13 weeks/second trimester starts

 Here it is the 13 week update.  I that means second trimesters!!  I am super excite to be done with the first trimester and hopefully some of the crappy symptoms that come along with it (nausea, exhaustion, heacaches..) 

This week was a rough one.. Fire monster had stomach flu and spent a entire day throwing up, my hubby had a over night business trip and was gone for two days, lots of cleaning sheet changing scrubbing and sanitizing and cranky kids.  Just been a long week.  But I did get a few things accomplished.  I got two baby hats knit, the 8 burp cloths sewn and I started a great baby blanket.  The pattern I am using is called umaro.  I love it!  I cast on once and got a whole lace chart in before deciding it was going to be bigger then I wanted and ripping it out.  I cast on again using 103 stitches instead.  The yarn I am using is berroco comfort (great soft acrylic perfect for baby knits and holds up great to washing)  After starting this I realized ...

My nails match lol.  I painted them mint sprint by sally hanson and used pure ice dazzle me for the accent nails. 

Well people it is library day and the girls are riding me like a rented mule on when we are going to leave the house so I better get my booty out the door.  Have a good day guys.

beauty haul

 So over the weekend I picked up a few beauty products.  I figured I would do a quick haul and share with you what I picked up.  I grabbed one of these St. Ives timeless skin collagen elastin facial moiturizers.  I had this on my list of things to try because I have heard that dr oz says you shouldn't waste your money on exspensive anti aging creams that this is the best out there.  It was less then 5$ for this giant 10 oz tub. 

I have been meaning to try these cover girl glossy balms.  I had a 2$ off coupon making this about 5$ so I picked it up in blush twist. It is nice, feels good on the lips but wish I would have gone for the watermelon color or something a bit brighter because this doesn't really show up on my lips.

 I had 3 wet and wild 1$ off coupons that were about to exspire and I LOVE wet and wild.  I love their colored products (eye shadows, lip products, anything of that sort not like foundation/ concealer)  and seeing as nothing is over 5$ 1 $ off is great! I have been wanting to grab this for a while it is reserve your cabana it works great for a facial highlighter that isn't sparkly but just gives a subtle sheen.  I like it and you get a ton for 3.50.

 Then I grabbed this run coral/orange mega last polish.  It was 1.99 before coupon.  The mega last line is great and club havana was a great color I had to have for spring and summer.

 This was my last wet and wild purchase it was 3.50 and it was fergie polish in going platinum.  It is nice sparkly silver.

 I have been needing some cuticle cream horribly seeing as I live in Minnesota and it is way too often well below 0 degrees lately.  I grabbed this sally hanson one at walmart for about 4$ and it smells great (because it has apricot oil) and seems to be doing the trick)

 I also grabbed my first insta dry polish color in mint sprint.  I love the insta dry top coat and this will be my first polish from the line.  I have been looking for a great blue color that is brighter then wet and wild I need a refreshmint.  and less dark then internationally known by pure ice, a good robins egg blue color. color.  Let me know if you have any good recommendations.

 and the last polish I got was a pure ice one.  I have been looking for a great silver glitter with both big and little chunks since before christmas!!!  I am very excited to try this one it is called dazzle me and was 1.99 at walmart.

That is my full out haul people.  I am going to try to get in a quick nap.  Have a good one :)

baby projects and 12w 5d pic

 My hubby is out of town for work and when ever he is gone I need a good project.  So me and the Fire monster set out today to get some supplies.  Being as I am 12 weeks and 5 days I am of coarse doing a baby project:)  Here is a pic I snapped quick before heading out to get supplies.

 Our project for the day was burp cloths.  I went to the local fabric store and bought 1 yard of chenille in a pale yellow ( their only either sex color besides white and I don't want white for burp cloths!) Then we ran out to walmart to pick a few neutral flannel fabrics.  We had a pretzel for lunch quick then came home and set to work cutting sewing and ironing.  Here is the end product.  I actually got 8 done.  I have some chenille left but ran out of flannel.  :)

I did them 17'' but 9 1/2".  They turned out great.  I am very excited not to have ugly diaper burp cloths this time.  :)  I am going to spoil my self and this baby all that I can ;) Well I am going to curl up with fire monster and watch some tv.  Us girls will be doing our normal ritual when daddies out of town.  Watch movies and order pizza :) Have a good day guys

mani monday

Mani monday time.  I picked up some new polishes over the weekend. I had a coupon for 1$ off any wet and wild purchase.  We all know how much I love wet and wild.  Their product quality is insane and considering nothing is over 5$ that is a amazing deal.  I think I will do a haul and show you some of the beauty goodies I got maybe tomorrow.  but for today I will just show off what I did with them when I got home.

I did the tri-accent nail with wet and wild club havana, china glaze make a entrance, and wet and wild fergie going platinum.  I also lined the tri-accents in white nail art polish.  I love club havana it is a bright orangy coraly color.  :)  Hope you guys are having a great day.  :)

12 w 1 d

The all time easiest way to wash hand knits (no hand washing required)/how to make wool drier balls

Okay so I am going to teach you how I wash and care for my hand knits.  It is sooo simple and there really is no hand washing involved in this.  So first off I keep a little basket in front of the washer for all my delicate and hand knit items.  When that gets full I simple do this..

 First off you turn the dial on your machine to cold and delicate (if you washer has it mine says pulse but doesn't matter)  set it to size of load you need. (I never need bigger then a small load)

 Then add a hand wash soap.  I use soak I love the smell (this one I ordered off Ravelry.com and it is their special green apple scent) I pour in a few cupfuls as the drum is filling and wait right there with your machine.

Once there is enough water to cover your hand knits and BEFORE  it starts agitating stop your machine.  (that is very important because that is what keeps your clothes from felting) squish down the clothes so they are all getting wet.  Then you set a timer for 15 minutes and walk away.

 After 15 minutes you come back and turn your dial forward to SPIN NOT RINSE.  Because soak doesn't need washed out and you don't want your clothes agitated you don't want it adding water just spinning out the water in the drum.

 You can repeat the spin part one more time for heavier fabrics such as sweaters or blankets.  Most of the moisture will be gone and you set your things out to dry as needed.  These are new socks so I will put then on my sock blockers to give them a nice shape.(I got mine from loopy ewe but knitpicks.com has less expensive ones now) 

These baby socks I finished will be set in the shape I want them to dry in since it is their first time being washed too.

but most of our socks wind up on this octopus thing from IKEA.  If they have already been blocked this is just fine for them.  I am lucky because I have a little laundry line thing that crosses the ceiling by my washer...not so lucky that they are in the hall to my master bath so there is always laundry hanging there lol. 

Here is one more thing to share with you I made some of these some time ago and they have disappeared so I made a new set today.  They are wool balls for your drier.  They help keep clothes soft so you don't have to use fabric softener (which clogs your lint trap and makes clothes take longer to dry and is a fire hazard) but they also decrease dry time and keeps things like blankets and coats fluffy.  This is a great project for your kids to help with.  Here is how you do it.

All you have to do to make these is roll some wool into a ball (I used patons classic wool I had left over from some felted slippers) and then once you have a ball about the size of a apple you take a needle and tuck the end in.  Then you take the ball put it is a old nylon and tie a knot,  You do it again until you have row of the balls in the nylons with knots between.  Then you throw then in the washer on hot and let them run through (I did mine twice)  Mine had some weird nubs when they came out I snipped those off and threw then right in the drier so they were ready for the next load!  Here is a link to a more visual tutorial if you are like me and need that. I hope this was helpful to you guys.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to comment and I will do my best to get back to you

what in my purse/ make up monday mani

Okay so yesterday I was off my game as I was super sick and didn't get mani monday done. But as luck would have it today was a two hour late start for the girls at school.  That means I had time to clean out/ switch purses.  Since I am forever fascinated by this kind of stuff, I thought I would share with you some of the madness that goes into my purse.

I will start with the small front pockets on my purse that I put stuff I want to keep on hand...

In those pockets I had the memory stick that the hospital uses to put ultrasound pics, my strawberry smoothie lip butter, my color whispers in berry ready, and made it mauve (berry ready was just randomly in there don't use it much), next is my palladio lip gloss in 11th gorgeous, baby lips in grape vine, and my physicians formula happy booster

Now as for random stuff floating lose I had my shades a groupon gc, a fiber one bar, some icebreaker berry mints, and some papers I was supposed to leave in the car

 Then there is my coupon folder, my wallet, and this little card organizer that holds all my insurance stuff /club card type stuff.

 

then wet wipes (you never know) and some papers for my dr

Okay, here is where it takes a slight turn into crazy town..my purse organizers.. this one is basically all lip products.  I use pretty much all of these so I like to have time on hand.  I have lip butters, lips stains, lip glosses, long wearing lip sticks, and chap stick. I cleaned out some of these because they are more fallish colors.

Then I have a second organizer that lines the other side of my purse.  This one should have that little card holder thing (don't know why it was lose) it hold pens, sanitizer, my business card holder, the seed my gf brought me back from the trip down south.  It is supposed to bring money (no luck so far lol) and there is a few emergency feminine products that get zipped into the zipper pouch

Now here is what I down sized from my purse.  I got ride of 6 lips sticks in fall shades and the lip liners.  I put those away in my makeup stash.  I also got rid of a whole purse organizer.  They are super hand by the way.

The purse organizers are made from a place mat and super easy.  You can sew the pockets to accommodate what ever you carry.  Here is the tutorial I used for these. If you give them a shot you should let me know.  They really are handy to keep things organizer not to mention making it easier to switch purses.  :) 

Ps a bit late and a bit messy but here is my makeup for monday mani.  Its wet and wild disturbia (a dark purple) with pure ice sexy mama over the accent nails tapering from the cuticle.  Have a good day guys.

fo cowboys socks / blue steps

I finally finished some knitting projects.  I have been having a hard time getting much of anything done since this pregnancy started.  I have been working on these socks for my brother in laws birthday since Christmas!!!  I usually fly through socks but I just have no ambition lately.  My brother in law is a major Dallas cowboys fan, and since I made my hubby the vikings good juju socks, I thought it was only fair to make uncle Larry some cowboys good jujus socks.  Here they are in all their finished (finally) glory!!

After that I figured I better stick to some instant gratification projects and seeing as I am preggo what better projects then some fun baby goodies.  I dug through ravelry and my queue and found some great patterns to work on but first off I thought I would give this one another shot.

This is the pattern blue steps by regina willer.  I had tried this months ago and found it super frustrating because it didn't make sense to me. I went through all the helpful notes on ravelry and found blueknots to be helpful.(here is where I go into knitters language for a while excuse me if you are not a knitter feel free to skip this paragraph because it will make 0 sense to you!)  There was one are where the decreasing starts that I I had to look back and forth between her interpretation of the pattern and the original to figure it out.  The problem I was having was that it said work 14 stitches in hbs.(Half Brioche Stitch)  well that didn't make sense to me because the first round of hbs you make increases so what they meant was work 14 of the original stitches in hbs. so you split the 28 stitches in half work the first 14 in hbs and the second half is the decrease half.  So what ever I also found where you are supposed to work 10 rounds of hbs straight at the end I would end funny so I did 11 rounds then knit the 8 ss rounds. 

Well I suppose I should fight my nausea and exhaustion and cook for my family!  When will this end yuck!  Have a good day guys :)

11w

  

Well here we are 11 weeks I am getting so close to being out of the first trimester and hoping that my nausea will be gone along with it.  I have had longer spurts of energy and managed to catch up on laundry and get my house mostly clean for the first time in ages.  I also went to the cities quickly over the weekend, I got to spend some time with my family, and got my self a great little treat at teavana.  I will post more about that later.  

Other then that it has been pretty uneventful mostly lots of dusting and laundry.  Its library day and I have to get these girls there and take them to get valentines!  I hope you guys are having a great day :) 

valentines day mani monday

 hey guys here is my valentines mani monday.  I have been meaning to do this for a long time after seeing it on pinterest.  I went to walmart and bought 4 different paper punch shapes in the scrap booking isle (all of them were less then a dollar a piece) I got a butterfly, a heart, a star, and a damask one.  Of coarse I was looking for the heart for this look ..

I painted all of my nails china glaze ruby pumps which is a beautiful chunky glittery red and then painted my middle and ring fingers in china glazes make an entrance. Them once that was dry I ripped 6 small pieces of painters tape and punched holes in all them and put them on my accent fingers and did my thumbs too.  I painted them the alternate colors.  All I had to do then was throw on a top coat.  Here is the original tutorial I went off.

I hope you guys like the tutorial and give it a shot.  It was easy peazy.  I can't wait to try some of the other fun shapes I picked up :)  I will for sure share it when I get it done :)  Well off to finish the mountain of laundry I have been working at scaling all day :)  Have a great day guys.

10 weeks

Okay so here is my 10 week update.  Everything is pretty much same old same.  I had a migraine during the super bowl but I toughed through it and threw together a quick dinner but then after it was done and in the bowls I went to garnish it and realized the parm was moldy!!  So dinner went down the drain and the family had to eat salad!!  My hubby is soo used to me having a dinner cooked and the house clean I think this has been a bit of a culture shock for him.  But he has been really great and supportive through it all.

Other then that life has been pretty boring.  I have noticed that I think I am starting to lose less hair so maybe my thyroid meds are getting things back in order.  I have to figure out what to feed my family so you guys have a great night :) 

mani monday

 Happy Mani. Monday.  Today's mani is nyc sidewalkers and the tri accent is wet and wild bite the bullet. 

 

 Today hasn't been too bad of a day.  Last night I had a full out migraine but today I am feeling pretty good and everything is going well.  I am up dressed fed me and Fire monster twice already and even did some chores!  That is better then most days lately.  Speaking of Fire monster Benji went up to check on her before he went to bed last night and couldn't find her!!  She wasn't in her bed where he put her!  He found her here..

She had curled up in her "fort" under her desk and fell asleep.  Always keeping us on our toes that one lol.  Well I suppose I still have a ton of chores left I should be getting done while I am feeling well enough.  You never know when you are going to start to feel crappy again.  So I am off to do laundry and tidy the basement.  :)  Have a great Monday guys.

homemade 0 cal s.f. passion tea lemonade

I don't know about you guys but I am obsessed with the starbucks shaken passion tea lemonade.  I love that stuff.  But seeing as I don't have a starbucks with in a hour of me (actually more then that) I had to get creative this summer and come up with my own rendition of this little bad boy.

At first I followed some one else recipe that tasted more like the recipe but it still had allot of calories so I improvised. 

 My version is sorta a cross between the starbucks version and the sparkling caribou teas because it has some fizz. but unlike the 200 calorie and around 51 gram of sugar counter parts mine is 0 cal and sugar free! It is also caffeine free so I have been downing this stuff like there is no tomorrow for a nice treat for my prego bootie :) Here is what you need..

A box of tazo passion tea (I get this at my grocery store for 3$ and some change), a big pitcher, and a 2L of walmarts strawberry lemonade seltzer (.89 a bottle) .  

Now what you do is take unwrap 3 tea bags and tie the strings together in a knot.  

Now in the summer I would throw it in my ice tea pitcher on the porch for a few hours (or until I remember about it) but seeing as it is 16 degrees out side I don't think that would work.  So I toss a sauce pan of water on the stove and bring it to a boil  Set a timer for 5 minutes and let it steep. (removing it from the burner and turning off the heat after like one minute)  In the mean time I fill the glass ice tea container half way with cold water.  When the timer goes off I pour the tea concentrate into the water and fill the pitcher the rest of the way with water.   (This tea will be stored in your fridge.)

Okay to mix the drink fill your glass with ice then pour about half the glass full of the tea mixture

 Next fill it the rest of the way with the seltzer.

 After that you can add a artificial sweetener or another thing I love to do is add a bit of sugar free peach syrup.  Soo good!   I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do :)  Have a great day!

whiskers is at it again

This is the new naughty business the kitten has been up to.  I was doing a girl friends hair the other day and he kept doing this...

Have a good day guys