from favorite shirt to favorite skirt

Seriously, I think I have my favorite piece of clothing now.
You see, I've had this shirt that I've loved for years now, a soft cotton striped teal boatneck, and recently, it landed in the donate pile.

I love it, but it was so stretched out at the neckline that it was falling off my shoulders, and I was constantly pulling it back on which was annoying me endlessly. And my hands are usually covered in in one of the following substances; water, dirt, soap, or food. And any combination of those, plus helping or playing with Luc. But I digress.
I dug it out of the donate pile to see if I could do something with it and suddenly it became a skirt in my mind; just sew up the arm holes, fold over the top, put in some elastic, and voila! I already had the perfect bottom hem done for me!
It was a simple project and even Luc helped by turning the dial on the machine from a straight stitch to a zig-zag. While I was sewing. (eekkk!)

Please ignore the crazy, unbrushed hair in this pic

so comfy!

I could say this is a maternity project, but I know I'll be wearing this skirt long after pregnancy too.

whew!

After the weekend we just had, it's taken us a few days to recouperate. On Saturday morning, we started with a trip to the Doctor's for Luc, who confirmed that he had chicken pox. I know it's a pretty mild thing, but seeing him covered with these little buttons made my heart swell. Plus he was saying "itchy" all the time. He even had them inside his mouth!

the number of pox on him doubled after this

That night we attended our friends' wedding, who were some of the first people we became friends with just after moving here. It was a huge crazy dance fest that probably went on all night, but we were spent after dinner and left before the cake was cut. It was almost 2am by that point.  We also had to drive around a quarter of the island to get back home. I really wish we could've stayed longer, but our stamina was just gone!

unfortunately, we forgot our camara this night and also dashed the plans I had for getting a good family pic!

There were plenty of kids for Luc to play with and lots of space to run around. We warned everyone that he was contagious and most parents were OK with it. They've got to get chicken pox at one point, right? (ps: no concern for pregnant women who've already had it, so I'm good!)

We were also hit with the type of news you never expect to get, and worried our way through until the final (thankfully, showing good news) test results were in. Things can feel so off in those times, where you realise all your plans big and small for the future are affected, and you can't shake it off. You feel lost and unable to think about the future, because it is so scary and unknown. I can't seem to put into words exactly the feelings we had the past few days, but I'm glad they're over with. Things can go back to normal, but we won't forget what almost was.

the beautiful orchid Alex got me for our anniversary last week in front of our wedding photo

During that short nightmarish period, it was helpful to have extra long yoga sessions and to melt chocolate into milk for a rich, sweet drink. It's the little things, right?

Practicing somersaults

I think for Christmas we're going to enroll him in a circus course. Cuz, man this boy loves to climb, jump, roll, you name it. And he's pretty agile, so I think not only would he really enjoy a program like that, he'd be pretty good at it too.

maternity wear

So, I've started on some maternity/nursing tops and here's what we've got so far...they're really nothing to show-off, but here you go anyway. I had kept a few ginormous T-shirts around in my closet, and had never worn them, but didn't want to get rid of them because a couple were peace corps shirts or had other special meaning. This was one of them. All I did to make it less of a boxy tee was to cut the sleeves off at an angle, and cut a new, wider neckhole. I didn't even measure (you can probably tell, eh?), I just eyeballed it. I did this with 2 other T-shirts, and now I feel like I could wear these all the time, because they are so comfy! Plus, they have ample growing room which will be nice in that last month of pregnancy when it will be a million degrees outside.

Remember when I said I had started on a maternity shirt from a men's dress shirt? This was it.

And this is what it became. They look like different shirts because basically, um, they are.  I screwed up the sleeves part so bad on the blue one that it just wasn't going to work anymore unless I took it in on the sides, and that is NOT was I was trying to do with a shirt meant to accomodate a growing belly. Ohwell, I left it in my stash for another time, and will fix it later when I don't have a pregnant body anymore. So, this shirt in the picture below was another of my thrift store finds in the men's section. It was an XL tunic, and I really liked that I wouldn't have to alter the neckline at all, so the only thing I ended up doing was cutting off the gigantic sleeves. Plenty of room for a big belly!

3 great things: volume 1

Sometimes this blogging thing is really fun for me, and sometimes I could care less. But, the reason I stick with it is because I like to be able to keep friends and family back in the states updated on day to day things in our lives halfway around the world. And they like it too, so I've heard. Many times, there are periods of quiet around here, and a lot of things don't ever make it to blog status, and some really random things do. (ie: composting?!)
Anyways, today I thought I'd start a new, quick way to update the blog without getting too bogged down in lots of topics at once that I feel I have to play catch-up in a photo dump later. (Get all that?)
So, here's the first installment of "3 Great Things"; things that are going on in our little world, or sometimes even fun things elsewhere.

1. Reading this book at naptime and bedtime.

2. These alphabet cubes

3. Climbing trees

composting has begun!

Finally, it's been started. I thought the bin might never arrive as we waited about 2 months for it's delivery. It came at the same week where my nausea was at it's worst, and we were just about to leave for 3 weeks in France, so, it sat for a bit. A few weeks ago at Emmaus, I found a little po to save all our kitchen scraps and everything was set to go. On Saturday morning, I cut the grass in the front, shredded a leaf pile with the lawnmower, and layered those together with the stinky bucket of kitchen scraps. ("tinky" in Luc-speak). We'll keep an eye on it, water it if necessary, turn it when needed, and hope to use it in a few months time. Composting has begun!

spunkiness on our wedding day

Happy 3rd Anniversary Love! 

Even Luc is in this picture!

I found this video so hilarious, and although I'm sure it's made the internet rounds, thought I'd share it here too. I hope we have this much spunk in our marriage when we hit that 50 year anniversary!

Grandpa Gets A Webcam - Watch more Funny Videos

pregnancy update-between 18 and 19 weeks

via pinterest via le loveimage.blogspot.com

I'm feeling so good now people!
This is the part of pregnancy that's easy; no more nausea, most of the fatigue has subsided (for now), and the belly isn't too big yet.
I'm also relieved that my eating is back to normal; I'm not craving so much fat and sugar anymore, and cooking vegetables doesn't gross me out anymore either. That was kind of disturbing for me during the first 3 months because you read all this medical literature about how eating healthy is so important in the first trimester, and it was hard for me to even look at a plate of salad. Ultimately, I'm not worried about it, because I think what's more important is the state your body is in BEFORE you get pregnant.

I've started to take advantage of feeling good these past 2 weeks and gotten a bunch of projects done, plus planned for a LOT more. (Am I nesting already?)
Get ready for a list of things I want to make:
A few weeks ago, I picked up 3 men's dress shirts at the thrift store with plans of turning them into maternity/nursing tops. I started on the first one yesterday after mentally figuring out what I wanted to do with it. I could have finished it during Luc's naptime yesterday, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the sleeves, so I think I'm going to rip the stitches out and try again. I hope I can get it done soon to post a pic here. After that, I have a pair of pants to alter. And then, I wanted to start on a couple of baby projects. I have a piece of fabric in a white and red print I picked up at the flea market a few months ago, that I want to turn into a crib sheet, and use the rest for a swaddling blanket. Also, I'm gathering little items to make a mobile and some wall decorations. The theme I'm going for is red, gender neutral, and modern.

I'm so excited! For everything!