Fix it Friday

I've been obsessed busy with finding cheap things and spicing them up some with spray paint or fabric.

Hopefully soon Mr. B will realize that I am not just buying/collecting junk, but kind of know what I am doing.

I thought I'd share some of my most recent projects around the house.

I realized I'm really bad at taking "before" pictures though, so in the future that is something I'm going to try and be better at.

It makes the process that much more rewarding, ya know?

I realize some people {like Mr. B and Mama Grace} would much rather buy new items than buy supplies and take time fixing something, but for those frugal and crafty people...this is fun.

For reals.

I found two matching lamps at Goodwill for 2.99 each. {Hello, good deal. You don't realize how expensive lamps are until you're on the lookout!}.  They were gold and u.g.l.y.  First I painted them an off-whitish color and I really liked them until I put it in our room and it looked very blah. I went with a dark espresso color instead and it looks much better. Next is to cover the lampshade. Oh and maybe straighten it out, too. We will see. 

Bought this frame for $4 at Savers and planned on making it into a chalkboard for the kitchen for little notes or bible verses. It was hard trying to find the right color in a spray paint to match our tealish kitchen. I tried to make it look a little distressed and kind of failed. It still adds a nice touch to the kitchen though and is a fun project to make. Now it needs one of those long skinny signs that say "Bless our Home" or something above it. A trip to Hobby Lobby is in my future. 

This was a brown scentsy warmer from Mama K, I really wanted it in the living room but it didn't really match. I went on the search for some orange spray paint, but could only find bright construction cone orange....um no thanks. So when I was at Michael's I found some Terra Cotta flower spray that was the perfect color I was looking for. I wasn't sure how it was going to work since it is made for flowers, but it did! I love how it turned out and use it every day. 

I received this cute little gown as a hand-me-down before we found out we were pregnant. It was a little on the boyish side, but I liked the color and new we would be using gowns in the beginning. I used my seam ripper and  took off the little turtle and duck tag and made some flowers out of scrap fabric and sewed them on. 

And here are some misc. projects with no before pictures....

1. Was a green lamp I spray painted the dark espresso and re-covered the off-white lamp shade with some brown zebra fabric.

2. I had some old pillows that I recovered to add some pop of color to our living room.

3. The two small vases were $1.99 and $2.99 from Savers- they were just the colors I was looking for! The bigger vase I picked up at a yard sale for 50 cents. It was green glass, but I knew I could spray paint it and put it somewhere in the house. When I decided to add orange as an accent to our living room and found the two little vases I knew just what I would do with the bigger vase. It came out really good, and no one would ever know it was bright green. 

4. I have been spicing up some plain onesies that I have. I am still a newbie, but getting better and have lots of onesies to practice on! 

Have you done any fun DIY projects recently??

I love looking in pinterest and other blogs to find some new idea! 

22 Weeks

I know these types of posts aren't interesting for everyone to read, but they will be nice to look back on and I might as well be documenting while I have the time and some memory.

120 days until her due date! 

::This week's Milestone: 1. Mr. B & some family members felt her kicking!!

2. Painted the nursery and found fabric for curtains  ::

Gender: GIRL!!! 

Total Weight Gained: 3 pounds

Sleep: Most nights = insomnia. My best sleep is usually 6:30-9 in the morning {after Mr. B leaves, hmmm coincidence?}

Maternity Clothes: Still LOVE. Wear mostly non-maternity shirts and dresses, but love my shorts and capris. Most of my non-maternity shirts are not looking quite as cute as they use to.

Best Moment of the Week: Feeling much harder kicks and Mr. B, two sisters and my dad feeling her move too.

Food Cravings: Appetite is definitely coming back- wohoo! Can't think of any real cravings yet.

Aversions: Still not a fan of 

 1. Steak  2. Wishbone Italian Dressing.    

Symptoms: Heart burn and still getting sick. I actually just got sick right when I got to this question! My whole breakfast - english muffin w/peanut butter, purple grapes and fruit punch...lovely. 

I also had a close call on Saturday when we were at Home Depot looking at paints, I started to feel sick, quickly made my way to the car and waited for Mr.B to purchase everything. As we started driving home I thought for sure I wasn't going to make it, we pulled in the drive way, he runs to unlock the door and I run to the bathroom and make it just in time. Like threw up standing up, just just opened the toilet lid. Whew! Nice visuals, huh?

Movement: Yes! Feeling lots of flutters and some big movements too. It's so reassuring :)

What I miss: Not feeling sick in the car, being able to slowly wake up/relax in bed until I am ready to get up, a good night sleep. But who cares- it's all SO worth it! 

What I'm looking forward to:  Currently, I am hoping that we will get pre-approved for a house that we realllly want and I am looking forward to getting the results of that to see if we can move forward with moving plans! And with that comes more decoration and nursery ideas! If that doesn't happen, I am still looking forward to adding more details to our current newly painted nursery. 

Weekly Wisdom: Go with your gut on paint colors. I told Mr. B I really didn't think the color we choose was dark enough, he insisted I was having a "pregnant moment" and needed to calm down and it will be fine when it is dry. He continues to paint the whole room, and a second coat....it dries. I still don't love it.  I knew it from the begining. And now we are keeping it because it's already done and not that big of a deal. 

And for fun, here is a little comparison:

I feel like I have grown even in my two 22 week pictures! 

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Bonding

It was the sweetest thing.

Weekend Wedding #2

Last weekend we flew to hot hot hot super duper humid Minnesota for my cousin's wedding. 

We enjoyed time with family and the celebration of love!

The wedding was beautiful and the decor/tables looked like it came out of a magazine {even more so in person and not with a picture from my phone, but my camera died right before the reception! Grr!}

We got to soak in some time with my other cousin's beautiful baby girl, which is always fun!

The babies needed a break from all the heat and dancing during the reception. 

And of course, no family vacation of ours is complete without eating at the always classy Denny's!

This is the only "group" picture I have because my camera lenses fogged up because it was so humid outside! But here's a picture of the Grace girls waiting for the rest of the family for breakfast.

2 . 22 . 22

Okay, so in my head this morning when I was thinking about the date and the milestones that have been reached today it seemed really cool. 

But...

when I tried explaining it and attempted to write a post about it it's not quite having the same effect. 

So just pretend. 

 2 years ago, on this Friday, I said "I do" to spending the rest of my life with my best friend. 

Today, on the 22nd, I am 22 weeks pregnant. 

It's basically a golden year  week  day, right??

Are you following this awesomely cool logic?

So our official anniversary is on Sunday, the 24th, but we got married on a Friday night. 

The weather was rainy all day and cleared up right when the limo pulled into the driveway! 

{I am so thankful the weather wasn't like today's weather though! That heat wave has hit NH, not even near as bad as it was in MN- but it's hot!!}

Our wedding was so much fun, and I love looking back at pictures and thinking about how wonderful the night was.

A night that went by ridiculously fast!

And 2 years later, we continue to walk side-by-side, hand in hand.
 Embracing each new day and season in our life.

And this weekend for our anniversary we will be painting our little girl's nursery!
And of course going out for dinner, too! 

Can't wait for the next 22 (x4) {I had to stick with the 22 theme, but felt like 22 was too short to say}years together and to see what else the Lord has in store for our Smelly Life! 

21 Weeks

So this is going to be my second pregnancy update in just 1 week, but I know if I don't catch up now I never will!

I decided that I will try my best to make Thursday my update days and hopefully they will help keep me on track!

Today is the last day of my 21st week and not too much has changed except for one big thing...

Gender: GIRL!!! 

Total Weight Gained: 3 pounds

Sleep: I have good nights and bad nights, the past 2 nights have been really good though! I feel bad for Mr. B & Roxie because I have the AC on high all night and in the morning I am stripped down w/ no sheets or blankets, Mr. B is hiding under the covers and Roxie is curled up in a ball on the floor trying to keep her face warm. I don't feel that bad for Mr. B because he can just get more blankets, but I don't know what to do about my poor pup! I guess I'll have to give her some more blankets too! 

Maternity Clothes: Still LOVE. Wear mostly non-maternity shirts and dresses, but love my shorts and capris. Most of my non-maternity shirts are not looking quite as cute as they use to.

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing my belly move/twitch when she moving all around!!! I saw it yesterday morning and Mr. B was able to see it once last night. It was so cool and exciting!  

Food Cravings: Lots and lots of aversions, but my appetite is slowly coming back. Still loving sweet and sour things though! I'm a little upset because my new favorite thing has been a nice big pink lemonade from Wendy's. Wellllll we went the other day and they gave me regular lemonade. I had Mr. B go in and tell them I needed PINK lemonade and they said they no longer have that and switched to regular lemonade. Wahhhhhhh!!!

Aversions: Pretty much everything, but two major major aversions: 

 1. Steak  2. Wishbone Italian Dressing.    Mr. B just had a work party and steak was my only option so I did it, and it was the moistest, most tender filet mignon I have ever had! I was really nervous about it, but thankfully it was really good and there were no problems :)

Symptoms: Thankfully no major symptoms this week! Got sick a few times and heart burn seems to be creeping back.

Movement: Yes! Feeling flutters and occasional big kicks and loving it {so far!}

What I miss: Not feeling sick in the car, being able to slowly wake up/relax in bed until I am ready to get up, a good night sleep. But who cares- it's all SO worth it! 

What I'm looking forward to: Feeling harder kicks and movement for my family to feel!

Weekly Wisdom: Stay hydrated & enjoy a nice swim and floating in the pool :)

Milestones: Harder kicks and belly twitches!

I experienced my first official flight while being pregnant. The last flight I was just 4 weeks pregnant, I was a little nervous I would get sick but I wore my sea bands, got sick at home before the flight and made it the whole way{which ended up being 13 hours of travel, 3 flights and 2 cancelled flights!} there with no problems except for uncomfortable seats. 

I also experienced the hottest day of my entire life. My cousin had a wedding in MN, and not sure if you've seen it on the news but they were under an extreme heat warning. It was like 105 degrees with 90% humidity. It was insane. The ceremony and reception were both held outside. My camera lenses fogged up just from being outside! We were all disgustingly sweaty, but we eventually just embraced it and enjoyed the wedding.

So the extra "glow" from this week is due to the crazy heat and sweat :)

{Almost} Wordless Wednesday: Smelly Bean's Name

We already had the first name picked before we were even pregnant. 

I saw it on a blog one day and fell in love.

I love that it unique and not very popular, but not "totally out there" either.

As for the middle name- before we even started trying to get pregnant the middle name for a girl was going to be Grace {my maiden name}, but after 10 months of trying and our faith and trust in the Lord being tested, we felt like we wanted to use something different. Something with a little more meaning. 

When our church had A Day at Shiloh {day of prayer} that I posted about back in February, I felt that if we did conceive after that that I would like to use the name Shiloh. And sure enough- to God's Glory- we conceived on my next cycle. 

I didn't love the way that Adalyn Shiloh flowed, but I felt it had a special meaning for us so it would be worth it. 

That is until Mr. B quickly pointed out there her initials would be A.S.S

Good point.

So needless to say, Shiloh was off the list and Faith became the next meaningful name. 

Mr. B & I could not agree on a name for a boy, I was nervous for the gender ultrasound because I really wanted to leave the appointment with the baby named and I wasn't ready to commit to any boy name yet. 

Thankfully, we still have time to decide on that one and this little babe had a name the moment we found out.

So on June 18 our sweet little Smelly Bean became 

our precious Adalyn Faith. 

Gender Reveal Party

:: In the process of a new layout- please excuse :) And hoping I don't get too sick of gray and yellow because those are the nursery colors we chose too! ::

I can't believe it, but it has been a month since we found out if our little Smelly Bean was a girl or a boy! 

I am long overdue on my post about our party!

I am so thankful that we chose to find out extra early and had this party planned.

It was a lot of fun and a unique way to celebrate such exciting news.

I'm not gonna lie, a lot of people thought we were crazy and had no idea what a gender reveal party was,

but of course in the land of the blogville this is completely normal!

So although I toned it down a bit, I was still determined to have one and I think, in the end, everyone had a great time!

The name of the package we choose at the ultrasound clinic was "Quick Gender Reveal" and let me tell ya, this was no joke! We were in and out {with an answer!} in at the most 10 minutes!

We were given multiple clear shots

and just like that we were on our way back home with a couple hours to spare before the party! 

We didn't show up to my parents' house until the very last minute {I went over the night before and set everything up} because I knew if we went any earlier I would give it away. 

This was my look for the first 30 minutes of the party before the "official reveal",

I had to cover up the huge permenant smile on my face or everyone would know the moment they looked at me.

{I was going to be thrilled about any healthy baby, but I was really hoping for a girl first!}

I searched online for some Gender Reveal ideas and I loved the "Bee theme"- I thought it was so clever and cute, so that's what we went with.

{No party is complete without flower poms!}

When the guests arrived they posted their vote and they wore a little bee clothes pin with the coordinating color

We also did a little Old Wives Tale quiz before we revealed the sex of the baby.

The vote was almost a tie:
11 votes for a girl
10 votes for a boy

And the Wives Tales:
7 for a girl
5 for a boy

We had originally planned for everyone to bite into the cupcake and see what color frosting was inside, but because I am cheap and ordered the cupcakes from the grocery story and they had never really done something like this before we had a little problem...

I thought it would be fun and suspenseful to find out with everyone by cutting into a cake, but Mr. B wanted to find out first with just him and I. So due to the lack of suprise with the pink icing overflowing from every cupcake, we ended up kind of having the best of both worlds. We cut into the cupcake in front of everyone...

It worked out great!

{Please excuse my dad's silly question, my little attitude and the not so great quality video it was taken with his phone, but I am so thankful the moment was captured!}

Think my dad is a little excited? ;)

We had a wonderful evening. We are so blessed to have such awesome and supportive families!
Our little baby girl is so loved already!

Tomorrow I will be "revealing" her name! 

20 Weeks

I'm about 21.5 weeks today,

but never did my 20 week update!

No major changes for week 20, but......

we are HALFWAY there!! 

Gender: GIRL!!! 

Total Weight Gained: 2 pounds

Sleep: A little better than the past 2 weeks- I do get really hot though and get up to pee at least once a night.

Maternity Clothes: Still LOVE. Wear mostly non-maternity shirts and dresses, but love my shorts and capris. 

Best Moment of the Week: Feeling her move around lots more! Still not enough for others to feel, but I know it's coming soon!

Food Cravings: Lots and lots of aversions, but my appetite is slowly coming back. Still loving sweet and sour things though! This week I was really in the mood for chocolate!

Aversions: Pretty much everything, but two major major aversions: 

 1. Steak  2. Wishbone Italian Dressing.     GAG!

Symptoms: Thankfully no major symptoms this week! Got sick a few times and had occasional heartburn, but that's about it.

Movement: Yes! Hoping for some bigger movements though, but these flutters are wonderful!

What I miss: Not feeling sick in the car, being able to slowly wake up/relax in bed until I am ready to get up, a good night sleep. But who cares- it's all SO worth it! 

What I'm looking forward to: Feeling some harder kicks and movement for others to feel!

Weekly Wisdom: Search daily for awesome finds on craigslist! I know I already mentioned this one, but I just bought another huge bag of baby girls clothes for the fall/winter season for just $35!! 

Milestones: Baby girl is halfway baked!! Hoping time continues to go by this fast!! 

Here's the thing...

Summer

 is

 too much

fun

to 

 find

time

to blog :)

4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend filled with family, fun and lots of sun!

We spent the weekend with Mr. B's parents at their lakehouse and we spent the actual 4th with my family. 

We started off Saturday morning modeling our newly made festive bandana/collar....

And a little play/action session....

Took a break, had breakfast and got ready for a day on the boat

The door on the boat broke and Roxie that it was custom made just for her

Mr. B went jet skiing

Then took Roxie for a "swim" in her new life jacket

{this is Roxie begging him to pick her up and Mr. B's face of pain as her nails kept scratching his chest}

She calmed down a little bit....

Right before a full force doggie paddle

We let her relax a little bit and then took her out on another adventure

A kayak ride!

I think she enjoyed it, she seemed to pretty content just floating around.

They looked so cute and peaceful until prego momma decided to join in on the fun...

It didn't quite look the same.

Here I am yelling at Mr. B that we are sinking, that Roxie and I are sitting in the water. 

He didn't believe me and I am partially thankful to have pictures to prove it, but also umm..

slightly embarrassed.

We were able to get a cute family shot after I realized this whole kayaking experiencing was nothing like what I had pictured in my head.

After a long day, filled with many new adventures Roxie cuddled up with Mr. B and his battle wounds.

{And next year I won't have to have a 4th of July post about my dog because we will have a little girl!! :) } 

Monday was really relaxing, we lounged around in the pool for most of the day, Mr. B read his book on the hammock 

And the girls wanted to have a little photo shoot..

{Olivia didn't know what to do with her hand, ha!}

Had to get a picture of the 3 amigos in their matching bandanas

And us girlies in with our matching headbands

Then we headed off to the fireworks

And Roxie wasn't phased one bit.

We love long weekends and time with family :)

And I think that's enough pictures to last me until next week...maybe next year.