SH and I were very excited to welcome miss Audrey Leigh into the world in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (March 26)! She weighed a petite 6lbs. 10oz., and had a very quick entry into the world. (Weeks of those darn fake labor contractions made me think I wasn’t in the early stages of labor Monday evening!) We’re very thankful that God has blessed us with this precious girl and that she had a safe delivery and both she and I are doing well. SH and I have been spending a lot of time cuddling with her, marveling over her tiny toes and fingers, and learning something new hourly about parenthood. We’re just eating up every moment of these early days! I feel like I can’t remember what life was like before she arrived–motherhood is proving to be very agreeable (though not without it’s challenges and hiccups!).
Sorry to keep this so short, but I have a cute little girl to go cuddle with… Be back in a few weeks! ♥ ♥ ♥
April 1, 2013 ·
190 lovely thoughts
posted in baby diary
· tags: baby diary
Hello, everyone! These past few weeks have been full to the brim; last-minute dates for SH and I, socializing with friends, and trying not to focus too much on when Miss Blueberry will appear. Her “official” due date is just days away, but she seems intent at this point on staying past and enjoying her last days of peace and quiet. lol. I go between moments of frenetic energy cleaning the house and trying to get things set up and prepped for the baby, and wanting nothing more than to lay on the sofa and nap (or watch season 1 episodes of my newest BBC drama addiction: Call the Midwife). Exciting times, I tell you! lol.
[ Random snapshots from my Instagram (username: elegantmusings) over the past few weeks. Look at that belly! ]
I am so excited spring is (finally!) officially here! Last winter was such an opposite of this: warmer than usual and far less dreary days. I do not do well with dreary, cold weather. We’ve had a few teaser days of unbelievably warm and sunny weather (in which I remember why living near the coastline is so fun!), and I can’t wait for it to truly warm up so we can start spending more time outside as a family (without me turning into an icicle!). Of course, today is characteristically cold and dreary. But I’ve been seeing early spring flowers popping up in front yards and the songbirds have been singing from morning until late in the evening, so my favorite season is truly just around the corner!
Lastly, I just wanted to let those know–who haven’t heard–that Google Reader will be shutting down as of July. I am really quite sad that my favorite feed reader is going away, since it’s the one I’ve used the longest and felt worked best for me with how I read blogs. It also seems to be the one that most of you, my dear readers, use as well. I went ahead and switched all my feeds over to Bloglovin’, so I don’t forget in the impending haze of new motherhood. But at least you have a few months to test out and decide on a new blog reader. There was a great comparison of three of the most popular readers on The Crafty Cupboard, for those still not sure which reader to make the switch to. Of course, if you’d like to follow Elegant Musings on Bloglovin’, you can find it here.
This will be my final post for the next month or so. I am really hoping Miss Blueberry comes sooner rather than later, and I have been ordered by SH to start taking it easy. hehe. While I will be on a short maternity break from blogging, I’ll be back by late April or the very start of May at the latest with new and exciting things! Thank you all so much for your encouragement and sweet words throughout this pregnancy; it’s been so fun to be able to share little peeks into it with you!
March 20, 2013 ·
51 lovely thoughts
posted in baby diary,life
·
sweater: hand-me-down | tank top: NEX | jeans: Motherhood Maternity | belt: thrifted | necklace: vintage (really a bracelet!) | scarf: vintage | shoes: Blowfish
My tongue-in-cheek nod to pin up poses! lol. Hey–got to have fun and a little laugh at myself since I am starting to feel more like Humpty Dumpty these days and less like my old self. hehe! I wore this over the weekend, right as they were predicting snow for the region. Something warm and cozy to curl up under a blanket with, but also presentable enough to go out (which I had to do). Lots of knits these days–which is weird considering how much I used to eschew knits and elastic! I have changed my tune quite a bit. hehe!
I really love how easy this scarf ‘do is; I think it’s going to become one of the ones I work on getting down to second nature over the coming weeks so I can use it to cover up when I haven’t been able to wash my hair for days once Miss Blueberry arrives! It’s better than a ponytail every day, which often just gives me a headache since my hair is so long and thick…
The baby shower my sister is sweetly throwing for me is coming up soon! I am getting so excited… Partly because this means the baby’s arrival is drawing closer, and my sister chose an Alice in Wonderland/Mad Hatter tea party theme for the event! I’ll be sure to take loads of pictures to share with y’all! (Especially as a lot of the decorations are very DIY-friendly.)
January 31, 2013 ·
38 lovely thoughts
posted in baby diary
· tags: 2013 outfit, baby diary, maternity style, outfit
maternity skirt: Target | cardigan: thrifted and refashioned | maternity top: NEX | shoes: Madden Girl | belt: thrifted | bracelet: vintage | scarf: H&M
Somehow I slipped into the third trimester without realizing it… Mostly because my official departure point from the second to third happened about a week before Christmas, so I was preoccupied with gift wrapping and cookie baking! Then New Year’s came along, as well as a make-up Christmas with my inlaws. Now we’re nearly done with January and this little lady doesn’t have much longer before she arrives (we’re well into the single digits of weeks left!), and both SH and I are starting to realize that time is ticking to get some baby things done!
The bump is also getting bigger in leaps and bounds. My handy little pregnancy tracking application for my phone tells me she’s almost 4lbs. now (my OB confirmed that she is measuring right on track), which I can believe by the jarring movements she makes at all times of day (and night). They are no longer little “flutters”–they’re full on eruptions of a baby in an ever-shrinking space. I swear I wake up some mornings and it seems like she’s grown!
Stylewise, I feel like my options are also shrinking my leaps and bounds! While I may be able to fit into a handful of pre-pregnancy separates, that’s mostly relegated to modern-cut jeans and cardigans. Even some of my formerly loose button up shirts are getting a bit tight across my belly! lol. I admit: I have had zero inclination to sew maternity clothes. I admire gals who whip up gorgeous outfits! I think though, this being my first pregnancy and not being able to anticipate how my figure would change, it scared me off a bit from devoting a lot of time to sewing clothes. Maybe the next one I’ll do better? So I have a fairly limited wardrobe at the moment of odd Target and thrift stores finds, and a few things people have given me that work. Next up: stealing SH’s button down shirts to wear over my jeans! hehe! One thing I’ve found is that integrating “vintage style” into a pregnancy wardrobe is a bit of a challenge. I can’t just pull a 1950s shirtwaist dress out of my closet and call it done. Now I have to actually plan things out a bit more, and rely heavily on the overall effect of makeup, hair and accessories. It’s a fun challenge though!
Spot the new background? I decided to move things up to the nursery for picture taking! We get some lovely, soft morning light in that room, and I don’t get the weird shadows I did in the living room. Everything is very much a work in progress right now; we just got the crib put together last week and finalized the furniture placement while SH was off on Monday (it was a Federal holiday here in the US). So now it’s time for me to work some magic with artwork, sew a few things from vintage sheets, and generally add a little dash of whimsy to the space.
I hope you all are having a lovely January thus far! I know I’ve been terribly absent here; there have been a few things afoot that have taken me away from blogging. These past months have not been how I envisioned my blogging would go. And yet, I’ve been learning to give myself a little more grace and realizing that perhaps the way I did things for years just isn’t working quite as well anymore. I’ll figure it out one of these days! 
The photo-bombing dog, who decided he didn’t want to be part of the photoshoot after all! He also just celebrated his first birthday earlier in the month. Yet, you would never know it by the way he acts…
January 23, 2013 ·
55 lovely thoughts
posted in baby diary,outfits + wardrobe
· tags: 2013 outfit, baby diary, maternity style, outfit
This week has just been topsy-turvy for lack of a better phrase! So I’m going to save the Christmas decorations post until next week (I may also show y’all what I’m baking this year since all the cookie baking will commence then!), and instead show you a little evidence that I’ve been sewing. I’ve actually been working on a few things, but kitchen curtains and Boppy covers aren’t as cute… lol.
After I announced I was expecting, the lovely
Portia sent me a fun package full of adorable vintage patterns (thank you again, Portia!). This particular one stood out to me as something I could make immediately (I’ve been holding off on a lot of clothing items, as I’m waiting to see what size Miss Blueberry is to better grade patterns to fit her as needed). What baby (or mama?!) wouldn’t love a little plush elephant? I used some grey cotton velveteen I thrifted, and managed to whip it up in about two evenings.
I also made a little party hat for the elephant out of felt (every elephant needs one, don’t you know?), which can be easily removed before we give Miss Blueberry the elephant to play with. I forgot how much I love making little plush animals! I think I might make one of
these or
these (out of some soft chenille…) for her next.
December 14, 2012 ·
31 lovely thoughts
posted in baby diary
· tags: 2012 sewing, baby diary, sewing
