Are we there yet?

I'm tired of being pregnant.  Not necessarily physically, though it would be nice to be able to wear my old clothes again, but more mentally.  I'm not good at waiting.  If I have an idea, I like to do it right then.  I start businesses on a whim, buy new domain names and make websites for ideas that burn in my brain late at night.  When I decide to do a thing, I want to start doing that thing immediately.  I'll start painting a room at 10:30 pm.  Start an RV remodel 10 days before I'm supposed to leave on a road trip.  So this waiting thing?  This incubation period?  I don't really get it.  I'm not a preparer, really.  I don't research or read books about things before I decide to do them.  I sort of jump in with both feet and figure it out as I fall.  So I want this kid to just come so I can get to the part where I start figuring it out instead of sitting her wondering how the hell life is going to change, what motherhood will look like for me, what loving a baby even means.  It feels like my whole life is on pause waiting for December.  I know it'll probably be here before I know it, but in the quiet moments where I'm alone at home with a mysterious creature kicking me from the inside, I just want the wait to be over.  

I hear a lot of pregnant women say stuff like, "I can't wait to meet him/her!" and I don't have that and that's not why I want the wait to be over.  Perhaps it's a more selfish perspective, or just one from someone who is not a baby person and has never had the desire to "meet" a baby.  Our culture feels so focused on the baby.  Like motherhood is an afterthought.  Like it's no big whoop when a woman becomes a mother.  Like it happens every day.  And it does, but not to me.  I only become a mother once in my entire life, and our culture doesn't have a lot of ritual, celebration, or ceremony surrounding that.  Even the celebration you have during pregnancy, a Baby Shower, is focused on the baby.  What the baby needs, celebrating his/her new life, getting a metric ton of diapers and baby onesies.  And I get that.  New life is exciting!  We should celebrate it.  But I also see mothers get lost in the fray.  I see motherhood get lost, the sacred and momentous time that happens once in a lifetime.  And then we immediately transition to our society's actual culture surrounding motherhood, which is: DO AND BE ALL THE THINGS.  Be a super mom, run a successful business, take the kids to soccer practice, breastfeed for at least a year, do yoga, be fit and sexy and fun, have a beautifully decorated Pinterest house.  And really, I like doing all the things, and I'm really good at feeling bad when I don't feel successful (which is almost all the time), so I have a feeling that's going to go over really well.   

These posts tend to get really ramble-y and lose focus (perhaps a symptom of pregnancy brain? I hear that's a thing?), so I'll stop before I start talking about something totally and completely unrelated to what I started writing about when I opened this draft.  Being pregnant is, overall, a good experience.  I don't want it to be over because I've had crazy sickness, or because my body feels horrible, or for any of the bajillion horrible pregnancy side effects my pregnancy app tells me are supposed to be happening to me.  No, I just want to not feel like I'm trying to peer into a black hole when I look at what life will be like come December.  I just want to buy the damn domain and start building this motherhood website (if we're mixing metaphors.  I'm not actually building a motherhood website).  

Maternity Style // Week 24

Almost all caught up to my current week (28)!  I spent almost all of the 2nd trimester feeling not really pregnant, more like I-just-ate-too-many-tacos, but by the end of it I was definitely sporting a legit bump.  This is one of the few actual maternity tops that I picked up, mostly because it doesn't scream maternity.  One of my favorite thrifted tops that I had years ago I realized was a maternity top after finally looking at the tag after having worn it many a time!  So there are some maternity specific clothing that most definitely can transition to post-pregnancy style.  I plan on belting this up as a tunic after the bump is gone!

The other day I bought my first article of clothing that one could define as "goal" clothes.  As in, I don't fit in it now, but I plan on being able to later (post baby, and probably post-working-out-for-a-while).  I've never been one to buy something I don't fit into with the goal of being able to eventually wear it after losing weight/getting fit.  But, I made an exception because I'd had my eyes on these pants for, literally, years and they were on final sale so I snagged them, even though I won't be able to wear them until sometime next year.  I think it's kind of fun to have a new article of clothing that I can look forward to wearing, and it'll be nice motivation for getting to the gym. 

Top : Motherhood Maternity | Cardigan + Leggings (similar) : c/o Modcloth | Hat : The North Face
Boots (similar) : Kensie Girl | Photos by Dan

DIY Midcentury Entryway Bench Makeover

My parents have had this TV cabinet for... decades.  Like, I'm pretty sure they might have had it when they lived in California, which is almost 30 years ago.  It was a boring piece of furniture, and minimally functional as a TV stand.  When we moved into the apartment it was in here with a TV on it, but we moved the TV and I put this thing over by the front door as a place to keep shoes and bins of scarves and mittens.  It was still kind of ugly but at least it was more functional as an entryway piece.  At first I thought about painting the top and bottom white, but then I decided to give it a midcentury-inspired refresh with some marble contact paper and tapered legs!  

It was such an easy DIY, seriously under 30 minutes start to finish and was around $30-$40 all said and done.  And you don't use much of the contact paper so you'll have a bunch left over for other fun projects!

What you'll need:

Marble Contact Paper
Tapered Furniture Legs (I used these ones)
Furniture Leg mounting bracket
Wood Stain/Poly (to stain the legs to match your bench)

First thing to do: apply the contact paper to the top and bottom "shelves."  Where you start/finish the contact paper will depend on how your original piece is designed.  This one was pretty easy, it had a very simple top that had defined edges, same with the bottom shelf where the shoes are sitting. I just left the upright sides original.  

Peel the contact paper backing off as you go, making sure there are no bubbles.  I wrapped the edges around the underside about an inch to secure it so it wouldn't peel up.

Pretty sexy!  Now to get rid of those terrible black plastic wheels and replace them with chic tapered legs.

First, screw in the plates that you'll screw the legs into.  This was super easy with a power drill, but you could manhandle it manually if you don't have a power drill (pro tip: buy your damn self a power drill.  If you like doing projects around the house, even if you're renting, having one of these, even a cheap little one, is so helpful!).

You can paint/stain your legs to match your bench before or after you screw them in.  I decided to do it after I screwed them in, while the whole thing was still upside down because then they were held in place upright and it made it easier for me to stain them.  But you can do it before too, whatever you'd like.  

Screw those bad boys in, flip her over, and you're done!

Maternity Style | Week 22 + 23

If you ever need to feel bad ass, put on some dark lipstick, black clothes, and a spiky necklace.  Works wonders.  I promise.  I actually am craving some new dark lipshades, and Bite Beauty was suggested to me by some folks as an awesome natural beauty product company.  Their darker shades are definitely calling my name right now.  Maybe it's the change of the season too.  Dark lipstick always feels right when the temperature drops.  I accidentally left my darkest lipshade with a model on one of my photo shoots, so I've been custom making my own dark lip color by mixing black lipstick with one of my more scarlet reds, which works alright.

I've never been super into makeup, but I often find myself wanting more colors and shades than my current limited palate.  I have a ton of crazy lip colors from Lime Crime, but my eyeshadows are sorely lacking. I have an excess of neutral colors, and just a few "out there" shades that I've bought for various burlesque looks (a super saturated green for my emerald city act, a bright blue and a silver for my snow princess act, and a vibrant red for my poppy act).  Other than that, I don't have much.  Makeup is always the last thing on my list of things I need, so it always gets bumped.  It's not a necessity, so I rarely ever splurge on new makeup, but someday I'll flesh out my eyeshadow collection!  

Top :  Hoof and the Horn | Shades + Necklace : c/o Moorea Seal
Dress : Cariloha | Boots : c/o Seychelles
Photos by Dan

Top : hand-me-down | Skirt : c/o Modcloth | Shoes : c/o Minnetonka

Chic File Cabinet DIY Restyle

I was bummed to get rid of our cute yellow file cabinet when we moved, but I knew that trying to fit a big ol' file cabinet in our tiny Uhaul was just going to take up space we needed for more important stuff.  I figured it'd be easy to find another cheap second-hand file cabinet when we got to Anchorage and that spending 20 bucks on a file cabinet was worth not trying to shove it in a Uhaul trailer that was already going to be packed to the gills.

I'm actually glad we ended up getting a new file cabinet because we needed a 3-drawer one anyway, as our 2-drawer one was getting a little too full.  I found the cabinet below at Value Village for only 12 bucks and knew it'd be a great candidate for a makeover.

It was a little dented, a *meh* shade of beige, slightly scuffed, and had some stickers stuck to the top.  Originally I had planned on painting it for the makeover, but I realized I had some leftover removable wallpaper from Wallsneedlove that I never got around to using for my Winnie, and it ended up being the perfect amount of wallpaper necessary for the project!

What you'll need: 
Spray paint/primer
Masking tape
Removable Wallpaper or Contact Paper

If you need to change the color of the front, which is the only part of the cabinet that shows after you cover the sides, you'll need to paint it.  I used Valspar Project Perfect paint + primer in white to freshen up the front of the cabinet so it would match the wallpaper better. The photo above isn't a true "before" pic because I already sprayed the front, so it looks much cleaner and nicer than it did when I bought it.  You'll want to either remove the hardware (pull handles and such) or mask them off.  I am too impatient during DIY projects, so I just masked them off.

Once your front is the color you'd like, you can apply the wallpaper or contact paper.  I used the Banana Leaf wallpaper from Wallsneed love (and they have hundreds of other designs that would look amazing for this project!), but you could also use contact paper!  I've covered fridges before with chalkboard wallpaper and faux wood wallpaper, and I think marble contact paper would look super amazing on this DIY!

The file cabinet will be too deep for just one width of wallpaper/contact paper.  I ended up needing about 7 more inches to finish the back, so make sure you calculate how much you'll need to cover the area you want to cover.  I actually didn't cover the side against the wall or the back because a) you don't see them and b) I didn't have any more wallpaper.  

I think this is one of my favorite DIY makeovers ever!  Covering ugly things with cute wallpaper is my favorite.  It's so easy and has a HUGE impact.  My next thing to cover is our fridge because it is a super ugly old ivory color (BORING).  I haven't lived anywhere in the past 5 years without covering my fridge in contact paper, actually!  Haha!  Seriously, If your fridge is boring, just go out and get yourself some contact paper and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am fix that 'ish.  I did a DIY tutorial many years ago for this DIY and it's super easy.  Go do it and thank me later.