Memorial Weekend Roundup

Our weekend was....pretty uneventful. Womp Womp. B had to work. Our backup junk car has gone kaput on us so the kids and I were stuck at home. It was hot as all get out though, so one of those little plastic pools would have been fantastic.

Remember this little giveaway over at Pussycat Vintage I mentioned last week? I won!!! Well, I won 2nd place...but I won!! I never win anything! I'm thinking we should be trying the lottery this week. So far I know that I have this lil lovely coming from Benandi. How stinkin cute is that!?

I'm still not sure what else I have coming as I think I'm getting 2 or 3 more things from the giveaway...I think... haha.

Like I said, our car died on us this weekend. Actually we think it just needs a starter. Unfortunately our car was made within a 3 year span that Nissan decided to practically tuck the starter away, never to be seen again. So our estimate for repair was about $450 with most of that being labor costs just to get to the starter. Boo. Hiss. I don't even think this car is worth that in the first place. Well, it just so happens, one of our close friends is getting rid of one of these lil gems:

It's a 1995 Saab 900s! Cute huh? Much cuter than our 1988 Tony Stanza (Nissan) that we have sitting in our driveway. We are paying just a little bit more than the repairs would cost on the old car and it's 7 years newer and way cuter! And it has heat and air! B is stoked on that! So yeah we are having to spend money and we don't have much to spare since I'm doing the stay at home thing, but I think it came at a good time when our friend was trying to sell her car for cheeeaaaap. So we are going to have a new (to us) car tomorrow! YAY!

The dude gets out of school in 2 weeks and I think we will be spending some time at my folk's house who live close to the beach. Double YAY! B works 6-7 days a week, but I'm hoping he'll get to get away here and there over the next few months. I hate that he has to work so much, but I really appreciate it and LOVE that I get to stay home with our sweet girl and boy this summer. 

Little Miss Magnolia has been super fussy the past few days. She's not wanting to nurse and just arches her back and screams. She's never had a bottle so I don't think it has anything to do with that type of thing. She has also started scratching her head and face and pulling her ear and hair on her left side, so I'm worried she has an ear infection. Hopefully I can get the car stuff squared away tomorrow and get her over to the pediatrician to see what's going on. I'm also trying to break her of the habit of sleeping in this thing. 

It's the Fisher Price Rock n Play Sleeper, which has been awesome. She usually sleeps like a champ in it, but we'd like to get her back in the habit of sleeping flat on her back. So needless to say, we will probably have a very restless night tonight and the next...and the next.

Tomorrow: New car and plastic pool. I'm on it!

Things I'm Loving

Okay first of all, I'm LOVING this whole bloggy business. When Magnolia is down for her naps, I'm glued to my screen. I love getting lost in the blogesphere. I click on something interesting, which links to a giveaway, which links to an awesome etsy shop that I haven't seen yet. Then I'm left wondering how the heck did I end up looking at this amazing ceramic poodle that I absolutely NEED!

So yes, I LOVE blogging. And I LOVE that dang poodle. So does that count as 1 or 2 things?..

1. Blogging

2. Vintage Ceramic Poodle

       I'm pretty sure I need to start a collection of these.

3. Instagram

       Some of you I have probably met through Instagram. If you don't already have it(where the hell have you been for the last 6 months) and own an iPhone, go ahead and head over to your app store and buy it. All the cool kids are doing it. I downloaded it in December maybe and was instantly addicted. It's a photo sharing community that you can either snap new photos in or upload from your already saved images. You have a dozen or so "filters" you can add to the photo to make it all artsy fartsy. Much like most other networking sites, you can "Follow" people. You can comment on their photos or simply "Like" them. It's simple to use, yet technical enough that my parents haven't figured it out yet. Find me. Follow me. elizasaurus_rex. Here's some of my favies.

4. PostalPix

      Number 4 is closely related to number 3. This is another awesome app. It is a way to order photos straight from your iPhone. It's super affordable, they print on high quality paper, it's damn easy to use and as an added Instagrammy bonus, you can get images printed on a 4"x4" square! Perfect for those Instagram photos. I went ahead and placed an order to try them out. I placed my order on 5.21.11. The app only allows you to upload 20 images for each order. But you can make as many orders as you want. I chose a few of my favs, and before placing my order I scoured the web for a discount code. (duh) I'm sure there are several out there, but I came across the code "148Apps" and got 25% off my order bringing it down to $5.39 shipped. This $5.39 brought me much happiness (hap-penis) today when I found this pretty lil envelope in my mailbox!

Packaged in a nice heavy envelope!

With a protective photo sleeve.

With a mother freakin' coupon! YES!!

I am sooooo excited and sooooo in LERV with this company now. I'm thrilled with the quality of the prints. The colors are rich and I just love seeing my Instagram pictures in tangible form! The only thing I didn't take into consideration is what to do with them after I've received them. Sure I can find a photo album, but then they are tucked away so nobody can enjoy them. Any crafty ideas for how to display them? One thing I will add is for you to try to steer clear of your low light, grainy images. I printed a few just because I loved the content of the photos.

5. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe-esque Playroom

      OMG! I would love to build something like this for the minis! I would love to build something like this for ME! I am adding this to my list of things to do when we buy our next home. 

6. Amazing Yellow Vintage Bikini

     A friend of mine shared this 50's pinup bikini from http://www.etsy.com/shop/maefairvintage on her FB this morning and I instantly fell in love! Unfortunately the sizes would need to be flipped. Smaller on top and larger on the bottom to accommodate this derriere! 

7. gDiapers

      I'm still too chicken to commit, but I REALLY want to try out cloth diapering. I think these would be an easy transition. Any advice from you cloth diapering mamas? I NEED to see Magnolia's cute booty in these!

It's almost the weekend! Hope y'all are having a fabulous week!

Inspired

Here we are, another post about how I have nothing to wear...

I was inspired today by my Instagram friend Brooke. She wrote this blog. http://puttogetherattheseams.blogspot.com/2011/05/nothing-fits.html. She too recently gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Wolfie, and she too is struggling with feeling "pretty" in her post-partum body. But she got up off her butt and went shopping. Her trip wasn't fruitful, but hey at least she went out into those dreaded dressing rooms and tried some clothes on. Her outlook is that she'll go out and buy some pretty clothes now, and then go out and buy some more pretty clothes when she loses her pregnancy weight. The best of both worlds! Why should I sit around in my jammies all day when I could find a few cute dresses or some comfy jeans that fit now. I feel so embarrassed when The Hun comes home from work and I either haven't showered at all(ew) or I've showered and at least changed into some clean jammies. Of course he says what he's supposed to and says that he doesn't care and that I'm beautiful and all that good stuff, but I want to feel beautiful...or at least cute. You may recall just a few days ago in my Fashion Friday? post I was saying how I was not quite comfortable with my weight. I only have about 10 lbs to lose before I get to my pre-preg weight but I'd like to lose another 10-15 on top of that. I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I have to squeeeeze into a size 12 or 13. I normally don't tell my size. I am 5'11", so that hides my weight a little bit. People say, "Whaaaa? You can't be 180 lbs!" Yes...yes, I am. :( BUT, I won't be forever. Recently my mom purchased Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD for me for mother's day. I purchased a cute floral romper from H&M in a size too small and declared it to be my "inspiration to lose weight".

Well, I huffed and puffed my way through day 1 of the DVD workout and when I woke up on day 2 I was in excruciating pain. Every muscle in my body hurt. I had to hold onto the counter in the bathroom to lower myself onto the toilet. I'm not complaining! To me, this is GOOD pain! Ladies, (gentlemen?) this DVD has GOT to work. By day 6 I could feel myself getting stronger. The workout was getting easier. My endurance was improving. I was considering moving up to stage 2 of the workout. I tried on my romper and the legs seemed just a little bit looser. Maybe my imagination, but hey, it was encouraging. But there's one problem. I'm exclusively breastfeeding Magnolia and my milk was suffering. I drink a ridiculous amount of water. I drank a bottle during my workout and another right after I work out. Plus I drink several more throughout the day. But she was fussing at the breast and I felt "empty". So I gave the workout up for now. I will just have to get myself out for walks, which is difficult during summer in the south. But I NEED to do it. I will also work on portion control. If these things don't help, so be it. I'll just be a little fluffy until I'm done nursing and then I will lose the weight. To me, nursing is a lot more important than fitting into that floral romper. 

So my latest project was to go through my closet and get rid of all of the things that are waaay too small. Or the things that I didn't wear even when I could fit into them. Or the gold Nike dunks that I never really wear. I can't afford to go out shopping, but I'll gather all of these things up and take them to the nearest Uptown Cheapskate. This is one of those types of consignment stores where you can bring in your old clothes to sell or trade. If you sell them they give you a certain percentage of what they will sell the clothes for. If you trade them for something else in the store you get a higher percentage. I prefer Buffalo Exchange but the nearest one is an hour away, which just won't do with a screaming 3 month old. This will be my first experience with Uptown Cheapskate, so we'll see how it goes. I will focus on finding clothes that FIT. I will NOT focus on the number inside the collar or inside the waistband. I'm NOT fat! My body is simply reserving what it needs to provide the best nutrition for my daughter. This will be my shopping mantra for the next year!

Rapture Weekend Roundup

Well, we're still here. Either, there are no true believers or that dude was full of it.

Magnolia turned 3 months on Friday. It's crazy how fast our days are flying by. I love my days with her, but I hate that she seems to be growing at an alarming rate. I don't remember the dude growing so fast. She's finally getting the hang of tummy time and not just face planting and screaming. I mean, it still eventually leads to that, but we get a few minutes of her looking around first.

Just in the past few days she has really started to figure out that those things she's been nomming on the past month actually open up and hold things. Currently her favorite thing to hold is her shirt, which makes a quick entry into her mouth and becomes soaked in drool. She is discovering her "voice" more and more everyday. It sounds like, "Aaaaooooooooaiaiaiaieeeeeeeee". She also does this T-rex growling thing. Of course it promptly comes to a halt as soon as I get out the video camera. *cough* need new iPhone with video capabilities *cough* She's not a fan of going out....anywhere... She hates her carseat and can't fall asleep while we are out, which makes for a very grumpy baby and mama. She sleeps pretty well at night. I can get a good 5-7 hour stretch before she wakes up to nurse and then back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. Of course I'm never ready for bed when she is, so I still seem to get a lot less sleep. Plus, I'm still waking every once in a while to watch her breathe, feel her cheeks to see if she's too warm or too cool, sniff her diaper to make sure she's not sleeping in poo. Sometimes I even wake up just to look at her. I know this is something that will never stop, as I still do it with The Dude, who is 8. I love going in his room before we retire for the night. I pull his blankets up around his chin, scoot him over if he seems too close to the edge of the bed, pull his pillow and stuffed animals away from his face (because I still have that whole SIDS, suffocation fear with him) and just watch him sleep. That's when all of the arguments of the day seem to fade away; not wanting to get ready for school, not wanting to do homework, not wanting to clean his room, not wanting to eat his veggies, not wanting to get out of the bathtub, not wanting to pee inside the toilet, not agreeing that the sky is, in fact blue. My sleeping 8 year old looks exactly the same as he did when he was my sleeping 2 year old, minus the thumb sucking. 


Today I found out about another old friend who has just had a baby girl. She is having some health problems and they are just now starting what is sure to be a long journey. You can read their story here : http://our-natalie.blogspot.com/. I'll be praying for their sweet girl. This news comes just weeks after another friend that I met on Instagram, but that the hunsband actually knows "in real life" had her baby boy, Wolfie, and had to make the hardest decision of her life and let her baby pass because of  unforeseeable health issues. This is her blog: http://puttogetherattheseams.blogspot.com. 2 examples of 2 amazingly strong families. I'd like to think that I'm that strong, but in all actuality, if I were faced with what they have gone through, I feel certain that I would just shrivel up and die. That seems so selfish to type out. I feel so selfish when I complain about being tired from being up in the night with Maggie, or having to mate all of those teeny tiny socks, or having to get up in the middle of the night and strip our bed and myself and Maggie because she threw up or pooped on everything or being frustrated because Maggie won't take a nap and I just want to take a shower. These "annoying" moments are moments that some families would do anything for. I have close family friends that aren't able to have children. How is that possible? They are quite possibly the BEST candidates for children. They would be amazing parents, yet they will always just be Aunt and Uncle unless they ever decide to adopt. I try to remember these families when The Dude is throwing a temper tantrum or when Magnolia is screaming at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason. I'm so lucky that God has given me 2 perfect and healthy children. I've had 2 miracle babies in my life, because I feel, with all that could go wrong, it truly is a miracle when nothing does go wrong.

Yesterday I finally packed up Magnolia's newborn diapers (about 8 packs). I guess she's not getting any smaller. :/ I have a few preggo friends so maybe there will be enough to go around. I've also cleaned out her drawer of things she's grown out of. Tear. But, I've decided that I can't get rid of any of them. I lost all of The Dude's baby clothes in a house fire a couple of years ago and I'm so sad that I can't go back and ooo and aah over them. I pulled down some of her 3-6 month clothes and while I'm sad she's growing so fast, I'm excited that she's one size closer to her 12 month "boyfriend" jeans we bought her. Last night we went to a friend's surprise birthday gathering, which consisted of tailgating in an ice rink parking lot, ice skating and a hockey game after hours. Magnolia fussed pretty much the entire time, but I was able to capture my dudes having some fun. Neither of them can ice skate, so there was lots of LOLing. But they came out with minor scrapes and bruises.

Today the dudes went to a baseball game so Magnolia and I are home alone. 

So we had a little photoshoot to celebrate her 3 month birthday! Enjoy some photos and hope you had a fabulous weekend!!

Fashion Friday?

Sure, why not? I eventually would like to have a theme for each day of the week. This one may stick, but for now it's just for fun. It's currently 77 degrees outside, which seems like a perfect temp to be outside. But, alas, I have about 10 more pounds of pregnancy weight to come off and probably another 10-15 after that until I'm happy. Where I'm getting with this is that none of my summer clothes fit me and while I'd love to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, a. I'm hoping my smaller wardrobe will encourage me to lose weight and b. I'm doing the stay at home mom thing and finances just won't allow it. So for now, I will just "window shop" online and wish I had this super cute outfit so I could comfortably go play outside.

Polo Jeans Ralph Lauren cotton tank top

$71 - coggles.com

Isabel Marant short
335 EUR - shopmrsh.com

Volcom sandal
blue-tomato.com

Monica Vinader disc necklace
$330 - net-a-porter.com

Steven Alan fedora hat
$135 - net-a-porter.com

Ray Ban ray ban sunglass
$145 - ray-ban.com

ALDO skinny belt
$20 - aldoshoes.com

And since I just discussed how I needed to lose weight... check out this amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe I found over at http://www.dana-made-it.com/. I may be making these very soon. I like the idea of freezing the batter so you aren't forced to eat all of them in a day or two. But, I mean, really? Would that be so bad?

Embroidery Hoop Wall Art

OK, a few of you have asked how I made these, and I feel kind of silly making a whole tutorial out of this project because it was soooo easy. But I guess this is a good one to start with. Let me know if anything is unclear or if you have ideas to make the project better. You won't hurt my feelings. :)



You'll need:
Wooden embroidery hoops. Like these
Various complimentary fabric remnants
Scissors
Fabric marker or a regular ink pen will do
Sewing machine or needle and thread if you want to add a little oomph to your hoops

Choose your fabric and hoops. I upcycled a couple of old bedsheets I thrifted a couple of weeks ago and happened to have some complimentary remnants in my stash. I purchased hoops from Joann's, but I think I paid too much. The hoops I got are the 18"x 28" oval (paid 5.99) and 2 14" circles (paid 3.99). Still pretty cheap for their purpose. But I'm sure you can find some cheaper if you search around online or hit up some yard sales or your granny's stash.

Spread your first piece on a flat surface, wrong side up, and place your embroidery hoop over it.

Use your fabric marker or ink pen to trace around the outside of your hoop. Give yourself about a 2-3" allowance. This will come in handy later when you are pulling your fabric tight. Then go ahead and cut out your circle (or oval).

I'm sure you've noticed the little contraption on the top of your hoop. This tightens and loosens the outer hoop to hold your fabric in place. Loosen your outer hoop and take them apart. 

Lay your inner hoop on your flat surface and then lay your fabric, right side up, over the hoop. 

Next you'll place the outer hoop down, sandwiching your fabric between the 2 hoops. Tighten your contraption just enough to hold your fabric in place. From the back side you'll want to start pulling your extra allowance out to pull the fabric tight. Alternate between tightening the hoop and fabric or you'll end up with your fabric bunched up and bubbling out in places. 

After you've tightened it all the way you'll need to flip your hoop to the back and trim off the excess fabric. Be sure that your hoop is tightened enough to hold your fabric, because after you trim off the excess you won't have anything to grab ahold of to pull it tight. 

And that's IT!

I made these as accents.

And hung all three over our bed! Excuse the ugly white walls...

Again, I feel like this was an awful lot of instruction for a pretty easy project, but now it's super clear for you and I got a little practice playing with all of those buttons up there. If you are feeling crazy and want to add a little something, get creative. 

I used this bird template for the birds and free handed the tree. I wish I had made a template for the tree because I'm pretty stoked on how it turned out. You can add ric-rac, ribbon, felt. You will want to sew your pieces on before you put your fabric on the hoop. You can't tell, but I used a super bright yellow thread and sewed about a 1/4" in on all of the pieces. Then I went back and pulled at the edges to fray them out a little. The good thing about this is it's super cheap and easy. If you hate it, take it apart and start fresh. If you change your decor, take it apart and start fresh. No biggie. Be sure to let me know if you try it and post pics!!

Now a photo of my sweet Magnolia actually enjoying tummy time for once today!