Wow — I can’t believe we are almost to 100 Threads! What to do, what to do? To celebrate, that is 🙂 I’ll be working on a few things for our centennial so stay tuned, but for now, on to your regularly scheduled Thread….
1. Renovation Reality. We are about to undergo some little home reno projects in the coming months and I’d say it’s about time! As I’ve mentioned, we have been in our home for about 5 years now, which is the longest I have ever lived in one place. So naturally, I’m feeling the itch and was bugging Troy about either moving or doing something drastic to this house to keep me appeased for a while 🙂 He figured the latter was more cost effective (and better for his sanity) so we’ve been meeting with contractors and painters and working on a plan for a little face lift. First up, a pergola to finally add some shade and a little something ‘extra’ to our back patio, and new paint for our kitchen cabinets and walls. I am hoping it will end up looking like this or this. And I am in search for the perfect paint color, something a little grey, maybe a little blue. Something to take all of this tan out of our house. What’s your favorite, and what do you think of these colors for the walls?
2. One? ONE!? Bree’s birthday is just around the corner and coming up fast. We still have 3 months, yes, but this is busy season for me and I know that June will be here before we know it, so the planning has commenced. I feel like there is SO much to buy/make/order/arrange/organize for your kid’s first birthday, in spite of it really being “all for the adults.” We are blessed beyond measure by our precious girl and what better way to celebrate her than with a big birthday bash? Being that it’s smack in the middle of summer poses a few obstacles though (i.e. blazing heat) and I am a little bit stumped at what to do to help everyone beat the heat and enjoy themselves. Bounce house? Water activities? A constant supply of ice cream? For possibly the first time ever, Pinterest and Google aren’t helping this mama out. Do any of you birthday party veterans have suggestions?
3. So I Got a New Phone. I needed one, but I didn’t need one — yaknowwhatImean? Troy’s was three years old so we originally went to get him something updated but AT&T roped us in with their NO contract perks and we both walked out with new iPhones. My old one was doing this weird speaker malfunction thing, the battery life lasted all of about 4 hours, and had some issues with a few other non-essential functions. Sadly, the thing that really convinced me to take the plunge though was storage. I already filled up my 32gb phone with images of all things Bree (my pregnancy journey included) and even after deleting hundreds of unnecessary images, I couldn’t bring myself to push the delete button on anything that had to do with our sweet girl. Yes, I back up all of my photos to iCloud, an external hard drive, AND an online storage system, but still. So I thought of my old phone as yet another hard drive for my images and moved on to a new 32gb ‘hard drive’ in the form of an iPhone 5s (which, by the way, already has much better functionality than my old phone!). I already love this phone so much more than its predecessor and now have tons of photo and video-taking space to fill up 🙂 so watch out Instagram followers! If you thought I posted too many pics before…..ha! You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Oh, and I learned my lesson after drop-kicking a phone into a water bowl, that reliable phone cases are SUPER important. So we invested in some LifeProof cases and have been extremely happy with them. I am nervous but excited to take my phone under water now 😉 Yes, I said under water. If you aren’t familiar with LifeProof, check them out. They’re the best.
4. Movie Night. We rented 12 Years a Slave this week after hearing so many awesome things about it and, obviously, after seeing all of the Oscar cred it got. Needless to say, we really liked the movie. Rather, we really appreciated it. I don’t know that I can say I liked it per se because it was really hard to watch, but the reality of that time in our history is just that — hard. And the movie perfectly demonstrated it. Thanks to watching 12 Years a Slave, I have also figured out that there are certain things that kill me to watch, even more than before, now that I am a mom. Like, watching someone’s babies be taken from them. Ugh! It KILLS me y’all, and I fight back big fat alligator tears any time I see something that strikes that ‘mom’ cord in me. Granted, I cried during the Super Bowl and I cry during certain parts of Ellen, but still 🙂 If you haven’t seen 12 Years a Slave, it’s definitely worth a watch. Just be sure to keep a box of tissues nearby…
5. Thread Tune. I was eagerly awaiting Coldplay’s new album after they announced it last week — Ghost Stories. I previewed their first official single, Magic and it’s okaaaaaay, but it kinda makes me feel like I’m in Banana Republic (you know, soft, coffee house-ish vibes mixed with some auto-tune). Midnight, the first song they shared from the album, was no different either. In fact, it was worse (in my small, insignificant opinion). I am still holding out for the album as a whole though, but have to wait until May to give it a full listen. Any Coldplay fans out there? What do y’all think? On a totally different note, I adore the song Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova and I really loved Alex Preston’s cover of it on last night’s American Idol. When that guy is on, he is ON. So there ya have it, a few options for your listening pleasure this afternoon 🙂
6. Sneak Peek. I have been posting quite a few maternity sessions lately and am now starting to edit some newborn sessions, so there will be lots of brand new bebe sweetness on the blog in the coming weeks! Not to mention, spring minis are Saturday and we have all kinds of great families to photograph and share with you. Can’t wait! In the midst of the baby vibe that the blog will have, there will also be a sneak peek of Tiffany and Jay’s gorgeously romantic wedding next week 🙂 Trust me, you won’t want to miss it — it was spectacular!
