{Check My Belly}

First Public Preggo Pics

Danielle — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:18:13 +0000

This is me at my Brother In Law’s wedding last week at 25 weeks (a little over 6 months)…You can’t really see much, but I have definitely popped.

Complete Happiness

Danielle — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:31:37 +0000

Thing have been busy over here at the Winfield household. Chris has been traveling a lot, Charlie just turned 3 yesterday, and most importantly, we are preparing for an addition to the family!

You guessed it! We are having a baby! I have to say that Charlie knew before any of us. As soon as I became pregnant, he followed me around like crazy and when we slept he would curl up next to my belly with his arm on it like he was hugging it. Now I am a little too big for that!

We came back from the doctors today with a clean bill of health. We couldn’t be happier. We are due in late July and although we couldn’t get a perfect angle today we are about 90% sure it’s a girl. Based on the sonograms so far she has Chris’s personality. We’ve seen her lounging with her hands behind her head, punch back at the sonographer when the tech had to push down really hard to get a good shot, and finally get bored with all of us and stick her thumb in her mouth and go to sleep.

This was us at 8 weeks.

I have to get some pics of me now and post them soon because with each passing week it gets a little harder to see my feet. And climb the stairs. And resist chocolate.

So that’s what’s up with us. I will continue to post pics here as we take them.

Cryptic

Danielle — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:54:35 +0000

It’s been a rough summer. Our new little family had a tragedy.

It’s bizarre to go from being ridiculously happy to completely devastated, but our little family of me, my husband, and our dog are closer for it.

I feel better every day although my hormones are completely out of whack and if I have even an ounce of soy sauce I gain 3 pounds that don’t go away. I have pimples on my forehead which is a completely new sensation, even through my teenage years I never had acne. The estimate is 6 months to get back to normal. I’ve got 4.5 more to go.

Sometimes I want to shout what happened from the rooftops because it’s hard to exist in the world, and even email people without them knowing that my heart is in tiny little pieces. Sometimes I am grateful for the privacy.

So yeah, my husband is amazing. More supportive and loving than I could have ever dreamed he’d be. My true hero.

Happy Marriage Lesson #1

Danielle — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:23:02 +0000

When the husband spontaneously wants to take you out to dinner, forget the workout you are missing, forget the work you have to do, forget the prep for tomorrows guests, and JUST GO. You will not regret it.

NV on Bridezillas - Awkward Product Placement

Danielle — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:49:19 +0000

My husband occasionally is away for the evening for work/networking/etc. About once a month Charlie and I have one of “our nights”. Usually I go to the gym, come back, and watch a marathon of TV shows that I’ve DRV’d that Chris would never in a million years watch with me. My lineup consists of America’s Next Top Model, Bridezillas, Project Runway, or whatever is being shown on HGTV. While I watch these shows Charlie shoves his toys under the couch and cries for me to get them out for him. I’m employing the “cry it out” method right now to practice for when kids come. Man, it’s tough. This dog cries real tears. And he’s pretty darn cute too. Imagine giving this guy the brush off.

Not easy.

So this week it was a marathon of Bridezillas for me. Now I know that this show is completely mindless, but hey, even I have standards for the crap I watch on TV.

In one of the first episodes I noticed that they were spending a lot of time narrating about the weight of the bride. The next thing I know, there is a close up of the NV bottle and the bride is doing somewhat of a commercial for the product. How she feels, that she looks better, that she’s lost 9 pounds in a short period of time….um….where is my ranting raving bridezilla? Why is she not freaking out that her flowers are the wrong shade of pink or whatever. That’s what I came to see people. What the heck is this? Why am I watching her all happy working out with a trainer decked out in NV gear and asking her how much she likes the product? We go to commercial, and we are back to our mad and crying bride. Only now I am thinking maybe she’s so cranky because she is on some diet pill.

Go ahead a couple of episodes, and we meet a new bride. Out of nowhere she and her fiance decide to go to the beach. She goes into the bathroom, puts on her bathing suit, freaks out, comes out in a towel and says she’s not going anymore, she hates her body, etc. Then with her wrapped in the same towel she’s giving her interview about how unhappy she is with her weight, and we get the closeup of the NV bottle again, and she’s off to the same gym, and there’s that guy again in all of the NV gear. Later we see her at her cake tasting refusing to actually swallow a piece of cake and spitting everything out into a napkin.

Something is off. I do a search and learn that:

“The network’s ad sales team also sold a first-time package to diet supplement brand NV across all 18 episodes of Bridezillas this season. The deal, which also includes custom vignettes, tagged tune-in spots, on-air billboards, online banners and placement in WE TV on demand, features product integration in four installments of the show.”

Listen. I get it. I fast forward through the commercials (love you DVR - one of the best inventions EVER), I wouldn’t know about NV if it weren’t for this product placement, but it’s just so awkward and contributes nothing to the storyline of the show whatsoever. Look at Project Runway or ANTM and how they do it. We’ve got the wall of accessories that is sponsored, we’ve got sponsored contests, but it makes sense within the damn storyline already.

I was a bride. I stepped up the workouts and had more willpower to watch what I ate leading up to that day, perfect target audience for this show. But the implementation is not good. It just sticks out like a sore thumb.

What about a few befores and afters on the brides? Maybe do full disclosure and have the brides say that part of the reason they are doing the show is to have a chance to try the product. At the very least, having someone taking the product and then flipping out on their loved ones and making everybody around them miserable doesn’t really shine that great a light on NV. I know that product placement is here to stay, but just like bad social promotion, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

Any other examples of some bad product placement you guys can think of?

PSA: Clean the ice off your cars!!!!

Danielle — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:30:43 +0000

So I was driving home tonight and out of nowhere a huge sheet of ice from the car in front of me goes flying through the air and slams into my windshield. People, please clean the ice off your cars before you go driving on the expressway at 80 miles an hour.

I lucked out and was able to keep my wits about me and not swerve into the next lane to avoid it. That would have definitely resulted in an accident. I was sure that my windsheld was going to shatter, but it didn’t, and the luckiest part about everything is that I was able to keep my cool and not catch up to the woman in front of me and run her off the road.

Grr.

Pretty Everyday Plates

Danielle — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:05:17 +0000

We got so much beautiful china for our wedding but we don’t use it regularly yet. I dunno, maybe after we get a dining room set or something to put it in I will feel more comfortable unpacking it. In the meantime, I think these everyday plates from Dillard’s are gorgeous. Simple white, go with everything (since we have no idea what we like yet), but with a twist. I also love that they look a little aged.

Internet Wishlist

Danielle — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:33:39 +0000

You know what would be really nice? If some of these e commerce sites would allow you to just create a little bucket to put items you are interested in to review for later. I’m not talking about a shopping cart. I am talking about a little collective area where you can just paste or drag everything you want and then review it and narrow down your choices. Actually, a tool that would do this across all sites would really be even better. Something where I can throw a bunch of boots in since that is what I am on the hunt for right now, and then compare them all after I’ve done my browsing. With pictures. Not urls. Then I can sort my little mix by whatever I want. Mainly price and shipping date availability since it is Wednesday and I am shopping for a pair of shoes I intend to wear on Friday evening.

My current method is to open several FireFox browsers by site, and then create a new tab for everything I am considering. As I roll through and rule something out I close the tab, continue on with the process, and will hopefully wind up with a winner. Annoying. Time consuming. And no possible way for me to ask a friends opinion without emailing them a list of 20-30 links.

So if you are looking for a project, please do that one. All I ask is that you let me know about it when it’s done, and maybe write an ode to me somewhere on the site. If it is out there already, please, someone send it to me.

K. Thanks. Bye.

Wedding Video Has Arrived!

Danielle — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:32:05 +0000

So I had written a much longer post about this and then my Internet connection died and I lost it. Grrrrr.

We got married in March and just got our wedding video last week. I was getting pretty frustrated at the time it was taking, but I have to say. It was well worth the wait. I think videos are one of those items that a lot of brides wind up on the fence about especially as the reality of how expensive weddings can be hits home.

I am so glad that my mom was adamant about us getting one.

I am posting the highlight reel of the wedding here. It’s 4 minutes long. Check it out if you have some time. And if you are in the NY area and looking for a videographer, I can’t recommend Adam Forgione from Penny Lane Productions highly enough.

Edit: I am going to send you right to you tube for now, because embedding the video is breaking my layout and I don’t have time to fix it right now. So, if you would like to see it, here is the link.

Thanks for your patience!

LOL Cats

Danielle — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:07:20 +0000

I’ve never been a cat person, but this site makes me want one just so that I can take awesome pictures of them. I saw this and had to post it. It feels like the Internets are crazy lately, and this makes me laugh my butt off.