mat leave - week one

(image source)

It's Friday and I just finished week one of two weeks 'vacation' before the Big Arrival. It hasn't really been what I expected, partially because I feel like Stay Puff and I'm afraid to venture off too far from home for fear I'll end up having the baby in the subway or something. I wanted to get so much done during these two weeks but come my first Monday off, I realized that I had pretty much everything done. I did manage to clean my office, which feels GREAT. It was a disaster and driving me batty. I watched some movies (can you believe I cried today watching The Last Song?? I blame the hormones). And today I bought some chicken and pork to marinate and freeze for some of the 40 meals the woman on our hospital tour said we should have prepared.

Mostly, I've watched A LOT of television: The Baby Story and Nate (even though I'm not really a big fan of his new show -- he's a bit too forced for me); I've caught up on Glee and Parenthood...

I've been a bit bored at times, but that's ok because I know my life is going to change dramatically in about a week and I likely won't even know what boredom is once the little guy comes.

We'll see what next week brings! Not sure I can spend another week on the couch but everyone tells me to take it easy and relax so I'll try... Maybe I'll practice putting diapers on my cat...

paloma's nest

I was surfing the 'net today, found Paloma's Nest and instantly fell in love with everything on the site.


I just love this messenger bird - so simple and elegant for a beautiful Christmas tree.

These little animals are perfect to commemorate your little one's Christmas with the year. So cute!


I can't decide what to get for our little one's first Christmas -- I want to get all of these!

and I'm off!

Sundays are usually bittersweet for me because it's still the weekend: I get to sleep in with my hubby, eat a yummy breakfast, and read the paper with my coffee while listening to oldies. But after Sunday, comes Monday, which means work...until today. Today was my first official Monday that I didn't have to work. I'm on maternity leave! Well technically I have two weeks of vacation until my maternity leave officially starts. THEN the baby is due and the real work kicks in ;).

I thought today would feel a lot different than it did, but when you work at home like I do, it's really just a matter of doing other things besides sitting down to work from 8:30-5. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do for the next 2 weeks. I do have to tidy my office -- it's a disaster; and I also have to finish a few things here and there in the nursery; but really the next 2 weeks will be for relaxing. To be honest, I can't do much -- this bella is gettin' big folks. If I walk around for 30 mins, my groin starts to pull, the baby feels like it's going to fall out and I have to pee. I think I'll be sticking really close to home.

Whatever I do, I'm sure the next two weeks will fly by which is fine by me because I'll be that much closer to meeting our sweet little guy. Can't wait!

The Nursery

We finally finished the nursery!


Even though we're having a boy, I wanted something bright and cheerful so we opted for white furniture and chose straight lines. We got the crib from kijiji and the shelving and dresser are from Ikea. We had the mirror already and fit perfectly in the room.



We found these cute cards at Chapters and I decided to hang them from some clothes pins I had already and some green paper from Michaels. I got the idea from the amazing John and Sherry. Super simple project.


I love the little owls in the Dwell sheet, so I decided to make an owl softie from this Lola pattern. Very fun little project!



I found these photos from Sharon Montrose through one of my favourite Toronto bloggers, Lindsay. They are so cute and fit perfectly with my animal theme.


My old school glider is from my Mom. She had it in a back room of her house so I decided to take it off her hands and fix it up a bit (it used to have brown pleather on one side and brown and orange flowers on the other -- not quite the theme I was going for...) The fabric that I ended up using isn't my most favourite but it will have to do! I plan on making a bright pillow to add a punch of colour to the chair.


I found this side table at a garage sale for $6. Mark painted it white and I added a little knob I found at Anthropologie. The lamp shade is from Ikea and the turtle shell in the photo is another piece from Sharon Montrose.


My favourite Sharon Montrose photo -- a calf to remind me of my childhood growing up on a dairy farm. I got the fan at a garage sale on our street... too bad it's REALLY loud so we'll just use it for show :).



Finally, a colourful mobile I got from Copenhagen Styles. I loved the bright colours and the animals!

I hope you enjoyed the nursery tour! Now I just need one more addition -- the baby! He should be here in just under 2 weeks I hope!

all good

As I've said before on this post, I have a midwife for my delivery, which means in my case, that I'm choosing to have a medical-free delivery. Here's the thing -- I'm not going crazy about it being medical-free. I just had a weird feeling just now that if it so happens that I have to have an epidural or a c-section that I'm totally and 100% ok with it. I have probably always felt this, but I think it's important to realize that not everything may go according to plan. The more open you are to whatever happens I think the better you'll be post-pregnancy for recovery both mentally and physically.

But I'm sure it will be a pain-free delivery and very short right?? ;)

36 weeks

the countdown is on -- 36 weeks (and 2 days!) and 10 days left of work... oh bliss!

Have you seen my list? I'm knocking stuff off left and right -- I should have pics of the nursery soon!

Happy Monday!

what a softie

My little owl -- still needs to be sewn and stuffed for my little guy...