Feeling a little slow and lazy around here these days (read: 32lbs gained so far in this pregnancy = the need to sit down and do nothing for as long as possible- preferably with ice cream nearby) so not much to post about. Also, I really want to take a few pictures to share with you but it’s been dark and rainy for the last several days. Come on sun…

So while I sit around bemoaning my weight gain and to-do list, check out what Meg (who is not pregnant and clearly has a lot more energy than I do) did to her guest room/playroom. There’s a bit of charm to the matching wallpaper and drapes, but certainly not enough to keep it.

This is a really inspiring before and after. Almost as inspiring as the simple idea of the guest room/playroom combo. Not many of us have enough rooms in our homes to have both so it’s a no-brainer to combine where you can. This makes perfect sense and I will absolutely be copying it when we move to our new home in the spring. That’s ok, right?  I mean, at least I’m admitting it publicly.

Welcome to what is a very windy and rainy day here in Portland. A great day to stay inside with a warm beverage (your choice), a good book, and a tasty snack. Typing that just made me hungry, how about you?

I’ve been up since 4am, so I’m not exactly functioning like a normal human being. I owe several of you emails and haven’t yet gotten to it, but please don’t think I’ve forgotten about you. I truly have not, I am just a bit lazy. And overwelmed by my To Do list before baby gets here.

But anyway… Here are a few things that are keeping me going these days.

Tracey’s Haunted House in-the-making over at Paper Dolls For Boys:

I can’t wait to see how this finishes up. Especially loving the rats and their special friend.

On a very different note, this awesome vintage dixie cup dispenser from Sirkus:

I don’t know where I’d put this, but it makes me want to find a spot.

And then there’s this, which I’m having some conflict over. How can something look like a giant doily and yet be so very beautiful? I love this. I really really do.

Find it and more at Ruby Pearl.

What are you all liking these days? Is it a strange mix of goods like what I’ve shown above? Feel free to share.

Ok. Time to break for that snack I mentioned earlier. Maybe a nice slice of buttered toast. Mmmm, yes. See you back here tomorrow.

How is it that it’s Monday again? And not only that, but it’s Monday at 2pm and I feel like I’m just getting started with the day. Must kickstart day. Must add sugar.

Could be that I’m exhausted from the weekend full of travel and guests. That seems likely. We have a good friend staying with us from LA for several days while he and Neil work on filming Neil’s dog training DVDs. They’ve been working hard each day while Dash and I stay home (we’re a one car family) and try to keep ourselves amused and everyone fed.

The only break in this routine was on Saturday when we headed up to Augusta for Neil’s show at the Lithgow Library. This was a fun one (wait, they pretty much all are) since it was at his hometown library. The Kennebec Journal wrote a great article promoting the event (which is nowhere to be found online. why? i don’t get it.) which brought out all kinds of people from his past. Even the woman who worked at the library when he was a kid. The same woman to whom his mother forced him to apologize when he stole a book from the library back when he was in junior high.

I wish I had a picture of the two of them talking after the show. He reminded her of what happened and even fessed up that he completely lied about how the book came to be in his possession. I can’t imagine that she didn’t see right through the fantastic story of how a bully made him take the book and rip out the library card pocket, but she said she didn’t remember it at all. Anyway, confession made and Neil’s soul just got a nice coat of polish on it.

Lunch in Hallowell for the three of us after at Slates. Such a great restaurant and a pretty little town. Just the kind of town we’d like to live in…. I mean, look at this vacant storefront just begging for a HappyDashery sign in the window.

A girl can dream, can’t she?

And speaking of dreaming, do you all know about Wishpot? This is the answer to your online wish list/registry dreams. Add the Wishpot button to your address bar and just click it when you see something online that you like. That adds the item to your master list (wish, gift giving, baby registry, etc.).
No more list on that site, registry on this site, confusion. Just make your Wishpot list public and everyone will know what you want for Christmas this year. Couldn’t be easier!

I’ll have a widget for it on this site as soon as my widget master returns home. Then you can see what’s on MY list.

Later taters.

[Edited to add: Ok, so Neil just turned to me and said: “Um, you just told the world that I stole a book from the library. And lied about it.”
And what I think he meant by that is that I need to come clean. I too, stole books (plural!) from the library when I was a kid. And I too, was sent back in to the library by my mom to confess my deeds to the librarian. The only difference being that I fully intended to return my books… I just hadn’t gotten around to it by the time my mom found them. Bad planning on my part.
I should also add, in the interest of full disclosure, that my mom is a librarian. Tee hee. ]

Folks, I need your help. I’m well into the crazy nesting phase of this pregnancy and I neeeeeeeed to have a baby book for when Pickle is born.

I ended up getting one for Dash at Babies R’ Us that I don’t even really like, I just needed to get one so I picked up the least offensive book I could find. Turns out that some of the pages aren’t really that usable for us. (An entire page devoted to each and every tooth growing in? Is that standard? Call me a bad mother but after the first few, we kind of stopped counting.)

So here’s what I’ve seen out there that interests me:

This cute thing from Tiny Tales, which isn’t a book at all, but a set of cards to prompt you to write down all the milestones. Eventually you’re supposed to add them to a baby book. For me, that means I’d end up with a baby book and this set of cards because I wouldn’t want to throw them out. Does that defeat the purpose or is this maybe exactly what I need?

Or should I be thinking something vintage so I can avoid filling in things like “Favorite TV shows and characters” which just happens to be in Dash’s book:

This one is from Needle Traditions, and features a kind of creepy baby doll cover but it also seems rather sweet. Not for everyone since this 1941 version assumes that baby will be celebrating Christmas and not just the “holidays” that we refer to now. But our baby will celebrate Christmas, so it could work for us. Eh? I don’t know.

I think if I go vintage, I’m more drawn to this one from Whimsy House:

No creepy doll. That says a lot.

I don’t know, I’m kind of at a loss, and bordering on just buying several different books. Is that nuts? Is that the hormones talking? Or maybe the handful of candy corn I just inhaled.

Where did you all get your baby books/memory books? I need some new ideas. Online sources? Good local paper stores?

What I’m looking for:

Low in cheese-factor
Modern feel
or Vintage feel
Not prohibitively expensive

Please send help.

Neil and Dash went out to the post office tonight while I made dinner (chicken and veggie quesadillas with a side of spicy black beans, yum). It’s the only time during the day when I can have a few minutes to myself and crank the volume on our stylin’ kitchen boom box.

Tonight it was Queen’s Greatest Hits (on cassette). Man do I love me some Freddy Mercury. And you can’t help but sing along to this one, no matter how high your voice goes.
“What do you mean, Flash Gordon approaching?”

So there I am, all rock n’ roll and quesadilla fixins when it struck me just how long it’s been since I’ve been out to hear music, go dancing, or just be. out.

It’s not like we haven’t gone to occasional movie or dinner since Dash (DASH! A-aaaaa!) was born, but it suddenly occurred to me that there were years when I was single and child-free and went out all the time and took every single moment of it for granted. And I had no idea I was doing it.

Sound familiar? I think it’s probably pretty common. And it’s also a total tangent that I didn’t mean to go off on. What I wanted to say was,

When I was in my third trimester with Dash (DASH! A-aaaaa!), I reached a point where, though I was huge and tired and just wanted to sleep, I really needed to be out doing something active and fun. Cut to one Friday night when I told Neil he was taking me out dancing for 80s night at a local bar. We danced for hours (with me sitting with my feet up for any song I didn’t find worth wasting my lagging energy for) and had so much fun.

Two weeks before Dash (DASH! A-aaaaa! ok, i’m done, sorry) was born, I danced well into the night at Jessica’s birthday party- which was dj’d by the same person who does the 80’s night, coincidentally. The same guy who will play Come on Eileen every time you ask. And I did.
That night, I danced to some amused looks, nervous smiles, and some downright, “holy crap, is she going to birth that thing right here?” looks. Every time I got up to dance, a circle formed around me and I strangely didn’t mind. I was in some kind of dancing like I’ll never get to dance again frenzy.

(If you’re still reading this, thank you. I’m obviously in a blabbering place tonight.)

So anyway, it’s the third trimester again and I am feeling the need to get out and hear some really good music and/or go dancing. Any suggestions? What I really would love is to see a Queen tribute band…

Until then, I’ll be content with the outings we go on these days, the three of us.

Location scouting for Neil's dog training DVDs

And content with the small daily pleasures, like crazy bed hair:

I have no idea why this photo comes out sideways.

And very content with this:

Which apparently has a little girl inside that looks something like this stock illustrated baby, though I look nothing like this stock illustrated mom. What’s with the long and lean thing? You’re 31 weeks pregnant:

Ok, I’m off to bed. Just because there was a great show about Nixon on at 3am last night/morning doesn’t make up for the fact that I was up when I should have been resting. Good night!