Easy Maternity Belly Band

The inevitable has started to happen.  Some of my skirts are getting hard to zip up all the way. I have been eye-ing material and patterns on pinterest on how to make a belly band so I can stay in my regular skirts as long as possible.  As I am just about to enter my 2nd trimester and my skirts are starting to risk falling off if I unzip them any more without some aid!! 
When my husband and I were in Manhattan I spotted a clearance rack for 50 cents at a store- that is my kind of clearance!  There wasn't a lot to choose from, just XL knit shorts.  Wait a minute...XL knit shorts could make a perfect belly band!  I checked them over and they seemed to have just what I needed, and for 50 cents, how could I at least not give it a try! 

I loved the results:  In about 10 minutes the material went from  shorts to belly band, and all for 50 cents!!

 Here are the shorts before they got transformed.  

I just cut the legs off, the part where they were sown together.

I planned to have the waist be the part that showed as the band, so I didn't have to make any changes to that because it fit perfectly.  But it left a lot of excess material with the part that I wanted around my belly.  So I just added darts- 

2 in the front and 3 in the back, was just what it needed to stay up but not be too snug, so it will fit a growing baby and belly.  The knit material makes it stretchy enough to grow with, but the darts made it so it wouldn't fall off.  I trimmed the material inside the dark so there wouldn't be any extra bulk. 

And...I was DONE!!!

I love how it turned out.  :-) 

This is the side where the zipper is and there is no bulk or bumps, even though the skirt is unzipped halfway.  Perfect!

Thanksgiving

     It was my first Holiday away from home, that coupled with I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep my food down or not made me wonder how my first Thanksgiving would be here.  It went great- I was overwhelmed all day at how much I have to be thankful for.  I am living my dream- married to a sweet, godly man, a baby on the way, our bills paid, a pretty house that the Lord provided us with, so much new to be thankful for- church, friends, family, and all the "old" that has stayed the same
- my family and friends back home.  I am so blessed! :-)  Add to that- I even kept my thanksgiving dinner down, (temporarily) and got to go Black Friday shopping with my sister-in-law and another sweet girl from church and we got some great deals at Kohls.   AND we even had a puppy in the house (I have missed having animals around) to celebrate Thanksgiving with us- he is here for training for 2 weeks. 

 So much hard work and good food!

 A full table- even though we missed the oldest

three who are in college. They will be home for a month at Christmas.

 My plate was full and overflowing. 

And this was my first round! :P

 

Standing in line for 1 1/2 hours at Kohls- but it was worth it!

The cashier was so nice to us and gave us a 30% off discount and scanned her $10 

off anything coupon for all 3 of us.  Plus getting $15 Kohls cash- we made out like bandits!!

It's true- the more you know the more you Kohls.  

 

 Thank you Lord for all your blessings!!

My absence

Well, I started this blog with great intentions, but I haven't been doing a lot of updating on here lately.
The reason????  It's been pretty crazy!  I traveled back home to Rochester two weeks ago for a long-time friend's wedding, and then I attended a huge photography expo with another friend this past week.  Before that I took 2 3-day seminars of marketing, branding, and posing and I have been working on moving my business here and all that entails. 

 
      Also, we are going to be making our home sweet together a little different, changing things up a little.
We found out we are going to be adding two feet to our home.  The actual addition won't be until next Summer, but a lot of the beginning preparation is being done now.  So, in essence we are:

Though the house isn't actually growing any bigger, 

it sure will be a lot sweeter with those two little feet around.  

That's right!! Our addition is 2 BABY feet!!!!  :-)

Coming in June, 2013. 

Thanks to these two little feet coming, 

I have been really sick and the smell of cooking food is NOT my friend now.

My husband has been more than gracious as he tries to scrounge up meals from here and there and he never complains, even though his preference is 3 hot meals a day.  I am blessed right now if I can make that many a week.  :P  

So my home-making efforts right now are all being poured into growing those two little feet inside me.  :-) 

Thus, my absence!  I can't even go on Pinterest right now- the thought of all or any of that food cooking grosses me out and sends me headed for the porcelain bowl.  Peter says they should hire me at the airport to sniff out bombs, because I can smell EVERYTHING right now.  A common conversation will be, "do you smell our neighbors making spaghetti and meatballs?"  "Did you put cayenne pepper on your food?" "Why do your hands smell like baby wipes- oh yeah, that's your lotion smell." 

Crazy times!! And I thought some pregnancy symptoms were stereo-typical...boy have I learned a lot!

 

"The pitter patter of tiny feet
leave behind something dear and sweet
a precious treasure for me to keep
the memories of your tiny feet"