Little by little!

Well, things are starting to shape up around here! Slowly, our new house is starting to feel more homey. Obviously, more space means more things to fill it up...and more means, well more. More money to spend, more time to instal. And more is something that we don't necessarily have right now. So the little things get me really excited. And little by little we'll get there!

We've replaced the generic (aka ugly) chandelier in our dining area with this vintage-cool pendant (love the light bulb!), have a lot for the bathrooms, just need to find the time to paint, replace light fixtures and mirrors, etc., and we have curtains for our living room. But those won't go up for about another month when poor little Gigi gets declawed.

That's another story altogether. Last week, I took both cats to get declawed and got a call that Gigi has a mild infection and so her surgery has to be postponed while she's on antibiotics. Have you ever tried to give a cat a pill? Sometimes it's fine, other times it's miserable. And usually she just throws it up. So I'm just praying really hard that these antibiotics will work. Otherwise, I don't know what we're going to do.

If your friends with me on Facebook, you may have seen that I was thinking of giving her away. Well. I don't want to do that. But I can't have her with her claws around the baby. She's just a little too crazy.

In other news, I'm trying to take on a little bit of freelance editing work, so wish me luck on that!

Oh, and it's Leap Year Day! Which means if you're a lady, you can propose to your man. Whatever. Happy Leap Year Day!

Morning?

Good morning! I say that like it actually is morning, even though it's 11:45. It still feels like morning to me because if a morning is rough and I have the chance, I try to sleep it all away for like an hour, after which point, I will wake up and be hungry, despite the fact that I was sick just a little earlier. It's kind of like deciding that the day just needs a restart.

I can't do that every day that I'm sick of course, but days when I can I do. And today I slept through something on Hoda and Kathie Lee about a no-bake cookie recipe, which I may have half-dreamed, and woke up reeeally wanting to make the cookies, but now can't find the recipe online:(

Anyway, I don't really have anything new to report on the pregnancy front. Yesterday was the first Monday in three weeks that I haven't been sick and thought this could be the week that breaks the cycle, but then I drank maybe a little too much orange juice this morning and well...it wasn't pretty. I yi yi.

Tomorrow's our monthly check-in with the doc in two weeks we're finding out if this booger's a boy or girl! I can't wait! There will be so much we (and by we I mostly mean Brendan) can start doing. Painting the nursery, painting the crib, starting the hunt for all the cool things I want to put in there. Poor Brendan. There really is a lot I would love to have done before the baby gets here, not even including the nursery. We have four bathrooms to swap out mirrors and light fixtures in, paint, etc. Not to mention painting our room, the downstairs living room/studio area, putting up more blinds, doing some wainscoting in the dining room....

Ok, my head is spinning now. I think on that note, I'll get back to work. More pics and gender announcement coming soon!!

16 Weeks + TGIF

Sixteen-week belly! Here it is. I've felt preggo for a long time, but now I'm finally starting to look it! This morning when I looked at myself in the mirror I felt like the bump had just popped out overnight. And I swear I've felt a few faint flutters. But I've also been eating a lot of broccoli...so...

Anyway. Have I mentioned how much I love Fridays? Duh, everyone likes Fridays but Fridays are Brendan's Saturday and this morning, in a record-breaking turn of events, we slept in till 10:30, hung out downtown, ran into some long lost friends, had coffee at Kudu, and are now vegging on the couch watching crime shows. De. Lightful.

And on the books for tomorrow: painting the bathroom. Can't wait:)

Hope your weekend's grand!

Little Updates

Well...

• I got my maternity jeans in the mail. One word: disappointment. Really, Old Navy?? That's the size I ordered?? The "baby band" which was disproportionally tight compared to the rest of the sagging "skinny" jeans was so low that they might as well have just been ill-constructed elastic waist jeans that I don't think anyone would be caught dead in. Not to mention that the charcoal cowl neck sweater I also ordered was somehow confused by the same geniuses for a hideously pleated bazar black sweat shirt that looks nothing short of amish. And to add to my madness?? I drive 25 minutes to Mt. Pleasant to return the horrendous items only to be told that they don't accept maternity items in the store.

Thanks. For. Nothin.

• In more uplifting news, since I was at the Towne Centre, I stopped in Pea in a Pod, which I should have done all along, and got some much more satisfactory jeans. Thank ya Jesus for well-fitting preggo jeans.

• Brendan and I went to the wedding of our good friends Jeffery and Ashleigh this weekend and I had Brendan take a baby bump picture before we left, but after further review, I hate it, and therefore will not be sharing. Maybe now that I got some better jeans, I'll post one soon.

• 16 weeks was Sunday...and the roller coaster continues. Many more ups than downs, but still, Monday was rough.

• First house project complete: blinds for the downstairs! Yay! So now when I'm working, I don't share awkward glances with people walking by outside. Next step, blinds for the second and third floor and the bathrooms/half baths!

This is what we're doing in the second floor half bath. I'm still scouting out the mirror, just the version that doesn't cost $300. I know I can find it cheaper. And so the hunt is on.

Mmk, friends. I'm off make brownies for our Code Orange viewing party tonight. What's that, you ask? Elevation Church in Charlotte is hosting a 12-night event where speakers, pastors, and musicians from all over the country (and the world) are taking the stage and our very own Pastor P will be speaking tonight. So if you can, check it out! It's streaming live tonight at 6PM here.

Ciao!

Good Morning!

{via Daniel Island, South Carolina}

Hope everyone's weekend is off to a lovely start!

:(

It's been a really long day. I've run into to some hiccups in launching Amen Interiors which is now Amen Inspired Design: www.amenstyle.blogspot.com. Same blog, new name.

Fifty bucks worth of legal advice and a domain name later, I am spent. I know it seems like a lot of my posts revolve around this, but a lot of my life revolves around this right now. There's also a lot of other big things on our minds and as we ponder our purpose in life, I have neglected to really post about anything fun. So I promise an NYC post is coming soon. And the fabled 2010 post. Yeah, I know it's February. :( I fail.

Big Apple Love

{As Promised}

So two weekends ago, I went here:

You might find it bit odd that I would go to NYC right after a blizzard, but if you really know me, you'd know that it's not odd at all. I love this city.

It wasn't nearly as cold as it looks. In fact, thanks to some awesome rain boots we bought at Tertorn in SoHo and these amazing fur hats, we were totally toasty.

Here's a look at our trip:

Red Velvet + Dulce de Leche {Crumbs}

CP ♥

Purl Soho {love this place}

Washington Square {The Village}

Park Ave. {flowers} | Bryant Park {snowmen}

Tretorn saved our lives! {and our feet}

Do as ze Russians do.

CP

SoHo

Hello, Kate Spade.


The Rug Company | SoHo



Ze Pod.


{taxicab yellow} the accent color of the city

I'd rather be doing this

...and playing Scrabble and listening to Band of Horses Pandora.


Work shmerk.

Happy 2011 / Technically Difficulties

Hello 2011! I am disappointed that this is my first post of the year since I actually had another post written but am having technical difficulties getting a video from my iPhone to my computer. So my real Happy New Year, etc. post is on it's way.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with two thoughts that I hope to cultivate in 2011.

&

Also, I'm really into this calendar from EDUBARBA on Etsy.

Ta ta for now!

Christmas YAY

So I know I mentioned before that we put our tree but not the ornaments. This is why.

G loves hanging out in the tree. She might be the only ornament we need.

In other Christmas decoration news, our house is the definitely the best looking of all on our street. We may or may not have gone to such extreme measures as using our neighbor's car in lieu of a latter for putting lights on our palm tree. I have better pictures, but here are a few from my phone.

And one more thing. It's cold. I thought I'd miss cold Christmases when we first moved here. I was wrong. For one thing it is cold here and for another I'm not into it. Gimme 60 degrees!

Aaaand one last thing. I love Charlie Brown Christmas. It is better than all other Christmas movies.

That is all.

Thankful

Yes, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but I think that now is just as good a time as any to count our blessings. I feel like it's so easy to get caught up in the chaos of life and everything we want/need to get done, especially around the holidays, that we forget what we have right now. This has been especially true for me right now as a I am trying to keep things afloat at work plus create a solid business plan for interior design which I hope to launch next year, plus make a million decisions about the future, not to mention trying to get travel plans for Christmas in place.

In some ways I want to press fast forward and in other ways I just want to call a time out. But instead of humoring those thoughts, I think it's much better to just be thankful for the things we have now and not worry so much about to-do lists and things that ultimately aren't even a big deal.

Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Psalm 107:1
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

ADD

I am way too ADD to work today. All I want to do is go home and decorate the Christmas tree and go for a walk and maybe go to the land bridge in Old Mt. P and go shopping at Out of Hand and go to Starbucks and get lunch at Poe's and go downtown and go shopping everywhere and call all my friends that I haven't talked to in a long time.

IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?????


Thanks, Allie Brosh (hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com) for summing up my current state as illustrated below:

A Message From the Blogger Impaired

Ello ello! This is the time I should say something like "Ohh I'm so sorry I haven't blogged in a long time" or talk about how ridiculously busy I am or give a whitty list of possible reasons why I haven't been able to blog including but not limited to: loss of fine motor skills, an unsuccessful encounter with a samurai which rendered me handless or slipping into a comatose state initiated by over-consumption of the typical holiday goodies starting with Halloween (a likely scenario).

Mais non. I will not bore you with such tacky antics. I have not blogged. That's that. Now I am blogging. Yay!

Let's start with Halloween. We went trick-or-treating with our nephew and brother and sister-in-law. It was fun and Hayden and his buddy Landon were the cutest kids on the block. Seriously.

Brendan tried but he couldn't really pull it off...

Ha.

And basically since Halloween to Thanksgiving we've been working like crazy people and time not spent at work has been a blur of football, chili, friends and cats breaking things.

Thanksgiving was a short trip up to Raleigh to spend some time with the fam. I have to say that I am so amazed by the men that my brothers are becoming. I feel like just yesterday they were smelly little dirty boys who asked awkward questions and couldn't pronounce their r's. Now we always seem to slip into conversations that leave me in awe of how smart and grown-up they are. I ♥ them.

Grandma sunk the bag on her first shot. And quit while she was ahead. She's a smart cookie.

And that brings us to now. We've completed approximately 87% of our Christmas shopping which I am very proud of/relieved about since it's not even December. We've also put up our Christmas tree (still needs to be decorated) and have decked out the outside of house with the help of our neighbors who coincidentally have the same affinity for putting Christmas lights everywhere as we do. I'll put up some pictures once it's done.

In other news, I made my first ever successful cheesecake (chocolate with chocolate ganache- yeah, yum). It wasn't burned and it wasn't gooey. It was a Christmas miracle. And it didn't even look too lumpy or misshapen as one might come to expect from me. I was going to photo-document this momentous occasion in my otherwise bleak baking repertoire, but our aforementioned neighbors and Brendan got to it before my camera did. It may or may not have been our dinner. Don't judge us.

Every Day

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Life is crazy. I have a lot to say, but not much time to say it. So for now I leave you with this. I want!

Whatever You Are...

Quote: Abraham Lincoln
Card: 3 Lambs Graphics via Etsy

Just a little encouragement for your hump day. I think I need to particularly take this to heart. It's easy for me to want to not put as much effort into what I'm doing now because there are other things I'd rather be doing.

Yes, I can't wait to get started with my design business, but I know and am continuing to learn through mentors and studying that this will not happen over night. Ok, obviously, I never had those kind of expectations, but I think what I'm beginning to understand is that I can learn a lot from what I'm doing now that will translate very well into what I want to do with my future. At first, that seemed unlikely, but when I really think about it, it's true: dealing with vendors, meeting deadlines, tracking progress, creating new business systems and workflows, dealing with the public and training colleagues. No, there's not an ounce of fabulous style in it, but it is rich with business-savvy wisdom I really need to be soaking up right now. As for the style, I really think you either have it or you don't.

I am amazed at the resources that are out there for people who actually take the time to look. And I'm sorry that the last three posts have been dedicated to my design career, but I am just SO pumped about it and it's pretty much on my mind 24/7. So obviously I want to share.

But just out of fairness to the other things on my to-do list, here are something other things running around in my brain:

• I miss my mom!
• Move over Caribou. I picked up this coffee in Italian Roast at Whole Foods and it is the best. I'm in love.
  

• I'm obsessed with this bag from Urban Outfitters:

• I think this might be my favorite Bible verse of all time. It's encourage in hard times and even in times when you're floating along and everything's peachy:

"In this world you may have trouble. But take heart! I have conquered the world."
John 16:33b

And I love it's use here.

• My hubby is awesome!
  

Welp, that's all for now, friendlies. Happy Hump Day!