Freezer dinners

Pin It Now! I've been off work for one whole week and I have to admit the first day or so was SO STRANGE - to go from the same routine every day for almost 6 years to knowing I won't be back for about a year felt awkward at first. 

Throughout the week I found my groove and got some good cooking done for when baby gets here.

I made this Martha Stewart lentil soup and froze a bunch of it in individual mason jars and then this Giada marinara sauce with turkey meatballs - we had it for dinner on Thurs night and it was delish.

Up Monday is this Italian wedding soup also from Giada - I mix it up a bit and put pastina pasta instead of the egg in the broth and then spinach instead of escarole but this is a yummy freezer dinner. 

I'm still on the hunt for more good freez-able meals that we can heat up easily once the baby gets here so holla back if you know of any ;) -- my offical due date is 3 weeks today so geting close! 

have a great day - xoxo

Tour De Nursery

Pin It Now! i can't believe i only have one week of work left until i start my  mat leave - the past few weeks have been bittersweet....i am so excited about what's to come but the thought of not being at the job that i have been going to every day for the past 6 +years seems so strange and as much as i know i will love my mat leave i will also miss my job and all the people that i work with. 

the things that i won't miss are how sore my back has gotten sitting all day at my desk or the intense pain that has started radiating through my wrists by mid day - physically i think my body is starting to tell me to wind it down.  i think mother nature is also having a say in my repertoire these days....I'm up every 2 hrs to pee which was kind of annoying at first but now I'm just kind of used to it and my schedule has just started to shift to be one where i am just not sleeping through the night....hence the really early morning blogging.

not to say that I'm not enjoying pregnancy - obviously the end goal will be worth it but there are a few other things that i love about it - pull up pants for one....those have come in super handy the last few weeks and although i do look forward to wearing normal clothes again the elastic waist band is a pretty clever invention that i will miss.  People are SO nice too, that's another big plus - I have started to get a lot of people asking if they can touch the belly and honestly I don't mind. 

onto the baby's room:

we started this project AGES ago - back when my belly was smaller than a small country (see visual reference above ;))  - it seemed aggressive at the time but it took a lot of time for a lot of of what we'd chosen to arrive so it was a good move.
once we decided to abandon our original "baby/lamb" theme and just go for things we liked the process went a lot smoother

 this is the view from the door - we did bean board and kept the colour pallet neutral (inspired by Joanna ;)) - it was Kirk's idea to go almost to the ceiling with the bean board....i wasn't sold at first but love the way it turned out.

 this is the view from the opposite corner.  that pompom cluster is one of my fave. things in the room.  we got it from etsy and k. helped me hang -- ideally i would have liked directly above the baby's crib but wasn't sure that was the smartest idea in case one fell down. 

(ben is really starting to wonder what's going on)  

view of the change table

crib view with baby's cozy quilt and matching pillow 

Etsy finds:

Quilt - Modern Myrtle

Prints - Farouche

Owl - BWinks

Pom Poms - Fiesta Pom Pom

Alphabet Print - InkTreePress

The Power of Print

Pin It Now! have you seen this ad campaign about print magazine? i love it 
it is clearly an effort by publishers to promote the print medium over the online world but i really like the message. 
don't get me wrong - i love the internet.  i love to shop, connect, browse online. 
but there is something more relaxed about print.

as the internet continues to explode there is something so nice about sitting down with a coffee and a magazine.

latley i've been travelling with hardcopies of Travel and Leisure (even though we have NO trips planned it's fun to read about all the places we may some day go), relaxing with Real Simple and getting recipe ideas from Everyday Food

the internet is still my "go to" quick fix for last minute ideas for dinner etc. but i think there is something to be said about the real deal.

i have been keeping my scrap on (ha!) by participating in some challenges lately like this one over at the Studio Calico blog:

and this one from Crate Paper

i am loving the way these challenges get me to just pick up my supplies and go for it.
have a great day
xoxo

This is What Summer Looks Like

Pin It Now!

I don't normally do 2 page layouts but when I got these fab pics from Nicole i combined them with a few of my own and it was just too many to do only one page

we have a fun weekend lined up - can't believe it's one of the last of the summer already!
have a great day
xoxo

Sleepy Saturday Morning

Pin It Now! we were supposed to go up north this weekend but because i had a busy week at work and am heading out west on my last business trip before mat leave early Mon am we decided to stay home and i am relishing in this low key saturday morning (i'll take 'em when i can).

rignt now am blogging in bed, watching he's just not that into you and laughing at lines like "so i also have a magical name - it's brother phoenix east horse"

here is recent page i made of the benster. speaking of ben - he too is enjoying his lazy saturday. he decided to take over my snoggle pillow (aka best preggo invention of all time - thanks meags!) and he's curled up in it in bed ha! makes me laugh.

we get baby's furniture delivered today - so excited!

have a great day
xoxo

b is for boy!

Pin It Now! at first we thought for sure we'd find out if we were having a girl or a boy. then i spoke to a few people who hadn't and wasn't as convinced. in the end we did find out and my gut was right - i knew we were expecting a boy.

in retrospect i'm so glad we did find out for sure - for me this entire pregnancy has finally sunk in but for the longest time i was in a bit of denial so for me knowing has been a great way to be able to bond with the baby and i can't imagine at this point not knowing.

i can't wait to meet our little man and see him for the first time. there is so much i'm looking forward to about becoming a mom.

here are baby's first layouts:
from the first ultrasound -


this is the day we found out he's a boy - he's pseudo waving to us in the top shot - so funny!

and is it just me or is this the world's hottest summer!? Try to stay cool today have a great day xoxo

Right now

Pin It Now! i am

loving: banana nut cheerios and raspberries

wondering: how i can stay on top of arranging photos and printing on a regular basis (hard for me now as i don't have a set "system" but i know will be even harder once the baby gets here)

waiting: for so many etsy purchases to arrive for baby's room i feel like i may burst.

nervous: for one more work trip far away (am going to make someone come with me b/c can't bear the thought of going by myself)

here are some old projects that i haven't shared yet:

my first 5km run (i was SO proud!)

This pic below is one of my fave's - we took it on our last day in Vancouver - the city skyline is in the back. We had to climb up a huge hill in a park to get to this point - at the time I wondered why i was so winded - now I know -- i was pregnant!

Just a simple page of my two little sweetie pies - these two crack me up

Gearing up for a night of trashy TV thanks to the Bachelor Pad! are you going to tune in?