Ahoy, It's A Boy!

I was spoiled by such a beautiful shower given by family and friends and received so many wonderful gifts from so many loved ones. So thankful, so very thankful to everyone. It was beautiful.

The decorations and cupcakes were so adorable...

Me being escorted in to see the room and the decorations for the first time...

Probably asking what something was used for...oh the learning adventures :)

So thankful...

And the baby daddy made an appearance at the end... 



Jack checking out the goods...we were blessed to have been given a number of big hand-me-down items prior to the shower as well... 

Loved seeing every face there and missed those that couldn't make it...so thankful to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

Love to you all!

For the Love of Houndstooth

Another beautiful day here with gorgeous weather. The shower is just one day away (yay!!!!!) and I still can't believe it all. Rob and I talked about how crazy it would be if we had a glimpse way back into our futures and see me and him married and pregnant with this boy. I'm so happy where my life has gone. It doesn't always go where I imagine, with jobs/sucesses, but you know what? I'm enjoying the ride and have so much to be thankful for.

So I finished a little art piece for Finn's room. I don't know how it happened, but it looks like I'm creating some sort of collage. Which after doing our hallway, I never wanted to hear the word "collage" again for how much work that took! But this collage is a lot more mild and tame. No spray painting of the frames, just making some homemade artwork.

Anyway, here's the latest...it only took me about 10 minutes to complete...

I started with an inexpensive frame from Ikea and some houndstooth craft paper found at Michael's...

Then cut a tree silhouette out of black felt...some double sided tape and ta-da!

We're also working on a homemade mobile...Rob lent his origami hand toward that and I'm excited to for that to be done. Will post pictures once it's complete. None of this stuff is actually able to go in Finn's room yet until we get the carpet in there...so it's just forming a nice pile. Praying Rob's Jeep sells soon and then on to new carpet we go...we shall see.

We also had our monthly appointment yesterday and heard baby boy's heartbeat. Still sounding perfect and apparently he is head down already. Of course he may move, but he's just so well behaved he's getting ready for the day.

I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.

A Belated 2011 Christmas DIY Gifts Post

Update - If you're looking for more DIY Christmas gifts and decor ideas, check out my latest post here. Happy Christmas to you all! 

Wow. I just realized I never posted barely any of my DIY Christmas projects I took on last year. Since the season is approaching, I thought I'd share some photos of what I completed last year. I definitely had fun creating these gifts...I've also realized that an endless supply of mason jars would be lovely.

First wanted to start with this picture of me and the little ham-ball, cutie nephew of mine when shopping for Christmas trees last year...

This kid and his personality crack me up!

Okay, on to DIY projects...the first one is a twizzler bouquet I made for my sweet mom. The picture is pretty self-explanatory. I just cut out flowers and poked a hole in them and placed them on the twizzlers. In a lovely mason jar of course. :)

Next is a peppermint/candy cane sugar scrub, inspired by this tutorial I found on Pinterest...

And finally, I had filled mason jars with these pretzels as well as a layer of almonds and M&M's. Much to my sorrow, I didn't take pictures of the finished jars with everything in it. They were really cute looking and were great inexpensive gifts.

Oh the joys of this season...and there are many.

Halloween Picture Reel

It was a nice night, with welcomed beautiful weather, and tons of kids on my mom's street. It was estimated that we had about 300-500 kids. As Mr. Hunt said, it felt like we were in a Disney movie (or Disney World!) with such a crowded street. I love it.

Family memories in the making!! Love them...

Adorable nieces...(Rob's sister's daughters)

Cuties growing up so fast...

Love this pic of them...

Me and baby boy...last minute created the little "pumpkin" by cutting out the face pattern in felt and sticking it on me with double-sided tape...

I hope you all had a nice evening, whether chaotic or calm. Can you believe it's now November?????

Nautical and Whimsy Art

Ah, I want to start this by saying that I'm so happy that I'm done with this piece. And I'm also so happy that when I finished the piece, I still actually like it. It's really the biggest bummer whenever you put so much time into something, and then in the end, you want to chuck it out the window.

For baby boy's room, I'm feeling pretty good about the direction of art. I'm trying to keep my motivation going as the months are dwindling down.

I knew I wanted to draw a city along a coast, with a boat and a hot air balloon. Lol, it's so nice that I didn't have to search Etsy for something that specific. Here's the preliminary drawing...

Anyway, the city part is very special to me. I've been drawing these city's since I was 12? or something. My mom has a huge show board in the attic with my first city drawing that was inspired by a New York t-shirt of mine. Most of my handmade cards that I make, have a city on the back (mimicking the Hallmark crown) and signed Leemark. So original. :)

I drew one of these cities for Lar and gave it to her at our rehearsal dinner.

Sadly, I learned that markers (even the fancy Prismacolor ones) don't hold when colored on a canvas...makes sense, but I didn't think of it then, so that picture faded incredibly.

So this time I used colored pencils and a sharpie marker outline on a presentation board (that's white on one side, black on the other) You've probably already scrolled to the end result, so there's really no reason for me to keep rambling. :)

Here it is all nice and framed...

I'm trying not to let the bad lighting and contrast in these photos bother me...I didn't have the patience to go outside and do some natural lighting shots. Breathe, and letting it go...

ANYWAY, I'm loving it and it's looking so good with all the other things that will be going in his room. Only three more small art pieces to figure out!

Pregnancy Emotions & Expectations...Ya Know, Fun Stuff!

I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of my emotions throughout this pregnancy. It's definitely been a roller coaster...from shock, to fear, to anxiety, to joy, to love, to anticipation, back to fear and shock. All over the place.

While I would've imagined finding out would have been a blissful event with Rob hugging me and spinning me around, in reality when Rob and I first found out, pardon my language, but the first words out of my mouth were "oh shit!". It was said with a smile, but also said with wide eyes and a clearly shocked face. We did hug and laugh about it, but oh my, what shock. Until you get pregnant for the first time, it's obviously always someone else getting pregnant and having the babies. It's never been me.

A lot of the early fear was just the fear of being sick all the time...I truly was just not looking forward to going through that. Well, who would? I realized that pregnancy is letting go of the control you have (or think you have) over your body...it's a very uncomfortable place originally if you like to be in control.

Week 6 of Rob and I finding out and then telling our family was THE longest pregnancy week ever, lol. We had plans of telling our family and friends in real creative ways, but because I just needed to get it off my chest, I just practically blurted it out. There were some hives involved as well. Lol, just like the first time they appeared while I was walking down the aisle to Rob. (I was clueless and didn't even feel that nervous!)

As the weeks went on, and friends and family were let in on the news, the joy and thankfulness started to fill my heart. Even though our first appointment was rocky (and I almost passed out...I'm a lil heat sensitive) the appointments afterward got better and better. A confidence in me that I can do this filled me up.

I've also been trying to stay in prayer about everything. Any concern that comes to mind, I try to leave it with God. Key word, try. His peace and comfort has truly been amazing through this process. Even though I'll think to myself, "people go through much worse, Lee, this is just pregnancy!" I know that God still cares, just have to keep reminding myself. Each person has to face their own things, right?

Well here I am, over 30 weeks and still in unbelief. I try not to overly anticipate the day of labor...trying to just tell myself that it's only one day and that I can do this. I should mention that when doing something strenuous, mentally I tend to not be very strong. Like when it comes to running or working out...I so easily feel like I'm going to die (hello heat sensitivity! lol) and will just stop. So I just find myself saying, "I can do this, I can do this, I can do this, yeah, I've never been in the hospital since I was born, but I can do this."

I've also felt a huge release this past week to not feel like everything in the house needs to be ready. The basics, yes, but I don't need to furnish and decorate our extra living space and stress about that...more money in savings would be better. Thankful for that wisdom that has pierced my mind to just take it easy. There's stuff to do and we will get to it...but I don't need to be actively thinking about it all the time.

Then all the thoughts surrounding parenting, and the expectations we or just our culture inadvertently have. You can easily overwhelm yourself with advice. We're trying to approach things simply. Rob and I have been talking parenting for years, not that it'll go as we plan or anything, but knowing we're on the same page is a good start.

Speaking of Rob and I, a friend of mine sent me this article speaking of redefining your marriage after having a child and things to watch out for. I won't rehash it, but it's really good. Has some great wisdom in there.

Well, all this rambling, but just wanted to document all the random emotions that have gone through this brain. I just remember the comfort I felt from hearing other's experiences, so maybe someone can relate...maybe not.

Feel free to share your experiences as well! Would love to hear. :)