Early Maternity Leave

If you guys have been following my pregnancy blog, you know that overall this pregnancy has been VERY different from my first.  From morning sickness to sciatic nerve pain, this has been a relatively difficult pregnancy (for me anyway, I know many other mommies have a MUCH harder time but hey, I'm a whiner).  So yesterday on my way to work I experienced some severe chest pain. Now for anyone this would be a concern, but I have several heart conditions so this chest pain, and the fact it lasted for over an hour, really freaked me out.  Long story short, I ended up going to the ER where I was emitted immediately.  Of course my only concern was to make sure my baby was okay, and the damn hospital took over an HOUR to get someone down to my room to check his heartbeat!!!! Thankfully though everything was great with him.  After the entire day, the chest pains subsided and we refused the x-ray because, well, I'M PREGNANT!

So fast forward to today, and i have had a few instances of chest pain, however they are not severe at all and I'm beginning to think it might be a pulled or torn muscle due to the increase in breathing that comes from pregnancy. But my sciatic nerve pain is literally bringing me to tears!  I am having shooting pain from my hip to my Calv's, primarily on my left side, and round ligament pain that starts in the center of my uterus and moves to my hips. Well, with all of this and the chest pain from yesterday, my doctor decided to put me on maternity leave extra early...I'm only 16 weeks.  I have mixed feelings about this. I am sad because I really like my job (I am a supervisor at an ABA provider for people with developmental delays), and my leave begins right away so I don't get to help train my replacement or say bye to any of my clients.  But I am also relieved, because I'm hoping that with a little rest my pain will get better so I can go an do more, low impact, mommy things with Isabella and get some good quality time with her before Charlie comes.  My wonderful hubby is also looking for someone to come once a week for a few hours and handle all of the heavy duty cleaning, like moping and cleaning the bathrooms, which I am really excited and grateful for.  I am just so thankful that my hubby and I make a point to live off of his paychecks and only use mine to pay off my student loans or for any help needed with unexpected items.  Because of this I don't need to worry about our finances as much as I would if we were dependent on my checks to get us by.  It's amazing what a little bit of planning can do to make your life easier!  So with my early leave I hope I will have more time for crafts, and fun activities with Isabella, that I can then blog about here!  So stay tuned!

Baby Days and Craft Days

Today I had my month exam with my OB! Today was also Isabella's first time going to my OB's office and seeing the baby! She was so excited to see her baby brother, and he was moving so much, we even got to see him suck his thumb!! It was so cute watching Isabella become so happy and excited to see those grainy pictures of her baby brother, she didn't want to let the print outs go!! My doctor's appointment was pretty early in the morning so we were able to do some craft things today as well.  I've been having some really bad ligament and sciatic nerve pain, and today was especially bad, so it was a very relaxing day.

When we got home I decided to finish Isabella's craft corner that I had been working on for a while.  I had already taken the table we got from a garage sale and painted the top with purple chalk paint.  I then lined an old cookie tray with some bright pastel fabric, so she could have her own magnet board to display her art work.

I then went and bought five metal garden canisters from Michael's. They were on sale for about $2 dollars each and looked so cute and had the same color scheme as her room.  I purchased three purple buckets and two green buckets to make a nice pattern on the wall.  I then found colored push pins and lined them on the wall.  I made sure that I had three purple pins and two green pins, so that way it will be easier for Isabella to know where each bucket goes.  So far she seems to be doing a pretty good job remembering where they all belong.  I then filled each bucket with various art supplies.  I decided to keep the paint and glitter glue in a sealed bucket out of her reach so she has to ask me before she busts them out!

Here are the buckets lined on the wall, I love organization!

On the other side of the table I have her coloring books and activity books in a plastic bin so she can easily access them and put them on the table.  So far it seems to be working nicely, and I really like how she can take each bucket off the wall and put it on the table while she's working or if she's going to color in another room.  Overall, this was a very simple craft/organization activity.  The painting of the chalk paint took the longest because I had to wait for each layer to dry before applying the next one, and I was really paranoid so I waited an entire day for each layer.

Here is the look of the entire craft area in the corner of her room.

It made me so happy to see how excited Isabella was about her very own "craft closet" (I have my own so she was so happy to be like mommy).  We spent a good hour or so drawing on her chalk table, and went on to make a few different craft projects.  I need to slow down with this crafting, because I need to make sure that I have some projects for when we start decorating the baby's room!

Easter Tutu and Craft Day!!

Today has been a very busy day for my little Izzy and I.   Yesterday, I decided that I was going to make Isabella an Easter dress (instead of buying a custom ordered dress like I usually do). So off to the craft store we went.  At the craft store I was having a very hard time figuring out if I should by the pre-cut spools of tulle or go by the yard...since I had absolutely no idea how much tulle I would need I decided to go with the spool because it seemed like a safer choice.  I ended up getting 15 yards of purple tulle because they didn't have it in the spools, needless to say, I had A LOT of left over purple tulle, lol.  I also got a crotchet top for the main part of the dress, thankfully the woman at Joanne's knew what the heck I was talking about because if I couldn't find that thing the entire project would be done and I would have one bummed little girl on my hands.

Here are all the goodies I got for the Easter dress, never mind the purse, I was so excited to get started I took a picture right away!

After I made lunch and made sure that Isabella was playing well on her own, I got started on this massive project.  I didn't realize how big of an undertaking this thing was going to be until I got started.  After about two hours I had ALMOST finished the first row of tulle! I was exhausted and had a major hand cramp.  I decided to take a break and come back to it later in the evening. 

The first row of tulle on the dress

 Lets fast forward to ten o'clock at night and there I am busting my but trying to finish the second and third layers of the dress (taking a break earlier in the day was starting to look like a bad idea).  Finally around midnight I had the three layers of tulle on.  I decided to wait until the morning to try the dress on Isabella so I could see if I needed more tulle or not. So the next morning I put the dress on Isabella and it was SO POOFY! I was a little nervous that it was too much tulle, but she absolutely loved it! I wanted to see if I could tame the hugeness of the dress so I decided to try a little trick I had learned along the way with tulle.  I hung the dress in Isabella's bathroom and turned the shower on with scalding hot water and shut the door.  After about ten minutes I went in and turned off the water and shut the door again.  About five minutes later I went in and the steam had relaxed the tulle a lot and it was not so poofy. Phew! 

All that tulle!!

Now it was time for accessories!  I put some sequin trim on the bottom of the crotchet top, where the tulle is attached to cover up the seem.  I then added some purple satin ribbon for straps so that the dress will stay up but the straps are really soft so they shouldn't chafe her neck when she wears it.  I also added a pretty blue flower for the final accessory.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to put the flower on the sequin trim or near the top by the ribbon.  In the end I decided to put it near the top to cover where the ribbon is attached to the crotchet top and to make sure that she was completely covered in the top.  Finally I put it on her for the last time, and she loved it! What also surprised me was that daddy also loved it and thought that it was really cute!

She LOVES her Easter dress! Now she can't wait for Easter to come so she can wear her pretty dress. 

A close up of the sequins and other accessories. She says that the flower is her favorite.

After two days and about six hours of work I think the dress is done.  I am playing with the idea of putting some glitter glue on the tulle to make it extra sparkly, but I would have to find a spray on type and I don't know if they make those. I'm also going to make a bow or set of bows with some of the left over tulle so she will have a matching set.  I'm so excited and proud about my first attempt at these dresses, I am already thinking of new styles and designs, maybe I might even start selling them!?!?!

Vacation Days!

Today was the start of my week long vacation from work!  My little is on spring break (yes, preschoolers have spring break) so I took the week off to have some quality time with my baby girl.  As anyone would do on their first day of a vacation, we spent the morning cleaning! LOL. After that my Izzy and I went and scouted some locations for the baby shower, I think I found the place that I want but we have some more to look at and some pricing to work out.  Then we went back home and spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing.  I love having these lazy days with my love bug, she even helped her daddy and I do some yard work when he got home.  Tomorrow is going to be a big crafting day, I plan on making Izzy's Easter dress this year and I have some projects I want to get started for her room to do as we set up the nursery that I need to get items for.  I will also be ordering the bedding for the nursery tomorrow so I will post an update on that tomorrow as well!  I hope you all had a wonderful day and I'll see you tomorrow!

My Favorite Lush Products

So, for any of you who know me, know that I am absolutely ADDICTED to Lush beauty products.  I love them because they leave my hair and skin looking and feeling amazing, I love Lush's focus on fair trade and organically grown products, I love the use of natural, preservative free ingredients, I love their emphasis on their environmental impact which leads them to compost any and all natural ingredients, reward shoppers for recycling their product packaging, and offering recycled gift wrapping. I love how the majority of their products don't have packaging which lowers their environmental impact, I love how they are a cruelty free company which does not test ANY of its products on animals and I love how they provide grants for companies and organizations that follow their core environmental and cruelty free values.

I also  just love the idea of having half an hour or an hour once a week to pamper myself, and every mom out there knows, ANY amount of "me time" is so refreshing.   As moms we tend to put ourselves last on our to-do list, after all we have a lot to worry about: raising well rounded responsible children, having a happy well fed husband, and clean house, a successful career, and maintaining our friendships, and let us not forget moms are also the official, unofficial provider for all of the pets that were "so cute" that our children promised to "feed and water" on their own.  All of these responsibilities usually leave us exhausted and often times the allure of the couch or bed overrides our desire for me time.  However, it is SO important for us moms to put us at the top of the priority list AT LEAST once a week.  We owe it to ourselves because we do so much for our families and friends, that we deserve to have some relaxation, outside of our birthday.  I also believe that it is important to put ourselves first sometimes because in the long run, putting ourselves first inevitably helps our families.  Think about it ladies, if we put ourselves first at least once a week, we are likely to feel better about ourselves, when we feel better about ourselves we are likely to feel sexier..and well we know what benefit that has for our dear hubbies.  Also, when we feel good about ourselves and are re energized we tend to be more involved with our children (duh, because we have energy), but we also start to show our children the strong, confident mom that they have, and we show them that we have value, which is an important message to send to your children regardless of their sex.  Now, I realize that this may be reading into things a bit, but I personally do see a difference in myself on the weeks I get that me time and the weeks I don't.  I feel more centered, more present, and I also feel more prepared for all the craziness that the next week has in store.  I find that Lush products help me do this the best, however you can use whatever products you prefer, or your "me time' may not be pampering per se, it may be going to a movie on your own, or having the hubby take the kids to the park for an hour so you can catch up on a favorite show, or a scheduled weekly girls night, whatever it is, we moms need to carve out weekly time for ourselves, and to not stir up that inevitable "mom guilt" I suggest finding a time when the kids are asleep so that way you don't feel like you missed out on anything.

For me, my me time consists of some nice relaxing Lush pampering. I usually try to do an at home spa day on Friday evenings after little Izzy goes to bed.  During this mini spa experience I put on my favorite hair mask, face mask, bath bombs, and bath melts. I soak for a good half hour (or however long it takes me to read a chapter or two of my current book) then I shower with my favorite Lush bath products.  Below I have listed my favorite products from Lush.  Some of these are specifically from my spa night and others are staples in my family's hygiene routine.  I hope you enjoy!

The name of this hair mask is a tongue twister, but it is SO moisturizing!  Among other ingredients it has balsamic vinegar, eggs, and bay leaves which help make your hair shiny, protect your hair and clarify your scalp.  I run it through my hair with my fingers making sure to coat all of my hair and then put it up in a pony tail or clip and let it set while I take my bath.

I use the R&B treatment after every hair wash.  I run it through my damp hair and brush and let it air dry.  I have curly hair so this really helps with my frizz and fly aways when I have it straight or curly. A little goes a long way so a pot of this surf last a long time, I use this on my daughter's hair as well and it makes it SO much more manageable. 

I LOVE the shine so bright split end treatment.  I put this on the ends of my hair in the morning and it really helps my hair revive especially after I flat iron it, this is a staple in my morning routine.

I LOVE this shampoo! It is so creamy and lathers up amazingly, and it really gets the hair mask out! It is very cleansing but gentle for processed hair like mine.  It contains mashed up bananas, cocoa and cupuacu butters, these ingredients are softening and really help damaged hair. On top of everything it smells AMAZING!!!

Veganese is a light and lanolin free conditioner that really helps give some umph to my limp hair, yes I know I really won the hair lottery with limp yet curly hair!  Not only is this conditioner vegan but the lavender in it helps care for your scalp and smells amazing as well. I think it pairs really nicely with the Blousey shampoo.

The ocean salt scrub is so amazing for my showers after my baths on my spa nights.  Basically it's a body scrub with real ocean salt that you mix together after you buy it.  It really helps get rid of dry skin when you rub it all over your body and really work the salt into the skin.  The sea salt is mixed with fresh avocado and coconut to help soften your skin as the salt removes dead skin and blockages. I really see a difference in the overall feel and look of my skin after I use it.

The ultra bland cleanser is amazing for sensitive/delicate skin.  It uses honey and beeswax as its main ingredients to help remove the dirt and gunk you collect on your face throughout the day and it softens your skin with rosewater and iris flower extract.  It works so well and my skin feels so soft after.

The celestial moisturizer is great for sensitive skin, and a little goes a LONG way. Literally a dab will do ya!  It blends cocoa butter, vanilla water and almond milk to hydrate and protect your skin.  This is by far one of my most favorite Lush buys so far!


Well, that is the main aspects of my Lush beauty regime.  I will try to put together a blog post regarding my best picks for bubble bars and bath bombs, but I have to narrow them down, because quite frankly I think they are all amazing.  If I can create a top ten list between the two then I will make an inclusive summary blog.  I hope you guys found this interesting and helpful, and I would LOVE to hear what your favorite products are!