13 weeks : Nest prep begins

13 weeks and a good appointment have made me realize we might need to start getting ready for this momentous event in the lives of the Benders. So nesting has begun.

When we have time I have begun the process of transforming the guest room into a new big boy room for Isaac, which means finding a home for the multitudes of stuff in the guest room..... The studio is getting an overhaul to make room for wrapping paper and ribbons. Next week I will have some before shots of each room. For now I am color coordinating tissue paper and recovering shoe boxes that Luke put dowel rods in for my ribbon collection.

Then will come the process of making the nursery 2 kid compatible.... and (maybe?) and some girlieness to the room, but there won't be much change there. 

Check back next week to see what's happening in the nest!

12 weeks and looking good so far

So, today we had our 12 week apt, and everything looked good! I got to see the little munchkins again, and one seems to be pretty lively, the other a little lazy, but who knows. I am getting more and more excited and optimistic that this is really happening. Luke and I have decided we should document the tummy growth to see if I can possibly get any bigger than I was with Isaac. Everyone constantly asked me if I was having twins with him. This time I can say, why yes we are!

                12 weeks : twins  

40 weeks : Isaac (this is me saying, ok come already!)

If you see me wearing this same shirt every Saturday for the rest of the pregnancy you will know know why. It's one of the only shirts that expanded enough for me to wear at full term with the I-man.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support, we could not have asked for better friends.

Now it's just the 4 week waiting game for our next appointment.

Fetal Medicine appointment 11/6

Today we saw the Fetal Medicine Dr. for them to see if they could see a membrane between our 2 littles. It was quite an unnerving appointment at first because the Dr. said the original Dr. we saw was afraid we might have had a hemorrhage, along with the possibility that the kids might be in the same sac. What that means, or would have meant I have no idea, but thankfully they found nothing wrong.

On top of that they found a very clear sac around both babies!! Praise God. That means their chances of survival went way up.

There is still the risk of Twin to Twin Transfusion (TTS).
From the TTS foundation website

What is TTTS?

-Twin to Twin Transfusion

Syndrome (TTTS) is a disease of the placenta (or afterbirth) that affects identical twin pregnancies.

-TTTS affects identical twins (or higher multiple gestations) who share a common monochorionic placenta.

-The shared placenta contains abnormal blood vessels which connect the umbilical cord and circulations of the twins.

-The common placenta may also be shared unequally by the twins

-The events in pregnancy that lead to TTTS are all random.

-TTTS is not hereditary or genetic, nor caused by anything the parents did or did not do.

There are also greater risks for identical twins to have heart defects, which they will monitor closely. The Dr. did not explain why this is true.

The last thing they will be checking for is that the kiddos do not try and come to early by putting to much pressure on my cervix (sorry if this is TMI), so there still may be the possibility of bed rest.

But again, right now everything looks good. We will have our next appointment at 12 weeks, so till then it's just grow babies grow.

We appreciate all your prayers and support. We know that God has truly blessed us with these littles and the people he has placed in our lives. For that I am truly thankful.

This is the letter we sent to some of our friends and family when we found out our news.

Hello all,

   The Bender clan thought we were only adding 1 new addition when we found out we were pregnant, but when we went in for our 8 week ultra sound the tech said, "Heart beat looks good..... and so does the other one...." 

  Luke said all I kept saying was, "seriously?" "Seriously!?!". We have no history of twins on either side of the family, and are not undergoing any type of fertility treatment, so we are just some of those rare people blessed with spontaneously occurring identical twins.

Our original appointment with our midwife for a typical second birth changed to consulting with a Dr. because we are now bumped up to a high risk pregnancy. We are also going to be consulting with a special high risk Dr. because, as of right now the kiddos have been diagnosed as mono-mono twins, which means they share the same sac and the same placenta. This is very rare (1 in 50,000) and very dangerous because not only will they have the potential common twin problem of Twin to Twin transfusion, the fact that they are in the same sac means they are also in danger of getting tangled in each others chords. Mono-Mono twins only have a 50 to 60 % survival rate.

The good news is that many people diagnosed with this find out later that the babies are actually separated by a membrane, but it was not readily apparent on early ultrasounds. This is our prayer.

What this means for us : If they are mono-mono I may be put under full time observation (hospital bed rest) as early as 24 weeks so they can intervene at the first sign of trouble. Even if they are not, the Dr.'s will be monitoring twin to twin transfusion very closely throughout the pregnancy and our little ones may potentially come early and have some stay in the NICU.

Right now our littles look GREAT. They have made it through a trip to Vegas, a church wide garage sale, and Momma's 2 ear infections and subsequent illness, so they are already some tough cookies!

I am still learning a lot, and won't know much more until 12 weeks when we have our next appointment and referral to the specialist. We wanted to let you all know now so you can be in prayer. Everything may turn out just fine, but we will still need prayer for adjusting to life as the parents of not only a 2 year old, but twins on top of that!

I will keep you all updated, probably through facebook or a blog as things progress. 

We want to Thank you all for being our friends, and the wonderful support we have received from you in the past and ask you for your prayers in the future. We know that God is Big and He can do amazing things. We also know that God is good no matter what the outcome of this is. We are very grateful that we know we are not in this alone. 

Luke, Erin, and big brother Isaac.

90's grunge

Well with the new baby in the house I haven't gotten a whole lot of opportunities to be creative. But fall is here, which means fall clothes, which means layering and combining whats in my closet to make al new outfits. Well now I also have someone else's closet to play with, and he is much more of a challenge. With a humungo head that is hard to get shirts over, large chubby legs, and a cloth diaper bum, this kid has all sorts of sizing issues. All of this means that mommy just has to get creative. Which is ok by me.


Take today for example

I call this, what Erin looked like in high school. All it needs is Airwalks. The pants are 2 T rolled up to kingdom come. All clothes were garage sale purchased, and I am so glad i bought so many different sizes! Who knew I would need them so soon! I think this is going to be a fun few days trying his "new" cool weather outfits.... well at least it will be for me... Isaac hates having clothes put on him :)

WEBSITE!!!!!

It's quite a long time in coming but here it is! The website! There is still much to add and maybe some things to change but it is a beginning.

www.wrenbender.com

With the new website may fairly soon come a move of the blog. This blog will probably wait until there are new members of the nest and be a more personal look into my life, and the creative side will be attached to the website.

Enjoy the site and let me know what you think!

Website, website, website

Today's project, as it has been for it seems like forever is the website, website, website, and it's still not ready to show you! But I felt like blogging and at least sharing with you one of the pretties from my collection.

I guess because today is not really a normal blog, I have decided to give you a not really normal bird... But who can go wrong with a fish with wings?

Luke and I found this guy on our honeymoon in Durango, Colorado, and he combines Luke's enjoyment of tropical fish, and mine of birds.

In other news we currently have 2 doves nesting on our front porch. One in a plant right beside the door, and the other in a hanging basket on the other side of the door... I know I like birds but this fear of me causing baby bird abandonment if I leave my house through the front door is a little nerve wracking! Hopefully I will get the opportunity to take some pictures soon, and hopefully the babies will really hatch. I can't believe how appropriate that would be to be able to chronicle this adventure for you here on the nest.

Well have a great day, and if you come and visit take care when you walk up to the front door. You may be confronted by a frightened bird, who although she/they will not harm you, they most certainly may startle you as they themselves are startled from their perch by your arrival....

Garage Sale!!!!

All right ladies and gents, today's post has to do with one of my not very creative, creative endeavors this week. I have been making hot pink Garage sale signs! Woo hooo! I have also been separating out plants like a mad woman, battling ants, and being startled by lizards.  So come by and help me make room in my greenhouse for the ever expanding plants! The  money I earn from selling plants goes back into the greenhouse for soil and really cute pots like this one from Hobby Lobby,

who also happens to be the bird of the day!

It's a neighborhood wide garage sale and there are always great finds, so come prepared to shop! Let me know if you need the address and I will e-mail it to you.

Have a great day!

The Melissa Invitation

As today is Wedding Wednesday, and as I am finally DONE with my brothers wedding invitations and they are out for the world to see, I will now show them to you! May I present....

Hand cut accents, raised to give a subtle shadow, Cream colored card stock layered over a canon brown.

 

 Hand lined envelopes and custom designed stamps, really what could be any better?

FleetwoodCuellar.com

A matching custom website!

And for today's glimpse inside the nest here is my favorite door stopper who does not stop any doors

Matthew 6:26

All right Ladies and Gents, the spastic blogger returns. There has been a bit of chaos here at the nest. The two smallest occupants had decided that the whole house was now a litter box so a massive cleaning spree had to be called for! The house is much cleaner now and work has been happening in many areas.

    I have really been thinking hard about what direction I want to go as an artist and designer and how to even start! I feel like in some ways I already have a lot going for me, but nothing to pull it all together, and to many projects on my plate. So now that my brother's wedding invitations are done (more on those tomorrow maybe) I have decided to finish up the projects that I have been procrastinating on and then really start building a website and getting some other things under way.
  

   Today's bird is my procrastination project complete! (well almost

Proof that there has been work going on in the studio, look at this mess!

The finished bird project for my client and friend, Ms. Shirley Webster. Now I need to call her and tell her that after months of waiting it is finally finished and we can go get it framed.

This makes me wish I knew what else to draw....

Well enjoy, and stay tuned because soon enough I think I may have some more things to show you! Now I am very hungry and ready to start moving on to the multiple other projects on my list.

Wedding Wednesday

The nest is positively brimming with ideas at the moment, none of them fully complete and all of them surrounded by the complete mess that is my house so for today we shall look back instead of forward. Since it is Wednesday, and I am currently working on wedding things, I will give you some of my favorite things from my wedding. Hopefully next week I will have everything to the point where I can show you the completed current project!

These beauties were made for me by my amazing friends in Louisiana for my bridal shower. They were just so pretty that I couldn't help but use them in the wedding to go with the origami birds!

We definitely didn't have the most beautiful wedding location, or the biggest budget, and these added another tough of elegance and beauty to the occasion. Some of them still live in my house in my kitchen window sills, and today's birds have taken residence there.

These guys were dirt cheap at target after Christmas, and do they look like Christmas? I was so glad they had some left, and I will have to show you their red cousins at Christmas time, right now they are packed away. These birds are a lesson in shopping after the holiday season for things that transcend the holiday and can be used all year long!

Encourage

 

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to a ladies retreat in Louisiana where we were encouraged to use our gifts and talents to reach the world for Christ. The retreat was with my former church, and these ladies are amazing. They really are what the title of the retreat called them to be "Dangerous Women". If they feel led to serve in a certain area, and there is not a ministry to serve in that way, they start one. They have already made a significant impact in Lafayette, Louisiana, and many other parts of the world. Their courage and faith inspires me to no end.

Today's bird is from one of the ministries highlighted this week, Raven & Lilly, a ministry based out of Los Angeles California. 

This beautiful coffee sleeve was made by women in Africa.  Raven & Lilly's mission is this :

• We are intentionally focused on creating economic opportunities for the disadvantaged.
  
• We support women's empowerment programs that comply with fair trade standards. This ensures women are valued and rewarded for their work.
  
• We seek transparency and accountability in all of our transactions.
  
• We encourage our artisans to develop independence.
• We desire all of our artisans to work in a safe and healthy environment.
  
• We use recycled and remnant materials when possible.
  
• Proceeds are sent back to the artisans' communities to help with education, healthcare and micro-loans.
  

We focus on women because many women have little or no opportunity to rise above the cycle of poverty or their circumstances.

• 70% of the world’s poorest people are women
• 2/3 of those who cannot read or write are women
• At least 2 million girls per year are at risk of undergoing Female Genital Mutilation
• AIDS is becoming a women’s disease with women increasingly bearing the brunt of the epidemic
• 80% of refugees & trafficking victims are women
• 100 million girls are expected to enter forced marriages in the next decade

I don't drink coffee, but this had to become the newest addition to my collection!
Raven & Lilly is so amazing to me because I am constantly thinking about how I, as a designer, can use my skills to impact the kingdom, and these women have done just that!

What are your gifts? How might you be able help through the gifts and talents God has given you?

Manic Monday

Today is a hectic day at the nest. A big project to finish, a house to clean before at least 10 people are coming over tonight for LifeGroup. I have a pretty slow paced life comparably, but there are definitely times when I get overwhelmed. I tell you all this in relation to today's bird.

This Little book is about the size of the palm of my hand and is a great travel companion. It was given to me recently by my friend Nancy, and it is a real treat. It now lives in my purse and helps me remember things. I have a nifty iPhone that you can store things in, but do I do it....... not really. I love the feel of pen on paper and making and crossing things off of lists, so I have little books everywhere. I am always thinking of new projects, or thinking of good blog topics, or just all the sudden remebering something I have to do. I believe the little book, or if your good at putting things on your phone is so important whether you are a creative or not! Inspiration is everywhere and you need a way to remember it on days like today when there are just so many other things to do!

A great book I was given this weekend put it like this :

"Take note of what you are doing when inspiration strikes. Maybe you'll begin to notice a pattern between your good ideas and your activities...... Carry a small notebook with you everywhere... and take the time to jot down ideas when they occur to you." 

Kari Chapin -The Handmade Marketplace

Some other great little books I have come across are these

1. Mini Moleskine, always wonderful, especially for sketching. Has a built in bookmark, an elastic      closure and a pocket in the back. I found this guy at Barnes and Noble
2. These are also Moleskine and the thing I really like about them is if you are working on multiple projects at once and want to keep them separated these are great. You can either write on the cover itself, or create labels for then and have a few of them with you at all times without feeling like you are weighed down by a mountain of notebooks
3. These little babies I found at Target in the dollar spot in a 3 pack. They would also be great for multiple projects, but they are not always available so you just have to keep your eyes open for them because every season they typically have something similar in that seasons patterns or colors.
4. Paperblanks also makes wonderful journals and mini notebooks, this one even has a magnetic closure, bookmark and pocket. I found this at an art museum, but I have seen similar products at Barnes and Noble as well.

What holds you thoughts from escaping into the unknown forever? My husband has a small pad of sticky notes with him at all times that helps his engineer mind remember things from details of a design, to "remember to get some milk on the way home".

Trepidicious Thursday

I am currently waiting on a very expensive box that contains all the paper for my brother and future sister-in-laws wedding invitations..... We are going out of town tomorrow early and I paid extra for expedited shipping. I feel a little bit like this guy.

 

Hopefully it will come soon, it is already 6:30... but while I wait I will share some World Market pretties with you, which is where I found this guy.

 

I am a big fan of pattern design, and right now World Market has some great patterns. This one is a rug.

Wedding Wednesday

In honor of my friends Daniel and Ashley Porterfield's anniversary, today is wedding Wednesday.

These little guys are near and dear to me, they were a Luke find in Anthropologie and they ended up being the topper for our cake.

 The cake ended up being a little funky (note: never get a wedding cake from target) but the topper was just right. Thanks to our great photographers DallasinFocus for the beautiful image.

Happy Anniversary Daniel and Ashley!

Target Tuesday

Today's wonderful bird finds are again from Anthropologie. They combine two of my favorite things. Bird related items and graphic design. I love old tins and ads.

Target also has some really great design for Easter that I had to stop shopper traffic to take a picture of.

 I am always amazed at the things people can do with paper.

As for the oddity of the day I found this little guy. I purchased something similar around Halloween, a set of little vinyl figurines, now they have adapted them for Easter...... I have to say it doesn't really work for me, despite it's cuteness. Easter is about conquering death, this little guy.......

Fun Finds in Farmersville

Today's pretty is from Anthropologie, and yes, I know, if I could only bring the whole store home with me!

 

Some other fun, unexpected finds happened on our trip to Farmersville, Texas, for a Geo-caching event. The event was one where you walk along a trail and pick up trash, while getting the caches in the area. The trash was..... not so pretty... ew. This little store that we happened into looking for a restroom on the other hand was very nice. Unfortunately I neglected to get the name of the store, but it sold a smorgasbord of wonderful yarns and handmade goods, only a little bit of which I show you here. Doesn't it make you want to pick them up and feel the fuzziness!

 

These hats were really great too.

Mundane

This morning I was reading in my get geared up to create book "The Creative Habit" by Twyla Tharp. She is a choreographer in New York and has great things to say about how not to be afraid of the blank slate. Today I read this:

"We want our artist to take the mundane materials of our lives, run it through their imaginations and surprise us."

I am sure she was thinking more than just actual physical materials, but when she said this, this bird art popped into my head. I have posted these pictures before on Facebook, but they deserve to be posted again here. Talk about the Mundane surprising me. This big guy can currently be found at the Anthropologie at North Park and he is amazing. Mostly composed of newspaper with a rubber pot holder for a beak. These things are as mundane as they come. I would put this guy in my house behind the blue couch of awesome (which incidentally is gray) but he would probably be a bit to big and freak out my friend who is not super fond of birds.

BUDGET

Here at the nest we are currently working on the BUDGET. This is not extremely creative our beautiful (well maybe a little creative in how we make thinks work...) So while Luke enters in receipts and I will share some pretties with you.


Not quite birds, but bird related. This lovely display is from Pottery Barn at the Galleria. I am tempted to take this idea and place it over the island in my kitchen except for the fact that

a. I don't really want to hit my head on a bird cage accidentally while cooking
b. I don't really want pieces of dead limb and moss falling in my food
c. I would have to buy bird cages and they aren't currently in the BUDGET
d. a pot rack would be much more useful....

oh well....


In addition to this I share with you a great quote that my friend Kate said at LifeGroup the other night.

As Christians, we should aspire "for our creativity to be so incredible that people wonder what is the source of that?"

It's not word for word, but it really made me ponder.

temporal/eternal beauty

Today is a gardening day here at the nest, and on gardening days I find some beautiful things, like parsley. Parsley as I normally see it has never been particularly beautiful to me, although it sure tastes good. While cleaning up my herb pot I came across this :



Yep, that's parsley. The gorgeous salmon color, and the lovely brittle delicacy put me in awe. Talk about going gracefully. We don't usually think about beauty in death, death is usually a sad ugly thing, but does it have to be?

I have been currently reading John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life, and he has a whole chapter called Magnifying Christ through Pain and Death. In the book he says this:

"But how are we to magnify Christ in death? Or to put it another way: How can we die so that in our dying the surpassing value of Christ, the magnitude of his worth become visible?"

John Piper finds his answer Philippians 1, the high point of which I find to be verse 21 : "For to me, living is Christ, and dying is gain." My sincere hope is to be able to go out one day like parsley, with the beauty of hope in that to die is gaining a greater intimacy with Christ.

But for now I am still here to be used in whatever way God sees fit. And since I am here I shall give you something to cheer you up! A bird of the day!

This guy was in a Northpark window around valentines. I chose him for today because he was quirky, and the rocks match the parsley :)