10 on 10

Ok, so there's this photography idea that I've seen and loved called "10 on 10". The premise is to take a photo during each hour for 10 hours of the 10th day of the month. Basically, you're just documenting what happens throughout your day. Beauty in the ordinary! And when each 10th would roll around, I'd utterly forget to participate. But not this month! :) Funny how this day didn't turn out as ordinary since my tutoring got cancelled for the day and W worked an evening shift last night and got today off. But, here's my first "10 on 10" anyway!

Bfast time..E is a huge morning eater: two eggs, fruit, and yogurt are the norm..

Some outdoor play...

Naptime: Mama makes some sandwiches for our family field trip.

Arrive at our destination and time to explore!

Back at home and naptime for everyone...

Up, books and snack time!

Do some house chores, like breaking down and transferring crib to other room! Eek!

Pack up, grab dinner to go, and head to Concert in the Park

Good times with friends!

Put E down for the night, craft and watch a movie together!

And, that's a wrap!

More on our awesome family field trip later, because, of course, I have lots of pictures that cannot go unshared. ;)

New News!

Guess what?! We're PREGNANT! Oh, wait...you already knew that. ;)

You may {or may not} have noticed that this week I unlocked the privacy on the blog. You may {or may not} have noticed in my 'lurkers' feed that I was getting visitors from some not normal locations. 

Well, I was doing an experiment of sorts. A girlfriend of mine has been requesting a public blog so she can link back to it. And I've been wanting to do a link-up party {blog post where others can share their projects} for quite some time too. I love looking and getting inspired by what others are sharing and doing. Quite a few of our projects have stemmed from some random family's post or picture that was shared in a link party.

Well, on a whim and after gaining some confidence with my guest post, I unlocked the blog and posted on three different link parties. Just to see if it was even worth it and if people would even care to look at our projects. I was shocked that well over 200 people actually took the time to click on a yellow dresser picture to take them to our post. So fun!

But after chatting it up with W, we decided that we would still keep our family blog private for a few reasons:

1) So many pictures of our son{s}

2) I like the fact that I can also 'journal' on here and know who has access to that personal information

3) Although I like to pretend that our location is unknown, I've linked to some fairly local places and put pictures up of our town...so it's not really all that much of a mystery where we live.

That only really left one option if I wanted to continue sharing our projects and crafts: start another blog. So I'm starting a new experiment...a free, non-committal one. We'll see how it goes. If it utterly fails or takes up too much time, I'll just quit. :) I still plan to post our DIY and craft updates here, so I don't think there will really be a need to hop over to our new one if you already read this one.

Without further ado, here's our new addition: Swenson Style

Hi, Third Tri!

Eek! Here we are, starting the last trimester of baking this baby...

I'm still in denial about the whole thing. ;) This week I've definitely noticed that daily activities are getting harder: getting E into his car seat, lifting things, etc. I get out of breath way too easily. I wonder if I can get a doctor's note to skip housework yet. And the bathroom runs during the night are much more frequent-- Goodbye, good, wonderful, well-rested nights. See ya on the flip side! Oh, and how could I forget...the boobs are definitely finding rest on top of the belly. Clearly seen here:

But I must be cray cray because I do still love being pregnant! The swollen belly, big kicks and squirms, and just the pure miracle that is creating new life still get me even with the new and old challenges of this pregnancy. I love it and would love to do it all over again! I will most assuredly be sad when W and I grow out of this life stage.

Our New Headboard

We are in headboard business! Here's our new DIY headboard:

Although, it's not our DIY. One of my go-to girlfriends for DIY advice and inspiration, Jill, and her Will made this. Not too log ago, they moved into a new house and their master situation no longer fits the headboard. She knew about our future plans to make one {after all, she started the whole thing by sending me some tutorial links} and was so thoughtful to see if we wanted theirs! 

I love the blue fabric from her last upholstery job, but I still may hunt down some yellow. I'm totally loving the fact that we finally have something behind our bed besides the vast amount of wall space!!

I may still have W add some curves on to this, but I'm not in any rush. Here was my ultimate inspiration for the shape:

But now I'm thinking the current shape works much better if I want to hang a few prints above the bed. He may have just gotten out of a DIY project. ;)

We've also gone WHITE with our duvet cover several weeks ago. It's the first time I've ever done white {because, let's face it, I can't wear white without getting something on in within the first 5 minutes} and I was really hesitant. But I'm totally loving it: so crisp, clean, light and airy! A real difference from the rich chocolate brown duvet I switched it out with. I'm just praying we get through this newborn stage with less dry cleaning runs than last time!!

I still need to make some new Euro sham covers {could you tell in the pictures that there are none?}, new throw covers, update those side lamps with a fresh coat of spray paint, add some curtains {?} and accessorize. I'm love to replace our end tables too, but that ain't happening unless we find something cheap! Maybe time for more garage sale hunting??

Oreos: Nature vs. Nurture

Nature, hands down!

It must be like wired into their DNA to know about pulling apart the Oreo and just sucking on the frosting part.

Either way, Mama and E both enjoy stuffing our faces with 'em!

I'm a Guest!

Today, I'm guest posting over at my girlfriend's blog: the Newlywife about our DIY adventures and our awesome-ized dresser! Newlywife is a great resource for all things married, frugal, and household related. Take a gander if you get the chance!

First Trike

A few weeks ago, E received his very own tricycle. It is a hand-me-down from one of our neighbors. We are all about second-hand around here, if the items are still in good condition. Between my sister-in-laws, Ruth and Kelly, they have pretty much supplied E's entire wardrobe. 

The only "however" to this situation is the fact that the trike is entirely pink AND purple WITH princesses on the back of the mirror, albeit very faded. Ezra doesn't mind and considering the fact that the trike survived a visit with Grandpa and didn't mysteriously disappear, I think we're in the clear for using it for now.

And the kid loves it. He can not walk by it without hopping on. E may think it's silly later on in life that his first bike was a tad bit girlie, but he's already working on 'boy-ifying' it.

He's pretty close to full pedal circles, his legs just need to grow a little more. He's getting SO big!!

Sweet Getaway

A weekend away including...

great food and coffee

naps

cable car rides
an outdoor art gallery

shopping

relaxing
one adventurous walk in the rain huddled under an umbrella

A huge thanks to my girlfriend, Erin, for hooking us up royally at the Fairmont. It was absolutely heavenly and so hard to leave the room. We had planned to redeem a Groupon for sailing but it rained long enough for it to be cancelled. We're getting really good at this Plan B stuff. Guess we'll have to come back...I do love any excuse to head into fog city, so it's all good!

The Good, The Bad & The Happy

Good News: I finally have local access to a super Joann's and am sewing again. Woot woot! This means my trips to Michael's and Joann's can finally become one stop!! That's fantastic news for a Mama who does not enjoy lugging my kid around on multi-stop errand runs.

Bad News: The new Joann's was packed today. It took me 45 minutes to get my fabric cut and out the door. E, thankfully, handled it quite well. And the other bad news: this current project I'm working on has been the vain of my crafty existence!! I'm so ready to have this thing complete. I'm sure I'll love it once it's done but it's hard to make something look good when you're really not sure what you're doing {read: I haven't used Pi since high school!}. All part of the adventure, eh?! My goal is to have a finished product by the end of this week.

Happy News: My Seattle girlfriend, Stef, thought of me and shared this print with me last week. 

I got a huge chuckle out of it! And if I actually had a legitimate craft space, I'd so have it hung and framed. 

Happy Tuesday, Friends!

Mellow Yellow

My current obsession! Ever since I've had to pour over paint samples to figure out what shade to paint our dresser, I've been all about this sunshine color. It seems to be popping up all over my radar lately as I try to figure out more ways to incorporate this fun color...

One of my bday gifts that I love wearing any day.

Spray painted Mason jars

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This bicycle print I want to hang in E's room. He's a bit obsessed at the moment, in case you haven't noticed.

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These recently purchased lanterns that will end up somewhere in our room.

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 I'm dying to make these my new Mama shoes for the summer.

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These DIY striped curtains

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And I'm also on the hunt for some fun yellow fabric for our headboard and some updated throw pillows...some of our up-coming projects!! What's not to love about this perfect summer color?!

In other news, I feel like I've hit celebrity status: my 86-year-old Grandma commented on our blog! ;) I have no clue how she figured out how to do it, but she approves of the updated dresser. Thanks, Grandma! I know you don't hand out your compliments liberally.

Also, we still have such a long way to go, but Boy is already using my bladder as a punching bag. Between that and my allergy sneezes, I so don't want to be thinking about Depends. This pregnancy could actually get uncomfortable before it's over...