Fashion Roulette-Phoenix

I haven't done a fashion roulette post in such a while for two reasons.


1. I have no idea how to take photos. I can do pictures with other people, but when its just me as the "subject" I have no idea what to do. Do I smile? How do I do the Tyra Banks "smile with the eyes"? Where should my hands go? Should I pose or be natural? Ahhh!!! I had my sister try and take pictures of me Sunday and she told me to hunch my shoulders and put my hand on my hip and this is what happened.

She just turned the camera off after that....I'm going to keep practicing. 




2. If I try to do a post with Phoenix and his outfit its a major challenge to take the photo before M&M chocolate from his YaYa stains his shirt.


But I did manage to snag a few shots of him Sunday.


So without further ado.

Fashion Roulette- Phoenix Edition

A girly girl I am all the way to the bone. I love pink, lace, flowers and fashion. So obviously when I got pregnant I hoped for a little girl to basically play dress up with. But I didn't end up with a girl, I ended up with a boy. At first I was like "well there goes all the fun clothes" until it hit me that just because he was a boy didn't mean he was resigned to rompers with fire trucks and baseballs on them

Jeans and tennis shoes it might be, but its going to be fun.


And that's what I look for when I shop for Phoenix.


What looks cool? Ok so they paired that top oops I mean shirt (boys don't call them "tops") with those pants. But what if we put that shirt with these pants and added a tie or suspenders or cuffed the pants?


Here's what Phoenix wore on Sunday.


1. Black and gray striped cardigan from Nordstrom Rack

2. Snoopy t-shirt that reads "Hello. My name is Joe Cool. I'm only here for the babes" also from Nordstrom rack


3. Distressed jeans from H&M


4. Marvel comic spider man belt from H&M

5. Black suede Polo high-tops from Nordstrom Rack

When shopping for boys think "grown-up" and cool looking. Not babyish and get creative. I can't say that enough. My husband often says to me "Man! I wish I could dress like Phoenix!"


Just think outside the box.


You'll notice that there are chocolate stains on his shirt and he was sleeping in some of these. Good thing he isn't a model.

HP you suck!

I can't believe what I am typing again at this moment. But I currently have a laptop that is on the fritz again. Remember when I lost her back in October? Well last night after watching Precious and The Time Travelers Wife with my fam I bring my computer up to make my nightly rounds (Google Reader, Facebook, Etsy/Vintage shopping, the usual) and my computer screen starts flickering! And these weird lines started appearing. I quickly hit the power button and it comes up again and does the same thing.


At this point my heart is in my throat and I am so afraid that its died on me again. I turn it back on and the screen is still blank.


I frantically run into my parents bedroom (if your new to the blog, no I'm not some teenage mom living with my parents. Grab the deets here...but wait did I just say deets?) for my Dad to check it out and nothing happens.


I go to bed with a heavy heart and many many prayers to God that in the morning He will turn my sorrow into joy.


And the sun comes up.....


and nothing!


Best Buy offered me the same shame deal to ship it off for two weeks and I told them they could shove their Geeks and squads where the sun don't shine! I head over to another repair shop where they explain that HP could do one of two things. Make me use my warranty (ok fine) but who knows how long I'll be without "her". Ok, I've got some dollars, I'll pay the repair charges myself. Well that was looking at about $400-$600 BEFORE labor. 


Are you kidding me? I can get a brand new computer for that cost! Luckily the lady was nice enough to explain that my best bet was to deal with HP directly, come home and hook up to another monitor and back up everything and hope HP can work their magic and have "her" back to me by Monday.

Currently I am running Carbonite to back everything up and I will be putting a call into HP shortly.


Luckily I'm at my parents and they have no shortages of computers so I won't be dead for two weeks.


But I will say this. When this deal closes, I will be buying a MAC.

Silent Sunday-Slavery Still Exist

mercy29.tumblr.com

Learn Something Saturday

10 PM....better late then never huh?


I had started trying to get the post done when I woke up at 10. Let me just take a moment and say how great it is to be at my parents house with a million people here to wake with Phoenix on the weekend. Nice. Not to add, that he's been sleeping in until 10 during the week. And for someone who does not do mornings this is great!


But I digress.


I was up and ready to post this weeks Learn Something Saturday (still a working title) and I got sidetracked by hunting Etsy & Ebay for vintage finds. Then before I knew it,it was time to head to the park.

So this weeks learn something is just one of my momma tips to some other mommas.


I hate, hate, hate losing socks and I used to turn the "orphaned"sock into a rag and then it's twin would show up a day later. So for Phoenix's socks I've started keeping the orphaned sock in a small box in the closet that way when I do laundry or find a hidden sock in a kitchen cupboard I can match it up.

Maybe not the greatest tip, but its helpful. Huh?


Do you have any sock sanity tips?

Inspire Me- Pink

I'm feeling in a very pink mood. These are some of the things that have tickled my fancy.

Lush

Stinkin' Pink

Hanging By a Pink Moment

Pink Doll Shoes

Courtesy of Me!

Pulled all photos from Flickr. Tried my best to give proper credit, if this is your photo and I didn't credit correctly please email me at beforethebabywakes@gmail.com

Learn Something Saturday-On Tuesday

Saturday I had intentions of introducing a new feature tentatively titled Learn Something Saturday but with all of the headaches, tears, and drama I couldn't summon up the strength to get much of anything out.


But we aren't going to dwell on that. Luckily I was finally able to sleep last night and today's picked up a bit.


Anyhow what is Learn Something Saturday? Just as the title says, just a random fact or tip I picked up that week that I think may (or may not) be of interest to you.


So Saturday I wanted to tell you something I learned from our Zoo Trip.


If you stare a Gorilla directly in the eyes, they see this as a challenge and will want to attack. How do I know this? Because I made the bad mistaking of look directly into one of their eyes and it just stared back at me. The lady behind me pointed out this piece of info and I quickly shifted my eyes back to the baby gorilla. 

And second bit of info? Us human mommy's aren't the only ones who get saggy boobies after breastfeeding. 


And the third bit of info from the zoo I wanted to tell you was the correct spelling of Orangutans. I noticed on all of the signs in the Think Tank (The orangutan building) that the spelling was all typed out like this... Orang utans. With a space.


Interesting info huh? Who knows maybe you'll be on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and my random factoids (and a lot will be courtesy of my handsome hubby, because he is king of "useless" info) will be pretty darn helpful.


You can thank me by sending me a cut of your winnings.

Really, don't be scared. These facts we're just a perfect excuse to post our zoo trips. Most of the things I'll say will hopefully be useful to you.

Eesh, Eesh. Eesh

Eesh....I don't even know what words to start with. Is Eesh even a word? Probably to some toddler or something right?


The last 72 hours has made me feel like a huge 4-wheeler truck has hit me. But then backed up and unloaded a truck full of rocks and hot lava. 


I had every intention of waking up Friday morning and spending a beautiful day at the zoo (O.M.G I started typing beach instead of zoo. I need a vacation.) with my guys (and we did do just that) but all the while I felt like I had the world sitting on my shoulders.


And every time I thought that the stress, anxiety, and fear would lift that sneaky little truck came barreling down the highway again.


I know I'm being vague instead of just coming out and saying what's going on and my blog "motto" is to always be transparent. And normally I would but because this involves other people its not my place to share everything on the web. But it's been an emotionally rough couple of days. 


And to top it off I put my husband on a plane for 3 weeks a few hours ago. We've never been away this long and it happened right at the moment I needed him to stay and sit with me both. But he needs to work so I begrudgingly put him on a plane and cried all the way home....


Until I started shaking because I hit a DEER! 


Have you ever hit a deer before? I haven't. I was driving back up the mountain and it was foggy and out of nowhere Bambi's mom comes dashing across the road. I let out the highest pitch yell and watch the think flip and fly across my car. I would have gotten out to make sure the poor thing was ok, but I was on a mountain, by myself, at night. With my 19 mth old in the backseat. Didn't seem wise.


I was so shaken up that when I pulled into my parents driveway just a few miles ahead I had to go in and get someone else to carry Phoenix in because I thought I might pass out!


To prove how shaken I have been the last few days I had to make a pit stop for a "Pas" (pacifer) after leaving the airport. Phoenix had devoured a bag of M&M's and had chocolate everywhere, normally I would have hosed him down before we made the 4 minute stop in the CVS but I was so ready to get home and stop thinking that I didn't care if the check-out girl thought I was an unfit mom because of the state my child was in.

I haven't had a good nights sleep since Thursday and with my husband gone I'm not sure I will anytime soon. So if you believe in prayer I'd appreciate a prayer tonight that God puts me in a deep slumber (and Phoenix too!) tonight.


This too shall pass....right?

Freezer Paper Stencil- Conan O'Brien Tshirt

Is anyone else as excited as I am over the crazy beautiful weather right now? Mmmmmmmm......It's gorgeous!


We're taking Phoenix to the zoo today to spend some time together before Daddy hops on a plan to LA for 3 weeks. Daddy has tickets to the Kids Choice Awards so he has explicit instructions that if he runs into the one and only ORIGINAL Justin (Justin Bieber YOU wish!) he is to call me PRONTO!


But first I wanted to show you what I made yesterday.


Hopefully last month you stopped by MADE to score some great tutorials on all things BOY. This has become one of my favorite blogs!


Dana came up with this adorable Conan O'Brien tshirt and I wanted to make it for Phoenix. I had to explain to my Dad and siblings why it was Phoenix needed a Conan shirt.


The reason? Well although I am on Conan's side in this whole Jay/NBC/Conan debacle I honestly don't watch his show (or any late night) but I like putting Phoenix in relevant pop-culture stuff. It makes me think other parents are like "Cool his parents must ROCK!" (or be 22). I'm pretty lame huh?


So he needed a Conan shirt.


I followed the tutorial Dana had posted here and here.

After TWO hours of cutting the stencil out I was finally able to get this.

And after over night drying

this is what I ended up with.

I'm a little torn because


A. I'm wondering if Conan looks a bit like Hitler? That would NOT be cool to put my 19 1/2 mth old in a Hitler shirt

and....


B. I'm wondering if the words are so messed up that you can't read it and it looks messy?


Not to mention the paint I smeared.

My 10 & 8 year old sisters say he should wear it and Shawn says its art and doesn't need to be perfect. But I think he's just saying that because he doesn't want me to beat myself up to much and stop crafting all together.


But I learned with my first project that crafting takes patience and PRACTICE. 


What do you think? Should I use the shirt as a rag or let him wear it?