I’m so excited about this giveaway! I have a strong love for paper and invitations and I feel extremely happy when I see a custom invitation designed especially for my event.
This Kentucky Derby-themed invitation was designed by Ashley Brooke Designs and couldn’t be more adorable! Do you have a special event that you’re hosting and you’re looking for a unique invitation? Have you been itching to get some personalized stationery?
Time for the giveaway!
To enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling me what your FAVORITE item is on the Ashley Brooke Designs website!
You will have until April 5, 2009 to leave a comment. The winner will be announced on April 6, 2009.
To see what the design process looks like click here!
Good Luck!!
ETA: The more I look at that precious Kentucky Derby invitation, I want to be Julia and Hunter. How cute are they? (I know they’re just drawings by the fabulous Ashley Brooke, but still…)
I’ve mentioned before that if I could be trained to do anything and do it perfectly it would be to Riverdance. You know, the Irish dance troupe stuff? Michael Flatley: Lord of the Dance? (anyone else remember the hilarious Friends reference that goes with this?)
A good many years ago, there was this great Folger’s commercial and I just saw it when Dancing With the Stars went to commercial. I love it when they bring back old commercials!
This is one of my favorite commercials of all time. Makes me want to get up and dance– or try to!
This accomplishment is nothing short of miraculous. I set out to complete something and I did it. I’m totally proud of myself and feel no different about this achievement than any other goal I accomplish.
I watched two full seasons of Damages in eight days!!!
No big deal? Shallow? Do I have a life?
It is a big deal. It is shallow, but it’s a great show. And I do have a life.
If you haven’t watched the show, you must get Season 1 on Netflix, then download every episode of Season 2 on iTunes and watch them all consecutively. I finished just in time to watch the season finale on FX on Wednesday!
Please keep in mind that my husband was out of town two weekends in a row and I had lots of time to myself at the house. I also went out on Saturday and volunteered for the local food bank, but came home immediately to cook a big spaghetti dinner for myself and plop down in front of Damages. It’s okay if you judge me. I was a woman on a mission.
Anyone else ever get completely hooked on a TV show and let it take over your life for just a few days?
So many women in this beautiful blog community are newlyweds and I’ve always loved that! The number of other bloggers that got married between March and August of 2008 is amazing!
We got married on May 3 and I just cannot believe how fast time flies. With the baby on the way, the anniversary has kind of snuck up on me and I’m not sure what my big first anniversary gift to my husband is going to be. The traditional first anniversary gift is paper and the modern first anniversary gift are clocks.
So, helpful readers, I need your help in deciding what to give my husband for our first anniversary. Should I stick to tradition or go for something completely out of the ordinary. He never wants anything, so either way I go I’m going to have to think for myself!
ETA: We already have lots and lots of personalized stationery. We have joint stationery and individual stationery that we both use for personal and business purposes. We have also decided not to focus on the baby for our anniversary. I think the baby ideas are very sweet, but we’ll be a month away from the due date and we would rather focus on each other and the reasons we love each other. I’ll definitely do some sweet things for Father’s Day, which will come just a few short days after the baby arrives.
Part of the fun of being pregnant is deciding on all of the fun stuff for the baby. The two most important things to me were the car seat and the stroller. Fortunately for me, I had two other experienced baby gear researchers in my corner that were willing to share some of their expertise. This way, all I had to do was decide on a color!
Nina and my cousin (who is a brand new mommy) both recommended the Bumbleride Flyer for the stroller. The Bumbleride Flyer is so versatile! The handle flips around so you can either push from behind or have the handle positioned so you can face the baby. The other great thing about the Bumbleride is that it is compatible with the Graco Snugride car seat.
The Graco Snugride comes highly recommended by many mommies and experts. We chose the Graco Pedic Snugride in Lotus color for three reasons; #1) it’s compatible with the Bumbleride, #2) it matches the red Bumbleride that we chose, #3) not only is it the most highly recommended car seat, but the Pedic version comes with some extra padding. I think the red and black will work well later if we ever have a little girl.
The car seat (that we received as a shower gift) will arrive today and I’m seconds away from ordering our stroller. I’m excited to get the car seat in the car to make sure it fits and make sure we know how to use it! I’m also eager to learn how to work the stroller so I don’t embarrass myself in the parking lot of the mall while trying to figure out how to open it and collapse it!
I had my 28.5 week check up yesterday and because of some issues at the 20 week appointment, I was scheduled to have a regular ultrasound. The doctor wanted to check for a couple of things again and see if they had changed in eight weeks. The ultrasound technician told us that we could “upgrade” to a 4D ultrasound if we wanted to and only pay $50 instead of $150. We took her up on it.
The 4D ultrasound is purely for entertainment purposes and they still did the 2D ultrasound to look at the important stuff. Everything was great. Everything was measuring as it should be and the baby is actually weighing in at 3.3 pounds and looking more like a 30 week baby rather than a 29 week baby. She told me that his growth rate could slow down and a lot can change between now and delivery day.
He is currently in breach position with his cute head up in my rib cage– ouch– and his legs angling across my stomach. Hopefully he’ll do a few more flips and get into the correct position. If not, we’ll be alright and just have a C-section. I’m really not worried at all about the delivery at this time. I’d prefer not to have to have a C-section, but I’m just not that worried about it. There’s nothing I can do about it, right?
So on to the good stuff. The baby was sleeping soundly during the ultrasound and had his little face turned in, so we weren’t able to get a good look. After lots of wiggling around, they gave me a Coke and told me to walk around the office and do some toe-touches for about twenty minutes to try to wake him up. When I got back into the room, he had moved a little bit and we did get one or two good looks at his face before he fell back into a deep sleep.
We saw two tiny ears, a round nose that was kind of smushed in there, and some huge baby cheeks! It’s kind of hard to make out what you’re looking at in the picture above, but it’s the side of his face with his hand over his mouth.
That’s all you get! I gotta save some surprises for when he makes his debut into the world.
I was awakened at 1:45 this morning by my husband talking to me… loudly. I sat straight up in bed and said, “What did you say?”
The rest of the conversation went like this:
Todd: “I saaaiiid, ‘Know what I mean, Vern?’ “
Erin: “What?!”
Todd: “KNOW. WHAT. I. MEAN. VERN?”
Erin: “I heard you. I just don’t know what that means.”
Todd: “Never mind. Just forget it.”
Erin: “No. Not ‘never mind.’ It’s the middle of the night and you woke me up to tell me something and I want to know what it means.”
Todd: “It’s from Ernest!”
Erin: “Yes, sweetheart. I know that the quote, ‘Know what I mean, Vern?’ is from Ernest. Why did you say it to me right now?”
Todd: “Because of the conversation we were having about writing journals and the big discussion we just had about research.”
Erin: “Todd? Are you asleep?”
Todd: “I don’t know, maybe.”
Erin: “We didn’t have a conversation about journals or research.”
Todd: “Just forget it.”
I don’t have much experience with people talking in their sleep. One of my best friends does some sleep walking and talking and I was always able to talk her back into bed, but it’s a little different when your lifetime bed partner is quoting Ernest P. Worrell in the middle of the night.
p.s. We had a 4D ultrasound of our precious baby boy today, but the “Ernest talking in your sleep” story trumped the 4D ultrasound story for blog material. More on the ultrasound coming tomorrow.
My dear husband is traveling to Lexington, Virginia this weekend to speak to some law students at his law school alma mater. He leaves tonight and doesn’t return until Saturday night. I’ve made sure to have plenty of things going on because I will definitely be missing him. The only good part about him being gone is that I will have our big bed all to myself and these days I need it!
We have a women’s conference going on at church on Friday night and Saturday morning, so I’ll be there with my Sunday school friends for most of the weekend. I’m coming down with a yucky cold and allergy attack that has been brought on by all of the pollen floating around. I hope to get lots of sleep in the next few days.
I just received Season 1 of Damages on Netflix, so I think I’ll spend the evening watching that. I’ve heard great things about it from my parents and cousin and think I’ll like it. The last thing I need, though, is a new show to be addicted to. Anyone else watch Damages? What do you think?
We’ve officially entered the third trimester! I am 28 weeks pregnant today and seriously cannot believe how fast time flies. I thought I would never have a baby bump. I had nothing at 18 weeks, a little something at 19 weeks, and now I have a very noticeable, no-doubt-in-this-world -that-there’s-a-baby-coming, bump.
28 weeks
I’m standing in the nursery for the above picture, so that is your sneak peak of the nursery for now. We have one yellow and white striped wall. I go back to the doctor on Monday where we’ll have another sonogram and see Baby Boy again. Please continue to pray with us that he is healthy and in great shape!
I’m heading out to hang out with my Bible study girls tonight and hope that you all have a great night!
And kudos to my friend, Mojito Maven, for opening up and the representing those of us (those few of us) who are not Lilly Pulitzer fans. I knew I loved my friend for lots of reasons, but this is just one more. There. I said it. Not a Lilly fan and I never have been. Please don’t hate me. Lilly lovers: I still love you!
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