show and tell and a giveaway

Thanks, all, for your warm response to the big new year's news! The first trimester was kind of touch-and-go, but I'm fourteen weeks now and going strong. Behold the belly! A Christmas Eve ultrasound which showed all was, in fact, well gave us the confidence to tell Iris, and she is excited to be a big sister. Our baby is apparently up to the size of a lemon (does anyone else find it amusing that the unit of fetal measurement seems always to be a fruit?) and is due in early July. If there is any baby karma coming my way, it should really be born in June, since I was pregnant for a full ten months with Iris before finally submitting to an induction. Given that, I realize another late delivery is more likely than an early one the second time around, but a girl can hope.

I've got a little show and tell today. I saw this scarf


in one of my favorite vintage stores on the same day I had just splurged on new shoes, so I regretfully let it be. Then I went back there with my mom, and they still had it, and she bought it for me for Christmas. Isn't she sweet? (They also had the exact same hot-pink-and-orange striped Ives St. Laurent sheets my parents had on their bed when I was little. So very 70s. Somehow my mom resisted a repeat purchase of those.)


I've been looking for a set of these Pyrex food storage containers for a long time to replace some of the plastic ones in our kitchen. Found this set at one of those antique stores that looks like a single storefront from the street, but is actually an infinite warren of interconnected, overfilled rooms inside. The price was more than I wanted to pay, but the guy was so nice - he kept slipping trinkets into Iris' purse – and in the end, he made me a deal that I was happy with. Goodbye, plastic! Hello, chickens. (Has anyone had experience with the design holding up or wearing off in the dishwasher?)

Finally, I guess in every family there is someone to whom you can give old junk from your attic and call it a Christmas gift, and I am happy to be that person in mine.

These vintage linen tea towels from my father-in-law's girlfriend's mother's attic (follow?) were such a gift this year. As you can see, I have a whole stack of them and I like you all so much that I'm going to share the love. Just leave me a comment if you're interested, and if I get more than four I'll do a little drawing. Oh, and speaking of 70s, (which I briefly was above), doesn't this label say it all?