Showering the New Mother

Last month I helped throw a "Mother Shower" for a dear friend up in Seattle. This is her first baby, and I think it is important to acknowledge her transition into motherhood. So instead of the typical Baby Shower games and activities I pulled a lot of ideas from the Blessingways book.

We started with a good old fashioned Slumber Party with a small group of women the night before the Shower. We pampered the expectant Mama with Spa Treatments (using Mama Rose's Naturals products), Henna tatoos, and a Belly Cast. In the morning Mama was treated to a professional massage. Meanwhile my co-host prepared a Proper High Tea, complete with cucumber sandwiches, and I set up for the various activities.

I always like to have a Mini-Photo Album for guests to write a message or wish for the baby, leaving room for photos to be added later. I include a quote from the story of Sleeping Beauty and ask guests to wish a quality on the baby like Sleeping Beauty's Fairy Godmothers. I also provided Gift Certificates for guests to fill out indicating Gifts of Service they were willing to give the family after baby arrived (meals, dishes, etc...)

As the guests arrived and partook of their tea and yummy cakes they signed the Guestbook and filled out Gift Cards. We then moved on to other crafty activities.
Each guest made Something for Baby: A one-of-a-kind Decorated Onesie.

Something for Mama: A fimo bead stamped with symbols representing wishes for the mother, to become a Birth Necklace.
Something for the Birth: A birth or Intention Candle carved with celtic runes representing hopes for the birth (strength, protection, speed...), which guests took home and lit when Mama went in to labor to help speed her on her way.

I have done all these activities at showers in the past to great success. I knew that neither the Guest of Honor nor many of the guests would be into playing the typical baby shower games, so this was a great alternative. Great fun was had by all.

Felting Soap

Last Friday was my friend Carissa's birthday. Our Playgroup thought we should celebrate. Carissa happened to mention recently that she loves handmade soaps, so I thought she would enjoy doing something with soap. One of the other MOMS suggested Felting Soap as a great activity to do with the kids.
This seemed like a great idea since I have a couple bins of wool roving from my days of Spinning Yarn at the Southern California Rennaisance Faire, as well as some bits of bright colors from a Needle Felting class I took last year with haddy2dogs. (I just found out she is doing another workshop in a couple of weeks & can't wait!)
I made a special trip in to Portland Thursday to get some lovely handmade soaps from a local mama who will be selling her soaps soon. I found a GREAT How To Felt Over Soap tutorial online and we went for it. We did not quite manage to get additional colors to felt on to most of our soaps. But the stringy bits leftover were perfect for needle felting onto a couple wool balls I made. This has got to be the cleanest craft project ever!

Movies and Books To Avoid...

I was just reading the latest newsletter for a local support group for grieving parents. They included a list of Movies and Books Grieving Parents Should Avoid...

I have had the worst luck with choosing movies since we lost our baby. Naturally birth scenes are especially difficult. When I finally thought I was ready to get out of the house a few weeks after my daughter died, a girlfriend took me to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. You would think that would be safe enough but we forgot about the birth which was even in the previews, so we went to the bathroom when the time came. The harder part was the scene with the happy new mama, babe in arms, telling her older daughter how she changed her life the moment she held her in her arms...

A few weeks later the same friend and I went to see The Women with my sister. When the birth scene came up in that one, Jen asked if I wanted to go to the bathroom. I decided that if I made my sister (who is going through a divorce) sit through an entire movie about divorce, I could sit through a birth scene. I just closed my eyes some.

The topper was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I really did not think that one through. I mean if he was born an old man and growing backwards.... how do you think he is going to die? As a tiny baby. In addition there are three high risk birth scenes! It was a really well done movie, but a tearjerker even if you have not lost a baby yourself. A good friend told me she was crying so hard by the time the credits rolled she ran out of the theater so people would not see.

Now let's talk books. As part of launching our Blanket Project back in November, our bookclub read Debbie's Macomber's The Shop on Blossom Street. It is a story about a group of women taking a "How to Knit a Baby Blanket" class. So obviously many baby-related storylines, including a rather unpleasant birth scene, which I skipped over entirely.

And finally Breaking Dawn (the 4th in the Twilight series). I don't want spoilers for those who have not yet read it. But seriously, enough of my friends had read it that SOMEONE should have warned me about a particularly graphic scene... Let's just say, similar enough to my experience for major flashbacks that kept me up the rest of the night.

So if you have a good, lighthearted, birth & baby-free movie to recommend, feel free!

Crochet Club

The first rule of Crochet Club. There is no Crochet Club.

Yesterday was our first monthly "Crochet Club" at Cafe Sip'n'Play. With so many MOMS Club members "Hooked on Crochet", we have decided to do it every month. Even though I forgot to send out a reminder we had 6 of us there to work on our blankets. Michelle brought me her 2nd and 3rd blankets, picked out yarn for a 4th, and started making her first baby hat. What an over-achiever! I am so impressed by the enthusiasm of our MOMS (and Dads) for this project.

Our Club President was contacted today by a reporter from the Camas Post Record about doing an article on our Remembering Rowan Blanket Project. She wants pictures of our members crocheting, so we may have a real photographer at our next Crochet Club!

My Kid Gives Crafty Too!

Griffin, my 3 1/3 year old, made all of his Christmas gifts this year. He got to make extras of the bathsalts, keyrings, etc... we made at our Gift Making Workshop.

He was convinced that he was going to "yarn" a scarf for his Grandma. But he has a lot more fun making spiderwebs all over the house, ending in a big pile of sacrificial yarn. We compromised by his tying knots in the ends of Fleece Scarves (I precut for him). Here's Grandpa Kit modeling his:

He decorated Magnetic Foam Frames with school themed stickers (both from $ Tree) to frame his 1st preschool pictures for each of his Grandparents.

Griffin also helped me make little Tassle Angel Ornaments for the whole family. I try to come up with some handmade ornament for us to make every year. He helped me paint the haloes and glue the wings on. I usually try to find something he can do more on his own, but the Angels seemed appropriate this year, in memory of his baby sister.