layla brikelle larson

she's here!

9.22.2011

9:56 am

7 lbs 8.5 oz

19" long

happy halloween!:D

for the last 3 days i've been making halloween decorations. my, has it been delightful:) last night at dinner, i was telling greg i was almost done with my little projects and he looks at the table and says "it looks...bountiful." aka the table is covered in crap, when will it be gone? today. today it will be gone.

i was looking at a blog and she used some glitter blast paint and it looked like fun so on day one i went on an adventure to get some.

joann's was the place. luckily i had 40% off coupons and was able to use all 3 that i had brought. yay.

anyhoo, here are the goods.

first, my weapons of choice. i knew i wanted to use wood, i remembered all the scraps that i had greg save from him building shelves in the garage. i knew i'd use them one day:)

unfortunately, a majority of his power tools are in thatcher so i had to cut all the wood with the lovely saw pictured below...took quite some time.

then i had to sand the rough edges and paint of course!

there is the line up of all the paint involved over the last 3 days.

i finished these punkins today. i got so excited for them. they're just little pieces of wood...not sure of dimensions, 2x2 maybe? i used the handy dandy hack saw to cut them to size, then painted them orange with some gold on top, then of course a little sanding & wood glue to hold em together.

i think they are amazingly cute.

subway art. not sure why i keep trying to do this but once again i tried. took me awhile to get motivated to do it once i started because it's a pain in the butt but! i did it.

pretty pleased.

but i'll pass on doing anymore for awhile. i cut it out in strips so it'd be easier to remove the excess vinyl then taped it all back together:P worked like a charm.

i took the ribbon and eyelets out tho, it's just on a little easel now.

now these are fun! ok, so one side says spooky, then you can flip em around and it says autumn!

woohoo!

i was so excited about them.

i need to sand the bottoms tho because the lovely saw doesn't cut exactly straight.

it could be me but doubt it:P

i think these are pretty self explanatory, boo.

glitter paint again.

i used some distress ink for the edges to antique it a bit.

roughed up jack.

this wood wasn't in the pile of scraps but i claimed it anyway.

halloween blocks?

not sure how else to describe these.

i'm a fan of the glitter and i threw in some purple, i was getting a little sick of everything orange.

the placement of all these might change by the end of the day, not a complete fan of where they are right now but it will do for now.

but i'm done!

i have other things i "need" to do so i should probably get to them.

at least i got them done before baby!

i remembered that i have spiderweb cotton junk that i could add to all this, i might have greg climb in the attic when he gets home or in the morning...if i remember.

bebe update

as you can see on my baby tracker thing i'm almost 38 weeks! crazy. but! i am already dilated to 5 cm!!! well, on thursday i was--hopefully i'm a little more by now. i think i figured out that i got dilated so fast because we've been taking stella on walks 2x a day for about 30 mins each. i need to remember that for next time. this weekend i think i tried everything--acupressure, more walking, primrose oil, peppermint oil, fennel seed oil...lunges, squats, jumping [jacks]..i think that's all. i hope she's getting the hint that it's time to move on out. i might make it to my next appointment, unfortunately...hopefully i will be so far a long that the doc will just be like "walk over to the hospital and lets get 'er outta here!" that'd be so totally awesome. i've been having some contractions, but i've learned that what i've been feeling isn't anything to worry about really and i just need to wait it out til i can't breath, talk, or walk any more. hmm, sounds lovely...can't wait.

saturday night i had one last baby shower before her arrival with all my neighbors. it was actually quite fun. we are the youngest kids on the block:) on our end of the street, the last kid to be born was 32 years ago! crazy...and that gives you an idea of the age of our neighbors;) it was fun to get to know them a little better and be all together at one time. they're fun, entertaining people. the food was delish too. just dessert, but i'm always fine with that. punch, cheesecake, cookies, AND cake balls on a stick--oh. my. goodness. those things were fabulous! the lady said you just make a cake, crumble it up, mix it with frosting, make them into balls, let them chill, then frost/ice them! sounds so good, right?! they're ridiculous. i took some home and then i noticed a whole plate full that greg brought home too--i'm sure someone handed them too him, he didn't fill up a plate for himself...

aaaaanyhoo, i think that's about it. we're ready for bebe girl to show her pretty little head. hopefully greg isn't at school when it happens tho. not sure how long i'd be able to wait. greg's aunt said to call her and she'd take me to the hospital if greg wasn't home. sooo that's our "plan" i guess right now...

signs

so i need to stop with this sign business and start making halloween/fall signs. i keep forgetting about the season.

but last week i got outta control, for a day, and made some signs. i made 4 but one was a fail and it is currently sitting on the kitchen table waiting to be fixed when i feel like it.

here are the ones that actually worked. i didn't sand any of them but i kinda want to...i just posted them on etsy tho soo i might hold off just in case some one wants to buy them unstressed:)

this is from the help, ms aibileen clark's famous words:

you is kind, you is smart, you is important!

best believe.

i just liked this quote.

and i think i've been living by it...

with all my craftiness...

stressin poor greg out.

at least i'm happy!;)

this i pretty much believe as well...

there is another sign i want to make that says

"life without art is stupid":)

word.

when i get around to fixing the other sign, of course i'll take pix and blog em.

maternity pix!

here are some of the pix miss rikenna took of our lovely lil fam.

enjoy her work!:)

[37 weeks]

All photos copyright 2011 RiKenna Lines

rikenna photography

http://lifeafterbrooks.blogspot.com/

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sneak peek!

maternity pix!!!

this is all i've seen so this is all you get too.

but i am SO excited to see them!

i'm pretty sure rikenna [also: http://www.rikennalphoto.com/] took some awesome pix.

exhibit a:

of course, lil stella got to be involved.

how could we leave her out?!

she was regretting it after awhile and wasn't havin it.

luckily, she likes peanut butter & we tricked her into some pix.

THOSE will be awesome.

WARNING:taryn, you will NOT approve and you WILL be disgusted. pretty sure.

once i get the pix they will be up! woot woot.

can't wait!:)

here are my maternity picture taking skills:

tikki's signs!

lil miss rikenna asked me to make her some signs...so of course i did. there is one more to come, once i get the deets;). but here are the ones i did yesterday and today.

of course i had to take pix at all possible angles so you can get a good visual. the "natural light" in the az room didn't make for very consistent coloring for some reason but whatevs.

you get it. she's into gold.

i like how the sanding brought out layers.

[trident layers].

you can kinda see em. there is wood, [brown] primer, gold, red.

awesome.

love me some roughed up edges.

and of course a cat lady sign for m'cat lady.

i sanded it then put the kitty on...so everything is paint except kitty. she's vinyl. or my new found almost love, contact paper.

later today these kids will get a clear coat on em. but for now this is how they're lookin.

hmm...

what to do next?!