Still Prego.

So far we do not have a winner for the Baby Bowl. The hubs and I have both been out smarter by our son so far. Both of our guess dates have been surpassed.

I haven't put up a belly picture in a few so I thought I would share some taken by my friend, Alyson. Here we are at 36/7 weeks.

Here is hoping for tomorrow!

Baby Bowl.

Hello all!

I haven't been very good at collecting baby bowl estimates. So I have extended the guessing period until this Wednesday. If you would like to still participate please send my your date and time.

Here is what I have so far:

35 Weeks.

This week I took my friend, Alyson, to my favorite beach on the island. Bellows AFB has the white sand with palm trees near the shoreline. For some reason the water here is a beautiful turquoise. Of course by the time we took my picture the clouds came in. It is still hard to complain about cruddy weather when you are in Hawaii.

Gliding.

A few months ago I bought a glider and ottoman off Craigslist for $50, which was a great deal because similar new models of the same chair cost between $500 and $600. The only issue with it was cosmetic. The chair had been loved and well used. There were coffee stains and some others that comes from rocking babies to sleep. Also, it was a pretty ugly soft beige color.

 This picture is very flattering considering the true condition of the fabric. 

I decided I wanted to make the chair pop. That's actually when I started thinking about nursery colors. I went with a chartreuse and navy blue. I found the lovely damask fabric online. I spend just $30 on all the fabric.

Honestly the chair and fabric sat for weeks as I procrastinated on the project. Realizing I was running out of time I knew I had to get on it. Helping to take on the challenge, my dear friend, Caitlin stepped up to the plate. And in one weekend we got the chair ready to glide in style.

 The arms had batting we reused and extra padding sew into the fabric. 

We started with tearing seams of the cushions to make our pattern. We also spruced up the design a little by adding cording, which we custom made. We had to do a lot of work on the fly and be flexible. We also had to figure out how to re-sew some of the cushions without industrial strength machinery.

I guess the manufacturer protects cushions by wrapping them in plastic. 

Since this is for a baby's room, we kept the protective plastic! 

One of the hardest challenges was learning how to attach heavy duty snaps. Turns out its the one thing you can't find a video for online! We finally figured it out by the basic photos on the box and a video about leather work, ha!

We only had to re-cut once and broke just one needle. We did end up making a few extra trips to the fabric store for the right tools or more supplies. Overall I think we did a great job. I consider this a magnificent success! 

Now my chair proudly sits and it ready for anyone to take it for a test drive. You just need to maneuver around all the other baby stuff that stills needs organizing!

In the end I think I spent about $100 to $120 on my remodeling project.

What do you think?

34 Weeks

There are only 6 weeks left until the Nugget's due date and I can't believe it. It really is time to get my preparations in high gear. Including a massive shopping trip Target! I can't really complain about that!

For now, here is my newest belly shot. Enjoy.

33 Weeks

 Here is my belly update! This weekend was a great opportunity to catch some rays and hang out with some girlfriends down in Waikiki.

 

After our day in the sun we decided to tackle the travel system. I was afraid that there were going to be several pieces and way too many bolts. Turns out the Baby Trend makes it simple and we got the stroller in working shape. Then we took it for a test run and we sure picked a winner. A jogging stroller is definitely the way to go. 

 

Hey Diddle Diddle! My Baby Shower.

Well the girls blew this one out of the park. I can't begin to tell you how special I felt this past Sunday during the shower. I have met some truly wonderful people here in Hawaii. I am thankful to have these girls in my life.

The shower was held at A Cup of Tea, a tea room in Kailua where we enjoyed a lovely tea. I'm always up for a tasty tea! We started the shower by decorating onesies. I think everyone have some fun with this. I mean I think it has been awhile for all of us since we last used puffy paint. Which made us all talk about our first concerts and making tee-shirts for them.

Actually before we decorated onesies. Gea passed out clothes pins to everyone for the secret word game. We all were banned from saying baby. If you did say it and someone caught you, they took your pin. Adrienne had the majority of the pins before we finished with the onesies! I was able to steal one and was up two then I lost it again to Adrienne.

Next we played the Price is Right, baby edition. We had to guess the price of some typical baby items... we were all over the place with this! I guess no of us really have a feel for the cost of baby supplies. I actually won this one, but I have been a in the baby aisle recently.

Then my friends guessed how big my belly was. I thought this was quite entertaining. They were each given a piece of ribbon and had to cut it down to the size they thought it was. I measured before hand to give an idea of how much ribbon each girl should be given. So I'm now at 39in and I still have several weeks to go! Justine was the lucky winner here. There were these really neat gift baskets for the winners. Each had a nursery rhyme attached and the items went along with the story.

Next we did the gift portion which is always fun! I got so much good stuff. Including lots of clothes! I definitely don't need any clothes for the nugget for his first 6 months! I also got some swaddling blankets and burp cloths, a baby monitor, lots of little things and some gift cards! Oh and most importantly we received books! I'll have to take a picture of my baby book shelf sometime to show you all of the good ones. Classics like Green Eggs and Ham, Are You My Mother, One Fish..., Goodnight moon, The Stinky Cheese Man, The Giving Tree and several others were included! We got a few books with a bunch of nursery rhymes which I need to brush up on.

Speaking of nursery rhymes, we played a name that rhyme game where we were given a line and we had to guess the title. I did horribly! I only got 4 out of about 17 right. So I better start reading!

Last, but definitely not least we had cake! Caitlin made this awesome blue velvet cake. We was shaped like a book with a rhyme written in it. Humpty Dumpy was there on his "brick wall" and so was the Mother Goose. It was so delicious!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all those involved in the shower. I had an amazing time and I am so grateful to have you in my life. You truly made me feel like the most special lady that day.

 

Aren't my friends all pretty?!?!?!

Photos by Alyson Nowery. Thanks Alyson! 

 

32 Weeks.

My 32 week picture taken after a baby shower this weekend. I will write more about it later, but I must say I don't know what I did to deserve such great friends, but I'm glad I did it! I'm a lucky girl.

Here is my belly at 39inches, up from my usual 26/7 inch waist!

31 Weeks

Here is my picture of the nugget and me at 31 weeks. I can't believe we are down to the single digit weeks left. For those of you who don't know I'm counting to 40. I didn't really know that before we decided to have a baby.

Oh and he is now the size of a pineapple!

Easter Egg Garland.

A few weeks ago I saw these neat egg garlands on Pinterest. If you don't know about this website, you should. Although beware it can be addicting, but oh-so-inspirational. So I decided to take on these home made eggs.

First you need some supplies.

• Water Balloons and Strong Lungs
• Embroidery Thread (I used pastels for the Easter theme)
• Liquid Starch (store bought or homemade, recipe below)
• Flour
• Newspaper

First you need to blow up several water balloons. This is much harder then it sounds, I was quite surprised! Put these to the side and make sure your cat doesn't think the balloons are fun!

 

Friday was moving too fast for me to get a good one. Luckily she didn't pop any. 

Next you need to make your starch mixture. I made my liquid starch from scratch. To do this you need corn starch and hot water. Mix about 1 tablespoon with 1 1/2 cups hot (almost boiling) water. Mix the corn starch into the water until completely dissolved and starting to thicken. About 1 to 2 minutes. Then add about 1/2 cup flour to the mixture to thicken even more. LET COOL! opps on my part!

Next you dip the embroidery thread into the mixture. As you pull the thread out squeeze excess liquid and wrap thread around the balloon. I think it looks best if you do this at random. Be patient! Your thread will probably tangle from time to time. You will also get the liquid starch mixture everywhere so put down newspaper. You're hands will also get sticky, so rinse your hands often; it causes less frustration.

 

 

I will warn you that this project takes longer then originally thought. I think from start to finish it took me close to 3 hours to make the mixture and set the eggs to dry. I did about 20 eggs. Also, if balloons pop or deflate before the starch mixture dries you will loose those eggs, so do extra!

 

Some that didn't make it. 

After the eggs have dried over night pop the balloons; if necessary. Mine were all flat by the next day. Knock out any extra residue from the starch mixture.

Finally place at random in containers or make a garland.

Happy Good Friday!