Chain Letter

Look! I'm wearing real clothes! I've been meaning to photograph this dress for about one month now, whoops. You may recognize it if you read other style blogs. It's from ModCloth, for the Chain Letter Dress project that Starr started. This dress is going around to different girls, each styling it their own way. When Leslie, of Dalena Vintage, contacted me to see if I wanted to style it, I was excited, but a little scared it wouldn't fit over my new body. While the bust was a bit too tight, the skirt was still plenty loose for a baby belly, so I wore it as a skirt.


(dress: Yodel Lady Dress c/o ModCloth for Chain Letter project; shirt: vintage, antique expo; cardigan: thrifted; necklace: vintage lot; shoes: ross)



Isn't Fall great!? I'm so thrilled to be wearing layers and not be sweating lots. Let me tell you, being pregnant makes you feel like 10degrees warmer than it really is, so thank goodness the heat is gone. Plus, my cute husband bundles up in his cute coat!


(josh is wearing: kenneth cole pants, calvin klein coat, salvatore ferragamo shoes)

While I was taking pictures of Josh, he said, "Look, my feet are like you blogger girls!" He couldn't be more right...

This dress is headed off to Tania of What Would a Nerd Wear next. You can see how the other girls have styled this dress: (Lulu Letty, Dalena Vintage, Rosemud, A Thought is the Blossom, Dear Beatrice

Waffle Window

One side of remodeling that we didn't really take into consideration is how many of our meals we'd have to eat out of the house. Obviously, with no stove, sink, counters, anything, we couldn't really make meals at home. My mom has dropped off some food, and Josh's mom drove up to Portland recently and dropped off a homemade pie and smoked ribs. Yum! But really, about 90% of our meals are eaten at restaurants these days. Thankfully, Portland has no shortage of restaurants and food carts, most of which locally source their produce, meats, and cheeses. Yay for living in a hippie town!
The Waffle Window is exactly what it sounds like: A little walk up window that sells only waffles. Oh, but those waffles are topped with anything you could ever want!
On our most recent trip to Waffle Window, we ordered:
The Whole Farm (tons of veggies, herbed chevre, bacon, and chives)

Triple B (bacon, brie, basil)


At around $4.50 a waffle, this is such a good alternative to the breakfast menu from a fast food place, don't you think? Add this to your list of reasons why you should move to Portland!

(...a little sneak peak at our kitchen. Just the finishing touches are needing to be done now!)

Week 25: It's getting crazy

As I mentioned last week, we had booked a hotel for a couple of nights to get away from the construction debris. Well, as it usually goes in construction, things started to go a bit wrong, projects took a lot longer than we had expected them to take, and things got over all a bit more crazy than we thought possible. We ended up at the hotel for four nights. When we got back to our house on Friday, the plumbing was all turned off , so that meant no sink, no bathroom, no toilet. Do you know how hard it is for a pregnant lady to not pee all day!?
But, here we are in our little house, and after a week delay, our kitchen cabinets are being installed as I type this. We painted the kitchen yesterday, and it's a bright turquoise, much like the color of old kitchen gadgets. I think it'll go great with our vintage 1950's stove and the chrome hardware we picked out for the cabinets. Josh also put in a bathtub in our upstairs bathroom to replace our 28" x 28" shower I didn't really fit in yet. It'll be a bit before we finish the bathroom, but for now, I'm looking forward to taking a bath and getting some of this weight off my back for a bit.

This was Josh's Facebook status yesterday (I'm so proud of him):
Kitchen gutted, re-drywalled, textured, painted.. moved electricals, gutted one bathroom, replaced upstairs shower with tub, redid half the house plumbing, moved gas line, replaced two doors, leveled kitchen floors...
A nail through my truck tire, one in my foot, stepped through rotten bathroom floor and gashed my leg on rusty nail, cut my hands about 12 times.
Tired.
(yes, he literally went THROUGH the downstairs bathroom floor)

I had a little bit of an emotional crash a few nights ago, and I started crying. I felt like a wasn't being a "good" mom because we don't have anything ready for our little guy yet. I know he came as a surprise to us, and we never thought we'd be having a baby in the middle of a giant remodel, but in my mind, I was Super Woman and could get everything done in a matter of weeks! We don't plan on buying very much for the baby, and I would like to make most of his bedding and burp cloths and toys, but that will take some time! Josh calmed me down, and reassured me that we are building a healthy home for our baby by choosing to use environmentally and health- responsible products in our remodel, and that that is an important thing to do. I know we still have 3 months to go, and I have faith that once the dust settles, I'll have sewing days with my mom and friends, we'll get the baby's things in time, and we'll be ready when he gets here. This baby business is hard work! Moms everywhere: I applaud you.


Oh yeah, this is what it looks like to have to wash dishes in your bathtub when you're 6 months pregnant! We've been eating so much frozen food, I am going crazy! I think Josh loves it, because he got to pick out foods I NEVER buy (frozen corn dogs, for example. Sure, they're organic and vegetarian, but still). I'll repeat it again: I can't wait to be able to cook again!


Dear Baby Boy:
Oh, little one. If you only knew what was going on in your little home right now! All those loud noises that startle you and make you kick really hard are just the sounds of your dad and his friend building you a healthy home. It's very important to us to get rid of all the gross, chemical ridden building materials in our house and replace them with ones that won't harm your little lungs and brain development. We're almost done with the kitchen, so soon we can start eating delicious warm foods! Just in time, too, because it's getting chilly outside. I look forward to going on Fall adventures with you, your dad, our families, and our friends, then coming back to our little home to eat tasty treats.
I love you, and I hope you're getting some rest in there, even though it seems like you're awake and kicking 20 hours of the day!
Love,
Mommy

PS: I really hope to be back to normal postings later this week. That super unflattering outfit up there is what I've been wearing every day for the last week. I'm looking forward to putting on real clothes soon, and maybe even some lipstick! Fancy! For now, I've also been updating the shop with lots of new vintage! I'm adding new items every day, including a bunch of baby girl things to come today!

for tiny little bodies

Some cute little things I've been eyeing on Etsy for little JR Jr. Most of these items are under $10! What finds!
(click on each picture to go to that listing)

It has to get worse before it gets better

This is the state of our house right now. Our kitchen is completely gutted, the extra room downstairs is stuffed (and I mean STUFFED!) with our kitchen cabinets just waiting to be installed, and our living room is a maze of the entire contents of our kitchen cupboards, stove, refrigerator, and random stuff. The kitchen wall has been opened up to make room for a bar on the other side. The adjacent bathroom that was rotting is also finally gutted, ready to be put back together with non-modly fixtures!





It's been very...challenging, to say the least, to live in this house while we're remodeling it. Trying to get anything done takes at least twice as long as it should, because it involves moving boxes and tubs full of tools to get to anything. I'm not complaining, just consider this a warning to any of you out there that are planning on living in a house while remodeling it this much! We've been eating out for every meal, which is a little tricky for me, since I like to make sure I get plenty of fruits and veggies in each meal for the little dude.
We finally decided to get a hotel room for a couple of nights, just down the road from our house. Josh has been saying throughout the entire remodel and my pregnancy that whenever I need a break, we can get a hotel. I've been holding out as long as possible, but the other night I had a mini breakdown and couldn't take it any more! It's not only the mess, which I can deal with if I'm upstairs in our room, but the pounding of hammers, the shaking of the house with each beam getting knocked out, the sounds of drills and saws...It got to me! I finally had to ask Josh to call it quits for the night. Oh yeah, and our washing machine broke! I've had massive headaches for the last few days, and napping at our house is pretty impossible right now.



(maternity tank: gift from adoredaustin, cardigan: secondhand forever21; pants: gapmaternity; scarf: zara; earings: gift from sadiedeluxe

I have to say, I've been blown away by how hard Josh is working to make a nice home for our family. Every day, he wakes up and labors away, goes to his real job, and comes home only to work on the house till the wee hours of the night. He is such a hard worker, and at the end of each day, I can do nothing but thank God for giving me the greatest man as a husband and father to my little boy. Ok, I'm tearing up as I type this, I just love him so much. Our little boy will have such a great role-model to look up to.


Even though this has been a very challenging time for us, especially with me being pregnant, I go to bed every night thanking God for my little home, my husband and baby, and a mom and little sister who stop by just to say hi and drop off tasty food! Oh, and for a bathtub in this hotel room. Our house only has a shower that's about 28" x 28" right now, and all I've wanted to do for months now is take a bath. So, off I go!

Estate Sale finds

This past weekend, Josh and I were driving home from breakfast with friends at the Screendoor, just midning our own business, when the car turns itself onto a neighborhood street and stops itself in front of an estate sale! We said to the car, "We're tired, full of biscuits and gravy, fried chicken waffles, and don't have much cash on us." The car didn't care, however, and kicked us out. We went inside, only to find one of the best estate sales ever! While it wasn't packed to the brim with stuff, everything was cheap. I mean, cheaper than cheap. Plus, I went back the next day, and everything was 75% off! Here are some treasures we found.










1. An amazing sewing bench ($0.50!!) and some blankets for JR Jr. 2. Pretty old tins... 3. Filled with bobbins that fit my machine and every imaginable attachement 4. Some sweet records 5. About 30 old towels in crazy 70's colors that will get turned into burp clothes for JR Jr. 6. A stack of great vintage sewing books, mostly from the 60's and 70's, and all the interfacing a girl could ever need 7. A purse ($.10!!), Panama scarf, and fur collar ($1!) 8. Cute old grinder thing (perfect for chopping up nuts) and old salt and pepper shakers 9. A vintage camera (we have a big collection of these, and I'm not allowed to buy anymore...although somehow Josh is? Wait a minute!)

One of my favorite finds, however, was free. This little pamphlet was tucked inside my sewing bench. It's from 1972 and immediately reminded me of something Jack Donaghy would have framed in his office. It cites important figures like Napoleon and Richard Nixon. My favorite sentence is "No one alive on earth knows the answer to these questions."


In other news, I've made a Facebook page for Little Ocean Annie! You can go here and be my Facebook friend, if you'd like!

The Prettiest walk

Here's the last of the pictures from when Vanessa came to visit. On a soggy Portland day, Vanessa and I met up with Anja and Rachel to have some lunch at No Fish. After enjoying extremely delicious soup and a delicious chocolate and banana sandwich (in the shape of a fish!), Anja, Vanessa, and I went to walk around Hawthorne and do some shopping. I used up some store credit at Buffalo Exchange and bought a super cute dress, which I need to sew up a little bit before I wear.

(above picture borrowed from anja)

We walked through the neighborhood and found the most picturesque street! We saw a cat with gorgeous eyes that perfectly matched the color of his house, an adorable old turquoise truck, and the best foliage in town!




(above picture borrowed from anja)



I just love Fall in Portland. It's the perfect mild temperatures, the lighting is always great, and everything is either a super bright green from all the rain, or the perfect reds and browns!




We found these amazing plants that I've never seen before! Don't they look like some psychedelic 1970's acid trippy drawings? Or lollipops. Lollipops that would be laced with LSD.