covering a lampshade

so these little lampshade projects are all over the blogosphere and look simple enough, right? well, i had a some serious trouble with actually getting this thing finished. it took me weeks and i'm usually way too crazy to let things go for weeks unfinished. i'm totally blaming it on the baby.

it all started with this ginormous lampshade from ikea. i'm pretty sure lampshades are the hardest things to move. seriously. ours have gotten crushed everytime we've moved. i'm obviously not packing them right. so we picked up this big shade from ikea to replace one that got crushed but then it didn't fit the lamp. and then i lost the receipt. so it sat there on the guest bed forever before i realized that it could probably fit over the awesome, 80's, apt grade fixture we had going on over our table. and then it sat for some more while i tried to work up the energy to actually start this project.

excuse the horrible pictures. i'm more writing this so if i ever try this again, i won't forget how to fix all the mistakes i made.

first, i taped a bunch of newspaper together and traced the shape of the shade onto the paper. i might have done this 3 times before i got it right. again, blaming it on the baby.

cut it out

and tried it on for size. woohoo! this one finally, sorta fits

fabric was a whole other hold-up on this project. i finally settled on this suuuuper cheap blue from hobby lobby after i realized there was a pretty good chance of me messing this up. it's not my favorite shade of blue, but it goes with the curtains we already had and it actually looks better with the light shining through it. so i pinned my pattern on and cut it out, leaving tons on the edges 'cause i was so nervous.

i used my favorite sticky spray to get the fabric on (don't fear for baby - it was a well venilated area and i had extra fabric wrapped around my head as a mask. real cute.) i love this stuff because i can just pull it up and start over when i messed up. lesson learned - you can spray too much of it and get dark spots through solid fabric. thankfully, it ends up that you can't see them when the light shines through.

i just sprayed the edges under too, but now i wish that i'd just cut them even with the edge of the shade. at this point though, i had no idea how i was going to finish the edges, so this worked.

i ended up making some far from perfect bias tape that's not really cut on the bias for the edges. don't be jealous of my golf-towel-on-the-counter ironing board.

then i hot glued it on. once i hung it up, i realized how bad the inside edge looked, so i made one more strip and hot glued it to the inside edge.

so to the fun part:

before:
i gotta a little antsy and forgot to take a before pic, but just imagine this on a gold chain. it was lovely.

and after:


not perfect, but much, much better.
now james is figuring out if we could spray paint that gold chain without taking it out of the ceiling and without our landlord noticing...

a little art

the day we found out we were having a boy, i was itching to find something boyish.

enter goodwill: $1 frame with a sweet mountain picture and a $1 pack of eric carle cards that just happen to say 'it's a boy'

side note - i have a slight obsession with eric carle. when i pull one of his books out to read at school, my kids say 'we knoooooow, he's your faaaavorite author/illustrator.' (ok, we're still working on the illustrator part) but just look at his pictures! the colors, the animals, you can almost feel the texture through the paper! there is a reason i teach kindergarten.

a little blue paint and 2 minutes later, we've got a little bit of art for our little guy. i'm sure he's totally going to love it.

easy peasy lemon squeezy - my favorite kind of projects

we're having a...

baby boy!

and super, super excited about it.

visitors!

my sweet friend abby from chattanooga came to see us last weekend! it's so fun exploring new places with friends, especially when they don't mind you dragging them to school meetings or hitting up every garage sale and thrift store within 30 miles. doesn't that make you want to come see us! plus it was all part of her birthday celebration. yep, she's that good.

after all the fun of school meetings and thrifting, we of course had to make a trip downtown.

taking the water taxi from the train station to michigan ave is one of my favorite things to do. it's like getting one of the big water tours for $2, without all the interesting chicago facts of course :)

we hit up navy pier for the first time which was lots of fun. side note - there were real camel rides for kids outside the pier. definitely not expecting that one.

we ate our very first chicago hot dogs and they were great. mine was totally plain, not exactly chicago style, but james and abs raved about theirs too.

we also tried the huge ferris for the first time and it was awesome. the best $6 we've spent in chicago.

it's the best view of the city shoreline for sure

but definitely a little freaky at the top. i loved it.

we hit up michigan ave for some maternity clothes, drooled over cute kids decor at the land of nod, and tried on every vest at patagonia before we - literally - ran 12 blocks in 12 minutes to make it back for our train home. preggo running 12 blocks in boots was so not attractive. but cars totally stopped to let us pass. or maybe they just stopped to laugh at me. either way, we made it. and had a total blast doing it.

thanks, abby for making the trip! it meant the world to me and happy happy birthday!!

20 weeks

whoooa! helllooo baby bump.
it just appeared one day. last sunday to be exact. totally crazy.

20 weeks already?
i feel like we've hit a major milestone
we're half way there...
now this whole thing needs to sloooow dooown!
we've got lots to do in the next 20 weeks -
like learn how to raise a child.
that's not scary, right?

i'm so thankful to be feeling great these days.
i started feeling some little kicks and flips this week! is there anything better than that? it's amazing.
it's sorta, kinda, slightly starting to feel real now with the kicks and the belly. but not really.

we're still totally amazed that this is all happening. excited doesn't even begin to describe it - like shout-it-from-the-rooftops giddy excited. this is such a fun time in life right now and we're trying to soak up every minute.

but it would still be ok with me if the next 20 weeks went by a little bit slower.

wheaton

i love living in wheaton.

i love the little parks to walk through

and the hardware store down the street

and the gorgeous wheaton campus





i love the saturday market with flowers and veggies and crafts.

i love the most perfect sized library - not too small but not too big. plus you can check out magazines :)


i love the several ice cream stores downtown



and old buildings



and even the sound of the trains coming through.



i love the rows of little shops and restuarants



and brick roads.




i love the old post office 1 block over

and that there's a church on every corner, because it makes us Bible-belters feel more at home.



i love living close to the train station so we can ride the train into the city.

and i love, love, love fall because it's absolutely amazing.

but most of all, i love that all of this is in walking distance. our apt is a bit dated (to say the very least) but it's worth it to get to walk down to the library or post office or ice cream or the hardware store. because if we're going to live a 1,000 miles from all our favorite people, then we might as well live somewhere interesting and different and fun. and for now, that's worth a dated apartment.

the best kind of surprises

it was one of those mornings.

i stayed up 2 hours past my bedtime and hit snooze as many times as possible.

got dressed in the dark and put my shirt on inside-out (for the 2nd day in a row)

ran out of time to pack a lunch and had to risk it with cafeteria lunch (scary).

my eyes wouldn't open all the way even after being awake for almost 2 hours.

my maternity pants wouldn't stay up and my non-maternity shirt wouldn't stay down.

and then i remember - 4 minutes before kids arrive - that i left all my copies in the copy room.

so i ran / waddled down to the copy room, while holding my shirt down and pants up, grabbed my copies and noticed a package. and then i took a double look because that handwriting looked so familiar and it made me miss home. and then - oh my goodness -i know that handwriting! i got a package at school!



really, what's more exciting than this? on a wednesday morning?


tons of my favorite bonne bell, footie pajamas to die for, teeny tinsy little socks, and sweet notes that make me smile


have i mentioned i have the best sister-in-laws ever?
ever.
they're amazing.

nursery ideas

i might have a slight obsession with looking at cute baby rooms...











but, come on, what else am i supposed to do for the next 5 months??

source

17 weeks