Follow My Every Move
February 06, 2013
August 31, 2012
August 13, 2012
Dear Jessica Simpson:
Awhile back I was getting my hair done, something I've recently taken to indulging myself in for the sake of improving my image and just getting some damn time alone. I came across a great tabloid-type entertainment magazine and I don't recall exactly which one, but it featured a dreadfully depressing and inappropriate article about Jessica Simspon and her recent step into mommy-hood.
As a mother of two I have experienced the freedom of pregnancy and the hunger and glorious feeling of being able to eat and not worry about weight gain because you are supposed to be gaining weight, silly! I have also experienced the suffocating feelings of post-partum depression and the seemingly insurmountable challenge of losing-the-baby-weight, twice!
The article states that Jessica is "super-tired and drained" and that is causing her to miss some workouts. To this I say, Good for you, Jessica!! It sounds like you are taking this time to be a mother, to bond with your child and to allow your body the rest it needs. Your baby will grow up so very fast right in front of your eyes and you won't even notice until they run away from you waving their flag of independance, heading to solo playdates or even just a short morning of preschool. It sounds like you are embracing motherhood and it's exrememly fleeting wonder.
Jessica, darling, ignore those telling you that you need to lose weight by the baby's six week birthday. That is not natural. It is not heatlthy and it is very much not typical.
Shame on this magazine for posting these photos of a new mother who is actually being that, a new mother. Shame on you for insinuating that her postpartum fatigue is her fault and that she is doing it wrong by not crash dieting and spending four hours a day with a trainer. GASP! Maybe she is just being a new and good mother.
Wouldn't you like to see an article about how a Hollywood mother is defying the demands of the media and taking her time at weight loss, spending those impressionable and precious early moments with her child and not worrying about her weight, which will decrease, in time. That sure would make me feel better about my situation.
August 12, 2012
Big News
I've been wanting to write about this since April when Marc and I first had the talk about putting our house up for sale. I chose to keep quiet for a variety of reasons including of course the obvious, jinxing myself. Almost exactly three months to the day that we first met with our wonderful agent (local people, if you ever need a fabulous agent, ask me!) I am so damn excited and relieved and jumping out of my skin anxious to announce that we have moved!
Our house sold in two weeks.
The inspection was near perfect.
We found three houses that we loved and we could imagine ourselves in each one increasingly more. We made offers on each house and lost each one, because the sale of our house was still pending. Contingency be damned!
Late on a Friday night in June, I neurotically hit the reload putting on my browser window in hopes that my dream house had miraculously been added to our MLS search since the last time I checked in, only hours before.
Apparently, it had been added. Around 11:30 at night, twleve hours before we were scheduled to see a full slue of houses that we considered to be "a massive compromise", a new one appeared and seemed to meet all of our needs, and wants. It had an office in the basement, a fenced in yard, four bedrooms, was in our number one choice neighborhood, and looks relatively clean.
We saw it at 12:30 on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon writing a contract. On Sunday afternoon we had a ratified contract and one month and a lot of money moving and hand wringing later, we now own a fabulous single family home that has living and playing space for all of us.
It's been a dificult summer of packing and moving and worrying about moving and money, ohmygod the money, the moving van and the needing of so very many new little things like baskets for organizing and tools to clean up a very neglected backyard but it all so very worth it. We are so happy and this new chapter is so very worth looking forward to.
June 29, 2012
Tied and Dyed
It's summer and what better summer activity than tie-dying, right? I have loved the rubberbanded t-shirt art since the first time we did it at Lovettsville Elementary School when we'd make shirts each year, colored coded by class, for the annual Spring Field Day.
After watching my friend wash out her SO PERFECTLY designed tie-dyed dresses for her girls, I got the dying bug and decided to try out a few new ways of tie-dying. I have always done one solid color but no longer! I have learned to use a squirt bottle of different colored dye and how to make some great new patterns.
Tulip makes a great kit that gives you everything you need.
What I don't recommend? Doing it with toddlers at your legs, pulling on you, wanting snacks and attention. But, it's been a full week of solo parenting and I needed to do something crafty and fun and I had no choice but to delve into this project with the little buggers at my side. It was distracting and in hindsight, I should have waited until I could spread out more and pay more attention.
I attempted to make myself a heart shaped center bulls-eye design but it didn't completely come out. Noah's is a swirl and Mallory's is a regular bulls-eye design. When you aren't submerging the entire shirt in one solid color it's really hard but crucial to work hard at getting the dye deep into the folds of the shirt. This is the first time I've had this much white space on a tie-dyed shirt, but, I don't think it's all that bad, actually.
Here are my not-quite-masterpieces:
And here is a link to what got me started in the first place, Little Pink Monster's Tie Dyed Pillow. I'd also like to make this dress for Mallory.
In my new house I'm definitely going to spruce up my decor with a tie-dyed pillow. What a great way to add a little pop-out piece of color!
