Sunday Wunday

The Deep Thinker is 4 weeks weeks old now.

Yesterday I gave myself my bi-monthly permanent relaxer. A lot of women wouldn't dare give themselves a relaxer at home because if it's done improperly it can result in chemical burns and severe hair damage. Luckily my mom was a hair stylist so I learned how to do it the right right way. This is me pre-relaxer. I aim to look like the Michelle Obama lookalike model here. Joke.

A random photo of some "It's a boy" Hershey's kisses. I can't believe they've lasted so long. Everyday I'm tempted to just dump the whole bowl into my mouth and chow down... foil, paper flags and all.

Another random photo and a random fact about me: The Princess and the Frog is my mostest favorite Disney movie of all time. Never seen it? You're missing out. A black Disney princess from the 1920s in New Orleans? Um, yeah. Awesome.

The husband brought home some wonderful goodies Saturday evening. You can never go wrong with a variety pack. My favorite so far is the Ranger India Pale Ale. It's so light and crispy.

he husband also scored some free wine. The owner of our favorite liquor store gave him a free bottle of Gnarly Head when he bought this new wine (Pettite Petit) he just got it. I like the Pettite Petit but I'm not a fan of the Gnarly Head. Too manly for my taste. But hey, free wine!

Keeping up with my New Years resolution: Paint my nails more or buy less nail polish. I love this color so much I actually painted my toes to match... if you know me, you'd know that's super rare. I'm not a fan of matching. This is LA Colors brand nail polish. It's usually only $1 and it comes in the most amazing assortment of colors.

And of course... RIVER! He's turning out to be quite a handsome little guy! I was a little worried about how he would turn out considering what strange looking babies me and husband were.

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Bonus:

My sister, 4. My mom, 28. Me, 2 weeks old.

in the... bedroom...

Sunlight was pouring into our bedroom in a very sentimental mommy blogger kind of way. Blah, blah, blah, lovely. So now that I've said that I think I'm supposed to talk about how the sun beaming through the window made me feel and then follow that up by quoting some poetry or a some song lyrics. 

I'm not going to do that. Why? Because that's not my style and abundant sunlight in our bedroom means only one thing to me...

PHOTOS WITH NO FLASH!! NAKED PARTY TIME!!

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Allow me to narrate: Ahem.

So this is me au naturel in my delightfully mismatched clothes.

Left: Ralph Steadman "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" poster. It was on our Amazon wedding registry and someone actually got it for us. 

Right: Photo of me and the husband at our wedding reception

 Baby River, pitching a fit because I wouldn't pick him up.

Mama gave in.

 This is my "I don't have anywhere to put this stuff" board. I made it by gluing fabric to a vintage picture frame.

 Left: What's Boxtree? Boxtree is a band I was in about six years ago. Those are some buttons I made for us.

Right: I can't stand empty picture frames, so if I have nothing to put in them, I'll make my own art.

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Bonus Photos

Remember that band I mentioned? Boxtree. Well here's us in 2006. Can you guess which one is me? Can you find me??? Stop laughing. 

And here's us having a little reunion at my wedding reception in 2010.

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Super extra bonus:

Hopelessly single me wound up marrying our cello player's big brother just four years later. Cute no?

Join a band. Find a man.

3rd week: MY BRAIN IS ZAPPED!

This is my third week of mommydom and my brain is mush.
It's February and I'm just now thinking about the dates for the 2013 Renaissance Faire. This time last year, I already had the deposit paid, contracts made, sponsors lined up and entertainment scouted. It's time to start raising funds for the faire so I've been trying to think of a unique idea for a fundraising/promoting event but I can't. I'm mentally constipated so bad right now!


So, I'm having a very hard time trying to think of a creative fundraising idea and that worries me. I've never had issues with this kind of stuff before. Well, it does take a rather creative mind when thinking of how to entertain the people of this town. Why? Because the people around here are very normal and my mind isn't wired to think "normal". The people here are just ordinary Southerners who like fishing, hunting and country music so it's a huge challenge to think of how to entertain them creatively without turning them off or freaking them out. You have to introduce new things to them veeeery gently and veeeery carefully... and my brain just isn't cooperating with me right now.
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Ok, let's think.
How about a "sexy ladies of the Renaissance" themed car wash? Nah.
NASCAR, DaVinci Style?
Mmm... a "Race for the (Plague) Cure" marathon??  Maybe?
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Here's a little bonus for ya.

my last minute homemade steampunk costume

In yesterday's post I mentioned that I was unable to get photos of myself from my Steampunk ball. Well luckily our photographer was able to get plenty of shots for me. So, this is what I wore. Since I just had a baby three weeks ago my options from my costume stash are rather limited. I've still got about thirty pounds to lose before I can get back into a lot of my clothes and costumes... until then, I'll gladly play the role of the buxom Victorian vixen.

Me and my good buddy and go-to emcee, Brian.

 After decorating the hall for the ball I had thirty minutes to dash back home, get dressed and make-uped, load the car with the rest of the food and get the baby ready for the babysitter. On the way home I realized that I had NO idea what I was going to wear to my own event. Eh, I wasn't too worried though. I'm the master of last minute costumes.

Just when I thought my taataas couldn't get any bigger, I go and have a baby. Geez I am one busty gal... um...BOOBIES! 

The only thing I bought for this costume was the mini top hat (I bought that a couple of months ago). It was steal at $7 and I knew I would want it for my costume.

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Mini Top Hat - Local party supply store

Blouse - Normally worn under my Renaissance gown, Etsy

Studded cincher- leftover from Mrs. Lovette Halloween costume a couple of years ago

Skirt - long cotton tierd skirt tucked up on the sides, garage sale

Leggings - Etsy

Boots - Hand-me-downs

I didn't have time to get the electric kettle for tea so I had to serve hot water out of our dingy coffee pot from home. How elegant!

Hee hee, no. That's not my real hair. If you're a habitual last minute home-made costume person like me, you learn of the importance of hair pieces and wigs quick.

my steampunk ball: a sneak peek

Last night, me and my crew threw a Valentines Day Steampunk Ball as a fundraiser for my Renaissance Faire. The turnout was kind of small but it was still bigger and better than last year's event. Here are a few shots I managed to take of the night. My photographer will get me the better photos later this week. Until then... enjoy!

I sneaked into the bathroom to take some photos of myself. Too bad I don't have any photos to show you all of the awesome costume I whipped together in literally five minutes. My day was so insanely busy and hectic yesterday I turned out to be more than "fashionably late" to my own ball. I will still setting out food and decorations when guests were arriving! 

two turntables and a pair of booooots

This post is so random it hurts.

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We went to Marshall for an appointment with our midwife today. Once again, I'm dressed for post c-section comfort. Not much for fashion. I will, however make a big deal about these boots. They might not look like much to you but they are one of my favorite pair (I have five pairs of black boots... I don't know why).

You're going to think I'm a complete weirdo when I tell you this but I love these boots because they remind me of the very beginning of V for Vendetta when V is getting dressed and he puts on some simple yet kick ace boots. He looks so hardcore in that scene! I got pregnant and swollen right after I got these boots so this is the first time I've been able to zip them all the way up in a very long time. I feel like patrolling the streets and fighting bad government guys when I wear them.

My 80-something year old granddaddy came over Sunday to meet his newest great-grand child. Granddaddy is super cool and dresses like a cowboy- pearl snaps, cowboy hat, boots and all. As a guitarist he found my husband's Cuatro quite fascinating but like the rest of us, he couldn't quite figure it out so he gave up. Does that make him less cool? Hell no.

 My lovely husband still has to change my bandages every evening. My incision is too low for me to see where to tape everything up. He's such a sweetie.

 Mmm... no words for this photo. Everybody say "Awwwwww......"

  This is one of my loverly midwives, Brittany swooning over my handsome little gnome and giving him a little checkup.

Don't you just love this groovy purple receiving blanket my mother-in-law whipped up for us?

Does this photo remind you of anything?

I see your future little one. Make mama proud. 

DJ Babee Rivs? How's that?

And of course... my big silly face all up in yo face. See ya!

peekaboo

My little River - 2 weeks old

2nd week: polka dots, plaid, argyle and stripes

Here it is: a week of photos. Well, actually this is just a few photos from our second week as a three-person family. There are tons of photos to share, so I'll just break the post down into sections. Soooo, here's the first part. Enjooooooooy.

I made my first real public appearance this week ! Despite getting only five broken hours of sleep I was desperate to get out of the house. I didn't really plan this outfit for the occasion, I just grabbed some comfortable clothing that wouldn't press into my still healing c-section incision and tender sagging belly.

Jacket: Old Navy, thrifted for husband

Tank: Walmart

Skirt: Old dress cut with top cut off for maternity comfort

Leggins: Etsy

Boots: Local beauty supply store

Scarf: Ross Dress for Less (old)

no shame in being a lil' odd

I've never seen anyone wear plain white leggings before. They kinda look like thermal underwear, no? But I'm so proud that I made it through the evening without getting a drop of baby tinkle or formula on them.

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All three of us went to a small "surprise birthday" party for our good buddy Dylan (top right). He and his wife just had a baby and the party's hosts have kids too. Once upon a time it used to make me extremely uncomfortable to attend a party that included babies and kiddos. I thought it was super uncool to bring a kid to a party (because I'm not too crazy about kids). Now I'm like, "A party and kids are allowed? Yahoo! I can get out of the house!"

Growl.

That night I changed into my favorite pajama pants and BOOM! Pattern explosion! With the baby wearing argyle that just made this lounging ensemble a little bit more awesome. 

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What's cool? the ladies of our church have been bringing us dinner every other day since we got home from the hospital. One lady made us sun dried tomato crusted chicken, green beans, risotto and a coconut lime pie. Mm, mm dang good! Sure beats the heck out of canned soup, PB&J and waffles (which is what we eat when the leftovers run out).

Here's what our little one is looking like these days. I just can't capture his true beauty with this darn camera. I have to use a flash to get decent photos of him and it always snaps the very beginning of a terrible grimace. I feel bad using a flash on him like that but I need photos!! I hope he'll forgive me some day.

I haven't read a bit of fiction since I got pregnant.  I have to keep these books close by at all times because there's so much about babies that I didn't know I didn't know. You know what I mean?

Unfortunately we're having trouble breastfeeding. I wasn't expecting that at all. See, that's one of those things I was completely unaware of. I thought you just put the baby to your booby and there ya go. Nope. The poor thing won't latch on so I've been pumping (and getting very little milk) and supplementing with formula. Last night he latched on a ate for the first time ever and I was so proud but then I went to pump the rest of my milk out only to discover both of my nipples are cracked open. That's a whole new kind of pain and it looks terrible! I haven't been able to pump at all today and I hate that so much. I want my baby to get good booby juice- not yucky old formula.
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Speaking of hate, I'm pretty sure our house bunny hates us now. We used to let him out every evening to roam around the living room but now we just don't have the time. He needs to be supervised while he's out (he has a thing for electrical cords and my record collection) but we're just too busy. Sorry bunny. :(

So this concludes Part One of our second week. Stay tuned for Part Two where we give Baby River his first lesson in deep sea diving... I'm totally kidding!

We took him bungee jumping.