Nessie Nester

the final countdown is upon us and i am so overwhelmed/excited/anxious/freaked out/overjoyed!

there's so much to do and i'm pretty much the queen of my own country now. it's called procrasti nation. ever been there? okay, okay, i'm not really procrastinating, but i'm not nearly finished with my to-do list.

most soon-to-be moms are in full blown nesting mode at this point, but i don't really have that biological drive. i do, however, have lots of people giving me lots of great advice that really motivates me to get it all done.


i've been working on the nursery and other baby things little by little and have accrued quite the wardrobe for our little guy. we've hit re-sales, clearance racks and black friday sales to save on an assortment of photo-ready outfits (as he will be photographed almost every instant of every day. that's what you get when you have a photographer mommy!). bargain shopping at its finest, really.

one of the best tips i've gotten so far is from my very own sister (E's mom - let's call her minerva. ha ha! inside joke). she told me about how she organized all of the baby clothes when he was born and it's worked so well, i thought i should pass it on to all of you.

baby clothes tend to come in sizes/age ranges like newborn, 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months and so on. it adds up quickly and is way too much to hang in the closet all at once, not to mention how confusing it would be to have such an assortment of sizes mixed in together.

so, here's how to get it all organized in 3 easy steps:

1. gather/buy several transparent plastic containers. color is fine, but you'll want something you can see through, so that as you're adding to the wardrobe, you can see at first glance which sizes/age ranges you need more of.
2. label each container according to the size/age range it contains. i just typed them up and printed them on regular paper then taped them on the inside at either end of each container. 
3. hang up the age range needed and store the rest in the containers. i keep my containers on the top shelf of the closet and plan to simply rotate. as he outgrows each size, i'll swap it out with the next size up and relabel the container.

that's it! easy-peasy! here's what my containers look like:

so fabulous! i just can't wait to dress him up in all of these adorable outfits!!! (if you would like this font or one like it, just let me know and i'll send it your way.)

A Gift for My Unborn Son

the holiday season is upon us and that means lots and lots of gift-giving. maybe i'm a bit premature in this post, since thanksgiving hasn't even passed us by yet, but all of those commercials for black friday have gotten me thinking about gifts.

i know what i'll be getting B and most other people on my list, but what, if anything, does one give to their unborn child? i have the answer!

the gift is in the name...

so, to you my unborn son, my gift is to not name you any of the following names:

1. virgil
2. leroy
3. dick
4. gayle/gaylord
5. cletus
6. marvin
7. arlo
8. napoleon
9. geet
10. karmel
11. orville
12. heinz
13. pancho
14. fico
15. balder
16. yosemite
17. norman
18. cotton
19. egbert
20. jiro
21. longfellow
22. wanamaker
23. igor
24. sextus
25. vinton
26. waldo
27. nimrod
28. ichabod
29. berger
30. pluto

yes, son, these are real names. you're welcome.

for the rest of you reading this, my gift to you is this awesome list of baby boy names! feel free to use any and all of them! ;)

Randomness

• B is got home last night, so i get 2 extra days with him. YAY!
• our baby shower is coming up on december 3rd. i am so excited! i can honestly say that i haven't always believed that day would come, so it feels kind of weird to type that.
• we're going to see breaking dawn tonight. yes, i'm that big of a nerd, but in my defense, i worked at a book store when the books first started coming out, so i was ahead of the trend when i started reading it. ;) however, that doesn't negate the fact that i've read the entire series 3 times. i told you i am a big nerd!
• i lost 3lbs in my first week of keeping track. go me!
• we're going to be spending the weekend painting the trim in our house, as well as the master and guest bedrooms. so much to do, so little time...
• my nephew, E, shouted from the bathroom yesterday "hey! i just squirted water poop out of my butt!" bahahahahaha! if you're my friend on facebook, you've probably already read this. if you're not my friend on facebook, you really should be. i'm just sayin'...
• pinterest has been an awesome source of ideas for the newborn shoot that i'm counting down to. only 8 more weeks!!!
• i have 5 photo shoots to finish editing before i can get back to my baby preparations, which i should probably be working on right now. that said, i'm signing off.

Fat, Fatty, Fat-Fat!

even though i'm missing out on the whole pregnancy thing, i'm trying to remind myself of all the positives. a not-so-positive aspect of this experience has been the 20lb weight gain the fertility meds caused. however, since i've got someone else doing my dirty work in all this, it gives me the opportunity to lose the "baby weight" before the baby is even born.

8 weeks. that's all i have left before d-day. can i lose 20lbs in that short amount of time? the typical self-doubt says no, but the calculator says yes! that's only 2.5lbs a week. totally doable!

the trick is going to be to keep me motivated. usually when i have a goal i'm working toward (a race or a deadline of some sort), i can do it. well, that's as long as i don't give myself too much time. procrastination is a particular talent of mine. so, i'm going to have to keep myself accountable.

my plan is to do a weekly progress report. i work better under pressure and if i have to tell y'all about how much work i've been putting into it and what my weekly weigh-in results are, it should help keep me going.

thursday will be my weigh-in day, so stay tuned!

I Finally Did It

i broke down and opened up an account on facebook. i'm not a huge facebooker, but i needed it in order to join pinterest. i keep hearing about this virtual pinboard and i'm so glad i got my invite, because i. am. hooked. i know, i know, it's just one more distraction when i should be editing photos, crocheting a baby afghan, and painting my bedroom. but it's so darn addictive!

so, feel free to hit me up on facebook and follow me on pinterest.

on facebook, keep an eye out for a carlia with this face:

or just search me by my email.

and on pinterest, look for clevercarlia or just click on the button on my sidebar.

if anyone needs an invite, let me know! :)

*in response to julia's commen:

when you first see the word "pinterest" it doesn't really make any sense, but when you break it down to pin + interest, it totally explains what it is. it's a virtual board where you pin ideas for how to's, things you want to buy, things that inspire you, etc. 

as a fairly crafty person, i spend a lot of time scouring the craft blogs, which is extremely time consuming. pinterest has basically compiled a list for me, based on my interests. so now, instead of googling "christmas decoration how-to", i can just scroll down the list of ideas other people have found and repin them to my own board (basically a visual bookmarking system), so i can just go back to them when i'm ready. or, as i'm looking at blogs/websites and i happen to see something that i love or a how-to i want to try, i can pin directly from that site, which will make it available to all of the other pinners on pinterest. sharing is caring!

my life as a crafter has forever been changed. well, maybe not that dramatic, but i am totally hooked! ;)

Spooktacular!

this past week has been crazy busy. aside from baby preparations and my 9-5 job, this is my busiest season for photography, so i've been completely wrapped up in photo shoots and editing.

i did make some time to celebrate halloween, though, even if i am a week late posting about it. ;)

having E around made it so much more fun to decorate the house in creepy crawly things and gave us an excuse to throw a party.

my sister made the cutest, yummiest treats (jack-o-lantern cake balls & ghost cookies), i made some decorations (but had some help putting it all up), and my brother-in-law handled the entertainment.

it was a big success! the kids loved playing hot potato and pin the tail on the cat (don't worry, dexter & jack were hiding under my bed, so no cats were harmed during this game).the kids finished the evening with a scavenger hunt adventure that led them down to the dark, scary basement where there were goodie bags waiting for them. it was so much fun!

E looked so stinkin' cute in his "jack 'n sparrow" costume, which is what he kept calling it. he cracks me up!

it was such a fun holiday! i can't wait for thanksgiving!