Friday Favorites

Spring is here and its time to clean out the old and bring in the color. Although Layla is to little to you to notice, I made the commitment to start decorating for the holidays (and take it down in an appropriate manner. We aren't going to be one of those houses with a Christmas tree in May).

Iv found a few DIY Spring/Easter ideas on Pinterest (aka the reason for my insomnia) these are some of my favs

Somebody find me a home with a fire place in south florida so I can hang this easter egg garland! Thank you. That is all. 

This egg wreath is adorable. I would love to make one for the door of the baby's room.

I really really love this monogramed wreath but have little to no faith in my ability to make it. Thankfully its for sale. 

It is important to remember the reason for the season. I love this printable chalkboard sign. 

Love these bright and colorful sofa pillows. They are so inviting and cheerful. 

Definetly will be making is adorable Easter bunting. Layla has a little bunny butt pajama so naturally the entire house much match my daughters butt. Duh! lol

Friday Favorites

This weekend is all about getting my house ready for Valentine's Day. Here are some DIY V-Day decorations that I <3. 

Valentines Day Mantel by Landeelu

Love Yarn Letters by My Sisters Suitcase

valentine's Day pillowcases by Brit+Co

Little Gold Hearts by Style Within Reach

Iv Got a Crush on You Printables by Yellow Umbrella Designs

 Valentines Heart attack by House that Lars Built

Scratch off Valentines Cards by The story of Pat and Lindsay

Valentines Day Subway art by The Tomkat Studio

Button Burlap Heart by Southern Lovely

Friday Favorites

I feel like I spend a lot of time conversing in baby talk recently. I'm seriously concerned that Im accidentally going to answer the phone or respond to an adult with "Hello my cutie booty" or some other overly high pitched rhyming nonsense that makes my daughter smile. My reading since Layla was born has become "Are you My Mother" or "Is your baby developmentally on target". Page turners, I know.
I was looking for something to read that did not require much commitment on my part but also used words with larger than 2 syllables when I ran across a few Kate Spade books at the library. Kate's writing is witty and enlightening and best of all, brief. I finished each book in two or three days during post feeding cat naps or just before I pass out night. For you baby free people, one rainy afternoon is sufficient.

Photo credit: Hayley of Ceriselle.org

There are 3 books in the series; Manners, Style and Occasions  My favorite was manners. Being in the world of education and living in South Florida, I feel like manners is a dying art that needs some reviving. Kate covers topics such as "How to each an orange with seeds in public" "The Etiquette of writing and receiving letters" or "Appropriate conversation at a social gathering". Some of the topics are kind of outdated, for example her tip about not sitting in front of short people at the movie theater while wearing your largest hat, but still made me laugh. Each book is very short, only about 100 pages long with pictures and many little captions.

Hopefully Ill have the time to actually read a novel in the near future (Hopefully before Layla starts to watch Nick Jr. I have previewed some of those shows and between the high pitch voices and repetition, Im going to need something to keep my brain cells alive.)

Until next time.

Friday Favorites

Becoming a mom has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It has made me understand and feel more connected to my parents as well as family and friends who have kids in ways I never expected. Throughout my pregnancy and now that Layla has arrived I discovered a few mom blogs that Iv grown to love. These mamas share their lives with the world and help inspire, connect or just plain make other moms feel less crazy.

Here are some of my favorite mommy blogs 

1. Little Baby Garvin

I discovered this blog through Pinterest before I got pregnant. Jessica is super funny and crafty. Her chalkboards are so perfect and creative they inspired me to create my own… in which I failed miserable... but hers are still adorable just the same. She makes you feel like a part of her family, celebrating holidays, dropping the occasional F bomb (the story about Harpers tummy ache made me laugh out loud) and watching Harper grow up.

2. The HoneyBee

Andee is definitely a hot mom. Her style and post baby body pictures are completely angering (who looks that good right after having a baby???) inspiring. I first came across her sight when I was pregnant and looking for cute attire. She's a definitely a stylesperation… not a word but just go with it. I also love her healthy meal ideas for parents and baby.

3. Blonde Ambition Blog

I can't remember how I discovered Leslie from BlondeAmbitionBlog but it peeked my interest because we were around the same amount of weeks pregnant. Like me, she didn't seem like the type of pregger that used the growing bump as an excuse to be a frump. She seemed down to earth with some flare. Our baby girls were born only a few days apart and I love to peek into her sight to see how their new family is doing and of course, what momma and baby girl are wearing. 

Friday Favorites... Daddy Edition

1.  NFL - obviously as most people should know, it's FOOTBALL SEASON!!!! The teams (Straight Florida Teams) I like aren't doing great, but it'll be ok. All in due time. Especially after Layla comes- then they will have one more reason to win.

2.Sugar Babies - This old favorite has been rediscovered in a big way. I found a few bags in the Dollar Tree when going to buy Diana some stuff for a school project. I had forgotten about this confection-ate delicacy and was very happy to be re-united, they still do a number on your teeth, but they are still delicious as well.

3. The Duck Song (Part 1, 2, 3) Hey! Got any Grapes??   and then he waddled away....Waddle Waddle

4. Patties from Charlie's - haven't tried all of the different patty shops are anything, but out of all the ones I've tried, I definitely like those the best, at least stateside. Got some bun and cheese while I was there too.

5. Krispy Kreme - My GOODNESS!!! These are like the best doughnuts known to man!! I mean- I don't even know what else to say. Pure Deliciousness!!

Friday Favorites

October (my favorite month of the year) is halfway over. Although I have been a bit moody, October has not let me down. The weather is cooling down... a little... and you can feel the holiday season approaching. This leads us to my first favorite thing this week

1. Trip planning: I am a planner. Im sure one day when I die my family will write that on my tombstone. "Here lies Diana-Kay. Wife Mother Planner". There are so many places I want to go right now, Washington, Jamaica, Beach bon-fire in Daytona... We are waiting until Baby B is born until we make any official plans but that hasn't stopped my excitement from brewing. If you can think of a trip... thats baby appropriate, let me know.... I'll start nagging Tim about it.

2.   My halloween tree DVD arrived this week and I cant wait till Halloween to watch it. I used to watch it as a kid with my sisters, along with Hocus Pocus and Ernest Scared stupid (which would always, and still does, scare the crap out of me) as a Halloween tradition.
11 more days!!!






3. One thing I really hope to do with my kids is read to them. We got so many great books at our shower that I cant wait to read (and some we have already been reading to her). This week we also purchased one of Tim's favorite books from childhood to read to her as well.





4. One of my favorite things also this week is the arrival of new babies. As we count down for Layla's arrival, I love keeping up with others on their journeys and their recent arrivals.

5. My last favorite thing this week is baby headbands. I have been stalking Etsy to find the perfect headband for Layla-Kay. There are so many to choose from, I want them all.

Friday Favorites

Another crazy week has come and gone and its time for a little recap. Although my first instinct is to go on a b!tch fest about how sh!tty this week has been, I will do my best to contain myself and focus on the positives.
1. Owl Cuteness:
This week my job threw me a baby shower. The theme was "Guess Whooo's About to Pop". Because Tim and I went to FAU (mascot: the Owls) I do my best to rep Owl Pride when I can. I loved the all of the pink owl details.

2. Bones Season 8 on Netflix

Bones has become sort of my after school routine. I pretty much started watching it when I found out I was pregnant and would come home from work exhausted and needed something to plop down on the couch and watch. 9 months later I was done with seasons 1-7 (and Pretty Little Liars and Scandal... don't judge me) and was feeling lost "what do I do with my life now!!!!... you know you've felt that way. Anyways, Netflix added season 8 this week and now my life has meaning again.

3. Supportive Family

Maybe its because Im a newlywed, maybe its because Im pregnant and super emotional but people have been melting my heart recently. This week I spent about 24 hours because the Dr felt that Baby B's heart rate was a little slow and my family was by my side and being very supportive. Aunty Lee drove 30 minutes 2 days in a row to check on her niece, parents (who have yet to decide what they want Baby B to call them) waited with me for hours as they were running tests, and Tim actually put a Madden on hold (Football + video game... big stuff for him) to be at the hospital for his babies. 

This is 6'4 him sleeping on a not so large recliner.

4. Fall Nail Colors

Another week another 5 days of swollen hands and feet. My shoe options have dwindled significantly leaving me with about 3 pairs of loose fitting sandals.... sexy. On the flip side, since my little piggy toes are constantly exposed, they might as well be painted nicely. I usually do my own mani and pedi but because I cant reach my toes anymore, I will have to leave it to the professionals. Iv been noticing all the rich and dark colors that are coming back out for fall and am looking forward to trading in my summer peach and pink for autumn navy and purple. 

5. Chocolate

Enough said. 

Friday Favorites

 This week has been cray cray busy week... which was good because my 35 week appointment is next Tuesday I CANT WAIT and the busyness helps the week to go by faster. These are a few of my favorite things (OMG what movie is that from???) from Week 34.

1. A Supportive (in his own special way) Husband:

As I expected Out of F'ing nowhere, my ankles and feet started to swell. I came home from work on Monday, took off my shoe and bam! "who's fatty foot is that????" Naturally, I take a picture and send it to Tim. Sexy huh?

2. Fall decor:

Although I love summer weather vacation, I do get excited for all the events that fall has to bring. September 22nd officially marked the first day of fall (in almost every other state except Florida. Fall doesn't start in S Fla till late October)  

There are already pumpkins around the house which smells deliciously like pumpkin cookies :o)

 3. Pumpkins:
Soooo... I dont think I will be carving a pumpkin solo this year (Pregnancy clumsiness is not a myth! Clumsiness + large knife does not sound like a great combo) but that hasn't stopped me from finding creative ways to decorate a pumpkin this year.

 I love this B pumpkin I found for the BERRIEUM's door step (I also love the fact that I felt the need to capitalize my entire new last name. If this story where told out loud I probably would have made a big hand gesture for extra emphasis).
I will pass the torch to Tim this year, who will be carving his first pumpkin ever (stay turned for pictures of that hilarity)

4. TV premiers
I know Im a week early but next week marks the season premiere of Scandal. Im on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what Olivia Pope and the Gladiators will get themselves into this season.

5. Salad night:
We are still working out the quirks but I do love salad night in our home. Neither Tim nor I grew up in households that ate salads as meals and as much as we love hearty dinners, it feels good to start healthy traditions for our new family. It is far from perfect. Tim came home on salad night this week, looked at his dinner and said "soooo what else are we eating"? He ate it (then later snuck out and ate a cheeseburger).

Friday Favorites... Home Edition

As I am packing away all of the the goodies from our baby shower, I realized I haven't done a post about all the changes that Tim and I have made to our place in preparation for Layla. We currently live in a mansion matchbox and it has been a challenge to fit the three of us comfortably here until we get a bigger place.

1. My # 1 favorite thing is Layla's crib. Its so adorable and fits perfectly into our small place.

I made the mistake of asking Tim to build the crib during a football game

2nd quarter....

4th quarter... lol

But after the game was over, the crib was built. Which leads us too...

2. The mobile. I loved this idea and with the help of Aunt Lee and Mych (helping me to "obtain" over 100 paint swatches) we were able to create it.

3. The closet. So hear is the back story on the closet: One of the biggest issues with living in a 1/1 with 2.5 people is the teeny tiny closet.  After weeks of having this conversation...

Me: "Tim can you fix the closet"

 Tim: "Yes, Ill do it later" 

I got bold and decided to do it myself. When Tim came home I greeted him at the door with "soooo dont be mad". He walked in the bedroom and found this hurricane.

 I was able to take everything out of the closet then Layla reminded me I was 7 months pregnant and the work pretty much stopped there.

 So after a long day at work, he fixed the closet... mumbling angrily at me the entire time.

 The closet is now 75% complete but a HUGE improvement to what it was

4. Our dresser. I am a space addict and Tim is a hoarder (we will probably need therapy for this one day). With our closet completely packed, we still needed somewhere to put Baby's things. I found this second hand dresser at a consignment shop for $70 SCORE!

My dad repurposed it and now we have a home for Layla's things. Picture below

5. Lastly our bedroom finally getting put together. Although it's small, I worked hard to find a home for everything (It is quite the process to get Tim to part with something. Like it said, hoarder... love you Boo)  Im proud of what we created.

Check out of Pinterest to see the how-to's.