Prints Charming

Here's to a happy little feature in Chapel Hill Magazine this month. Check it out. I talk about 'a bowl full of wrinkles,' life is short and all that pineapple-y goodness. Hank and I's wedding and Bentley the Bulldog have both been featured in CHM previously so this mag surely holds a special place in my heart. One day I hope to turn my Happy Little Prints characters into a lifelong dream of writing / illustrating a children's book. Shop HLP in the meantime. 

Pregnancy Survey: 20 Weeks

1. How far along are you? 20 Weeks

2. What fruit/veggie is your baby? Small Cantaloupe

3. Symptoms: My feet hurt at the end of the day so much. I use a stand-up desk at work (which I love and recommend to anyone!), but I'm not sure how much longer that will last.

4. Total weight gain/loss: Nine+ pounds? I only check the scale at doctor's appointments so we'll know next week.

5. Sleep: I continue to sleep great. I haven't been using my Snoogle because it makes my ear hurt (I have no clue), but I catch myself when I flip to my back and readjust to side sleep away.

6. Cravings: Snacks. Any kind of snack to snack on here, there, everywhere.

7. Aversions: Vegetables. I'm continuing to try!

8. Best Moment of the Week: Kicks! I can feel tiny kicks. They're not what I was thinking they would be (all out sucker punches), but they're happy little flutters here and there.

9. Gender: Girl.

10. Belly Button In or Out? In.

11. What I Miss: Margaritas on a pretty day.

12. What I am Looking Forward to: Deciding on a name with Hank (yep, still deciding!).

13. Milestones: Seeing a little bumpity bump.

14. Exercise: Yes!! Yes to this one. I've started back at Pure Barre and have two classes under my belt. I take it easy, and my goal is to do 20 classes this month.

15. Maternity clothes: Still LOVING my Dylans (inexpensive leggings by Mud Pie). I'm trying to hold out on buying any winter-type maternity clothes. I think this is totally doable. Then I'll definitely have some fun finding flow-y dresses for spring and summer that I'll also be able to where post preggers (which works great since boho is my style of choice).

Photo note: How fun is this!? I told Hank #BabySaye was on the way Budsies style. I turned my favorite little kid drawing Hank did into a stuffed animal. It was in my closet for months at the ready. Their work is seriously amazing, and it was worth the wait it was such a hit. They even painted his nails!!

Hey, Baby Girl

You'll see from my previous post that Hank and I found out the gender of #BabySaye on a sweet little date night at one of our favorite spots. I would recommend that to anyone. I'm always down for hosting a party though so we of course wanted to tell our family in a fun get together kind of way. 

Throughout the week I had my coworkers cast their vote in the office, noted social comments and texts and all that jazz. The majority thought what we thought... boy... FOR SURE. I decorated and ordered everything before we knew so no party decor or eats swayed a certain way.

I loved these balloons from All She Wrote Notes (mint best day ever), Oh Shiny! Paper Co. (confetti) and Thimblepress (pink hooray heart). The pink one popped shortly after this photo so it was obviously bursting with excitement to tell the world. Oh, and I took these mostly Etsy balloons to my local grocery, Harris Teeter, and they helium-ed them up at only 50 cents a pop. 

When you walked in you donned a 'definitely a girl' or 'totally a boy' sticker. I had fun custom making these pretty in pink and mint wearables. Everyone, except one (Brandon!), wore boy. 

I had the Oh Joy for Target party animals on each of the tables with flowers I arranged from my local grocery. I love this gold tablecloth (and a lace VINYL one!) I got on Amazon so much.

These fun gold balloons and tassels were also by Oh Shiny! Paper Co. on Etsy.

Of course Happy Little Prints koozies made an appearance next to the not-for-me beers. 

But, what I could drink I love so much. The mocktail of all mocktails. Mint-to-Party Punch: one can concentrated frozen lemonade, one 2-liter Sprite Zero, three cups pineapple juice and three berry blue Kool-Aid Bursts. Mix together and all the yums ensue. We also served up Hank's delicious guac and cookies & cream popcorn from local shop The Mad Popper. 

Everyone wanted to do the reveal before the pizza party so dessert was happily served first. We had the crew bite into their pretty in pink cupcake from The Cupcake Shoppe in Raleigh on the count of three. What color were these tinted with inside - totally blue or definitely pink!? Everyone bit in, and they were really looking - once the confusion struck - we let them know, "why would we color the inside when the outside color nailed it." Pretty in pink it was!! That was Hank's brilliant idea, and well, it was hilarious. So yes, girl it was! 

No clue what we're looking at in the above photo but there it reads, it's a girl. We had so much fun, but the real star of the show was Bentley in his new party wear from Charleston's Crew La La.

Hi, guys! I'm going to be a big bowl of wrinkles brother. He's confetti all over the place excited. We think. Happy day, and enjoy the week.

Pregnancy Survey: 18 Weeks

1. How far along are you? 18 Weeks

2. What fruit/veggie is your baby? Sweet Potato

3. Symptoms: I'll go from full to absolutely starved in point five seconds. It's craziness. Other than that, I'm feeling like the old me.

4. Total weight gain/loss: Nine pounds.

5. Sleep: I've been sleeping really great lately. Although, I think that's all about to change because at 20 weeks you shouldn't be sleeping on your back so in comes sleeping with my Snoogle.

6. Cravings: BLTs. Last Friday I had to make a lunch stop at favorite Merritt's in Chapel Hill.

7. Aversions: Vegetables. I try.

8. Best Moment of the Week: Taking the gender envelope home from our doctor's appointment without peeking. The 18-week appointment is so exciting in itself because you get to see all the anatomy and how everything is progressing. When it got to the gender arena, we were asked to close our eyes. We took the envelope home and had the excitement all day of getting to look that night. That evening, we went on a date to our favorite local Italian spot Daniel's in Apex. After we ordered our entrees, we opened up the envelope, just us. It was amazing and fun to finally know just the two of us. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone.



9. Gender: It's a girl!! We're so excited but honestly we were both shocked. We thought boy for the last four months. When we opened the envelope and saw "it's a girl" we were both like hold on, what!? There are few true surprises in life, and this was certainly one of them.

10. Belly Button In or Out? In.

11. What I Miss: A medium rare steak from a really nice restaurant.

12. What I am Looking Forward to: Deciding on a name with Hank.

13. Milestones: Taking to the baby stores this past Saturday. We started (and I mean started) getting a handle on the 23872348723489724 things you need.

14. Exercise: ... Okay, seriously... March 1 is the goal.

15. Maternity clothes: Still rocking my Dylans. 

Love Day Happs

Valentine's Day is one of my favorites. I love all things pink and heart. I kicked off the week mailing valentines to friends and family - Rifle Paper Co. always makes a goodie. This year I sent their 'boatload of love' postcards I found in one of my favorite shops in Charleston, Dandy Boutique. Then on Friday, I found out I won this Boho Beads beauty (!!!) from Monkee's in Chapel Hill. I was so pumped as I love their jewels so much. Valentines was off to a sweet start.


Here's a little office selfie. I sprinted over to pick up this hot pink treat during lunch I was so excited. Boho Beads are by two girls out of Raleigh, and they're a seriously talented duo.


Saturday morning Hank and I were off to downtown Raleigh. We had breakfast at Morning Times.


Then we hopped over to Yellow Dog Bread Co. Everything they do is drool worthy on Instagram, and in real life, it did not disappoint.


I was blush crushing on Saturday as these new Happy Little Prints koozies came in - blush and gold now available in the shoppity shop.


By night, Hank and I had Mexican at La Rancherita in downtown Apex. This is the guac that rocks I mentioned in my previous post (it's seriously giant).


For valentines, I snacked on Sugarfina's baby champagne bears from my sweet friend Maura.


I had no love for the Valentine's mailboxes at Target this year whatsoever. But really, new tradition is that we fill these pink and teal mailboxes up with goodies. They're super tiny so it's a fun challenge. Then up goes the red flag on Valentine's Day once Cupid has made the delivery. As for flowers, Hank treated and I arranged. I took a flower arranging class at The English Garden in Raleigh once, and it was a blast (highly recommend), so it's a fun little treat every time I get the chance to use my skills.


We love eating out but love cooking in on Valentine's Day. We picked up scallops, sautéed mushrooms and different beef tips from The Butcher's Market in Cary. Then paired those with twice-baked potatoes, and it was delicious. As for dessert, this baby cake from Yellow Dog gets all the yums.


Wrapping up with post-valentine snuggles with Bentley. He got new collars for Valentine's Day from Crew La La - a stylishly Southern dog brand spotted in Charleston.