Maternity Dress Alteration

     Austin has VERY FEW options for maternity clothes.  It's Motherhood Maternity and then tiny tiny corners of department stores that specialize in selling clothes that are black and grey.  It's so hard to find color!  Oh and stripes.  Black, grey, and stripes.  Ugh.  So depressing for Spring!  I found a thrift store that buys clothes from people and re-sells them.  So it's the Plato's Closet of maternity and kid clothing.  I have found quite a few things there, shorts/pants are usually about $7 each and dresses are between $10 and $15.  Shirts are about $8.  Definitely more doable than $25-$30 shirts at Motherhood Maternity.  Well anyway, I bought this thrifted dress a while back.  It's from GAP Maternity, so pretty good quality and a great dark purple color (the lighting was being difficult for these pictures!)

But, the length was pretty borderline.  I hate worrying about dresses and skirts and keeping them down in Church (or anywhere), while I'm walking, and especially while I'm sitting.

      Please excuse the self portraits in our bathroom mirror.  I needed a before shot.  Anyway,  I went to Jo-Anne's and found the perfect fabric to add to the bottom.  I excitedly went to work and spent an entire evening sewing 6 inches to the bottom of the dress.  My first idea and instinct was to just make a layered look.  But, for some reason I chose to go for a ruffle.  I'd seen it on a blog and thought it looked fine.  Well, I finished the ruffle and tried on the dress.  It was hideous.  The ruffle looked SO BAD.  I was heartbroken.  I'd just spent lots of time and energy making a dress ugly.  I wish I had taken a picture, you would shudder if you saw it.  So, I pushed the project aside and took time to calm my troubled heart (as is often necessary during sewing projects gone wrong).  Soon after, I took a seam ripper to all my hard work and removed the ruffle, removed the gathers, and then put the dress in the closet for a few weeks.  Well, last night I finally got up the motivation to try again.  This time, I went with my original idea.  It really didn't take long at all to do and when I finished and tried it on I was so pleased!
     Here's a close up of the fabric that I added to the bottom, it was the perfect shade of yellow to go with the dark purple.

     I added a belt to the waist to give it a bit of style and oila, a rather plain border-line length dress was transformed into a trendy dress that made this pregnant woman very happy! 

Pun-Off World Championship

     So Austin hosts the Pun-Off World Championship each year.  Not sure if they've actually ever had internationals compete, but it does attract people from around the United States to compete.  I discovered this event months ago and instantly became excited.  Jackson was equally excited and we've been anticipating this forever.  What can we say, we have a punny sense of humor.  Anyway, last weekend the day finally arrived.  We drove downtown, claimed a spot on the lawn and settled in for some great entertainment.

     It was set up in a bracket competition.  3 competitors would be on stage at a time and they went in a line spouting off puns related to the current category.  Some categories were: condiments, pregnancy, winged animals, movie stars, documents, and fairy tales.  If you repeated a pun word that was already used (for example using tinker bell in a pun when she had already been used) then you would receive a strike.  You would also receive a strike if your pun wasn't actually a pun.  3 strikes and you're out.  You had 10 seconds to come up with a pun otherwise you were eliminated regardless of how many strikes you had.  So, they would just take turns spouting off clever statements.  It's amazing that people can do that on the spot with a surprise category!  

    Jackson was actually pretty good at it and came up with quite a few of his own during each round.  Here are some examples:  

    Category:  Condiment.   "Olive to die another day" 

    Category:  Winged creatures:  "When I got here there was a bird robbin' a bank"  

    Category: Television:  "I was feeling kind of dirty so I went to the soap opera" 

    Category:  Winged creatures:  "Sometimes it's a peng to win" 

     

    Anyway, those are just some that I wrote down.  I couldn't think of any!  Here we are enjoying the show, despite the heat (an umbrella really helped to cool us down!) 

     It was a pretty hippie atmosphere.  Austin is such a different city from San Antonio!  But I love it.  Very active, educated, and of course weird.  

     I also saw one of the most beautiful dogs I've ever seen.  I loved it.  And that's saying a lot coming from me. 

     Cute right?  Anyway, after some good laughs and impressive performances we clapped for the winner and headed home.  I didn't know that suggesting we go to the pun off included Jackson speaking in puns for the rest of the evening.  On the way home he used every exit name in a pun.  All through dinner I wasn't allowed to speak unless it was a pun.  It did force me to come up with puns and some were actually quite decent!  Jackson is impressively good at them though.  

    Anyway, it was a great Saturday afternoon date and we ended the evening by going to a friend's house for a Pajama movie night but ended up playing games all night with like 6 other couples.  It was great fun.  We LOVE where we live and have made such wonderful friends!  

Ankle Rolls

     My feet were pretty prone to swelling even before pregnancy.  Now, it's just out of control.  Apparently when you are pregnant your body has a 50% increase in blood volume... thanks to gravity, lots of that extra blood ends up in your feet.  So, I only fit in one pair of flats, my running shoes, and flip flops.  I wear flip flops to church (something I never did before but have no choice to do now) and even then, my flip flops leave indentations on my feet.  I put my feet up on a chair in front of me any time it's available in church, work, and at home.  I've learned that swelling includes pain, something I didn't expect.  Swelling makes the top of my feet feel bruised.  People look at me with pity and/or sympathy and always express words of comfort.  I just laugh about it.  If I didn't laugh, then I would cry and it's not worth it to cry.  And really, my feet get IMPRESSIVELY LARGE.  People talk about having cankles but I periodically develop ROLLS.

    Yes those are my feet.  Jackson likes to joke that I have baby feet.  This particular picture was taken when I was at my parents' house.  I casually pointed out my swollen feet, rather fascinated at how large they had gotten, and my mom took one look and flipped.  She banished me to the couch and in no time at all I ended up like this: 

     After about 2 hours my feet had gone down enough that I could at least drive home.  I tell you what, this baby better appreciate what I go through to get him into the world!  My little sister recently said that pregnancy is a pretty sweet deal in that you have 9 months without any menstrual cramps.  I laughed and informed her I would take cramps a few days a month any day over all the constant aches and pains that come with pregnancy!  

     Good thing I already love this little guy inside of me and good thing he makes me smile and laugh every single day as he kicks and jiggles my stomach like jello.  He's gonna be a great kid, we're so excited for him to get here.  I tell you what though, he is ACTIVE!  Now that I'm in the 3rd trimester my doctor wants me count kicks to make sure my baby's activity level stays consistent and to be aware of any decrease.  He told me that I need to count 10 kicks in 2 hours and if I don't, come to the hospital immediately.  I've been counting for 2 weeks now, at the same time each night.   It's never taken me more than 10 minutes to get to 10 kicks.  Usually it takes between one and two minutes.  Looks like he's inherited his daddy's energy! 

     Anyway,  pregnancy side effects aren't all bad.  I can't comfortably bend over and reach my toes anymore so painting my toe nails is out of the question.  Luckily, my little sister Tara was happy to fix that problem for me! 

     I can't wait to get a pedicure with my first pay check from work or for my birthday in July.  I had my first and only pedicure for my wedding and became a huge fan.  I totally get it now.  Such a simple way to be pampered but so effective.  Until then, Tara will definitely fill the need though! 

    So, don't feel bad for me.  Feel free to laugh at the ankle rolls.  I do! 

     

Easter

     For our first Easter as a married couple, we went down to San Antonio to spend it with Jackson's family.  Easter is much more fun with kids around so we flocked to the nieces and nephews.  We attended a lovely Easter church service then had a big feast at my sister-in-law's house.  There was a ton of delicious food and lots of family and friends.  After dinner, we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids and enjoyed the beautiful evening.  We both really enjoyed it but as another Holiday came and went it got me thinking about traditions.  It's been hard to even have a chance to establish our own traditions since this first year we spend all of the holidays with family.  It makes me sad that we've just gone with the flow and participated in our families' traditions rather than creating our own.  I'm determined that we make more of an effort in working in our own traditions even if we do spend the holidays with our families.  Traditions are so important and make each Holiday feel like the Holiday it is.  They are a source of happiness, joy, and excitement for me and as newlyweds it's time we figure out some of our own! Here's to future Holidays!
In the mean time though, enjoy the pictures from our Easter Sunday.

On the hunt! 

My mother-in-law got a hold of one of the kids' masks.  I love how it matches her shirt perfectly!

My nephew Boston

My 1 year old niece Anabelle.  She just loved sharing those Easter eggs! 

My nieces insisted on playing before we went back to Austin and before they had to go to bed.  So we dressed up dolls and stuffed animals and it was great fun! 

Creative Exploits

     So, besides getting creative in the kitchen (in case you haven't heard, I'm cooking a new main dish every day for a year).  I have also been trying my hand at various sewing projects and crafts around the house.  I think I'm finally ready to start sewing baby things too, can't wait to get that started!  In fact, we just got our income tax return today so I feel validated going to buy the stuff to do it! Anyway, here are some pictures to show you what I have been keeping busy with over the past 6 months.
     First, I made some curtains for our humongous window in the bedroom.  Not only do they block out the hotel-esque light that comes through the blinds from the complex parking lot at night, they also look really cute and add much needed color to our room!  I had fun combining masculine and feminine and coming up with curtains that would match all 3 different bedspreads.  Polka dots on top, stripes on the bottom.

     At the same time I was working on the curtains, I also sewed and decorated a Christmas stocking for Jackson.  My aunt sewed my entire family stockings years ago and I wanted to make one for Jackson to match.  I learned a lot of lessons and it's not perfect but I think it still turned out pretty cute.  Note the cowboy snowman. 

There was a lot of detail work that went into it.  I used cowboy ornaments to decorate a little wooden snowman that I painted.  Added buttons, used ribbon for the scarf, and cut out fabric for gloves.  Take a closer look at the cowboy boot turned stocking.  It's my favorite part! It was so satisfying to glue those presents and candy canes in! So cute!

Next, I created fabric wall hangings for the big empty wall above our bed.  I bought 1x2 inch pieces of wood, had my dad help me cut them down to equal sizes with his electric saw table then I used a hammer, wood joining nails, wood glue, and regular nails to construct a frame with a flat face.  I then neatly folded fabric around it and used hot glue and nails to secure the fabric on.  It was a cheap project and very satisfying to add some more color and pattern to our room.  And I only got yelled at from a neighbor once for all of my hammering.  

Here's the overall effect in our room: 

About a month ago my aunt came up to Austin and helped me on my t-shirt quilt.  I started it a year and a half ago but have never made a quilt before and didn't know how to do it.  So, my aunt instructed me on how to pin it and together we got it pinned.  Who knew pinning a quilt was an all day affair?!  It was a terribly painful day doing all of that up and down form the floor.  By the end of the day I was holding back tears and shouts of pain because my back hurt so badly.  Never again will I do a project that requires extensive work on the floor while pregnant! But hey, the t-shirt quilt turned out great considering all of it's imperfections and mistakes I made when I was putting it together without any help! 

Last but not least, my sister and I made aprons together recently.  I'll post her modeling the one she made.  You'll have to wait to see me in mine because it looks pretty silly awkwardly hanging over my big belly.  Doesn't quite fit the way it should!  My sister and I used the same main pattern, hers is just a lime green and mine is what I call 70's green.  She used black and white polka dots, I used brown and white.  I think they turned out pretty cute though and not bad for making up our own pattern! 

And that's it.  Now it's time to make cute baby stuff! If you have any great ideas, feel free to share them! 

It snowed in Texas!

No, not recently.  Don't worry, it's like 93 every day this week.  And I'm not even sure if I've seen moisture hit the ground since it snowed back in February.  We are in such a terrible drought (worst one in 45 years... and it just keeps going.  We're praying those wildfires stay away from Austin and San Antonio!)  Anyway, I've lived in central Texas for a good 11 years of my life and have never seen snow that actually stuck on the ground.  I figured I'd add a few posts to share some of the fun we've been having pre-blog creation.  So, the first week of February was a COLD one.  Temperatures dropped to the teens and it brought back nightmares of winter in Provo.  However,  with all of the cold, it actually snowed and stuck twice in one week!  And the snow didn't melt by mid-afternoon, it stuck around for a few days!  An incredible feat for central Texas.  On February 4, 2011 I woke up and just KNEW that it had snowed.  Had this feeling.  So, I peek out the window, give a squeal of delight, and run out to our balcony.  Here's what I saw:

     I dragged Jackson out of bed and made him go on a walk with me.  Snow is not his favorite thing, but he loves me so he humored me.  He couldn't go to work anyway, Texas is not equipped to make frozen roads safe.  In fact, they are so wise that they managed to put salt down the night before which melted the ice that was already formed but then all that snow and previously melted ice just refroze on the roads, even worse than before since they had melted it first!  (Even when Jackson did go into work around noon he almost died like 3 times from other drivers)  Here's what the roads were like everywhere (in Provo driving on snow wasn't too big of a deal, but here, it's not snow, it's ice.  Everywhere.) 

Anyway, I enjoyed the excuse to put on my boots, tried to make sure my husband wouldn't freeze too bad (he has no winter gear, no coat, no nothing.  Just a hoodie.  It's an unfortunate tale of how that came to be, but he was a trooper) and we headed down the sidewalk of Lakeline Blvd. 

Early on, Jackson tried to shove me to make me slip.  I had a good laugh when I stayed upright and he was the one that took the fall! 

    This picture is especially cool because it looks like he's doing some crazy matrix move!  After I finished laughing at him, I helped him up.  Later, he did manage to make me fall (being the kind husband that he is, he didn't let me take the fall full force but, rather caught me on the way down and let me fall gently to the concrete. I didn't get nearly as wet as he did!  

We enjoyed our short walk down our road and I got my snow fix for the year. 

Saturday at the Park

     This past Saturday we went to Zilker park near downtown Austin.  One of Jackson's very good friends from high school was visiting us and so we took her to see some evidence of Austin's incredible urban planning.  We're only 90 miles from our parents' houses but I'm amazed at how different Austin is from San Antonio.  San Antonio is home and we love it but I just LOVE how active Austin is.  We have 20 miles of biking and running trails basically right outside our front door.  There are lots and lots of spacious parks with creeks, rivers, and lakes galore.  It makes me anxious to have this baby and have my body back to take on some of those trails!  (The baby can come too of course... I would just rather push him in a stroller than have an awkwardly large belly and loose muscles!)
     We began by checking out the Botanical Gardens in Zilker Park.  Unfortunately, flowers were hard to come by, and the shrubbery and landscaping looked a bit overgrown and the ponds were surprisingly dirty and we felt bad for the fish in there.  So, we do not recommend the Botanical Gardens in Zilker Park, but I do recommend taking a break from walking in this chair:

     From here, we ran into the Townlake trail which goes straight through downtown but hugs the lake the entire way.  I can't wait to run and bike on it in the Fall.  First though, I want to try out the kayak rentals!  I love boats and I especially love kayaks, there are few activities better than enjoying a day on the river or lake, exploring at your own pace and jumping in the water when it gets too hot.  

     Jackson Allie, and I enjoyed the view before heading off to our picnic lunch. 

     

     We enjoyed a relaxing day at the park and are excited to return to swim, kayak, hike, and bike!  Luckily, we have a park with similar options right by our house.  However, this one has an urban feel that makes it even more fun.  It was great for me to get to know Allie and she was a wonderful guest to have.  We hope she visits again!