DIY: Valentine's Day Mason Jar

Hello lovelies and happy Monday!  I am finally getting back to crafting, and I have to say, I missed it!  It's feels good to be stretching my creative muscles and doing something other than sitting on the couch and watching reality TV.  And that means I have a project to share with you!  Here is what we are making today!

First, gather your supplies:  a Mason jar, a heart cutout, glitter, Mod Podge, a paint pen, and a small brush.

Using the paint pen, lightly trace the shape of the heart on your Mason jar.

Take the small brush and dip it in the Mod Podge.  Carefully trace the outline of the heart and then cover in the glitter.

Once the outline is glittered, fill in the rest of the heart with the Mod Podge (just slap it in there!) and cover the rest of the heart with the glitter.

Once the Mod Podge is completely dry, take a wet paper towel and wipe away the excess glitter.  It's always a good idea to seal glitter projects, either with another coat of Mod Podge or with a spray sealer.

Here is the glitter heart Mason jar as part of our (unfinished as of now) Valentine's Day "mantle".

We are slowly but surely getting into the Valentine's Day spirit over here!  A couple more projects and this place will be all pinked out!

Nursery Inspiration

When we found out we were having a boy, I had to do some rethinking when it came to the nursery.  I looked back to my Pinterest board and saw lots of pink, frills, and sparkler.  I'm not one for gender stereotypes, but I didn't think the idea of a pink glitter nursery would go over too well with our little man.  So it was back to the drawing board (or Pinterest board) for me!  These are some of my favorite inspiration pics that I have found so far.  (Click pic for original source, all pics via Pinterest.)

We haven't made any firm decisions yet, but we will definitely be sticking with a neutral color palette with some pops of bright color.  And I love the alphabet gallery wall, so that is an option as well.  Which one is your favorite?

Fall Instagram Dump

I know I have made it seem like I've been a total hermit the past couple of months--and that's not too far off the mark--but I have managed to get out of the house a couple of times.  These are some of my fall/early winter highlights from Instagram, to prove I have actually done some stuff!

This was an Etsy order I completed for a bridal party, absolutely loved this custom design.

My beloved UCLA Bruins made it to the top ten!  They didn't stay there, but that is just a small detail.

This is what happens when Mr. B does the laundry...

My darling friends over at Delovely Details made this awesome Star Wars themed tree for a Boys and Girls Club fundraiser.

We hosted Thanksgiving and this was our table set up.

We got to share our good news with our friends and family!

This little tree with all of our "fun" ornaments always ends up being way cuter than our big, fancy tree.

I took Mr. B to a Kings game for Christmas and we ended up seeing our first shootout!

Our awesome friends and family have started buying us adorable little outfits for our little man.

I braved the Polar Vortex and survived a trip to NYC with a group of students.

In NYC we saw an amazing production of Cinderella, seriously one of the best shows I've ever seen.

And got to see this beautiful lady up close!

Mr. B and I ran our second annual Neverland 5k at Disneyland...

...and we actually finished!

Okay, not nearly as eventful as a typical three month span, but we still had some good times in between all the naps!  I'm sure there will be many more fun things happening in life coming up in these next few months!

Personal Post: An Update and Where Do I Go From Here?

Hello lovelies!  It has been quite some time since I have posted on a regular basis, and I'm not going to lie, most days I have been too tired to care!  But as I am starting to feel like more of a human being again (granted, still a human being who is growing another human being) I am starting to miss my usual past times of crafting and blogging.  I wish I had some awesome project to share with you today, but I don't because I have not done anything creative in the past five months!  Getting through the holidays was rough rather than enjoyable and the few times I sat down to write, nothing worthwhile could come into my exhausted brain, let alone make it from my brain to the computer.

In short, pregnancy has been tough so far.  Working full time and managing the exhaustion has taken a lot out of me.  Luckily, my dear husband and my friends and family have been awesome and so supportive, and that has made the whole process so much easier.  I have still managed to have some fun, which I will share with you tomorrow in my Instagram dump, but most of my days consist of going to work, coming home and going to bed.

I am now halfway through my pregnancy and things are starting to feel pretty real.  In four months, I will be responsible for another human being!  Panicked might be a good way to describe the feelings when I actually sit down and think about it.  But I have to start thinking about some of the practical things.  Like what am I going to do about maternity leave and child care?  And these are scary things to think about.  Because of our awesome timing, Baby Bee will be born at the end of the school year, which means both Mr. B and I will be off of work for the first two months of Baby's life.  Which will be awesome.

The hard part is what to do after.  I would love to cut down to working part time, which would be every other day for me at my current school.  But that is a scary thought.  Losing part of our income and giving up the security of my full time job is slightly terrifying.  But it may be the terrifying push that I need to really start trying to make something of my writing and blogging.  I have applied for a couple of freelance writing positions that, of course wouldn't pay all the bills, but would help if I were to go part time.  And there is the far off, someday dream of eventually making money blogging.  I know well enough by now (I have been blogging for over three years) that money from blogging does not come easily, but it is possible.

On the other hand, once that little one gets here, I might not care about blogging and writing at all!  As I have no experience in this area, I have no idea what life is going to be like come June.  All I know is that life is going to be changing, drastically.  As a planner and type A personality, it's hard for me to not be able to answer the question Where do I go from here?  I guess we will just have to wait and see.