Baby on the way and so thankful!

Posted on November 26, 2013 by aubriduran

If you are friends with me on Facebook or our blog’s Facebook you might have heard WE’RE PREGNANT! Yay!

Matt and I could not be MORE excited or MORE grateful for this gift on the way!

Pregnancy details thus far:

Due date: May 8, 2014

How far along: I’ll be 17 weeks on Thanksgiving

Sickness: YES! I was sick the whole first trimester. I had morning sickness, mainly in the morning but felt nauseated the WHOLE DAY. I was also extremely tired. I only went home from work twice but I really struggled the whole way through. I had moments towards the end of the first trimester that I was really functional (aka cooked like crazy and picked up the house) but to be honest with you I was pretty down and out for most of it. Around week 13/14 I started feeling better. I still need an extra nap now and then and sometimes I eat something the baby didn’t like but it’s VERY different from the first trimester.

Gender: We find out the gender December 9! Hopefully the baby corporates. We don’t care if it’s a boy or a girl, just praying for a healthy baby!

Showing: Yes! Or at least I think I am. See the bump in my stomach from the pictures? Well it’s usually not there. My jeans started to get uncomfortable to button at 10 weeks and by 13 weeks I didn’t even try to button them anymore. All other clothes pretty much still fit except if I wear a pencil skirt to work I may not zip it up all the way 🙂 I did get some maternity jeans with Lindsay a few weeks ago and they have been WONDERFUL but sweat pants are still my favorite right now.

Cravings: Nothing crazy but mostly stuff I loved before… ice cream, burgers, bread and cheese, fruit, water, smoothies, french fries. Some healthy, some not so healthy. Finding the right balance has been confusing to me. Mentally it’s so strange to be good with gaining weight but not gain too much weight. Still figuring that one out!

Telling people: We first told our parents at 8 weeks after our first appointment. It happen to be right before my birthday so I wrapped the ultrasound photos up in a box and told them this was the best birthday present I’ve ever gotten and I wanted them to open and see it. All four of their reactions were different and priceless! It was a special moment to me. After our 12 weeks appointment we started to tell all of our other family members and close friends. After my 16 week appointment (yesterday) we decided to share on social media and with YOU!

Movement: Yes! I wasn’t sure what I was feeling at first and it’s very delicate but it’s the most gentle little taps. It’s so sweet and I try to pay attention every time it happens. I can’t wait for Matt to be able to feel a real kick in the coming weeks.

These photos were taken by my very talented friend, Kati Mallory of Kati Mallory Photo & Design. We did a quick, fun shoot. Their are a few other pictures but I’m saving those for our Christmas card. Stay tuned and Happy Thanksgiving!

Puppy Love

Posted on September 17, 2013 by aubriduran

It’s no secret that we got a puppy. A super cute one named Dexter. He’s a golden doodle and an absolute doll! He’s super friendly and when you meet him for the first time he will make you feel so special and lick you to death. I love seeing him so friendly to everyone he meets!

Aside from being on cloud 9 from all the cuteness in our house puppies are a lot of hard work! I don’t think Matt and I really understood when people tried to tell us. We probably thought “oh you just had a difficult dog… or it’s just hard for you but we will make it work!” Oh how little did we know! The first few nights (and days) were rough on all of us. Dexter whined or cried every few hours and he had lots of accidents (one #2 accident I saw coming and caught in mid air with my hand towel as I was washing my face… my husband was hysterically laughing).

With that said everything is SO much better now. He sleeps all night in his crate but still wakes up just a little before we would prefer 🙂 He hasn’t had an accident in days but this is partly learning on our part too. We know about how long he can wait until he needs to go again.

The biggest challenge we still deal with is chewing and biting (because he needs something to chew on and that might be you!). He hasn’t destroyed anything but we’ve given him less freedom to roam so he won’t. We also try to make him tired at night by taking him on walks around the neighbor. Thankfully the weather is perfect for this right now and we’ve got a great backyard for him to do lots of running and playing.

We seriously can’t handle the cuteness sometimes. We just smother him with kisses and tummy rubs. But I’m glad the puppy stage is just a “stage” and we get to see what grown up Dexter will be like someday. Hopefully he’s still his friendly, adorable self but just a bit calmer 🙂

PS I’ll take any and all puppy advice out there!

How to make your own envelope liners

Posted on September 10, 2013 by aubriduran

Have you been seeing super cute envelope liners on Pinterest with these gorgeous invitations and you are probably thinking that costs a fortune?! Well I can’t really speak for the invitations because those could have really cost a fortune! But I’m going to show you how to make custom envelope liners for not a lot of money.

Custom envelope liners I made.

There are a few other envelope DIY envelope liner tutorials out there but I have two major tips that I’ve learned through trial and error. I’ve learned to use spray glue (little more work up front but much better coverage) and use your favorite wrapping paper! Lindsay always thinks I’m crazy every Christmas for using expense Container Store wrapping paper instead of the dollar store but I just love how nice and thick it feels plus it’s gorgeous… yes, I’m a paper nerd! But if you’ve ever been interested in have envelope liners for your personal stationary or Christmas cards you can do it and save a lot of money instead of buying the pre-made ones like on Etsy.

Materials:

Paper Source’s envelope liner template kit

Paper Source envelopes

Your favorite wrapping paper*

x-acto knife

Cutting board

3M Super 77 spray glue

scrap paper or newspaper

Optional Materials:

ruler or straight edge

dusk mask

* The roll I bought above was $5 wrapping paper from Michael’s. Any medium to good quality wrapping paper should work. Just don’t get the super cheap kind that could rip easily when you are cutting.

Step 1: Cut your envelope liner out carefully with an x-acto knife. You can also trace it with a pencil and cut it out with scissors. Be sure you are cutting on the side you will be gluing, this will help hide any small mistakes. If you use an x-acto knife please be careful!

Step 2: Gather all your materials for spray gluing. I do this in my garage and as you can see it’s not glamorous! I use 3M spray glue, a face mask and paper to spray glue on.

Step 3: Spray glue just the top half of the envelope liners and about an inch below the fold. Don’t spray glue the whole thing, you’ll never get it in the envelope. Let the glue sit for about a minute before placing it in the envelopes.

Step 4: Place spray glued envelope liner inside envelope. This will be tricky at first so get a few testers going first. I try to place my hand down in with it then let it stick to the envelope.

Note: I’ve used the roll tape double side glue before and it is easier upfront but when you open up your envelope it tends to fall apart and not stick as well.

I think the extra effort is well worth the end result. Everyone will be so impressed and excited with the mail you’ve sent them!

Envelope from the top

Summer Favorites

Posted on August 20, 2013 by aubriduran

I feel like summer is slipping through my fingers with all this talk about school starting (FYI for the first time in our marriage Matt is NOT starting school this fall… woohoo!) and this amazing fall like weather. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE the fall. I can’t wait for pumpkin lattes, mums on my front porch and college football but that’s for a different post. Today I want to talk about some of my favorites things from this summer.

1. Grilling: Every house needs some kind of grill, right?! Well since we’ve been in an apartment the past 4+ years we’ve been holding out on a proper grill till now. We found a great deal on one at Home Depot and use it several times a week. And lucky for me Matt has seriously mastered the perfect grilled chicken, steak and burgers. I’m not even kidding. I’m going to be sad when it’s too cold to eat like this for dinner every meal.

2. Crepe Myrtles: Also since buying house and learning about the world of keeping up with a lawn I have fallen in love with Crepe Myrtles. Pictured above are the beautiful ones in front of our house. I love laying on our bed or sitting on our front porch swing (when it’s a little cooler) and just staring at all the pretty colors. But really I’m not just a fan of my own Crepe Myrtles, I love seeing these colorful trees all over town!

3. La Croix: I can not get enough of this drink. I drink one at least once a day. Lindsay introduced me to the lime and coconut flavor. I TRY to keep the sugary drinks to a minimum (I save the sugar for my coffee… it’s a must!) but with no sugar and no caffeine I can drink these, as Lindsay would say, “like it’s going out of style.”

4. Fresh produce: Summer can bring some incredibly hot heat but the gift of fresh produce almost makes it worth it. Just as I mentioned above about our love for grilling this summer it also goes with our love to grill or roast summer veggies. We love tomatoes, corn, squash, zucchini, okra, bell peppers, cucumbers and probably whatever else you put in front of us. Thankfully we’ve gotten most of our produces from either our neighbor’s garden (who also happens to be our pastor and his wife) or my in-laws garden.

5. Salsa: I make Pioneer Women’s restaurant salsa about once a week. It makes a big batch and it’s my go-to snack. I’ll tweak her recipe here and there with making it a little warmer but it’s a definite staple to my summer eating.

Summer is almost gone so be sure to enjoy those things you love most about summer while you still can!

Aubri

Duran Home Makeover :: part 1

Posted on August 13, 2013 by aubriduran

Among a million other things going on in our lives the past few months buying house is one of the big ones! We LOVE our house and thought it was the cutest thing we’ve ever seen. We love the front porch, back porch, the layout, the neighborhood, the big yard and the potential to really make it our own. But by no means is it perfect… it does not have my dream Pinterest kitchen or my dream bathroom or even the right shade of gray on the walls but we will make it ours in time.

Sorry about the rainy pic. It’s been raining like crazy in Little Rock lately. Yay for green grass!

I’ve been working hard at these flower beds!

We’ve got several home improvement projects lined up for the next couple of months. First up, take off the popcorn ceilings and replacing the carpet. It might not sound like that big of a project but check out Matt below in our stairwell trying to get to the popcorn ceiling… yikes!

I love how just last week Susanna wrote about how she got her popcorn ceilings removed BEFORE they moved in. I couldn’t agree more! If you can get it done before you move in, do it. We just didn’t have that kind of time because we were moving from a different state and needed somewhere to live (with all our stuff) when we got here.

This weekend we got a LOT of head way on our to-do list. Check out the photos below!

If you’d like to see Matt scrape off the popcorn ceilings live check out my Instagram post. Don’t worry we didn’t try anything fancy, we tried to stay focused! However, at the beginning of the day I was not excited about the work ahead but by the end of the day I felt very accomplished.

While we are proud of our progress from this weekend we’ve still got a ways to go! Living in a renovation space is not my favorite thing (EVERYTHING gets dusty) but seeing the progress is encouraging! I will keep y’all updated on the status every few weeks.

Stay tuned!

The New Girl

Posted on August 6, 2013 by aubriduran

I’m so excited to be the new girl on the Mrs. & the Misc. blog. Lindsay is one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world so it’s fun to join her and the other girls on this blog.

Not only am I the new girl to this blog but I’m the new girl in just about every area of my life lately since we’ve moved back to Arkansas… Work, church, our neighborhood… even the grocery store (although I now know where my favorite dark chocolate bar is located so everything else I’ll learn in time!).

Being a graphic designer, I decided the best way for you to get caught up on my life is through an infographic timeline.