20 Things That Change

Found this on a parenting website and loved it…thought I would share for any momma’s who still read my rarely updated blog :)

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Everyone warns you that having a baby will change your life. Sure, you'll have less money (and sleep), and a lot more responsibility. But when the centre of your universe shifts to your baby, there's much to celebrate too.

You discover an inner strength you never realized you had.

You accept that the last 15 pregnancy pounds you can't seem to shift are absolutely worth it.

You don't need a clock any more - your baby now sets your daily schedule.

You respect and love your own parents in a new way.

Any pain your baby suffers feels much worse than your own.

You don't mind going to bed at 9pm on a Friday night.

Your heart breaks much more easily.

You discover how much there is to say about one little baby tooth.

You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.

You're no longer disgusted by babies' bodily functions - in fact, you're fascinated by them (hooray, a poo!).

The sacrifices you thought you'd made to have a baby no longer seem that big a deal.

You respect your body ... finally.

You realize that a baby's blankie has magical powers!

You give parents with a screaming baby an "I-know-the-feeling" look, instead of a "Can't-they-shut-him-up?" one.

You make time for one more baby hug and kiss, even if it means you'll be late.

You realize that it's possible to love a complete stranger.

You learn that taking a shower is a luxury, never mind a trip to the hair salon.

You finally get to speak to the shy neighbour in your street, because you've got a baby in your arms.

You find that things that once seemed important are now meaningless.

Every day is a surprise.

Monday Musings

I officially only have 4 more Mondays to make it through at work…WOO!  Anyways, here are a few Mommy-themed musings I have pinned lately:

Source: someecards.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: etsy.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: pixdaus.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

And P.S. – I was featured today!  Head over to Double the Fun and check out her Monday’s Mama post.  I love following this blog since it’s led me to find so many other preggo’s who are expecting around my due date. 

 

Monday Musings

A little party inspiration + one of my all-time favorite books:

Source: hwtm.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
In the great green room
there was a telephone
and a red balloon
and a picture of...
The cow jumping over the moon
And there were three little bears sitting on chairs
And two little kittens and a pair of mittens
And a little toy house and a young mouse
And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush
And a quiet old lady who was whispering "hush"
Goodnight room goodnight room
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon
Goodnight light and the red balloon
Goodnight bears goodnight chairs
Goodnight kittens and goodnight mittens
Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks
Goodnight little house and goodnight mouse
Goodnight comb and goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody goodnight mush
And Goodnight to the old lady whispering "hush"
Goodnight stars goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere

Source: hostessblog.com via Emily on Pinterest

 

 

Baby Girl Subway Art

Our friends had their baby last week and we finally got to meet her this past Monday (she is precious!).  We bought baby girl a couple gifts while we were in Maine but I knew I also wanted to create something personalized for her and her parents.  I still love my wedding subway art in our room, so I decided to try making a baby girl themed piece.  It always takes me hours to find the perfect fonts and sizes for subway art, but I think it’s so worth it in the end. 

Obviously I blurred out her middle and last names, but hopefully you get the idea :)  I went with lots of pink and some accents of green and brown to go with the color scheme of her bedroom.  The frame I picked actually has four 5x7 spots for photos.  I decided to put scrapbook paper into 2 empty spots for now so they can fill them with pictures eventually.  For the fourth spot, I made another art piece inspired by a quote.  Here’s the entire frame first:    

 

And here’s the quote that inspired my art in the left top corner – I found it on Pinterest. 

image source

This quote instantly made me tear up and I’m not even a mommy!  I knew I had to include this as part of my gift so I designed it using some of the same fonts and colors that were included in the subway art.  My favorite part is the hearts instead of the periods at the end of the sentences :)

 

If you are interested in either print I’ve shown above, please visit my Etsy shop – I’d love to create something for you!

Sharing at: Someday Crafts, Tatertots & Jello, I Heart Naptime, Be Different…Act Normal, Seven Thirty Three

DIY – Baby Onesie Cupcakes Tutorial

Back in March I mentioned how we would soon be going to baby showers instead of bridal showers because of all the weddings we’ve gone to the past few years.  Well, it’s starting already!  As soon as I received the invitation to one of our best friends’ baby showers, I knew I would finally get the chance to try out making a diaper cake.  If you remember, I posted about how I wanted to try this crafty project awhile ago.

Once I got thinking about it a little more, I figured that someone else may also bring a diaper cake since they are fairly popular now, so I decided to think of something more original.  I did a Google search for images first and discovered some good sites for making diaper cupcakes instead of a whole cake.  After a little more research, I found the idea for doing Onesie cupcakes – genius!  Since our friends know they are expecting a girl, I loved the idea of how I could still buy cute clothes and work them into a craft. 

I checked out a couple tutorials on how to construct these adorable little things - I liked Little Birdie Secrets’ post and Glitz & Grits’ ideas.  Next I went to Target to get the onesies and then to Michaels with a 20% off coupon to stock up on materials.  You will need:

• 4 onesies (I bought ones that were 3-6 months old)
• cupcake box big enough for 4 cupcakes
• jumbo white cupcake liners (I went big to make sure the onesies would fit inside)
• small bag of filler confetti (you don’t need too much)
• white ribbon (about 1 inch width)
• narrow ribbon (1/4 inch or less width) – color doesn’t matter, but I used pink and white
• small rubber bands
• sewing pins
• scissors
• scrapbook paper (optional)
• regular sized cupcake liners (optional)

To get started, first lay out your onesie and have a rubber band ready.  My onesie had a little applique on the front and I discovered it’s best to fold the onesie so the applique is on the inside.

Fold the onesie into thirds the long way.

 

Then fold that into halves the long way again so you have a narrow strip.

 

Take one end and start rolling the onesie to form a spiral roll.  This takes some practice and you probably won’t like your first couple tries (at least I know I didn’t!).  I tried to roll slightly diagonal so a little fabric would pop up at the top.

I don’t have a picture of the next step, but then you will put a rubber band to secure the onesie at the bottom.  I then cut a piece of white ribbon to fit length-wise around the bottom of the onesie to hide the rubber band.  If you are using clear bands, you might be able to skip this step, however, I think it looks a little neater when placing it into the cupcake liner.  I actually used 2 liners (one was yellow to give a little color), but that’s optional. 

Once you are done with placing the cupcake in the liner, repeat the steps with the other onesies until you have 4 little cupcakes :)

In the above picture you’ll notice I added a little pink ribbon to the top.  I did this because I thought they were missing a topper and I didn’t have any pom poms on hand in my craft supplies.  I tied little pieces of ribbon into bows and then used a sewing pin to gently attach the bow to the top of the onesie.  If you look closely, you can see the pearl head of the pin sticking out a little.  Next time I do this, I will probably invest in the little rose buds like shown in the inspiration picture I had.

To decorate the plain white cupcake box, I added some scrapbook paper to dress up the sides.  Again, this is optional, but I think it adds a nice touch. 

Once done with the box, I added the confetti filler to the inside bottom and then added the cupcakes on top.  You may have to squish the filler down a little so they all fit. 

After I was finished with the arrangement of the insides, I closed the box, tied some ribbon around it and added a little note.  Done!

This project probably took about 90 minutes or so – mostly because I was trying to perfect the rolling of the onesies.  Once you get the hang of that, they’re pretty easy to put together.  “Enjoy” your cupcakes :)

Sharing at: I Heart Naptime, Tatertots & Jello, Someday Crafts, Be Different, Act Normal

Name Game

Another fun questionnaire! 

1. How did your parents decide on your name?
I believe they liked the name after watching a local newscaster who had the same first name?  At least I think that’s the story.  Little did they know this name would become VERY popular. Luckily I only had a few classes in school when there was a second Emily in class…it became most annoying when there was another Emily at work last year but she left after a few months.  According to the SSA, Emily  was the 24th most popular name in 1985, was ranked #1 from 1996 to 2007, and is still #6 of most popular girl names in the U.S.

2. Do your initials (first/middle/last) spell anything funny?
Nope.  Though, if I married someone with a last name starting with “F”, I would have been “ELF”.  Luckily I did not :)

3. Did you take your middle name from childhood or did you drop your middle name & take your maiden name as your middle name? (Or if unmarried, what do you plan to do?)
I kept my middle name from childhood, as it’s my mom’s first name.  If the middle name didn’t have any significance, I may have thought more about taking my maiden name.

4. Are you or will you name your children systematically? (ie, same first letter, same origin, etc)
Hmmm I don’t want any names that start with “E”, “J” or “C”. 

5. Did you decide on baby names as a little girl? Did you stick to them or change your mind?
Omg the names I liked as a kid were so weird.  I loved the name “Marie” when I was little.  Now I think it’s just a little too old-fashioned. 

6. Does your family have any names that have been passed down through generations?
My family does not…the only tradition I can think of is that my mom and grandma both took their maiden names when marrying and dropped their middle ones.  For Hubby’s family, I guess they did pass down his name since his grandfather also has the same first and middle names. 

7. Do you look at the meaning of the name or just the name itself?
Just the name itself.  Though it would be more interesting to actually research the meaning.

8. Do you name pets with human names or pet names?
Haha human names.  Ellie and Maggie are names I almost thought about using for future girls if we have them.

9. Are there any names that you have an affinity or dislike for based on a childhood experience/someone you once knew?
Hmmm…no one from childhood “ruined” a name for me.  But last year at work, I had to deal with this awful bride, Molly…I used to LOVE the name “Molly” and I just don’t know if I could name a girl that now, because that bride was one of the worst customer service experiences!  “Kimberly”  and “Sarah” brides also tend to have bad reputations. 

10. What are some of your favorite names & why?
For girls…I like Leah, Molly (have to get over the horrible bride, though), and Avery.  All of those names are fairly simple, easy to spell and were not that popular…except I just looked at the SSA site and “Avery” is now getting more popular, ranked at 39 from 2009 and “Leah” is ranked 28.  For boys I like Nolan, Drew, and Brennan.  Again, names that aren’t too hard to spell and are not extremely common, like how “Matthew “and “Michael” are.  For a middle name for a girl, I will try to use “Beth” as that was my grandma’s first name.  And I’d like to use “James” for a boy’s middle name since that’s hubby’s name. 

Inspiration – Milk & Cookies Party Theme

Came across this adorable idea for a Milk & Cookies themed baby shower…

source for all above pictures

Even though this was for a baby shower, I think the theme could also be a cute birthday party idea for a little kid or maybe even an adult who loves cookies :)  And look at these Rice Krispie treat bars – smart way to eat them without getting the sticky stuff all over your hands!

Go to From Glitter to Gumdrops to see more of this wicked cute shower.

Different Kinds of Cake

I feel like everyone on Facebook has been exclaiming “We’re so excited to share that we are expecting!”.  Seriously there was one day when 3 different women had something like that as her status.  Except I’m not very close with the people who have shared their baby secret lately.  They are people I know from college but it’s not like I would be invited to their baby shower.

One of my friends or coworkers needs to get pregnant ASAP so I can make this – I keep seeing them pop up on blogs everywhere and they’re so cute!  This is from Cap Creations:

 

They are diaper cakes and you can really put anything inside of them.  Diapers (obviously), towels, onesies, and in the middle of the larger layers, you can even shove in a bottle of baby powder or some bath stuff.  For this cake, she layered the diapers with receiving blankets, which is a really cute and colorful addition.  Love! 

I suppose I could make one of these for a bridal shower and use bath towels and house stuff instead that a couple has registered for?  Hmmmm something like…

 source

I think I can pull that off…probably wouldn’t do all the ribbon on the sides going up to the top, though.  But I like how they were able to add in kitchen utensils along with the towels.  And I just realized a cutting board was used as the base.  Good thing we have lots of weddings to go this year…I will have to try making at least one this wedding season :)