my felt slippers

I made these. They turned out cuter than I expected. Go here for more info.

Keep

A blog friend wrote about these shoes last week. If I didn't have a problem with spending $35 on baby shoes I'd buy these for the baby (the one that needs to get out of my tummy asap!).

When I was a kid...

...we would make these trains out of candy bars every Christmas. I remember totally loving it. My mom is carrying on the tradition with the grandkids. I was glad to be there for it this year. Confession: I ate a lot of frosting :)

Neighbor Gifts

I was planning to make these cute hot chocolate packages for neighbor gifts but all I want to do right now is nothing.... or give birth.

Hello December

I can't believe it's already been a week since Thanksgiving. I hope yours was as delicious and fun as ours! It was fun hosting dinner at our house. We didn't have a huge crowd so everything was totally manageable and we ended up with a lot of leftovers!

Here's my low budget place card favor

Here's a shot of a few of our delicious desserts

And here's the awesome 14 layer Jello that I made -- sooo good!!

Can't Reach

I made Baxter a fleece vest for winter. I'm surprised that days later he's still wearing it - hasn't chewed it off. Also, I'm huge. I can barely reach the keyboard right now. Enjoy the pic cuz I really didn't want to post it :)

Psycho Texter

Today I attempted to text my sister in-law to get her address. This is how it went down:

me: "Can you tell me your address please?"
reply: "who the hell is this?"
me: "jeez! Sorry I must have the wrong number"
reply: "oh sorry not trying to be mean i just do that to a number that keeps messing with me who is this please"

I didn't respond. Then, the person who I will now refer to as Psycho Texter (PT) keeps texting.

PT: "I really am sorry may I ask who this is?"
me: "It's no problem"
PT: "I really am sorry"
me: (trying my best to get rid of him) "Really. Dont' worry about it"

Then my phone rings. Psycho Texter is calling me! Obviously I reject the call but soon panic because he surely heard my voicemail recording. Then here come the text messages again...

PT: "Now I feel bad may I call you"
me: "No" trying my best to end the convo. but wanting to say something more like "no you psycho! leave me alone!"
PT: "May I please call you though"
me: "why?" ... hello psycho!
PT: "Cuz i just would like to say hi I guess"
me: no reply
PT: "oh ok well my name is charles who were you lookin for"
me: no reply
PT: "I still feel bad though I really do"
me: no reply
PT: "Would i be able to make it up to you?"
me: no reply and sufficiently creeped out by now and give the phone number to the hubby so he can call the guy and get him off my back
PT: "#$&@ my first day in the US and I already pissed someone off i don't even know"
me: no reply

Brooks makes the phone call...

PT: "hello"
B: "Hi is this Charles?"
PT: "yes"
B: "charles, stop texting my wife"
PT: "I just feel bad because I cussed her out"
B: "It's fine. It was just a misunderstanding. Just stop texting her."
PT: "ok I just want to let her know I'm sorry"
B: "OK I will tell her. Don't text her again."

Seriously dude, using remorse as your tactic to make "friends" is not cool!

rita made

I finally somewhat stocked my etsy shop with purses. Go check it out. And if you're interested, I'll give free shipping to locals!

This one might be my favorite:

I'm Juno

Happy Halloween!

pink coat

This is likely the cutest coat I've ever seen. Dear Santa, I want. You can find it at J. Crew.

hello reality

Just bought this. For some reason buying the car seat is more of a reality check than having a big belly.

Hello Athens

We took one last trip before the baby comes. It was too awesome.

Here's Brooks and Jen having the most delicious cupcakes ever.
Brooks striking a pose.

Brooks and Leah chillin' at the tail gate party.
So much good food there! This is one of our fav places.My favorite store in the world honored by the name of my blog :)The campus is as beautiful as I remember it.
What's a trip to Athens without a Frosted O, (like an orange creamy in a cup) YUM!See more pics here.

Fall

Fall is here and I love it. To celebrate, I changed up my blog colors and header a bit. If you're using a reader or RSS click over to check it out and let me know what yout think. Happy Fall!

photo by me

Preggo Advice

I'm enjoying the pregnancy posts on Design Mom this week. I especially liked this one from Jenny the Bloggess:

Advice for women who are too pregnant to function anymore:

Inevitably your husband will come home to find you unable to move under the weight of this gigantic fetus you are carrying and will want to know why the house is a mess and dinner isn't made and then you'll want to stab him because this is all his fault but you don't have the energy to find a clean knife.And you'll want to explain how completely exhausting being pregnant is but men never understand so whenever Victor would say "How can you be tired? You hardly did anything today!" I'd respond, "I made someone's ear canals today. Inside my stomach. Without even using my hands. What did you do today? Paperwork? God, how exhausting. I MADE SOMEONE'S NERVOUS SYSTEM."Then my husband would walk away, suitably impressed. Or scared. Either way he left me alone. And this is how you have a successful marriage.

for babe

If you read my other blog, sorry for the duplicate posting. I'm just so excited to show you the finished top for my babe quilt (I wrote about here and here). What do you think? I pretty much love it.

Purses

I was never a purse girl growing up. In fact, in highschool I carried a boy wallet in my back pocket. Gross! I don't even think I used a purse in college. Why would I want to carry around a purse in addition to my backpack? I'm not sure when I made the transition (sometime after 2005) but now, I'm a purse lover all the way.

This green purse was one of my first big exciting purse purchases:

On a trip to Vegas earlier this year, I had to have this one:


And on our camping trip in Canada this summer, I drooled over this one:

I've always like this Coming and Going bag by That Darn Kat and I'm restraining myself from buying the pattern from her etsy shop. Isn't it just cute? I def need something more causal for my collection.

Day Job?

Friends, someday (sooner than later - I hope my boss isn't reading this) I will Quit My Day Job and become a full time Etsy seller. I'm telling you so you hold me accountable. I WILL DO IT! And I will sell purses and wallets something like these (of course with better photos):

$5 makes a big difference

500 Pencils

Saw this on Black*Eiffel. Totally wishing had enough money that spending $33/month (for 20 months) on colored pencils wasn't an eye-popping waste of disposable income. "Introducing 500 Colored Pencils: the only set in the world that matches the span and wonder of human creativity." I'm totally smitten with colors and names like:

Lettuce

Mermaid's Gown

Tea With Milk

Lobster Bisque

Not sure what I'd do with them all, but the thought of receiving a once-a-month package of perfectly sharpened colored pencils, with delightful names, in beautifully awesome hues, makes me happy.

Shabby Picks

There are at least 6 dresses from Shabby Apple that I must have! The Five to Nine, Ballerina, and of course the olive colored Jody Maxman. Now I'm really missing my pre-preggo body :(

Local Gems

My friend Liz and I recently visited two Salt Lake City gems! First, I stopped off at Frosty Darling, a boutique featuring retro-modern/vintage art, candy and gifts. I spotted great wall decor idea that inspired me to do something similar in our nursery. Aren't these great?

Next, we skipped around the corner to Gourmandise (bakery). I was absolutely smitten by the tarts with sparking fruit and the deliciously flaky looking pastries. It was lunch time so I ordered a simple cup of vegetable, beef, and barley soup with a wheat roll. It was delicious. I'm already planning my next visit where I hope to be able to try one of each item in their display case. Seriously.

Jing.

Could I possibly be more nerdy? I'm totally loving Jing. Yesterday, I used it to give feedback on a webdesign project for work. Today I used it to show a friend how to locate something on a Facebook page. Now, I'm blogging about it. Again I ask, could I be more nerdy?

For the Floor

When we get around to re-re-painting our master bathroom, I want to put one of these rugs in front of each sink. This time it will be grey/slate walls with white trim. Last time we thought grey with a light hint of lavender would be nice to try, turns out, it was all lavender and the most springy looking pastel purple I've ever seen. Lesson learned.

To Tears

I was just catching up on Nie Nie's blog and recovery and cried my eyes out reading this post, laughed reading this post, and thanked God for my health reading this post.

photo via

Fine.

I wasn't going to do this, but here you go. I surrender.

20 weeks

I Tri.

Actually, Brooks does. On Saturday he did his first sprint triathlon! I have a great time spectating and taking photos. Here are some highlights:

That's him in the yellow shorts. Just finishing the running portion. If you're experienced with triathlons you'll notice they did this one backwards.

Look how photogenic he looks as he speeds by on his sweet road bike.

My super duper camera skills captured his splash as he jumped into the pool for the swimming leg!

And the classing post-race pose with the bike.

summer vacay

We went on a camping trip for 6 days. It was fantastic, to say the least. Here's why:


See more pics here. Guess who isn't looking forward to normal life starting tomorrow (Monday)...