Tuesday Tunes : T Swift.

I know. Taylor Swift... really? Yes. Really.

Who does not love a good T Swift video, especially when it stars one of my favorite characters from Friday Night Lights. Happy Tuesday and enjoy :)

Weekend wrap up.

Our weekend consisted of soaking up the sun on the beach, going on walks, eating sandwiches from Whole Foods (we went twice), and getting fro-yo (I am too embarrassed to tell you how many times we went)! Pretty easy and relaxing! I have to say my appetite is pretty ferocious these days and all a pregnant woman can do is satiate it as healthily as possible... clearly why I am choosing fro-yo over ice cream, right?

Welcome to Monday, the sun is shining and I think it's going to be a fabulous week! xo.

Baby love : Dreaming of a nursery.

It's time for me to start thinking of ideas for baby boy's nursery and let's be honest, from the day I first found out I was pregnant I have been decorating that room in my head. But, I was not sure whether to decorate for a girl or boy and now that it has been confirmed twice I can be sure that this nursery is going to have a masculine edge to it. The tricky thing is that Stone and I would like to have more kiddos after this one and I do not want to be buying all new decor (maybe just some things) if we have a girl next so it needs to work for both. My plan is to have someone make the bedding from fabric I pick out and I am loving a grey gingham for the bumper and a soft burlap-type cloth for the crib skirt. Stone and I do not want to get too stuck on a theme, but love these animal prints and will probably carry that idea over into a few other things. Lastly, we are planning on getting one or two rugs (I like the look of overlapping rugs) to make the floor nice and soft for baby boy to play on.

So, as of now, this is what I've got... I am sure there will be many more touches to add later on and I will keep you updated when I find them :)

PS Anyone know of a good place to find an inexpensive rocker... those things are so pricey!

Food to love : Lunch.

Wooohooooo! I am finally starting to feel better and now it is time to start eating better... right? I don't know about you, but I have always had a hard time coming up with something easy and healthy for lunches.

But the other day I made a poached egg with avocado and salsa on an english muffin and have to say I was pretty proud... I think our little babe liked it too :) This beats an apple with peanut butter and a handful of popcorn any day!

Tuesday Tunes : San Francisco.

My Dad informed me this morning that yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of the song 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco', by Tony Bennett, which he unveiled on stage at The Fairmont Hotel (one of our favorite places to stay when we are there). So in honor of Tony and because I love San Fran, here are a few tunes about the city...

Weekend wrap up.

I made a cake.

It was my very first full on double-layer cake to make and I have to say it turned out pretty great! We had a small baby reveal for a couple of our closest friends the other night and I was in charge of baking the reveal cake :) I got the recipe here!

In other news... how was your weekend? Ours was pretty jam packed, but really great! Stone and I woke up Saturday morning with the sudden realization that I am halfway through my pregnancy and we have done nothing. Literally. We have not registered for classes or even begun to think about registering for the things our little guy will need. And a nursery? Well, yes, I have all sorts of ideas for the nursery, but have I actually purchased anything for it... nope! So we got to work, making a registry! I love picking out all of the little things for our son and knowing he will be here so soon to try it all out. Pretty fun.

We also got our fill at some of our favorite restaurants and some new ones! All worth trying if you live in the area or are planning a visit. Stone and I had dinner with our friends Travis and Ashlyn here. They are expecting a little boy at the end of next month and I cannot wait to meet the guy. Stone and I are so thrilled that we have a handful of good friends all pregnant right now, it has been a huge source of comfort for us both! We then had Del Mar Pizza on Saturday for lunch with friends, this is no doubt one of our favorite pizza spots. That night I met up with some girls at Craft and Commerce, which has the coolest atmosphere (almost too hip for a girl like me) and delicious biscuits. Lastly, we tried out a new burger place with a couple we met through church (also expecting a little boy!), any organic burger with all the fixins' is good in my book :)

Happy Tuesday all. xo.

Have a fun-filled weekend.

We made it to the weekend! Hooray. Do you have something fun planned? Stone and I got our weekend kicked off a bit early last night with a concert at La Paloma here in Encinitas. Such a great concert, it was called For the Sender and included a group of local musicians such as Switchfoot, New Found Glory, Nickel Creek, Jack Tempchin, Molly Jenson, Nena Anderson, and Alex Woodard. All of the songs in this concert were written from four letters that were sent to the songwriter through the course of a year from different strangers. You can read more about it and listen to tidbits from each song here. As soon as I get the music I will be sharing it because it was incredible and I know you will want to hear!

As for the rest of our weekend? We have a 20 week ultrasound in a couple of hours (I have to drink 32 oz of fluid without peeing for 2 hours! Wish me luck), a couple of fun dinners planned, plus a beach day in Del Mar with friends :) Cannot wait.

Hope your weekend is perfect. xo.

The bump.

Stone and I had an engagement shoot yesterday in Ocean Beach and I cannot wait to share the photos with you! This couple was so relaxed and fun, and we just took photos in and around their cute little neighborhood. It was awesome, plus we ended the night at Bo-Beau where the groom is a bartender... major bonus. If you ever make it to OB I highly recommend this restaurant, especially the brussels sprouts. Mmmmm.

Anyway, Stone took this photo while we were shooting yesterday to send to our family since they don't get to see my ever growing belly. I won't be doing these 'bump pictures' too often, just when there are major changes. As of now I am just beginning to show, but it probably looks to anyone that does not know me like I indulge in a bit too many late night ice cream treats. Which, unfortunately is not the case right now because ice cream makes me feel ill.

Happy Thursday. xo.

Etsy picks : Pillows & Poufs

A couple of things that I have found recently on Etsy that have quickly been dropped into my shopping wish list folder are these incredible pillows by Sukan, which you can see here and here, and these poufs. I am hoping to buy/find/make a pouf for baby boys' room and these would fit the bill quite perfectly. Also, I am constantly hunting for new pillows, we have had the same two on our couch since we got married and I am ready to invest in some new ones! Oh, how I wish I could sew...

xo.

Tuesday Tunes : Expensive Looks.

Stone has really been liking this song by Expensive Looks lately so I thought you might too!

Hope you had a wonderful Tuesday. Enjoy.

Look of the week : Hawaii love.

Husband and I are headed to Kauai in a couple of weeks and I am counting down the days... for many reasons...

1. I have never been to Hawaii before and have heard incredible things, I just know it will live up to the hype!

2. While we have been traveling a lot lately (holidays and the arrival of my niece and nephew) we have not had a ton of alone time for the two of us so I cannot wait for that.

3. I am finally starting to feel better! So bring on the delicious island food...

4 . We are staying at an incredible boutique hotel, which was a splurge, but they had excellent bathrooms and that is our number one priority when booking a hotel!

5. I need some sun on my skin, badly.

6. I have never stood under a waterfall and that is top of my list to do while we are there, I know every tourist in Hawaii gets that classic pic, and well, I want one too!

7. My belly has not quite popped yet, but I imagine as soon as it does I will be way more uncomfortable, so I may as well soak up this time before everything goes out of whack.

8. The hotel has pre-natal massages!

9. I will most likely need to do some trip shopping before we leave :)

10. Did I mention the massage?

Some things topping my list for the trip are a couple of great LemLem scarves that can double as sarongs. I'm on the hunt for a new bikini, even though my belly looks like I have played too much beer pong, I will still bare it :) I also think a sweet piece of jewelry from this designer would be a great accent to wear, they all seem so beachy to me. A must for this trip are easy and comfortable sundresses like this one from Calypso. Lastly I will definitely be packing a couple of flat sandals that I can wear all day!

Any Kauai tips for us?

xo.

Weekend wrap up : Work + Play!

How was your weekend? Oh, that is right, the weekend is still chugging along for most of you. Unless you work from home, then all holidays are still considered workdays. Dang! That is okay because some workdays we spend on the beach.

Stone and I spent the weekend celebrating his birthday, shooting a wedding in Malibu, and sleeping in on Sunday. Seriously sleeping in, like I did not get out of bed til noon. Yikes. I have some terrible allergies at the moment and have read that when you are pregnant they only get worse. Great. What other terrible things are they going to throw at a woman who is already dealing with morning sickness, backaches, headaches, exhaustion, and becoming larger than life (literally). Well, all this to say I could complain for days about all of the special things that happen when you are pregnant and the even more awesome things waiting for your body after you have that little bundle of joy. But, I won't. Maybe another post. This post is dedicated to the cuteness that will be my child when he sports all of the new duds I got for him from Zara. They were having a massive sale and I had not bought much at all for the little guy so I went a little crazy. The truth is baby boy clothes just don't even compare in cuteness as baby girl. So when I see something good, and it is on mega clearance, I snatch it :) Elbow patches, corduroy overalls, and wool shorts with belt. Yes, please!

Stone and I also started up our 2012 weddings with a bang this past weekend. We headed to Malibu and photographed one of the cutest couples in a truly epic location. What more could you ask for?

And a quote in celebration of the holiday...

"human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless effort and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God." -MLK Jr, 1966

(Thank you Caitlyn for posting this earlier!)

Happy birthday husband!

Today was husband's birthday. He really does not like celebrating himself, but he married the wrong girl if he truly wants to bypass January 13 every year without a parade and fireworks. Okay, I actually have never gone to that extreme, but I love birthdays so much that I would not put it past me. We actually spent this afternoon at the beach and then grabbed pizza at one of our favorite spots in Del Mar. Simple enough :) Then we celebrated with great friends and good food tonight for dinner! It was perfect, even without all the bells and whistles (I did put a banner up in our kitchen).

Husband, happy birthday. This year is going to be a big one for us and I am so thankful that our son will have such an incredible dad. He is one lucky guy. Same goes for me too ;) I love you tons.

Food to love : Craving a dog...

One of the first questions people ask me besides 'how are you feeling?' 'when are you due?' and my favorite 'are you ready for a baby?' (I mean let's be honest here, is anyone actually ready to bring a child into this world? I didn't think so... Excited? yes. Ready? never.) is 'have you had any cravings?'. And honestly I have not. I think that is mostly due to the fact that I have barely been keeping food down, much less craving anything beyond stale saltine crackers. But, just in the past week all I want is a hot dog. Now, I know you are thinking that is absolutely the worst thing I could put into my body when trying to grow a healthy strong baby, I agree, this is why I have not had one yet! But, my mouth waters every time I think about them. Anyone know of a good veggie-dog alternative? Probably won't be nearly as good as over processed pig parts, but it might satisfy the craving :) It is actually pretty funny because I am very, very particular when it comes to what meat I will and will not eat. I even swore off red meat in college. But, I have always been able to eat a hot dog, and not Whole Foods Hot Dogs... ballpark hot dogs and even movie theater hot dogs... I am a bit ashamed to admit that one. Ha.

Either way, gourmet dogs are a new thing I hear and I have been having vivid dreams of them lately.

Some interesting topping combos I found that are shown above are...

The Greek Dog : Hummus and Cucumber Relish

The Chicago Dog : Pepper, Pickle slice, Tomato and Homemade Mustard

The Chili Dog : Homemade Chili and Classic Coleslaw

The Breakfast Dog : Homemade Egg Salad and Crispy Bacon

The Piccalilli Dog : British Curried Relish

Paella Dog : Spanish Paella and Saffron Sauce

You can see the recipes here and here!

.

You must of thought that I let the Southern California mentality get to my head a little too much and swore off all electronics including computers. Well that is not true, but kinda true. I took the month (and then some) of December off from blogging, emailing (except with clients of course), online shopping (well, it was Christmas so this one is not totally a truth), tweeting, facebooking and reading other blogs. It was quite nice, but has definitely been difficult for me to introduce my laptop back into my life. I truthfully did not miss it much. Have you ever taken a hiatus from technology? You get a bit shaky at first, which is to be expected, worrying about your inbox filling up and having your small, but dedicated group of blog readers be disappointed with your lack of posts. Soon enough you forget all of that and it becomes the norm, then you get annoyed with everyone else on their phones tweeting, answering emails, and keeping up with the techno savvy society. People like husband, that is :)

Alas, I am back though, and happy to be blogging again. It feels good, and I have oh so much to tell you. Including the biggest news of all, which you may or may not have seen from husband's tweets...

Yup, that's right, we found out end of October that we had a little (big) surprise on the way! Crazy. Stone and I are thrilled to be welcoming a little baby boy (we found that out recently too) this coming June. Truthfully, it took a while for me to get to the emotion of being thrilled, I had a few more I had to cover before getting there. After taking 5 (yes, 5) pregnancy tests just to be sure this was actually happening I went into panic mode first (But, how are we supposed to put a kid through college? Will we ever get to go on the European vacation we have wanted to take? How did this happen again?) The morning and following weeks after the panic turned more into a tearful hysteria... trust me you would not have wanted to be around me during this phase. Husband was a saint throughout of course. After I began to tell people about our little babe that phase turned into more of a 'scared to be a mom, but excited all at the same time' phase. Then I got the morning (which, really is all morning, day and night) sickness, and it hit me hard. Just now, I feel like I am coming out of that and every day I get more and more excited about welcoming this little guy into our lives.

I hope he looks like his dad :)

We also spent the past month preparing to be parents by welcoming our new little niece, Ruthie and nephew Liam into the world.

Stone photographed the C-section, changed his first diaper, and fed and burped the babes like a champ.

I learned all about other lovely post pregnancy things from my sister... things nobody really prepares you for when you are blissfully pregnant. Like the fact you spend more time with your motorized breast pump (which looks way too similar to how farmer's milk cows... way too similar) than you do sleeping in the first months.

We could not have been more happy being able to spend so much time with them and have serious heartaches every time we miss them, which is a lot. We are a bit obsessed with being an aunt and uncle... I cannot even imagine what it will be like being a parent!

I mean, how could you not have a heartache when you are not spending every waking minute with this little one...

it is just impossible!

Sooo we got a lot of Texas family and friend time in...

(Stone, me, my sister Lindsay and her husband Preston)

and then also, headed to Colorado for about 10 days to spend time with our family and friends there too...

(Stone and the boys headed up to their cabin one night for a man's night)

This is definitely one of the benefits of owning our own business, and it does not go unnoticed. We realize it is a huge luxury for us to be able to pack up and leave for a month to spend the holiday with both of our families in two different states and we are ever so grateful for that. I know I say this often, but we just love what we do and could not be more tickled (okay, Stone would never use the word tickled, but that is how I feel at least... my grandma, Nonnie, uses the word a lot and I am trying to bring it back...) by the fact that we are able to make a living doing it!

By the way, I hope you had a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Years!

Some of the highlights of our holiday were...

- Picking out a Christmas tree with my sister and Preston.

- Having my mom take care of me when I was voming from nausea!

- Meeting little Ruthie and Liam.

- Going to the Nasher with my dad.

- Indulging in homemade food for a month straight (thank you mom and Wendy!).

- Seeing all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents at my dad's annual Christmas dinner.

- Getting great seats at A Christmas Carol for less than half of what everyone else spent on their tickets.

- Having a dinner reunion with all my college friends at Oddfellows in Dallas. I highly recommend this place!

- Enjoying a few days of snow in Colorado.

- Getting a manicure with my mother in law and two sister in laws!

- Playing games with the Crandalls... this is a rarity, but we found a game that everyone loves! Hooray.

- New Year's eve at my sister-in-law Kelsey's house complete with sparklers and non-alcoholic champagne. She and her husband, Buck, are the best hosts... she even made homemade Indian food that was insanely good!

We have a lot to look forward to this coming 2012 and I hope you have not given up on me and this blog already because I promise if you stick around things are going to get good. I will be posting some baby inspiration, but this will not become a blog all about baby... promise :)

Talk to you soon. xo.