It was all Yellow! The perfect nursery yellow!

If you are looking for a nice light yellow for your nursery walls, Weston Flax
is it. A friend of mine, whom I totally trust with design ideas, recommended this Benjamin Moore color after using it in her nursery. If you are looking for a nice, soft, yellow this is it. The color swatch is deceiving because it appears more in the creamy off white range. I wouldn't even have grabbed the swatch had I not known what it really looks like on the wall. I can't imagine the number of repaints we would've gone through had we chosen a brighter yellow by going off a swatch. Crested Butte is so soft, yet bright, cheery and changes with the light. It’s the perfect nursery yellow!

You Belong in Milan

Stylish and sophisticated, you want to enjoy a truly European life - away from tourists! Milan fits you perfectly. Great shopping, high quality food, lots of culture... with very little hype.

What European City Do You Belong In?

“Natural" Highlights

Okay, so I’m paranoid. But I haven’t been able to bring myself to get highlights since I have been pregnant. Despite everything I have read that says it safe, friends’ testimonies, hair dressers confirmation, even the DOCTOR’S assurance, I still can’t do it. So naturally, on my recent trip to Arizona, I made sure that I had a full tube of my rusty Beach Blonde Lemon Lights in my bag. I have been using this product since it hit the shelves several years ago and I bring it with me on every trip to the lake, beach, or warm climate. It’s crazy, but I feel like I just returned from the salon ( okay, I may be exaggerating a bit, I didn’t get that tingling feeling from a scalp massage and I didn’t get a blow-out and style, but who cares, my hair definitely has some highlights! I feel like my old “natural” self again! Plus, I don’t have the false sense of “this is the best haircut ever” when you know that the feeling will go down the drain with the first wash. Unfortunately, they are discontinuing this product but you can still find it on medichest.com.

Prenatal Massage

We just returned from a long weekend in Arizona. Mark's parents live 30 minutes east of Scottsdale so we try to get down there a couple times a year. I had two main goals for the trip: Goal#1: Get some natural highlights back in my hair!
And #2: Get a prenatal massage! I successfully achieved both. A spa day was top on the list. And it just so happens that back in November I read about a spa in Paradise Valley where a certain famous couple spent Thanksgiving. Some people research travel sites, some research gossip magazines. But did I really choose this spa just because Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn stayed there over Thanksgiving...what kind of gawker do you think I am? Okay, okay so maybe that had something (a lot) to do with it. But, hey, I figure if it's good enough for Jen, it's good enough for me. And don't forget about the baby.........I can't have some amateur close to my belly. After confirming that they offered a "Motherhood" massage and finding out that, with a treatment, I would get full access to all facilities for the day (i.e. sipping fruit smoothies by the pool), I booked it! A prenatal massage for me and a sports massage for the husband. I could hardly sleep the night before. Like an 8yr old at Christmas, I was up at the crack of dawn and ready to go.

The only appointments available were at 8:15am so we had planned on being there by 7:45am. We pulled into the parking lot at exactly 7:45am (after convincing Mark that there was no time for Starbucks or leisurely drive up the mountain). The courtyard entrance is like walking into a rain forest with tall bamboo plants everywhere letting just the right amount of light in. Zen mode: CHECK!

The massage therapist was amazing and very experienced. And she had two children, so she could relate to my position. She gave me the choice of a stomach (on a special pillow with a cut out for the belly) or side massage. Since I have gotten used to the idea of sleeping on my side, I decided to get with that. Plus, in the back of my mind, I had remembered reading that the stomach massage puts some pressure on the baby. But either choice is probably fine. The hour-long experience was 100% relaxing. I hadn’t realized how tight my lower back had gotten. She used just the right amount of pressure to relieve all the tension.

We then proceeded to have breakfast by the pool, Mark swam laps, and we lounged out on rafts in their huge infinity pool. We did the whole shower routine again and had lunch. A perfect spa day!

I plan on getting a few more massages throughout the rest of my pregnancy. I heard they will help with labor…okay, so I heard this from a massage therapist, but I don’t care because they sure to ease the mind and soothe the soul!

Maternity Wear Best Buys

Several women recommended going to Old Navy to stock up on ribbed tanks and I am sure glad that I did. The best thing about them is their length. You can wear them under a lot of your pre-pregnancy shirts. Doing this will expand your wardrobe times ten. In my closet I have made two “maternity” sections: 1. real maternitywear and 2. all of my pre-pregnancy clothing that I can still wear with the help of long tanks or belly bands.

Maternity Wear Best Buys

What to wear, oh what to wear!! I am 6 1/2 months along and finally feel like I have some choices when getting dressed in the morning. Between hand me downs, several small purchases, and a few big splurges, I have assembled a nice little maternity wardrobe. I have even rearranged my closets so that this wardrobe is easily accessible. It takes up about 3/4 of one closet (not to get too excited, the closet is a built-in wall organizer, so it is not the standard length). At any rate, I have something to wear! Even choices!

Around the 3rd and 4th months, getting dressed was stressful. Although I am freelance, I was working almost every day, and I had to look somewhat normal, if not even a little "hip." Now, if I worked at a gym or place that required that I wear SWEATS, I would've had a million choices!! Hmmm, what should I wear today? The black velvet sweatsuit, the bella dahl comfy workout pants, splendid sweats and a tissue tee, you name it, I could've put the outfit together in seconds. Unfortunately, for 10 hours each day, I had to find something to wear other than the sweats that I wore every other hour that I wasn't working. In one of my early morning breakdowns, I told my husband that I either have to go shopping (tonight) or quit!

This brings me to one of my early purchases.: GAP maternity jeans in size "barely showing". I got them my regular pre-pregancy size, regular length. They should really reconsider their tag description because I am still wearing them and I am really showing! The best part about these jeans is that they don't have that ugly panel. I could wear them when I hadn't spilled the big news and I did't have to risk anyone seeing a glimpse of the ugly stretchy waistband that you see on most maternity jeans. They look and fit like normal jeans. Perhaps they won't last through month TEN, but in the meantime, you know what comes between me an my GAP jeans? Nothing (except a growing belly of course)!

Testing Testing 1,2,3