Summer essentials

Head over to Jill's good life for less to catch a glimpse of my summer essentials!

Gideon's birthday shirt

This tutorial comes from this amazing blog and the minute I saw it, I wanted to try it. Gideon loved doing the whole thing and it was quite simple. Get plain shirt, iron on number, skirt a water gun mixed with a little bleach at it and bam-instant rad t-shirt!

Use an iron on number or letter, whichever you'd like. Iron to plain t-shirt then hang t-shirt outside for the water-gun skirting part! Make sure your kiddo follows directions well for this part because they are handling bleach in their squirt gun.

Let them squirt their shirt however they'd like then wash shirt shortly after.

 The following poses come naturally from our crazy kiddo also known as freckles who loves his shirt!

p.s he turns five august 16!

Our french date, oh la la

So we've had these gift certificates to a great french restaurant in Old town Fredericksburg and finally put them to use! All the more feeding into my desire to visit France someday soon! The food was so good and I ate it so fast I forgot to take a picture!

 Oh my he is handsome!

One hot mama

Check out Chelsea a dear nurse friend who rocked her maternity session at the vineyard! Go here for more of her!

Favorites Friday: outdoors

This weekend husband is home and they are letting me keep him around in case baby makes an appearance, yippee! So we'll be doing some yardwork (last finishing touches on our deckspace) and perhaps catch movie and dinner! I've also got a maternity photo shoot for a dear friend, can't wait to share!

Some outdoor inspirations:

via pinterest

Linky love:

These pillows are pretty

Another pleated skirt

Ahh, such truth

Blue girls bedroom

Happy summery weekend!

9 month bump plus a sunhat

We made it to the end, well almost...I"m due anywhere from July 4-11! I'm feeling quite ready and round, that tree is holding me up!

When pregnant just throw on a bunch of accessories and its all good!

Can't wait to see his sweet face, thank you again for all your prayers and well wishes!

Color crushing on sienna

I love how colors evoke moods and even memories. This sienna brown reminds me of a worn-in leather chair with its richness, but also the desert sun; perfect for summer! It seems to work just like a neutral pairing and working with any color, sky's the limit with this one!

images anntaylor, jcrew, and hm

Bruschetta pizza

Meet my new favorite summer pizza, so easy, healthy, and fast! 

I use the already-made bruschetta from Wegmans grocery store (best store ever)

 Bake at 400 for 12-14 minutes, give it a try you won't be sorry!

Wicked

My sister and I went to see Wicked (the back story of the witches of the wizard of oz) at the Kennedy center in Washington D.C this past week and the songs are still playing in my head! It was positively captivating and so well-written, truly a creative masterpiece of story, song, and friendship! I highly recommend it and there's still some seats available if your in the D.C area!

Here's our sisterly night together at the Kennedy Center via the iphone!

The kennedy center itself is pretty spectacular, I used to be a season pass holder a few years ago. By the way, Les Miserables will be playing next month; my absolute favorite.

Couldn't help but snap a picture of this darling little girl with red ruby slippers in the spirit of the Wizard of Oz!

The baby danced along to the music the whole time!

Favorites Friday: Green

My sister and I went to to see "Wicked" the musical this week, which was phenomenal! So I have green on the brain and with all the forecasted rain this weekend our yard should be looking pretty green too!

Green hunter rain boots are on my wish list via pinterest

What a great green room via pinterest

Succulents are my favorite, perfect for a newbie gardner like myself via pinterest

I've had my eye on this lovely green skirt for some time but it keeps selling out!

Other keen links:

I will seriously never tire of black and white stripes

A really delightful nursery

Best playroom ever

Eggplant and mozzarella

Enter a trip for two to Paris over at Oh happy day, one of my favorite blogs!

Have a lovely green weekend and happy Father's day to all the Dads!

Skirted console table tutorial (4 easy steps)

All you need for this tutorial is at least 6-7 yards of fabric, staple gun, and scissors. I found my outdoor fabric on clearance at Hancocks fabric for $6 a yard, major score. Outdoor fabric proved to be easier to work with since its more heavyweight and creates nice seams. 

 In this step you will use two separate pieces of fabric to form a crease on both side and in the center. I really love the way the pleats make it look more professional.

 When I got to this step, I ran out of fabric because of the way the pattern was facing, so I have two pieces on the top of my table.

My skirted console table

This skirted console table was born out of a need for storage! I needed a place to hide my photo printer and props; this table fit the bill. My sister put together the wood pieces which make the console table and I simply stapled and pleated the fabric to fit the table. The how-to post should be coming tomorrow. I'd love to put a cream and brown zebra throw rug on the floor there, but its not essential especially since were moving in 2 years again!

A baby update, chariots, and a klondike bar

The ultrasound with the perinatologist was yesterday and well, nothing has changed. The femurs are still measuring 3 weeks behind everything else and everything else is normal. I was hoping to receive some words of comfort but the doctor didn't give me any warm fuzzies, which was a bit hard for my pregnant mind! In fact, he said he wants to see me again in 2 weeks but thinks I'll go into labor before then to which I replied no thanks sir, there's nothing more to look at or find! So I left teary-eyed with my husband who was attempting to be encouraging and said, "Babe we trust in the Lord our God not doctors or ultrasounds." Then somehow the Lord brought to my mind a song I used to love from the late 90's (this is how I KNOW its the Lord!) by a gal named Jennifer Knapp, called "In the name." There's a scripture from the song saying, "Some trust in chariots and horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Ps 20:7" (my chariots and horses are the medical machine) And once again I am blown away be how quickly God speaks to my heart and quiets my fears about this baby, miraculous. Oh and the klondike bar just helps chase away any lingering blues from a challenging day!

P.S I cherished every single comment from my last post about the baby, where many shared your faith and stories with me, thank you so much; I saved them all and am encouraged.