Randomness: Moonpie Designs

I just realized that I never posted any pictures of some of my Christmas orders - and here it is the end of February!  Sheesh.  

Take a gander:

Matching aprons for mom and daughter

Bib and Burpie sets in a new font.  I like it - what do you think?

Super soft blanket

Diaper Bag - 4 outer and 3 inner pockets

(Justin actually picked out the fabric for this bag.  He did great!)

Scalloped Edged flannel blanket and bibs

Those are the last things that I've made for Moonpie Designs.  Pretty soon I get to start making things for me and Baby Moon.  Yay!

Bump Watch: 16 1/2 Weeks

At my last doctor's appointment at 15 weeks (I think 15 weeks - it was Jan 23rd) I weighed 133 1/2 lbs.  Mind you that was with jeans, a sweater, cami, tummy sleeve, socks, undergarments, and a hat. . . hey, it adds up people!!  I did manage to get my shoes off before the nurse started reading the scale. :) They don't waste anytime.  My blood pressure was borderline low again but they keep saying it's because I'm calm and small.  Ha!  Calm my butt.  

We were very excited about this appointment because we hadn't heard the heartbeat yet and knew we would get to that day.  It took a while to find it and both Justin and I were freaking out internally (his face turned pretty white real quick) and then after a little while the doctor said, "that's your heartbeat mom, hmmm, that's a baby kick, that's another kick..." and then there it was plain as day - loud and fast!  I breathed a huge sigh of relief and Justin regained his coloring. :) The heart rate was 162.  Please refrain from giving me your opinion on the connection between heart rates and the sex of the baby.  I already know and I think its hogwash.

I also had my Triple Marker test that day and I swear I am asking for a new blood-taker-person next time.  She has bruised and hurt me every time she's done it and I've never had a problem with having my blood drawn before.  Sarah agrees with me - this woman is no good.

What else?  That's about it. I still feel pretty good except for occasional headaches (three or four times a week) and round ligament pain.  Also, my balance is slightly off since there is a turnip (or so says Baby Center) in my belly. I haven't felt the baby move yet, at least not that I can really tell, but expect to feel it soon.  And we have not yet decided if we are going to find out the sex, so don't ask.  

My belly button is having to work extra hard these days - it's getting pretty stretched out already.  And what you can't see in this picture is that my jeans are unzipped ALL THE WAY and I have a rubber band through he button hole and around the button that is just about stretched to the max.  But you do what you gotta do right?! 

We bought furniture for the nursery over the weekend and I will post pictures of that tomorrow. Promise! Camera batteries are charging right now.

Yay!

Check this out regarding the CPSIA.

Thanks for all your help - keep it up!

And thanks to Natalie for sharing the news!

"Baby Yih-yum"

***Scroll down for more info on the CPSIA. UPDATED***


Ok - so y'all know that I keep sweet Isabella everyday. But Sarah pointed out to me this week that I haven't blogged about the new addition to the Cardoza family, William - or, "Baby Yih-yum" as Micah and Bella call him. He's about 3 months old and is the cutest thing. So now I keep both of them everyday. We've been having a lot of fun, but I must say there are times when I wonder why on earth people have more than one child. It's a lot of work! :)

I snapped a few pics yesterday right before we headed back over to their house. Take a look:

I've been getting that look from Bella A LOT lately. She's definitely stepped up the stubbornness over the past couple of weeks. Ah - all that is a 2 1/2 year old!

Squinty eyed smile

Don't you just want to eat those cheeks! He's adorable and such a great snuggle-er.:)

Look! I can squint my other eye!

*Scroll down to read a post about saving the handmade community and small business like Moonpie Designs.*

SAVE HANDMADE!!!

*UPDATE*

Go here. There's more info about the CPSIA.
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If you make and sell handmade baby goods, love someone who does, or enjoy buying unique gifts for your kiddos, please go read about the CPSIA. It's a complete crap piece of legislation that goes into effect on February 10th and will quite effectively shut down Moonpie Designs and thousands of other small businesses like mine.

Read about it here - Caroline does a good job of explaining the basics of a very complex law. She gives several links you can visit to learn more and/or see how others are taking a stand and how you can too.

Though I'm hopeful that eventually there will be plenty of changes made to the clearly-not-well-thought-out original law, I'm still stressed about it. I started Moonpie Designs because I enjoy making things, but also because I wanted to have something I could do at home that might provide a little income once the kiddos start coming. Well, one is well on it's way, so you can see why I might be frustrated.

Just so you know, I just typed all of that with only my right hand. Baby William is snuggled up with the other one. More on that preciousness later - I took some pictures of him yesterday. For those of you who have no idea who I am talking about, check back later today to find out. :)

I'd love to know what you think about this CPSIA thing.

Goodbye 2008

Well Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and just a general hello!  

I seriously don't really even know where to start there are so many things that need to be blogged and shared that have happened over the past few months.

I guess I'll start with the biggest news - there is a Baby Moon on the way!  I'm nearly 13 weeks pregnant with what the books say is something akin to a medium shrimp in size (Last week it was a lime, which I would think is bigger than a shrimp but apparently I am wrong.).  Funny how something so small can cause so many changes!  Thankfully I haven't been "sick" at all (and by "sick" I mean throwing up) especially for the first 10 weeks.  As long as I ate I was fine.  Weeks 10-12 were plagued with headaches though and nothing really helped except for sleep and if you've ever been pregnant you know how little sleep one can get between having to pee every two hours whether you drink anything or not to just being uncomfortable to not being able to shut off your brain no matter how exhausted you are.  For the most part the headaches are gone now, but have been replaced with an appetite that rivals a teenage boy's.  Seriously - if I don't eat every two hours (almost on the dot) someone is going to get hurt.  I know it's normal, but I just keep thinking that if I continue eating like this I am going to gain 100lbs and never ever look anything like I used to.  Is that vain?  Maybe.  Probably.  But I'd really prefer not to feel like a cow for the rest of my life. :)  I weighed 126lbs at my first doctor's appointment at 5 1/2 weeks and last night I weighed 130 which nearly made be fall over until I remembered that I'm supposed to be gaining weight.  So I guess 4 lbs isn't all that bad.  

We are thrilled about this baby (though also scared senseless at times) and our families are as well.  It was a very good holiday season.

We stayed in Conyers for Christmas this year since we were in Leesville for Thanksgiving.  We took a little trip to Nashville with the Mays to see our favorite singer/songwriter, Andrew Peterson and a slew of other uber talented folk perform his Behold the Lamb of God concert at the Ryman.  That's really a whole nother post though.  Sarah already talked about it all so you can go there to read more.

 For the most part it was a relaxing time with Justin off of work for several days.  Christmas Eve we went to the Moon's and had a traditional Christmas meal and then laid out on the couches and watched tv.  We spent Christmas morning at our house and opened our gifts from each other and my parents.  Justin got me a waffle maker and it has already been put to good use.  I cooked Chicken Deluxe for lunch and took it over to the Moon's where we ate and then exchanged gifts.  Great times.  Our Korean friend, Jang, drove in from North Carolina on Christmas day and came with us to Greensboro for Christmas with Justin's extended family.  He stayed until Monday morning.  We didn't do much after Christmas but lay around and watch the new movies we got :  The Dark Knight, Sleeping Beauty, Enchanted, Juno, The Sandlot, and Sleepless in Seattle.  I had a big order to fill that had to go to Dallas by today so I spent lots of time cutting fabric and sewing.  All in all it was pretty relaxing.  I'm starting to ramble so here are some random pictures:

Our Christmas gift from my DD - quite possibly the best gift EVER!  Love me some La-Z-Boy.

The belly at 11 1/2 weeks and my new pjs from Momma and Daddy.  It's tradition - every year we get new pjs to open on Christmas Eve.  These are the softest pajamas I have ever owned.  I wish I could live in them.  Wait, I pretty much have been.:)

My stocking.

And now I am mad at blogger because when I try to add images from the web it says that they have been added but they haven't.  BOO blogger.  I guess I'll have to add those later.

Hopefully it won't be so long between this post and the next!  Until then friends.

Noises

There's something in our attic again. This time it's big. Like, really big. Big enough to eat ALL of our blocks of rat poison and not die. This thing might be next of kin to Chuck Norris.

Justin and I were eating dinner and watching NCIS and all of a sudden it sounded like someone was walking on our roof. He ran outside with the flashlight to see what it was then ran back in and said it was in the attic.

Guess who's getting a call from us in the morning? Yep - the Wildlife people that we paid $600 to seal up our roof so nothing can get in. Clearly that worked. Sheesh.

I'm just so glad Justin heard it too because if I had called him and said, "there's a person walking on our roof right now" I'm not sure he would have believed me.

Truth

This is so very very true of me. How bout you?

Click here.

Halloween

Justin and I were Juno McGuff and Paulie Bleeker from the movie Juno for Halloween this year. How'd we do?

Here's the DVD cover:
And here's us:

Not too bad huh? Just so you know, I painted Justin's socks, shirt, sweatbands, and the orange stripes on my shirt. It took hours, but turned out great. I thought so at least. :)

Halloween was super low key this year. We went to the May's and hung out for the evening with some other friends. Here's Micah as Charlie Brown and Isabella as Little Red Riding Hood:Crappy picture - they were so NOT into pictures that night. But they were adorable.

Before and After: Our House

OK peeps, here's what you've all been waiting for - HOUSE PICTURES! Because I am lazy and blogger is acting weird right now, I'm just putting them all on here in no particular order. The "Before's" are first. Also, I didn't edit anything. Again, because I am lazy and it already took me 2 days to get this post ready.

Back of the house

Kitchen looking towards Master Bath

Kitchen looking towards dining room and garage

Kitchen - notice the weird counter top piece hiding the back of the stove

Kitchen

Kitchen

Water heater in Garage




Back of house

Wallpaper in Master Bath

That's all the "before" pictures we have. We started working on the house before it occurred to me that I might want "before" pictures of everything. Oh well.

Here's what it looks like now:

Dining Room

Stone plates from Hobby Lobby

Kitchen - We removed the cabinets from above the stove and replaced the weird counter top piece hiding the stove with a larger piece of wood and shelving

The little shelving unit is from IKEA

New flooring and lighting in the kitchen and dining room

We painted the kitchen cabinets a dark brown. The actual color is Sarasparillo. The turtle in the window is from Senegal, West Africa. Zach thought he needed to look out the window and that is where he's staying. :)

New French Door refrigerator. The wall color in the kitchen is Vanilla Brandy.

Living Room - wall color is Martha Stewart Brick Hearth

There will eventually be more things on the walls.

I love our fireplace. The mantle was natural cedar when we bought it - we painted it dark brown.

The window on the mantle is from my paternal grandparents house - the house my dad grew up in. They still live there, but they replaced the windows a while back and DD let me have them.

The djembe (drum) is from Senegal, West Africa too.

Master Bath - I made the curtain. That fabric was $46 a yard at JoAnns and I found it for $5.99 a yard at OHCO in Covington. That was a good day.

We painted the vanity the same color as the kitchen cabinets and bought a new counter top, new sinks, and new faucets. We got new lighting too from Lithonia Lighting.

Justin installed a shower door.

And he did a little landscaping in the backyard.

He and Daddy built a cover for the water heater.

Justin added shelves to the side for shoe storage. Since living in Korea, both of us are in the habit of removing our shoes when we get home.

These are the cabinets that we took out of the kitchen. Now we have excellent storage in the garage.

Well that's it for now folks. We haven't done anything at all to the upstairs yet, and our Master Bedroom is next on the project list.

I want to know what you think so PRETTY PRETTY PLEASE leave me some comments!

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The paint on the kitchen cabinets is Sarsaparilla by Olympic and the finish is gloss. We sanded the cabinets, did 2 coats of primer, and then 2 coats of paint.

If you have any questions please email me at moonpie.designs@yahoo.com

Lust-Fest

I want it.

Click the picture for a better view.

Writing Prompt - A Time I Hid from Someone

This is a writing assignment given by Mama Kat. Want to participate? Head on over there and check out the other prompts!

*I apologize in advance for the lack of paragraphs and any run-on sentences. I tend to write how I talk. :)

One of my favorite memories of my college days has to do with hiding - and breaking and entering, but does it really count as breaking if you just opened a door that was already broken?

Several friends and I decided it would be fun to break into the old barn at the insane asylum a few miles from my college. (This is what happens when you go to a Christian school - you have to find unconventional ways to have fun and/or get in trouble. But that's another post for another time.) The "barn" (we're aren't really sure what it was exactly) sat atop a steep hill and looked like something out of a horror movie. We parked at the bottom of the hill, off the main road, but still under a street lamp. After climbing the hill, we found a door that was off its hinges and snuck inside. Of course we didn't plan ahead and bring a flashlight, so the only light source we had was one of those little red LED lights you can keep on your key chain. Yeah. Think creepy place, the middle of the night, and one tiny little red light. Red lights make everything scarier. So we are walking around and the place is pretty much empty except for a bunch of boxes all stacked up and the occasional bed frame. So naturally, we open the boxes. Well, the first one we open just has like old calenders and some paperwork and stuff. Bor-ing! So we open another. And another. Then we each start opening our own boxes because up to this point we have all been moving as one big blob -- everyone holding on to someone else. So I open my box and pull out what looks like a cloth rag of some sort. Excited that we found something other than paper, everyone gathers around my box with the light. I hold up the rag thing and for a beat there is silence. And then there is screaming. And then there is mass chaos as the guys try to hush the screaming. I finally get a chance to look at what is causing the commotion and I realize that I am not holding a cleaning rag, I am holding a white t-shirt with what appears to be huge bloodstains on it. Bloodstains! Suddenly I hear everyone saying "shhh shhh" and we hear voices coming from outside near the door. Not good. So quiet mass chaos ensues again as we try to find a way out without going back through the door. There's no other way out (all the windows are nailed shut) so we end up sneaking up to the door and then running full speed to the other side of the building - the side nearest where we parked the car. When we look down the hill to where the car is, we see a cop walking around the car and writing down the license plate number. We had already made it half way down the hill when we saw the cop so now we are all hiding behind a big oak tree - the only tree on the whole hill. Before the cop gets back in his car, he walks to the base of the hill and picks up my friends shoes (moccasin slippers) that he left there because he didn't want them to get wet. The cop takes the shoes with him, gets in his car, and leaves. As soon as he's gone we jet to the car (because the whole time we can still hear voices up the hill and it sounds like the groundskeepers or whoever are looking for us) and drive to the river and park under the bridge. Jaimi (the only other girl and the owner of the car) starts freaking out because she thinks the cops are going to be waiting for her when she gets back on campus, so we sat under the bridge for most of the night, scared out of our minds, pumped with adrenaline, and starving. We eventually ended up at a friend's apartment to crash for the remainder of the night. The cops never contacted Jaimi and we never heard anything else about it.

What I can't figure out is, why did the cop take the shoes?