What It Is

Reading: Villette, Charlotte Brontë
Listening: Midnight City, M83
Watching: Brad Meltzer's Decoded 
Thinking: About dinner...

What's in a Name?

We've prayed and waited and were over the moon two weeks ago when our baby girl arrived into our arms. All of the things one hopes will be normal thankfully were. She weighed in at a surprising 8 pounds, 5 ounces (I looked and was measuring a month early in size). She was 21" long.  Born on 01-23-12 at 1:56 in the afternoon with a full head of reddish, brownish, blondish hair and what are appearing to become gray eyes; time will tell.

What is unusual and always a conversation starter is her name:

Zuzu Margaret Parker Vanaski

Margaret for my beloved late Grammie and Parker for the eternally witty poet, short story writer, and satirist Dorothy Parker. Zuzu is the part most people trip on. Brian and I are huge fans of the film It's a Wonderful Life. The Bailey's youngest daughter's nickname is Zuzu. We fell in love with it and before we knew officially we were having a girl referred to bambino as Zuzu. We couldn't shake it and the meaning goes much deeper than that. Zuzu is the Yiddish short-form for Zuzanna (Shoshannah: שושנה Shoshan in Hebrew with ah ending feminizing it.) The foundations of the name were used in the ancient world to describe both alabaster, a material of firmness and stability, and the lily- specifically Lilium candidum, or Madonna Lily (an alabaster white flower which can reach up to two meters in length and remains in bloom for much of the year.) In Eastern Europe it's a very common name and if you consider all of the Susans in this culture it isn't as unusual as one may think. I pray the most unique element of our child is her soul/spirit with her name at a close second ;)

Festive Felt

As an undergrad student my emphases fell within the realm of fine arts. I amassed every possible major and minor my scholarship would allow me. Yet in that flurry, I didn't allow myself the opportunity to simply enjoy exploring other creative fields. It wasn't until several years ago that I began to dabble in the world of fiber arts.

This year for Christmas I was thumbing through some history books when I crossed a display of antique felt ornaments. Their great preciousness resided in their hand-crafted look. The stitching reflected the progress of the artist's practice. Not manufactured in a store but, I imagine, felted and embroidered by a fire in someone's home one hundred or even two hundred years ago.

While I'm not up to the task of attempting a sampler anytime soon, I so enjoy the super portable and very gratifying smaller hand-stitch projects. When you're running a home and managing parenthood sometimes the easiest projects are those you can transport from room to room or pick up and put down in a snap.

You could easily felt these medallions from a knit out of fisherman's wool yarn or you can pop into your local craft store as they are offering wider selections of good quality felts more and more these days. In any case, a simple embroidery needle, good floss, and a bit of quilt batting can provide so much inexpensive satisfaction :)

Front: inspired from (pre) colonial pieces

Back: surname monograms

What It Is

Reading: The Hunger Games Trilogy, Suzanne Collins
Listening: The Nutcracker Suite, Tchaikovsky
Watching: Brad Meltzer's Decoded 
Thinking: 5 weeks until we meet her