Tekhni Ceres Coastal

I have FINALLY ordered a woven conversion ring sling (WCRS)!! I have been eyeing these & wishing I owned one (well, really if we're wishing here, then I wish I owned them ALL). I was hesitating because, well, they're not cheap. And also, there are like a million options out there. It was a little overwhelming at first, so I would just join a BUNCH of different Facebook baby wearing groups and eye all of the other mamas' wraps and ring slings and stalk their posts to see what they had to say about them. The main brands I kept seeing/stalking were Didymos, Pavo, Girasol, and Tekhni. I kept leaning towards Girasol because my sister in law got really interested in them and kept showing me all of their prints (and man, they are BEAUTIFUL!). So I finally chose a few prints that I  liked and started searching for them on the B/S/T boards. Of course my print didn't come up, but a couple of other runner ups were up for sale. Yet, no sale went through, either others picked it up before I could or the seller was kind of "eh" during our exchanges. Finally a Tekhni Ceres Coastal ring sling popped up at an awesome price and I immediately fell in love with the color and print. I didn't want to miss another great sale so I jumped on it immediately! I started asking the mama a million and one questions about the sling since I'm pretty much a total beginner and have never seen or held a Tehkni in person. She was so, so kind and helpful and answered every one of my questions. (I definitely judge a sale by the seller, and if the seller is awesome and helpful I will almost always buy just because I feel like they deserve it, haha! And in the same fashion, if they aren't so nice and helpful, I usually will pass and decide that I can wait to buy from someone else. Note to self: always be kind when selling!)

Anyway, since I literally just sent her paypal funds hours ago my RS is obviously not here yet. But I am just SO excited, I had to document this somewhere. I really, really hope that this RS is love for baby L and I. I have mastered our Ergo and Lillebaby, and we love and adore both. Now I want to try out a WCRS because I love the fact that they are so easy to throw in my diaper bag and so easy to get baby in and out. We tried a linen one a month or two ago, and it just was not supportive enough for my 24 lb toddler. However, I think for smaller babies it would have been great. I carried my much smaller niece (12 lbs) and it was great with her. I just knew I needed to upgrade to a woven if I wanted to have the proper support for baby L and I.

Oh! And did I mention that Tekhni got even more awesome as I started to read up on the brand. First of all, it's based right out of the US by a fellow mama, woohoo! Second, she is among a few other companies that have started to use Repreve in their fabrics (my ring sling is made from 45% repreve). Forgive me if I don't get this completely right, I literally just learned about repreve a couple of hours ago. But from my understanding it is recycled bottles made into fabric, WOW! I though it was so awesome to be supporting a business right here in our backyard and even more awesome that she was using recycled products in her wraps. Then I started to read some other mamas' reviews on her wraps and apparently her wraps are just plain awesome. The main thing I kept reading was that Tekhnis are "wool without the wool".  I personally have not had a wool wrap but from what I understand wool is great because it is cushy and bouncy, keeps you warm when it's cold out and cool when it's hot out. BUT they are extremely delicate and kind of hard to care for, plus can irritate those with sensitive skin. The great thing about Tekhni that I keep reading is that it acts like wool but since it really isn't wool, it doesn't irritate the skin and isn't a hassle to care for, woohoo!

So pretty much this is just a post of me rambling on about a ring sling  I don't technically have yet, ha! But I am just so excited that I will soon be in possession of it I had to share somewhere. Plus it'll be great to look back on this and see if it lived up to all of my expectations ;) So here is my first step into the woven wraps world. From what I hear it is a slippery slope from here and I may soon be obsessed and have a need to OWN THEM ALL, hehe ;) 

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"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:14




****UPDATE: We eventually received our ring sling, & we LOVE it! Tekhni has more than lived up to all the hype. Here is a pic of us in it :) 

Dresser Repainted!

So I have been telling my hubby how much I have been wanting to try out this new fad, chalk paint. We purchased a gorgeous media stand for a little over $300 a few months ago. I absolutely love it, but  I realized that this is totally something we could have done ourselves. After hyping my husband up he finally bought a dresser that he found at our church's thrift store for only $10! Now, I am SERIOUSLY kicking myself right now because I forgot to take a "before" picture before he started the project, AHHH!! I knew he was going to do it today but baby L (who is sick, poor baby :( ) wanted to nurse, so I took a break with him in our room and gave him "milky" for about 10 minutes. Then immediately jumped outside to start taking pictures before he started, except he had already started! I caught him before he put on the paint, but he had already taken off the hardware :( So I have a some semi-before shots.

So note to self: ALWAYS take a before shot before hubby jumps into project without you :/

Anywho, so this dresser. I LOVE it. When my husband brought it home I loved it immediately. I could see through the ugly, totally outdated brown & what it could be. It has these awesome totally unique hardware. I immediately started doing some research and read a few blog posts but my favorite one was by LiveLoveDIY. Since this was our first try at something like this I decided to basically do everything she suggested. I told my husband which chalk paint to get at Home Depot and all of the great tips she had. My husband actually paints professionally and does little DIY projects at work all the time, so I don't think he was really listening to me and just kind of did his own thing anyway, LOL.

Now to the project...

Here are my sad "before" pictures

Note to self: Make sure hubby organizes hardware better next time, or at least get the proper before picture. He had a hard time remembering where everything went after he was done! (you'll see why when you see the finished product & see how much hardware is on this thing!)

Once hubby got all of the hardware off, he started painting. Awesome thing about chalk paint is that you literally just start painting, no sanding, no priming, nada.

He did the first coat really light, he thought he would like it better if the brush strokes were more visible, but when we took a look at it we decided one more coat would look better (probably could have avoided 2 coats if he just did a thicker 1st coat).

This stuff dries FAST. Granted it was nice and sunny out, but pretty much by the time he was done painting, the dresser had already dried. Awesome! So he was able to put the drawers back in and screw all the hardware back in right away.

And voila!

This is before the hardware, looks beautiful in my opinion! And not bad for a first try ;)

See what I mean about the hardware? Gorgeous! Hubby thinks it's a little bit much though, he may tone it down a bit. We will see. Next step is to wax it and make room in our cute tiny little apartment for it. Will have to take pictures when it's completely done and we have it in its new spot!

By the way, one jar of the chalk paint was more than enough. Pretty sure hubby has some of it left over too. Will see how much wax we end up using this week :)

When you can't sleep..

It is midnight and I am finally winding down for the night (typical life of a mother). Like other moms, my only down time is during the nights. The baby is down, sleeping peacefully. The husband is also down sleeping peacefully, snoring away. I love my son and I love my husband but, boy oh boy, do I love my quiet time. 

As I lay here on my new laptop (thank you Jesus!) next to my precious son and my snoring (but also precious!) husband, I can't help but be filled with love. I am so very in love with my family, and so very thankful to my Heavenly Father for giving them to me. I often stop to just think about them; to look at my son and his perfect skin, hair, eyelashes, cute little rolls, and think to myself, "This is too good to be true. He is too perfect. Dear God, help me to take care of this little blessing You have for some reason entrusted me with." And when I think of my husband and all he has done for me and all that he is to me, I fall in love all over again. This was the 17 year old boy I met at church, and thought, I'm going to marry that guy (of course, I never told him that until AFTER we actually got married). I am so thankful to God that he has been so faithful to me and has answered the quiet prayers of my past timid, young self. I have dreamt and prayed for my family long before I even knew them. I have to say that I would encourage anyone else to do the same in their singleness. To be able to look back on those prayers and to see how God has answered them is a huge blessing and reminder to me that God hears and is faithful. Because, let's face it, there will be hard times. And sometimes those tiny little reminders are the big things that get us through it. 

Off to bed now while thinking of my many blessings and answered prayers. Thank you God for them all. <3

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"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" Romans 8:28

Everybody's Doing It...

I have FINALLY created a blog. Woohoo! Go me! Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook (whatever other social media is out there) has finally pressured me into joining other modern day moms to join the blogging world. Not to mention finally getting a laptop so I can do all this in my cozy bed while baby and hubby sleep. :-P
Here goes nothing. I have absolutely no idea what I am doing by the way. The last time I can remember doing something like this was back when we had Xangaa, who remembers that??! It took me a while to get the hang of that, but eventually I learned all the basic HTML stuff to make my site look very hip and cool. So just give it some time, and my blog will also be hip and cool ;).