22 weeks
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Baby Ahrens
How far along: 22 weeks
Musings on Weekly Photo: Love this sweater from Liz Lange Maternity! I promise you it is more flattering in real life (this pic was snapped after the work day).
Weight Gain: 12.5 pounds
Maternity Clothes: Yes. I’ve been loving the maternity pants I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I can still wear quite a few of my pre-pregnancy tops so that’s been nice.
Fruit of the Week / Size of Baby: Papaya! Our little bambino is clocking in at one pound this week.
Movement: He’s been moving and shaking all over the place.
Cravings: Cheez Its. We almost never have crackers in the house but I picked these up the last time we were grocery shopping and am officially obsessed.
Annoyance: I’ve been hitting the gym as of late in an effort to be healthier and have been getting some snarky side eye looks in the weight room. I’m actually surprised, I thought LA of all places would be all about the pregos working out!
Highlights of the Week: Signing up for our maternity ward tour at the hospital. It isn’t until March but I’m so excited and know the months are going to be flying by.
Tags: 22 weeks, baby, chalkboard update, pregnancy
21 weeks
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Baby Ahrens
How far along: 21 weeks. This picture was actually taken at 21 weeks, 4 days. Since my due date has changed I’ll start posting on Tuesdays.
Musings on Weekly Photo: I feel like I look HUGE in this picture but I’m still feeling good and not too big in general.
Weight Gain: Y’ALL. 10 pounds. Holy crap. I’m not sure how much is baby and how much is Christmas cookies but I’ve gained 12.5 total.
Maternity Clothes: Yes! I picked up a couple of pairs of jeans from Destination Maternity and some tops from Old Navy.
Fruit of the Week / Size of Baby: Our boy is the size of a banana!
Movement: He’s been moving and shaking all over the place.
Cravings: Nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve been working on trying to eat healthy though.
Highlights of the Week: Deciding on the date of my baby showers that my Aunt and bestie are throwing for me. This boy is so spoiled by how many people love him already!
Tags: 21 weeks, baby, chalkboard update, pregnancy, weekly photo
20 Weeks
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Baby Ahrens
How far along: 20 weeks. We’re half way there baby! Also, updated due date: May 22, 2012.
Musings on Weekly Photo: Love our new chalkboard decal via Amazon. Perfect for apartment dwellers like ourselves. Kindly ignore the strategic cropping of all the crap that is STILL unpacked in the nursery.
Weight Gain: All shall be revealed at our January 12th appointment. I have a feeling it’s going to be a doozie as I may or may not have indulged willy nilly during the holidays.
Maternity Clothes: I’ve been using the magical Belly Band for my pants up until now. Over our break I stopped in to Motherhood Maternity and picked out a few pairs of pants and a top. I’ve been making my usual shirts work but based on this photo, it looks like it’s time to size up!
Fruit of the Week / Size of Baby: Large Heirloom Tomato! Our ultrasound technician also told us he was weighing in at 12 ounces.
Movement: Finally feeling some flutters in there!
Cravings: Nothing crazy here. I’ll eat macaroni and cheese any time of day and frozen yogurt is really hitting the spot.
Anti-Highlight of the Week: Almost passing out at our ultrasound. I was apparently laying too flat on my back and pinching my Vena Cava and restricting blood flow to my brain. A little scary!!
Highlights of the Week: Finding out that we are expecting a baby BOY!
Tags: 20 weeks, baby, pregnancy, weekly photo
Oh Baby!
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Happy Homemakers
Hey friends! I hope everyone had a great New Year. We’re kicking 2012 off with a big announcement…we’re adding to our crazy clan! Baby Ahrens is due May 26th. Now that I’ve turned the corner on morning sickness and general exhaustion, I owe you a tour of our new apartment and some projects we’ve been working on. Get fired up people, I have a feeling 2012 is going to be a fun filled adventure!
Psst…chalkboard idea borrowed from another Hawkeye mama!
Tags: announcement, baby, chalkboard, Oh Baby, pregnancy
Moving on Up
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Happy Homemakers
So….we’re moving. Not back to Iowa but to West LA, but I think I’m getting ahead of myself. Turns out, this crazy grad-school adventure has led to a pretty fantastic job for Matt, I’ve landed a promotion at my job and it seems like we’ve sort of turned this temporary move into a “hey we live here and love it” thing. We have been in the market for a new place for a few months. Let me tell you folks, the call of the en suite washer/dryer was too much for me. I could not handle the coin laundry for one more day. Trying to find a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment on the Westside that accepts dogs and has a washer and dryer in the unit and in our price range is like the unicorn of apartment hunting. We started to believe it just didn’t exist.
We contemplated moving away from the Westside. Downtown was looking trendy and fun. We even found a super cool loft with exposed brick and huge windows. We almost pulled the trigger but decided maybe we weren’t downtown people. Eh, back to the drawing board for a couple months. Then, THEN! I found a glorious Craig’s List posting describing our unicorn of an apartment. Matt and I sped over there and were sold in about 2 seconds. We move in this weekend. This has given us approximately 10 days to pack all of our stuff and get ready for the movers to arrive on Sunday.
Things are slow going. I am the person who wants to clear the clutter, trash any un-used items and start off with a lighter amount of stuff in our new place. Matt, well, he does not. He LOVES to get all nostalgic packing the boxes. It doesn’t matter if we’re packing mementos from our wedding or last year’s tax return. Every item needs to be carefully reflected upon and then saved. Lord almighty, he’s a saver. We’ve come up with a basic solution. I’m packing the boxes and hoping he doesn’t miss anything I toss/donate/sell on Craig’s List.
So, we will be back to share photos of the new place (our camera cord is currently packed up) and give you the run down on how hiring movers (fancy!) for the first time went down. In the meantime, tell me your packing mantra: toss it or save it?
psst: Ridiculous/awesome unicorn picture found here. All other fuzzy pictures courtesy of my awesome cell phone camera.
Tags: apartment hunting, moving, packing
Pinterest Challenge
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Before & After
Our readers are a savvy bunch so I’m sure you all are on Pinterest and loving it as much as I do. If not, get your booty over there and get pinning. Pinterest is essentially a virtual pinboard. Instead of keeping all of you recipes, gift ideas, DIY projects as bookmarks on your computer (or printed out in a binder) you pin what you love on Pinterest. It keeps everything tidy in your designated categories (boards) with photos and hyperlinks back to the original source. Genius people, genius! You can follow my boards here. Anyhoo, some of my favorite bloggers issued a Pinterest Challenge.
In everyone’s zeal to pin everything and anything they realized that maybe we all were doing more pinning than projects. Hand raised, guilty as charged. So here I am, taking the Pinterest Challenge. One of my very first pins was a campaign dresser from Emily A. Clark.
Gorgeous, right? Here’s another brightly colored dresser by the Little Green Notebook that had my wheels turning.
As fate would have it, I stopped into the Salvation Army on my walk home from work last week and found my own little campaign dresser for $20. I was beyond thrilled. I think I squealed a little bit on my way home. After Matt graciously helped me load that beast into the back of the Elantra. Y’all, that thing has some serious hauling power.
So, here she is:
Grody, right? I took off all of the brass hardware and started scrubbing it down with Brasso. This method was working fairly well but I was getting kind of light headed from all of the fumes. These handles were really tarnished so I was kind of stuck in the kitchen with the fumes scrubbing away.
Then I had a light bulb moment. Doesn’t vinegar and salt do the same thing without the stank? I remember cleaning pennies in high school to prove this chemical reaction. Well, wouldn’t you know, it worked like a charm and was a lot less abrasive.
While the hardware was removed I wiped the entire dresser down and primed it with my handy Zinsser Stain Blocking Primer. I also filled a few minor cosmetic scratches with wood filler and gave the whole thing a light sanding before priming.
After slapping on the primer I really thought about keeping the dresser white (or black). As we all know, I do love a good neutral. I put my big girl pants on and said go big or go home. Matt and I were looking at the dressers above as well as Centsational Girl’s recent project for color inspiration.
We decided we wanted to stay in the blue/green realm of things this time so we picked up a quart of Sherwin Williams Oceanside and I was ready to slap some paint on this baby.
This picture was taken after the first coat. I almost had a nervous breakdown. Oh em gee. Have I painted my glorious campaign dresser an eye searing shade of turquoise? Luckily, once the second (third and fourth!) coats were added the color became much more muted and what we were going for. A collective sigh of relief from everyone!
I added two coats of wipe on polyurethane and added the hardware back to the dresser. I especially fell in love with the color when I added the newly spruced up drawer pulls. It’s like jewelry for the furniture! What do you think?
We’re still contemplating where this little guy should live. It’s a little short for a bedside table but I’m wondering if it works 100% in the living room.
Either way, we love our first foray in to the wonderful world of color. So tell me, are you Pinterest addicts too? Have you tackled a project that you’ve had on your to-do list forever?
Tags: Campaign Dresser, DIY project, Salvation Army purchase, Sherwin Williams paint, thrifting
View From the Top
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Happy Homemakers
When our friends, Mel and Addison came for a visit we managed to knock off another item off our Sand Bucket List. That’s right, we signed up for the touristy of tours-the StarLine Double Decker Hollywood Tour. Wahoo!
We felt a little sheepish handy over our twenty bucks but without a doubt I can say, it was worth it. I personally could skip the craziness that is Hollywood. There isn’t anywhere to park, there are million people milling around (with strollers!) and I can’t handle getting hustled by some “actor” dressed up as some blue man from Avatar. Exit soapbox. Ahem.
But the tour? It was fabulous! It was an hour long and we had great guide and perfect seats. Honestly, if you want to see Hollywood, this is the way to do it. You hit all of the hotspots and our guide pointed out buildings and scenes from movies that we never would have know/noticed had we driven around solo.
Our guide had plenty of stories to go along with all of our stops. I can’t remember them all and I’m pretty sure there was some heavy improv going on but it was fun.
You definitely have to keep your camera handy throughout the tour. We coasted right by a few landmarks that I wished I could have grabbed a photo of.
The Whiskey a Go Go. Bonus billboard of Betty White!
The Laugh Factory. Where the likes of Tim Allen, Drew Carey and Wanda Sykes (love her!) got their start.
Definitely a must-do if you’re in town and want to see Hollywood. Skip the walking tours and hop on a bus! What’s the most touristy thing you’ve done? We are always ending up at some tourist trap, whatever city we visit. Hard Rock Café, anyone?
Tags: california, Friends, Hollywood, Hollywood Tour, Star Line Tour
Booze Cruise
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Steals and Deals
I have a confession, I‘ve been holding our on you dear readers. You all know that I’ve been trolling around looking for the perfect bar cart. A couple of months ago my Dad called and said he found one on Craig’s List and bought it for me (yay Dad!). Side note-I have turned my Dad in to a Craig’s List fiend. He resisted Craig and his list for ages but I can happily report after a few successful sales they are now BFF.
Anyway, He bought the little cart for fifty smackers and said to drive on down and pick her up. We grabbed it when were down visiting the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Yeah, it was that long ago. Here it is in all of it booze hound glory. Kindly ignore the vertical blinds. Please and thank you.
We did a little switching around in the kitchen to accommodate the cart. Our bookcase holding all our cookbooks is on the opposite wall and the little white wine rack that we had was sold (on Craig’s List, naturally) for $20.
It’s definitely not the glorious gold bamboo bar cart of my dreams (beggars can’t be choosers!) but it does a fine job of holding all our wine and spirits. Kelly, from Classically Eclectic hit the bar cart jackpot.
I think ours would be adorable on the patio out by the pool. You know, if I had a pool. Or a patio. But for now it looks nice and cozy in the corner of our dining room.
Artsy fartsy shot. Love that macro button. PS- Are we all in love with the teeny tiny Pellegrino bottles? I bought them to gussy up our guest room when Mel and Addison were staying with us. News flash- they taste awful. Only Matt has a sophisticated enough palate for them. At least they’re pretty!
So, thanks Dad for hunting down our little cart. What does everyone think? Love the throw back design? Think we might spend too much time trying to house our alcohol? What’s your biggest Craig’s List score?
Tags: apartment decorating, bar cart, Craig's List finds, kitchen updates
Iowa Invasion
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Dashboard Diaries, Happy Homemakers, Random Musings
Last week our best friends came to visit us for a week. We impressed ourselves with how much action we crammed into 6 days. Prepare yourself for an avalanche of photos, celebrity sightings and LA fun. Away we go…
We spent our first day soaking in the sun on the beach and doing a little bar crawl along the boardwalk. Big Deans, The Whaler and The Waterfront Café if you’re ever in the area and in need of adult beverages and an ocean breeze. We felt extra cool on our bicycle built for two. The boys were slightly mortified.
Day two was spent taking in the fanciness that is Beverly Hills. I can’t help myself, every time we pass the Beverly Hills sign I start singing Cookie Time from Troop Beverly Hills.
Here we are in all of our touristy glory!
We made a quick detour for Sprinkles Cupcakes (Red Velvet for me and Blueberry Lemonade for Matt) on our way to Hollywood for our Starline Double Decker Bus Tour. But that adventure deserves its own post. I mean it is on our Sand Bucket List and all!
We spent another day at The Grove hunting celebrities. We saw AC Slater filming his show Extra and Vince Vaughn. For journalistic integrity I will conceded that the boys were the ones who actually saw Vince Vaughn. Mel and I were too busy scouring the sales racks at Anthropologie. Executive decisions were made that it still counts as a celebrity sighting because we have a picture. So there.
After our brush with celebrity fame we were off to the Dodgers Game. New Dodger gear for the boys. I find this traitorous as they are both Cubs fans.
Another celeb sighting at the Dodgers Game. Nakia from The Voice belted out the Star Spangled Banner and Take Me Out to the Ballgame.
We wrapped up the last day of whirlwind fun at Universal Studios. Plenty of fun and food was enjoyed there!
Whew! Just recapping our adventures makes me tired. We had so much fun with our Iowa pals and can’t wait to have them back. Hopefully they’ll bring their super cute baby Emma with them next time!
What’s the most touristy thing you’ve done while on vacation? Ever rode a bicycle built for two?
Tags: Beach Fun, Beverly Hills Tour, Bike rides, dodger stadium, Hollywood Tour, Sprinkles Cupcakes
Chair Affair
Posted by Brittney | Filed under Steals and Deals
I’ve had my eye on this chair forever. Like a year and a half forever. I loved the linen fabric and the clean lines. I had been begging Matt to allow it to come live with us but he wasn’t sold on its gloriousness. I was beginning to think this was going to be an unrequited love. He finally relented once I schemed found out that we could buy it with our credit card points. Yay! It arrived earlier this week semi-assembled and I tore right into it.
From the moment I opened the box I knew we had a winner. Look, Target is actually congratulating me on such a fine decision to purchase their furniture. I was feeling pretty smug about my new fandangled chair.
On a side note, does anyone else think this packaging is a little on the gruesome side? Maybe it’s because we’ve been marathon-watching through seasons 1 and 2 of Dexter and we’re thinking more grisly than the average chair purchaser.
Anyway, there were 2 chair legs (surprise!) inside the box but that’s not the horror of the story. Oh no, this unassuming chair was a pain in the arse to put together. I’ll say it now and without guilt. I hate the cursed Allen Wrench! I love Ikea and Target and all of their glorious cheapness but god I loathe putting together the furniture. After a series of meltdowns Matt gallantly stepped in and finished the chair assembly for me.
Look at that fanciness! I moved our new lamp over there in hopes to convince the Allen-Wrench Hero that we need another side table with lamps on either side of the couch. The picture below is looking from the dining room back into the living room. See how we need more light? A call to the commenters…tell Matt us we need another table lamp!
So like any good love story, the chair and I had ups and downs but we are now living happily ever after. Tell me that I’m not alone in my with my Allen Wrench aversion. Have you bought anything with credit card points? Was it something you wouldn’t have bought normally? Do tell!
