Believe it or not, I'm more than halfway through my pregnancy! This week, I'm 21 weeks along. I've been blessed to have an amazing little journey so far... besides a few weeks that were rough during the first trimester, both baby Ten June and I have felt happy and healthy the entire time.

As you guys know, I've been trying to eat well (lots of vitamins and other nutrients!) and exercise some. Prenatal yoga has been really good to me. I'm feeling great and absolutely loving my growing belly. I can feel our little guy kicking all of the time! It's seriously the best feeling ever. David absolutely lights up when he can feel the kicks too... makes us so ready to hold and love on our little man!

Yesterday was my very first "a stranger in public commented on the fact that I'm pregnant" experience. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was in a maternity bathing suit at the pool... kind of a dead giveaway ; ) But so fun! Usually I get little side looks like hmm, I think she's preggo but don't want to say anything? I say bring those comments on. I love showing off the belly!

David and I have been documenting with a weekly picture. I decided to take a picture in the same dress every week, just because I thought it'd make for a great before & after!

And just because it's fun, here's week five vs. week twenty: 

It makes me laugh because I'm pretty sure the bump has doubled in size even in the last week since I took the twenty weeks picture! : )

So that's what's going on in our neck of the woods... how was your weekend?!

I can never remember when I've mentioned to ya'll about my posts over on BabyCenter. So for those of you who are interested in all things baby, here are my most recent articles over yonder!

a roundup of my favorite boy nurseries

my two cents on pregnancy + exercising

a roundup of my favorite girl nurseries

a DIY stuffed glider feature

a roundup of my favorite gender netural nurseries

my DIY growth chart tutorial

my thoughts on organic cleaning products

Whether you're pregnant, know someone who is or just generally want to drool over and pin adorable nurseries, these are some great articles! And actually my latest post on organic cleaning products is absolutely applicable to anyone, preggo or not! So head on over and check them out : )

I hope all of you have a great weekend! I'm meeting up with some local Atlanta bloggers tonight, heading to a local festival tomorrow and hopefully catching some pool time at some point.

What are you up to this weekend?!

I'm back today with part two of my Q&A video blog! 

This is a fun section... I spill lots of details about me and David, our next house, my plans for the blog down the road and a peek of my big ol' baby bump. It's a good time! : )

Some things you should know:

1. I have no clue why I said whole milk. I think because I just said whole wheat? I drink skim....

2. Yes, my prenatal vitamins have made my hair grow, so I have those weird wispy baby hair bangs. You know you like it.

3. I hope you like choppy bad editing, because you'll get lots of it towards the end! I kind of kept rambling and had to cut myself off a few times : )

Without further ado....

Or you can find the video on YouTube here!

Have you "met" Caitlin from Sacramento Street? For those of you who haven't discovered her blog yet, you're in for a treat today!

Caitlin lives in San Francisco... it's too bad our paths didn't cross when I visited the city last year! She's a very talented interior designer with a cute as pie design blog. She recently had her San Francisco apartment featured on Design*Sponge and Apartment Therapy. And for good reason... it's gorgeous!

The perfect balance of light + airy + eclectic pieces, don't you think? You've got a beautiful home, Caitlin! Make sure you stop by her blog, Sacramento Street, and say hi!

All images are via Design*Sponge and Apartment Therapy

Live from my breakfast room... my first vlog!

Thank you guys for all of your awesome questions. I rambled through about half of them in this part of the vlog, so there will be a part two later this week. Just a heads up... part two includes a little baby bump action. Fun stuff! This part of the vlog is mainly me answering questions and spouting off my two cents about all things blogging. What can I say, the girl likes to blab!

A few things to note... there's some really bad editing that happens throughout the video (anytime I cut out means Maggie or Tucker barked at a squirrel... or I lost my train of thought, which kept happening as you can see!). Also, I apparently don't really breathe, but just talk really fast in a whole bunch of run on sentences. Suh-weet. And apparently I love the word "um." Um, I guess I was nervous.

Here goes nothing...!

Sorry for the mid-sentence cut off there at the end... like I said, bad editing! Hope you enjoyed part one of my very virst vlog. Part two is all fun questions. And maybe some singing and dancing. Get excited.

PS. I really hope your computer connection is as slow as mine... while the video finishes uploading, the freeze-frame shots of me, mid-sentence, are hilarious!

PPS. If the video doesn't show up on the blog for you, it should be available here.

For some time now, I've been pinning and eyeing extra-large ruler projects like this. I love the simple wooden decor and the whimsical addition of a giant ruler to your house. But I didn't think it really made a lot of sense to put one of these in our home until David and I had a bambino who's growth we could measure along the way.  

And now that we do have a baby (almost) on board at the Ten June house? Oh yeah.

This project was really simple. I grabbed an old wooden board from our scrap wood pile in the basement. If you don't have any scrap wood available, you can pick up a board from your local hardware store. I grabbed a piece of wood that was completely beat up and had white paint all over it, just because I wanted to give this project a completely rustic effect.

 

I'm lucky in that my board was already stained, but you could stain or paint yours easily. 

I measured the board and penciled off tick marks for every inch. I decided to start the board at one foot, so that I could eventually hang the piece on the wall, slightly off the ground. I'll just need to remember to always hang it so that the bottom is exactly one foot above the floor. Makes sense to me!

I was thrilled to be able to break out my non-toxic craft paint for this project (one of the biggest things I miss since I've become pregnant is painting!). As you can see, I almost haphazardly painted ivory lines over each of the tick marks. I wanted this project to be fun and rustic, not too formal. 

My initial thought was to create my own stencils to paint the numbers on the growth chart (just because I freehanded the tick marks doesn't mean I could freehand the numbers and have them actually resemble numbers, ha!), just like I did with my DIY rustic wooden board sign. But then I got lazy realized I had some old chipboard stickers I could use and they'd be a heck of a lot easier cuter than any stencil I made. So a coat of ivory craft paint went over the chipboard stickers and... voila! Automatic ruler numbers.

And that's all she wrote, folks. Easy peasy project, right?

Right now, our new growth chart ruler is leaning against the wall in our office (and clearly it was hanging out in the breakfast room for awhile, too). Once we find a final location for it (the nursery?), I'll screw in a bracket to the back so we can basically hang it like a heavy picture frame. 

I just love the big ol' ruler's rustic look. I can picture all of us crowded around it one day, measuring our growing little man and his siblings. Functional + sentimental art... I love it!

PS. Since I've been hanging on for dear life to Picnik, this was my first post that I edited photos via PicMonkey... not too shabby!

Linking up with Hi Sugarplum!

Over the last few weeks, I've been in a flurry of all things nursery. I am just craving all of the beautiful inspiration out there! Recently, I shared my favorite boy nurseries and my favorite girl nurseries... I couldn't leave you guys hanging without sharing my favorite gender neutral nurseries as well! 

Head on over to BabyCenter and check out my picks right here.

Happy Sunday!

 Now that I'm hooked up with a new sewing machine, I'm even more obsessed with all things fabric. I literally spent an hour and a half in JoAnn's the other day, drooling over everything from their home decor fabrics to their sweet little nursery prints. 

This week (through tomorrow!), JoAnn's is having their Daffodil Dash sale. They've got some great deals on not only fabric, but all kinds of fun craft projects and home decor wares. Plus, if you find something you love that's not on sale, there's a 50% off coupon available if you sign up for their mailers! I'm sure you can find it floating around on their website, too.

I overzealously picked up about $40 too much fabric for my very first sewing project. As you can see, it's going to be a project for little man. How sweet is that fabric?! I can't wait to get started this weekend. 

What's on my agenda for the weekend, besides sewing? (wow, sounds like a thrilling weekend when you put it that way, ha!) I'm biting the bullet and finally shopping for maternity clothes, having a date night with David, hanging out with my sister and hopefully working on my very first vlog! Keep sending those questions on over if you've got them.

What deals and steals have you found out in the world this week?! What's on your agenda this weekend? Fill me in, peeps!

Oh and just because it's pretty... had to share this Instagram pic I snapped of our first pink peony bloom in the yard from earlier this week. I love spring!

After the excitement of this post, I was all jazzed up about sewing last week (and Britney Spears, obviously) and decided to pull the trigger and purchase a sewing machine.

In terms of researching which machine to buy, I started off Googling phrases like "how to buy your first sewing machine" and "best sewing machines for beginners." Unfortunately, a lot of the articles I found went into detail about how you, as a buyer, should prioritize which parts and features of the machine were more important to you, make a list and go from there. Um, what if you don't know the parts of a sewing machine? Yes, hello, Mr. Sewing Machine Salesman. I would like a machine that has a super fancy, automated push-button bobbin. Clearly I don't even know what a bobbin is. 

Then I found this awesome "how to pick a sewing machine" quiz over on JoAnn's website. Again, I was a little unclear which features I needed in a sewing machine, but this tool definitely helped me narrow down machines based upon certain general wants and price range. 

Next, I took the list JoAnn's gave me and started searching the machines on Amazon. Why Amazon? First of all, I had a $100 gift card to Amazon that's been burning a hole in my pocket since Christmas. Secondly, I always find that Amazon gives the best real-life reviews. So off to the review/comments section I went! You can actually sort your search results by "average customer review," which makes this process easier.

After comparing a few brands, features and user-compatibility reviews (I want a beginner's machine, people! That's for sure.), I finally found a clear winner. Nestled in the top three customer reviewed sewing machines was one of my JoAnn's picks- the Brother CS6000i Sew Advanced Sew Affordable machine. It had all the bells and whistles I was looking for (I think... I still am not sure what I am looking for in a sewing machine!), it was highly reviewed ("this machine is so easy to use!") and was listed for $50 cheaper on Amazon than it was over on JoAnn's website. Oh and I really like the pun on words in the name of the machine... "sew" affordable... those Brother jokesters crack me up.

 

But enough with the jibber jabber, let's check out the goods that arrived on my front porch earlier this week! Like Christmas in April, baby.

Oooooh, ahhhh. She's a beaut.

All of the awesome stitches I'll learn how to do one day.

 

Money shot. That's a foot. And a bobbin. Maybe.

 

Clearly, I need a bit more help than just the manual. So I also purchased this fun book (again, after reading reviews about user friendliness and helpfulness): Sew Everything Workshop. It's pretty much a Sewing 101 book, which is exactly what I need. It's a great binder format with lots of pictures (yes, I judge "how to" books by the number of pictures included with the text!) and even includes ten patterns for fun projects down the road.

So far, I've mastered learned read the first few chapters about the parts of a sewing machine.

You'd be proud... I'm making myself learn these basics before I even turn the machine on! Sadly, not one stitch has been made on the new machine (who, by the way, needs a name... any suggestions?) but that will hopefully change by this weekend when I have a chance to finish reading the intro chapters in the book and the manual itself. I'm doing this the right way, people!

So there you have it, the beginnings of my world of sewing! I'll certainly keep you guys posted about my projects and reviews of the machine I bought... once I turn it on ; )

Psst! You guys rock and have been giving me some great questions 

for my very first vlog... thank you! Keep 'em coming!

Double psst! Today you can also find me over at the blog of my favorite globe-traveler, Aspiring Kennedy, sharing my choice for where in the world I would choose to wake up. Any guesses? Find out my answer (and those of some other amazing bloggers!) right here.

While we don't plan on making any decisions about new housing until our current house goes under contract, David and I sure have had fun house shopping in the meanwhile! The Atlanta market has some amazing homes, including this amazing casa in the Druid Hills neighborhood. At a cool $1.2 million, it's totally in our price range. Not. This is called dream home shopping!

 via

 Nice title, right?

I was thinking the other day... it's been about 1.5 years that I've been blogging. Crazy talk! It's been so much fun sharing our DIY and life adventures with all of you. But you know what I realized? In all of that time, I've never done a vlog. Otherwise known as a video blog post for those of you who had no clue what that meant, like me. How can I call myself a true blogger having never poured my heart out to all of you live and in person?! Hellooo, let's fix that.

So, I need your help. Would you like to see my mug in video here on Ten June? Assuming the answer isn't a whopping heck naw, I'll set up the vlog in a Q&A format. And I want the questions to come from you! Let's hear it... what questions do you have for me?

Here are some examples....

How do you balance having a full-time job and blogging? (I get that one a lot!)

Any topic, from home decor (paint colors? furniture choices?) to life in general (moving? pregnancy?), is fair game! Of course, I reserve the right to only answer the questions that make me look good (duh). Only kidding. I want lots of good questions that span the topic spectrum. 

 I need lots of questions for the vlog, so don't be shy!! Thanks for playing along guys : )

Psst! Check out my latest post on BabyCenter about an amazeballs DIY nursery project I found. Here's a hint: you can save a bunch of money (um, $700ish?!) and wind up with this....

Head on over and read the post right here!