Merry Christmas!

So our Christmas card just didn't happen this year. I thought about it. Then I got stressed out thinking about gathering everyone's addresses again because I didn't keep good track of them last time. I thought about addressing and stamping and licking envelopes (so sick). Then I decided to play the "I'm a new mom" card :) I don't believe it's a season for stress, so I'm just making a Christmas blog post instead... at 11:30 on Christmas eve... while my husband sleeps and my baby eats. See, I am a new mom.

So a very Merry Christmas to you & yours.

From me & mine.

I hope it's full of shortbread cookies,

precious family,

gingerbread cupcakes,

and wonderful memories .

Love, Ashley

Bad News/ Good News

I'm taking a little break from Field Trip Friday this week because we were moving all last weekend... which is pretty much the opposite of a fun field trip. I'll be giving my self an attitude check instead :)

Bad News- My baby has developed a new habit of screaming every time she's in the car seat. So lame.

Good News- She's super chill most of the rest of the time... um and really cute :)

Bad News- I still haven't started on Lily's Halloween costume.

Good News- Even if I'm up all night tomorrow, it's going to be SO GREAT!

Bad News- Moving into the in-laws basement.

Good News- The in -laws are incredibly supportive and amazingly generous... and in 18 months we get to buy our very own home... in our dream neighborhood... also no more dealing with the jerk of a duplex neighbor who lived downstairs.

I was way super sad about leaving Lily's sweet room and my lovely kitchen. BUT I do know that this is a the right place for us right now. It will be so worth it when we get to buy our own little home on Pearl Street :)

To get myself more excited, I'm going to blog about transforming the basement into our cozy little temporary HOME... on a tiny budget (the whole point is to save for a down payment remember?). So I'll be reducing, reusing and gettin' real creative up in here!!

Field Trip Friday {Home}

We got to go home to PCMO last weekend!!!!!

Field trip indeed. We all needed it so bad.

Grandpa Brad hadn't seen this sweet girl since she was 4 weeks old... She's almost 4 months already! We've already made a pact not to go that long again.

My baby brother Travi (yep he still lets me call him Travi) ;) anyway he's a b.a. drummer on the drum line in the band. He's the section leader and it was so so fun watching him again this year as a senior. This picture is from the competition we watched. He's in the middle.

Here's a close up of Trav with Lil. What a couple of cuties :) Unfortunately this is pretty much all I got for pictures. I get so excited about hanging out I totally forget to take pictures sometimes. I have none with Gigi or Trey dang it.

I do, however, have another of Lily in her new pumpkin jammies Grandma got her. Gigi and Grandpa Brad were in a spoiling kind of mood... imagine that ;) I got a late birthday present: first facial of my life, pedicure with mama AND a crazy awesome massage from the pro herself.

ah.MAZING! Hunter got in lots of golf with dad and Trey!

Kandy Grimes you are my inspiration right now. Just wanted to let you know. The way you are making your dream business happen is beyond amazing. I'm so so proud of you for doing what you love and doing it so well!! I pray Sugar Mama can follow in your footsteps :)

How great is this shot my dad got of bathing beauty in the kitchen sink?! Man I am just so so thankful for amazing family. I am so blessed with two families now that are beyond incredible. Last weekend was so relaxing, life-giving, and just really wonderful. (Ty, only you could have made it better!)

Aqua love

Gussy Sews is a beautiful shop with all kinds of lovelies. I recently discovered her awesome blog too! She does a weekly inspiration workshop and this week's prompt is YOUR FAVORITE COLOR. Well, this one is a no brainer.

I. love. AQUA.

I love it! I can't get enough, but I just keep trying :) My husband oh-so-lovingly forbid begged me not to paint anymore aqua/ turquoise goodness for our house.

Unbelievable! Good thing I already snuck these bad boys in.

Aren't they pretty?

Aqua+grey felt flowers= YES PLEASE! My new favorite combo! (Beware- you may be gifted these if Hunter doesn't let me hang them in our house.)

I love aqua so very much because it reminds me of the fabulous ocean.

It gives me energy and peace at the same time... Which is probably why I've painted most of my home in some shade of it. It really might be turning into a problem. But it makes me oh so happy! If being obsessed with aqua is wrong, I don't want to be right.

A Monday Miracle

If you didn't get a chance to read yesterday's post, I was pretty excited about giving my time back to God and letting Him take care of it for me. So I took a craft fast (aka I cleaned my gross house instead of painting or baking). After a few loads of laundry and some sweeping in the living room I decided it was time to fix the long white curtains. They are hung too low and the extra fabric just lays on the ground and gets all filthy.

So I threw them all in the wash and tried to decide if it would be a better use of my time to hem the curtains or move all the hardware and curtain rods up higher. As I contemplated I worked on some other things and when it came time to "line dry" the curtains (by hanging them up wet) I realized one accidentally made it into the dryer with the other laundry.

Sure enough, the curtain had shrunk. The amazing thing is that it now fits per.fect.ly. I threw the others in the dryer so fast and cranked it up to high. An hour later I had a living room full of perfectly fitting white curtains AND extra time on my hands to love on my baby and work on my Sugar Mama blog and newsletter!

I know it seems like a silly small thing but I felt really blessed by my curtain miracle. Praise Jesus for not having to get out the sewing machine OR power tools! And Praise Jesus for being so much more powerful than all the things I fill up my time with.

The dresser

The dresser is now officially an earth and budget friendly entertainment center!

A couple things:

#1 Yes, those are Guitar Hero guitars in the back corner. We Greenos LOVE Guitar Hero! Who's with us?!

#2 Do not be jealous of our sweet TV. It's sinful for you to covet my niiiiiiiice things.

You already know that the $10 treasure of a dresser started out in a nice shiny shade of Pepto-complete with a huge spot on the top, brass pulls and a loose baseboard. SO much potential!

I ran to Home Depot and bought myself a sander. It was only $30 and let's face it, this won't be the last piece of furniture I feel compelled to rescue (sorry Hunter).

Unfortunately, there were like 47 layers of old paint on this thing and the top layer just happened to be weird and rubbery. When the sander couldn't handle it, I went for the butter knife. Makes sense right? ha! Let's just say that the original plan to sand down to the wood and refinish this beauty got thrown out the window.

No worries! I just roughed the whole thing up a little with the sander. Painted it a lovely shade of Tropical Waters (Behr) and added a top coat of watered down brown acrylic paint ($0.27 on clearance) to make it look a little "weathered". I'm certain Hunter would have preferred a nice refinished wood tone to the turquoise but he did admit that it's cooler than he thought it would be :)

I even added a little pizazz to the drawers & painted the handles with brushed nickel spray paint. Now I just have to bust out the drill and make some holes in the back for that mess of cords.

I realize that a turquoise dresser as an entertainment center isn't for everyone... but it's definitely for me! It adds some much needed color to our grey living room. It's recycled and "green" which I'm always a fan of. It was only a whopping total of $14 which is fabulous! Best of all there is tons of storage space so I don't have a huge pile of dvds, cords, speakers, playstation etc. I'll call it a SUCCESS!

Curtains!

This post is a bit late, but that's never stopped me before :) When my sweet mama was here in June she took care of my poor nekked windows. She had time to do that because she was supposed to be helping me with a newborn... but as you know the child took. her. time.

Anyway, we waddled (well, I waddled) through Denver Fabrics and perused all of the lovely textiles searching for a yellow chevron pattern. Yep, that's right I wanted sunshiney zig zag curtains in the dining room. I don't exactly have grown up taste when it comes to home decor. I'm fine with it.

This is what we found. No chevron but isn't it fabulous!? I really wish my photography skills could do them more justice because they are really awesome. They brighten the room a lot and make the little window nook really lovely. Especially when you consider the "before" look. Luckily, you can't even tell from this far away just how sick nasty those blinds are.

We also got fun new curtains in our bedroom and moved the long white ones to the living room. I'll work on taking better pictures and post about all of that someday. For now here's a sneak peek at the curtains with a sweet little babe snuck in :)

Thank you thank you Gigi (cool grandma name huh?). We LOVE the curtains... and we love that the neighbors don't know us quite so well anymore!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I found this $10 garage sale beauty yesterday. Hunter says it's junk but I say Hunter's lame. I've got big plans. Stay tuned!

Due dates are crap.

That's all I have to say about that. Moving on to something much more fun! In honor of miss Lily Belle's supposed arrival date I am finally sharing pictures of her room!


I'm not sure why it took me SO long to do this. I think it has to do with finishing 90% of it in a whirlwind weekend with LOTS of help and then immediately filling it up & getting paralyzed with indecision about where to fit all the "things" and precious gifts. But that's neither here nor there. The point is I DID find a place for everything and just in time for the girl's due date... which she has decided she doesn't agree with.


I love how it all turned out and I can't wait to have baby Lily actually living there! The cool rocking chair is the same one Hunter was rocked in when he was a baby. So sweet!


I wish I would have taken a lot more before pictures because there was some serious DIYing goin on that weekend! Jana brought the dresser and it was in pretty bad shape but add a little grey paint, pink knobs and chalkboard spray paint- you've got yourself a VERY cute little dresser. The black side table with the lamp is another hidden gem. It was just chillin in our living room because I bought it last year for $10 at a flea market with great expectations... and then it kept chillin in our living room because I ran out of inspiration/ got craft ADD. Good thing Shea & Brooke had plenty of inspiration and sample paints. It looks perfect :)


The crib was a blessing from a friend of a friend and didn't need much of a makeover, but it looks perfect and complete with a little banner from Grandma Kandy (GiGi?).


And now I'll leave you with some cloth diaper shots. I love them & I'm dying for some little baby buns to wrap up in these bad boys! I've already washed them all and even packed a few in the diaper bag. So bring it on Lily. Mama is ready!

Summer

The other day at work I spent a little (ok a lot) of time daydreaming about packing up my sweet baby girl in the stroller and walking through the park in the summer sunshine. It's starting to get warm and summery which always tends to have a very positive effect on my mood :) Now I'm finally getting around to adding some pictures & it's a cold and rainy Wednesday morning. Oh well, these are making my morning better.


We just LOVE us some sunshine around here. These shots are from last Thursday when Milo & I decided to do some serious sabbathing (you know, like a Sabbath day- only a verb)and just bask in the lovely summerness! Here's one of my perma-swollen feet. So sad. I think my least favorite part of pregnancy so far is the swollen feet... I know I've had it pretty easy if that's the worst (well & the heartburn is no bueno) but I've seriously burst into uncontrollable tears over cankles on more than one occasion the past few weeks. Poor Hunter.

Anyway, back to daydreaming about sweet sundresses, sparkly headbands & teeny baby bikinis. Only 5 more weeks to go!! (Well... 5-7 I hear but we're being optimistic k?) That girl is already so spoiled! I have baby shower pictures still to post AND more pictures of her sweet sweet room! That's right, we did it!! HUGE thank you to Shea, Brooke, Jana & Mom. Of all the places in the whole world to have to stay up all night comforting a crying baby... this room would be where I would choose :) I think Lily will love it so much she'll just snooze the night away and never cry. ha!

Well, I'm off to coffee and craft with Alyssa. I'm SO excited! She embroidered the CUTEST little onesie and she's going to teach me how to make more. So fun :) Plus I'm already way behind on this. Oops. I tend to see things on blogs, get super excited about them, talk about how I'll do them too. And then remember that every minute of my day is booked. But, not to worry. I'll be making some baby girl clothes today and perhaps tomorrow I'll get back to this quilt project that I almost forgot about!

Counting down

Maybe you noticed the baby countdown addition to the right? It seemed fitting as we literally are counting down the days until we get to meet our baby girl! I'm so so excited to trade this belly for a baby & Hunter is getting jealous that I get to hang out with her all the time and he never gets a turn :)



Unfortunately, as "ready" as we think we are... this is baby girl's room as of a couple weeks ago... before we added a large unassembled crib and a couple extra large boxes. Not exactly fit for a babe. And definitely not this beauty. Anyway, thanks to Hunter you can now walk around in there and I'm headed to Goodwill with another large load of junk (somehow junk seems to find a way of multiplying at our house- such a bummer).



I still love this SO much and the wonderful news is that I only have to daydream about this beautiful room for a few more hours because Mom, Jana, Shea & Brooke are all headed here RIGHT NOW to make it a reality! I'm so pumped... Milo too. This is his excited face.



In other wonderful news, Sugar Mama cupcakes made their first appearance in a retail location yesterday!



The Ruffly Rose is the cutest little flower & gift shop on Pearl street and the mocha cupcakes fit right in perfectly. Hopefully they will be a huge hit!

I'm off to donate junk and do a little more cleaning. Have a lovely weekend! PS- Only 46 more days :) :) :)