This is what the rug looks like...

...when no one is home to walk on it.

...when I've cleaned and/or I'm about to welcome company (cue laughter). Not much of either is happening these days.

...when a magazine is coming to the house for a big shoot (don't get too excited, that's just a statement).

...for all of 15 minutes...or until someone walks on it & I have to straighten it for the umpteenth time that day.

But in reality, this is what the rug looks like 98% of the time....

I'm starting to question my decision to have even purchased this thing in the first place (or at least it's placement...2 days in & the thing is covered in dirt).

Looks like someone needs a rug pad...stat.

Let's see what we've been up to

In no particular order (get ready, this post is about to get all sorts of random)...

We've been living it up at the farmer's market every Saturday. Our's is awesome (betcha couldn't tell from this picture though). It gets bigger & better each year. I'm currently obsessing over fresh cherries. Like, I consume mass amounts on a weekly basis (we'll see how well that habit is working out for me when I have my glucose test in 3 short weeks). Fresh peas are also ranking high on my list. Both seasons will be over soon, and then I'll find something new to obsess over. Presumably peaches, blueberries, or something else that will give me gestational diabetes...



We've been lounging and enjoying the new front porch...

I got a new rug. Except it's not really that new. I found this runner at HomeGoods a couple of months ago. I scotch-guarded (is that a word?) the hell out of it over a month ago, folded it up and put it away in time for the home tour. What...you'd expect me to let hundreds of people with dirty shoes trapse all over this thing all day? No, I didn't think so. Then a solid month went by & I had forgotten about it. Okay, so that's not true. I just couldn't bite the bullet and put it out alright, already (I know, I know...why the hell did I buy it then). So instead, I got it out of the closet and put it in the dining room so I could look at it for over 2 weeks. The dog and cat enjoyed it, the husband kept asking why the hell it was just sitting in our dining room, and I still couldn't be bothered to put it in it's intended place. Which is the hallway that leads to our bedrooms. I'll get a picture of it one day (but don't hold your breath). I still need to get a rug pad to hold it in place because most days it's a crumpled up mess. It just doesn't stay in place. Not to mention walking on it is like going cross country skiing (minus the snow). In other words, someone will likely kill themselves on this thing before I have a chance to show you pictures. At least it's cute, right?

Speaking of the dining room, we finally got new blinds. Okay, so really we got these a week before the home tour. I'm nothing if not timely with my updates...



Last weekend our backyard was in our neighborhood garden tour. This picture is from a neighbor's garden a block away. It's pretty, no? I didn't get any shots of our garden that day. Again, I'll get on that one. Hopefully one day before summer's end or before baby arrives this fall. After that, all bets are off of you ever seeing our garden until next year (I'll be sure to include pictures of the runner then too).

And get ready for this doozy...we finally tackled our side hallway. The one we use each & every day (the real, real entryway and front entryway are just for show & our best guests). This one is the husband's project--he took down the wallpaper, sanded the walls, skimcoated & then sanded them again. That was a fun process. And I say that as the pregnant person who didn't help out. I'm just taking the husband's word for it. We had the surround to the door repaired from when we got robbed last November, and had the moldings replaced from when we enclosed the doorway from our kitchen two freaking years ago (again, we're nothing but timely around here). But then the husband was out of town for almost two weeks, and this project went into a standstill.... 



So things don't look much different from what you see here (except the floors are a lot cleaner). I will definitely be posting pics and progress as we begin to work on this some more. It will help keep us accountable, and ensure that this project gets done before baby arrives. At least we hope so.

So that's what we've been up to these days! Exciting, I know. Don't be jealous.

It's a....

At some point I intended to blog a bit more. But then it got hot (really hot!), I got exhausted & busy, and my fingers swelled up to the point where typing became an issue. Okay, not totally true. But I'm already getting a glimpse into my near future. With only 4 more months to go, the wedding bands are dunzo. I'm a planner, but I certainly didn't think this 'being pregnant in the summer' thing very thoroughly. Easy pregnancy? Check! Being pregnant in this heat? Yeah, not so much...

So if you're following me on Pinterest, or have checked out my pins (and don't know me already), then you probably guessed it....

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We're beyond excited! If you recall, we were 100% convinced this baby was going to be a boy. But a few weeks before finding out, I'd secretely shifted my focus and was hoping for a girl. Needless to say, the husband was completely shocked (and excited!) to hear the news (and then there's me, who cries at the drop of a hat when I think about it...pure & utter joy I tell you!). I think it took a solid two hours for the news to sink in. But let me just tell you, we are over the moon. We're 98% on board with a name (okay, I'm 100% on board, the husband is 98%...depending on what day you ask, of course). And my mom has single handedly outfitted baby girl with an entire wardrobe for the first year of her life. To the point where I needed double the confirmation at yesterday's ultrasound that this baby was in fact a girl (it was). You can never be too sure! I mean, just think...the surprise of a boy would mean he'd be dressed very girly his first year....

I'm still working out the nursery in my head, but think I have a fairly clear vision for the plans of this room. Which is definitely not 'theme-y' or too 'baby'. Not that there is anything wrong with themey or baby...but that's just not the direction I'm heading. I'm navigating my way through Polyvore in the hopes of putting together a little mood board for baby girl's room. Inspiration for all! Plus, it keeps me on track for what I hope this lovely little room will turn out to be....

The long weekend...

I spent a long weekend in Chicago with some girlfriends, to celebrate the shower of our good friend, a fellow mom-to-be. I lost track at some point, but we counted at least 7 preggos at the shower. Needless to say, a lot of our conversations revolved around pregnancy and being a mom! When we weren't busy talking about being pregnant, we enjoyed a little shopping, a night out for dinner, and lots of time catching up. Coming home to reality, work and TWO (yep, count 'em) two bats in our house last night (don't even get me started) has been a delight in every sense of the word (insert sarcasam now).

For anyone who's curious what I'm looking like these days....well, here you go. I've had a lot of people tell me how tiny I am for being 20 weeks, but no one is taking into account that my sumo arms and ass have taken on a life of their own. We're only halfway there, I'm afraid of what I'll be looking like when we reach the homestretch (Jessica Simpson perhaps?)....

Okay, so 3 out of 5 of us are pregnant here...I should probably point out that friends #2 and #3 (on the right) are NOT with child. They've been there, done that and happily drank for the rest of us all weekend.

I've yet to venture into maternity wear at this point (the tank is Gap, the skirt Target), but my girlfriend kindly donated a whole bag full of maternity gear that should help me out over the course of the next few months. I can only live in non-maternity maxi skirts, tanks and maxi dresses for so long, you know? I'm already getting sick of the few items in my rotation, and let's not even discuss how creative I've had to get while getting dressed for work each morning. I know, I know, life could be worse. It's just hard to justify spending cold, hard cash (and lots of it) on clothes I'll be using only temporarily. I'm also coming to grips with the fact that I've got a couple of weeks left (if that) until I have to retire my wedding rings. And shoes are a bit snug these days. Please, please tell me they'll shrink back to my old size...I couldn't bear to part with an entire shoe collection!

I'll be back soon to share some ideas I'm gathering for the baby's room! If you follow me on Pinterest (find me on the link above!), you'll see that I've been posting a bunch of stuff to my baby board. I'm not big on themes or anything too baby-ish, so some of the stuff that I've been pinning might give you a good idea of what direction I'm heading...and in so many ways totally giving away our baby's gender!

Because we need another initial in our house

It's time to share a little project I created months ago! Because there's no time like the present to share some crafty love. It was one of those things I started & then let sit until a few weeks before hundreds of strangers came trapsing through our home. Nothing like a good old fashioned home tour to kick you in the ass to get things done, right?

My poor husband. We have more letter 'K's' in the house than he cares to think about. I had a growing collection of these letters long before we got married, and then hit the jackpot when I took on his last name. A first and last name with the same initial? Blows my mind. And drives my husband nuts.

So I did what any good wife would do & bought another letter K. This time for the front door. I'd seen a lot of these on Etsy, but figured they were easy enough to make myself. Which, if you know my mom, you know I'm turning into her. Growing up we'd see something we liked and she would say "I can make that". That's annoying for a teenager to hear, but as an adult it's music to my ears. Lucky for me my mom is still in her "I can make that" mode, and her daughter has followed in her footsteps!

Anyhoo, here's what you'll need:

A craft letter (I got mine from Joann's)
Sheets of felt (in my case, the more the better...you never know when you'll screw something up)
Thick twine (again, I found mine at Joann's)
A fabric doily (also from Joann's...you're sensing a theme here, no?)
Ribbon

The process was pretty simple. I started wrapping the twine around the letter and securing it to the back with a glue gun. Yep, every single layer of twine was secured with glue. I found it was best to glue on the backside, that way if I made a mistake it was pretty much hidden (or in our case, only visable to us through the glass door). Luckily the twine was so thick you really can't see any glue...one point for Katie! This process was surprisingly fast & easy. I worked on it for 2 nights, but total labor was probably about 1.5 hours. You know, the perfect amount of time to mindlessly wrap twine while watching The Bachelorette.

You can see things got tricky somewhere in the middle, which required lots of trimming and glueing on the front (gasp!). But see, no visible glue...so really, this project was a win-win for me. I'm just happy our last name doesn't begin with a Q or X. Things could be worse.

I used the felt to make rosettes. I didn't take the time to take photos of this process, but I used this tutorial that I found on Pinterest. This one was for paper rosettes, but it works exactly the same for felt (to keep the flower intact, I just secured the end with a little glue). SO easy.



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And the final product! I wadded up the little fabric doily and shoved it in between the felt rosettes (again, securing it with a dab of glue). Crafting it not always glamorous or methodical...sometimes methods like "wadding" and "shoving" are necessary evils. 

The ribbon was attached with glue and straight pins for extra security. The bow is tied to a little nail at the top of the door (which all of our seasonal stuff gets attached to). I wasn't sure if one little nail would hold this baby in place, but it stood the test of time when people were in & out of our home for an entire day. Again, I can't begin to say how easy this project was. I don't know how much I spent in the end, but I'm guessing it's far less than the $35-40 + shipping price tag that I've seen out there.

And the fact that we've added another letter K to our collection? Well, that's just priceless.

White & bright...the porch is ready for visitors!

I had every intention of posting an outside update last Friday...that is until Blogger ate my post before I hit publish. Messing with a fragile pregnant woman is not a good idea. Just ask the husband...he's exhausted trying to keep up with my range of emotions!

At any rate, let's move this along, shall we? I'm sure some of you saw that we did some work on the outside of the house recently. Does anything look new to you?

Since you can all read (the title of this post made it quite obvious, no?), you don't have to be that observant to see that we finally replaced the upstairs porch railing. It's about time! The old railing was rotting & not up to code. In fact, I'll never forget the exact words our inspector said when we bought this house..."you should probably get this replaced right away...you really shouldn't invite children or drunk people out here". For reals, that's what he said. All joking aside, we took his words to heart and only invited are most well behaved (and sober) guests out onto the patio. It only took us 5 years, but we finally got around to updating things. Not only is it 1,000% safer up there, but it's definitely much better looking than what we had before (not that I'm biased or anything....just ask our neighbors, they like it too!).

This isn't the best picture of how things were looking, but this should give you somewhat of an idea of what was up there before...

The wear and tear of time & life definitely got to the old railing, and last year's roof replacement didn't help matters either.

Pretty, huh? Yikes, I know, that floor! The good news is that as ugly as things looked at that point, the roof itself was still in great shape. So we dodged a bullet there!

I don't know why, but I was totally petrified to stand out there to take these pics...you know, scared without the 'safety' of the completely unsupportive, rotting, not-up-to-code railing... 



We're totally pleased with the final results! We used the same contractor who replaced the steps and railing on our downstairs porch. Although, this time around they may have not as liked me as much, since I put the 'ol pressure on them to get the job completed for the home tour. Which was completed at 3:00 the day before the tour...no joke. Unfortunately, and old pic of our house (without the new railing) went into the tour guide. Oh well, the job was done right and on time, so I guess we can't complain!



 

The next step is to paint the off-white pillars a nice, crisp white to match the rest of the exterior. Which, the husband has plans to paint the entire house this summer. I know, he's nuts (and I'm just as nuts for not really caring at this point). I think he's biting off more than he can chew (would you look at the size of this place?!), but he's in nesting mode about as much as I am and feeling ambitious apparently!? I just hope baby has a daddy by the time this project is supposedly complete...