My first military ball

Last Friday marked a very momentous occasion in my life as a military spouse--my very first military formal.  It was also my very first official military anything, actually, thanks to Captain Husband's rather unconventional military career since we've been together.  I was pretty nervous about the whole event--what was I going to wear?  What was I going to do with my hair?  And then the awful realization that I was going to have to not only wear makeup that night, but I'd also have to go out and procure some before the actual event took place (I estimate it's been about three years since I last bought any and I threw it all away when we moved last summer).  Thank goodness my friend Aubree' was here to walk me through the whole beautification process.

After two very unsuccessful shopping trips to Macy's and Dillard's (I maintain that having to shop for a formal gown while pregnant should be considered cruel and unusual punishment), I finally found a dress that I liked on eBay and took the plunge, hoping that it would fit by the time the formal rolled around.  The formal was here before I knew it and I was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, going to various appointments like pedicure, manicure and hair.  I don't think I underwent this much primping for my very own wedding.

We were running waaaaaaay behind schedule so we weren't able to pose for any nice pictures before hitting the road and CH didn't want me bringing my camera along, due to my habit of wandering off to take pictures rather than socializing, which was a huge bummer because the ball was taking place in the gorgeous Camino Real Hotel in downtown El Paso (home to the beautiful Tiffany Dome pictured above).  Thank goodness for my iPhone!  All in all it was a pretty good night--I got to meet some of the people CH will be working with once he takes command at the end of the month and it was fun to go out for a night on the town with my husband, even though we headed home at 10 pm like a couple of old fogies.

A visit from the Easter Bunny

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend with their family and loved ones; ours was pretty low key with the Easter Bunny stopping by early yesterday morning with some goodies for Sammy.

Sammy immediately zeroed in on the new matchbox cars in his Easter basket and would have spent the rest of the day playing with them had I not showed him the super awesome surprise that the Easter Bunny had arranged for him (with a little bit of help from my mom); his very first chocolate bunny from Sarris Candies, a candy factory located about twenty minutes from my home town (try the cappuccino meltaways--you won't be disappointed).

Keep in mind that Sammy's exposure to candy in general has been kept to a minimum, so I was a little curious to see how he would react to getting an itty bitty chocolate bunny to himself (okay, I admit that I helped him eat some of it).

Sammy settled down on the couch with Captain Husband to enjoy his snack but it wasn't long before the sugar kicked in and he was running all over the house like a crazy kid.

Fortunately the sugar high wasn't too severe and he was able to calm down by the time that lunch rolled around, but I think I may have a tiny chocoholic on my hands now.

Happy Easter

Ah, spring--the time when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of giant scary bunnies.  Have a wonderful Easter weekend everyone!

Texture Thursday: Busy bees

“How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower.”  Isaac Watts

“Listen! O, listen! Here come the hum the golden bees Underneath full blossomed trees, At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned.”  James Russell Lowell

Spring is in full bloom in our backyard; this is the greenest our yard has looked in a long time!  I have no idea what kind of plant this is, but it's now blooming like crazy and bringing all of the bees out (I also have a sneaking suspicion that it's probably the cause of Sammy's ever-present runny nose).

Wordless{ish} Wednesday: Say no to lackluster lampshades

{I've been hard at work in the guest room/craft room these days getting everything set up just the way that I want it, like installing shelves and some wall-mounted lamps so I can see well enough to do some sewing at night.  The lamps are nice but the shades that came with them were pretty boring.  I thought about buying some fun and funky ones, but holy cow, lamp shades are expensive--I figured I was just going to have to learn to live with the blandness. Au contraire, mon frère. Thanks to this very easy-to-follow tutorial that I found at Design Sponge, I discovered that I could make my very own custom lampshades using fabric that I already owned.}



{I am so bad about taking photos while I'm in the process of doing/making something; I just want to plow on ahead and get it done, but luckily I remembered to pause a few times and take a few shots with my phone.  All in all, it took me about fifteen minutes to make the pattern and then cut and hem the fabric (which I purchased from Tonic Living about three and a half years ago when I was working on our home office in Virginia); I had to wait until the next day to do the actual gluing as I needed a ventilated space and didn't feel like attempting this outside in the dark.  As you can see, clothespins really came in handy during the gluing process, especially when you are working one handed because you're taking pictures with the other.}



{I let the lampshades sit for a bit to ensure that everything was properly affixed and then brought them upstairs to the guest/craft room and installed them on the fixtures.  I can tell that I've done a good job when even Captain Husband is impressed by my handiwork.}

Which cloth diaper should I choose for baby #2?

It should come as no surprise to those who know me that I'm planning to use cloth diapers on baby #2 when he makes his appearance this summer.  Sammy's been in cloth since the day he came home from the hospital and the experience has been great.  However, it's a bit of a double-edged sword; I know so much more about cloth now than I did two years ago, which means a whole new world of options is spread out before me.  Don't get me wrong--I really like our Fuzzi Bunz and couldn't be happier with how they've worked out for us, but I want to try something different this time around...you know, shake things up a bit.  Right now I'm toying around with the idea of using fitteds and covers, with me making some of the covers and possibly trying my hand at converting some prefolds into fitteds (known as "prefitteds") to cut down on costs a bit.  I figure by doing this I can keep both the baby's and Sammy's bum in cloth, with the majority of the Fuzzi Bunz being set aside for Sammy's use.  Then, once the baby has gotten a bit bigger and started to outgrow the fitteds, I can transition him into Sammy's diapers because hopefully Sammy will be using less of them and (fingers crossed) be on his way to potty training.   So my question for all of you cloth-diapering mamas out there is does this sound like a feasible plan?  Are there any other options I should consider?  Do you have a favorite kind of fitted diaper?  I'm all ears!

Getting ready for guests

Our house is going to have a bit of a revolving door this spring--my BFF Aubree' is coming to visit from Atlanta this week, and then my father-in-law will be here at the end of the month.  My friend, Suzy, is coming for a few days at the beginning of May and she'll be followed by my brother, sister-in-law and nephew, who will be staying with us for a little over a week.  So I figured it was about time that I put my nose to the grindstone and get the guest room in order.


I came across this cute luggage stand at, you guessed it, the thrift store over the weekend.  It was missing one of its straps, but I knew that would be an easy enough fix and I could customize it to match the overall color scheme of the guest room.  After a quick trip to my local craft store for some grosgrain ribbon, I was ready to get to work.


Using one of the original straps as a measurement guide, I cut out three strips of grosgrain ribbon and used the original staple holes as my guide.  I folded the ends of the ribbons under and stapled through them, which will keep the edges from fraying and looking unfinished.  Took me a total of five minutes to finish and now I have a functional and stylish luggage stand for the guest room.


There was still one missing piece to take care of--a nightstand.  I'd been using a small chair next to the bed as a place for my guests to rest their glasses and such while they slept, but I knew it wasn't really doing the trick.  I came across the solution while browsing the clearance section at Target and was soon hard at working building a new nightstand.  It's been awhile since I've put together anything like this and amazingly I managed to get it put together correctly the first time around.

I changed out the original knob for a faceted glass one that I found at Lowe's just to tweak the nightstand's look a bit. I hope my guests like the new additions to the guest room as much as Sandy Cat does!