Project Focus Changes

Its Monday everyone!

The most hated day of the week.

How do you handle your "Case of the Mondays"?

Here's how I plan to handle mine from now on. Monday = Blog Day.

For those that know me, you all know I'm a grouchy blogger. Where else would I find all this snarkiness? In order to keep my household a happy one, when my hubbs leaves for class on Monday nights- I blog.

Now I promised you some changes and most of you have stuck with me through the "family posts", your patience will be rewarded. Now prior to the pregnancy discovery I was already considering moving in this direction, so now I have the perfect excuse.

Mrs. Abby Normal, ME, is changing its focus to PlusSize & Maternity Style. 

Why??

How about some brutal honesty? I am (before baby bump) bordering one that very fine line between the women's and plus size department. I am the average size of women in America. Ladies, this is why we have a hard time buying everything from jeans to lingerie! And imagine adding pregnancy to the challenge- forget about it.   I know before we got pregnant I hated shopping period, but the day my mom took me maternity shopping was agony. My typical clothing shopping means hitting the PlusSize department followed by the Women's department, then finally the Juinor's Department in hopes of finding something that fits my style and my body. This doesn't happen often. PlusSize is usually slightly to big everywhere except my chest. Women's kinda  fit but involve a lot of mixing, matching, and accessorizing to minimize the frumpiness. And the Junior's XL/XXL rarely fit but when they do they always hang funny. My body is no longer shaped like a tween (was it ever shaped like that).  But this, ladies is the problem, our bodies are not shaped the way designers think they should be- trust me I know. 

When I was in school we had 2 options when learning to pattern, make sloppers to fit us or the standard size form. I choose the form, because it was easier to learn and adjust on. When I did competitions the models we had to design for were the same standard size- anyone care to guess what that size is??? Size 8!! Can you F*cking believe it? Do you know what the average size of women in america?? 

Size 14 (my size is 12/14).

  Ok now before I completely lose my temper, lets reel it back in. Tangent over- for now. We can discuss mainstream fashion and why fashion makes us hate our selves until we are blue in the face, but it wont change anything. We, normal people have to figure out style for ourselves. 

Ladies pinterest does nothing for your confidence or your happy self image.

When we discovered I was I became glued to pinterest searching the words maternity fashion/ pregnancy style. And do you know what I discovered- hundreds of blogs by the cutest LITTLE tiny moms-to-be.

Where are the curvy mom blogs? Have we become to ashamed to post our pictures on our blogs- no! They post all those damn pictures on facebook. And worse it, most are with a duck face wearing underware. 

Enough is Enough!

So my new challenge, my New Year's Resolution if you will, is to document my struggle and bring your tips, tricks and projects that will take you from AVERAGE to Maternity and back again.

From now until I squeeze a human out of my body, I will blog about my clothes and style (not stretch marks, hemorrhoids, or cankles). I can not guarantee I will be stylish everyday (otherwise the ppl I work with will tell on me) but I will post the good and the bad.

My goal this year is to make a difference- with others and myself. 

So feel free to ask questions, leave comments and follow along this crazy journey.

Until next week,

Later Taters 

Relative Update... Home Edition

I'm Back.

 A little late with this final update.

But...

Lucky for me (and you), I have time today because my hubbs put me in timeout due to my grumpiness while painting. I am not mad about this.

As most of you know, we bought our house in July of 2012. We are talking a total fixer upper! 

But this guaranteed us a 3 bedroom house with an actual yard, in a established neighborhood, well under market value for this town. Downside: we had to basically gut it. New floors, new kitchen, ceiling repair- the whole 9 yards. And are we done yet? Yeah right. But we have made progress, and with the baby on the way we are moving as fast as time and money allow. 

How about some pictures???

  This is our home. 

Since we bought it, we have pulled up no less than 10- 7ft tall holly bushes.

We have grand landscaping plans for the spring, as well as painting the house in the fall. 

But doesn't the purple kinda grow on you?

 The Living Room (or part of it)

We removed the carpet and sub-flooring, extended the wall between the living room and kitchen, removed the chair rail and scraped the popcorn ceiling.

Right now we do not have actual floors, but maybe with our tax return we will soon.

 THE KITCHEN

This was the biggest and most expensive project.

Total demo: removed the wall containing a oven and stove-top, including cabinets. Patched ceiling where wall was removed, scrapped and repaired popcorn ceiling. Removed 2 layers of old linoleum, and replaced with tile (we did all the work ourselves with the help of our parents). Brand new cabinets, sink, and all appliances.

Our Master Bedroom.

The one I was painting when banned.

 We removed carpeting and laid 12" professional grade plywood floors.

Scraped and finished ceilings, like the rest of the house.

We removed the crappy wood closet organizer, and later today will be installing a new fancy one!!!

Hopefully we will be moving into this room tomorrow.

My office.

1/2 of our finished garage basement, contains my office.

We removed the carpet and painted.

You will be seeing lots of photos of this room soon.

Well, at least for now, this is our home. It often feels like we live in a construction zone, and we kinda do. When we move from room to room, there is always a constant need to move painting and flooring supplies. After this weekend we will be moving on to our guest bedroom, then finally the nursery. 

 I'm being told my timeout is over, so back to work.

Until next time,

Later, Taters!

 

The Relative Update...Baby.

Welcome Back!

2 blogs in a weekend, can you say world record... 

This is a baby update to answer all those questions that get keep getting asked... especially the ones that aren't really your business.

I am not (probably not) gonna be detailing my pregnancy all over facebook- the "my baby is now the size of a grapefruit" apps are so lame. I will be eventually posting bump pictures, but seeing as I'm a normal size human- there isn't a lot of difference between my gut and my bump yet. So you are SOL for now. But this post is about the questions you have all been asking... and since I am a very open person, here are your answers. 

First time parents.

We are due July 11, 2014.

I am 15 weeks pregnant.

We do not want to know the sex of our baby. Not knowing is an adventure. 

We are not hoping for either a boy or a girl, honestly we don't care.

We have chosen names, either way.

The nursery will be themed. (come on ppl- its me)

We are planning to deliver at Vanderbilt Hospital, using West End Women's Health Center- YES we are using a midwife. No, not a water birth. If I'm gonna have a water birth, I want to do it at home and that requires a new fancy bathtub (the hubbs said no). lol

The plan, right now, is a natural birth- no drugs. 

We did not do any genetic testing, and did not do a 10 week ultra sound.

We will see our baby for the first time at the required 20 week ultra sound. That is when we will also confirm, whether its twins or not. (twins run in my family- there is a possibility)

I have been very lucky- I have had little to no morning sickness. (hate me if you must)

I have however, developed super human powers. I can smell through Tupperware, sealed bags, and my dog farting in the basement.

We are absolutely not doing the creepy 3D ultrasounds. They scare the hell out of me.

My hubbs will be the only one in the delivery room, with me. (unless we decide to document the birth) My parents won't even be in the same state, if we deliver on time. Its seems to be a family tradition for them to plan their beach vacation at the same time their grand-baby is due.

Breastfeeding is our plan, but some of you know how that goes.

We are going to use both homemade baby food and store bought jars.

We are using disposable diapers.

The Daycare vs. Stay-at-home Mom debate is still under discussion and will depend on my job situation.

I think that answers all the questions for now, but feel free to ask away if you are curious.

Until next time,

Later Taters!

The Relative Update...Part 1

Hello Friends- I'm Back! 

Hope you haven't missed me too much. My 2014 New Years Resolution is to blog regularly. But since this month is now half over I figured, like with most resolutions, it might be time to put my time where my mouth is. That's how that saying goes right?!

Now to get started...

The newest monthly addition to my blog is this- The Relative Update.

This is a life update, for friends, family, or anyone curious in my actual life. Since I have been gone quite a while, I'm gonna break it into 3 parts. Goal is to do all 3 this weekend. Don't hold your breath though.

Life Since July...

Shortly after I posted my last blog, in July, I got the call I had been waiting on. I was called back to work at The Nashville Ballet! Yup, real sewing, in Nashville, Tn- for real pay! MY Job, stitcher in the costume shop, was to participate in the build of The World Premiere of Peter Pan. 

  (images courtesy of Nashville Ballet facebook page)

Working with the ballet is an amazing experience in itself- full time hours since July has been not so bad either. After Peter Pan, I stayed on to work on Nutcracker and have stayed thus far to begin the build of the winter series Attitude- opens in Febuary.

 The hubbs continues to work, installing plumbing and water lines, on a local (new construction) high school. He has spent a little time in the woods hunting with my dad and moves forward with the never ending renovation that is our home. (but more home renovation updates later).

Let's see, I think something else interesting happened...

oh yeah!

 

 WE'RE PREGNANT!

We found out right before Thanksgiving, that we are gonna have a baby. We are kinda excited. 

 But that being said, my projects are gonna change focus a little bit for the next 6 months- at least. 

(but thats a surprise for another day)

So hope everyone had a Great start to the school year, Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Good Luck with your resolutions.

See you SOON!!

Later Taters!