and dance and animals and the outdoors, his ability to connect with people, and his ability to communicate profoundly without words.

I am grateful for the journey of discovery that has been motherhood. One of the most powerful things that I have gained in the last eleven months is a very heightened sense of 'being in the moment.'

My child constantly reminds me to slow down. Look deeper. Listen harder. Live more consciously and eliminate the superficial and unimportant. Listening to my son and striving to respond to his needs in a connected and attentive way has revolutionized my life. My son teaches me to see beauty and wonder and joy in the everyday moments that once might have been lost or glossed over in the rush of life. For that I am grateful.

My prayer today is that this lesson of intense, motherly listening be extended to the whole world. That mothers, fathers, children, brothers, and sisters everywhere be inclined to listen to one another with sensitivity and love. In the way that a new mother strives to gracefully attune to her newborn, may we all seek to slow down, listen, and treat each other as precious and sacred beings."

Eyecandy of the Day

Wooster Collective just posted this phenomenal video showcasing the "ambiguous animation painted on public walls" by graffiti artist Blu. The running time is over seven minutes, but the content is so eye-poppingly inventive and epic that it is well worth the watch! MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Happy Mother's Day Weekend

I'm signing off for the weekend, and looking forward to experiencing my first Mother's Day on Sunday.

If you're in NYC, don't forget to join us for the Mother's Day Blessing Celebration at Saint Bart's, where I will be speaking.

To all the moms in my life, I send you a heartfull of love and worlds of appreciation and reverence for all that you do for your marvelous kiddos.

today...

...we are listening to this, reading this, and playing with this.

Kiddo Shots of the Day, Courtesy of the Trusty Diana

You'll Like This One, Mom

I kinda want this print to hang in our kitchen:

The Romance of Doors and Windows

Recently, the blog Diana: Muse posted a link to a beautiful site called Portes et Fenetres, which is dedicated entirely to photographs of doors and windows. Perusing the archives got me thinking about the magic and mystery of certain character-laden portals, and reminded me of some pictures that T and I snagged on our honeymoon in Italy nearly five (!!!) years ago. Well, I dug them up and thought I'd share my favorites:

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Zonked

This is what happens when your parents decide to take you to the playground on a beautiful Sunday morning instead of staying in for your usual a.m. naptime...