Author: maggeh

He’s here!

Henry Martin Mason, originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

Hey everybody, we had a baby! A tiny, pink baby!

His name is Henry Martin Mason, but you can call him Hank.

I went into labor February 11 at 2 a.m., and he was born around noon that day — 8 lbs. 2 oz., and 21 inches long. I had a really good labor, and as you can see, he’s pretty much the sweetest baby ever.

I’ll tell you more later, after we’re a little less dazed. For now, thanks for all the happy wishes and strong support throughout my pregnancy. I can’t tell you how much I’ve appreciated you guys in the past few months.

Hank is one exceptional baby, and I wish you could snuggle him. He even smells soft.

Nesting: the Nursery

Me painting, originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

Bryan and I adore our spacious, reasonably priced, one-bedroom apartment, so instead of moving when I got pregnant we decided to convert the breakfast nook (my old office) into a nursery. I have a photo set going to record the process.

So far, we added doors to the arched entryway, Bryan tore down a wall of mirrors and painted the room (twice, as the first color looked like a Tiffanys explosion), and we enlisted some friends to help paint this bubble mural on one wall. We’re going for a nautical, 1950s Illustrated Encyclopedia look.

Here’s how we did the mural, easy peasy:

-The design is from a letterpress card that we love. I photographed it with my digital camera, discarded the color info in Photoshop, and turned the contrast way up.

– We borrowed a projector from Bryan’s office (Thanks, Adaptive Path!), and plugged it in to my computer. We opened the image in Photoshop and moved the projector around until the image fit the whole wall.

– I tried painting a single circle with a paintbrush, and it took forever. Our friend Rachel suggested using common household items (like glasses, bottles, tins) to stamp the bubbles. She is a genius.

– We filled paper plates with paint and got to stamping. Before marking the wall, we tested potential stampers on a piece of paper to be sure they’d work well. Glasses with wider lips seemed to work best. With Ryan and Rachel’s help the whole thing only took about 45 minutes.

-We ordered pizza.

Espionage

ESPIONAGE

Originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

For half an hour, I wandered around with my giant Cannon hanging off my neck. I took dozens of photos with a loud CHA-CHICK each time. As I aimed my lens at yet another bin of confections, the storekeeper said, “I’m sorry. I can’t allow you to take photos here.” I jerked up, my face burning, to find that she was actually talking to a woman who had just wandered in. The woman was aiming her tiny digital elf at friend who was grinning in front of a colorful gum display.

Doot-dee-doo.

How To Make Nesting Terrariums

Originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

I like dirt. Unfortunately, apartment living in San Francisco doesn’t afford much opportunity for gardening, and we travel so much that most houseplants come with a built-in death sentence.

I decided I wanted to make some terrariums with succulents, so we’d have some green around that didn’t require too much upkeep. Here are the results.

I used antique apothecary jars that we picked up at the flea market for $60 each. We bought two small bags of cactus mix, which I used as a base, and one bag of decorative gravel to pour over the top. The project was surprisingly easy, but I still managed to trip over a few things. So:

Mistakes for you to avoid

-My jars came with lids. I think this would be great for ferns, which love humidity, but not so good for cacti. I ended up just taking them off because everyone looked sad, but the lids are so awesome that I’m bummed.

-Most of the bigger plants we bought were useless because there was such a small area to landscape. The two-inch plants were ideal, and way, way cheaper to boot. As you can see, I ended up putting most of the bigger plants in pots and vases I had laying around. (Yes, I have entirely too much stuff laying around.)

-I put one bigger plant in a jar because I loved it so much, and ended up bruising the crap out of it. Also, some of the outer leaves were touching the jar, which kills them. It looks like I’ll need to cut off all the outer ring of foliage to keep things from getting dire.

Suggestions

-I used a few plants that don’t need dirt, and they were heavenly. Impossible to kill or bruise, and super easy to place.

-I plan to get some little ceramic dinosaurs and things to place among the plants, as I think it would be hilarious. Mushrooms would be equally funny in a woodland scene.

–I’m watering every few days with a couple squirts from a spray bottle, and it seems to be working out, but I watered the soil at first to give the plants help with transition. UPDATE: Gayla says:
“Misting the soil directly about once a month is all that is needed for most cacti and succulents of the desert sort. Unlike most plants they don’t need to be watered when planted but prefer to adjust for a few days before a first water.
Definitely keep those lids off! Even with the humidity-loving tilandsia ’cause the lack of air circulation will drive them straight to Death By Rot.”

That’s it! Do this, it’s fun.

The Goods

Sock Monkey Ornament

Originally uploaded by MaggieMason.
In early December, NPR asked me what I got for Bryan this year. I couldn’t answer, because obviously Bryan was listening. Our tradition is to only buy stockings for one another because we both think that part is the most fun.

Anyway, now that he knows what he got, you can see too. The stuff that’s available online will probably be showing up on Mighty Goods in the near future (if it’s not already there).

Bryan is an amazing gift buyer, so if you’d like to see what he got me, those presents are here. Not pictured is the GPS he got for our car. I’m one of those people who could get lost a block from our house, so I pretty much cried when I opened it.

What were your favorite presents?

Pretty

The counter girl is lovely, striking even. She looks serene waiting behind the counter, but as we begin talking, I realize that something isn’t right. She seems a bit like a computer animation too uniform, too shiny. At first I think she’s just wearing too much makeup, but then she laughs and I think it’s something deeper.

Is she upset about something and trying to mask it? Is she slightly nutty and having trouble interacting normally?

As she shows me to what I’m looking for and laughs again, I realize that nothing on her face is moving but the corners of her mouth. The girl’s entire range of emotional expression has been Botoxed into submission. Which, you know, is pretty hot.