First Trimester Wrap Up!

Baby is the size of a peach!

Baby has vocal cords, teeth and even little finger prints! The first trimester is notorious for being extremely hard and pretty much the most miserable time of pregnancy, fortunately I had no such experience! I didn't have any morning sickness or even nausea, in fact most of my first trimester I didn't even know I was pregnant! 

Symptoms: Headaches, extreme fatigue, crazy realistic dreams and an occasional bloody nose! Other than that I felt perfectly normal, it was really hard to believe I had a baby growing inside me!

Cravings: Soup- Any kind. Any time.  And sandwiches, I think I mostly just craved the bread which I normally don't eat but since finding out I'm pregnant I'm all about the carbs!

Weight Gain: I gained 11 pounds in the first trimester which was very alarming to me considering that's already half of the suggested weight gain for the whole pregnancy! But truth be told I think most of the weight went straight to my chest I went from an A to a D! Which made all my fitted tops impossible to wear from the get go!!

Maternity Clothes:  None yet, but I did have to buy a new bra. I also bought some cute maternity dresses from Target that I'm excited to get to wear but so far my jeans all fit and flowy, stretchy tops I already own

Baby is a. . . :  Not sure yet, but I am dying to know! The boy and I both thought it was a boy in the beginning (he being the oldest of five boys and his whole extended blood-related family is literally all men- so it just seemed like it was inevitable!) but now we both have strong feelings of a girl- so we shall see! 

Baby is Due. . . : Our given due date is October 20th, but if baby is a bit late they might be born on their Uncle Gage's birthday!

Spreading the News: We told our parents first, then let our close friends know. I had to tell my boss because eventually it would mean I would be leaving to stay home with my own baby. Soon after we announced it to our family and friends that had been invited to our reception which would now be cancelled, because the timing wasn't great and we figured there were many more things we could put the money towards for the baby over food and dancing. Then finally, announced to everyone on Facebook! 

Do Strangers notice: Not yet! Although within the same week I got comments from two servers at different restaurants, the first one said "She sure knows how to eat!" and the second one said, "You need to eat more and fatten up!" They both were funny considering our new news. 

Baby Buys: The only thing we have bought so far is the cutest stuffed giraffe and a turquoise polka dot bow that could used either be for a bow tie or a hair bow! 

Preparing for Baby: We're looking to move when our lease is up at the end of July we will need an extra bedroom now for baby! 

1/3 of the Way Done!

DIY Ring Box

A Special Little Touch for Your Big Day. . .

The boy's youngest brother was our ring bearer and I wanted him to have something special and fun to hold our rings in down the aisle! 

I picked up a tiny wooden box at Michaels, they had a few to choose from that were on clearance for $1.99! I chose one with a cutout on the top because I already had an idea of what I wanted to do with it. I had a very light brown paint that I did one coat on the whole box, so it was like a light stain. I was going for a vintage look to match with our overall look. 

There are so many things you could do with it, I considered painting the whole box one of our wedding accent colours, you could mode podge a continuing pattern through out your wedding or do several coats to give the box a dark finish. Just make it yours!

I painted the indented space on top of the box with our accent colour yellow. After everything dried I used a scrap of lace from my wedding dress and glued it on the top. I used our other wedding colour, coral, and filled the box with a scrap of textured fabrics leaving two little holes where the rings would go!



It was the perfect little touch to our big day and Jack, the boy's youngest brother looked absolutely adorable carrying it!

DIY Fabric Flower Bouquet

Keep Your Wedding Flowers Forever

For those of you who don't know me I am both ridiculously sentimental and crafty, so going any other route with my bridal bouquet just wasn't an option. I made my own out of fabric flowers, which given my past career (and forever hobby as a designer) it only seemed appropriate. It also meant I got to include tons of vintage brooches that were my grandmothers to boot AND it would preserve perfectly forever so it can serve as the ultimate keepsake from our wedding day! 

You don't have to be crafty to make your own, it was a lot of fun to play around with until I got it how I liked it. Here's a list of supplies that I used but the options are endless!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• Hot Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks
• Fabrics in colours and many options of your choice
• Twine or ribbon of choice
• a button or bead to match your theme
• A wiffle ball (I got mine at the dollar store)
• A triangular structure- I used a party blower (again from the dollar store)
• Faux greenery (Dollar Store)

EXTRAS TO ADD

• jewels or beads
• feathers
• brooches, pins or buttons
• pearls or ribbon
• you could even use fake flowers to make it easier!

STEP BY STEP:

1. I stuffed the party blower with scraps of fabric until it was full so it would feel stiff to the touch and not flimsy. 
2. Hot glue the rim of the party blower and stick on the wiffle ball. Let Dry to be secure.
3. Starting from the bottom or wherever you want your ribbon/twine to show (I did mine 1/3 of the way up) hot glue gun a circle for the first wrap. Let dry. Pull taught each time you wrap it around the cone and secure with a dot or line of glue every couple of wraps. Push down the ribbon/twine each time to insure there won't be spacing or gaping later!
4. If you choose to have faux greenery- I think it's great to break up the flowers and make it look more natural. hot glue the bottoms and place them through the wiffle ball and glued securely to the top of the cone or the bottom of the wiffle ball depending on how yours is set on. This is why I loved using wiffle balls for the inside because I prefer smaller bouquets so it was a great size to start with and the holes helped with spacing and securing flowers later!
5. Next if you've chosen to make your own fabric flowers get started! There are tons of different ways to do it. Here are several great tutorials for different kinds of flowers from Skip to My Lou to help you get started. When in doubt cut out several round shapes from one or two similar fabrics and put a dot of glue in the center of the circle and glue it to another circle. Do this to several circle all being glued to the same bottom layer until it's as full as you like! Experiment and have fun with it. Different fabrics will give you different looks too! Not feeling so crafty? Forego the fabric and you can buy a variety of fake flowers you like instead and skip this step all together!                          
6. Here is an optional step. Break out all your trimmings and details! I put something special in the middle of each one of my flowers. I alternated between vintage buttons, my grandmother's brooches, rhinestones and pearls! It gave it that extra something meaningful and a little bling never hurt anyone either!
7. Next is the placement of everything! Play around with it a little until you get it just how you want it! Then stick the "stems" into the wiffle ball holes or glue the flat bottom flower to the sides filling in the gaps as you go! Don't be afraid to rearrange it, I took mine apart a couple different times until I got it just the way I wanted!
8. If you didn't use your ribbon/thread for the entirety of the handle now's the time to fill in the remaining part with whichever trimming you choose. I picked a thick cream ribbon that had been from my Grandmother's sewing things. It was the perfect vintage and bridal touch I was looking for! For the bridesmaid flower bouquets I just did the twine all the way through.
9. Now, that it's almost complete you need to stop up that party blower bottom, you're not going to be blowing on your bouquet so no one even needs to know it's there! For my bridesmaids I picked the perfect sized rhinestones to finish off the bottom with a sparkle, and for my own I used a pearl!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. You can finish them off anyway you like! I added pearl bracelets to my bridesmaids bouquets so they could keep them afterward and a touch of yellow with a ribbon. On my own I glued on white feather plums and draped a strand of my mother's pearls to add to the vintage vibe!

I had a lot of fun making these and they are so easy to personalize and make special in a lot of different ways from recreating your favourite flower, using touches of your bridesmaids favourite colour or like me using pieces from family members to incorporate! 

8 Days and Counting!

Neighbor Wars

The Down & Gritty of the City

Have you ever seen 'The Duplex'? If you haven't you should it's a pretty hilarious depiction of a young couple getting their first place together in New York (starring Drew Barrymore and Ben Stiller) and all the ridiculousness that ensues from their upstairs neighbor, a very elderly lady. Well unfortunately, this isn't far off from the realities of what New Yorkers face with their one or some cases many neighbors. It is very, very different from the midwest roots I'm used to.

Unless you're still in a college dorm, in New York you don't get to know your neighbor. They can't be bothered with silly mundane details like a strangers name or where they work which is so far removed from Kansas where you know all your neighbors names, their kids names and even their cell phone number. New Yorkers don't have time for that, and in a place that is home to the ever changing real-estate it's no wonder because no one lives in one place for very long before rent is pushed up and your pushed out into the new up and coming area. 

Well the boy and I have found ourselves smack dap in the middle of a full fledged neighbor war with our upstairs neighbor. I've only actually seen the guy and his girlfriend a handful of times, I don't even think I could point him out in a line up, but trust me that doesn't keep me from absolutely despising the guy. And we only know his name because we get his mail all the time. It all started when our old neighbor who was friendly enough but still kept to himself (the quintessential perfect New York neighbor) moved out and this guy  moved in. We each have a recycling bin and trash bin outside, all standing together. Well the day he moved in he filled all of them up to the brim and had trash spilling all over the walkway. Then there the trash sat. For a week. I took it all out for him, despite the fact that they took our bins and they were so full there wasn't any room for our own that week. Hey, maybe he had a lot of stuff from moving in. He was new, he didn't know the trash schedule yet. Give the guy a break. Didn't think much of it. 

Then it became a habit. He used whichever bins he felt like and never took anything out. Ever. Listen buddy, I have enough of my own things to do than to worry about your stinky trash too. In New York recycling is picked up once a week but only a certain kind like paper one week, plastics and cans the next. So if it's mixed or the wrong week they obviously won't take it. He kept throwing in whatever with ours so unless I wanted to dig it out myself it wouldn't be picked up or we would have to wait another week to put it out.

It's one of those little things that just irks you and the longer it goes the more it builds. Next thing we know, his girlfriend moves in, they park the wrong way on the street and prevent the plows from getting our road when it snows- which lately has been a lot. They are so loud going up the stairs they almost knocked pictures off our kitchen wall (which is under their front door) and you can hear everything they talk about. I mean, everything. Next our bathroom ceiling started to leak, and leak is putting it lightly, we had water pouring down the walls and straight off the ceiling. It was insane. The idiot broke his sink.

He's definitely not on my good list and every time I see he's home. . . which is all the time. . . I seethe. Doesn't he have a job?? Either of them?? They finally took the trash out. . . kinda. . . after we stopped taking it out and let it sit, just to see. It sat there for over a MONTH. What's more is he kept just piling more trash bags around it. It was in the middle of winter and it still smelled. We hounded our landlords and I'm sure they passed it on and he finally dragged three of the four bins out, on the wrong day never the less. Now they have highjacked the only two not broken ones and the two they left behind are disgusting and one is still full to the brim with his last trash load.  I'm about ready to dump it on their front door. I never knew someone who plays such a small part in your life could be so largely annoying. Unlike in 'The Duplex' (seriously go watch it, you'll get a taste of what we're going through) I don't think we'll need to go to such extreme measures to remedy the situation but we certainly will be counting the days until we move out!

Here's to The Future Quiet, Uneventful Neighbors!

DIY-Advent Calendar

An Easy Daily Activity Advent Calendar

Since I've been having trouble sleeping recently and I always love a good craft I decided to whip up a super easy DIY activities advent calendar to be all ready for December. I grabbed some things from my craft room and got started. This can be recreated with things you have around the house!

Here's What You'll Need:

• Scissors
• Red & Green Paper
• Markers
• 25 Manilla tags
• Red Ribbon
• Thick ribbon any colour (I picked green polka dot)
• a used Christmas card
• Tape

 

Cut out strips of coloured paper leaving the front a little shorter than the height of the manilla tag so it pops up from the front. Fold the back down and tape down to create a loop for your ribbon to be strung through. I used markers to create "stitches" along the pouches to give it a more handmade look. 

Make sure to tape up the sides to prevent the tags from falling out the sides!

String your ribbon through the backs to create a long chain. I alternated green and red, but you can mix it up however you feel. I used green and red markers to number each one. I cut out holiday characters from a used Christmas card and taped them onto separate pieces of paper and inserted them into the chain to break up the numbers. I used my thick polka dot green ribbon to make two large cute bows to dress up the ends of the wall hanging.

 I'm a big believer in experiences over gifts, so instead of filling our pouches with little presents or candy (when let's face it the Holidays are already filled with enough tempting sweets and treats) I filled them with various activities to do with the boy. I cut up strips of the extra red ribbon and tied them to each manilla tag, as an easy pull tab from each pouch. Then I labeled each tag with an activity with markers, if you have kids this would be fun to have them help out with this part. 

The holidays can be stressful enough with a laundry list of things you need to buy and get done, so I had to put some thought into where each activity went. Put the activities that require a bit more time on a weekend, and the activities that are easy to do during the week when you might be caught up in work things. This is supposed to make December more fun, not more stressful so don't overwhelm yourself with activities that are going to be too hard to complete. Plop them in each slot and you've got yourself a personalized advent calendar! 

Stuck on ideas? Pick some of these and mix in some of your own traditions or favourites!

• Donate something to a local charity
• Drink hot cocoa
• Go iceskating
• Attend a Christmas Party
• Do a random act of kindness
• Have a game night
• Make apple cider
• Go Christmas caroling
• Bake fresh cookies and decorate them
• Make a snowman
• Crank up the Holiday music
• Eat a candy cane
• Share your favourite holiday memories
• Sleep under the Christmas tree
• Build a snowman
• Go window shopping
• Kiss under the mistletoe
• Check out the neighborhood lights
• Have a gingerbread house competition
• Take a holiday picture
• Make a wish for the new year
• Send a Holiday letter
• Eat breakfast for dinner
• Go shopping for stocking stuffers
• Make paper snowflakes
• Watch a cheesy Christmas movie
• Volunteer together
• Go Sledding

Enjoy Your Christmas Countdown!