Big News

So basically that's why I've been MIA lately.  I was about 10 weeks along at the beginning of December and I thought I was going to make it through my first trimester without any symptoms, but then I just got slammed with nausea, heartburn, and exhaustion.  Anything that wasn't essential to daily life went out the window.  No Christmas tree, no advent calendar with cutesy activities, no baking (definitely no baking), and no decorating or household projects.  Thank goodness Little Man is not even two yet and won't remember the Christmas that Mommy ruined!

I'm still experiencing some sluggishness and food aversions, but now that I'm 14 weeks, I think I can feel them starting to go away and I'm ready to get back into the swing of things! 

How did some of you mamas deal with pregnancy, a small child, and everyday life?  Also, any tips on having an infant and a toddler would be welcome.  I'm so thankful and very excited, but I am kind of nervous about learning how to take care of a newborn and a toddler at the same time.  I'd love to hear what you have to say!

I'll Be Right Back!

via jackandlulu.com

Please excuse my terrible blogging etiquette of just takin' a little break with zero explanation whatsoever.  I've got a really good reason and I'll do some explaining when I start posting again next week.  Until then,  hope y'all had some great holidays you've had a great start to 2012!

Bah Humbug

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I'm being a bit of a Scrooge this year.  I still haven't put our tree up, I haven't made our Christmas cards, my advent calendar is no where near finished, and while I'm done shopping, I'm dreading the wrapping and making a trip to the post office.

I think I spent so much time cleaning and getting organized that I just don't want to make a mess...and Christmas decorations and wrapping paper make a mess!

I'll be spending the rest of today getting over it and getting stuff done!

Have a great Wednesday!

Dead Ringer: HDC Brookefield Table Lamp & JCP Linden Street Balustrade

I love the look of balustrade lamps.  So timeless!

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This one is from HDC and it's $129.

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This one is from JCP and it's $59!

Check out some other high-end versions of this lamp:

1.  Ballard Designs: $219
2.  Layla Grayce:  $196
3.  Anthropologie: $268
4.  Pottery Barn:  $200


Have a great Monday!

A Little Break To Do a Little Celebrating

We've had a lot going on here for the past seven days, so I decided to take a little break.  My husband's family came into town, we had our 5th wedding anniversary, we completed round one of Christmas, and my husband turned the big 3-0!  Little Man and I had cupcakes waiting on him when he got home!

I've been catching my breath for the past day or so and everything is slowly getting back to normal. 

I'll be back on Monday with a regular post!  Y'all have a good weekend!

DIY Mercury Glass....Kind Of....

I'm a bit late with this, but here's my little ornament tutorial that's hardly a tutorial!

Ok, so I started working on ornaments for my advent calendar.  I had planned to try and do some DIY mercury glass based on this little tutorial by Martha.  Well, my "plan" was really just an idea and I hadn't really looked into the cost of that Krylon mirror spray paint or the places that it was available.  Turns out, most people have to get it from Amazon and it's about $11 a can...and it's a small can.  (Some people have been able to find it at Wal-Mart and I've read that it's available at Hobby Lobby, but we don't have one of those).

I had some liquid silver leaf laying around, so I decided that instead of paying $11 and waiting a few days for the mirror paint to get to me (I'm impatient!), I'd try out the liquid leaf to see what happened.  I followed the steps laid out by Martha and put a little water into my clear glass ornament, swished it around, and got all the excess out.  Then I basically did the same thing with the liquid leaf.  I let it sit upside down for a while to get all the drips out and then I just turned it over to let it dry.

The result is definitely not as shiny as the mirror paint, it's more of a gunmetal color, but I kind of like it.  I also have some gold liquid leaf, but the lid had dried to the bottle (dangit!).  Maybe my husband can get it off.  I'm curious to see what the gold looks like.

I might still order a can of the mirror paint just to have on hand 'cause it's so cool, but the liquid leaf is not a bad alternative, plus it's only about $5.  I bet a combination of the two would look great. 

Hope y'all are having a great Friday!

I'll be linking up to:

Advent Inspiration

Can you believe tomorrow is December 1st!?  I'd planned to have a complete, home-made advent calendar by well...tomorrow, but I haven't even started yet.  I've actually had the plan for my calendar in my head since last Christmas.  I have the ornaments, I just need to buy a few more things and get going.  I really want my calendar to be a special tradition for my little man, and since he's still pretty young I think it's OK that we won't really be able to use it this year, but I'd hate for next Christmas to roll around and still not have a calendar.  I think I'm going to work on the ornaments little by little over the next few weeks to get all 25 done.  Hopefully I'll have a little ornament tutorial by tomorrow.

Since I don't have my own calendar yet, I figured I'd post some that I think are pretty inspiring. 

1.  Don't you love those little mittens?!
2.  I like the idea of having a separate little tree for advent ornaments.
3.  Love advent action cards that encourage children to do things for others.
4.  So pretty!
5.  Genius!  Little magnetic containers that you could put on any magnetic board or even on the refrigerator. 

Have a great Wednesday!

Ornament Wreath

There are about a bajillion different versions of the ornament wreath out there in the blog world (I believe it all started here).  I actually made the one below two years ago.  I used a live wreath from Costco, which dried out and died, but I kept the ornaments strung on the floral wire, so all I have to do is go out and buy a wreath for this year.  I  didn't have time to go get one yesterday, but as soon as I snatch one up, my front door will be nice and decorated.  I figured a post about my old wreath (which will soon be my current wreath) would be better than a post that included pictures of my Christmas decorations all over my living room floor, yes?

OK, so here's the process:  first, I took off the metal tops of the ornaments and hot glued them back to the glass balls.  Apparently if you don't do this they'll just pop off.  Then I just strung the ornaments onto floral wire.  (Other versions use a coat hanger, but trying to bend a coat hanger into a circle didn't sound like fun to me.)

Once the ornaments were on the wire, I just had to spread them out onto the wreath.



I used more floral wire to attach the ornaments to the wreath.  I think I had to secure it in about ten different places before I could pick up the wreath and not have sagging ornaments.

So easy!  And since I'm trying to spend as little money as possible, especially on Christmas decorations which will just come down in a few weeks, it's nice to not have to go out and buy new supplies.  I can just reuse the string of ornaments I already have.

I'll be linking up to:

Who's Finished Decorating for Christmas?!

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Not me!  Not even close....haven't even started.  Those beautiful ornaments above are from BH&G.  My ornaments are still packed away in boxes.

I'm usually done decorating by now, but we've had more important things to do around here.  More cleaning, more organizing, and taking care of a sick toddler. 

I'm going to get started today, so maybe I'll have something festive to show off tomorrow.

Hope every one had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Break

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I'm taking an impromptu, early Thanksgiving break!  We had such a busy weekend that I didn't get all of my cleaning and organizing done.  The time is running out to get it finished, so the boring chores are going to the top of my priority list and the fun little projects and posts are going to the bottom.  I may be able to squeeze a quick post in sometime this week, but just in case I can't, have a relaxing Thanksgiving!