Green With Envy

My brother sent me this. It's been far too long since this group has made a movie together, and I absolutely cannot wait to see it!

Flea Market Makeover: Chalkboard

Before: a found custom framed piece of art.
(yes, someone custom framed this.)

After: a chalkboard for my breakfast nook.

I am super impressed with how well chalkboard spray paint works. It actually feels like a real chalkboard and not some weird sprayed on substance. I am even more impressed that two cans of spray paint (gold, for the frame) turned this not treasure into something that retails for upward of $100 at Ballard Designs.

Maternity Leave Farewell Tour

Last week was my last full week of maternity leave, so I decided to take full advantage of it. We had lunch plans every day with friends and family. It was a fun week off with my sweet boy.

Lunch at Zodiac with Auntie Ish!

Shopping with Momma.
One day we hosted a luncheon for several of the new moms on our street. (We have a baby boom on our street--five new babies.) We met my brother and Brad for lunch on different days, along with a little shopping. Friday, we lunched at Tillman's with Auntie Ish again while her sweet parents were in town, then later that night the J-Bird chilled with his friends during his first childcare night at the church, and we headed out for a dinner date.

This week I'm still off until Thursday (hello, short week back then a 3 day weekend) so I'm spending these last 3 days sitting at home, playing with my baby and putting my working mom survival kit together. I'm blessed to have wonderful support as I transition into the role of working mom. One thing's for sure--I won't be bored.

Friday Fave Finds

Rather than the Friday Fave Five, I now present to you the inaugural post of my Friday Fave Finds, a list of my little discoveries this week.

Enjoy!

--I loved this post from Natalie about babies growing up. And talking!

--Am I the last person to know that Zooey Deschanel has a TV show coming out? Here's the preview.

--These pantry pics on Material Girls have me seriously contemplating painting my pantry in my last 3 days of maternity leave. (But I'll probably just sit and hold my sweet baby.)

--And then there's Pinterest. Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest. Rather than save things you find on the internet in your favorites, you can "pin" them to boards that will save the original source. I love.

--And also? While not on the world wide web until now, I found myself taking a lot of pics with this tiny gentleman. You understand.

"Cutest thing evaaa..."

One of the girls in my Sunday school class sent me this video of an awesome marriage proposal (The title of this post was her comment about the video. It's so fun to minister to high school girls!)

We were talking over coffee (or tea, in my case) this past week and the subject of proposals (and in particular, this one) came up. I remembered reading an article recently that something like 80% of women are disappointed in the manner in which their husbands/fiances proposed. I wish I could find the article. Now, I must note here that I think my husband knocked it out of the park with his proposal, however I think it's a sad state when that many women would admit that they didn't like how the proposal went. In my book that ranks right up there with looking at the shiny diamond your gentleman worked to give his fair lady and saying, "I expected something a little bigger."

Have we been ruined by romantic movies?

{But I think this is an awesome proposal, BTW.}

Let your hair up.

So there I was, sitting in my hairstylist's chair about 4 weeks before delivering my boy. Nearly every time I go in there I complain about the fact that I have to shampoo my hair every single day. She always says the same thing: dry shampoo or figure out a good second day hairstyle to hide the second day obvious. But this time she also pointed out that I was going to have 12 weeks at home to experiment where I wouldn't have to go out in public unless I wanted to. She is brilliant.

So for the past 11ish weeks I've been here, just slaving away in my laboratory. After trying some super duper expensive stuff along with the super cheap, I am pleased to publish my research for you today. Ladies in a hurry to get to the office, moms, or basically anyone looking for a good shortcut, I've got some winners for you.

The new Suave Professionals Dry Shampoo works very, very well. Just spray onto roots and work in until your hair doesn't look white. Additionally, on a lark I purchased the above little spring-like gems by Goody, called spin hair pins. I have a lot (a lot a lot) of very fine hair that usually requires 1 trillion bobby pins to put up. With these, I whip my hair back and forth up into a bun, spin those little hair pins in, and voilà--up do. I found both of these at my local big-box discount store. They are now staples in my beauty arsenal.

Oh yes, it is an arsenal.

So tell me--what's your cheap beauty secret?

{P.S. I'm not receiving any compensation for this review.}

Friday and Saturday Sundaes

We spent a great weekend catching up with friends we hadn't seen in a while, and I managed to get away from the weekend with one picture--of food. How boring.

Friday evening found us at So7 Love Shack with our supper club friends. It was a perfect evening for patio dining and good conversation. After, we rounded back to one of the couples' home for the first freezer of homemade ice cream for the season. Yum-o.

Saturday, we spent most of the day lounging (ok, Jack and I lounged--Brad mowed) before having folks over for hamburgers and more ice cream. It's just the season for ice cream and one reason I'm still not back into my pre-Jack jeans. Awesome.

Monday kicks off my "Maternity Leave Farewell Tour." It's my last full week of leave with the J-bird, so I'm making the most of it. We have lunch plans almost every day and lots of shopping plans (for him and me.)

If you need me, I'll be brainstorming ways to sneak him to work with me every day.

Sunday Night Home Movies

Two Months (a couple of weeks late, oopsie)

Jack is joy and a half. He is cooing and smiling and turning me to mush a few times a day. He especially loves bath time these days and is especially chatty then. I love it. When I start a rendition of "I Feel Good," he starts wiggling his arms and legs, and when I stop, he stops and looks at me like, "what happened?" Of course we think it's hysterical. The longer I laugh, the bigger his smiles. It is just too much.

At his 2 month check up, he weighed 12 lbs. 8 oz. and measured 23 1/2 inches. He was in the 75 percentile all the way across the board. Perfectly proportional and meeting all the developmental milestones as he should.

{The bear in the pic above is Jack Bear. Brad and I made him at Build-a-Bear on our last date night before Jack was born.}

Winner = Me.

I never win anything. Ok, that's a lie because this one time at work (years ago) I won a signed Nolan Ryan baseball while playing BINGO. (Yes, we occasionally play BINGO at work. It was the lunch hour.)

Anyway, I won a Stella & Dot giveaway from cutie cute Hollie over at Blog-o-hollic (hello, cutest blog name ever) Hollie is a Stella & Dot stylist (as well as youth minister's wife and L&D nurse, extraordinaire) and allowed me to pick something out from their super cute collection. I chose the Petra bracelet, and I ♥ it! It's a high quality product, and I know I will wear it a ton.

I'm a sucker for sweet paper goods. This is the box my bracelet came in.

At some point in the next few weeks I'll let you know what else I ♥ from Stella & Dot because there is a ton. (Husband, are you reading?) I know you will be checking this page on pins and needles for my picks.

In the meantime, if you're in the market for some new accessories (and who is not?) then click on over to Stella & Dot!

My Mother's Day

before church Sunday morning
{whoa mama's big hair}

This Sunday was not just my first mother's day.
It was also Jack's baby dedication!
{hair a little smaller by this point, whew}

What a great responsibility to raise our son in such a way that some day he will choose to follow Christ. He will see our every move--and take note of it! Brad and I both pray so much for wisdom in raising the J-Bird. Our pastor gives each baby a letter for them to open on the day of their baptism after they make their decision to follow Christ. How I pray for that day!

Both of our immediate families were in town for the occasion, which was nice, but a bit hectic! We headed to Joe T. Garcia's for lunch (because I picked!) and then back to the house for pound cake and a little more playing with Jack for the grandmothers.

I teared up when I put Jack to bed that night. He is an incredible answer to so many of my prayers.

I will always remember this first mother's day.

Confession

Being a mother is 1 billion times better than I thought it would be.

{And I had pretty high expectations.}

Happy Mother's Day.