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.

We Have a Little Announcement to Make...

After lots of tough times in this past year, we are ending 2013 on a high note!  Mr. B and I are expecting our little Baby Bee in June of 2014.  Now that things are out in the open (we announced on Facebook last week, and that makes it official, right?) it is starting to feel a bit more real!  It has been a rough couple months, sickness wise, but now that I am into the second trimester, I'm starting to feel much better.  Hopefully better enough to get back to blogging on a regular basis!  For now, I hope you enjoy the rest of the shots from our announcement photo shoot, all pics by my darling friend Brianna Mowry (thanks girl!).

San Francisco Recap

Hey there friends!  This past weekend we were lucky enough to have a four day weekend for our annual Fall Break and Mr. B and I decided to spend it up North (in Nor Cal for those into the slang).  We grabbed a couple of friends, jumped in the car and hit the road!  We left early Saturday morning and arrived in Palo Alto in the afternoon.  Palo Alto is absolutely gorgeous, I mean this is the local high school...

We got to catch the Stanford/Washington football game that night, which was awesome.  We love college football and it was super cool to see another school's stadium.

After the game we drove into San Francisco, which is one of my favorite cities in the world.  I love my city architecture so I was thrilled with the view out of our hotel window...

Of course, one of the highlights of SF is the shopping.  This is the local mall!  Hello stunning!

Sunday night we went to see Mr. B's favorite NFL team, the 49ers, take on the Houston Texans.  This is the Niners last year in Candlestick Park so it was cool to get to visit the stadium.  All I have ever heard about Candlestick is how freezing it is, but it was a gorgeous day and I barely needed a sweatshirt, even at ten o'clock!

And since it is October and breast cancer awareness, we got these awesome pink towels!

The sunset behind the stadium was so gorgeous...

The next day we did some driving around town and sightseeing...

Despite all my trips to the city, this was the first time I had actually stopped in the Golden Gate viewing area to take some awesome pictures.

We rounded out our trip with a visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum, which is a must for any Disney fan.  If you want to see those highlights, make sure you check out my Disney blog, Two Disney Darlings, next week!

Fall Fashion Inspiration

For those of you who don't live in Southern California, you are probably enjoying lovely fall weather right about now.  Of course, for us here in Los Angeles, it is still eighty degrees.  That hasn't stopped me from lusting over fall fashion.  I am all about the sweaters and boots, so fall is my favorite time of the year for clothes shopping.  These are some of my favorite looks of the moment, hopefully I will actually get to wear some of them soon!  (Click pic for original source, all pics via Pinterest.)

What's your favorite part of fall?  Are you looking forward to it as much as I am?

Wedding Wednesday: How to Reuse Your Wedding Decor

For me, one of the larger expenses (at least, of what was coming out of my own pocket and not one of our parents, thanks again, Mom!), was decor for our reception space.  While we definitely had a lot of DIY elements, a fair amount of goods still needed to be purchased.  One way I am making those purchases worth it is by reusing some of my favorite decor pieces.  With a little easy makeover, a lot of pieces can go from reception to your home!  This green B was a super cool find.  It is a metal letter that I found at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.  We used a circusy font on our invitation, and the shape of the letter fit in perfectly with that motif.  I painted the B green just by using craft paint (before I really knew what I was doing with painting).  It has been sitting around our house for a while, so I decided to give this B an update!

First, I sanded down the B and got rid of some of the bumps.  It smoothed out the old paint and gave me a fresh surface to paint.

Then I took gold spray paint and gave the B a few thin coats.  The key to spray paint is to make sure you do quick strokes, keep your hand moving so there are no paint clumps.  Thin coats are super important as well.

Then I moved the B into our dining room and put it on my favorite piece of furniture, this turqoise buffet (click here if you want to see how I painted the buffet!).

I'm not sure where the B will live permanently, but I love the way it came out.  Not only do I get to make good use of my purchase, but it's a constant reminder of my favorite day ever!

DIY: Gold Painted Milk Bottles

Hello there all!  So excited to bring you another super easy DIY project today.  I actually made these to display in my home, since I am trying to incorporate more gold.  They can be done in any color, but I love the bit of glam that gold brings to the table!  Here is what we are making today:

And here's how to make these babies!

1.  Gather supplies: milk bottles (I found these at Ikea, you could also use the Starbucks bottles), gold spray paint, painter's tape, and a sponge brush.

2.  Tape of the areas of the bottle you don't want painted.  I decided to make all three of mine look different for some variety, but you could do them however you want.

3.  Now it is time for the fun part, the painting!  Make sure you are painting in a well ventilated area and cover your surface before you begin.  For these bottles, I wanted a little bit of texture, so I sprayed the bottle all around and then wiped the sponge brush all around the painted areas.  This helped give the bottles a little more interest, but you could certainly skip that step if you wanted a smoother look.

I really love how these guys turned out and I can't wait to display them in my house!