Little Wife, Little Mother

      I think it might be easier to show you my announcement, rather than telling you, so here you go, our life changing (for the husbandman and I at least) announcement:

  

    I'm 14 weeks along, and still very much on cloud nine. But we got to see the baby today, and it is suddenly so much more real to the both of us. To be able to see him (or her, we don't know yet) move and respond to pressure and bounce, and even "wave" was honestly one of the best moments of my live.

A List

     I’ve been kinda blue lately.  I would have just started my last week of college if I hadn’t gotten this crazy idea to get married.  I have never once regretted this decision.  But after having gotten into the University of Mary Washington with honors, but then leaving with a far less than stellar GPA only to fail at online classes, after a massive bout of depression, it’s been hard to shut out the what ifs.   But I am not going to be beat by them, I’m tired of being blue.  So after much needed rant fest (my mom is the best listener ever) I came up with this list. These are all the things that college would have never taught me.  Some are things that I have learned the hard way, some have been really obvious.  But it is this knowledge who makes me who I am today.

80's night at UMW

Big News (for me)

     I'm bouncing off the walls today because my Business Liscense came in today! The Little Wife is offically up and running!  So I still wont really be able to take orders till the end of next month because all my sewing time is commited to my aunt, (unless they're very small or super easuy) but this also gives me time to stock up on products, merchandise and ideas.  I hope to use what I make for the cupcake challenge make a small catalogue.

     I also plan on making a website. Does anyone know of a site that is free and fairly easy to use and customize? (Like a blogger for websites)

Stealth Bows

     The husbandman is a very manly man, and therefor is not best pleased with my habit of decorating with bows.  Thus (as I am a hugely girly girl and love bows in all shapes and sizes) I am recuded to adding what he calls "stealth bows" anywhere and everywhere I can.
     For example, I might tie his sweatshirt ties into a bow as we are talking, or tie my straw wrapper around my knife (into a bow of course.) I have bows on my purse, on my tote bag and often wear them in my hair.

 

     However, I think I am proudest of these bows.  They are by far the sneakiest.  They are on the wall yes, of our own bedroom.  In plain sight. And the husbandman has never said a word. I'm sure it is just because he is humouring me, (after all, they are very small bows in the corner, under a shelf) but it is much more fun to think that these are the stealthiest of all my stealth bows, and he just still hasn't see them.

Things that make me happy…

…that most people think are weird

     I love carwashes.  This simple fact is what inspired this post.  I get really weird looks when I tell people this, and I kinda sorta understand why.  (That doesn’t change the fact that I will use almost any excuse to get the car washed.)

    

It got me to thinking, there are a lot of things that make me oddly happy:

     Like the smell of Home Depot.  Or Lowes, or anywhere where they sell cut lumber.

     The smell of tack polish.

     Ice. I eat ice.  Religiously. I know it’s bad for my teeth, but once I start I honestly can’t stop.  There’s just something satisfying about that crumbling crushing crunch.

     When little ones are dressed up (Like bowties for little boys and crinolines for little girls)

     Fairy Tales (don’t judge, you know they are a huge part of our culture)

    

     

Things that the Husbandman thinks need to be added to this list but I think are perfectly normal:

     Babies, 

     pink, 

I would have died for this room when I was 3, or 6, or 9...

     surprises, 

     soft fabric, 

     facebook notifications, 

     presents and 

     “when happy fictional events occur in my books or movies you get giggly.”

     Am I alone in any of these? What makes you happy?

Things You Need to Know About Me...

...if we're going to be blogging buddies

     I got this idea from Little Miss Momma and think its wonderful.

 

     So if we are going to be friends, these are all things that effect, influence, and shape me and my personality (and this is random, but all true, so you can't say I didn't warn you):

     I got married 10 days before my 21st birthday.

 

     I'm a snow bunny who loves the beach (but not in the sun bathing kind of way, more like the wind swept cliffs kind of way)  

     I still love pink best of all, but am terrified that I wear it too much.

     It took me two years to convince my husband to ask me out (he still thinks it was his idea ;) ) and then four years to get him to propose.

     My fashion style gets more preppy as winter comes, and more bohemian as it warms up.

     I look at least four years younger than I really am, if not six. (My mother tells me I'll be grateful for this in ten years or so, but right now it just gets me funny looks when I tell people I'm married.)

     I'm very quiet with large group, or people I don't know, but I absolutely hate being alone. So I honestly don't know if I'm an introvert or an extrovert.

     I love music. Not the angry music so much, but pretty much everything else, from classic to techno to country to swing.

      I babble when I get nervous. (As if you couldn't tell.) I just can't stop, that silence in which I have to wait for a response always seems even worse than the word vomit.

      My favorite scents for me are Bath and Body Work's  Gardenia and Sea Island Cotton. And for the house, I love almost anything with apple during the fall and winter and scents with a more citrus kick in the spring and summer. I don't like very heavy or musky scents at all.

      I get most (if not all) of my history knowledge from my historical fiction novels.

      I love folk lore and mythology, especially Greek and Roman, Norse, Celtic, and the traditional “English” lore from fairy tales, and the big man himself, Tolkien.

      Comments make my day. I mean really make my day. I read every one (multiple times) and a really try to respond to each of them. They are the best thing ever.

     I really worry about this blog. It's only a little over a week old, but it has become a part of me. Maybe of you too. And that leads me to the biggest thing of all...

     I really hope “you” are out there. This is probably the great fear of all blogger, but I feel like I'm sharing and talking and growing. But I'm also so nervous, I feel like I have just stated my life's purpose in a crowed room of people all having their own conversations and I'm just waiting and hoping to see if anyone at all notices.

***

     How about you? What do I need to know about you so that we can be online bffs?

A birthday surprise...

     Yesterday I got a big box in the mail*. Not only was that incredibly exciting, this box had happy birthday written all over it... my day is looking up.  I of course give it the necessary shakes (as if that would really help me - the worse present guesser in the world - figure out what this mystery birthday box is).
     There is no way I'm going to be able to wait till my birthday to open this, so I dash to the nearest comfy spot to open it. This spot turns out to be my bed (remember this, you'll see why it matters in a few moments.)
     I cut the box open, and my first thought is oh how cool is it that the inside is wrapped! My second is "oh dear heavens, I hope that's not the husbandman who just pulled up in the driveway!" For I, the bed, and all the surrounding area is covered in glitter. And the husbandman does not do glitter, not at all. So I shut the box back up, place it out of reach of the dogs and race upstairs to find a broom and dustpan.

     It turns out to not be the husbandman, in fact it was only someone driving by, and not anyone at all in the driveway.  So I go back to my happy birthday box, and reopen it (much more carefully this time) to go see what is actually under the card and all that glitter! And the answer ladies and gentlemen is so worth all that panic, for the box is filled with not only more chocolate than I should  eat in a whole month (notice I said should and not can) and... glitter glue!
  

     By the time I get around to opening the card, I have wizened up a little, and in a stroke of ingeniousness I cut off the side of the card rather than opening it up and having even more glitter fall into my lap (of course this is the only way I could have opened it anyways, it was wrapped like another gift in packing tape, but I felt like I was outsmarting the gift-giver anyways.)

     So thanks Steph! Yes, you managed to husbandman proof my present, as well as making me flash from pure joy, to panic, back to joy, and the sneakiness all in about five minutes ;)





*Disclaimer: I love mail, mail of all sorts makes me so happy, and on the rare occasions that it contains a present, (especially if it was not something I ordered for myself) well my day is made, it doesn't even really matter what's inside. I got mail, and someone loves me enough to send me a present!!

New Year's To-Do list

     Lulu in Los Angeles had what I think is a wonderful idea.  Instead of creating resolutions for the new year, which never seem to last past a few days, or even a a month if we really work hard, she wrote a to-do list!
I love lists.  I often lose them as soon as I write them, but it is a habit I picked up from my college roomie and have never seem to have gotten over.  So I am going to share my to-do list with you, so that I can't possibly lose it!

1. Create a button for my blog. CHECK
2. Blog every day, even if just a few lines or a photo.
3. Find a job, preferably working with children or somehow maybe even working my love of sewing into a real job.
4. Finish my last online class with a B or higher.
5. Do something crafty at least twice a week, may it be a sewing project, a bracelet, a hat for Miss G, or even a scrapbook page.
6. Read every day, even if just for five minutes before going to bed.
7. Get involved with my church community.
8. Read a bible chapter every day to keep up with our Church's bible reading plan.
9. Spend time with my family every day, and really take advantage of the fact that we are living with my parents and 15 minutes away from the husbandman's parents.  I'll need to soak up these times for when we move away again so the husbandman can go to grad school.
10. Get a dog.  I don't like being by myself, and for those times when I'm home and the husbandman is working ridiculously long hours or at a class, I'd like some company. And having to walk a dog (when we move back into a apartment) will help me get the sunlight and exercise that is supposed to be another to-do. (But I like the evenness of ten, eleven bothers me (yes, I'm one of those number nuts), so I'll just tuck it in here)

I think I can stick with all this.  I don't think any of it is too difficult... I may be sorry in a few months, but we will just have to see.

Check out lulu in los angeles for the post that inspired me!

Early Birthday Present

     These were a early birthday present from my in-laws. No my birthday isn't for another week. However the wrapped present has been sitting on the dinning room table calling my name and taunting me for a week now, and they were kind enough to let me open it now. I don't think I could have waited any longer ;)

     I can't decide whether to use these to corral sewing notions or to go find a powder puff and use them for what I think was their orginal purpose? What do you think?

   
     I love how when light shines through the lid of the big one, pink magically appears on the underside!

     They are made of Italian alabaster and are too pretty to not be seen. The larger one, with painted roses, is roughly six inches in diameter, the smaller one, decorated with a magnolia is about 4.

the hardest part of moving-in

      So far the hardest thing about sharing a home with the husbandman has been consolidating our books. Not sharing space with another person, not fighting over covers, not having to agree on which movie to watch, but rather finding space for all our books.

     Cause you see, we have a lot of books. And I don't say that lightly, I love books, and my dream growing up was to find the library that The Beast gives to Belle and claim it as my own.

 
       I'm kicking myself for missing the photo op that presented itself yesterday when the husbandman brought home all the books that had been stored in his parents' attic.

     The sheer amount of books is really more impressive scattered across the floor in knee-high stacks. And when I say scattered, I mean filling the floor of our sitting area. So I leave you with that image, I'm quite sure your imagination is up to the task (whatever you imagine, the reality was probably more.) 

     

     I'll show you what all our books look like on the book cases (we have have five, yes five, (we have two stacked on top of each other because there is just not enough room otherwise) in a bedroom) cause even that is pretty dag-on impressive if I do say so myself.    

    

     And these are the books that are headed to the used bookstore, they are either repeats (of which there were many) or ones that probably will not be read again. But knowing us, the pile we bring home from the used bookstore will be just as large as the one we take.

i have a confession to make...

     I steal my husband's socks. Like all the time.  I'll wear my cute fluffy socks with my boots, but they come off as soon as I get home.  We have the coldest floors known to man, and I can not walk across them without getting chills.  And all this is coming from one who was known from a very young age onwards to always, always have hot feet.  But not on our new floors, no sir. So I steal my husbands socks because although my socks are pink and fuzzy, they are not nearly as rugged as what my feet demand to cross the icy tundras of our room.*

*I also tend to exaggerate a wee little bit, I do hope you can tell.  I'm not quite that melodramatic ;)

Our Anniversary

Yesterday was our first anniversary! Yay!! And I just wanted to send a thank you to my wonderful husband for all that he does.  (And to kinda aplogize that he has Christmas, our anniversary, and my birthday all within 16 days. I swear I didn't plan it that way!)

Thank You Husband man for; (yes this will be mushy and lovey-dovey, skip it if you can't handle it)

bringing me books that are closer to me than they are to you, just because I don't want to get out of my cozy nest. 
taking me out to a sea-food restaurant when you don't like fish.
hugs and kisses whenever I need them.

constant love and affrimation that need and appirecate me.
letting me sneak bows and pink flowers into my crafting nook.
letting me talk you into buying candy even though we only came to the grocery store for one thing.

opening your presents early so I can too, just becuase I can't wait any longer.
for not getting exsaperated when I fall asleep during the movie I swore I could stay awake through.

for loving me always, for making me special, for treating me like a princess, and for being the only man I could ever imagine myself married to.

I love you husbandman. Thank you for an amazing year, and a delightful day which made me fall even more deeply in love. (yes, all that happened yesterday),