14 Weeks.

Which now, by all accounts, means that I am done with my first trimester!  Exciting.  These 14 weeks have FLOWN by, and although pregnancy has been pretty good to me so far, the last couple weeks of the first trimester were maybe the worst.  

Now, don’t get me wrong, from what I’ve been hearing lately, my “worst” is pretty much better than most other people’s “great”.  I was nauseous a little more frequently (nothing crackers at my desk couldn’t take care of), was really SUPER tired, and just lately I’ve started getting hungry ALL THE TIME.  

Now, I never thought there would come a day when I would say that as a negative thing (since eating could be counted as one of my hobbies) but this hunger wakes me up from naps, makes me leave meetings to get a snack, and just won’t stop. I mean, I love eating as much as the next person, but this is getting a bit excessive!

Ahh I know.  Big problems over here.

In other news, we picked out curtains for the baby’s room (a fun green/blue paisley pattern), got a changing table, crib, glider and ottoman (ALL hand me down, and thus very cheap, or free, YAY!), so we are pretty set as far as big ticket baby items!  We have some staining and recovering projects to do, but hopefully we’ll start and finish those over the next few months.  We're hoping the nursery will be done well before the summer!

We go to the Doctor next Wednesday for our 15 week appointment, and then our next (19 week) appointment is the big gender reveal!  We’re getting very excited about that.  Can’t wait to see if we’ll have a boy or girl to fill those little shoes!

Pinterest Project Dos (as in the Spanish word for two)

Ok so clearly I have been creepily obsessed with Pinterest lately.  It's kind of embarrassing, I know, but whatev.  So for a dear, crafty totally unique friend (love you Ash) of mine's wedding shower in November (yes this post is late, I know) I decided to see if I could find something on Pinterest to use as inspiration for her gift.

In one of my searches I found this super cute wedding frame pin that I wanted to try and recreate, but as I was thinking about it, I got all sorts of other crazy ideas, so needless to say, it took a few twists and turns and became a creation of its own.

I decided I wanted to incorporate her wedding colors (yellow and blue), as well as the lyrics to their first dance song (like in the pin).  So, as a starting point, I went to Goodwill to look for a good wood frame to work with.  That's where I found a $3 gem shown below.  Sweet angel print, I know.

Then, I headed to Michael's to find some custom matting to work within the frame and still hold a 5" x 7" photo.  I chose two different sizes so that they would layer on top of each other.  I also then went to the paint section to look for something to write the lyrics in (blue) and something to paint the frame with (yellow).  So I ended up with the below.  You can see her wedding colors there as well.

Next step was to paint the frame.  I painted a couple of coats in a couple of days.

 Then, since it wasn't finishing perfectly (there were some lumps/bumps) I decided to sand it down to give it a weathered look.  It actually ended up working out perfectly because with the yellow paint on top, the green frame showed through as a bluish color.  

Then I glued the matting together and got ready to write the lyrics to their first dance song on the matting.  I was TENSE about this.  I do not have the best handwriting in the world (maybe the worst) and after agonizing about other possible ways to get the words on the matting, decided I was just going to have to suck it up and go for it.

I decided to write the words in a pattern around (not straight across) the frame as you can see below, so she could eventually use a vertical or horizontal image in the frame and either would work.

Then I printed out one of their engagement shoot images which matched PERFECTLY and put the whole thing together.  Ta-da!

I thought it came out pretty nicely.  I think she liked it too.  If not, she's a good faker and I'll know she secretly hated it if I never see it in her house ;).

So there is my Pinterest project number 2.  Get ready for a ton more of those.  We have approximately 345234 planned for this baby's nursery, in an attempt to save some money and make it a super cool, unique room.

Happy crafting everyone!

We're having a baby?

Yes, as I’m sure all of you know, since anyone who reads this is a friend or family member of mine, Dave and I are having a baby in July (this is news is partially to blame for my general lack of blogging over the past two months).  Baby Yar is due July 27^th and probably, at 12 weeks, already measuring more like the size of 20.  Dave and I’s favorite game is to joke about the abnormally large size our child will be born at.  Maybe even record breaking.  Who knows?  Get excited.

We found out November 17^th that after just a couple months of trying, we were expecting a little one. 

Side Note:  NEVER take a pregnancy test before you go to work and expect to do anything but stare at your monitor all day if it’s positive.  Stare at the screen AND/OR look up what the margaritas you drank the weekend before did to your poppy seed sized child (don’t worry – the answer is nothing!).

Yikes.  Don’t get me wrong, we are incredibly excited about this little one, but it is just HUGE.  HUGE life change, HUGE commitment, HUGE.  We have spent the past several months getting used to the idea that there will be a third person in our household this summer (four including Dexter, clearly).  It’s fun, exciting and terrifying all at once.

There are all sorts of questions like, how will Dave and I handle this?  Will it change our relationship?  Will he love the baby more than me?  Will I be bitchy and mean to everyone because of the severe lack of sleep that comes with a newborn?  Where are we going to put all the baby’s stuff?  Could I be more excited about 12 weeks off of work???  Holy shit, what are we going to do with a baby, and toddler, and teenager?? And the list goes on and on and on and on.  Mostly irrational pregnant craziness.  But, please note, if any first time pregnant person tries to  tell you they haven’t had lots of scary, crazy thoughts (on top of all the great, exciting ones) they are TOTALLY lying to you.

Health-wise, I have been incredibly lucky this whole first trimester, no morning sickness AT ALL, no weird cravings or aversions to food or smells, nothing except a few cramps and total exhaustion.  The baby’s heart beat is good and strong and both ultrasounds (at 6.5 and 8.5 weeks) have shown that it’s right where its supposed to be and growing just like it’s supposed to!  We’ll find out around the first of March if it’s a little chica or chico hanging out in there.  We cannot wait!  Well; mostly I cannot wait, since as all of you know, I have major patience issues.

So there you have it.  A brief summary of the life and times of Baby Yar to date.  Dave and I are totally thrilled to be adding a member to our family and can’t wait to see what this year holds for us!  Thank you so much to all of you for all of your happiness, support, love, prayers, gifts and advice.  It has been overwhelming, and you people have only known for 3 weeks!  We are so lucky and blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends.  Look for more Baby Yar news soon!