Winter Maternity Fashion Inspiration #4

Oh yeah. I went there. Pastels in winter.

Pastel Winter Maternity by hollie-black-ramsey

Liz lange maternity
$40 - target.com

DKNY opaque tight
$15 - lordandtaylor.com

Carvela Kurt Geiger yellow pumps
$40 - kurtgeiger.com

Rainbow necklace
$21 - diva.net.au

Napapijri wool shawl
$30 - sale.blueberries-online.com

Philosophy
$24 - lordandtaylor.com

bohemian necklace giveaway winner!

... and the winner of the gorgeous necklace is... Jessica Reed! YAY!

Thanks to everyone for entering and stay tuned to see what I'll be giving away next time!!!

all kinds of random

Since I got pregnant I went from drinking about six cups of coffee a day to one- kinda. Now my "morning" coffee (consumed when I wake up at 2pm) is a small mug of watered down coffee and two teaspoons of sugar. I rarely finish it. I just need to go through the motions so I can fool myself into gaining some energy at the beginning of the day.

This mug was handcrafted by one of the merchants (Thou Art Pottery) at my Faire. Seriously, click on the link to get to their Etsy store. Their stuff is amaaaaazing.

After stopping myself from putting the hot chocolate powder in the fridge, I noticed that I had already dropped something off that didn't belong... yeah. Foil.

Oh, Cap'n. I think this is by far my favorite flea market find ever. I saw this handsome fellow looking back at me on a dusty shelf at an outdoor flea market and I knew I had to bring him home with me.

Christmas Q&A #4 & #5

4. Do you open presents on Christmas morning, Christmas Eve, or both?
Christmas morning. Always. If you open your presents on Christmas Eve then what are you going to do Christmas morning?

5. What is your favorite Christmas movie to watch? Favorite Christmas song to sing or listen to?
My favorite Christmas movie would for sure be the Santa Clause with Tim Allen and my favorite song? Let's make it songs (plural). "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" (which is just a hymn that's sang mostly around Christmastime) and "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole.

And here's a bonus that was always on the stereo during the holidays when I was a little girl. 

Man I feel so nostalgic now.

Winter Maternity Fashion Inspiration #3

Snow Panda Mama by hollie-black-ramsey featuring slim jeans

Maternity
$20 - target.com

H&M slim jeans
$48 - hm.com

J Crew j crew
$17 - jcrew.com

Oxfords
$18 - amazon.com

Canvas tote bag
$12 - etsy.com

Earrings
$15 - boticca.com

Philosophy
$22 - nordstrom.com

Christmas Q&A #3 and 34 weeks bumpdate

3. Real tree or fake tree?

Oh, dear. Fake. Growing up we did a real tree once. Once. The needles from the tree got stuck in the carpet and were aaaaall over the place for years. No amount of vacuuming would help. If you walked over into the area where the tree once stood without shoes, it was guaranteed you were going to get something stuck in your foot. I'd much rather assemble a stinky old synthetic tree from a box and than to be afraid to tread near something that's supposed to be so jolly and harmless.
Right now, we don't even have a tree up. Honestly, I'm not even interested in getting one. Maybe we'll get one after the baby is born and old enough to appreciate it. Until then, we're just going to artfully stack our gifts into a corner and maybe dump some stringed lights on them for extra pizzazz.

34 Weeks!

At the midwife's office for a checkup

Cravings
breakfast cereal with super cold milk, strawberry yogurt

Physical Symptoms
I get up to teetee about five times a night now
I still sleep 12 hours a day
I've gained a super 35 pounds!
My pelvis and groin area feel like I'm recovering from a "who can do the splits the longest" contest
I have been waking up with some teeerrible gas, stomach bubbling and nausea almost every night now. Methinks I might be lactose intolerant. NO GOOD! This better be a temporary pregnancy thing because I love my Cinnamon Toast Crunch.... with milk....milk from a COW.

Emotions
My patience runs low fairly quickly now and things like people forgetting their manners and basic rules of courtesy REALLY irritates me. The other day at Walmart I almost thumped a lady in the back of her head for reaching in front of me to get hamburger meat without excusing herself first. Here's the thing though: not only did she reach in front of me, she flippin' decided to walk IN FRONT of me and just stood there looking at the meat like I didn't even exist!
I wonder if I would have gotten in trouble if I bopped her head for that...

Baby Movement
The baby is getting bigger, stronger and running out of room. Now I'm getting little fists and feet stretching and reeeeaching all over the place.

What the Midwife Says
The baby is head down in the posterior position (sunny-side up) like in the first photo. He should be the other was around like in the second photo.

   

During labor, a baby in posterior position usually gets turned around into the right position but this can cause longer and more painful labor. If the baby never turns, vaginal birth is still completely possible but might result in severe perineal tearing and a greater risk of a postpartum hemorrhage.

"...a baby's position at the onset of labor does not predict his position at birth. Many babies who are posterior at some point in labor rotate on their own to the face-down position before birth." {source}

The midwife showed me some exercises that will help get the baby into the correct position before labor just in case. I'm going to try them out tonight! I like to move it, move it...

Christmas Q&A #2

2. Were you told the truth about Santa by your parents or did you find out another way? 
My parents never tried to convince us (me and my sister) that there was a Santa Claus. In fact I can't remember my parents talking about Santa Claus at all. Of course through books and TV we knew of the concept of him... as a fictional story book character who's based off a real person. Nothing more. As a kid (like most kids) I didn't know where exactly the presents came from, but I knew my parents had something to do with it. They were pretty stealthy about sneaking the presents under the tree. I remember getting up in the middle of the night to to take a peek under the tree... nothing was there. So I would go back to bed, wake up again to find my parents nonchalantly drinking coffee and watching the morning news... seemingly oblivious to the mounds of presents that magically appeared under the tree overnight. I knew they were doing it, I just couldn't figure out how they were doing it. So the theory that I came up with as a child was that parents have the magic ability to make presents appear under Christmas trees.
Now I'm 27, expecting my first child in January and I'm still trying to figure out how my parents bought, wrapped and hid all of those presents and then put them under the tree without making a sound. And now that I think about it, I've never thought to ask...
I'm calling my mom right now. This is a mystery that must be solved!

Christmas Q&A #1

I came across this Christmas Q&A on Ot and Et's blog and I decided I wanted to give it a shot. There are 6 questions but I realized I wrote a whole blog post' worth for just the first question, so I'm going to just break up the questions and answer one per day. I've been pretty distracted these days nesting and getting fat and whatnot so hopefully this will give me some much needed brain stimulation.

1. What makes Christmas such a special holiday for you and your family?

For me, Christmas means food and gifts. I know that sounds like a weak and shallow answer but it's the truth! I think we ALL feel that way.... I'm just not ashamed to admit it.

My parents are divorced and my giant family is scattered all over the place- so seeing them around the holidays is pretty iffy- You just don't hold your breath about seeing family around here and you learn to get used to seeing certain family members every three to four years- sometimes longer.

Also, my husband lost his job shortly after we got married so our first Christmases together meant no gifting for anyone, no tree, no decorations and sighing and crying trying to figure out where we would get the gas money to travel to attend any Christmas we've been invited to. I know you're thinking "Well Jesus is the reason for the Season. Don't feel bad," right? True, but it's still kind of hard to hold your head up and be cheerful when everyone is gathered around the tree handing you gift after gift and you've got nothing to give in return- not even a card or candy cane. We were so broke.
In fact, last year our decor consisted of a Christmas tree drawn on a piece of paper and put in a picture frame, set on a TV tray with a string of lights and random ornaments bunched around it. What little gifts we were able to give were wrapped in newspaper or recycled gift bags from our wedding and placed under the tree. It was cute and kinda sad at the same time.

But things have gotten so much better for us over the past year! God has been throwing some crazy awesome blessings our way. This is our first year to decorate our home and we're finally going to be able to give gifts! I'm going to be able to cook Christmas dinner and we should be able to travel with no problem! So THIS Christmas is going to be super special for me.

So what about you?? What makes Christmas such a special holiday for you and your family?

Here are some photos from one of my super broke Christmases about three years (and 80 less pounds) ago. I tried to make up for my lack of material gift giving by giving the gift of belly dance! We had a blasty blast this night.

Me & Sis

Sis, mom, me, aunt

My aunt trying to figure out finger symbols.

My niece mastering the zils.