February Loves (and Loves Nots)

+ Warmer weather means lovely walks and bringing out the spring nail colors.
+ Love Walked In is a delightful book.
+ I have been sucked back in to The Bachelor. Lee would not say this is a good thing.
+ Two friends had babies this month. Whee!
+ Whole Foods sushi.
+ Pre-natal yoga.
+ Colin Firth won a long-overdue Oscar. It's a truth universally acknowledged that he did not receive enough accolades for his work as Mr. Darcy, both Austen's and Fielding's.

Not so much love for:
+ Breast cancer. Be sure to do your monthly checks. Boys too.
+ UK's away record. (Basketball, if you're not a local.)

On a happier note, if baby cooperates we'll find out the gender tomorrow! SQUEEE!!!

Job Update

I have jobs (intentionally plural)! I'm super thankful that my stint with unemployment was brief, but not so brief that I didn't enjoy a nice break. Really, if you're going to be unemployed, I think my unemployment was about as perfect as it gets, lasting about a month. I am way more blessed than I deserve, but that's generally always been the case.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

So what am I doing now? Well, I knew I didn't want another full-time job since I'm hoping to stay as home with baby as much as we can afford. After looking into a couple part-time positions in an office setting, it seemed like I wouldn't be making enough to justify the costs of part-time daycare. Not to mention that there are additional ways to save money (cloth diapers, less breastfeeding accessories) by keeping baby at home. I have had a couple freelance jobs come up which is wonderful and I'm sure excited about them and hoping for more. In a perfect world, I would make enough freelancing to just do that, but at this point, we could use a little extra money, so I'm now barista-ing at a local coffee shop.

I got the coffee shop idea from Our Little Apartment. And while it's not really what I had in mind for myself at 27, I think that this is honestly what's best for me and Lee and baby at this point in life. Since coffee shop opens ridiculously early (5:30!!!) I'll be able to go in a few mornings  a week while Lee stays home with baby. He'll be able to answer some e-mails, make some phone calls and then I'll be home around 10 and he can head in to work. It won't be a lot of extra money, but it won't cost us anything (but gas) to earn it.

I started there a couple weeks ago and so far I love it. My coworkers are super nice. The coffee is super tasty. We're all organic and fair-trade, which I think is awesome. As a local business we do lots to help other local businesses. It's a good company to work for. And there is something strangely fun about making the drinks. A woman was watching me make her latte yesterday and commented, "It really is a bit of an art to make these." Yes, it is.

While I'm super thankful for my jobs, we are far from the income we used to have. But honestly, I've never been happier. I was in a funk this morning, so I took a walk. I can make myself pasta for lunch. When my brain just won't work, I can embrace that, veg out for a bit, and then get back to it at a time that's better for me. I wear sweatpants a lot. I take afternoon naps. Life is grand. :)

Dethawed

After what's felt like a particularly harsh winter, we finally got a bit of a reprieve. I guess I could say it's been unseasonably warm (50s and 60s), but Kentucky is prone to unseasonable weather year round so it's expected. Or at least I expect it and get very grumpy when weeks of below-freezing temperatures persist without the usual unseasonably warm break.

While I've enjoyed taking some more walks (which I need to do regardless of lower temps), I think Zoey is enjoying it the most. The first warm day she had no desire to come inside at all, although she had to because eating leaves (at least I hope it was leaves) is unacceptable. There are no squirrels to chase inside and she prefers to sit under the trees and wait for them, full of hope that some day she'll catch one. Not that I'm sure she knows what she would do with it if she ever did. I hope we'll never find out.

Week in Review 2/18

The Week in Review is back! Party? Mildly-amused dance? Anyways...

I have abandoned creatively organizing photos on paper, but Elise makes me want to change my mind. Maybe after baby.

A new Illustrator trick to try.

Love these orange and gray photos! Orange can be an intimidating color but these shades are pefection.

Pantone Fall 2011 color picks!

This weekend's to-do list is filled with home improvement! Hopefully at least 75% of it will get done. Have a wonderful weekend!

19 Weeks

We are days away from the half-way mark and everything is going lovely. I think I'm finally getting that second trimester energy burst and I'm feeling increasingly confident about pregnancy, birth and afterward.

We've made a few big-ish decisions since the 16 weeks' update. We have started Bradley classes, had our first midwife appointment, and have a doula. We LOVE our midwife and our doula and I couldn't feel better about it (especially after watching The Business of Being Born, where the only thing more frightening than the statistics is the nudity. I totally support their choice to be nude, but I definitely saw some things I would like to unsee.) We're really enjoying our Bradley classes, even Lee. Watching Lee get into the birth stuff is freakin' adorable. Almost as adorable as tiny baby clothes.

I have felt sporadic baby movements but nothing consistent. Nurse said it could be up to 24 weeks before I feel them so I'm not too worried.

We'll be finding out gender on March 1. While I had been feeling neutral, I'm increasingly hoping this is a girl. I picked up Lee's almost-14-year-old sister's birthday present tonight and came home gushing about its girly awesomeness and features and Lee said, "You really need a little girl." So true. If we find out it's a boy, I will probably have to buy some argyle and stare at Lee's baby pictures to cheer me up. (Lee was the cutest baby ever. Evidence below.)



(Of course I will totally love our baby whether boy, girl or some complicated third option. I'm just really girly and have a thing for little girls in the most appropriate and socially acceptable way possible.)

I picked up an avocado and cucumber roll from Whole Foods this weekend hoping it would stem my constant ache for sushi, but I think it only increased my hunger. Le sigh.

I got my first random inquiry from a stranger regarding my due date which I'm thrilled about. I don't mind looking pregnant since I am, but it makes me sad to think I just look pudgy.

Only 21-ish more weeks to go!

In the Next 142 Days

There are 142 days until July 1. Since I'm due in mid-July, I'm setting July 1 as the deadline for the house projects we want to get done before the baby.



In the next 142 days, we will:

+ Paint all the trim and doors in the house white. (Currently some is tan and some is white.)
+ Paint the hallways and family room.
+ Paint and decorate the nursery of course!
+ Paint the deck. (Before we bought the house the previous owners replaced a couple steps but couldn't paint them, so we have 2 steps to paint.)
+ Slipcovers for the couches.
+  Finally unpack the stuff in the basement.
+ Clean the windows.
+ Plant an herb garden.
+ Make some front yard landscaping changes and maybe a few in the back yard.

I think it sounds doable, but feel free to stop by with your paint brush and/or shovel. ;)

Ding Dong the Blue Carpet's Gone!

We don't need to discuss how pathetic it is that we had hardwood floors installed the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I am just now showing you pictures. Let's just celebrate that there are finally pictures.

Incase you forgot, we bought a house with blue carpet. Thankfully, it was only in two rooms: living room and dining room.



After several months of saving, we finally got some lovely hardwood floors that match the hardwood floors in the bedrooms. We also painted.





So lovely! Except that the couches don't match the new wall color (And Zoey walked all over them with paint on her paws. Whoops! Right after I told someone how good she is about staying out of the paint.) and only half the trim is painted, but those are on the list of things to do soon. In the meantime, I'm pretty happy just to own a blue-carpet-free home. (Does it count that the blue carpet now lives in the garage?)

Pinning Away

Have you heard about Pinterest? It's one of my more recent Internet obsessions, and while I'm hesitant to sign up for one more thing, Pinterest is totally worth it. It's invitation only, but requesting an invitation is easy and I got my invite in a week. So do it. Today.

Source: apartmenttherapy.com via Katie on Pinterest

With Pinterest, you can easily "pin" inspiration photos from around the web to your boards. You can install a "Pin It" button in your browser's toolbar and next time you see something drool worthy you can save it to one of your boards. You can follow others and their boards and re-pin items you like. Basically, it's photo porn for those with an affinity for interior design, art and fashion.

Source: ohdeedoh.com via Farrah on Pinterest

You can follow my boards and pins here.

Etsy Shop Preview

I have been diligently working on getting stuff ready for my Etsy shop which should open soon-ish. Well, it exists but there's nothing there to buy.



I still want to get some more cards designed and I need to write store policies and all that, but here are a few cards I made yesterday.

I think I might try some different color combinations for this one, and I might offer color options for all of them.

Chevron makes me happy.

The logo and websites are on the back of everything.

Feel free to share any suggestions or general feedback!

January Loves (and Loves Nots)

+ WordPress and their magical ability to reply to comments.

+ Watching all three seasons of Arrested Development for the second time.

+ Designing my first website. Which will hopefully be live here someday soon. Like by March?

+ Michael Scott met David Brent and it was perfection.

+ Buy one get one half off maternity jeans.

+ A trip to Guadi's. (Guadi's is the Mexican restaurant where I went to college and I'm obsessed with it. This is largely emotional, but the food is also tasty.)

Not so much love for:

+ Snow.

+ Winter.

+ Cold.

+ The American. (The movie with George Clooney. In general I really like Americans, but The American wasn't worth the $1.06 from Redbox. Boy agrees.)