still cookin’…

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I’m still here and I’m still cooking this sweet little baby. 39 weeks and 1 day. Due date is Sunday. {Which is Mother’s Day :) }

At first I thought I would go a little early, but now I’m not so sure. I’m having tons of Braxton-Hicks contractions and lots of that lovely menstrual crampy-feeling. But Baby Sister seems to be content to keep moving her little head around on my bladder and kicking my ribs repeatedly. Something tells me she’s going to be an active one.

At least the heartburn is gone since she is so low. Whoo-hoo!

So I’m trying to really enjoy each moment this week. I know it will soon change. I’ll be thrown back into the sweet newborn world of round the clock feedings, diaper changing, shushing, and baby snuggling. But for these last few days, I’m going to savor the minutes.

I’m enjoying my uber-clean house. {Thanks to my mom, who spent 2 days last week helping me deep clean. She is a jewel, that one.}

I’m enjoying snuggle time on the couch, reading library books to my Little Bit.

I’m enjoying an empty laundry basket and a full fridge.

I’m enjoying quiet nap times and the time to curl up on the couch and catch a snooze myself.

I’m enjoying ebooks on my iPad.

I’m enjoying quiet evenings with my sweet husband. {Who, by the way, pretty much took Little Bit all day on Saturday so I could take a nap, get ready all by myself, grab Starbucks, and go get a pedicure. He is stellar.}

I’m really enjoying this {hopefully} last week. :)

And I currently {as I type} am enjoying You’ve Got Mail. Love this movie. I want to be the Storybook Lady at Shop Around the Corner in my spare time.

And in the midst of all this enjoyment, I am full of anticipation. What will this sweet girl look like? Dark hair? Light hair? No hair? Short and chubby? Long and lean? {Oh wait, I forgot who her parents were for a sec…she might be lean but she won’t be long.} Will she be quiet? Loud? What will Little Bit say the first time she sees her baby sister?

Lots of mixed emotions this week. But good. And He will be sufficient for all of it. Amen and amen.

By the way, I was going to write a whole post about our trip to the zoo last week. But Picasa is being mean to me and my photos. And I think He knew what I needed to write today. :)

I’ll make sure to post as soon as I can after this sweet little one makes her appearance. So excited!

I think she’ll be a good one

Little Bit loves her cousins. Gets really, really excited when we get to see them. But she has this sweet, big sister kind of excitement when she gets to be around my sister’s littlest who is 6 months old. I love seeing this. It makes me tear up to think of her with her new little sister. Can’t wait to see all that joy.

I think she’s going to make a fantastic big sister.

<bits of splendor monday

{thrifted} colorful vintage nursery :: part two

I am still loving walking into our new nursery – it just makes me happy. So let’s continue our nursery discussion, shall we? Above is technically the wall behind the door – I wish you could see it without having to come all the way in the room and turn completely around. And then I feel guilty for wishing silly things like that when there are important things that actually matter to think about. But I digress.

Some fun facts: The two embroidered floral pieces (prints? creations? what do you call them?) were thrifted, as were the frames. I made the yarn balls for a baby shower a long time ago and I continue to find random uses for them all over my house. The paper bunting was made by my sister for Baby Sister’s baby shower cake. And at the very bottom of the white shelf thingy is a white diaper pin that was mine and my sister’s. My mom saved it because she is amazing like that. On the right – another cool saving story. Those jeans were my hubby’s dad’s when he was tiny. Seriously, can you believe that?? So Baby Sister’s grandpa wore them. Then my hubby wore them. And then they will hang on the wall of Baby Sister’s room because I cannot in good conscience subject them to another generation of toddlers. The bib above them was mine and my sister’s. Very early 80′s. Gotta represent.

Shelves and aqua bins were a baby shower gift, but came from Lowe’s. The small plaque by Curly Gurl Designs reads, “Welcome to this world, little one. It is even now that much better because you are here.”

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Tissue paper flowers were made by my amazing sister for this baby’s sweet baby shower. They hung over the food table at the shower and I told my sister in no uncertain terms that they were mine asked my sister if I could please take them home to use in the nursery. My mom tied/clustered them together for me and perched perilously on a small step ladder to hang them over the crib. I kept telling her I didn’t mind doing it and she just kept eying my ginormous belly. I got her message.

The adorable alphabet cards are free printables from The Handmade Home. I adore them. How can you go wrong in life if H is for high heels and I is for icing? We’re setting Baby Sister up for success, is what we’re doing.

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Apparently I am slightly obsessed with pompom fringe. I used some coral/red small trim on the new glider cushions and it makes me so happy. That trim actually came from Walmart (gasp!) and it was pretty cheap. I bought plain white heavier curtains at Lowe’s and just sewed some canary yellow pompom fringe down the inside edge. Love it. I had to order it online – Walmart failed me that time. {By the way, I used curtain clip rings to attach the curtains to the rod so they would slide super easily. I found plain blackout liner fabric for a steal at a local fabric store and I just cut it to size and clipped it to the back of the curtains with the same clip rings. No sewing involved. Bam.}

The needlepointed lady on the nightstand was made by my Gran – my mom’s mom. I love that there is a piece of her in this room. The sweet quilt draped over the crib is one that was made for my hubby when he was a baby.

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I put new blue knobs {$2 each at Lowe’s} on the small chest of drawers and spray painted the lamp base yellow. I tied a leftover crib bumper tie around the top of the lamp. {Don’t ask why I had a leftover tie – apparently I cannot count correctly from 1 to 22.} The bunny is the softest stuffed animal I have ever felt and was a gift from my sweet aunt. The mirror was an antique store find in Marble Falls. I love the aging glass on it.

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And there you have it. A colorful, vintage, “collected-over-time-look” nursery and guest bedroom combo. And best of all, it is done and waiting for a sweet Baby Sister. I’ll let you know as soon as she arrives! {If you missed part one of the nursery, go here!}

{thrifted} colorful vintage nursery :: part one

After a flurry of nesting activity spanning several weeks, I’m so happy to say that our combo guest room and nursery are done! I’ve been singing that Wizard of Oz song with my own words in there…la, la, the nursery’s done, the nursery’s done, the nursery’s done!

As soon as we found out this little one was another sweet girl, I started gathering ideas and regularly hitting up our local thrift stores. No, wait. Scratch that. I’ve been gathering ideas for another nursery since I did Little Bit’s nursery two and a half years ago. Cause that’s just how I roll.

I knew I wanted a bright, colorful, vintage-y, happy vibe. So I started with fabric. I hit the vintage fabric jackpot one random day at a thrift store and that really got my brain going. Thrift stores are the perfect place to find fabric, y’all. Sheets, pillow cases, table cloths, bed skirts, unfinished fabric craft projects, fabric remnants – it’s all there for super cheap.

I was really drawn to graphic, bright, prints in a variety of colors. So here’s what you see coming in to the room…

Y’all know I love to not spend money and use what I have and repurpose things, so let’s break it down. We’ll start with the guest bedroom side of things. The guest bed is a queen – a bit big for the room, especially for a combination nursery. BUT it is what we had and it’s comfortable for our guests. Sometimes {actually, most of the time for me} you just gotta work with what ya got! I think we tried the bed in every possible position in this room and this seemed to work the best. Definitely not ideal, but WWWYG. {Work with what ya got!}

Guest Bed Details:

I thrifted a white duvet cover for $13 to replace the dark brown duvet cover that was on the bed. It was then that I realized I had stuffed an old BLACK comforter inside the old duvet cover. And the new white cover had lace cutwork in the middle of it. Which equals black showing through my white duvet cover EVERYWHERE. So I did what any lazy girl would do. I found an old white sheet in the back of the linen closet and sewed just the corners of the white sheet {I’m telling you, super lazy} to the top of the old black comforter. Now you just see white through the lace. And I am happy because I didn’t have to spend any money.

I had the white bed skirt on the bed already. I also already had the red & white ottoman {gift from my sis a couple of years ago} and my mom gifted me the white ruffle-y shams. I thrifted the two crocheted blankets from a local shop for $5 each. The bright coral pillowcases came from Walmart for $7 for the pair. I thrifted the two throw pillows for $5 each and the quilted flower sham came from Tuesday Morning for $10. So under $50 for a complete bed remake. Be still my thrifty heart.

 

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So come on around to the other side of the room, where the crib is.

 

Crib Bedding Details:

All the fabric for the crib bedding was thrifted, except for the aqua & orange dot fabric and the ribbon piping. The outside of the bumper is yellow dotted swiss fabric. I love that is has a texture. The bumper ties are some really bright graphic vintage napkins I thrifted {$3 for set of 4} and cut into strips. Crib sheets are white ones from Walmart. The skirt is layered – the bottom layer is a thrifted bed skirt {$3} that I just had to make a little smaller. {By the way, I totally did this the lazy way and just folded it underneath the crib mattress to be the correct size. A true seamstress would have cut and sewn and done it right. Good thing I’m not a seamstress.} The top layer of the crib skirt is a vintage sheet I thrifted {$2} and again, folded under the crib mattress to be the correct size. And really, in the long run, the lazy way is great because when you have to lower the mattress, you can adjust the length of the skirt really easily. Or maybe that is just how I justify being lazy.

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On to the walls.

I wanted the gallery wall to wrap around the corner over the bed. To try to help the bed position make sense. And to try to detract from the fact that there is a giant half-door for our AC over the bed. I’m not sure if the gallery wrap-around wall helps, but I do like it. Everything was thrifted – frames, embroidery hoops, fabric, vintage needlepoint, and the vintage floral painting.

So that’s a lot of pictures and words and typing. I’ll do part two tomorrow, and cover the other parts of the room, alphabet cards, and crib mobile. Stay tuned!

baby shower!

Two weekends ago, a sweet old friend, a sweet newer friend, and my sister all joined efforts to throw me a baby shower. It.was.amazing. Beautiful. I am so thankful for all their hard work and planning. They know how to love, and they love me well.

The whole shower was this creative combo of bright colors, happy flowers, amazing food, and sweet memories.

See what I’m talking about…

How happy is that cake?? And who doesn’t love a handmade paper bunting on their cake? So stinkin’ cute. And, at the time, we hadn’t decided on a name for Baby Sister {procrastinate much?} so it says, “Welcome Baby Girl”. She does have a name now, so don’t worry. {Look for that bunting again in the nursery pics coming soon!}

A lot of the flowers they used on the table were cut straight from my mom’s garden. I loved that.

Handmade tissue paper flowers by my amazing sister. {Look for these in the nursery pics too!}

The food was fabulous. Jen {who is secretly a gourmet chef} made the above delish chicken salad with pita bread, these amazing tomato/mozzarella/basil bites, ham & cream cheese appetizers, and fruit kebobs. Seriously, it was SO good. I might have had thirds. And by that I mean the baby was clearly still hungry after my first two helpings. Gotta feed the babe.

They had this great idea to make a “Baby’s First ABC Book” by having all the guests illustrate each letter of the alphabet. This was one of the best baby shower ideas I’ve seen. It was really fun and now Baby Sister has this sweet book of hand drawn alphabet illustrations by all the people I love. High five on that one, girls!

My precious Bible study ladies brought a money tree, complete with origami money onesies!

Sweet, sweet friends. Thank you girls so much.

where I’ve been…

Well, what have I been doing? Besides not blogging, that is… :)

Hmmm…mostly being very pregnant. I’m 37 weeks and 2 days as we speak. Which means any day now is a possibility for labor. I’m a little all over the place about this. The whole labor thing, I mean. Since we’re doing a home birth this time, this means it is ALL natural. I go from being sure God has created my body to do this to being certain I’m going to run screaming out into our backyard from the pain and someone will have to come track me down. I realize I probably won’t be able to RUN anywhere, but this visual persists on entering my brain.

Anywho, to summarize, instead of blogging I’ve been a little preoccupied with carrying a rather large baby inside my tummy.

Two of my sweet, sweet friends and my amazing sister threw me a baby shower. Which then threw me into a nesting frenzy of organizing all the gifts, pulling out all the newborn clothes from the attic, and finishing the nursery. Two separate posts coming soon – one on the awesome shower, and one on the completed nursery. Whoo-hoo!

My nesting has carried over into the outdoors and I’ve been planting, digging, growing, and watering. And enjoying my little watering helper, too.

I’ve been trying to enjoy all her little moments, actually. Really trying to soak up all the last moments of being a family of three. I know four will be wonderful and sweet but it’ll just be different. It won’t ever be the same as it is right now. And that’s okay. We’re just soaking up these moments.

So I’m going to be back blogging fairly regularly, I think. Now that my extreme nesting seems to be coming to a lull. But it did get results a.k.a. a completed nursery. I’m excited to share it with y’all soon!

on being found

A small group meets at my house every other Wednesday and we’re going through Grace for the Good Girl. Last week was the first week, and we read through Chapter 1 together. And we talked about the many ways we hide. We hide how we really feel, we hide our messy kitchen drawers, our bad habits, our truth-filled words. Because we’re so concerned with another’s opinion of us. And yet, as Emily Freeman reminds us…

The best part of hiding is being found.

There is a relief after the tearing off of the band-aid. A freedom that comes from not having to hide anymore. A breathing deep in the open spaces of being discovered by the One who knows you intimately.

In those areas of my life, where I like to hide or pretend or make a mask, He is finding me. Meeting me in my fakeness. And He lovingly reveals His truth about who I am.

I’m so thankful for this – this God that pursues us even when we’re trying so hard to hide. He’s not concerned with our response or how long it takes or what our reaction will be. He is love and He just wants me. He just wants you.

He holds our hand as we venture off with Him, to the hidden places within us. The unknown can be scary. But knowing He’s got you, that He won’t let you fall, that He’ll reveal Himself to you no matter what – that is truly being found.

the sandbox {get past the feeling}

Her daddy built her a sandbox. Simply because he thought she would love it. Which she does. Now, anyway.

It’s a great sandbox. It’s filled with fresh, cool sand and plenty of digging and filling toys. A dump truck. Some shovels and a scoop. And it’s big. All created by hand, lovingly, just for her.

But when he took her into the backyard and sat her in it for the first time, she wasn’t so sure about all the sand. The sticky, dirty, make a mess sand. She’d never been in a sandbox before.

 

But then her sweet daddy climbed in the sandbox with her, scooped up some sand in his hand and poured it on her jeans. And he kept scattering sand on her hands until she realized it wasn’t hurting her.

More than that, it was actually enjoyable. And there were toys in there. And cool scoopers. And maybe sand was pretty fun after all.

 

 

 

 

But to her, Daddy dumping sand on her didn’t seem very loving at first. It felt bad. It was new and new is scary. She had to get past the feeling of the sand to enjoy all that the sandbox had to offer.

I don’t like when Papa God puts me in a sandbox for the first time and dumps sand on me. A new experience, a new perspective, a totally foreign situation. It feels sticky and it makes a mess of my emotions. It feels bad at first.

How often do I resist something new because it feels bad? How often do I view new things as negative, just because it is unfamiliar?

But then He keeps lovingly sprinkling sand on me. And I realize it doesn’t hurt me. It’s just different. Once I get past the initial feeling, I can enjoy whatever it is He’s made for me.

Because that’s just it. He meets me in the new and the scary and the unfamiliar. He joins me in the sandbox and shows me it’s not scary. He’s right there, sharing all that He is with me. I just have to move past my initial gut-reaction feeling and turn my face to His.

Life circumstances become a joy-filled activity when He moves me past the feeling and into the trusting.

weeds and ants be gone :: thrifty garden

Y’all. I have discovered two huge gardening secrets. {Actually, I just googled it and found these solutions to try. But still.} I hope these will be as revolutionary as I found them to be. Are you ready for this?

#1 Cheap, generic brand white vinegar KILLS WEEDS!!! What?? Yes, it is true!

 

Here are the ugly weeds/nut grass before I attacked them with vinegar…

 

 

And here you can see them shriveling and getting brown.

 

 

 

Apparently, it is the acid in the vinegar that does the trick. Now, I will say it took two applications of vinegar and I’ll probably have to hit any green again that is still left. But I didn’t have to use Roundup. Need I say more?

HEB sells the huge containers of vinegar for $1.98 each. That’s like one-tenth the cost of Roundup. And way better for you, your garden, and life in general. I mean, the only thing offensive about vinegar is the smell. Wherever you spray it, a distinct odor will linger for about a day. But I just breathe it in deep and picture my weeds shriveling to death. It makes me happy. Is that wrong?

At first I poured the entire huge container of vinegar in a watering can and “watered” the weeds with it. But it seemed like I was wasting some, so I switched to a garden sprayer. You know, one with a pump and a long handle. My 34-week pregnant self was a huge fan of the long handle a.k.a. not having to bend over at all. I borrowed the garden sprayer from my mom, but you could always just use a hand sprayer.

I actually had FUN weeding, since I knew this was dirt cheap and effective and I wasn’t spreading toxic chemicals everywhere. Or maybe I just have no life. Either way, good times were had.

And Little Bit followed me around the entire time saying, “No, no weeds. Don’t grow heah.”

Okay, on to the next thrifty garden tip…

#2 Coffee grounds KILL ANTS!! Seriously. In our garden, we had two huge pots of veggies that had gotten infested with  ginourmous ant hills. I was avoiding picking parsley out of fear for my fingers. Anyway, I saved our coffee grounds for a few days and then dumped them on the ant hills. One ant hill is completely devoid of life and the other has just a few ants left. Boo to the yah.

I’m saving up grounds for a few more days, then I’ll resume my ant-killing spree. Apparently, this works because the ants ingest them and then they “implode” according to one website. I keep trying to see this imploding business in action, but no luck so far.

Maybe I’m just a big gardening dork, but these two tips are life-changing incredibly helpful! Did y’all know this already or does this help?

favorite finds & random thoughts

 

Well, we were stuck in the house all last week. Little Bit had a fever and didn’t feel so hot, so house-bound it was. During the week of laying on the couch and snuggling with my sweet girl, I’ve come across some fab websites/blogs/cool places. And I’ve had ample time to think about important, life-changing random things.

So read this/check these out when you’ve got time. Or want to procrastinate. Like when you have to unload the dishwasher.

{} The Handmade Home put together another great list of free, awesome fonts to download. I love new, creative fonts. As in, not Comic Sans or Arial. Just sayin’.

{} I discovered this great blog called Beautifully Rooted. It’s made up of all kinds of fantastic contributors who write beautiful words on subjects like “nourish”, “nurture”, and “sanctuary”. And the tagline is “grounded in who He created you to be”. How can you not love that?

{} I am so doing this. Hopefully this week. Giant outdoor chalkboard, anyone?? I have the perfect spot in mind. It’ll make our quirky house even quirkier. Quirky is fun and creative, right??

{} Little Bit had school pictures done yesterday with a real, live bunny. I’ve been thinking about that bunny today. I’m pretty sure he’ll have some lasting effects from being man-handled by 50 toddlers yesterday. Poor guy.

{} Yesterday I bought succulents on sale at Lowe’s for $3.98 a piece, some small galvanized metal buckets, and some rope for a project I’m working on for spiffy-ing up one of our {many} quirky outside spaces. Stay tuned for more details. This pic is the one that inspired me…

{} I read The No-Brainer Wardrobe e-book by Haley Morgan at The Tiny Twig. So good. Among lots of other great tips and tricks, she talks about going through and purging your closet based on lots of different criteria. I realize at 34 weeks pregnant that now IS NOT the time to go through my closet based on what fits, what I like, what makes me look fat, etc. Must remember this. DO NOT do this right now, DO NOT do this right now…

{} I finished the crib bumper AND recovered the nursery glider cushions. All by my big self. As opposed to calling my mom every 5 minutes asking how to do the next step. I’m sure she appreciates my steps toward big-girl independence. I’ll post pics soon…I have a few more projects to finish up in there. But I may get impatient and go ahead and post pictures anyway in it’s undone state. Gotta keep it real, right?

{} One of my good friends {and our doula!} is having a garage sale in April and said we could toss in whatever we wanted to get rid of. This has fed my already insane nesting spree to the point where our house might actually start to look empty. I might need an intervention.

{} I’m working on making a master meal idea list so I have all my options to choose from in one place when it’s time to menu plan. Anyone have any ideas on the best way to do this? I was thinking Excel. But then I remembered that I stink at using Excel and I feel like an accountant when I use it. Not that there’s anything wrong with accountants. I just don’t want to be one. Or feel like one.

{} Hubby introduced me to The Fray’s new album. Love, love, love. One of the songs is “Be Still”. Ah, the truth in that song.

{} I hear Little Bit talking to herself in her room this morning. This means she is awake. But ever since we moved her to a big girl bed, she continues to think someone has to come get her out of bed in the mornings. She has yet to come out of her room on her own. I don’t know what to make of this. But I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

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