Holy Pregnant Panic Attack

If you wonder what it takes to send an 8 month pregnant chick into a manic sweat-induced hysteria let me tell you: having a Pottery Barn delivery crew show up to bring in your gorgeous new sofa and being told that they can't fit it through the door so they'll have to leave it in the garage, and that since it's considered a custom order Pottery Barn won't accept it as a return. 24 hours after you gave your old sofa away and replaced it with a twin-sized blow up mattress on the floor.

Holy panic.

Because God is clearly on my side, and yes, I realize this is just a couch we're talking about, my wonderful husband pulled up in the driveway just as the crew was about to leave and convinced them to try again.

Long story short, the couch is in. We had to remove the front door, remove the sofa legs, we broke my front porch planter, scratched the wood floor and stair banister, but it's in. Which is better than having a very expensive piece of furniture in my garage that can't be used. And nowhere for me to put up my cankles.

Back later with pictures :)

This week's menu

I thought I'd share our weekly menu incase anyone is looking for inspiration. Nothing too fancy, but all tried and true except for one new pizza recipe. Enjoy!

Sunday: Gluten-free sour cream enchiladas (these are delicious)

Monday: Maple salmon, jasmine rice, spinach and strawberry salad

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Sausage, spinach, and provolone pizza

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Grilled chicken with strawberry feta salsa (shown above), grilled corn on the cob, caesar salad

Oh, and I'm also trying to sneak in a little fruit cobbler just for good measure. I'd hate for all that abundant summer fruit to go to waste.

We're getting closer!

Still need to:

- Spraypaint mirror over mantle

- Get new couch (hurry up, Pottery Barn! Geez)

- Add pictures to frames and hang painting

- Add some colorful pillows (we're in serious need of color now)

But even with those left to tackle, this has quickly become my favorite room in the house. Well, except for the kitchen. I am 8 months pregnant after all. My heart follows my food source.

Let There Be Art

See that totally gorge painting in the picture above? She's the newest addition to our living room thanks to Kristin over at KFD Designs.

You see, I wanted needed a very specific size painting to go over our two leather chairs. And I wanted something pretty and soothing, but not costing my first born.

Kristin had done some work for me in the past and she is super talented. I asked her to commission a piece based on a few ideas I sent her way and this is what she came up with. Perfection.

This picture wasn't taken in our house but once I get this baby in I'll be sure to share. We're picking her up Saturday.

To read more about how Kristen put this together (including the use of rain and salt—she's a genius I tell you) click here.

Living Room Redo

As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided at roughly 7 months pregnant I wanted to completely redo our living room. Nevermind that our first child's big-girl room and new baby's nursery were far from complete. Cue the eye roll from the husband. Then cue his eventual surrender because let's be honest, he's learned by now that once I've made up my mind there really is no turning back.

The existing space was fine. Just fine. But I was starting to feel like I was drowning in a sea of tan. When we painted our house four years ago I painted everything tan because all I wanted was a neutral pallete, as opposed to the purple wallpapered one we encountered upon moving in. And I really didn't have any taste or sense for what my style was at the time. Now I felt I needed a bright, fresh life raft to save me from my sea of monotony. Enter Capella. You may remember her from Kristin's amazing bedroom re-do. She's an extremely talented designer who we hired to help us with the room. This was a big splurge for us, but worth every.single.penny.

Here is the before. See what I mean?


And now our plan. Unfortunately no after photo yet. These things take time, people!

Based on my inspiration photos, Capella suggested a color scheme of soft greys, ivory, and marigold. Light and airy, simple, but polished. We're painting the walls a beautiful light ivory with grey undertones and the paneling an darker grey that I'm completely in love with. We ditched the brown rug and brought in this baby (which arrived 48 hours later after purchase and shipped for free). We ordered the below couch and she's supposed to arrive mid-August. Her name is Carlisle. I think she's pretty fancy. We got rid of the dark wood (and enormous) coffee table and got a great deal on a tufted storage ottoman from the Ballard outlet.


Once the painting is complete, which should be in the coming days, we'll move to artwork and finishing touches. But for now, here is a shot of our progress!

Since this is the room we literally live in every night and day, it was important to me that it feel special and soothing, not dark and drab. And even though we have our house on the market, we can take everything with us except for the paint in the event that it does sell. Wouldn't that just be the icing on the cake ;)

Carbs and Cheese...and some other stuff too

I thought I'd share a few recipes I've made in the last few weeks. The first two were for a family potluck on Sunday for which the theme was Mexican. I was asked to bring a rice dish and an appetizer. You should know that these were delicious and had not ounce of nutritional value.

1. Tortilla roll ups- little bite-sized morsels of cheese/salsa/sour cream/ranch/cheese and a little more cheese.

2. Mexican sour cream rice - Again, the perfect mixture of carbs, melted cheese, sour cream, green chiles and corn. I omitted the chicken since this was just a side dish, and in my defense I did use all low fat ingredients. Not that it matters.

3. Salsa chicken soft tacos - these were super super delicious and even easier than I anticipated. In lieu of the tortilla I ate this in a bowl with a little corn and beans mixed in. I was still in a bit of a carb-induced coma from Sunday.

4. Honey dijon overnight chicken recipe- the flavor was right on here but I tried to cook them in the crock pot instead of the oven. Don't do this. I imagine if you followed the directions you'd be enjoying a delicious meal while I carved through chicken that was way too dry.

5. Bethenny's BBQ Bleu burger - Loved the flavor in these but mine completely fell apart for some reason. I hadn't broiled burgers before and I think this may have been the problem. I used feta instead of bleu cheese and ate this without the bun.

I found out yesterday that based on my last blood test at the doctor my hemoglobin is low, which explains why I've been so darn tired lately. So in the coming weeks we'll be adding more red meal to our diets. Given that we rarely eat red meat, I'm looking for good recipe suggestions. If you have any send them my way pronto.

30 Weeks

You know you're 30 weeks pregnant when...

*You feel like one of those beached whales that requires a team of 20 scientists and several large nets to flip them over everytime you roll over at night.

*You find yourself eating chocolate chips right out of the bag. At 10 a.m.

*You can feel yourself waddling and you don't even attempt to walk normally.

*You just scheduled a maid service to clean your house because everytime you squat down it feels like the baby is going to fall out.