35 Weeks!

We spent a lot of this week getting ready for the baby. I guess my nesting instincts have really kicked in. You should have seen me at Costco...it's like I was preparing for Y2K part 2. We bought enough canned goods, paper towels and cat food to last a century--or at least a couple of months. I know we'll probably want to get out of the house once she's born, but the idea of running errands with a newborn is very unappealing. Hopefully stocking up on basics now means we'll be able to walk around the neighborhood instead of having to go to the grocery store.

I also did a lot of cooking and freezing. So far I've made chicken pot pie; beef and barley soup; and mulligatawny soup. I still plan to make a meatloaf and Italian wedding soup. It's comforting to know that we'll still be able to eat well without having to cook in those first few weeks.

How far along? 35 weeks

Maternity clothes? Yes, but I'm actually more comfortable in skirts than my maternity jeans

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep? Not the best. It's hard to find a comfortable position

Best moment of the week: Spending a care-free Sunday with Dan

Miss anything? Wine

Movement: YES! I thought she'd be slowing down by now...nope

Food cravings:  Still lots of sweets

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really

Belly Button in or out? Out

Wedding rings on or off? On; thankfully not too much swelling at all

Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy

Looking forward to: Our last prenatal class tomorrow

Traveling in the Third Trimester

With the last of my pre-baby travel complete, I'm over at TripWolf giving some advice to other traveling moms-to-be.

Traveling in the Third Trimester: Tips and Tricks
At 34 weeks pregnant, I just completed my last bit of travel until after the baby arrives. I’ve been traveling throughout this pregnancy, and thankfully it has gone extremely well. Each trimester has its own considerations, but the third trimester definitely brought the most challenges. Here are a couple of tricks and tips that I learned along the way.

Traveling while pregnant can be relaxing

Click here to read the full post.

DIY Fabric Tea Bags

Even after digging through my scrap pile to make my USA map, I still had a lot of little scraps of fabric leftover. While browsing Pinterest one day, I came upon the idea of making fabric tea bags. I am a huge sucker for anything in miniature and I absolutely love tea parties. Several of my good friends have little girls whom I love to spoil, so this was a perfect fit!

DIY fabric tea bag

Making the tea bags is really easy but a bit time consuming depending on how many you make. Somehow I turned myself into a little tea bag factory and made a ton at once. This is a really quick project if you're only making a few though.

The first thing I did was grab a bunch of fabric scraps and a tea bag. I folded each fabric in half with the right sides facing each other. Using the tea bag as a template, I traced both the bag itself and the little tag on to my fabric.

Then I cut out each bag and label. Each one should have two pieces (a front and a back). Keep the pieces together, still right sides facing each other, and sew three sides leaving the top open. This is similar to how you'd make an unlined bag.

Three sides sewn, top left open

Next, flip the tea bags inside out. Since these are so small, it gets a bit tricky. I used my seam ripper to help push the corners in. With the bags right sides out, I added a bit of filling to give it a more realistic feel. I used pearl barley, but in retrospect I probably should have used something like cotton stuffing or some other material that can get wet. But I've seen other people make heat pads out of pearl barley so it should be fine. Put in as much stuffing as you like. I only used a little bit to mimic the feel of a real tea bag.

Once I filled my bags, I cut a piece of twine and put one end inside my bag. Then I sewed that end closed.

I grabbed my two label pieces and flipped them so they are right-side out. Then I stuffed the other end of the twine in between labels and sewed all four sides. This should leave the twine securely fastened between the bag and the label.

And that's it! You've got an adorable tea party waiting to happen. Add a tray and a tin to keep your bags in if you're feeling fancy. I hope my little girl friends love these as much as I do.

Also, thanks to everyone who took my reader survey for my 300th post. There's still time if you haven't completed it yet. It only takes a second and I'd really love to hear from you! Click here to take part.

When it Rains it Pours

Allow me to update you on our most recent house drama. Last we spoke, my boiler had a catastrophic failure and I was left with no heat or hot water. The good news is that the electrician was able to provide a stop-gap and we now have hot water. Thank goodness!

Unfortunately, when creating this stop-gap, the electrician did something with the pipes that caused one to explode. Gallons of water poured from the guest room ceiling all the way through to the kitchen downstairs.

Guest room before flood

Guest room after flood

Dan was the first to see it in the morning and grabbed a bunch of buckets to catch as much water as possible before turning the water off to the house completely. The pipe is now fixed and we have water again (but still no heat). Now we just wait for everything to dry out before they put the carpet back in. 

I'm hoping everything will be back in working order before the baby comes. We have our boiler repair scheduled for May 28-29, which was the absolute earliest they could do. They originally scheduled it for June 10, but after calmly explaining to them that my due date is June 20 and that I need this done sooner, they made something happen.

It just goes to show that you should be careful what you wish for. I wanted water in the house and boy did I get it!

300th Post!

It's hard to believe, but I've reached another blog milestone--300 posts! I have enjoyed the process of blogging way more than I ever thought I would. It has been such a fantastic way to document this unique and exciting time in my life. I am so thankful that you've chosen to come along with me on this ride. Thank you!

Let's look at some of my blog stats.

• Number of posts: 300!
• Number of followers: 7 on blogger and 15 on Google reader
• Total page hits: 21,247 (as of May 15, 2013)
• Number of labels: 25--"Quick Thoughts" has the most posts with 76
• Number of pages: 3: Home; Travel Archives; My Pregnancy
• Most popular post: Shabby Chic Nightstands with 1,031 page views
• Most comments: Pinterest Challenge: Scrap Map of the USA with 12 comments
• Top referal sites: Facebook; Google, Keep on Running, Keep on Running, Running, Running (Thanks, Caroline!), and Young House Love
• Countries visited/blogged about: 21, plus Scotland and Wales

I want to know more about you though. Want to fill out a quick survey? Pretty please?



Seriously, thanks so much for reading. I love you guys :)

See my other blog milestones:
100 Posts
200 Posts

34 Weeks!

This week we had a really fun "baby moon" with our friends Sarah and Kyle. At 34 weeks though, I really am done traveling for a while. We had such a fantastic time London, but man was it good to get back home.

The ligaments are still an issue, so thankfully I don't have any big plans from now until little one arrives. Hopefully I can just take it easy and get ready for her. Though I definitely want her to keep cooking for a while, I read that if she were to come today, most likely she would be born without any serious medical issues. How amazing is that?

Another side-note on the fruit comparisons: they really don't work very well. This week I'm supposedly a cantaloupe, but I already was a cantaloupe at 20 weeks. Very confusing. All I know is my belly is big, and so is she!

How far along? 34 weeks

Maternity clothes? Mostly

Stretch marks? None that I can see

Sleep? Not great at night, but I'm the queen of cat naps

Best moment of the week: Baby Mooning in London

Miss anything? A nice cold glass of beer sounds amazing

Movement: So. Much. Movement.

Food cravings:  All sweets, all the time

Anything making you queasy or sick: Ligament pain

Belly Button in or out? Very much out

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time? Happy

Looking forward to: Continuing to grow a healthy baby

The Things We Take for Granted

This week our boiler had a catastrophic failure. It had to be turned off immediately lest it explode. Seriously! Since our hot water is connected to our boiler, it now means we are completely without heat or hot water. Even though it's May, temperatures in Harrogate have only been in the 40s, so it's COLD in the house.

Thankfully our landlord is being very responsive and we're in the process of getting a new boiler. Unfortunately, since it's such an old house, there's no quick or easy way to fix the problem. All the pipes will have to be redone and every single radiator in the house (of which there are eleven) will have to be replaced. Only once that's done will we have hot water again. Under the best circumstances, we may have heat and water again in a week. Under more realistic circumstances, it could be up to three weeks. Isn't that exactly what an almost-35 weeks pregnant woman wants to hear?

In the meantime, I'm cuddled up next to the fireplace wearing every piece of clothing that still fits. I'm also contemplating what I'll look like with dreads. What do you think? Yay, or nay?