Oh, how I love PINK & RED!

Yup, I've got pink and red on the brain...as in, Valentine's Day pink and red...and yes, I know it's still two days until Christmas :) I love valentine's day and all the cheesiness (is that even a word?) of the so-called "hallmark holiday". Maybe it's because for me it involves making homemade crafts with Grace and baking as many heart-shaped tasty treats as I can come up with. While cleaning out a closet, my mom came across a shoebox full of old cards people had given me when I was little and some I had stashed away to give to others - talk about a trip down memory lane! The best part was there were some sweet vintage valentines in there from the late 70s and early 80s. Then I was attempting to clean out a hall closet (now HOW does that thing get so messy so quickly?!?!?!) and I found an unopened package of vintage-inspired valentine treat bags, which will be perfect for Grace's little class party in February!!! So excited...it's the little things for me I tell ya!

Anyhow, I've been searching for pink and red and came across this sweet little lounge set for Grace in one of my all-time favorite dottie fabrics And then I found this sweet little number... and you know how much I love aprons!!! This one is for moms - perfect!! except I don't think it'll really work with the baby bump and all :) And finally, these yummy fabrics that just make me think spring, fruit stands, and running around barefoot in a farm (never mind that we don't have a farm to run around in). Aren't these gorgeous together??? I settled for a little twirly longsleeve dress from Josiekat's Trunk in these fabrics for Grace so she can wear it for Valentine's, along with these which are some of our old-time favorites! Did you know Puddle Jumpers is coming out with a line of boots in January?? So cute! By the way, Josiekat's Trunk is having a sale on items from their website, including their markdowns and overstock items (lots of size 4/5) and free shipping on orders of $50 or more. Our first experience with their products was a Halloween dress I bought on eBay and I must say the quality of their dresses is top-notch! The knit tops on their dresses are very thick cotton and so soft - perfect for tee dresses. So check them out if you have a little princess who loves to wear dresses.

Grace likes to play with my jewelry, wearing my beaded necklaces all while telling me she's "stylish". And she's recently developed an obsession with ears and earrings - likes to pull my hair back while sitting on my lap and tells me "mama's earrings so pretty...Grace no earrings" complete with puppy dog eyes - boy, oh, boy are we in trouble!!!

decorating help!

In January, we will begin the transformation of our guest room into Grace's big girl room with the hopes of moving her in for her second birthday in March and allowing three months or so for the adjustment period before the new baby comes in June (hoping that way she won't feel "evicted" from her nursery by Baby).

The room is on the smallish side and so after much thought I've decided to get rid of the full size bed that's in there and go with a twin to make the room feel bigger. I also decided to wait on the aqua blue/red/cream room I had my mind set to (see this post) until she's a bit older and we move into a bigger house.

Back in the Spring, I fell in love with this bedding from Pottery Barn and purchased the quilt, sham, sheets, owl decorative pillow, and that sweet little pink owl friend, so this will be the bedding in her new room. I purchased it in a twin size, so in hindsight maybe I was already thinking twin instead of full size bed... I don't normally like to purchase bedding in a set, prefering the mix-n-match, collected-over-time vintage look, so I even surprised myself with this purchase.

The bed will most likely be a vintage find from 8 years ago - a sweet little European single that I had cut down to twin size, added wooden appliques, painted a minty green shade, and distressed. I don't have a picture of it and it's in storage right now so you'll have to use your imagination, but it has a headboard and footboard similar to the one in the PBK picture above and some cute old casters that lock into place.

So here's where I need help! Should I paint the bed light pink, creamy white, or some other shade to go with the bedding? What color for the walls? The room has a big, tall window so it gets a lot of natural light, which I love. What type of curtains? And what about a bedskirt? Style, fabric colors, etc. I didn't buy the one in the picture 'cause it wasn't my favorite.

If new baby is a girl, then I'll need to purchase and refinish a dresser, since we would then leave Grace's nursery furniture in there for the Baby, including the antique armoire in the post below. If new baby is a boy, then I'll move the dresser (see below) into Grace's room, as well as the armoire. And I definitely want this sweet sentiment in there Okay, have I confused you enough? Seriously, I'd love your suggestions and creative ideas :)

my favorite little trees

I love finding sweet little vintage bottle brush trees to add to my collection. Last year I found this little baby pink one and I immediately knew where I wanted to put it - in Grace's room! The mini tree skirt is actually a baby bib fashioned out of a vintage hankie. And the little pink toile bunny is Grace's favorite bunny...he guards her tree :) As she gets older I'd love for her to decorate her little tree with ornaments she makes.

This little lamb is not a holiday decoration, but it's one of my favorite things in Grace's room! I found it at one of our local antique stores and fell in love with it right away. I initially intended to give it away as a baby shower gift, but couldn't bear to part with it after seeing it on top of Grace's armoire, my favorite piece of furniture in the entire house. It was a birthday day gift to me from my mother and grandmother and actually the last gift my grandma gave me before her memory failed due to Alzheimer's. It has such a special meaning to me.

And this is my little village, as I like to call it. It's full of little vintage houses, trinkets and treasures and some sweet felt ornaments, both new and old. And topped with a tiny, glittery jingle bell wreath ornament I found at Target a couple of years back. I love transforming the house for the holidays. Makes me happy to look at all the little trees!

Grace's Brother or Sister

Tuesday I had my second OB appointment (11w2d) and it went GREAT! Baby is measuring 11 weeks 5 days with a heartbeat of 173! My doctor was caught up in an emergency delivery, so to speed things along the nurse decided to let the tech run an ultrasound to check Baby's heartbeat while we waited for my OB to make it into the office. Bonus Ultrasound - check, check! I'll take one any day just to get an extra peek at that sweet little one who's been making me feel so yucky lately!!

Nichole, the tech, was super nice and took lots of time taking sweet pictures of Baby. She even switched it to the 4D just for fun! With Grace we didn't do a 3D/4D until I started having too close contractions at 32wks. and had to be hospitalized overnight. By then, she was too big and crammed in there to get really cute pictures of her face/profile. So maybe we'll get to do a "just for fun" ultrasound between 22-27 weeks for some cute shots of our new addition.

Baby is one busy bee!! Legs kicking and arms stretching all over the place. At one point, Baby decided to cover his/her face while bouncing all around. Can't wait until we know if Baby is a boy or a girl so we can start calling Baby by name.

Here are a couple of photos...

Profile view Long legs!! One in 4D Can't wait to meet you, little one!!

Baby Jesus in my heart

It's important to us, as I'm sure it is to you, that Grace learn the real reason for the season. We talk about Baby Jesus, we listen to the gospel at church, we read The Christmas Story to her, and we try to focus on the giving aspect rather than the receiving, but at times I find myself wondering how much of it is sticking, being that she's only 21 months. Well, to my delight, I came home one day last week after my mom had been taking care of Grace for the afternoon and my little pumpkin had learned the sweetest thing ever!

What is Christmas about? Baby Jesus.
Where is Baby Jesus? In your heart.

I finally caught it on tape this afternoon!!

To say I was proud is a definite understatement. My heart literally burst at the seams with pride and love and joy all mixed in together. Thank you Noonie - this is the best Christmas gift you could ever give me! And I can tell it's really stuck with Grace. This past Sunday we went to Aunt Lexi and cousin Jade's church to watch Jade perform in their annual Christmas program, where she had a solo to The Mystery. We're proud of you, Jade!! Later in the afternoon Grace kept talking about watching Jade sing for "Baby Jesus...at Christmas". So sweet :)

And now, onto a little mischief...

My mother-in-law gave us a sweet little Nativity scene that had been in their family for some time. It is so cute AND it's plastic, which is perfect since I hesitated to put out our porcelain one for fear of little hands making a dash for the intricate figurines.

Checking out the tree oh, so innocently (or so I thought...I think she was looking for a hiding place since she likes to "rearrange" the ornaments and hide little toys in the branches) CAUGHT! (with two lambs and a donkey from our Nativity scene) Trying to explain away those two little fistfuls! So hard to get upset when that sweet face is looking back at you! Thank you, Mimi for our hands-on Nativity!!! It's perfect! Every time she makes a dash for the figures, it gives me a chance to talk to her about Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph and the miracle of that most Holy Day, which brings me to...

I'm always looking for sweet traditions and ideas for the holidays. I read in a magazine where this family bakes a birthday cake for Baby Jesus, sings happy birthday, and blows out the b-day candle on Christmas morning. I think we'll try that one since Grace loves birthday cake and it'll be a good concrete way to help her celebrate our Savior's birth. If you have any fun traditions, I'd love to hear all about them! Who knows, we may borrow one or two!

Our visit to see the jolly old fella...

This afternoon we took Grace to see Santa. If you remember my Visions of Sugarplums post a while back I had an idea to set up a "Baking Cookies with Santa" photo shoot for this year's Santa trip. And let me tell you, I'm so glad I did! After all, mama knows best and mini marshmallows make for some sweet, oooey-gooey smiles! Grace did awesome and when we left I was so happy I had the guts to ask the photographer a couple of months back to let me stage the baking scene rather than the classic sitting-in-santa's-lap, which Grace is just too young for right now.

I had a lot of fun gathering all the goodies for the shoot. I was excited I got to use some of my red vintage mini bundt cake pans. And of course, I had Grace's favorites - decorating sprinkles, some new favorites - candy canes and mini marshmallows, as well as Little Debbie gingerbread men cookies (hint, these hold up well for photos because they're not soft and therefore take longer to get all sticky) and a giant old-fashioned lollie. I also found a wooden christmas cookie play set at Target that had the cutest little gingerbread man child-sized oven mitt and rolling pin. Grace was so excited to "bake" like she does with mama that she didn't mind it too much when the jolly old man came in! No tears this year!!!

Now I will say that he didn't become her best friend or anything like that, in fact at one point she said, "Santa, go...go Santa". And she didn't like it too much when he tried to talk to her, but so long as she was baking (and eating marshmallows), she didn't mind Santa helping :) The photographer had an "assistant" - a stuffed monkey - that Grace quickly labeled "George" and I think we caught some sweet smiles. I'm excited, can't wait to see the photos!

And tomorrow I'll share with you something that is really important to me and that I'm so proud my little pumpkin knows...stay tuned!

Ho, Ho, Ho...Merry Christmas!

I heart Anthropologie

This past week I have been mourning the loss of my ability to wear about 80% of my wardrobe. Before I had Grace I was definitely a fashion-lovin', shopping-a-little-too-much kind of gal, but once I had her most of that came to a halt and I became bitten by the children's fashion bug. After all, with kids, you don't have the "I look fat in that" to worry about :)

Nonetheless, after asking Lance to bring down the bins of maternity clothes from the attic, I started daydreaming about all the cute spring clothes that I wouldn't get to wear. Spring shopping is one of my favorites because everything is so airy and sweet, vintagey florals, linen sundresses, bright straw bags, the cutest spring pumps and strappy sandals, colorful bangles and dainty necklaces....ahhh, I love it all!

I know, I know what they say, "maternity clothes have come a long way". Yes, it's true, but it's still not the same. Plus it's hard to justify the expenditures when you only get to wear them for a couple of months at best.

So to make myself feel a little better, I grabbed a cup of hot cocoa and did a little window shopping from my fave store - Anthropologie, of course!

Starflower Cardigan - I know what you're thinking, "you like THAT", but yes, I do! I love that it makes me think of when my grandma was in her 20's (she was very stylish) with the crochet-like fabric, elbow length and those flowers adorning the collar. Secret Joy Dress - hmmm...maybe I could make this one work, belly and all, by having it tailored to fit like an empire waist Colorblock Heels - shoes! love that shoes fit no matter what! Bobbin Bunch Necklace - makes me think of our honeymoon in Tahiti...aaaah, those carefree days! Ease and Glee Sweatercoat - what can I say, I think I'm in love with orange...and yellow...and sky blue :) A girl can dream, can't she?