Bon Temps Beignet

15 Months Old - Charlie's Quarterly Photo

2013-05-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all! I'm back with a formerly monthly, now quarterly photo of Charlie. The monthly thing just got way to hard. He's been walking since he was just about 10.5 months old and it's been just way too hard to wrangle him into position. He also doesn't change as much month to month as he did for the first year, so I've changed it from monthly to quarterly. Sanity - saved.

Grandma Bear is still in the in there (poor thing always seems to be face down lately) but a green spoon made it into this shoot too. He wouldn't drop it without a fight. Oh well, gotta pick your battles, right?

And now for some outtakes...

He kept wandering over to a rug that we had rolled up on the floor. He loves climbing all over it. It would've made for some great shots if he had bothered to look up even once.

Here's a funny video I took of him yesterday. He kept trying to give Grandma Bear a sip of his water. It was pretty sweet. Warning, this video may cause motion sickness!

Don't Mind Me, I'm Just Over Here Sniffing My Jeans

2013-05-10T11:07:00.001-07:00

You think I'm kiddin. I wouldn't lie to you. I can't even count the amount of times I've pulled my knee up to my nose this morning. The other day I went shopping for groceries and had a '$2 off' coupon for Downy Unstopables. I've been buying the teal capped bottle for a while now. But they have a new pink top bottle that was love at first sniff. I mean 'eyes rolling in the back of your head'- AMAZING. Seriously, if this stuff was sold as perfume, I'd buy a case of it.

And the best part is it's not just good for throwing into the wash. I've poured a small cap full into my Scentsy warmer and it makes the entire house smell awesome. Make sure you use a small amount. It's pretty strong, so a little goes a really looong way. You can also pour some into your garbage disposal and let it sit overnight for a super fresh smelling sink. You could even make a drawer sachet OR car freshener by pouring a little into a pair of old panty hose or sock (who wears panty hose anymore?) and tie off the loose end.

My number one use for the softener is to pour half of a cap full into a spray bottle and fill it with warm water. Once the beads dissolve you can use it to spray directly onto dry clothes for an even stronger scent. I use it to spray the inseam of my jeans to stretch them longer. My jeans ALWAYS shrink up in the wash. It drives me crazy. I buy a pair that are the perfect length, and one wash later they're 5 inches shorter. So annoying. But the softener/water mix lets me pull and tug them back to their original length. I also walk around the house and spray it on all of the soft surfaces. Drapes, couches, bed spreads, the shower curtains, and even a light spray on the carpets. Holy mama, it's so good. Go. Buy. Now.

I'm off to sniff my jeans again. Have a good weekend!

PS: In case you're wondering, Downy DID NOT pay me to write this post. They don't even know I exist. I just like sharing a product that I love with y'all.

Hot To: Get Rid of Those Nasty, Cloudy, Spotty Glasses Without Using an Ounce of Elbow Grease!

2013-05-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

Search no more. The answer is here.

Our glasses have been driving me nuts for months now. Every time I ran the dishwasher, I hoped and prayed that those dang things would come out crystal clear. And every time I'd open the dishwasher door, and get choked out by the steam pouring out, I'd hold the glass up to the light and hang my head in shame. Cloudy. Again.

I tried every trick in the book... well not the book... more like the internet. But those didn't work either. I tried running an empty dishwasher with just a cup of vinegar and a little baking soda. Nope. I tried running a cycle with just a bowl full of vinegar on the bottom rack. I tried physically scrubbing the whole dishwasher down. Nada. I tried one of these thingies. It made the was smell nice, but still didn't help either.

I thought we were destined to buy brand new glasses. But a last ditch effort had me thinking that I should go old school with my cleaning methods. I'll be honest. If I didn't have a little nugget running around the house, (whose health and brain capabilities I'm just slightly protective of) I probably would've just put all the glasses in a hot steaming 50% bleach ,50% water bath... and I probably would've woken up with a crazy headache from all the fumes. Instead, I filled the sink with enough water to cover the tallest glasses (standing up) and then dumped a half of a gallon of distilled white vinegar in and let the glasses soak overnight. Yea, the whole thing. I wasn't messin around anymore, y'all.

Then I just let me sit there overnight. Well, actually, they're still in there right now.

But I did rinse and dry one glass to take this after picture...

It's definitely not perfect, but it's about a million times better looking than it was. And now I no longer feel like I have to make a guest a drink using plastic Mardi Gras cup so that they don't see our funky glasses and think we just let Gus lick them clean instead of actually washing them. YAY! Everyone wins!

Gettin' Crafty, Y'all - Repurposing Fabric Shower Curtains

2013-05-07T09:02:00.001-07:00

First off, let me apologize for these cruddy pictures. I took them with my cruddy phone. I'll go slap myself on the wrist for even posting these. This weekend I met my sister-in law, Brandi, at a craft fair where she was selling some baby items and fabric bins (more on those in a second). I brought Charlie with me and dressed him in one of her creations.

She also made this onsie that he wore to her baby shower...

My little baby! Where have you gone? sniffle : /

That afternoon I was standing in my bathroom thinking " I HAVE to change this room up a bit. Not much has changed in about 4 years since we renovated it. Well, the easiest way to change a room is with paint and accessories, right? So the first thing that I decided to get rid of was our shower curtain. I've been itching to get a floor to ceiling curtain to make the room feel taller, so it was time to say our goodbyes.

But I didn't wanna just toss it. My mind jumped back to earlier that day when I saw Brandi's fabric bins. I could get a whoooole bunch of bins out of that one shower curtain! And yesterday afternoon she hooked a girl up! That girl being me, in case you were confused.

Super cute, huh? And the uses are endless.

* Fill it with extra rolls of TP and sit it on the back of the potty for easy access.

* Fill it with fruit and set it on the kitchen counter.

* Use it as a diaper caddy and keep all those diapers, wipes, and ointment together.

* Give it to a new grad who's headed off to college to use as a shower caddy so all of their toiletries are wrangled in one easy-to-carry tote.

* Wrangle up some toys in a playroom or nursery. It would even look cute with a plant inside of it!

* Use it as a gift bag to deliver goodies to your momma for Mother's Day!

* Fill it with all of your 'day at the beach' goodies.

Check out here shop for pricing and fabric options!

Have y'all re-purposed any 'already had it' items lately? I wanna hear about em!

ONE HELLUVA DEAL - 80% OFF ALL CANVASES

2013-04-23T09:19:00.002-07:00

Hey y'all! Long time no see, huh? I'm so sorry, but I haven't had much going on that's been blog-worthy. BUT I wanted to let y'all in on a special deal from Canvas People. I'm not getting paid by them to write this post. (I wish!) I just love spreading the news when it comes to a smokin deal. They're having a 80% off sale for the next 4 days. I recently had one of my posters printed my them when they had a big 75% off Easter sale. It turned out so good (see below). So if you're interested in having a picture or something from my etsy shop printed on canvas,

CLICK HERE!

Here are some fuzzy cell phone pics of my printed canvas. It's the 20x48" canvas which is only $28 (plus $15 S&H) right now! That's an INSANELY good deal! I paid $35 plus S&H.

And a closeup....

I was so worried that the words would be off center or crooked, but they did such a good job of centering and aligning the words. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the result.

Here's the link again if you're interested.

Canvas People 80% Off Sale

and

MY ETSY SHOP

How to take Pregnancy Progress Pictures

2013-03-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

It must be baby season because I've gotten at least a dozen emails from some lovely pregnant ladies who have asked how I set up/took my pregnancy progress shots. I figured I'd do a post so it would be easy to find.

First off, you'll need to find a doorway or window that lets in a lot of light. The more light, the better. This makes your silhouette really pop against the background. You'll also want to try and keep the day and time that you take your pictures pretty consistent (for comparison reasons). I tried to take my pictures every Monday afternoon when the light coming through our French doors was at its brightest. I'd get home from work, change into my black pajama pants and slim fitting tank top (to really show off that big ol' bump) and then get my camera set up.

The next important thing is to take your pictures from the same spot each time. I don't own a tripod. I'm figuring that most people don't, so here's what I used instead.

Yep, that my camera sitting on top of an upside down trash can, on top a chair from our dining table. Seriously professional, right? Here it is from the other angle.

Once everything is all set up, just set your timer for 10 seconds and run (well, don't actually run, I wouldn't want any of y'all prego chicks to get hurt!) over to that door/window and try to stand so that you're shoulders and hips are facing perfectly perpendicular to the camera lens. I stress that your hips AND shoulders are square because if you twist a little (especially in the hips) it tends to look weird in in the silhouette. Stretch that neck out, hold your back straight, and let that bump do its thang.

I usually tried to take anywhere from 5-10 pictures so that I had options to choose from. And believe me, even though these are silhouette pictures and you don't have to worry about your makeup, sometimes your hair can look cute in real life and look totally whacked in the picture. Take these shots for example...

What in the world is going on with my hair? I had it in a braid which looked cute (I think) in person. But in the shots...wth?

You'll also want to keep your arms tucked in super close to your sides so that they don't become part of the outline of your body. Here's why...

ummmm... if you squint.... it kinda...... looks like I have a boy part.

Gah!

Eww!

Gross!

You do NOT want that!

KEEP THOSE ARMS AND HANDS TUCKED IN BY YOUR SIDE!

It will feel pretty unnatural! Think cheerleader straight arms. Illustrated by this little drawing I found...

Like this...............................................................Not this

via

Once you have a handful of decent shots, upload them to your computer. You can adjust the brightness, highlights, and shadows with most photo editors that are already installed on your computer. Here's an example of what you can do with the Windows editor.

Once you bump up the contrast to show off the bump, crop the photo however you'd like. just make sure to crop to the same size each time. Then you can number the pictures by week, month, or day.

I hope this explains everything! If y'all have ANY questions, please let me know!

Charlie's First Real Photo Shoot

2013-02-25T15:32:00.000-08:00

Charlie had his first professional photo session this past Saturday. We went to Missions Trails and met my friend Monique from Photo Junkie Photography at the visitor's center. I had no clue that place even existed so close to where we live! It was like we were in another state even though we were just 20 minutes from home. It reminded me a little bit of Garden of the Gods in Coorado Springs. After 'hiking' about a quarter of a mile, we took a left at the first big rock and walked down some steps to a little valley. In the valley was a little stream with big flat rocks, so we let Charlie roam around. He wasn't excited to be there at first. I think he was overwhelmed with nature! After a few minutes he found 3 little dips in a big rock that were filled with muddy water. Well, he got one little chubby hand in there and that was all he needed to let loose! I kinda cringed at first. I wasn't really hoping to have to strip him down, but he had ideas of his own, so we just went with it. Choose your battles!

Post mud puddles. Look at the legs on those pants!

Pre-mud puddles. I was not expecting to be in any of the pictures, but he wouldn't let me put him down without going into a crying fit. So, Monique snapped a few of the two of us to get him used to the camera.

Finally a smile!
I counted "One, two, three" and did his favorite elephant noise,
which made me look like a total weirdo, but it worked!

Monique said all this picture needed was a tiny fishing pole.
Agh, it would've been so cute. I should've made one out of twigs!

I'm STILL working on my new dresser. I had no clue it would take this long, but we're doing lots of customizing. Fingers crossed that it'll be done tomorrow!

Wanna see the elephant noise in action?

I hope the video works! I have this picture of me doing the elephant noise (I have no shame) at Charlie's last doctor's appointment. He was grumpy when we first got there, but a few elephant noises cheered him right up!

PS: Apparently I wear plaid a lot. For the record, they were two different plaid shirts!

Tarva Trumps Expedit

2013-02-19T11:42:00.004-08:00

I've been wanting to replace the TV 'stand' in our living room since the day we bought it. It's no longer available from Ikea, but it's from the Expedit series. I thought the shelves were adjustable, but sadly, I was wrong. I tried to make the best of it by filling the bottom row with magazine storage (which I made from cardboard shipping boxes) which looked ok, but I never really loved the piece.

So the search began (and continued for TWO years) for a replacement. I searched high and low on Craigslist but never had any real luck in finding a piece that fit our needs and budget. I stumbled across Ikea's new-ish customizable dresser called Tarva one day while I was there shopping for something completely different.

The Tarva is basically the big brother to the Rast, which I'm more than sure you've seen painted every color under the sun on blogs and Pinterest. Even my sister in law customized a pair for her bedroom to use as night stands and they came out so cute! I'll have to take some pictures of them next time I'm over at her house.

I you follow me on Instagram (IG name : bontempsbeignet), you might have seen a photo I posted of my dresser in the making.

The beer was my therapy. It was just two days before Mardi Gras (which we couldn't be in New Orleans for) AND the dang instruction booklet for the dresser was THIRTY NINE pages long. Which was only 7 pages longer than the dresser I built for Charlie's room while I was 8 months preggo with a giant belly getting in the way. This time I had a little nugget who wanted to be in the center of all the construction. I needed a drink.

Pictures via HERE, and HERE

Using the pictures above as my inspiration, I've been working for about a week on it and can't wait to show y'all what I've done. I need to do a little bit more work still, so this post won't have the 'after' pics. Sorry! Bad blogger! So far, I've built it, filled the old drawer pull holes, stained, and painted it, but I still need to add some trim to the drawers, drill new holes for the pulls, add the new pulls, and cut the legs down a little so that the TV will sit lower and the cords below won't be so visible.

Hopefully I'll have everything ready to show to you by Friday! Have any of y'all refinished any furniture lately? Anyone customize a Rast? Share it in the comments!

I My Colortopia-ed My House

2013-02-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

I'm sure many of y'all have heard of My Colortopia. Some of the better known blogs have been talking about it for a while now. Since we'll hopefully be painting our house this summer, I wanted to test out a few colors without actually painting test samples on our house and making it look like a giant ugly quilt. You're welcome, neighbors! I decided to check out My Colortopia to see if it could help us decide on what we liked and reaffirm our thoughts on what we knew we totally hated (hello pink!).

I'll be honest, It's not the easiest site to navigate. There's LOTS of clicking involved. Basically you browse 'suggested' color combos (most of which where kinda funky...but I REALLY liked the color options that Stephanie from Brooklyn Limestone picked!) or take a personality test to figure out what colors best describe you. They provide color groupings and you have to click, drag, and drop those into a folder of saved colors (confusing at first) then you upload a picture and mark off the areas that you would like to paint... that part was surprisingly easy compared to other sites that let you 'paint' your own pictures. Lastly you 'paint' the picture with one group of colors at a time which is highly frustrating. You have to save that picture and then go back to the beginning to select a different set of colors to paint. Like I said before. Lots and lots (and lots) of clicking around.

Anywho, here's were all that clicking got me...

One of my favorites, Shaded Fern. I love the dark walls against the white trim and black door.

Leather Brown...

Wild Truffle... Love!

Onyx (one of Brooklyn Limestone's picks) love love LOVE.... but not very realistic.

Ground Nutmeg...

Softest Juniper.....eh

Crisp Autumn Leaves.

Mountain Slate...I don't hate it.

And just for funzies, Barely Blush. Yikes

Have any of y'all tried out My Colortopia?

Exterior Update - New Lighting

2013-02-07T07:48:00.000-08:00

A while back I showed y'all what the exterior of our house looked like when we bought it. It's been a super slow process of updating it from "crack house" to "cute house" (we've been busy with this, this, and most importantly, THIS) but we're slowly catching the exterior improvements up with all the interior work we've already done.

If the differences between those two pictures aren't blatantly obvious, I'll just go ahead and point them out. The lawn is about a million times nicer than it used to be. It was basically a crab grass infested dust bowl for longer than I'd like to admit. We also replaced the front door with a real wood door. The original was basically made of cardboard and paper mache. Mitch painted the security door a glossy black that brought it back to life. It's still a security door, which I'm not a huge fan of, but it's completely necessary during the summer months here in SoCal. Our house (like the majority of houses in our city) doesn't have A/C which means we have to open up our houses to catch a cool breeze while still keeping our little nuggets and pups safely indoors and not roaming the neighborhood looking for cats to torture (Gus AND Charlie, that is). We tamed that wonky bush underneath the living room window. Yanked out those ugly 'fire' trees (woot)!! And started a little garden.

If you haven't been around here very long, this is what it looked like after the boys destroyed those hideously ugly fire trees.

I'm sorry. Seeing that picture still makes me cringe.

We still have a looooong ways to go. We're dying to get rid of that nasty flesh tone gutter and those boring beige walls. Plus we still need to add in the brick planter for the garden, plant some taller pieces to hide the cable and phone wires over there on the right corner of the house, and fill in the bare spots with more greenery and flowers. I'd love to add some shutters or thick molding to the windows to make them pop. And someday I'll hopefully be able to convince Mitch that gutter drains don't belong right.smack.dab.next.to.a window.

You may have noticed in the "progress" picture that we switched out the lights. They were originally a faux copper-ish color. It looked like this on the box....

Nice huh?

But it looked like this in real life. (see below) Lowes lies! Well, not Lowes. Whoever makes the light lies. So we painted them.

And there's the before and after for ya.

Have any of y'all replaced any lighting lately? Anyone else get lied to by the picture on the box?

Charlie's First Birthday Party

2013-01-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday we celebrated our lil beignet's first birthday at home.

We propped Charlie's favorite thing in the world, his Radio Flyer, in the front yard along with some balloons tied to our garden flag and a pennant banner on the front door.

I'm still trying to convince hubby to move that oddly placed gutter drain!

I'm stating the obvious here, but if you ever plan to tie balloons to something outdoors, say a garden flag, make sure you really tie them up tight. I had twice as many balloons as in the picture above and half of them flew away because of my poor tying skills. Oh well. Lesson learned.

In our teeny tiny entryway I hung all of Charlie's monthly pictures.

And set out a finger print 'guestbook' for people to stamp their fingers and sign their names.

The picture above looks kinda lame. It got a lot more filled in!

I also hung the same pennant banner on the mirror in our living room.

I had originally planned on using just red and teal balloons (like the colors in the pennant banner) but I couldn't find the right colors, so our Radio Flyer theme turned into "Birthday" theme with an assortment of colors.

I also set up an ice cream sundae station with a ton of toppings.

And no first birthday party would be complete without a smash cake!

I made funfetti cupcakes with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles for all of the guests.

The birthday boy stayed over at Grandma and Grandpa's house while we finished getting everything ready. And of course, he fell asleep right as everyone started showing up at our house. We gave him a little while to sleep and then Grandpa (Mitch's dad) back with the little ones to go get him. It was so cute watching them all hold hands to walk to Mitch's parent's house to get Charlie.

Cuteness!

After everyone had ice cream sundaes, we stripped the b-day boy down to his diaper and brought out the smash cake. I thought he would've dived right in but he was pretty skeptical at first. I had to stick his hands right in there.

And then he started making the funniest faces.

And because no birthday would be complete without a meltdown (and no one believes me when I say that this kid isn't always happy)...

Happy Birthday Boogie! I love you!

12 Months Old - Charlie's Monthly Photo

2013-01-30T07:30:00.000-08:00

T-w-e-l-v-e months already? How did that even happen?

Yesterday was Charlie's birthday. We celebrated last Sunday with cake and ice cream sundaes at our house. Pictures to come!

In the mean time, please enjoy these ridiculous pictures of my sweet, funny, mostly happy, but sometimes cranky, silly, little lunatic. Oh, and you might notice that he has a little scratch on his nose in some of these pictures (some were photo-shopped out). Charlie and I were playing hide-n-seek under a towel the other night. I was sitting on the floor with my legs straight out in front of me with the towel over them. That's when when Charlie decided to play tunnel rat and went under the towel by my feet. He scraped his nose right up against my toenail (which I'd like to mention for the record is trimmed AND filed down, but apparently very strong) and now he has a good sized scratch. But, the little scab fell off last night and it's all better now!

Lay off me, I'M STARVING!

Baby Bigfoot!

Oh my pretty little pet, I love you! I stroke it, and I pet it, and I love it.

The days are long, but the years are short - Charlie's First Birthday

2013-01-29T14:59:00.002-08:00

A year ago today I'd been sitting in a hospital room for just shy of 48 hours.

A year ago today I was clicking that blessed epidural button like it was goin outta style.

A year ago today I was praying our little dude would turn over so the back labor would subside.

A year ago today they wheeled me into the OR to get him out since he didn't want to come on his own.

A year ago today I waited anxiously as the doctors tugged and pulled on the other side of the sheet.

And a year ago today I heard someone yell out 'TIME!?' and another person answer back '11:03!'.

I knew I would never ever forget that time.

At 11:03 my world changed for the better.

Happy Birthday sweet boy.

Momma loves you more than you'll ever know.

Painting the French Doors Black - Part Two

2013-01-23T12:30:00.001-08:00

Okey dokey, pokey smokey.

We left off yesterday with the right door semi-taped off.

I just noticed that it looks like my floor is two toned in this picture.
That lighter shade of wood in the lower right corner is actually the cutting board that sits on our kitchen counter.

I went home yesterday and finished up taping while charlie slept on the couch.

Let me just tell you that if you don't have a tiny little human interrupting you every 8 seconds while you're trying to tape, this can be very relaxing. Maybe that's just me but I like getting zoned out on repetitive actions. Taping off tiny window panes, folding towels, building 4 expedit units from Ikea.... it's all good if I'm alone and plugging away at it.

Anywho, the next step after taping and trimming is roughing up that frame. Our is made of plastic. Super slippery, paint repelling plastic. I used a scrap piece of really gritty Scotch Brite (the red kind) but you could use sand paper, too.

Once you've scratched up every bit of the frame, you'll want to wipe everything down to remove the dust you just made.

Now it's time for paint. Whenever I paint a door I always paint the top panel and bottom panel before painting the sides. Like this...

Follow the line of the window frame straight up to the top of the door like this.

The first coat is gonna look like crap.

Fear not my friends!

hi!!

The second coat will look a WHOLE lot better...

...and the third will seal the deal.

BEFORE YOU REMOVE THE TAPE (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) YOU MUST MUST MUST DO THIS NEXT STEP. If you don't, you will cry and have to start all over. Don't you dare ask me how I know this!

Using a utility knife/box cutter, run the blade along the edge of the frame and tape. If you don't do this, when you pull the tape off, it WILL pull the paint off of the frame right along with it.

I got a little ahead of myself and forgot that tip. Look where that got me...

Boo.

I've got some more sanding and refinishing to do, so we'll call it 97% complete.

Not bad for a less than half a quart of paint!

I see the white doors and I want to paint them black - Part One

2013-01-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this little gem of a picture that I posted over the weekend.

I'd been wanting to paint these doors for months now. The white doors were fine, but they weren't really white. See the difference in color between the right door and the molding? It's a little more obvious in the picture below...

Sorry for the grainy-ness!

Our house is so hard to photograph. We don't get a ton of natural light.

And sometimes a tiny little photo-bomber shows up when he hears the camera click.

But, back to the doors. You can see in the picture at the top that I was using paper to keep the paint from getting on the glass panes. I thought I was so dang clever using freezer paper (glossy side out) to tuck behind the "frame". BIG MISTAKE. When I pulled it out, it pulled the paint right off with it. So, I ended up doing the thing that I really did not want to do. Masking off every single square with painters tape. Ugh. What a pain. It should be called "Pain (in-the-you-know-what) Tape". Each door has 10 panes of glass, so you can multiply that times four (for each side of the frame) and multiply that number by two (2 doors) and you get a whopping EIGHTY pieces of tape that you have to put down and trim. No wonder I tried to take the shortcut to begin with.

Since I messed up enough times to finally figure out what worked and what didn't, I'm here to show you the fool proof, no bleed, no accidental paint removal method. Now you don't have to make the same dumb mistakes that I made. You're welcome!

First, cut a whole bunch of pieces of tape. I tore off about 8 pieces at a time so that I would have enough to tape off two windows without having to stop to tear off more pieces.

Then lay a piece of tape so that it just barely covers the frame of the window.

Then take your fingernail and run it along the edge of the frame to tuck the tape as far in there as you can get it.

Excuse my really weird looking finger.

Then, VERY SUPER CAREFULLY (please don't go cutting yourself and then bleed all over the place and come calling me saying you're gonna sue me for loss of blood/skin) run a razor blade down the crease.

Then peel that strip of tape away at an angle, like this...

When you put your next piece of tape down, you should overlap the corners like this...

And because of this little distraction....

"Hello. I need a haircut"

...and the fact that he wanted me to pick him up every two minutes while I was holding a razor blade, I left off here...

But, I'll be finishing up the taping and painting TONIGHT!

So I promise to post part two tomorrow.

Have you painted any doors an off color lately?

The absolute scariest moment of my life -aka- Charlie's trip to the ER

2013-01-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

There was a BIG HUGE SCARY thing that happened to us while we were in New Orleans that I left out of yesterday's post.

On the Saturday before Christmas, we went to eat more poboys (can you sense a running theme for this trip?) at Domilise's. By this day Charlie was showing signs of a pretty bad cold. He was super congested and not feeling all that great. It seemed like he'd be fine all morning but by noon-ish he would start to feel crappy again. You can see from the picture above and below, he was happy and smiling at lunch and pretty miserable right after when we headed to my dad's office to do a few x-rays on Mitch's tooth.

Charlie had slept the entire time we were at my dad's office but once we loaded him up in the car he started to have a really (REALLY) hard time breathing. We started to drive home but by the time we were 5 minutes away from the office, Charlie's breathing started to sound like a whistle. It was so scary. It was like he was trying to breathe through one of those tiny little coffee stirring straws. I felt completely helpless. I was in the back seat with him and he just kept looking at me with a completely terrified look on his face while he desperately gasped for a breath. Then all of a sudden his whole body started shaking. His arms went up to reach for me but his little hands shook so hard that he couldn't grab a hold of me. He tried to cry but it just came out like a tiny little whimper. I kept thinking that I was somehow going to have to breath FOR him. I was gonna end up having to pull him out of his car seat and do mouth to mouth just to get a full breath in for him. We knew then that we HAD to get him to a hospital, and we'd have to do it fast.

My dad's office is just around the corner from Touro. It's the hospital where I was born and where my dad is on staff. He asked if we wanted to go there or to Children's Hospital (which is a bit further away). My mind immediately went to Tripp. Children's was the hospital he went to when he was burned and where he died just days later. They still don't know what type of infection killed Tripp. I started to really panic. Just writing this makes me go light headed and tear up. I was so scared to go there and have what happened to Tripp happen to Charlie. I told my dad that he needed to make the decision. He headed back to Touro.

Thank God, when we walked into the ER we were immediately brought back to triage. No waiting hours and hours to be seen. No "you need to fill out this paperwork first". They just brought us right back to a very nice nurse who tried to get Charlie's heart rate. He didn't like the cold stethoscope on his back so he started to whine (still not able to cry) so I started singing his favorite sleepy time song, the ABCs. He immediately calmed down. And so did I. The nurse gave me a "Good job, mom!" It lightened the weight of the situation enough to calm me down just a little.

They slipped a name band on his ankle and started to walk us back to the ER floor but turned to the four of us and said "Only one of you can go in with him" I knew it would be me and I didn't want to leave my boy, but I was so nervous. I knew they would be asking questions and spitting out medical terms that I would never remember. You know when you go to a doctor's appointment and they start talking and it's like all of a sudden you don't even know the English language? I have that problem all the time. I almost wanted to send my dad in there with Charlie. I knew he would know what they were saying and could explain what was going on better than I could. But no. It was me. I walked back into that big scary ER with all those sick people. All those germs. All those surfaces covered in God knows what. I thought of Tripp again.

Everything was moving in slow motion as they pulled back the curtains to one of the larger "rooms". They were wheeling one used bed out and replacing it with a new one. That's when I saw it. Two huge HAZMAT bins on either side of the bed. They were the size of the garbage bins we get from the city for trash, recycling, and yard waste. They were enormous. My eyes kept darting back and forth to the both of them. I just kept thinking "This is it. The same thing that happened to Tripp is going to happen to Charlie."

They told me to sit on the bed with him in my lap. Just as I did, I looked up to see my dad and Mitch walking into the room. Thank the Lord. My dad was talking to an ER nurse named Nancy. They had know each other for years so when she saw him in the waiting room she immediately walked them back to be with me and Charlie. I was so thankful, but still so scared. So when she turned to me to say hi, my eyes started to well up. I felt that burning, tingling feeling all over my face and my chin started to shake. "hi. forgive me if I cry" was all I could get out. She nodded back and gave me a knowing smile that told me it was ok.

While we waited for Charlie's breathing treatment he was starting to get restless. I had Mitch come over to hold him. It gave me a chance to text my mom and snap a few shots of him. My poor guy. He looked so sad.

Charlie really liked the breathing treatment. It was like he knew exactly what to do. As the vapor poured out of the nebulizer, he stuck his face right in it. There was already a night and day difference in his breathing. No more whistling. No more panicked look in his eyes.

Poor nugget was exhausted by this point. He looked so little and helpless in that big ol bed.

They gave him a dose of Decadron, a steroid which helped with his inflamed larynx. Then they took an x-ray of his chest to make sure he didn't have pneumonia. The doctors finally diagnose him as having a really bad case of croup. To me it sounded like a child's version of bronchitis. They also kept mentioning that they might want to transfer Charlie to Children's to have a specialist look at him. By that time his breathing was completely back to normal. I knew there was no way in hell I'd bring him there at this point since he was doing so much better. My dad turned to me after they left the room and told me that if I didn't refuse the transfer that he would. I felt a little better knowing that he thought it wasn't necessary, too.

We were release just a couple of hours after we first got there, thank goodness. I didn't want to be there a second longer than we need to be. He took a few days to get better. There were lots of hours spent under a makeshift tent with the vaporizer blasting steam while we slathered baby Vicks on his chest. but we haven't had any issues with his breathing since then.

I'm sure lots of you know that as a parent, it's so sad to see our little babies sick. But it's beyond scary to see them struggle to breathe. Mitch and his sister have both had asthma since their teens so we know it's a possibility that Charlie might end up having it, too. We'll be monitoring him closely and trying to keep him from getting croup again any time soon! In the mean time, we have five vials of Decadron ready in our medicine cabinet...just in case.

Christmas in New Orleans - Photo Dump!

2013-01-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Slacker alert! It's January 17th and I'm just now posting stuff from Christmas. Sorry y'all. Much like the rest of the country, we've been fighting off cold after cold after cold with a case of rotavirus in between. It hasn't been pretty 'round these parts! Also, I had about a million pictures, so it was nearly impossible to edit all of them. Please forgive me if they're super dark, blurry, crooked, poorly lit, or just plain boring!

For Charlie's first Christmas we flew into New Orleans to stay with my mom and dad.

Here's the dude pre-flight being his little silly self.

And in-flight...

Woop! He slept for the majority of the flight!

The first full day we were there, my dad and I stopped off at City Park. I miss this place so much. It's like something out of a story book.

I can't get enough of the Spanish moss. If I weren't so afraid of being attacked by the little critters living in the moss, I would've grabbed a few handfuls and brought it back to put on our tree.

We went to Celebration in the Oaks one night to check out the lights.

You know Santa's gotta get those presents to the lil kiddies in on the bayou, so he navigates Southern Louisiana by pirouge and gator!

The weather was all kinds of crazy when we were there. Hot and muggy one day, and freezing cold then next. The night we went to Celebration in the Oaks it was pretty dang warm. I had hope that it would turn cool, but my flannel shirt had me sweatin most of the night.

Charlie LOVED all of the lights and music.

We even got scammed out of $3 (per person) for a 90 second ride on the carousel. It was Charlie's first time on one so that made it worth it :)

That's my sister, Katherine with goofy brother-in-law, Ben on the left in the picture above.

By the time we got to Story Land in the park, Charlie was sacked out. I decided to recreate the manger scene with the three little pigs as wise men and Charlie as baby Jesus. Turned out pretty good, huh?

The next day we went to Parkway Bakery for poboys.

Right as we sat down I overheard my sister say to Ben "That guy looks like he's been in a movie" then Ben said "Yea, he kinda looks like that Justin Long guy". Then Mitch glanced over his shoulder and said "That's because that IS Justin Long" So you know I had to sneak a picture. See, celebrities are just like us. They wait in long lines for delicious poboys, too.

Mitch kept saying he wanted to yell out "I'M A P.C.!!!" silly boy.

Then we walked through the River Walk. I made my sister push the nugget around. I had just told her it was practice for her future nuggets when I snapped this picture. Hence the "Heeeey! (are you crazy!!!!)" look on her face.

and we took some really cheesy pictures in a photo booth...

Then went home for rides on the hand truck.

Charlie doesn't look happy but he was actually highly amused.

On Christmas Eve-Eve we went to see the lights Downtown at Fulton Street.

Then we walked over to the Fairmont hotel to see the lights there.

...and then across the street to Jesuit church to catch everyone leaving mass.

Then I ran into a Saint who I'd never seen before. There was a girl kneeling at his statue praying, so when she got up to leave my dad and I asked her if she knew what the Saint's name was. She laughed and (with the cutest little Caribbean accent) said she didn't know either. She said that she told him that she was sorry she didn't know who it was and that she would look up his name as soon as she got home. I thought that was so sweet and funny.

Turns out it's St. Francis Xavier. What a head of hair that guy has!

Then we ran into a Saint who I could never forget. St. Anthony! High fives for baby Jesus!

On Christmas Eve we all drove up the Mississippi to St. James Parish to see the bonfires on the levee. Every year on Christmas Eve the people who live along the river build dozens of bonfires at the top of the levee to light the way for Santa to find his way down the river. It's basically a HUGE, free party with food, music, and fireworks. We sat in traffic for about 30 minutes before we parked the cars and walked up the levee.

I love the degrees of paleness in the picture below...

Charlie comes in first place, followed closely by my big, pale, glowing face, then my dad and Mitch tie for being slightly tan, followed by Ben, and then is you look reeeally closely, you can see my sister way over on the right.

On Christmas day we woke up early to go to mass then came home and ate left over Krispy Kreme.

Then we all ate lunch and passed out. I'd like to thank my sister for stealing my camera and getting this great shot of me, Charlie and Mitch sleeping on the couch and the next pic of her and Ben. Didn't find these til I was going through all of our pictures when we got back to San Diego.

Charlie was a MESS for the rest of the day.

He mostly just wanted to play with the ribbons and paper from the unwrapped gifts.

We only had a few days left after Christmas before we would have to fly back. So we tried to pack in as much NOLA time as we could. We went to eat at Superior...

Then took Charlie to City Park again to try out the swings... his first time!

Then visited some family at the cemetery. Did y'all know we bury people above ground? New Orleans is below sea level, so if we bury them below ground they would pop up and float away in a flood. Yuck.

The day before we left to go back to San Diego we went to the zoo....another first for Charlie.

And then we cried and flew back to San Diego. Boo. I hate leaving NOLA.

But we had a second Christmas to get back to at Mitch's parents' house...

The end!

11 Months Old - Charlie's Monthly Photo

2013-01-14T09:42:00.003-08:00

This lil nugget.

Boy, did time fly. It's crazy to think of how far he's come in just 11 short months. From a newborn little lump that barely moved to a walking, babbling, giggling, getting-into-EVERYTHING nugget.

This months pictures took longer than expected to post because the first shoot I did with him came out at a weird angle. Most of the time I can get him to sit in a chair and be somewhat still with the help of Mitch. But at the time he was curled up on the couch, sick as a dog. So I had Charlie sitting on the floor. But when I started to edit them I noticed that they didn't match any of the previous months when it came to the angle of the shot. So I had to wait for another super sunny day (not very common in San Diego this time of year) to shoot. I literally got one shot (the 11 month pic) and thought "good enough!" It just happened to match his 10 month shot almost exactly. You can see how fast his hair is growing between month 10 and 11.

Here are some outtakes from the first shoot that I really wanted to use but they just didn't flow with months 1-10. Oh well! I'm planning on making one huge print for his first 12 months to hang at his birthday party. Hopefully I'll get it done in time.

I'll be back tomorrow with a Christmas/New Orleans trip photo dump!

Happy New Year y'all!

Remembering Tripp

2012-12-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

REMEMBERING TRIPP

Yesterday I mentioned that I had a sad story to tell you. I don't mean to bring y'all down or make y'all upset, but there are just some stories that need to be told. Stories like these make you appreciate what you have and put your troubles into perspective. And we could all use a little bit of that this time of year.

Early last week I read a facebook update from my friend and high school classmate, Leslie. Her 20 month old son, Tripp had been burned on the afternoon of Sunday the 2nd and was being treated at Children's Hospital in New Orleans. There wasn't any more info on what kind of burn or how bad it was. She just asked us to pray for him.

I immediately thought the absolute worst things possible. I just kept picturing him badly burned from a fire... maybe he got too close to an open flame... or maybe he stuck something into an outlet and got an electrical burn. I didn't know.

Wednesday morning she wrote again. This time it just said "Please pray".

I knew it wasn't good. By the time I checked again on Wednesday night, there were already a couple of people who had written condolences on her page.

My heart hit the floor.

I just sat there in complete shock staring at the words on the screen. Her sweet boy, the one with the most contagious smile, the one who could turn your bad day good by just seeing the twinkle in his eyes, had passed. Texts started pouring in on my phone from mutual friends. We were all stunned. Crying and stunned. It's hard to formulate the words of how it feels when something like this happens to someone you know.

I couldn't sleep that night. I just kept thinking about Tripp, his momma, their families. My heart ached for them. How could this happen to such a healthy, happy little boy? It didn't make sense.

The following day her sister wrote a little more about what happened to him....

"On behalf of Leslie and Larry and the entire Quaintance/Marquez family, again, thank you for your support and prayers. I can't begin to describe the pain and the shock. Many of you are asking what happened and we hardly know ourselves. On Sunday Tripp pulled down a mat off the kitchen counter that had a coffee mug on top of it with steaming water. It fell on his chest and stomach and, although very sad, it was comparable to a sun burn..they brought him to Children's and they treated him and everything was a okay.

He developed a fever on Tuesday and, although Leslie didn't want to leave the hospital, the doctors told her it was nothing and he was fine...That it was probably

just a virus..By Wednesday at 4 am he was wheezing and Leslie and Larry rushed him back in. His little body went into shock...it was a serious infection, not related to the burn, that went undiagnosed. Our hearts are hurting more than I can possibly describe and life will never be the same. Please hug your babies a little tighter today...and please pray for our dear Tripp. Thank you."

How could he be fine and then gone within 24 hours? These two pictures we taken just a few hours before they were sent home last Tuesday....

That's not the face of a sick boy. It just doesn't make any sense.

I haven't been able to stop thinking of him.

And the most heart breaking thing of all is that I'm not sure if they'll ever find out what really happened.

It's just unimaginable.

Tripp's funeral was last Saturday. He was buried in his favorite outfit. A flannel shirt, a diaper, and his boots. They had all of his favorite things there too. Glow sticks, bubbles, balloons.... even a plane.

This picture is from the balloon release at the cemetery 100 white balloons with messages of love were released as a plane flew over with "Bless You Tripp" trailing behind.

If you look closely at the balloon release photo, you can see a butterfly between the plane and the wording. Leslie's cousin wrote this after the funeral that day

"So if this isn't enough to give you chills and warm your heart at the same time... We did a balloon release at Tripp's funeral and all wrote messages on them to send to our little buddy. This is a picture of his balloons released and his plane message. So at Amy's house afterward my sister Mandy and I saw a butterfly circling outside the kitchen window and he stayed there for like 10 minutes! So I brought a few people's attention to it and we all thought it was Tripp checking in on us. Then I was flipping through my photos and found Tripp floating through the sky here! Zoom in and check out the butterfly! Amazing! We love you Tripp!!"

Since then, the family has adopted the image and idea of the butterfly to represent Tripp.

I would really love it if y'all could check out and like Tripp's Facebook Page and see how amazing of a little boy he was. Hopefully you'll find his sweet smile and his love of all the little thing in life just as contagious as the rest of us do.

Now go hug your loved ones a little tighter tonight. Because, no one promised any of us a tomorrow.

10 Months Old - Charlie's Monthly Photo

2012-12-12T09:07:00.001-08:00

This is more than a little late. I took these pictures on December 1st but just edited them last night. I've been majorly sidetracked by a something very sad that I'll tell y'all about tomorrow.

For today, we'll keep it happy and light.

Here's my lil nugget. 10 months old. Boy, does the time fly.

Here are the out takes...

I made up a little story line to go with some of these pictures. It starts out with a common question around these parts...

"Charlie did you just fart?"

"Who?? ME??"

"Uhhhhh yeeeeeaaaa. It might've been me"

"No! It was daddy!"

"....teehehehe..."

"muuuuhahahHAHAHAAAAA"

ps: chunky's got 8 toofers now!

In these next two I had Charlie practice the "Throw me somethin', Mister!"

And I liked this next one because it really shows how big he's getting compared to little bear.

Here's his 1 month photo for comparison...

And check out all this hair! Holy crap, where did my little bald baby go?

Sometimes I wanna shave it all off so he'll look like a little nugget again.

Just kiddin. I wouldn't do that. Maybe.

See y'all tomorrow!

A Child's Voice Silent Auction

2012-11-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

Hi y'all! So my birthday is tomorrow and instead of being Greedy McGreedington and asking for presents, I want y'all to put your money to a really good use and check out A Child's Voice Silent Auction. I offered up one of my custom printable posters to help raise money for children and families in Uganda.

You might be wondering, Liz, where does my money go if I bid on one of the items? Well, I'll tell ya.

First off, the money will go to an emergency fund for families and children in Uganda who are referred to ACV and who are in a state of true personal crisis. ACV wants to help these families as soon as possible and won't have time to set up a fundraiser for each specific case. Their goal is to set up an initial fund of $2,000 for these types of emergencies.

They're also raising funds to start a small chicken farm! This will be a self-sustainable funding source for ACV, and most importantly creates jobs for parents. Their current plans are for a turnover of 1,000 broiler chickens every 10 weeks, at a profit of $3,000 every 10 weeks. This would be a HUGE boost toward meeting their monthly budgetary needs. But they need your help because they're trying to raise $8,000 for start-up costs and raising the first batch of chickens to maturity

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE visit

A Child's Voice Christmas Auction

to see some of the AWESOME items up for auction. They make for great Christmas gifts! Here are a few of my favorite items up for bid.

National Parks checklist map print (11x17") via Ello There

Block print linen dish towel set Pinwheel Print shop

Side Cross ring via TeriLee Jewelry

Coffee Cuff via Lovelyn Palm

Tooth Fairy Pillow with Chart via Loop Loft

HAPPY BIDDING!!!

Best of San Diego... A Guest Post

2012-11-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

Y'all, I'm dumb. Can I blame it on having a lil crawling nugget who is fascinated with yanking on every electrical cord within sight and slamming his tiny chubby fingers in every drawer within his reach? Good. Some days I can't seem to remember my own name, so when it comes to remembering to tell y'all about guest posts I've done for other people's blogs, I totally space. A few month ago (yes, MONTHS!) Staci from My Friend Staci asked me to write a blog post about San Diego. She was in the process of moving back here and asked a few bloggers to write a little post about their favorite things to do in the city.

Please go check out her blog (she has an AWESOME eye when it comes to decorating) and make sure you say hi!

Here's the link to my post and a picture from it :)

Read about the perfect Sunday in LA here

And the best of LA for FREE here

Faux Sneaux Flakes!

2012-11-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is a repost from last winter. Would you believe that the top SEO for this blog is "paper snowflakes"? I figured I'd give the people what they want. Plus, some of y'all are new here so you might find this to be a fun little FREE project. Happy crafting!!

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As a person who always seems to get scammed out of a good birthday (November 20th) with one of those combined birthday/Christmas gifts, I know how poor Thanksgiving feels to be overlooked every year. But this year, I have to say "Sorry Sucka!!!!" to Thanksgiving (well, the decorating part at least) to make way for some fun, wintry Christmas decor. That's right kiddos, I'm startin' early. And what's the best kind of seasonal decor? The FREE kind.

Last year I showed you how to make 6 point and (those non-anatomically correct) 8 point snowflakes, and I'm back again with a more detailed tutorial. Because, 1) I've misplaced most of my flakes from last year and have to stock up again, 2) I've been getting a TON of google search hits for paper flakes, and 3) cuz it's cheap as all get out and don't we all like that? Yes, I thought you would agree. See, that's why we're friends. Cheap people unite!Here's how ya do it...

Take a plain ol piece of printer paper (8.5x11")

...and fold it in half.

On the folded side, find your center mark...

...by folding it in half again and pinching the bottom corner.

Just pinch the corner, like this (see on the lower right?)...

I drew a little line so you can see where the center mark is...

Now fold the bottom corner up from that center point so that your bottom right corner is now pointing up near the top left corner

Press down to create a fold.

Then do the same with your lower left corner.

Fold that up to meet the top right edge.

Then fold that in half.

It will look like this...

Now you'll want to trim the excess.

See that short piece in there? You want to cut off everything that's past that edge.

Like this...

So you're left with the triangle piece (on the left in the pic below).

You can toss the extra bit that's on the right

Now draw your design. Try not to cut to far into the smallest angle (over there on the left in the picture below) because that will be the center of your flake. If you cut to far in, it will tend to fold in on itself. Keeping the center in tack will give you a strong flake. That's an oxymoron... but it's true.

I penciled in the areas that will be cut away.

Then cut, cut cut.

Once it's cut, slowly and carefully unfold the paper.

Be sure to press down on the seems as you open it.

It tends to want to fold back up on it's own.

Once it's open, you can place each flake in between the pages of a big, heavy book to get them super flat.

Then string them along a piece of fishing line or floss across the ceiling or tape them to your window.

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Wondering what designs I made to get the flakes in the collage pic up top?

Well wonder no more!

Here's the folded, cut piece (above) along with the open design (below)...

Now that I've completely overloaded you with paper cutting, go make some flakes and decorate!

Looking for a very inexpensive Christmas/Haunaka/Holiday gift?

Check out my Etsy shop for $25 custom printable posters!

*****CLICK HERE*****

9 Months Old - Charlie's Monthly Photo

2012-11-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

Here he is in all his chunky glory!

This chubilicious picture is from today's 9 month checkup

Yowzah

Here's months 1-9. It's pretty much insane how fast time flies when you have a lil nugget to watch after.

I think he'll be getting his first hair cut sooner, rather than later. Just a little trim to get rid of his wonky bangs and duck tail in the back.

Here are this month's out takes...

This one was my very favorite. But it was too blurry to make the final cut.

Making a turn on the invisible bike

You're getting veeeery sleepy.

sup, ladies?

Do you know where the weight room is?

Truffle Shuffle!

And the Halloween costume which you might have seen on Instagram

(my name is bontempsbeignet)

Do you have instagram, too? Let's find each other!!

Roxanne's coming to live with us!

2012-11-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

My dreams are FINALLY coming true.

We are getting a new sofa!

OH YEA

I search high and low for a sectional that fit the same layout of our current one, but kept coming up empty handed. So I finally gave in to the fact that we'd just have to replace it with a sofa and love seat.

Would you like to meet her?

BAM.

Hello, you gorgeous thing.

Every time I hear Roxanne, I think of that episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S where Pheobe want tickets to see Sting and Ross' son goes to school with Sting's kid but they don;t get along, so she sings to him "Rooooooss can! Get me the tickets". I guess you'd have to see it to get it ; )

Anyway.

Y'all would not believe how excited I am to get rid of the big grey turd.

Goobye butt couch! I won't miss you!

And now for some details. We bought Roxanne from a local San Diego furniture store last weekend and she's coming tomorrow. Which means ol stinky is going out on the curb and a "Free Crappy Sofa" listing is going up on Craigslist tomorrow morning. I asked Mitch if he'd rather take it out to the desert and set it on fire and/or use it for target practice.

Check out the details...

The seats are super deep and comfy. Not too soft and not too stiff. The only thing I'm a little worried about is the size. they're about 5 inches deeper than our current couch and a little bit longer too. So we'll have to do a little adjusting to get everything to look right.

Oh, and I didn't forget about Charlie's 9 month picture. I usually take it right after I get home from work, but with the time change it's been way too dark when I get home. I tried on Monday and this is what I got...

They were super dark and grainy, so I'll attempt to reshoot tomorrow when the sun is out.

More pics to come of both of my babies!!