My Anthropologie home wish list Winter 2010

Mayhem...!

I'm always moaning about cleaning up toys, so here's a couple of pics of what happens when Max gets going...rescue me!

and even crazier is when his co-operative school pals come over...everything gets unloaded...but what fun they all have. I leave them alone and hear them talking like big kids as they play.

but here's my sanity...my little studio space in the kitchen. where I do all my felting work. i just tidied that all up- it's helped me keep it together enough to get ready for City Arts Market on December 4.

The City of Lancaster - A City Authentic

A winter WONDERland: Holiday pieces at My Aunt Debbie

Between shows I created a new stash for the My Aunt Debbie Shop (310 North Queen Street Lancaster, PA). Debbie got a little squeeze in this morning during my felty flower delivery...and Mimi wore my vintage baby sweater for the visit, knitted by my Grandma.


(Necklace above by Debbie Serdy of www.myauntdebbie.com)

Debbie's shop features work by herself, local Lancaster artists, and others...here's what else caught my eye today...

Christmas shopping?

My British Wensleydale floral accessories can be found at the The My Aunt Debbie Shop, located here... 310 North Queen Street, in Lancaster, PA.

Lots more showing up there within the next few days. if you are having a crepe at Rachel's across the street, or just strolling down this fantastic section of Queen Street in Lancaster, stop on in. This is a terrific shop, and is always packed to the gills on First Friday!

and so it goes...

So my wintery/holiday show season is now, and my baby is little...like not yet four weeks of littleness! I've been fitting in my art, amongst caring for my newborn...the house is tended to sporadically during Mimi's naps, and each day before things are tidied, the house explodes with Max's toys. sometimes it's a balancing act. literally, as I try navigate my steps over an impressive collection of Toy Story toys...

I picked up my remaining items at the Distelfink Christmas show today...Mimi asleep in the car with my Mom...Mimi wearing the fanciest little pink frock from Sweet Baby Jess, with rosebuds. Max, big boy, running into the venue with me and having to pee the moment I needed to go over my remaining inventory with the volunteers. Then, lingering happily next to me after a worker gave him a Tootsie Pop.

After four years of selling my art, I still never know what will happen with a given show. Always, I meet someone nice, and always my experience builds. but did my things sell this weekend? If they didn't I would feel a bit like an arse, lugging my newborn from Lancaster to Schaefferstown and back...but then again, I love what I make. I love using British wool to make my flowers, I love that i made up my own Wensleydale flower felting techniques. and so it goes...and so Mimi and Max... and my Mom and me...buckling kids in the car, not knowing how the show panned out. Driving for a bit, wondering if people liked them, did they like the little beads? the colors?

So Max and I thanked the volunteer and we emerged from the Thomas Brendle museum, ...my three clear containers of flowers now reduced to half a single box full.

We prepaid our fee for 2011 before we left. An encouraging and reassuring moment- . and so it went. I buckled Max back in the car. My Mom gave me a smile, and I gave my new baby girl a little kiss.

If you bought one of my pieces this weekend, thank you!

New Days and New Ways

so we've welcomed November with a new family member, Mimi...who is as pretty as picture. At 13 days old, she's sleeping well and gaining extra well. Here she is in her tiny Newborn size cardigan;-)

I've hardly left the house..I roam around my cottage holding her, checking on her, and using my remaining energy to go up and down the stairs to fetch the laundry. Different family members and friends come to visit every few days- including Uncle Joe who drove from Maryland just to hold her and congratulate us.

Max has adjusted well and spent this morning at Goldfinch Farm with his classmates. A chemical free farm- they learned about growing vegetables in preparation for their Stone Soup dinner at the end of the month. (you should see the things cooked up by families from our Cooperative school at this event- it's really gourmet)


I am preparing for the Distelfink Christmas show that takes place next weekend at the Thomas Brendle Museum in historic Schaefferstown. It is a consignment style show, so I simply have to bring my inventory there and pick it up. Mimi is being nursed as I assemble British Wensleydale wool to be felted, and stitch on dozens of beads.

With each task I am learning to do things differently, multi-tasking all the time, and am reminded that when I had Max over five years ago, I wasn't making any art at all. Although I am a bit overwhelmed that I have years of caring for another young one ahead of me, I am delighted that our family is complete.
I'll get the hang of managing two kids and my artistic endeavors- in the meantime, we are still accepting lovely dinners and kind hugs:-)

Bonjour Miss Mimi!

A week ago, we welcomed a baby girl into the world. Mimi Angeline French. Firstly, SHE is a SHE! and we were thinking we probably were having a boy. And secondly, she shows no signs of Down Syndrome...which we were sure "he" had.

We arrived at the hospital last Thursday morning for a planned c-section. My belly had remained rather small til the end... so it felt strange to walk into registration saying I was having a c-section. I thought because of the circumstances about our baby, there would be a stressful energy at the delivery. It was so peaceful in actuality. The doctor (Kara Jones- who had delivered Max) giving me a kiss and hug before we walked down the hall to the operating room...and none of the nurses seeming phased by Down Syndrome at all. Everyone seemed excited just to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.



When they pulled the baby out they held her over the curtain for me to see and the baby was tiny and screaming...they told me it was a girl and I just cried. The nurses and NICU nurse and doctor, said, "Maggie, she shows no signs of Down Syndrome at all." She kept crying...the most girly cry!



The staff was amazing. Allowing me to hold her as they sewed up my tummy, allowing her to go to the recovery room with me, and everyone, and I mean everyone saying how pretty she was, and everyone calling her "peanut." (she was 6 lbs and 19.5 inches tall at delivery)



It is fantastic to have a little girl. We had picked the name "Mimi Angeline" (Angeline after my Godmother)- but didn't think we'd really have the opportunity to use it. She is SO tiny, so lovely, curled up in a little ball, I carry her around the house like a tiny doll. She looks at Max like she can't wait to do kid things with him, and she loves me to whisper sweet things in her ear.

I had hardly any girl clothes, hardly any girl anything...but people have brought us things. Suddenly the house has bits of pink everywhere...and it seems the house is glowing.



Each day I realize what it will mean to have a girl, and it feels like I have the best of both worlds with my little boy and little girl. I am tired, exhausted, and so happy too. and thrilled. beyond belief.

Great French Expectations

With just weeks (2 or 3?!) to spare, we are so excited to announce that we are expecting a new French baby!



Babies arrive when they are meant too, and this year that meant being pregnant nearly the whole time that Matt was out of work. We spent a lot of time together as a family, and have welcomed autumn with Matt's new job.

Being 37, we opted to meet with Maternal Fetal Medicine (REALLY I just wanted to see the 4D ultrasound!). We were rather stunned to learn in May that our baby had several markers for Down Syndrome. heart spot and intestinal spot and the whopper, an absent nasal bone at 13.5 weeks- reported in the Lancet as being a significant marker for Down Syndrome and a nearly diagnostic sign of a chromosomal abnormality.

Needless to say, it was quite alarming, and worrisome too. However, we opted out of going through with a diagnostic amnio- after getting philosophical- and prepared ourselves for some long and hard months of waiting it out. We read lots of books about Down Syndrome, and are so ready and excited to meet our baby who, for the last five months has been carrying an impressive 1 in 2 risk of DS. Since our first son Max was a "typical" infant, we find ourselves preparing for the other 50%, so that we are educated enough to give our baby absolutely the best care whatever the outcome.

As the last few months of the pregnancy have unrolled themselves - through the heat of summer (the hottest summer ever on record), an exhaustive job search (500 people applied for my husbands training class which had openings for only 14), a car that broke down, health issues on my part, and lots of other stresses, our baby has fallen into the 19nth percentile for growth with legs now measuring 2 or 3 weeks behind- yet another sign of this T21 chromosomal abnormality.

As we prepare for the birth of our sweet little love, I hunt for tiny little pants, clean the house, thank God for our house, get together with kind and caring friends, play trains, play doh, co-op together at Max's preschool, sleep, nap, roll myself in and out of the car, eat lots of high protein Chobani yogurt, occasionally have a panic attack, thank God we live 5 minutes from a Level 3 NICU, do kick counts every two hours, and register for things like The Nap Nanny, the crawl ball, the Crib Wedge, tummy time mats, and a swing that really reclines. I've packed my hospital bag with copies of the Down Syndrome New Parents Guide, the tiniest clothes I could find (for boys and girls, since we don't know!!!), a big brother shirt for Max from etsy, an elegant robe for me (thank you Mom!), toys for Max to play with, phone numbers, and soft pillows and an extra blanket.

I will never ever for the REST OF MY LIFE! forget the trials and tribulations of this last year. But now a new life is about to arrive! Someone extra special...right when we need something extra special to warm our hearts. As each day comes to a tired close, and we become nearer and nearer to our planned delivery date- I am reminded of the preciousness that's about to be. When our little world will stand still in absolute awe and amazement once again. Nothing could be more bittersweet.

A New Library, with Art by my friend Happy Silence

Manheim Township got a new public library, and in it's cool interior is art by my good friend Maggie Mowery of Happy Silence.

I am excited to have another library to go to. It is roomy and designed in a family friendly way, which will be nice for us. I think they need more books, so Pennsylvania please reconsider library budget cuts. What a cool building though. Lancaster city could use some funds to upgrade the city library too...the most frequented destination in the city.





Congrats to Maggie, your art looks so good here. I hope it stays up for a long while. Max and I have been twice, and found more Maggie Mowery pieces the second time...a nice surprise:-) XO

I'm so inspired by them...I could watch them ALL Day....

Fall is HERE!

the too-heavy-to-move stump thing has been repainted, in time to welcome fall guests...

My fall line is now at the My Aunt Debbie Shop on Queen Street, Lancaster...here's Debbie...

and Max is back at school and loving it...He attends the Lancaster Cooperative School at the Unitarian church...this progressive preschool has been around for decades at this location in the city of Lancaster, and it's been a wonderful sense of community for us.


Jennifer visited from Iowa, it was great to see her...

more special news soon...!

Bon Jour and Goodbye July

French Toast at the French House...on the china my father sent my Grandmother in a barrel from Vietnam, and not a single piece broke...

What the garden has produced so far! delicious but pitiful!

A smiling French boy on a Pennsylvania train ride...at Knoebels...

Happy times, hot days...


Cheers:-)

Maggie French Accessories now at the My Aunt Debbie Boutique at Mommalicious

It's so hot i'm not sure what to do with myself, but one thing is for sure, I was happy to head downtown today to the torquise doors of Mommalicious and My Aunt Debbie.

Maggie French Accessories (pins/headbands/and my famous hairclips) all made from rare British Wensleydale wool are now available at the My Aunt Debbie shop (90% of the pieces for sale are by local Lancaster artists, including Debbie Serdy herself).

Above is Debbie, and below are examples of her endless creative imagination...


created in her local studio, often with local quirky found objects...

i loved these satchet pairs from Ana Apple- especially this London/France/Underpants one:-)

and these quirky Marley dolls wih yarn hair...

this picture below is sweet to me, because behind my flowers on the counter, I see a skeleton t-shirt by my buddy Maggie Mowery of Happy Silence, paired with a
Debbie Serdy collar necklace- we're all Lancaster art friends, so that makes me smile.

Visit the shop to see fantastic vintage furniture vignettes too, to get you in a creative mood. This is one of the best little shops in Lancaster and my personal favorite.