Holiday Giveaway #4 — All About Cute

Giveaway number four is sponsored by All About Cute. And you will probably go nutso over the adorable prize. I totally did. You could win an Orla Kiely hand bag — which retails for $165. The winner gets to pick from three patterns: Multistem, Tiny Teacup, and (my favorite) 3 Color stem. All 3 are gorgeous. But the red one would really brighten up your winter.




All About Cute is all about sourcing the most adorable accessories and clothing they can find — great colors, fun patterns. Take a few minutes to browse their website and you will for sure find something you want to add to your own Christmas wishlist.

Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be announced tomorrow. Find out more about Holiday Giveaway Week here.

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Congratulations to Priscilla! You are the lucky winner. Happy holidays!

Holiday Giveaway #3 — IdeaPaint

Giveaway three is sponsored by IdeaPaint. What in the world is IdeaPaint? It's pretty much awesome:

IdeaPaint is a single-coat, roller-applied paint that can turn any “paintable” surface into a dry-erase surface. How fun is that?! You could use it in the kitchen as a replacement for bulletin boards, or inside kitchen cabinets to write grocery lists or recipes. You could use it in a child’s room/playroom to create a blank canvas. You could use in the office to create a new surface for the top of a desk. You could use it on bathroom walls... And the list goes on and on.

The prize is IdeaPaint’s 50-square-foot kit. Which retails for $175. Plus. The winner gets to select the color they would like.




Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be announced tomorrow. And just out of curiosity, here's a question: What would you use your IdeaPaint for?

Find out more about Holiday Giveaway Week here.

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Congratulations to Emily! You are the lucky winner. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Giveaway #2 — Ida Pearle

Giveaway number two is sponsored by artist, Ida Pearle. Ida is offering a matted name print, a signed book, and set of alphabet cards — with a total value of $155. Ida is a New York city based collage artist who makes art for children. Her work is beloved by children and parents everywhere. Including me.




-The Alphabet Cards are printed on a heavy card stock at 6.5 x 6.5 inches, and hand assembled and packaged. You could base an entire nursery/bedroom around these. They are fantastic.



-The Custom Name Prints are based on the series of images from the Alphabet Cards and you can choose your favorite image, customize the skin tone and hair color to match that of your child (so great!!), and add their name. They are available matted or framed (the winner will receive a matted version).

-A Child's Day: An Alphabet of Play is Ida Pearle's first book, and features a new set of images based on Action Verbs. It's been chosen by Universities across the country as a 'best of 2008' for Literacy in Early Childhood.




Bonus: You can get 10% off the alphabet cards and name prints through Sunday the 6th — hurry! Use the code: DesignMom

Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be announced tomorrow. Find out more about Holiday Giveaway Week here.

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Congratulations to Amy! You're the lucky winner. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Giveaway #1 — Stubby Pencil Studio

The first Giveaway is sponsored by Stubby Pencil Studio — my favorite source for eco-friendly art/school/office supplies. And not just eco-friendly. They stock really beautiful, unusual, and hard to find products that you will love. Stubby Pencil is offering a $150 shopping spree (plus free shipping). Yay! The winner will be able to pick out whatever she likes. Art supplies are my favorite things to find in Christmas Stockings. I'll bet your kids would love receiving Smencils as much as mine.



Bonus: Design Mom Readers can used discount code: DMHOL10 for 10% off orders thru 12/31/09. Love it.

Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be announced tomorrow. Find out more about Holiday Giveaway Week here.

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Congratulations to {april kennedy}! You are the lucky winner. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Giveaway Week 2009

Holiday Giveaway Week starts today!! That's Monday, November 30th — and will last through Friday, December 4th.

Each day there will several Giveaways. You will have 24 hours to enter each one. Winners will be announced the next day. The red banner above will be at the top of each Giveaway post.

It's going to be fantastic. The sponsors are amazing. The prizes are amazing. Check in everyday. And please do spread the word. Because this is going to be fun.

One more thing, if you're a winner and I don't hear from you within 24 hours of the announcement, then bummer, I'll need to choose another recipient. So sad. (FYI: you don't need a blog to enter, but you do need to give me some way to contact you — if your comment name links to a blog or website, that works for contact info. Or. If you don't have a blog/site, you can leave your email address in the comment.)

Woot! Can't wait to get started. Watch for the 1st Giveaway in a few minutes...

Goodbye November

Good morning, friends! How was your Thanksgiving break? I enjoyed every little bit of mine. It wasn't intentional, but I was offline from mid-Wednesday till Sunday night. Four days. And I kind of loved it. Doesn't it feel good to take a break from the interwebs once in awhile?




Thanksgiving Day dawned sunny and bright. We started ours with a Turkey Trot hosted by the Charles Family. Followed by homemade donuts, a la Liz Charles, that melted in the mouth.




The day ended with a viewing of Fantastic Mr. Fox which is so good you will not believe it.

The middle of the day was mostly filled with mashed potatoes and gravy and nieces and nephews. Exactly how it should be.

November was wonderful. But I'm really excited that tomorrow is December. Are you with me?

Gift Guide: Junior Project Runway

A few weeks ago, in the span of about an hour, I received 3 separate links to 3 great fashion design products. I took it as a sign — at least one of my kids will be receiving a fashion-themed gift under the tree. If you have budding fashionistas at your house, let me recommend:

1) Shailie by Style Paige
I love this. Shailie is made up of a life-size, kid-size dress form (in an adorable polka dot print, with fab wooden detailing) and kits full of "pieces" (bodices, sleeves, skirt pieces, sashes, and trims) that can be styled and restyled, attached and detached, to create an endless stream of custom dressups. Seriously so cool.

The Shailie Starter Kit comes in a big box like this:




And it has everything you need to get started — the dress form, the brilliant velcro-ized top and skirt (this is what all the "pieces" attach to), lots of fabric pieces to help you create some runway magic — even a padded, wrap-around "closet" to store the fabric pieces.

If you want to add to the starter kit, there are additional dress kits available. Here's the prom kit:




Friends. There is no sewing required. For reals. Find the Shailie Starter Kit here.

2) Hokey Croquis Sketchbook
When your aspiring fashion designer has advanced past "dress-up" stage. Introduce them to the Hokey Croquis sketchbook. Each page has body form outlines ready to be filled in and detailed — with room in the margins for trim pieces and fabric swatches. This should be a required school supply for fashion design majors.



Here's a photos of the a Hokey Croquis sketch sheet in use:



3) Fashion Playtes
You design it. They make it. You wear it. The Fashion Playtes website will take you through an easy click design process. Pick your basic garment. Choose size and color. Then customize the details. Save it to your "collection" or order it and it will be produced just as you designed it. Love it.

Unassisted Birth Story — from Erin Charpentier

I'm not quite sure how to begin Thomas's birth story. I'll begin by saying that in a million years, I never would have imagined his birth like this. But also, in a million years, I would never change a thing.

I called my doula at about 5:30pm on a Friday to update her and let her know that I was contracting some, but they were very, very mild. I started timing contractions, just out of curiosity. They were ten minutes apart and less than a minute in duration. I ate dinner, gave my toddler Luke his bath and got him ready for bed. My contractions were still ten minutes apart and while they were definitely noticeable, they still felt like they could fizzle. At 9, I called my doula, and followed her instructions — 30 minutes of knee to chest on the floor, and a bath for 30 minutes. At this point, I knew I was in labor, but I didn't see myself having a baby until the next morning, like around 7 or 8

At 11, I got up and filled up the bathtub, thinking I'd get in there again and relax. I got a glass of water, checked my email, and did a few other things with contractions still ten minutes apart. At 11:40, I was hit with a hard contraction that felt like my pelvis was splitting. Four minutes later, I had another. I called my doula at 11:48, and she said she'd leave and meet me at the hospital. I woke up Shane and called my midwife's emergency number, then called my mom to tell her to come over to watch Luke. I sent an email to my girls at 11:55 saying I was in labor. I hit send, started to type up one more email, and was hit with such a hard, fierce contraction that I went right to my hands and knees.

In the midst of it, I started to bear down and felt something between my legs. I don't know what went through my head at this time, but I automatically reached down and felt. This is the part where I wish I could say that I kept it together, but what I felt was not what I expected. I expected either nothing or a head. What I felt was like a water balloon, and I knew it was not a head, and my hand came up covered in blood. I started screaming for Shane, who was downstairs putting in his contacts. I asked him what he saw, and he said it was something, but it wasn't a head. I panicked. I yelled at him to call 911, then looked up as Luke appeared at the top of the stairs saying, MAMA!? I said, Mommy's okay!! Then jumped up and started to head downstairs, my goal to get to the bathroom. Shane was on the phone with 911.

I made it four steps down to the landing, when I was hit with another powerful contraction. I gripped the railing, looked down, and saw his head, at which point it hit me that my water hadn't broken, so what I felt first had to be the amniotic sac. I dropped into a squat, and his head came out the rest of the way. Luke was in the kitchen, peering down the stairs with tears in his eyes, so in the midst of this all, I was assuring him that everything was okay. I cupped my hands around the baby's head and his body corkscrewed out of me and into my hands without pushing any more.

The sac was still intact (yes, he was born in the caul, and I think that is the coolest thing EVER), so I used my thumbnail to slit the sac open, at which point the fluid broke all over my legs. I peeked between his legs and shouted up to Shane that it was a boy, then told Luke that he had a new baby brother. I brought him up to my chest, rubbed his back and said, "C'mon baby, cry for mama," and he gave me a loud cry. He was the cleanest baby I have ever seen because he was inside the completely clear amniotic fluid the entire time.



At this point, we heard a knock on the door — it was a volunteer firefighter who lives around the corner and jumped in his truck when he heard the dispatch. I should mention that this poor guy had to be younger than me and looked like he was vaguely wondering what in the world he walked into... Next thing I knew, I looked up and there were five firefighters standing in my kitchen staring down at me. Did I mention that I was completely naked? Oh yeah.

Next, two female EMTs came in, and I swear, choirs of angels sang at this point. One immediately shouted for someone to get me a blanket, while the other asked for a clean dry towel for the baby. They talked to me and helped me rub him to get him to pink up. I held tight to Thomas this entire time. The EMTs asked if I could walk up to the kitchen to get on the stretcher, and I said, Uhh, I just gave birth to a baby on the stairs, I think I can handle this.

I carried Thomas up the stairs with me and climbed on the stretcher. They got me a gown and found a little hat for Thomas, but let me lay him skin to skin with me before covering us up with warm blankets. They wheeled us outside, at which point, I realized that there were more fire fighters in the front yard and that both the ambulance and the firetruck had the lights going. They put me in the ambulance, and shortly after, my parents pulled up, both freaked out at the scene.

When we all got to the hospital, my doula ran over and gave me a hug and a kiss and said she couldn't believe it and joked that she warned me how quickly second labors can turn. I delivered the placenta and started nursing Thomas while the midwife stitched me up. My wonderful, amazing doula fed me bites of a chicken sandwich and it all started to sink in. Shortly after, my friend Beth called, and I filled her in on the whole story so she could tell everyone that this email, sent at 1:41, was not a joke:

"Its a boy, you guys. He was born on the stairs before we could even leave. No I'm not kidding!! Someone call Beth in case she's still on standby. We are at the hospital now."

There's more, so much more, but this is already so long. I've told this story more times than I can even remember, but the truth is, I like telling it. It was wild and crazy and a little bit scary at times and our first birth photos were taken with my iPhone. Still, it's so special to me. This was how Thomas John came into the world, and I wouldn't have had him any other way.



July 18th, 12:02AM (the 911 dispatcher had this on the transcript as the time that Shane told her the baby was out) 7lbs, 110z 20 inches long

From Erin Charpentier of School Teacher By Day. Superhero by Night. Note — this was edited for length. You can find the complete version here. Images by Beth Fletcher Photography.

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Note from Design Mom: for the duration of my pregnancy, I'll be posting advice, memories and stories about pregnancy, childbirth, adoption and growing a family on Wednesdays. You can find them all by clicking here. I'd love to hear your story or memory or advice, feel free to submit it to gabrielle@designmom.com.

Adoption Story — from Sylvia Updegraff

That’s me.
Son Jin Shil, K80-2834. My first mug.

I was a Korean orphan until at 6 months, woosh!, I landed at LAX where my mom greeted me and promptly tucked me under her arm as she ran to catch her connecting flight back to Utah.

And now my new family: a Korean, a Korean older brother, a white dad, and a Latina mom, living in a middle-class lily white town in Utah.

Life was so good to me. The only time I ever remember being teased was in 3rd grade when a boy on my bus called me a chink. “What’s a chink?” I asked my brother later that day. Neither of us could figure it out so we shrugged it off. Junior high and high school involved a series of painfully awkward moments and braided belts, but mostly good stuff. “If you dare move out of Pleasant Grove,” I’d threaten my dad, “I’m moving in with Sarah because I have to graduate here with my friends!” Of course I wanted to be skinnier, and prettier, and more popular. Of course I wondered why the zit gods were always waving their wands over me. Of course I hated looking in the mirror for half my teenage existence. But who doesn’t? I suppose this is where I see that I wasn’t an adolescent struggling because of my Korean-ness; I was an adolescent struggling because of my adolescent-ness.

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These are the gifts my parents gave me: Unconditional love. Validation of my existence. Unequivocal inclusion into their lives, hearts, and ancestry. Their heritage was my heritage. My slobber was their slobber. It was never denying, though. You can’t really hide the fact that a white dude and Latina lady can’t make a Korean pop out. I always knew I was adopted, and I always knew I was Korean. But they made me feel pretty, and normal.

They made me feel like a person. “That brown skin is so beautiful.” “Eeesh, those teeth are going to cost me a fortune at the orthodontist’s!” “Good thing you didn’t inherit our genes for big rear ends.” It was just always truthful, honest, accepting.

And then affectionate. “You are wonderful.” “You amaze me.” “We’re so lucky.”

They made me feel two things: human, and loved.

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Their success wasn’t a formula of You’re-45%-Korean-and-25%-Latina-and-30%-White. It wasn’t a careful gameplan filled with Korean heritage camps and annual kimchi tastings at July 4th celebrations. It wasn’t about making me feel Korean, or American, or Latina. They never put me on a pedestal, or tore me down, or made me feel radically different or painfully invisible. They wove a seamless cloak of homemade tamales and Korean maps and slip 'n slides, not to teach me lessons in culture, but to live life.

They taught me to be Me. Sylvia. A person, just like them, and just like everyone else on this planet.

They taught me to be every part of myself—my long fingers, my slanted eyes, my penchant for mashed potatoes, their child. There was no classifying of parts. Only inclusion.

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My 4th baby is still baking away inside me, and I want for him what I want for my older three: self-love. Whether or not this will include a study in their half-Korean heritage is up in the air: if I’ve learned anything, it’s that every kid is unbelieveably different, and they’ll all have their own needs. How I meet those needs is TBD; I’ll have to see how the cards play out. I only hope that I can help them to understand that they are a gift from God above. That I am awed and thankful for them. That I like them, and that I love them.

Any mom can hope to do that, adopted or biological.

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God bless my parents for the life they gave me. God bless them for giving me love, and food, and a family.

Mostly, God bless them for always making sure I knew that I was the blessing.

And that, I know, is the key to their success.



From Sylvia Updegraff of Life as Five.

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Note from Design Mom: for the duration of my pregnancy, I'll be posting advice, memories and stories about pregnancy, childbirth, adoption and growing a family on Wednesdays. You can find them all by clicking here. I'd love to hear your story or memory or advice, feel free to submit it to gabrielle@designmom.com.

Custom Crib

Very cool. A time lapse video of a DIY crib being built. And the light-up S E X Y in the living room is all kinds of awesome.

Gift Guide: Cool Games & Toys You Might Not Know About

So many cool new games and toys on the market. Here are 5 of my favorites:

1) Family Time Together Games by Hallmark.
So glad to see these in stores! I was able to see prototypes when I visited Hallmark Headquarters. The games were darling concepts and even better as real live products. My favorites: a cute container of sticks with Charades ideas, a MASH fortune telling game (remember playing this as a kid? M for mansion, A for apartment, S for Shack...), and Tucker the Tick-Tack-Toe puppy. You can find these games in Hallmark stores.



2) Booyah! by Olivia.
It's a new cardgame that puts adults and kids on the same playing field — because it's all about luck.

3) Swinxs.
This I haven't tried, but it looks awesome. Basically, it's a screen-free game console. Totally portable. That engages kids in physical, creative play with games like musical chairs, tag and relay, by using its voice, sounds and colors. Swinxs talks and explains games, recognizes players and even referees. I watched the video about Swinxs and now I totally want one.

4) Sedarahc ("suh-DARE-ic")
A new spin on a classic old stand-by, Sedarahc is charades with a twist — spelled backwards and played in reverse. Sedarahc is fast-paced, fun competition that’s an absolute riot with families and kids. Instead of the usual, where one person acts out words for the team to guess, Sedarahc is the reverse — so the team acts out words together for one person to guess. Get a $5 off coupon by clicking here.

5) Blurt Builds.
The Webster's Game of Word Racing includes 300 cards, which have 1800 clues at 2 playing levels. This special edition includes a Junior version for ages 7-9, as well as the regular version.


Other toy related links that might help you in your holiday shopping/giving/traveling:

1) Check out Kid Crave for lots of ideas over lots of categories.
2) Baby Plays will let you rent toys for your vacation — will have them waiting at your destination. So that you don't have to fill a suitcase with Legos and My Little Ponies.
3) Goody Blog, by Parents Magazine, featured 5 huge weeks of the best toys of 2009. You can find the links here.

Ask Design Mom — Having Another Child

Ask-Design-Mom-Questions:
I have a strong yearning for another child and am looking for an infallible way to decide whether to take the plunge (just joking, I know it’s a leap of faith, but am looking for advice from people who might know about these things). What factors would do you take into consideration upon deciding whether to have another child? Thanks for taking the time to answer. — Sarah

Hi Gabrielle. I would like to have a big family as well. I'm married almost 2 years and we are looking to start our family in a year or so. A few questions: How far apart are your children in age? Did you plan to have so many children? Did you plan to have them x amount of years apart? Thanks. — Venessa

Design Mom Answer: These are such worthy questions. Thank you for sending them, Sarah and Venessa. The answer to how many kids you should have and how they should be spaced is, of course, super personal. And everyone reading has a different opinion and answer.

I'll share what my basic plan was. And hopefully readers will let you know how they've come to their family-size decisions as well. I need to make very clear: this was our plan. I'm not advocating it to anyone else. Period.

When I married at 21, I talked with Ben Blair about a basic plan. We both came from big families and wanted lots of kids. I wanted to be done bearing children by 35 — the age many risks increase. (Edit: apparently 35-as-riskier is a bit of a myth — but I didn't know that at 21.) So I thought: let's have our 1st at 23 (when we're done with school) and then have one every other year at 25, 27, 29, 31. And if we want more, we can have #6 at 33 and #7 at 35. Done and done.

How it really happened: we had our first at 23, our 2nd at 24, our 3rd at 27, our 4th at 30 and 5th at 31. Number 6 is due when I'm 35.

Basically, as soon as we made the plan we discovered we had no control over the plan. Very few of us are lucky enough to conceive or adopt exactly when and where we want to. And very few of us have such an ordered life and are wise enough that the plans we make at 21 still make sense at 31.

Bottom line: feel free to make a plan, but get really comfortable with the idea that the plan might not work. Some people (including me) find praying helps them feel settled about the decisions they make for their family. Others depend on counsel from friends and loved ones. Ultimately, I hope you'll feel confident that you can know what's best for your family.

Dear Readers, how about you? How many kids do you want to have? Are you done? How do you decide when to add more children to your families?

Ask Design Mom — Homemade Gifts Kids can Make

Ask-Design-Mom-Question: I was inspired by your site to have my children make gifts for one another this year. I was trying to find your previous posts about the gifts you have made in the past, but I was only able to find one. I would love it if you could gather all of these ideas in one place. Thanks in advance. — Kristin

Design Mom Answer: Thanks for the question, Kristin. I've actually been getting lots of similar requests — readers wanting to know what we've made in the past, and what we're making this year. I'll start with a short explanation — four years ago, based on the artsy-craftsy tendencies of my kids, we decided that the siblings would make each other gifts for Christmas. It's become a fun tradition. One the whole family looks forward to. You can read my original post about it here.



What our plans are for this year:
Note: these plans are subject to change depending on my whims. Or if a better idea falls in my lap.

Ralph is making —
-Jump Ropes for Maude and Olive
The girls want to learn double-dutch, so we'll be happy to have two long jump-ropes to add to the family sports equipment.
-Blurb Photo Books for Oscar and Betty

Maude is making —
-A Night Light Cover for Oscar and Betty's room
-A Sketch Book with a Decoupaged Cover for Ralph
-Legwarmers for Olive (inspired by the comments on this post)



Olive is making —
Olive will be using potato stamps (a la Martha Stewart) and fabric ink to customize...
-Boxers for Ralph
-A hoodie for Maude
-A t-shirt for Oscar
-A t-shirt dress for Betty



Oscar and Betty are making —
Not sure yet, but I'm thinking about these darling cakes in a jar — both Oscar and Betty love helping in the kitchen, so this might be a perfect fit. They could give an individual jar to each sibling.

Links to what we've made in past years:
- Tutu, decoupaged bucket for matchbox cars, after-school bags, tiedye tees
- Flower headbands
- Wool mittens from recycled sweaters, embellished dragon mittens, sculpey bracelets, bibs, snowglobes and romper stompers made from cans 

- Bubble bath, circle loom scarf
- Ribbon barrettes, painted t-shirt
- Bean bags, heating pad, hand chalk (for gymnastics), iPod cover

I hope you find these links and ideas helpful. What about you Dear Readers? Do your kids make gifts for their siblings? What are they making this year?

Nine Times Three

Oh happy day! Ben Blair is back. Plus it's Thanksgiving week. I'm in such a great mood, I am not even kidding you.

I've got some fun stuff planned for the days ahead.

1) I'm working on some gift-guides — hoping to have the first one posted today. Right now, the topics are:
-Cool Games & Toys You Might Not Know About
-Original Art
-Neat Stuff I've Been Meaning to Share
-Calendars for 2010
-Darling Things
-Junior Project Runway

2) Next week, starting on Monday, I'll be hosting my annual Holiday Giveaway Week. Which will be huge. And so full of great prizes you won't want to miss it.

3) It's Monday. Monday = Ask-Design-Mom questions.

So stick around. Design Mom will be right back.

PS — I've been making do with a combo of my regular clothes and some old maternity pieces in my closet, but I'm getting too big to keep messing around at this point. So I chose my first new maternity clothes: a top, skirt and pant from Nine Times Three. I posted about them like two years ago — and now I have a real reason to actually try the clothes. I'm pretty excited about it. I really dig the collar on that top.

Cardstore Giveaway — Two Winners!

Today's Giveaway has perfect timing. Cardstore is offering 2 winners each a $100 gift certificate good towards Holiday Cards and Invitations. Lovely. I know cards are on your mind. Because it's late November. And because our clever Guest Aunt Lyndsey has been showcasing beautiful stationery selections all week. And now two of you will be able to order your holiday cards for free!



I think you'll love Cardstore's vast selection. Tons of greeting cards. Tons of photo cards. Tons of invitations. You'll find exactly what you need. Leave a comment on this post and you're entered to win. Have a fantastic weekend! I'll announce two winners next week.

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Congratulations to Shay and Melanie! You are the lucky winners. I hope you have a great time picking out your holiday cards.

Oscar + Betty + New Clothes = Rad

This post is for Ben Blair. Who is out of town. And missed the darling-ness that was Oscar and Betty dressed for preschool this morning.

Ben, these clothes arrived from Toobydoo yesterday. I probably should have saved them until Christmas and put them under the tree, but they were too cute to wait even a minute more in those (admittedly stylish) boxes.

Also. You don't have to believe me, but I did not pose either one. I pulled out the camera and they were instantly in rockstar mode.



I love all the details. The leather zipper pull. The fringe on the skirt. The ruffled cuffs and collar on the blouse.