Goodbye weekend, hello date night.

With Hunter's new job starting Monday (woo!) we will have to adjust to no shared weekends for awhile. For the past year we've both had to work real weekends but we got to hang out on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Now Hunter will enjoy real weekends without me for about 2 1/2 more months!

So yesterday we celebrated our last Wednesday together. First lunch... and ice cream of course :)



Then we did some shopping. On the way we spotted the Oscar Meyer weiner mobile... which I totally missed when I tried to take a picture.


Ha! Good thing I got a perfect shot of the red truck right in front of it!

My sweet sweet brother got me a gift card to use for new maternity clothes so we shopped for a cute date night dress. (PS All my brothers are sweet but this time I was talking about Tyler.) I was really touched by his thoughtfulness. I can't get excited about spending money on clothes I can only wear for about 2 months but it was so great to get to pick out something I can feel really pretty in! Thanks again Ty :)



By the way, strangers are great when you're pregnant! Every time I came out of the dressing room in a new dress all the people waiting in line (and even the girls folding the clothes) had all kinds of sweet comments... Even if the dress was super ugly and looked like I was wearing a big tent. So funny.

Next up Gap. Hunter had a gift card from Christmas and really needed jeans. As luck would have it, Cherry Creek mall also has a Baby Gap attached. This was a little piece of our convo...

A: Let's just go look for ONE minute.
H: Ok fine ONE minute.
A: Ah! Look, a baby bikini! With ruffles!
H: Really Ash? When does she need a bikini? Don't you hide babies from the sun?
A: Yeah but just look at it, you'll die!
H: Yeah... that's pretty cute :)


Dad decided on the more modest but equally as precious sundress instead. I LOVE this!

Finally we ended the evening with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory thanks to another Christmas gift card. Here's Hunter posing with his fish and chips.

My Asian Salad masterpiece.


And finally the fabulous Kahlua cheesecake! Thousands of unreasonable calories... but delicious.

Best date day ever. We made a pact to keep having hot date nights when baby girl gets here :)

Some progress.

So our house is a giant work in progress at the moment but I'm very excited about the parts that are done so far :)

Here is a nice shot of our bedroom right before we moved in. Ah! This was on the top of my emergency projects list. I mean how can we get any sleep in there? SO not restful! (A long way from these dreams.)



Sweet Hunter primed it for me (the primer is definitely toxic and not recommended for preggos). And here is a lovely shot of our closet and the primed red walls. Just keepin' it real. I honestly don't know how we lived like this for as long as we did.



Now a little taste of "after" for ya. It still has a ways to go but I LOVE the paint color. It's a little less bright in real life. Very deep and relaxing. It's nice and beachy with the green and grey too. Our own little California :) I'll update again when the pictures are hung and the new bedding is purchased!



And here is a preview of the living room as well.



Can we just take a minute to talk about that peach/cream sponge paint? I mean it took me straight back to my late 80s childhood when my mom and Jana's houses were both nice and peachy/dusty blue with goose wallpaper. I mean honestly, can I get some hanging wooden hearts? I'm almost finished painting but the room as a whole still has a ways to go. Here is a teaser with the color.



It's all grey now and just patiently awaiting a 2nd coat/touch ups. There is a fabulous window seat area that's begging for a bench like this one. It kind of needs to be custom made to fit perfectly though... Anyone interested in building this for me? My husband is a lot of wonderful things but a carpenter he is not.

So that's the big stuff. I'll have pictures of the finished kitchen cabinets SOON! They just need to be tightened (yeah power drill!) and touched up on the edges. I did score a $35 pantry cabinet that is perfect though! I think I'm falling in love with my teeny tiny little kitchen :)

Husband of the Year

And the Husband of the Year award goes to..........

Mine of course. I know, you're shocked right? I just wanted to take a quick moment to brag him up.

#1 Hunter got a new job!!!!!! Woo! This one is a big Praise Jesus too by the way :) We have been praying for awhile about a new job for him so that I don't have to go back to working after this sweet bundle of joy arrives. But we also want him to be able to continue going to school to be the best science teacher EVER. So there ya have it. US Bank strongly encouraged him to "continue continuing his education as he works for them as a stud muffin Personal Banker". (Ok just kidding on the quotes I probably did a little paraphrasing but that's definitely the idea.) I'm just super excited and proud of him! <3

#2 He bought us a new car!!!! Well a new to us car... which compared to this lovely we've been sporting for the past 3 years may as well be a cadillac. Or, you know, whatever really sweet cars you're into. We reconfirmed through this process that not only am I completely uninterested and unimpressed by cars, I know basically nothing about them. Not even which ones are cool really. The only ones I ever notice are VW vans, which I'm completely obsessed with. See what I mean? Luckily I married the Husband of the Year who research, scanned for months, practiced bargaining (he's not a fan), and found us the perfect car right exactly within our budget. It's even paid for up front. Another reason I love him... I am neither patient or disciplined enough to save up that much on my own.

#3 He's just really fun & oh so sweet. He makes up songs on his dobro and plays for his baby girl while I dance around like a crazy to try and wake her up so he can feel her kick :) He also points out every budding tree while we cruise around town in our sexy new ride, because it's spring and budding trees are lovely but mostly just because he knows how happy it makes me when I see them! He also daydreams with me for hours about our new daughter... and the possibility of a new puppy. (I know, probably not the best time but does anyone know HOW cute a baby french bulldog is? Plus Milo probably needs a buddy since mostly all of our love and affection will be directed at our new daughter.) Anyway, it's just daydreaming for now. I think I've mentioned before that Hunter tends to be more reasonable than me and is probably just indulging me. Then again he really loves puppies. We'll see what happens.

Ok that was a long Ode to Hunter. It's ok if no one else read it all. I'm just feeling really extra in love today (& extra emotional always) and wanted to go on and on. And what are blogs for huh?

Oh by the way we went in for the 28 week checkup yesterday and baby girl Greeno is doing great! She's the right size, has a healthy heartbeat and a beautiful little nose. She didn't let us see much of her face, but we already know she's beautiful, so no biggie. Can't wait to meet her!

Oh hello there elastic waist.

A week ago I was getting dressed for work and I put on my cute white button up shirt.... And just about busted it. No lie. The buttons were stretching to the max and I swear that poor shirt was begging for mercy. So I said "Hunter, does this look ok?" and he said "fat guy in a liiiiiiiitle cooooaaat". Kidding. He would never. But I guarantee he was thinking it :) Anyway, the moral of the story is I broke down and put on some maternity clothes. I made it 6 whole months but there's just no more fighting it. My friend Amy had her baby last October and gave me a huge box full of maternity clothes which is a HUGE blessing! So I dug in this week. I have been mourning my cute jeans and fitted tees but I'm also much more comfortable. And frumpy it feels like- but I'll deal. When your waist line meets your bra it's just nearly impossible to feel cute. But what can you do? 3 more months and it will all be worth it :) I actually prefer this angle but Hunter made me do a redo for a more realistic picture.

How do you mend a broken heart?

And by heart I actually mean a SUPER cute new kitchen light.



So this is the original kitchen light. Blah right?



I wasn't exactly in the market for a new one or anything. I've got plenty of projects going on currently and my craigslist search list has already reached a max. But then I found this beauty last Saturday at the ARC.



Lovely isn't she? And marked at only $3... plus it was a Saturday so EVERYTHING was half off. That's right, I snagged her for $1.50! I can hardly walk away from anything milk glass (it may or may not be turning into a small problem, depending on whoe you talk to) but something so cool AND cheap!? Amazing!



So I brought her home, painted the connecting rim to match the aqua, and stepped back to admire my handiwork... Despite several warnings from Hunter that it wasn't sturdy and I shouldn't leave it without reinforcing.



And then I learned my lesson the hard way.



Such a sad sad story. I'm sorry to be a downer, but I at least wanted to share a picture of the fabulous potential. I'm still grieving and sharing has given me some closure. I mean, I couldn't even cuss (the baby is listening)! I did, however, shed a few tears. We'll chalk those up to pregnancy hormones not the fact that I was weirdly in love with this light. I'll leave you with a shot of the old light with the new paint. Still an improvement I suppose.



I'll try to be back soon with something more uplifting. Friday is paint the cabinets white day! The landlord approved. Hurray!!

Master Bedroom Moodboard

I learned how to make a moodboard!! I'm so excited! Young House Love has a ton of great inspiration moodboards but with our bedroom I had a couple pieces that I was basically planning the room around so I really wanted to make my own. So they directed me to mydeco.com and I'm definitely hooked.

So remember my green chair from way back here? Well it no longer goes with the direction I'm taking the living room but I still love it. So it will be finding a new home in our room along with a great round mirror that I got on craigslist last year to go above our mantle.


I've already started painting with Olympic's ZERO VOC paint in a gorgeous shade of Crater Lake and I grabbed these white curtains at Target yesterday for $27/pair. Not bad! I think I'll have a paint party tomorrow and for now I'll just keep daydreaming about this fabulous West Elm duvet cover... and eating Jr. Mints. The baby loves them.

Before/After(ish)

That was just my attention grabber today. I've been getting harassed about posting pictures of my hot bod so there ya have it. Moving on to the fun stuff!

I LOVE a good before/after. I mean who doesn't? I'm not a huge tv watcher but my favorite is the last 5 minutes of a home makeover show or even just a good old fashioned makeover... Not to mention The Biggest Loser Finale! Anyway, I have some doozy before pictures of our new place :) It came with some cray-zy paint jobs. Since it's just a rental we can't do any major overhauls but paint was a definite MUST. So without any further ado, our kitchen before:




Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures before the maintenance guy primed it but you would have loved the neon green! And now for the after(ish). I apologize it's not as dramatic without the full effect but we'll call this phase 1.



I'm fairly obsessed with AQUA everything and I used the best gift ever as an inspiration color for my new kitchen. It's an extremely small kitchen so I decided I had the right to go bold with the color. Sweet Bekah helped me paint the whole thing and is coming back for more next Friday. What a great friend! The cabinets are going white in round 2 and hopefully very soon we'll have some new cabinet additions on the other side (so I'll wait on those pictures).

Finally, one more of the baby belly. It's really lovely I know. Hunter got me at work in my paintin' clothes. I don't exactly have any maternity sized old paint t-shirts lying around... so as you can see this one's working pretty hard :) This is in the living room, but that's for another day.



*I must note that Hunter didn't want me posting this picture for fear he would be judged as a bad husband for letting his pregnant wife paint. Not to worry folks. I did my homework and painted with every window and door wide open. Not to mention I took frequent breaks and used Olympic's no VOC/ low fume paint. It doesn't even smell like paint in here people. I swear! Painting is extremely therapeutic and rewarding to me and I'm very glad it was safe for me to tackle and one less thing to have to pass over to hubby :)

o.o.c.

That's me this month. Between moving, traveling, sickness and this bigger-by-the-day belly I've definitely been Out Of Commission. Bleh! Not to mention I have a new bedtime of 9 pm and we don't have internet at our new house yet. How's a girl supposed to blog?!

And when was anyone going to tell me that this kid was going to suck EVERY drop of energy I so happily boasted a few short weeks ago? I wasn't kidding about the 9 pm bedtime... Ask my poor (unrealistically amazing) husband. He's been unpacking/moving into our new house all alone while I go straight from work to bed! What a good man I have <3

So I still don't have much to post about (but hopefully a few good "befor/after" pics of the tiny little kitchen soon...) Paint party tomorrow! I just wanted to pop in, say hi and share my newest inspiration for baby girl's room.

I found it at http://laybabylay.com and I'm in love! Still sticking with the aqua walls & some black and white but softer accent colors and a little less gender neutral :)

Hopefully I'll be back soon with updates from my wonderful KC trip and house pictures!!