It's On The Brain

The Hubs and I have been going back and forth for about a year on whether we will or we won't.

Realizing we're not getting any younger and we don't want to be attending our kid's graduations with our walkers, we've picked up the pace on the convo as of late.

We've done the pros and cons and have had many, often heavy, conversations about how this change will affect our Mia.  If you haven't picked up on it, she's the absolute love of our life and perfect and wonderful and sassy and adorable.  We've agreed life would be great with just one, no matter what everyone else says.  "She'll be weird if she's an only child."  "You can't have just one."  "You have to have at least one more."  Sadly, the majority of comments, whether asked for or not, were pretty negative.  Not very many people were like, "you do what you need to do that makes sense for your family."  My Mom is an exception and always had been.  She even made mention to me about starting to sell my baby stuff.  Slooooow down Mother, another kid or not, the lamby swing may stay in my house forever.

I never thought I would be a mother of an only child.  Especially growing up with my sisters.  I always envisioned at least 2 kids.

But then life happened and expenses happened and schedules happened.  And Mia, she's just plain awesome.

And our routine right now is like clock work.  Where it can be crazy and chaotic, 95.78% of the time we feel like we have "it" figured out.  What will it be like with another squishy, up every few hours, newborn? 2 kids, 2 full time working parents, lots of schedules is scary.  Plenty of people do it.  I realize this, but that doesn't mean it doesn't cause a small panic in my routine, schedule, calendar loving heart.

I've always leaned more towards another and the Hubs has always been less of an advocate for it, until...

He visited with a client, who happened to be a woman, who happened to be holding a newborn baby boy and that baby boy smiled at him.

And that my friends changed my Hubs mind and we are now officially in agreement that we will try one more time.

Last go around took us a while, but we didn't really know what we were doing.  Charting temps and whatnot.  Are you kidding me?  At the time we began trying for Mia, I had spent 29 years trying NOT to get pregnant and when I was ready, it took 8 months.  I know the road has been much worse for many and believe me, I count my blessings everyday.

Anyway, hopefully things go well and we're able to add another member to our family.

Because these moments are some of the best

And if not, things will be just fine the way that they are.

Only time will tell, but my cutoff is 35 and I'm a month away from turning 34, soooo...

As the Hubs said this weekend, she needs a playmate (and a swingset).  Someone is getting a little sappy in his old (ahem) age.

Dear Neeli

We've almost all written about the importance of friends and that very special place we hold for them in our hearts.

Neeli is one of those people.

I met her back in my teaching days when I moved to Kansas City (with my, ahem, boyfriend; no judgies I was 22).  We both taught English and connected right away.  I remember grading papers and drinking wine on my deck after work.  I remember our girls nights.  Just she and I, belly up to the bar in downtown KC sippin' on martinis and just laughing.  Those were the days :)

I eventually moved back to St. Louis (after the breakup), but we've stayed close ever since.  We were both matrons of honor in each others weddings and we've seen each other and supported each other as we've grown our families.  We visit each other when we can, but it's not easy.  No matter how long we go without talking, it's very easy for us to take off right where we left off when we do.

Taking pictures after my wedding on the beautiful beaches of Punta Cana.

Do I wish we talked more and saw each other more, of course.  But life is life and that mostly means busy, so we do what we can to keep in touch.

Today is my Neels birthday!

I truly believe we met for a reason.  There has never been a doubt in my mind that she was placed in my life for a purpose.  I'm not a believer that you just "find" these friends.  I feel they are brought to you.  She was a big reason why I was able to get through that relationship that brought me to Kansas City (he and I were together for 7 years and we met when I was only 17; do the math; I was way young for all "that," but I of course knew everything).    Friends are important pieces to our life.  Not by quantity, but certainly by quality and I am very blessed to have her.

After my wedding, rocking our wedding tanks and singing karaoke in the Dominican Republic

Mia's first time meeting her "Aunt Neeli"

One of my favorite pictures.
 If you look close enough, Mia has a huge smile on her face.

Ummmm, adorable

Kaufmann Stadium in KC, MO

So to my girl, one of my very best friends, someone I'm so thankful to have in my life, Happy Birthday!

May your day be just as special and just as beautiful as you are.

Cheers!  I'm clinking (martini) glasses with you from the other side of the state.

Love,

Melly

Paaaaahhhhleeease?

Yes, I'm blogging about something I need from you.

I don't ask for much, so please help Mia and I win the Mother/Daughter Look-Alike Contest.

I would love you forever.

If we win, Momma gets a $500 shopping spree, we'll have a photo shoot and our picture in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

I love shopping and I love my daughter and I love to win contests.

Paaaaahhhhhleeeease and THANK YOU!

Click on this link below.  Just search Mia.  Today we are picture number 167, but yesterday we were 166, so the search might be easier.

Mother/Daughter Look-Alike Contest - Vote for Mia and Melissa

Design Inspiration - My Kitchen

So I'm working on my post for the Dining Room reveal and once I upload the pics from my camera I can finally post it.

In the meantime, let's move onto the next project and the one I am most excited about.  Mostly because I don't have to do the work.  I just get to pick out all the pretties.  We agreed to hire someone for this one.  Lots of time and I couldn't even begin to imagine how long it would take us to get done if we did all of it ourselves.

Our kitchen.  It's excited.  I can just tell.  She knows she's getting a face lift and she's pretty happy about it.

Three things will be happening in our kitchen:
1. Paint - walls and cabinets (white cabinets finally!)
2. Granite - can I get a Woot! Woot!
3. New flooring

Let's talk paint.  I want a gray.  A smokey gray or would it be grey?  Like these:

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Here's some of my fav visions via our friend Pinterest.  I've shared some of these before and yes I'm sharing them again.  If only my kitchen actual resembled the size and detail of some of these, but it helps.

Dark countertops with the white cabinets.

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Love the backsplash and floor (but we're not doing wood - that's crazy talk with a toddler and two dogs)

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I love the idea of the detail/wainscoting on the island.  We have one and discussed doing something similar. Oh and these dark floors make me smile.  No more light floors again until after children.  And the dogs?  Don't even get me started.

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I need this sink.  Our current sink is cracked so miraculously, a new sink is getting thrown into the mix now too.  Happy Dance!

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Do you watch Suburgatory?  If you don't, you should.  That is my dream kitchen.  If I had the nerve to be ballsy with a back splash like that.  Tried to find some pics, but couldn't find any. If this was our forever home...I'd do it in a heart beat...but it's not so somewhat simple/neutral it shall be.  And there is something about Jeremy Sisto.  Maybe it's my love for the movie Clueless.

Now the granite.  We want dark.  Like black dark, not brown dark.

Not a huge fan of this decor, but the granite is perfection.

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Now flooring.  We're definitely doing tile, but there are so many options and colors available.  Here's some tile colors and styles that I like.

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Hopefully we'll be shopping for granite very soon.  Can't wait.  So excited!

Happy Decorating!

Hope you're all having a great week!

No, Momma Needs To Do It

And this applies to everything.  Poop clean up, eating, bath time, washing hands, going potty on the big potty.  Everything.

My child requests me in all activities that take place over the course of our evenings and weekends.  Every single stinkin' one.

"No, Momma needs to do it."

Momma needs to change my poopy.  Momma needs to wipe my mush.  Momma needs to give me a bath. Momma needs to help me brush my teeth.  Momma needs to put on my jammies.  Momma needs to read me books. Momma needs to put me on the big potty.

I love it, I do, but sometimes Momma needs a TO.

And the look on my Hubs face when Mia won't "let" him do certain things is devastating to my heart.  He tries to help and she will sometimes throw a total fit.

Although I'm not so sure he minds the poop part.  I told him if we have another, he's changing all the poops, especially the icky, early newborn ones.

So now we work on being nice to Daddy and letting Daddy help Mommy with things.  Seriously?

I know it's just a phase, but still.

Just another one of those parenthood things I guess.

Never a dull moment, but I guess if things were dull I'd blog about that too.

Have a great week!

Photo Canvas - Do It Yo'Self!

Sorry for the hiatus last week.  This week is not looking much better, but I'm making the time because I am so excited to show you guys my Dining Room.  Momma's proud ya'll.

One of my very favorite pieces of the room is my picture canvas.

Raise your hand if you have an old canvas in your basement, a closet, just lying around (or in my case still hanging on the wall)?

I love pictures and you will likely find a piece of our lives, usually in the form of a picture in every room in our house.  This is how I always pictured it to be AND then, my sis took her photography passion to another level and well now we have really pretty pictures in every room.

Just weeks ago, she did a nice lil' family sesh and they all turned out amazing, but there was one that I just had to do something with and something big.

Photo courtesy of LKS Photography

lksphotography.net

You see, the Hubs and I first locked eyes at this place.  It holds a special place in our hearts and if you've every visited or even a local and never been, The Delmar Loop is one of my most favorite spots in the city.  Bars, restaurants, shopping and amazing people watching!  Hubs and I spent much of our pre-child days there and even make it back every once and a while for a burger or a tattoo.  Two of my three tattoos were done at Iron Age right on the Loop.

Moving on...

I had a canvas already that I was growing very tired of that was just about 24 x 36.

I did three things:

1. Ordered a poster print of the image (PS If you live in a Walgreens town, I highly recommend their photo department, no wait, same day service and great coupons).
2. Stock up on Mod Podge
3. Measure the edging of my existing canvas.

I had a decent amount of fabric left from the windown treatment I made, so I wanted to be sure to use a few more pops of the pattern throughout the room and the photo wrap was the perfect spot.

I simply measured all four sides of the canvas, leaving extra room for folding and wrapping around the corners and edges and cut based on that.  These did not need to be perfect, the lines didn't have to be perfectly straight, they just needed to be wide and long enough.

I then applied Mod Podge to both the back of the fabric and the canvas area to be covered.  Using my fingers, I worked the fabric so that it was straight and lump (technical term) free and then applied a coat of Mod Podge to the top of the fabric.  I repeated this step for the other three sides.

Once all four sides were done, I applied one more coat of Mod Podge to the fabric.

Once the fabric was dried to the touch, I began to apply the photo print.  The measuring for the photo needs to be pretty spot on in my opinion, so be sure to measure twice.  If it's not straight, it will be noticeable.

Again, I simply applied the Mod Podge to the back of the print and to the exisiting canvas and then just stuck it on there (again, another technical term).  I gave it a few minutes before I applied the coat on top of the print, so that it would adhere and move less when I applied the top coat.

Once it was dry to the touch, I again applied another coat of Mod Podge.

It was ready to hang the following evening!

So easy and not very time consuming and much, much cheaper than buying one online.  The print cost me $30.00 with my coupon and the fabric was left over from my window treatment (but in all the fabric only cost me $10).

Are you motivated to go do your own now?  Hope so!  If you do, please share!

Happy DIYing!!

What's Happening?

I'm kinda obsessed with Instagram for so many reasons, but I won't bore you with those.  This week has been crazy.  Busy at work and busy with life and preparing to be out of the office on Friday has really put a damper on my blogging this week, so I'll fill you in real quick via pictures of course and then I'll be back next week with my Dining Room Renovation Reveal and a kick ass White Sangria recipe.

Until then....have a great week!

 My new shirt for the baseball season.  Victoria's Secret Pink MLB Collection is adorable.  Love girly baseball clothes.  Speaking of....Opening Day is this Friday!  I can't wait to cheer on my Birds!

 Sneaky peeky of the Dining Room.  I can't believe I finally finished this weekend.  

And I'm waaaaay excited about the final product.

 Proof once again that this girl can make some kick ass sangria.  Red or white.

It's called skill people.

 This year's Easter goods!  

Thank you to Tarjay and WalMart (and Lowes for the chair) for making it super cheap and easy this year.

 On our way to Papa and Meme's for Easter.  She's reading us her Barney book.  I'll have more pics next week of the full outfit. It was even cuter than I imagined.

Now that our beautiful weather is looking like it will not be so pretty for Opening Day on Friday, it was time for Momma to purchase a new Cards jacket.  So I did. Must be prepared to represent my boys in any element!

Cheersy, Jeersy

• Cheers to the fact that today is Friday
• Cheers to Easter weekend and time with family
• Cheers to Easter egg hunts, the Easter Bunny's long anticipated arrival and good food
• Cheers to the White Sangria that I will be making for Easter (if it's anything like the Red I made for Christmas, it's going to be an even better day!)
• Jeers to the fact that I have to work today.  Bare minimum we should at least get Good Friday or the day after Easter off.  Just sayin.
• Cheers to the fact that I have a good job, a successful career and a job that I love (most days)
• Cheers to the fact that the Hubs and Mia are having a daddy/daughter date today.  They haven't had one in weeks and I think the Hubs has been missing his alone time with his girl.
• Jeers to the utter exhaustion I am feeling after spending almost 3 weeks working on my new dining room and getting very little sleep.  I may not open another can of paint for months or possibly ever.  Painting furniture is no joke.  Somehow, I still love it.
• Jeers to the paint fumes I have been breathing in for the past three weeks.  Painting at night doesn't allow me to open up the garage because the bugs will fly in and I didn't have them in my design concept.
• Cheers to finishing up my dining room and getting back to our "normal" next week.
• Cheers to getting my house back together and giving it a big ole' clean. Yes, I cheers to cleaning.  Weird.  I know.  The "clean" that I have going on at the current moment is no bueno.
• Cheers to the fam coming over tonight for fried fish and all the goods that come with it, including wine.
• Cheers to wine. Obvs. Always.
• Cheers to great blogging this week.  It was a good week.  I read a lot of really great posts.  Inspiring, funny and some that actual made me cry.  One that lead me to purchasing this.  There are some talented peeps out there.  Some people with some beautiful stories to tell and share.
• Cheers to my girl who is rocking the big girl potty lately.
• Cheers to the warm weather (except yesterday) and all the fun time we are getting to spend outside instead of trapped inside.

Cheers - 13

Jeers - 3

I'd say it's been a good week!

What are you cheersin' or jeersin' about this week?

Have a great weekend!

A Defining Moment in Motherhood

Since she was born, the words "I love you" have been a constant.  Not just because I felt like I "had" to say it, but because I wanted to.

I always thought it would be pretty awesome to be a Mom.  I always knew I would be one.  But until you experience it for yourself, you just don't know exactly.  You just don't.

The love for a child is so very different than the love I have for the other special people in my life.  I doesn't mean I love anyone more or less, it's just a different kind of love.  Indescribable really.

She is my everything, I will do anything for her, sacrifice whatever I need to, spend as much time with her as I can, she will always know who her Momma is and at the end of each and every day she will know and feel just how much love there is.

That is my hope.  That is what I strive for in the chaos of our every day.

Lately, she has begun reciprocating that love.  She's always been a big hugger and kisser, like her Momma is.  But lately, some pretty amazing things have been happening.  She'll just randomly say, "Momma, I love you" or "Dadda, I love you."  And by far, that has been one of the single, greatest things about motherhood in my almost 2 and 1/2 year journey.

It really made me feel like I was really doing something right.

I won't be perfect and I'll make mistakes, but any Mother can tell you that moment where you see the result of what you are trying to do, it will simply take your breath away (and possibly make you break down in ugly happy tears, but I stood strong).

I just can't get enough of my girl.  So much joy, so much innocence and so much love.

And we're still pretty new around these parts.

Wordless Wednesday - This Is Not A Joke