oh facebook...

Having a newborn is awesome. I spend half my day breastfeeding while meandering social media such as facebook, instagram, and pinterest.. and now I'm kinda burned out.

Oh and the other half of my day is spent changing diapers.

But this baby is perfect.
I've already had to wash our comforter, our pillows, every outfit he's worn, and his bedding.
He's had that many blowouts.
Still love him.

 And my little man Carter is doing well with the new baby for the most part. I feel a little guilty for the lack of attention because I've been so sore and out of it. But I'm feeling pretty good after a week!

I love my boys

Back to social media-----I find myself guilty of a lot of those silly social crimes- like posting meaningless status updates, self portraits, or overloads of my babies. It happens.

I'm constantly annoyed though by those girls who post every.damn.day. about what they cooked for dinner, their kids poop stories, play by play of them buying new tires, and just nonsense. I'm especially peeved when their status is a ginormous run-on sentence with no grammar. I now delete them from my feed.

Moving on to the next vent: I still follow lots of people in the fitness industry because it's for the most part motivating and I like to hope that I'll get back into that shape again. But my GOSH I hope I wasn't so annoying during my  competition weeks last year when I posted my food or recipes or let the world know every time I stepped into the gym. It's EXHAUSTING just reading at how their lives revolve around the gym and their bodies and perfection.

Which makes me wonder if I'll ever take fitness that seriously. I mean, I usually do, but I don't want my life to be egg whites, salad, and cardio, and that's all I have to report about.

BUT I follow this fitness model on FB: Amanda Adams and I think she's less annoying, and more cool. (I just pretend I know her). She just posted this today and I thought it was so awesome how, when it comes to fitness, we see these perfect bodies that we aspire to, but in reality, soooo many factors determine what they really look like.

Ladies..Ladies...Ladies... lol Don't be discouraged by what I call "Professional Mirror Self Pic Takers" haha that's what I like to call myself sometimes and there are tons of us out there ;) Now these two pics were literally taken within 2seconds of each other, just different facial expression, posing, lighting, wardrobe adjustments etc etc. It's always good to follow girls to give you motivation, BUT most girls that have done photo shoots know how to pose best to take a good pic haha (did I just embarrass myself? Yeah....lol)
-Lighting? Instagram filters are awesome to make your muscles pop and add shadows in all the right places
-Heels? That will make your leg muscles pop...duh (but shhh you don't have to actually SHOW the heels in the pic lol)
-Sexy face or Happy face? Well that shows you have confidence lol which suddenly makes you look 100% better than a "I hate life facial expression"
-Lotion? Well obviously your muscles will pop out more...
-Loose pants/bottoms on? If they are tight...well hello skin roll
-Chest out? Boobs Out? Arms Back, Hips twisted Made my sports bra "tighter" to make my boobs "perkier" haha... etc etc etc etc...
-Pants - Pants in first pic cut off at the middle of my stomach and are super tight...which is well easier to have "skin rolls" and just yeah... roll em down which then makes you torso look LONGER. lol

It's so sad but also really funny and true...Now I'm not saying this to make fun of people (hello...I do it weekly) But it's to show you all that you really can't compare your progress to other people's pictures!!! Look at them for motivation and that's it! ;) LOVE YOU ALL!

And that being said, I already feel better about myself and my post-pregnancy saggy, swollen belly and pudgy rest of my body.

I could just "pose" right and make myself look pretty dang good! ;)

Introducing....

MASON CLARK CRANDALL

Born January 22 9:15 am

7 pounds, 10 oz

21 inches

We are in love with this sweet beautiful boy!

Details and more pics coming later!

Waiting Game

Having a baby in 6 days.. Nice, because I know the day, but it makes me crazy waiting for each day to pass! My hips are killing me. I'm over it, just give me the baby!

Speaking of.... I finally found some bedding that I liked for the nursery. It's being ordered from etsy and will be here, oh.. I dunno.. the week after my baby comes. Which is why I haven't posted a single thing for his room! It's mint and gray and citron yellow, but I wanna make sure I "man" it up. And of course I never got around to painting the baby's room. It's currently a dark gray/navy, we really can't even tell. I just wanted it lighter and brighter in there, but I'll have to get to that later.

Last week, I tackled a project I've been looking forward to for a while now: an Ikea hack.

I bought these unfinished nightstands from Ikea...

And painted them & added fun trim.

Well... I don't love them. 

The paint in our room is so dark, that these charcoal nightstands just kind of blend in too much, PLUS I had painting issues. The fact that it's 10 degrees probably doesn't help. Granted they're better than the unfinished crap version, but I might end up redoing them in white with gold trim. 

These chairs have been ordered, in the tan/gray tweed fabric below for our family room.

 I REALLY hope they turn out nice, I was on a tighter budget for these and went with a neutral, because I'm finding that the things that are neutral in my house are the things I love long term. I tend to get sick of pattern, as they can be trendy or just "too much." 

Our ceilings are super high so I wanted some chairs with height. Won't be done til mid February though =(

P.S. They're from Gatehouse in Orem. I give them an A so far for service! They're so great to work with.. any locals that need furniture, let me know, because I have a girl who is awesome.

My barstools came! I love them, mucho. However Restoration Hardware has been slightly disappointing. Our desk came that we got for our office and it had nicks in it, and an odd corner that looked like it had been colored in with a sharpie!
Not even kidding.
I was bugged and didn't want to wait around to request a new one. So they gave me a further discount. Made me feel a little better at least.

But back to these barstools. They are fantastic.

So, am I the only one that shops Joss & Main, or One Kings Lane, or those sites where you have to make an impulse buy quickly? I actually hate it because I need time to decide on things! This settee was my first purchase from Joss & Main, and I was pleasantly surprised. Cheap shipping, it came fast, and was easy to assemble. 

Joss & Main- good job.

 Ballard Designs has been a site I've been so excited about, and I ordered my dining table from there. As previously posted, when the table arrived, it was missing a piece!! The piece that attaches everything together!! And they informed me they couldn't get the piece for 4 MONTHS.
SO they expected me to sit around a table that wasn't bolted in, and ready to topple onto my toddler. Sorry, not happening. They've been a total joke, trying to get them to come pick it up and return it. I'm still waiting for my refund, and kinda turned off to order anything from them again. Failing grade, Ballard.

Enter High Fashion Home. I loved this table first, but it was more expensive than the Ballard one, but since that one was a FAIL, we just ordered this one instead and we love it. Best thing of all- it's bolted together with all the parts!

Aaaaaand that's the update on our furniture woes. Live & learn. I'm so sick of ordering things and then being disappointed but then there's just not a lot of options locally that I'm a fan of.
We are taking a house break for a while, and focusing on the baby which will also be very expensive, but so worth it!

Stay tuned ;)

blogger WTF?!

So my blogs all disappeared yesterday. 

Deleted from existence, and it wasn't me. And I'm the only one able to log-in so I was kinda panicking and frustrated. But for some reason, they are back today! Still puzzling but whatever.

Anyhow, Aaron is been out of town for a week, and gets back this Sunday. People think it's crazy he would leave town this close to my due date, but I know I am not going into labor anytime soon. In fact, I won't even go into labor at all (thank you planned c-section a week early!) I've had all this ambition to tackle some major projects while Aaron was gone- like paint or wallpaper 3 different rooms. Didn't happen. Carter's room is the only one that has gotten updates and as soon as I'm done, I will post em!

So we've had issues with our fireplace, in the sense that the space above was too small for a decent size tv. So we enlisted our great friend (also named Aaron) to do some handiwork cuz he's awesome. It took them seriously 2 days trying to figure all this out- and New Years Eve, that's what they did.
The good news is that the tv is up and fits! The bad news is that the mantle still needs work, but we will figure that out once Aaron gets back in town.

While the men tackled that project, the little boys- in matching jammies-played trains pretty much for hours straight =)

Obsession alert:

For some reason I can't resist cute wrapping- usually when I'm at TJ Maxx. It's not like I even "gift" things and have so much to wrap. That birch wood looking one is so freaking cool though and these were found at the Maxx in Yakima, WA- the jackpot of all Maxxes. I carted them all the way back to Utah in our truck. Aaron thinks I'm whack.

And these gift bags? K awesome. And for like a buck a piece, I simply can't pass them up.

 I wish I could concoct some kind of project to use these... even cut em up and frame them, but my creativity is stumped.

makeovers

I've been doing a little self-loathing lately because I super miss being in shape. Sure, lots of people can and do continue to eat healthy and exercise to the max during pregnancy. I've tried, not super hard, but let's be honest, some things just don't pan out as well as you want during those tough 9 months. But the great thing is, I know what my body is capable of and I know what to do to get myself into shape again. Having a baby is just one of those sacrifices, but sooo worth it. =)

I still follow fitness competitions and get on bodybuilding.com and such because, well, fitness still is a passion of mine. I'm super inspired by the new season of Biggest Loser cuz Jillian's back! And also because they're focusing on childhood obesity. Both good calls.

Anyways, I happened upon this article on bodybuilding.com (follow the link to see em!).... I always love a good makeover!

New job

Okay who am I kidding? I do not have a job. My job is to keep a toddler alive while growing a baby for 2 1/2 more weeks in my HUGE belly. So I guess pretty much I do have an exhausting job- just without pay ;)

My sister Val works at a dental office. Her dentist she works for (thanks to her persuasion and input), hired me on to redecorate their patient waiting room!

Never done this before.

The initial instructions I was given was to make it homey, create more space, and brighten it up with lighting. It's currently all brown, dark, and gloomy.

I brainstormed and came up with some options:
Soft tan and cream, or cream with blues.

Both me and my sister loved these ideas, but the dentist vetoed it. Still trying to peg down what exactly he wants, and it's pretty much opened my eyes to the fact that clients are picky, they don't always know what will look best (or they plain have bad taste), and your job as a "designer" (or pretend-one like myself) is to give THEM what they WANT. I think I'd struggle big time if I chose this as a career. I hate when people request ugly or dated things!! I don't feel much pride in something I don't find visually appealing. 

Anyways, this weekend, I'm redesigning this waiting room back to the dark browns, as requested. I may or may not post it, we'll see how it turns out. Bleh