Color Me Rad

Sunday morning we got up early to run in the Color Me Rad 5k up on the peninsula.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  We met up with friends and had a blast.  Oliver slept through most of it - he was an angry toddler when he realized the rain cover was not optional.  We bought the $40 cover thinking it might be a good idea and it ended up being essential.  Poor guy went to sleep and woke up with a green mama!

 If you ever do a Color Me Rad, know that it doesn't matter what heat you sign up for - when you get there you can pretty much line up at any race call and have at it.  Also know that if you're a serious runner, this isn't likely the race for you unless you're in the front of the line in the first heat.  Chandler left us in the color dust and we stayed with a friend - it was hard to run, especially with the stroller, because so many people were walking.  I ran over one person (oops!) and another person told me to slow down (no joke).  Who says that when you're in a race???  It was fine b/c it was all for fun, but still slightly annoying too.  I almost didn't wear a white shirt, but SO glad I did - definitely worth it.  We will be doing this race again for sure.  There's another one next weekend (sold out) and a Color Vibe in July (too hot), but if The Color Run comes in the fall, we'll be signing up!

Rain cover = trashed.  Boy = sleeping (and relatively clueless).

Playroom!

Welcome to Oliver's play space.  

I intended to wait until this room was complete to share, but I have no idea when that will be and for the sake of documentation, I'm posting it now. :)  I have tossed around several ideas for the wall above the train/play table, but haven't settled on anything yet.  I would really like to put some of Oliver's artwork on the walls, but unfortunately, the shape of this room makes anything on the walls without a shelf or other barrier too unsafe.  I may look into a decal instead.

This is the view when you walk into the room.  I have a better photo somewhere, but it took less time to take one with bad light than to look for the other one.

I originally made this bunting for O's birthday.  I really love it in here now!

My child is 100% boy.  He likes all things stereotypical for a boy.  Trucks galore.  Wheels and balls are also high on the list as are dogs and dirt.

I love this print, it was originally going to be in his nursery, which is why the colors are a little muted, but I decided not to use it in there after afterall.

This decal was also purchased for his nursery, but I couldn't find the right spot for it. 

We use the baskets both for storage and for keeping like toys together, such as music.  

The music basket and the car basket are favorites.

I realized when I was uploading pictures that all of the balls are green!  We do have a few blue ones too!

Just this week, Oliver has started to actually climb on these ride-on toys.  Before now he would just push them around - except for the plane, that one, he'd sit in front of and just watch the propeller spin. :)

This is the back view of the playroom.  The empty frame used to be downstairs and I moved it thinking I'd frame the elephant, but it didn't work and I just haven't moved it yet.  I plan to put a shelf in that same space for crayons, markers, other craft supplies.  There will also be either shelving or a small bookshelf on the wall under the elephant for things like paper, play-doh, etc... Of course all of this may change.  I haven't decided if I want this to be a space where he can play unattended when he's older (likely) or if we'll always be close - so the craft plans may change completely!

I just found out this book shelf has been discontinued and I am SO glad we bought it when we did.  

This was another piece I wanted for the nursery, but there just wasn't a good place for it there.

I LOVE this elephant.  It's an original painting and one I ordered from a sweet artist in Canada.  I was browsing through People.com's 'Babies' blog and saw a swag basket of items that celebrities received from some sort of function and a painting like this was in that grouping.  I contacted the artist and ordered one - I love that it ties in to the classic elephant silhouettes in the nursery and brings a playful splash of color to the playroom.  At some point I plan to make it stand out a little more, but not sure how yet.

The room overall is a little odd - it's the room above the garage, so the shape of it alone is a challenge - but it's 24' x 12' so it's a really good sized room.  It used to be the best sleeping room because it was the coolest in the summer and the warmest in the winter. 

I'm still not done with this space yet - the wall color is original from when we used this room as a guest room with two twin beds on either sides of the window.  I love the neutral green color and I think it works nicely, but I think I'd like something a little more fun.  I'm scouting Pinterest for ideas.  

The walls are also an issue - still trying to figure out what to do on some of them.  And the rug was purchased at Target, but it's not my favorite and I'd like something a little thicker and possibly bigger.  We could still use this one but have it rolled up and under the play table.  

We've talked about making this room a guest room, keeping the bookshelf in the back and having a reading corner/library area in the room.  I think we've settled on keeping it a playroom though.  Lighting is very difficult in this room because we didn't think to add an overhead light when we built the house.  That leaves us with only two options, lamps (which we do now) or having it re-wired (not appealing).

So that's the playroom - hope you'll come and play with us!

Baby Bling - sort of...not really...

I've written about my love of Lisa Leonard before - and have known since the day I found out I was pregnant for months that I wanted a necklace with our sweet baby's name on it.  After we finalized his name, I had a hard time choosing which necklace.  There is a SUPER sweet one with a charm that has two little feet that was a top contender, and then I thought about the classic round because I love my first LL necklace so much... but I have two other round LL necklaces (one pictured in the first link above) and the heart strings one that Chandler gave me last Valentine's day.  I love them both - but decided that I wanted something a little different for OP.

I thought about the heart and this circle, but I ended up going with the dew drop.

I LOVE the way it turned out!  I knew we wouldn't be using his birthdate and wanted something special on the back so we decided to go with a Bible verse.  There were several that came to mind but after going through my Bible and looking through some that I'd underlined, I found the perfect one.

2 Corinthians 9:15 -->  Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 

We are so fortunate to have been blessed with the ability to have a baby.  I know what a gift that is in and of itself and we are so grateful to have had a healthy pregnancy and so far, healthy baby... as soon as I saw this verse and read it to Chan, we both agreed it was the one.  

There were several others that were similar, but we chose this one because in context, Paul is explaining the importance of giving to the people of Corinth.  There are so many Bible verses that are wonderful alone, but in context, don't seem as great - so I tend to read an entire chapter to pull out what's going on before I really love a verse on its own.  If OP learns nothing else, I want him to understand the importance of giving and kindness - and not just giving, but cheerful giving...giving from the heart.  The same giving that Paul references in chapter 9.  

Nursery Reveal

This chair was made by the blind - how neat?!

There are still a few empty frames on this wall - one will hold his newborn picture, not entirely sure about the others yet, and the shadow box will hold his hospital picture and bracelet.

 

I really love the way his room turned out.  I had several ideas in mind for a boy nursery, but ultimately decided to go classic and 'baby' as the other rooms seemed to be great for a toddler or slightly older child, and because I never imagined having a boy and thought it would be fun to really play up the little boy aspect.  Once we decided to go blue, I started looking for bedding - which turned into quite an adventure.  There were lots of options, but nothing that really did a lot for me.  I wanted simple and classic and everything seemed to have a pattern or something that just didn't work for me.  We finally found the perfect set at Pottery Barn and it was fitting since the bedding on all of the other beds in the house came form there.

I didn't really have much of an idea of what his room should look like other than a vision of it being simple, classic, and very much 'baby boy.'  Oh!  As for one of the wall prints (that might be a giveaway on something else I eluded to recently...), I was going to order a print of his name/birth stats once he was born and decided to make my own with just his due date and our guess at his weight/length, but it fits in the frame just as well as what the one I would have ordered would, so I think I will likely just print my own - plus, the photo paper really makes the color pop and once the matting is in place I don't know that we'll be able to even tell a difference!

When I look at the pictures I can't help but ask myself what seemed to take so long to put together in there, but the biggest hurdle was deciding what to put above the crib.  I'd ordered a really cute ABCs print from Etsy that had the same colors as our room, but just didn't feel right about putting a giant frame above the crib - even with sturdy mounting I still felt a little uneasy.  As soon as I saw the elephants, I knew they'd be the perfect fit and I love, love, love how they look with the colors.  There are still a few minor things to add, but overall - it's done!

 I've already started collecting things for his next room - it's going to be so much fun! 

'Tis the season

So we decked the halls...

...and woke sleeping beauty in the process.

I don't recall having a tree topper last year.  I have two, an angel and a star, but neither appealed to me last year and so I decided to buy a bow this year.  Went to Michael's and was surprised that they had pre-made bows... for $50!!!  Nothankyou.  We ended up at Target where I scored 100 feet of silver wired ribbon for $10 and made my own.  It's no Michael's bow, but it certainly works.  After using the cuttings from the tree for the mantle, I've decided to try to find some fake green pieces on sale after Christmas for next year's mantle.  I loooove a live tree, but the needles get everywhere and it's oddly more difficult to keep the hardwood floor as clean as carpet - go figure.  I also want to put some green on the banister by the stairs, which I'm not doing with live cuttings (are they still 'live' when they're cut?) because it was be a mess!  We have lots of extra lights so we'll add those to the banister next year too. 

Still deciding what to do about a wreath.  A friend makes gorgeous wreaths with chunky ribbon that I could see adding some ornaments to for a really cute look, but I also have a fabric wreath in mind so not sure which one I'll go with yet... hoping to decide by the weekend.  Stockings are another item on the to-do list.  I have some purple ones with bells but those aren't doing it for me... I found cute green and red ones with snowflakes that are pretty reasonable but nothing for baby boy yet - I should probably forget the whole matchy-matchy thing and just go with what I've found.  So wreath and stockings - TBD.

We've had Pandora streaming Christmas music ALL day - dinner's in the oven and apple pie is in our future....

Side note on THANKFUL - four of my friends are newly pregnant!!!  YAY for babies!!!  Dare I mention four friends and FIVE babies?  Although... still waiting to find out if it could be SEVEN babies!  2011 is going to be a fun year for sure!!!

VA has a sweat shop...

...and it's at my house.

BUSY weekend of sewing... I ended up with EIGHT stroller blankets (a small sampling below)

and had some fabric and minky left over, so I decided to try a burp cloth: 

I like!  If I can remember, I'm going to pick up some cloth diapers at Babies to make some more with all the extra fabric pieces I have laying around... 

It's been a while since Belle made an appearance, she's enjoyed the cool weather and walks to the dog park we have tucked at the back of the neighborhood.  

 This picture is just for Clarky... my Pampered Chef guru.  Wonder if she remembers this recipe??

(Hint: that's chicken in between the red pepper and broccoli)

The best part, is that I laughed when I was making this because it was a PC recipe and I just happened to be using ALL PC utensils - Clarky could only be more proud if I was a consultant! :)

Weekend Projects - Complete!

Ever had a weekend so busy that you were SO ready for Monday?  That's about what we felt like Sunday night.  Between Halloween festivities and projects, we were exhausted.  My feet were on fire and I was ready for bed by 6pm.  The fruits of our labor?  Voila.

I had been trying to find something to keep necklaces in, but nothing seemed to do the trick - so I took matters into my own hands.  I'm LOVING it!  When we moved we had a ton of extra frames that we weren't using, so I took removed the glass and replaced it with some garden wire.  Thanks to my trusty staple gun and some 's' hooks, we finished this in about oh 10 minutes.  Easiest project I've ever done - and it's so functional.  I didn't have enough hooks for everything so I've added that to my list for later, but until then my favorite pieces fit and that's good for now.

The looooongest project was  repainting the living room.  I loved the Ben Moore gray we originally painted it, but it was most definitely not working with the light in this room, which made it seem cold and sterile.  We warmed it up with some Valspar from our best friends at Lowes and couldn't be happier with the new color.

Before:

After:

Next up - the nursery wall - it is going to be SO fun, I can't wait to share what we have in mind!!!

Mountain Mama

When we lived in North Carolina, I worked at an awesome shop called Great Outdoor Provision part time.  It was SO much fun and I miss it a lot.  Not only was it a great place to work where I met many great friends and interesting customers, I also enjoyed a fab wardrobe for my own adventures.  Fast forward a bit and we moved to VA and I now have a growing belly that my clothes no longer accomodate.  Not a problem for every day work and life in general - but we do almost everything outdoors when the weather is nice, so... cotton isn't exactly a girl's best friend.

My soft shell fit until just a couple weeks ago and now it no longer zips.  Thankfully, because of that I remembered I still had a blue soft shell at the shop in NC and stopped by to pick it up last weekend.  I'd forgotten about it because it was a medium - but the color was too good not to go for it so I put a little cash down and stuck it in the back.  I am SO glad I did that... it should fit perfect during the most part of when I will need it - nice!

For other needs though, I was out.  Or so I thought... before I discovered MOUNTAIN MAMA!  I can't even write more without jumping up and down to share...

Flame orange no less!   Amazing isn't it?  Not sold yet?  You must not be pregnant... It is AMAZING.  Seriously.  When the high was 60 today, I jumped at the chance to wear it.  I actually took the picture above earlier this week but the one below (also seen in TIBS Week-24) was taken today. 

(...and yes, I realize I'm looking at myself, I wasn't really thinking that I should look at the camera and thought that well, nevermind... pregnant brain?)

I was so excited to test it out, I took a short hike behind the neighborhood when I came home.  It started to rain a little so I had to cut the afternoon short, but I am in LOVE with it and know that I'll wear it to shreds.  I'm already planning to buy a medium in black.  The orange is a small and fits perfect right now so the black should carry me through the larger belly months. 

Aside from the obvious reasons to love Mountain Mama - all their gear is made in the US and they try to be as green as possible - most of their tops only have a 20 mile travel in total from production to shipping - pretty cool!  AND, because of the fab technology used in their tops, they could definitely be worn while not pregnant too!  That said, I doubt the medium I order will fit when I'm not pregnant (at least I hope it won't, ack!) but the orange one should fit for sure.  I have some Smartwool base layers and I'd say that the Cloud Rest top I have would be the equivalent to Smartwool's mid-weight apparel.  Today's weather was 60s and I was comfortable - I had a fleece vest as well that I shed once inside, but outdoors I was just fine and probably would be fine cooler as well.  Any cooler than high 50s and I'd need a soft shell as well, but I'm usually always cold so I'm sure the average person would be just fine with the top alone.

Is it obvious that I am really, really impressed with this top and Mountain Mama in general?  The best part about the company is that the owner was just like any of us, an avid outdoor loving woman with frustration over the lack of techinical clothing for pregnant women who saw a need and created a solution.  (What?  That's not you?  No worries, MtMama may have technical clothes but that also means SUPER COZY!)  A pretty awesome solution if you ask me.  Oh, and the owner, she's actively involved with the company - I spoke to her after I placed my order and she's awesome - what's not to love about Mountain Mama?!  If you're on Facebook, be sure to look 'Like' them - there are often posts about giveaways from other blogs!

Doesn't take much

It doesn't take much to amuse us...

We have a thing for photo booths... these are a few strips from the stash. I think the last set is my favorite.  Can't wait to add Paxton!

Big Daddy

Pax went to his first concert on Friday night - it was SO much fun!  A couple months ago, our church announced that it would be hosting Big Daddy Weave (!!!) as part of their Hope Restored tour - we bought tickets the first day they were available.  Andy Kirk and Aaron Shust opened - they were AWESOME!  Andy is so cute and Aaron was very down to earth - they all were really.  I LOVED how genuine everyone was - Mike (Big Daddy) - was especially awesome!  You would have never thought any of them were well known - they were just THAT cool!  Cheesy, right?  I'm not kidding though - we had a blast! 
(Except that I got behind the woman that swayed back and forth - you know the type - the ENTIRE time so I kept having to move all around to see, and our seats were good even - blah!)

Here's Aaron:

Aaron Shust from Ginger Hatcher on Vimeo.


Pax was ALL about some BDW - here's one of the better videos I managed to get:

Big Daddy Weave from Ginger Hatcher on Vimeo.


I decided not to take my regular camera and instead just went with my Cool Pix so the video quality isn't great, but I wasn't sure if cameras were even allowed and I didn't take my bag in so I had to go with what was pocketable.  Sway lady is in the frame on the right, I'm sure you won't miss her. 

I LOVED the way they ended the night - BDW brought Andy and Aaron  back on stage and they all sang several songs combined starting with Mighty to Save - it was so, so good! 

My favorite thing this week...

(Second favorite thing actually, the first favorite is hearing 'bino's heartbeat today! It's bounced from 172 then 160 and today it bounced from 145-156 and was SO loud.)

Ok so my [second] favorite thing this week is my new laptop skin! I didn't even know that was a thing!!! I'd originally seen the link for Kelly Rae Roberts' new skins but while there I saw my most FAVORITEST (I just made this a word) thing EVER! Curly Girl! Go to my blog and take note of the little orange-squared image at the top right - it's my most favorite, "I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world." And Santa Barbara had it in a laptop skin!!

Naturally, it now graces my computer. The best part is, when it's time to upgrade my 'puter, I can just peel it off and re-apply to any new one (ahem MacBook) that I may end up with.

We'll call this my welcome-to-the-second-trimester treat! :)

Birthday Splurge

Last week was my birthday. Happy Birthday! It's okay if you missed it, I've been somewhat absent and haven't posted as much lately. If you'd like to put it on your calendar for next year, it's the 17th. When is your birthday? We love birthdays around here! My very awesome family often sends green pieces of paper or slips that I can exchange for green pieces of paper tucked inside birthday cards. Typically, I save the green stuff for items I scout out over time. This year, I decided to spend ALL of my birthday green on one big ticket item I've been secretly coveting for a very long time.

Yes friends, a digital SLR. It's time. It's past time. And it arrived on the 18th thanks to my very generous family, $100 in rewards from my awesome NC insurance company, and the amazing overnight delivery folks at UPS. I. LOVE. IT. I'd asked friends on Facebook to help me pick out a good DSLR. I had it narrowed down to Canon's XSi and Nikon's D3000. Upon further investigation, I decided to change the options to Canon's T1i and Nikon's D5000.

I went to the local camera store after several email exchanges, Facebook convos, and chats with my old camera folks at ASAP and took my SD card along. I took pictures with both the T1i and D5000 and uploaded them at home. I didn't even need to print them, Canon was, hands down, the clear winner. From there, I just needed the green light from Chandler since we'd had a few other projects in mind - thankfully, he know how much I wanted this and three clicks later, it was on it's way to VA!

For anyone looking at DSLRs, I promise, I was very unbiased. To prove that, this is my SLR collection - one of each (plus my new love).

My first SLR was a Canon Rebel G - very basic, but as my first, I wanted to go slow and learn all the ins and outs. Once I got the hang of it, I bought an all manual Nikon FG. The FG is actually a 1982 model and took AWESOME pictures. I've not used either of these since buying digital, but I looooved them both. Each took very different pictures. The FG was actually one if Nikon's first three compact SLR camera bodies. I had a lot of fun playing with it and learning out to take a good manual shot. Today, I couldn't tell you half of what I used to know... so sad. Digital has pure ruined me.

I used to go to the beach twice a year, spring and fall, to have a quiet weekend of just me, my camera, and my journal. I'd sit on the beach, walk by the boats on the waterfront in Beaufort, explore what was left of Radio Island... it was a magical time for me. I loved taking pictures and being by myself. When I picked Nola up in April 2007, I stopped going - apparently Gram wasn't a fan of having puppies at the condo. I've not been since 2006 and I SO miss it. It was my time. I often learned a lot about myself just sitting on the beach with my camera and journal.

But back to my original writing purpose...my camera bag. It was big and heavy and while highly functional, since I only plan to have one camera now, I don't need to lug around two plus lenses and accessories. So... I had to make another purchase. I don't consider this an optional purchase though and at $40 (plus 10% off, thanks Best Buy!) it was worth it. What's nice is that it's a shoulder bag style so I can make it double as a day bag if necessary. It's not my usual day bag (yes I have a obsession and I don't really care, it's the BEST company), but it works and I LOVE the colors - so cute, right!?

For compairson purposes, this is the difference: I have a feeling I'll really enjoy the compact nature of this bag. So, that's my splurge (camera, not the bag!). I am SO glad I did it - no regrets whatsoever. I have a feeling it will come in quite handy pretty soon as this year is going to be an adventure! We have a lot of exploring to do in our new state and there are sure to be some great things to photograph. I'll still keep my Coolpix handy for everyday purposes but my T1i will be the main go-to for most things.

If you're in the market for a DSLR here's a post that pulls the highlights of some popular models. For me, I knew I wanted a video and live view option - that is why I changed the original two. That meant a price jump, but I was willing to pay for it after ranking importance. With most all new models of DSLRs the specs are usually good - overall, the Canon T1i had better specs than Nikon's D5000. The one think the D5000 had that I wished the T1i had is a pivoting screen. That is a very nice feature - but I can always get a film for the screen to remedy that little issue. Another tip is to take your SD card and do what I did to see how you like the image quality. It was a marked difference - granted the T1i has 15.1 pixels, which is much more than D5000, but it also gives you a chance to play with the difference functions and test it out before you buy - and you can manipulate and print the pictures to see what you really like best.