Pinterest Made Me Do It

I'm sure if you read a blog (which obviously you do) or have a blog, you've probably heard of Pinterest by now.

If you haven't here's what Pinterest has to say about itself:

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.


And here's what I have to day about Pinterest:


It's AWESOME and quite possibly my most favorite place to lose an hour or two on the internet! Here are a few things I would have never found and tried without Pinterest.


Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies ~ Mine were not even close to this pretty, they had a "moss that grows on old stumps" color to them.

Source: flickr.com via Julie on Pinterest

Ham & Cheese Sliders ~ YUM! I didn't use poppy seeds because I didn't have any and they're a bit pricey if you don't have know how you'll use the whole container.

Source: thegirlwhoateeverything.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes ~ Not a fan, it was the steak sauce, I think, that ruined it for me. Maybe without that it would be a bit better.

Source: tasteofhomecooking.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

Father's Day Card ~ Sassy & I made this for Rob's 1st Father's Day. Have you ever tried to trace a 9 month old's hand? It's not easy! for the "this much" section I pieced together scrapbook paper so that it was as long as she is tall. He loved it and of course, I forgot to take a picture of it.

Source: tiffkeetch.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

And last but not least,

Banana "Ice Cream" ~ I just used frozen bananas and a bit of Nutella in my version and it was delicious! I don't have a food processor or a blender (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I'm no cook) so I used a mini electric chopper I found hiding in a cabinet. It worked but definitely took longer than one of those fancy food processors :)

Source: userealbutter.com via Julie on Pinterest

So that's some of the fun that Pinterest has brought me, along with a crap-load of other fun stuff that I would like to try some day. If you're not on Pinterest and would like to join the fun you can request and invite on their site or just let me know, I can send you an invite!

Party Pooper

We had a busy weekend at our house, my birthday was Saturday and Sunday was Rob's 1st Father's Day. We had big plans Saturday to venture out just the 3 of us for a little "tourist in your town" action and some delicious bbq at my favorite place.

But first Sassy had a surprise for Momma - my sweet little angel was having a grand ol' time bouncing away in her jumper, looking super cute in a bright pink sun dress; I was sitting about 4 feet behind her on the couch. She turned around so she could stare me down whilst jumping to the moon and declaring her affections for DaaaDaaa when I noticed the bottom of her foot looked wet. I assumed that she was just back to drooley-monster status thanks to those top two teeth trying to make their debut - well you know what that say about assumptions, right??

Aaaaand it was much, MUCH worse! My sweet little baby was not dancing in slobber, she was dancing in poop, smiling and laughing after I made this stomach-turning discovery, giving me a look that says "Happy Birthday Momma, I made this just for you". All the while, I'm wondering "how can you be SO cute and yet make something SO stinky"...

After a quick bath, wardrobe change, and insane Clorox-wiping/Swiffer wet-jetting/Lysol spraying attack on the floor, we made it out of the house and onto our adventures.

We visited the Angel Oak, it's said to be the oldest thing {natural or man-made} east of The Rockies and it's HUGE! Neither of us had ever been out to see it before, it's amazing how big this tree is in real life! Pictures just don't capture the enormity of it but here are a few anyway :)

Hoo Are You?

Here's how it works, each Tuesday Leslie at Night Owl Crafting posts a few questions. They can be anything from What's your  favorite color to What's your favorite movie. 

Here are this week's questions!

1. What is you favorite summertime snack?

Watermelon or frozen grapes

2. Do you tan at all? (tanning bed, outside, spray, etc)

I try to get outside to get some sun but I'm so paranoid about frying Sassy that I wait to venture out when she's napping. I so have very cute flip-flop tan lines right now from my picture taking excursions on my lunch hour.

3. What is your favorite activity to do outside?

I love to just sit on the beach with a book by myself - I guess those days are pretty much gone now that Sassy is here.

4. Do you recycle?

Yes, but I'm not one of those hard-core recyclers who goes to great lengths to wash out the peanut butter jar so it can be recycled.

5. How hot is it where you live today?

It's actually a bit cooler than it has been the past few days!

"Our live-in Nanny is a life-saver" and other things that make me want to punch you in the face

A few days ago, I spent the morning volunteering at the soup kitchen and was blessed with the company of the wives of a few of my coworkers. Considering that I was holding a chef's knife a majority of the time, it's a miracle the only blood shed was my own (I seriously cut myself every time I use a knife, this is why I would make a terrible slasher; not that I've seriously considered it as a career.)

The top 5 comments that made me want to 'go all Mike Tyson' on their asses:

Source: google.com  

1. Our new live-in Nanny has been a life-save, she takes care of the kids, laundry, and dinner. Now I have my days free to go to the gym and get some shopping done. ~ Wife A
2. That's a cute shirt, where'd you get it {me: Forever 21}oh, I went in there once but it was just too much, all those cheap clothes...[trails off to a shudder] ~ Wife B
3. We had to donate $20,000 to get {daughter's name}off the waiting list at {insert elite name here} ~ Wife A
4. We just got back from 3 weeks in the Bahamas, we were going to stay another week but the kids got bored ~ Wife B after Wife C commented on her tan
5. I wish I could pull off the "I-don't-care-how-I-look" look as well as you ~ Wife A for the win!

And here's what I've got to say about that: 

• If you're able to stay home with your kids, I think that's awesome but realize that not all of us can and when you add to that the fact that you have full-time help while you're "staying home" with your kids - well that's just like a kick in the face to those of us who suffer mommy-guilt every day on our way to work.
• I do care how I look{at least on weekdays}is my hair usually a messy nest of curls and waves, yes. But that's what nature gave me and I at least try to reign it in and make myself presentable and Molly McMoneybags comes and says "you look like crap but at least you're ok with it"...Why is it that women are still throwing back-handed compliments at each other like daggers? When did the saying get changed to "If you want to say something mean, make it sound nice"?

Sippy-Cup Wars: Let the battle begin

Sassy is gettin' to be a big girl and that means new exciting things like eating "puffs" and drinking from a sippy-cup. Just so ya know, I'm one of those moms who is ready to be done with bottles; all that washing and sterilizing it's exhausting watching Rob do them every.single.night {yes, that's right ladies my honey does bottle-duty every day, I mean it when I say he's awesome!}

I've been slowly trying to work the cup into our routine but Sassy just wasn't having it. I started by pouring a bit of formula from her bottle into the cup and hoped that she'd drink it up. She wasn't having it - I would spend the next 15-20 minutes picking the cup up off the floor because to Sassy, sippy-cups are for throwing.

Last night I decided to try some juice in the cup, if I were Sassy I'd throw a cup of formula across the room too that crap stinks like old leaves!  So I loaded the cup with a few ounces of banana juice {am I the only who doesn't understand how they get juice from bananas? They're not juicy!}and this is the result:

Banana juice, meh I'd rather chew on the handle! And then chuck it across the room, of course :)

Sew not cut out for this!

I’m trying to learn to sew. I have a dinosaur sewing machine that my sister-in-law let me borrow so that I could give it a whirl before going out to buy one only to never use it.

So far, my attempts have been sucktacular at best. I did finally manage to make a camera strap cover but that was after multiple bobbin threading failures and having to draw the straight line I wanted to sew with a fabric pen. It’s not embellished with ruffles or rosettes like all the cool kids' camera straps but I made it and dad-gummit I am pretty darn proud of it.

Considering that I had to cheat in order to sew a straight line, I have no idea what possessed me to think that I could make this:

Source: theadventuresofroryandjess.blogspot.com via Julie on Pinterest

Maybe I was intoxicated by the uber-cuteness of it. Maybe it was because I wanted to say “Look, I made a Bapron!”. Or perhaps it’s because in my head I have a black-belt in sewing whereas in real life I don’t even have the belt loops.

Now, a smart person would have practiced first on a cheap “who cares if I screw it up” piece of fabric. Not this girl! I had a super cute fat quarter of fun, colorful, scribbly flowers that would be perfect so of course I had to use it.

So I cut out the super-cute-fun-scribbly flower fabric per the pattern – no problemo. Then I realized that I was supposed to also cut out my fleece at the same time, oops. Not to worry, I can cut it out on its’ own. Fleece is cut and is basically the same as the fabric – good enough for me.

Here’s where my troubles really begin: I’m using fusible fleece so I have my fleece pinned to the fabric and the iron is ready to go. For the next 20 minutes, I’m cursing the iron, the fabric, the fleece, the price of eggs in China, everything. My fleece was not fusing and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why. Funny thing about fusible fleece – one side is fleecy and the other is fusible-y.  I was ironing the fusible-y aka wrong side, making a serious mess of my iron in the process it turns out. I cleaned the iron, unpinned the fleece, flipped it over, and started to pin again only to discover that when I flip it, the two pieces don’t exactly match up. Ugh!

I should have stopped here but I didn’t. I decided to start trimming so they would match up and finally I had it all pinned up and ready to sew. Remember how I said I had to draw a straight line to be able to sew one? Well, this curvy pattern was definitely not the next logical step in my sewing education! My seam randomly ranged from ¼  to ½ inch willy-nilly, I had mystery puckers in the fabric, my stitches were long in some spots and really short in others.

But I’m not giving up – it’s currently awaiting the seam ripper so I can rip it apart and start over again.  Maybe someday I will be able to say “Look, I made a Bapron” chances are better for me saying “does anybody know who makes this super-cute-fun-scribbly flower fabric  that I wasted while convinced I'm the Jackie Chan of sewing.

Day 30: a picture of yourself this day and 5 good things that happened since you started the challenge

Let me start by saying that I'm glad this is over - a post a day is a big under-taking and I dropped the ball more than once.

A picture of me today:

Ugh, I hate self-taken pics and to make it worse, it's a cell phone pic. Ok, on to the good stuff:

5 good things that happened since I began this challenge:

1. My mom came to visit
2. Sassy started crawling
3. Similac finally sent me some more coupons. Only 2 of them but every little bit helps!
4. Sassy learned to pull herself up to stand and is just itching to walk - I expect she'll be running around like crazy in no time.
5. A total stranger asked to buy a copy of one of my photos, it was only a few bucks but just having someone like it enough to want to buy it made me feel like a million bucks.

Day 29: 3 Wishes

Source: etsy.com via  Pinterest

1. That Sassy has a full and happy life.

Source: ny-image3.etsy.com via Pinterest

2. That my husband and I will always be the great team we are today.

Source: etsy.com via  Pinterest

3. That someday I'll be able to do something I love and not just what "pays the bills"

Source: sidwelldesign.posterous.com via Julie on Pinterest

Day 28: Something that stresses you out

Money or I guess I should say the absence of money. I knew that having a baby would greatly impact our finances but good grief is this kid expensive! With daycare, diapers, formula (seriously kicking myself for stopping the breastfeeding now!), baby food, clothes because she grows like a little weed, trips to the doctor because apparently we signed up for the monthly sniffles plan at daycare...the list goes on. Add to that almost $4/gallon gas and the ever increasing cost of everything.

It all manages to work out, week after week we manage and all our needs are met; no one's threatening to turn off the utilities and we have a cool place to sleep with food in our bellies. Sometimes it's hard to remember that even though times are tough for us there are plenty of people who don't have the things that we do.

Source: d.yimg.com via Julie on Pinterest

Day 27: Original Photo of the city you live in

Charleston, SC

This picture isn't exactly of the city but it does show the harbor. I realized in my search for this post that I don't have a really good shot that captures the city itself. I need to get myself to a rooftop bar and get some good city shots (and maybe a few drinks too!)

Day 26: Your Dream Wedding

I never really thought about weddings until I was planning mine. It wasn't what most people would consider a "dream wedding" but for me (err, us) it was perfect. I planned everything myself, made almost everything, and we did it all for around $2,500 not including the photographer, she cost as much as the wedding but was well worth it in my opinion.

May Photo Hunt

Here are my photos for this month's hunt. If you'd like to join the fun check out Postcards from the PP for the details.

Something Blue

balcony of John M. Dunnan Gallery

Interesting Local Building

Old City Jail - Charleston SC

Texture

Brick section of Church Street

Think Vintage



Street Light



Red Door



Black & White Photo



Bicycle



Emergency Vehicle



Butterfly - FAIL there's not a butterfly here but it certainly seems like a place butterflies would like



Cartoon Character - Cat in the Hat on Sassy's wall
{cheating this picture was not taken in May}

Sign of the Zodiac - my Gemini tattoo
{double cheating, I didn't take this photo and it was taken almost 2 years ago}