Cape Crusading

Remember when I used to care about clothes and fashion and had some sense of personal style? Yeah, it's a distant memory- I know. These days my idea of looking put together translates to actually strapping a bra on my giant old lady jugs- but there are still a few fall items out there that have me excited for the prospect of having a waist again (even if my jugs will still be completely ridiculous).

At the top of my wish list is the cape. It's basically winter's answer to the kimono and the perfect solution to keeping cozy and looking presentable with a post-child birth muffin top. Here are a few, some in my budget, others- not so much- that I've got my eye on:

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10

"Some Sort of Spooky Ballerina Wreath..."

This was how my husband described the fruits of my crafting labors this weekend. While I did not get down and dirty with the Ikea Erslev rug as planned (note to self: when 8 months pregnant do not plan on accomplishing anything after a trip to Ikea- the trip was an accomplishment in and of itself), I did however, squeeze in some minor crafting during a few catch-up episodes of Project Runway on Saturday night. It started with an embroidery hoop and some black tulle:

After two hours of cutting and tying knots, it looked like this the following morning:

And after a trip to the craft store for some finishing touches from the 50% off Halloween bin....

Voila! You have yourself "some sort of spooky ballerina wreath thingy." Don't worry, he followed that up with a heartfelt, "It's nice."

And, lest you think I am terribly creative, I cannot claim this fun idea as my own. I came across a similar tutorial on Pinterest- which, by the way, is becoming a serious problem for me. If you're not already pinning- let me know and I'll send you an invite- if you are- you can check out all of my pins under the user name hautemama (obvs).

On a Sunday Crafternoon

We've got big plans for this weekend- if all goes as scheduled, closets will be migrated, old baby clothes will be sorted, and a bunkbed will be acquired, built, and if the hubster truly loves me, painted. While we are at Ikea acquiring said bunkbed, I plan on snagging up one of these white flat woven rugs and getting my DIY on with some painters tape and some fabric paint- in the hopes of replicating this rug featured in my nursery idea board:

I've come across a whole slew of ikea rug hacks on the interwebs lately that have me believing I can totally handle this. See for yourselves:

From here. A little more impressive than the stripes- but I know my limits.  

 

And more impressive still. From here.

Totally doable. From here.

here's to a productive weekend!

This is it.

Bear with me, because I'm about to get a little introspective here. Also, please keep in mind that although I have sacrificed my mindless Bravo viewing to jot down this mental diarrhea, I by no means expect you to do the same just to keep reading this, so if you're not in the mood, then skip to the next post, or go watch Housewives. If you happen to hang in there, well then, thanks for listening...here we go.

I was raised to believe, as I think so many young men and, more particularly, women are, that if you dream big and work hard and are kind to others, good things will come to you. Though not completely delusive, it's apparent to me now that this adage fails to mention perhaps what may be the most essential part of the equation in this tidy formula for achievement. I like to think that I've met all of the criteria above, and please, by all means, do not think for even one moment that my forthcoming pity party is in any way indicative of me being oblivious to the fact that so many wonderful things have come my way in life, because I lay in bed and thank whoever is listening out there for my countless blessings every single night.

With that said, I still find myself at thirty-something years old, struggling a bit to make ends meet and wondering to myself, "How can this be?" I did everything I was supposed to do. I worked hard in school and graduated with honors, and I've always done my best to prove I'm a valuable asset at work. But here I am, spending the day away from my kids in some ugly grey cubicle for a mediocre salary at a mediocre job, just waiting for someone to walk on over and give me a pat on the back and tell me how they just can't wait to give me that raise and promotion I so totally deserve. Just writing that out makes me so painfully aware of the fact that it sounds completely and totally pathetic and ridiculous. Really, I've known this all along, but still, there's this polite little girl inside of me- just minding my manners and waiting my turn.

So, I guess that's the other half of the equation- STOP waiting your turn. Work for what you want and then TAKE it. I know that I can't get what I want unless I ask for it, but there is something inherent in me, some timid little girl who was raised to look pretty and make people happy that finds voicing my needs to be completely and totally terrifying. I find myself imagining the discomfort I cause others with my various imaginary, but admittedly reasonable requests, when, in all honesty, the worst case scenario would just end in them saying "no" and everyone just moving on with their lives. I've always lived in fear of confrontation, and I am finally just getting so very sick and tired of it. This may be due in larger part to my personality, but I do believe that gender plays a somewhat significant role in this boat-rocking phobia. I could take this opportunity to bore you all with rhetoric from my inter-personal communication studies and tell you that women are raised to connect while men are raised to compete and blah blah blah, but still, I've met so many courageous women in my day who don't let their need to connect interfere with obtaining their personal and professional needs.

And so, it is with great reluctance that I admit- it's me- I am the only person standing in the way of getting what I need and I've decided that it's time for me to make a change.

So, for those of you who stuck around, thanks again for listening to what is admittedly a very obvious revelation on my part. I guess I thought putting it in writing would make me a little more accountable for my actions

Oh yeah- and encouraging words would be helpful here, because I'm just about eight months pregnant and that doesn't give me a whole lot of time to become superwoman before somebody's sucking on my boobs all day.

Happy Thursday People, let's make things happen.

Nesting....sort of.

I'm a few weeks into my third trimester, and the closest thing to nesting that I've done was vaccum up some dead flies from the windowsill in Hudson's room, which will eventually be the nursery. So, I've decided that, rather than wait for some instincts that may never kick-in because it's the third time around and my body is still wondering what I was thinking, I'll just have to force myself to get started with some preparations for my little man, one daunting organizational project at a time.

First up, the nursery. We are on a major budget here, so my dreams of whale wallpaper have been kind of dashed, since apparently you need to be Midas or Olivia Palermo or something to buy wallpaper these days. This means, I'm making the best of what we currently have going. We gave away our last crib, so we'll invest in something simple and white (not the midcentury beauty I have pictured below, but it just made it look so much prettier), and I'm hoping to sell our current nursery bedding and rug and buy something relatively affordable with my earnings. We have a really nice slip-covered rocker, but it's red, and I'd like to make the switch to navy- so if anyone has any tips on dying from one bold color to another- please, please, send my way. Anyways, rather than bore you, here's a sneak peek of what I have in mind:

DwellStudio Bedding | Skyline Boudoir Pillow at Polka Dot Peacock

DwellStudio Furniture Century Crib French White

Rolling Storage Carts | Serena & Lily

Havana Stool | Serena & Lily

Raw Wood Carved Side Table | west elm

Ikea Barometer

Draper Stripe Rug in Persimmon and Cream by DwellStudio

Harmony Adult Navy Blue Maybury Glider - Babies "R" Us

 Rich Navy Interior Paint -GLB25 D8 at The Home Depot

Behr Premium Plus 8 Oz. Light French Gray Interior/Exterior Paint...

Sharon Montrose Photographs

Annie Selke Links Fabric Roman Shade with Black out lining

Decoylab - Bamboo Collection

You like?

For those of you looking for more nursery inspiration, hop on over to Lay Baby Lay, where delightful nurseries are being dreamed up daily by this very talented blogger. Today's nursery has a nautical theme, which, as you may remember, was my initial plan, so I find looking at it to be both extremely pleasing and painful at the same time: 

And don't even get me started on her girly nurseries. Just go see for yourself!

fit to be tied.

I'm thinking about making them wear bow ties every day now. 

If you are looking to snaz up your little man, the bow ties above, courtesy of our Auntie Molly, are from Etsy seller JBKids, but Etsy has a virtual smorgasborg of ties for little cuties for you to peruse. 

If you're looking to get your bigger babies (a.k.a. men) into a bow tie, check out the selection at Forage. 

So very fun. 

Be Married.

I know you all have already seen pics of the bridal shower that I threw a few weeks back, but these ones are just so much prettier that I had to share! My very favorite photographer, the lovely Lindsey, paid a visit to my house that morning and captured my set-up along with a few pictures of the stunning bride-to-be, Miss Molly (isn't she pretty!?). This girl works some serious magic with her lens:

  Check out more pics here. 

p.s. Just got back from Molly and John's wedding in Sonoma - pics of the big day to come!

Do it up!

I'm currently tolerating a very transitional and super-boring hair-do, or lack there-of. I typically like to keep my  hair on the shorter side because it forces me to blow-dry my ridiculously coarse horse's mane into something more presentable, but also probably just because I'm old now, and old people have short hair.

I do, however, allow myself a little leeway in the hair department when I'm dealing with infants because pony-tails are a new mother's best friends. However,my recent discovery of the blog Keiko Lynn has me realizing that my up-do's won't necessarily have to be of the I'm-just-getting-it-out-of-my-face-because-it-has-spit-up-in-it variety:

Check out Keiko's fun and seemingly easy hair and make-up tutorials here!

Little Shop of Horrors

 If, like me, you're raising an inquisitive and lovable little nerd, or just happen to be a lovable, inquisitive nerd yourself- then this post is for you. As I've mentioned in the past, Mr. Max's interests tend to gravitate towards the unusual and scientific, and lately he's been all about carnivorous plants. So, when he spotted an article in Martha about a nursery called California Carnivores in Sebastapol, the promise of a trip across the bay to survey the selection of Venus Fly traps and Bladder Worts had him almost as excited as if it were Disneyland.

The drive out to Marin County was scenic, and when we arrived at the nursery itself, my little man was in heaven perusing the goods. In addition to the surprisingly beautiful plants, there were some kitschy props that added to the silly, albeit slightly run-down, charm of the nursery. So, if you're looking for a nerd outing in the bay- this is a quick and easy spot. Unfortunately, I would have loved to enjoy all that the surrounding areas have to offer (including a trip to the nearby Petaluma outlets), but we started to notice (which you may spot in the pics as well) that our little Huddy had some strange swelling in his usually skinny little neck and chin. After a call to the advice nurse, we headed straight for the nearby San Rafael Kaiser. Turns out it was likely just a strange reaction to a bug bite (not a developing goiter, or a rogue case of the mumps as I was fearing) but it has me feeling particularly grateful that my little lovebugs, whether they be nerdy or spastic, are in good health.

p.s.- if you want to introduce your little peoples into the world of carnivorous plants, our beloved , now ex :( , nanny snagged them this great books at the Library from the "Early Birds Nature Books" collection. Happy Reading!