Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Is This Thing On?

 ::Waves Meekly from the Margin::

Oh hi! It's been a minute since I came around here. And by "a minute," I mean closer to SIX years. 



The post right before this one seems like it was a lifetime ago. Since 2014...

We had a beautiful baby boy in Jan 2015 named Jack


We finished that primary color nursery a month after he was born (whoops!)

We took him to the beach and to Singapore and to Europe and to a Blackhawks game and to the beach again. 



 


Then we got pregnant again and made our little family complete with little Duncan who arrived in 2017. 



After that, the whirlwind got faster and faster - my best friends and I took that tiny baby to Spain, we sold our condo in the city and became suburbanites... and that was all over 2 years ago. 

 

Now I find myself so grateful for this suburban home while we quarantine with a little backyard and a first-floor den that is a full time playroom. I spend my days working, my evenings researching social justice, and my nights making cloth masks. 2020 is a doozy, but maybe it's also the perfect time to bring this project back to life. 

 
 






Saturday, November 8, 2014

Let There Be Bright

I have been heavily wooed by the gorgeous pastel and muted nurseries that are out there. However, the reality is that babies aren't swaddled in pastels for long. From baby gyms to Bumbos to pretty much every toy that Fisher-Price makes, BOLD primary colors are going to take over the nursery (and the rest of the house...).  The other thing I love about bright colors?  It takes kids a long time to grow out of the room because the theme isn't limited to the soft tones of a newborn and it's easy to add their new interest in Thomas the Train or Dora the Explorer without having to redo the whole room.

So what are we thinking?  Let me first start with some of the colorful, gender neutral nurseries that I just LOVE.

I have to start with this gorgeous nursery from Joy (and fellow Bee!) at HowJoyful. I was instantly inspired by the whimsical circus theme paired with muted walls, bright colors, playful patterns and the beautiful marquee letter of the changing table.  If you go to the blog, you'll see that she actually made many of the unique elements herself like the hot air balloon mobile and the elephant lamp. Seriously, my love for this nursery is just so much.




I love the way that color is used in this nursery to liven up the otherwise white space. Not to mention the adorable use of pompom garland and polka dots to fill the room with whimsey at Raising Miss Matilda:




If you're looking for a quick inspiration, Lay Baby Lay is an amazing resource FULL of boards spanning every theme and color combination you could thing of.  Here are a couple of my favorite primary color and brightly colored boards the have.

Cherry Lemonade at Lay Baby Lay


Alphabet Zoo at Lay Baby Lay


Brights & Whites at Lay Baby Lay
And to round out this round up, take a peek at this gorgeous nursery from Amy Mallory. Each element feels handpicked for the space and not a single corner or tabletop has been over looked. The original post has dozens of beautiful photos highlighting all the details, so be sure to head over there and take a look.




What do you think? Have I convinced you that bright, gender neutral nurseries are the way to go?  

Next post reveals our inspiration board for our nerdery!

Monday, October 27, 2014

A Pregnancy Unicorn

It was brought to my attention this weekend that I am a Pregnancy Unicorn. A dear friend of mine is due 3 months after us and was hoping to commiserate with me when we were together in Minneapolis this weekend, but I was a total let down.  Every gripe she had, I was all "oh, yeah, I didn't have that."

I'll be honest, I've noticed that I'm suuuuuuuper lucky this pregnancy. In fact, that's why I haven't been blogging about it. I mean, who wants to read a blog that's all sunshine and rainbows? No gross morning sickness stories, no terrible "I peed my pants when I sneezed" stories. That's BORING.


So I've been following this advice. I've been keeping calm, and I'm a pregnancy unicorn.  What does that mean exactly?
 - I didn't have Morning Sickness
 - Very limited food aversions (I wasn't big into chicken for a couple weeks and one week I couldn't stand the smell of cooking beef)
 - I magically lost 10lbs in the first trimester, probably because I was happy to eat all the new summer vegetables and started a new workout routine at Barre Code (yes, dr approved!)
 - I haven't broken out with acne
 - My boobs are bigger, but aside from some bra extenders, I haven't needed to buy all new bras
 - I have some fatigue, but for the most part, I have just as much energy as I did pre-pregnancy, although now that I pee 5x a night, I'm a bit more tired than earlier in the pregnancy
 - I started to really show, pretty late. So I have been able to wear a lot of my tops, and only had to buy all new maternity bottoms
- To date, I've gained 15 lbs, so I'm only really up 5 lb vs where I was pre-pregnancy
 - My worst symptoms have been: carpal tunnel, super tender boobs all first trimester, achey back, really gross gas (sorry, husband), snoring (sorry again, husband) and I'm just starting to get swelling in my hands and feet



Am I the only pregnancy unicorn out there?? How was your pregnancy?

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Back to the Blog

Are you there readers? It's me, Kelsey.

I've been pretty MIA this year, and I have lots of excuses.
- I got a new job (Yay!)
- We're having a baby (Yay!)
- Pregnancy is tiring
- We have to retrain our dog (boo)

But the big one? I've been lazy. Instead of opening Blogger when I get home, I sit on FB or Pinterest, or don't even open my laptop.

It's been a big fat lazy summer, and before that, I was not in a great headspace - really stressed with my old job, stressed trying to find a new one, stressed about not getting pregnant right away. Stressed. Stressed. Stressed.

So now that fall is upon us, I wanted to ramp this bad boy back up.  No promises on 3-4 posts a week, but I'm going to set a very attainable goal of one per week until I get back in my blogging groove thang.

See you soon!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

OH BABY!!

I can't believe it, but we're having a BABY!   


We'd been trying since last fall, and were actually about to take a break when I got a Big Fat Positive! 

This whole thing has been overwhelming, but we are super excited to welcome our little pickle into the world in January (due January 16). I've stocked up on pregnancy books, baby bargain books, and parenting books; and I've signed up for more baby apps and newsletters than my inbox can probably handle. 

But after love, and after marriage, but before the baby, comes the pregnancy announcement!

Since the Baconator is a huuuuuuge Star Wars fan, as proven by our dog, Leia, and his killer Jedi costume (that I handmade), I knew I wanted to incorporate that into our announcement. We used a Star Warsy Font (SF Distant Galaxy Alternate) and the iconic saying along with our wedding shoes and some itty bitty Converse to announce to our friends and family on FB that a baby is coming! A friend took our pic in our backyard after work, and this bad boy was up online the next morning.

How did you tell the world? Do you have any newbie parenting advice to share?

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

#WEverb14: Sent

The more of these I do, the more excited I get about these prompts. I legit think they are getting even better.  For Day 7, we have... SENT.

What was the best thing you sent to someone in 2013? What will you send this year (hint: think about “send” in many different ways… mail, packages, email, text messages, etc.)
I don't have a single thing that I sent that was the best... in fact, I still have two Christmas presents sitting on my desk from 2013 that I haven't sent yet (sorry guys!). But you know what I did send this year? Oh yeah, BUNCHES of SnapChats. I first heard about Snapchat at the beginning of the year, but didn't actually start using the app until this summer. My friends and I send each other selfies of pretty much the ugliest faces ever and so many photos of our dogs. Every time I open the app I have at least two wacky dog pics preparing to load, and it is seriously the best. 


I know that teens use it for sexting and that I'm about a decade too old to have an account, but it's so fun. I got a Snapchat birthday message this year of my friend Cory singing Happy Birthday with a pointy hat drawn on his head. This is the future, and it's so amazing.

So for 2014, I'm excited to see what new technology comes out! 

What's the best thing you sent?

Love and Bacon,
Kelsey

Monday, January 6, 2014

#WEverb14: Capture

Have you been following along?  Here we are on day six of #WEverb14 and today's prompt was CAPTURE.

Share your favorite memory captured from 2013. What's your plan to capture 2014?

So the preferred memory capturing technique of 2013 was definitely selfies. Legit, we are in our late twenties and love taking selfies. It was so intense that I couldn't find a decent photo of the two of us for our Christmas card and ended up using a selfie taken at a wedding.   Don't believe me?

Here's this year's Christmas card (with a selfie from Mrs. Scooter's wedding)
So in 2014, I plan on capturing more photos using our digital SLR camera. I started the year with our DSLR at the NYE party, and I want to keep on using it.  We are planning another trip to Jamaica and a trip to DC and a trip to NOLA and (hopefully) having a baby - all of those are great reasons to take proper photos!! 2014 will be the year of lots of photos!

What are you going to capture?

Love and Bacon,
Kelsey