Crafty Boy

Jory has become quite the carpenter around here. He has been improving our home one step at a time. He just finished making the numbers for the outside of our house, which he hand cut out of pine and then painted.

They looked so good he decided to make some for Tara and Nino next door!

Oh, Target.

It's no secret that I love Target. When I lived in San Leandro I spent more than 3 hours a week at Target. Thankfully, I have gotten quite a few Target gift cards for the baby and have been quite content ordering Cooper's things online. There's nothing better than having your goods shipped to you in three days and avoiding long lines during the Holiday Season.

The boy (who doesn't understand the need for women to nest) thinks that most of the things I'm buying are pointless. I disagree. Here are some examples of things Cooper needed, that I got from Target:

This bin-set is not only cute, it's completely functional. I'm sorry, but you can never have too much storage in your nursery. I ran out of storage room weeks before the baby shower invites were even out. Now we have a nice shelf and storage bins are the way to go:

Last time I checked, babies like to chew on things. I know he won't be teething at birth but it can't hurt to have more distractions around. Although I admit this is a little premature, they were on sale:

Everyone likes a clean baby. Since no one got the grooming kit off my registry, I decided to get one:

The Boy thinks this next one is completely unnecessary. WRONG. Babies need stimulation. And I don't want my poor son staring at the ceiling when he's laying on the ground. I want him interested and engaged with the things around him:

Yes, we got a ton of clothes for Cooper. But the one area we happened to miss out on was 6-9 month onesies. So I just got a three pack:




And last but BEST, the crib set! Cooper won't be in his crib for quite a few months, but why not get it now? Before it's unavailable online again for another 5 months?

And that is it for my Thanksgiving weekend shopping. Not half bad. I didn't buy a single thing for myself (can you believe it?) and got a lot taken care of from Target.com. Now I can focus on Christmas shopping (gross).

DIY Friday

When The Boy and I moved into our place, the "needs to be repaired" list was more than two pages long. The owners of our 3 bedroom rental really didn't give a shit about out quality of living and we realized early on that we'd have to take most repairs and fix-up into our own hands. We were lucky to get new carpet (which may I add was replaced weeks after we were completely moved in) after I emailed the property management company multiple times, complaining that the cigarette burns were gross and old-cat residue was making me wheeze and the frequency of needing to use my inhaler wasn't good for my unborn child. In this case, using the pregnancy card was completely necessary.

The knobs in our kitchen were different colors and some of them were broken or missing. When we asked the repair man to replace them he brought white knobs to add to the blue ones, thus making our kitchen look even worse that it did before. Jory went to the local hardware store and purchased brand new wooden knobs and painted them himself (and then glazed). He used the paint we used on our walls, "Butter and Beans", which was color coordinated with the art hanging in the kitchen. Now all the knobs match and we are one step closer to having a pretty kitchen.

Old:

New:

While The Boy was busy making the house pretty, I headed to our local used bookstore and purchased a used book that was my absolute favorite as a child, "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think" by Dr. Seuss. The book was on sale for $1.50 and I left very happy. When I got home I ordered another copy off Amazon.com (for under $3.00), so I could rip apart the used copy and frame the pictures.

Book: $1.50 Frames: Under $10

Finished product:

In all we've had a pretty successful DIY weekend. Tomorrow I plan to hunt for more DIY opportunities. I have less than a few months to get the room together and have everything settled for when Baby Cooper arrives (or before I get to uncomfortable to do this stuff).

I Heart Lemons

I offered to do dessert this Thanksgiving, even though I get tremendous anxiety when I commit to bringing dishes. I always have this huge fear of messing it up and then leaving everyone without whatever I said I'd bring. In this case, it was lemon curd marbled cheesecake.

Perhaps it's my fear of failure that makes me reluctant... but in any case, I went for it. I found a recipe on Epicurious.com that looked easy enough for me to tackle and I went for it. Since I have had a huge lemon craving through out this whole pregnancy, I thought lemon would be good. And it gave me lots of pretty yellows to shoot with my camera.

I have decided that I love making lemon curd. It might be my favorite thing to consume. It really was incredible. Here I am making lemon curd:

The finished product:

It wasn't bad. The edges weren't beautiful but the cheesecake was pretty damn tasty. Somehow, I ended up with the leftovers. That could be bad.

Where?

Where the hell am I going to fit 3 more months of baby growing?

WHERE?

How?

How can one little guy be so damn cute?

Lovely Letters from Old Friends

My dear friend Kelly Cunningham sent me an email today that made me tear up. It was very special and I thought I would share.

Alie,

Just wanted to add that I am really so happy for you. I know how much you wanted to be a Mom and now you are. The 3rd trimester is when you get to love your body most. It does things that don't seems possible. And while you waited to see any signs of pregnancy during the 1st trimester, the 3rd gives you the pay off for all that waiting. Motherhood is truely life awakening in every way. It calms you down, makes you more vulnerable but at the same time you balance that out by becoming stronger, stronger in the feminine sense; intune with the body, more connected to the spirit, stronger in the mind. Enjoy this time, be positive about your birth,prepare for the tiredness and fatigue of having a newborn, and get ready to be someone new, and better, because there is nothing else in the world like this.

xoxo
kel

Tonight has been pretty awesome and this email just topped the cake. I had a great dinner with my friend Candice, was greeted by my sweet boyfriend with fresh baked cookies, had new Mrs. Meyers cleaning products from Tara waiting in my clean kitchen, had a reduced car insurance bill waiting for me, I'm LOVING the rain, had my kitchen plumbing fixed while I was at work (hot water in the kitchen now!), Cooper is kicking up a frenzy and I got an awesome email from an awesome friend. Nights like this make me love life even more. Now I'm going to snuggle up with my boys.

Goodnight!