Summertime Sadness

I think I’ve mentioned before that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Lana Del Rey and I LOVE LOVE LOVE her song Summertime Sadness more than is reasonable. I think I listen to it about 50,000 times a day, like that is a conservative estimate as my very annoyed husband can attest to! Anyway the video is finally out and this should come as no surprise but I LOVE LOVE LOVE it too.

ty so much to Dani at Pop Culture Major for keeping me up to date on everything Lana

This summer has felt so weird so far. There are so many things that I want to do but can’t because of work and being pregnancy tired. I know I’m going to be done soon, but it doesn’t seem like soon enough, since technically I’m working until the end of August. However, with a week off coming up and four-day weekends starting soon, I only have 19 days of actual work left before I’m off for an entire year. A WHOLE YEAR OFF WORK to just nest and be a mom*. I kind of can’t believe it.

23 Weeks

Posting this pic from last week again because I LOVE LOVE LOVE it too.

*and also work on etsy bisnis, I have SO MANY banners to make rn it’s crazy. If you want one don’t forget GIRL25 gets you 25% off everything in the shop, including custom work!

Symstagram

Symstagram53Symstagram54Symstagram55

1. her professional pedicure; 2. some of my growing collection of baby clothes; 3. 2010 Olympic mascot vinyl toys
I think Sym is kind of getting over Instagram, she’s barely been taking any pics recently. Since I don’t have many of her photographs to share, here’s a drawing she did, inspired by Sara Lyons’ “Sea Weed” print.

Sea Teens
“Sea Teens”

She was scandalized by the boobs in the original so she did a tween version with bikini tops, and if you look carefully at the mermaid on the left she’s reading “Teen Fin” magazine (one of the magazines in Sara’s picture is called “Fin”).

24 Weeks

I’m late!

IMG_2074.jpg

These are from yesterday. It’ll be a lot easier to get my pics up in time once I’m done working (still about a month and a half away, but only 19 days of actual work after today); last night I had to shower after work and after that fixing my hair and putting on makeup just for a few pictures seemed pretty pointless. It basically took all my energy to juts put on clean clothes.

This tank top is from the H&M ~best basics~ or whatever, I think it’s the same style as the black one I wore two weeks ago. These tanks are great: cheap as hell and sized weird enough that a medium fits me. The jeans are from Asos maternity, and I love them SO MUCH. They are a faded leopard print skinny jean with stretchy panels in the front pockets, which I like a lot better than the big waist panel. I love everything I’ve gotten from Asos maternity, actually, although my advice is to SIZE DOWN: I’m a US10 and their conversion chart says that is the same as a UK14, but that’s unwearably big on me. I got the jeans in a UK12/US8 and the fit is much better.

IMG_2069.jpgIMG_2089.jpg

I’m still feeling pretty good, in spite of some insomnia (this morning I was so tired I snoozed my alarm for 40 minutes, which wasn’t good since it’s set for only 45 minutes before I start work). During the day I get physically tired and out of breath easily- I was cleaning the floors today and I had to take a break between moving things and vacuuming and mopping each room, and forget walking up hills! That particularly sucks because I live LITERALLY at the highest point of downtown, so coming home from anywhere is uphill. Last Friday I was so exhausted by walking home from the beach I fell asleep almost immediately.

Baby Laramie has been kicking and wiggling and moving like crazy recently and the other night she kicked hard enough for me to see my belly move! I still feel the most movement when I’m lying on my back, so I kind of want to do that all the time, but it’s starting to get hard for me to breathe in that position so I have to cut it out. I’m actually feeling a lot right now while I’m sitting up, which is awesome!

I’m getting really excited to meet this baby. Only sixteen more weeks, which really doesn’t sound like very long. Which means I REALLY need to get to work on all my baby plans for the house!

Trash & Garbage

Sometimes being pregnant makes you do crazy things. Yesterday one of the daycare kids had some kind of Asian-y noodle dish for lunch and immediately I was like OH MY GOD IF I DON’T EAT SOME FREAKIN CHOW MEIN RIGHT NOW I’M LITERALLY GOING TO DIE. It was beyond a craving, it was a requirement for continuing to exist on this physical plane.

I could have made something myself, but that really seemed like a lot of work. Taylor suggested I order from some expensive place we ordered from once before but meh, the order minimum was more than I wanted to pay and tbh, it wasn’t that great anyway. I decided my best option was to get the cheapest & most convenient takeout I could find: Ho Ho’s Yummy Food on Davie St. It’s two blocks from my house and a “one topping” (rice or noodles with some kind of meat or veggie dish) is $5. SIGN ME UP. Of course I got the noodles I needed, topped with some sweet & sour pork. JUST LOOK AT THIS TRAIN WRECK:

"Chinese" "Food"

SO GROSS SO GOOD. I basically inhaled it, and just to up the trashness factor, while I was eating I read book 2 of the Sweet Valley High The Sweet Life e-serial, Lies and Omissions. I read the first book on the weekend and they are just terrible. TERRIBLE. And why are the called “The Sweet Life” when everything that happens to every character is awful? The mind boggles.

Trash lunch and trash reading: the perfect combination.

Sponsor in August/Guest Post in November

I’m now accepting blog sponsors for August! Unicorn Parade has been growing by leaps and bounds and I’d like nothing more than for your blog or shop to grow with me.

SponsorDog

I’m offering ads in three different sizes at prices anyone can afford, for all the information please check out my sponsor info page.

I’m also putting out an early call for guest posters for November- once the baby is born I won’t be able to blog as much (although when Sym was a newborn I was still updating my livejournal three times a day so…) but I don’t want to leave this blog to wither and die! If you’re interested just email me with your name, the url of your blog/tumblr/twitter/etsy (although it’s not required that you have one to be a guest poster!) and an idea for a post. Posts can be about basically anything, I mean you’ve seen the stuff I like to post about: coffee, daughters, dogs, no big whoop.

I won’t need the posts until mid-October so you have plenty of time to come up with an idea!

I Know

Sooooooo after I called them the ultrasound clinic in the hospital finally faxed my report to my doctor (which they apparently hadn’t done yet) and this afternoon I finally found out. This is going to sound crazy but I’m not super mad about the whole thing because it gave me time to get used to the idea of having a boy, just in case. I always preferred the idea of having another girl and I was worried I would be really disappointed with a boy baby.

BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS BECAUSE IT’S A GIRL!!!!!

feb2012girl

I know I said in this post that everyone who guessed right would get a special discount code to use in my etsy shop but I’m feeling extra magnanimous so instead EVERYBODY GETS A DISCOUNT! Use the code GIRL25 for a 25% discount on anything in the shop, including custom items (just convo me to get a reserved listing).

Weekended

SS Picnic

Friday night, after a cupcakes-and-pie based picnic at Sunset Beach Park with some internet friends. I brought my best picture face, now don’t you want to be my internet friend and have picnics too?

Purple Flowers

Neighborhood flowers in assorted purples.

Going to Brunch

On our way to brunch where we had…

Pancakes a la Mode

Pancakes a la mode! Well, Taylor had strawberry crepes but Sym and I a la moded. Getting this for every brunch ever from now on for the rest of my life.

Orange Pedicures

I can’t paint my own toenails anymore (without absurd amounts of discomfort) so I took Sym out to get pedicures on Saturday afternoon. She picked the colours, different oranges for both of us. Hers only cost $10 so I told her she could always come with me for pedicures.

Lazy Georgie

Hot lazy Georgie in the dog park.

Lazy Dougal

This is from today but it’s too cute not to post, Dougal getting some snuggle time with my giant pillow while Taylor sleeps.

ALSO because I know everyone is going to ask, I DON’T KNOW THE SEX OF THE BABY YET. I know, it’s crazy. I actually called the ultrasound clinic in the hospital to ask them how long it should take and they were all “It could take up to a week!” and I was like “:| it’s been two weeks already.” Anyway they said they were going to refax it (THEY FAX THE REPORTS YOU GUYS OMG HOW IS THIS TAKING SO LONG) so I waited a while and called my doctor’s office, but they said they still didn’t have it so they were going to call the clinic themselves and call me back but I haven’t heard anything yet. I really feel like this is a comedy of errors at this point and all I have left to do is decide whether I’m going to stage my sit in at the doctor’s office or in the ultrasound clinic because COME ON.

Popsicle Time

Lavender Lemonade Popsicles
Lavender Lemonade Popsicles

I’d been planning on making these popsicles for a loing time, but I couldn’t figure out where to get lavender (I mean, there is tons growing around here, in the park and gardens, but I don’t trust it hasn’t been copiously urinated on by dogs and drunks), but I found bunches of organic lavender for sale at the farmer’s market last weekend! To make these popsicles I made a lavender sugar syrup, which was the same as any sugar syrup: water, sugar, special ingredient (in this case lavender), boil, cool, blah blah blah. I was also going to make my own lemonade but I was too tired this week so I used my favourite store bought lemonade instead.

All the pictures I’d seen on tumblr of various lavender lemonades had led me to believe it would turn out purple, but let me tell you THAT WAS NOT THE CASE. I figured food colouring must be involved, so I tried my best to get a light lavender, but it was really hard and they came out a little pinker than I wanted. I was only making a cup and a half of lemonade and even single drops of food colouring were too much, so I think this would work better if you were making a whole jug and had room for error.

Lavender Lemonade Popsicles

Sym and I both agree the flavour of these is… interesting. I had a little lemonade leftover that I drank yesterday and I can’t say I loved it, but it’s better in popsicle form. I don’t think I’ll be using lavender again though.

TGIDIYDay: Dip-Dyed Dress

IMG_2054.jpg

One of my clients bought a dress on clearance at H&M without trying it on, and when it didn’t fit her she gave it to me, thinking the cut would work as a maternity dress. It does, but I think she was blinded by the $5 pricetag because the original colour? It wass white people skin colour. Here, let me show you:

Dip-Dye Dress

Since I’m not super keen on walking around looking nude and the dress is 95% cotton, I figure I could fix this with some dye I had left over from my purple jorts.

Dip-Dye Dress

First, I washed the dress so it’d take the dye properly, and plopped the still-wet dress straight into a bath of Petal Pink Rit dye to completely eliminate the original colour (you could skip this step if your dress is already a non-disgusting colour). I let it simmer on the stove for a while (like an hour) before rinsing.

Dip-Dye Dress

Next came the dip-dye portion of the process: I mixed up some Fuchsia dye and instead of submerging the whole dress, I hung it over the bath with just the bottom half of the skirt in the dye and let that simmer for another hour, occasionally raising & lowering it to try and prevent a really harsh line between the shades of pink (I wasn’t entire successful at this).

Dip-Dye Dress

Through the dipping and the power of osmosis the dye spread up the skirt, creating a light-to-dark pink gradient. How lovely!

Dip-Dye Dress
l-r: original colour; after first dye & rinse; after dip-dye & rinse; washed & dried

supplies:
• a cheap cotton dress in a light colour
• one or more colours of fabric dye

tips:
• as always, if you’ve never dyed clothing before, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PACKAGE OF WHATEVER DYE YOU PURCHASE
• be aware that the base colour is going to show through the dye, so use common sense when choosing colours: don’t put blue over yellow and expect to get blue, you know? Because it’s gonna come out green.