Decorations for Our Home

Do you ever start a project and then take forever to finish it? Well, that's where I was at a couple weeks ago. We moved into our house in Ohio LAST JULY... and I just finished getting the photo collages I had planned on done.

That said, they are still not hanging up anywhere in our home, and at this rate, they won't be by the time we move again in March.

I am so excited to have all five of them finished, though, that I had to share! The first three I made a couple years ago to use for decorations at our wedding. I just added the last engagement session photos and our wedding photos.

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I can't wait to make a new one once we have our maternity photos taken in July and make one of Baby Cookie's first year later on. Soon, our home is going to be completely overtaken with photo collages... oops.

Where would you hang these? All together or separately?
Do you also slack on getting projects finished quickly?

    

My Week

Last week was pretty fun. It wasn't THAT out of the ordinary... but there were a few fun things that took place. Today, I'm going to share my week through Instagram pictures. If you've already seen all of these... my apologies. But I want to have them documents on this little blog as well. 

I hit 600 sales in my Etsy shop! It's actually up to 619 now, and my goal is to reach 1,000 by the end of the year!

Timehop informed me that it had been exactly one year since I ran my first full marathon in Oklahoma City - actually, I didn't need the reminder. I knew. I can't believe it's bee so long. Crossing that finish line is still the best feeling!

Speaking of throwbacks... I put together this little collage of myself being athletic. I wonder what sports Baby Cookie will want to try and which one(s) she'll excel at!

We went to a Dayton Dragons game to celebrate my husband's birthday a couple weeks late! It was a lot of fun, and I hope we're able to go to more games this summer!

I was so excited to try the new S'mores frap at Starbucks. I may or may not have had two last week... oops. It was SO good... and they even did half caffeine for me!

Smudge destroys every single toy we give him... within five minutes. We finally found one he enjoys but can't rip apart! Score! 

I just love his smile!

Stormy is trying so hard to be near him... she even moved to the middle cushion at one point (Smudge was fast asleep then, of course), but I didn't want to scare her, so I didn't jump up to photograph the occasion. 

Gymboree has the cutest little hot air balloon outfits! I am obsessed. Dan proposed to me in a hot air balloon... so it's kinda our thing! Thanks, Mal, for letting me know where to find these!

Stormy has been so protective of my belly since January. She hangs out on me or near me almost all day, which is pretty cute. She's going to be in for a very rude awakening when there's no kitten in September but a human baby instead. 

Half of her loves my belly... and the other half is flabbergasted by all of these clothes. She's looking at me like, "Mom, what ARE these?!" Also, I had to take this picture of the clothes because I found them at Once Upon a Child for $27 - woo!

And finally, we had our anatomy scan! It was supposed to be at the beginning of April, but then those darn kidney stones put a damper on everything... so it was AMAZING to finally see our little girl up close. The high risk doctor (my asthma and kidney stones put me there... oh, and the high blood pressure I apparently have) said all of the measurements look great - Baby Cookie is measuring just two days ahead, but they aren't moving my due date... but if they did move it up those two days, my due date would be on Labor Day, which I find ironic and fun! 

Have you been up to anything interesting lately?

    

Why I've Been Absent

Well, I have certainly not been around as much as I'd like to be lately. There are a couple reasons for that... one is awesome, and one is awful. I'll start with the bad, though, to get it out of the way.

1. I had another kidney stone. This time, it took two ER trips (again) AND getting admitted to the base hospital for three days. No fun. It was absolutely awful... both the stone and the care I received. My arms are STILL bruised from my hands up to my elbows from techs and students trying to draw blood and start IVs every 30 minutes. It's been 11 days, and the bruises are still clear as day. It hurt. And they did NOT manage my pain very well... partially because I'm pregnant so there's only so much they can give me, but also because they didn't respond to my requests for more for 90 minutes... yep, an hour and a half. Oh, and the kicker? They "accidentally" flushed the stone I passed... and it NEEDED to be tested to see what the heck is going on. I'm not pleased, and neither is my husband, who definitely let them know how we felt. This whole situation makes me want to switch to Tricare Standard, but I LOVE one of my doctors, and I don't want to lose her. Decisions...

2. The better news! Yay! I have been swamped to Etsy sales. Part of that stems from getting behind while in the hospital, but I also have received an influx of orders. It's not quite like Christmas time again, but the orders have been for several canvas photo collages and a couple large orders for wedding favor magnets. It's intense around here... so I've been cutting, gluing, and spraying to my little heart's content. It's nice to be busy. I hit 600 sales last week, and it feels wonderful!

And now... my photo dump for the time I've been gone from around Blogland.

I had to try the Birthday Cake frap from Starbucks. It was amazing.

Smudge and I went for a nice long walk/run on a trail one day, and exactly one mile in, it started POURING. Not sprinkling... but pouring down rain. We hightailed it back to the car to wait for Dan (who was doing an interval run), and I'm not sure which one of us smelled more like a wet dog.

One of my cats (this time Stormy) ALWAYS has to play in the scratching post when I'm taking my weekly bump photos. Yes, I set my camera on top of the cat scratching post... which I put on top of our dining room table. Don't judge. It gets the job done.

When your husband says he has a surprise for you, and it ends with this... mmmmm.

I had to document being in the hospital... of course.

My new concoction for hydrating to get rid of these nasty kidney stones. GO AWAY.

One of my amazing friends sent me this fruit infuser bottle in the mail to help me stay hydrated to prevent more stones... so I filled it with lemons, and it's awesome. 

My husband turned 26 the day I was released from the hospital (and also the day we found out our baby is a girl!)... so despite being exhausted, I took him out for BBQ and beer. Don't worry - I've rescheduled his birthday for this coming Sunday so he can have a whole day of me spoiling him. 

This is Smudge's look of appreciation after going for a long (and dry) walk. 

The weirdest pregnancy craving so far... I never eat cheese popcorn, but I HAD to have it... with peaches... and the urge would NOT go away until I ate them both.

The cats love snuggling, as per usual. 

And somehow they manage to stand on the ledge of the window... not sure how, but they make it work.

And sweet Mister Gilligan turned eight years old! I can't believe I've had him since he was a tiny kitten.

Have you been up to anything interesting lately?