KELLY JOHNSTON

while I was sleeping:

. . . always a nice surprise!

my stegosaurus bracelet

at just the right moment.

an early Mother’s Day bouquet full of my favorite: lilacs
thank you ♥

week 2

I guess its needless to say there’s not much jewelry-making going on around here right now! No, I’m pretty much full time family focused these days and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve definitely had some ups and downs over the last week, but I think the overall trend has been in the up direction. We even successfully completed our first real family outing last Friday – to the Aquarium and out to lunch with friends.

And I did steal a brief second away for a photo of this giant anemone - in honor of my anemone earrings . . .

George slept through the whole trip, but Jane had a great time watching the seals and her favorite – the bubbles!?

I still can’t imagine going anywhere by myself with both kids, but I know that will come in time, just like everything else. Sleeping through the night is also a distant dream of mine. It’s all about the basics, ya know?

one week

Sleeping. Eating. Pooping.
George has mastered all of the above. And all with very little crying (knock on wood!). Week one has been really nice. Jane is a great big sister and George has been pretty easy on us. Scott is a huge help - as always. And I’m even feeling halfway normal in terms of my c-section recovery.
So far so good.
So very very good.

boy George!

He is finally here! George Paul Johnston was born Monday, April 21st at 8:16 pm. I was induced as planned Monday morning, but labor did not end up going as planned – after pushing for a good 2.5 hours with not much progress I ended up undergoing a c-section and shortly thereafter George arrived! He is a very big boy – 9 lbs, 13 oz and 21.75 inches long! 2 lbs, 3 oz bigger than Jane’s birth weight! It was quite a day.

We are all so happy and enjoying our first few days getting to know each other. More photos to come soon – I promise!

waiting and watching

Just checking in. Yeah . . . we’re still waiting for this baby. I’m now 5 days overdue, but the good news is that I’m scheduled to be induced on Monday if he hasn’t decided to arrive before then. It is so much easier to wait knowing that there’s a real endpoint out there. I was starting to wonder if I’d be pregnant forever! (I’m slightly delirious.)

I had to get my camera out of our hospital bag today to get a couple photos of our Dogwood. It’s just about to burst into full bloom – one of my favorite markers of spring! I’m starting to worry that I’ll miss the show while I’m in the hospital – hopefully the cold weather that’s forecasted for this weekend (more snow?!?) will slow it down long enough to wait for me and “Deuce” to come home.

We’ve also been spending a lot of time watching our new birdfeeder that Jane made at preschool. It’s been really popular with a few different kinds of birds so we’ve had fun identifying them and watching them from our dining table. The most frequent visitors are these little guys:

Black-capped Chickadees.

We also get Steller's Jays and American Robins daily. And we had a couple hummingbirds hanging around until about a week ago. Jane is very proud of her birdfeeder – it’s definitely been a welcome addition to our daily routine. And I would love to get a photo of the other bird that’s been cruising past our house the last few days – it’s a ginormous Bald Eagle that’s been gathering branches and flying to its nearby nest. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to snap a photo of it someday. It really is breathtaking to see it fly by so close – it is just so HUGE! We’re also eagerly awaiting the return of our Great Blue Herons. I’ll be sure to post about it when they come back. Oh! – I think that’s another contraction. As my Dad said to me the other day, “Hatch baby!!!”

hot lava

Do you remember that game from grade school? I feel like we played hot lava monster constantly on the big toy at Lafayette. Anyway, this new bracelet takes its name from that recess favorite. You can find it right here.

Happy Friday! The weather forecast looks fantastic for tomorrow – 68 degrees! So nice that I almost would be happy if we didn’t end up at the hospital today or tomorrow. Almost.

rain chain

I made these new rain chain earrings last night. I love the way the little drops of color trickle down the chains. And they catch the light so well – almost like stained glass.

home sweet home

We broke down and got this playhouse for Jane last week. It is so fricken cute, we couldn’t resist. And we’re hoping it will prompt some independent play during some of those newborn feedings. Scott finished putting it together today and Jane was about ready to jump through the window while we were waiting for him to get it built. (speaking of jumping through windows, and this is completely unrelated, but did you happen to see this sketch on SNL this past weekend. It made me laugh/cry hysterically *this could have been caused by the pregnancy hormones* but I’m pretty sure it’s hilarious)

Anyways, I think she likes it :)

in the meantime

Yep, still waiting around. Apparently this baby is not quite ready to meet us. I’m trying to keep busy, which is difficult given that I have limited energy these days. I’m attempting to focus on non-baby stuff instead of letting my anxiety get the better of me. Good news is I got a little burst of creativity yesterday after waddling around a bead show and made a couple new pieces! So, here they are:

mint stalactite bracelet:

sun drop earrings:

I added both to my shop earlier today. I found a lot of great new beads at the show, so if “deuce” stays in the oven a little longer maybe I’ll be able to add some more new things soon. Or maybe my water will break in the next five minutes and we’ll rush to the hospital. Can you guess which one I’m pulling for?