Alexis the 2 week old beach bum!

Well after a long, rainy, June....beach season has finally arrived in Vancouver. And all I can say is thank goodness Alexis likes the outdoors because part two of my list includes plenty of family outings! 

She's pretty comfy with Daddy in the Bjorn at her first beach BBQ to celebrate our friends' birthday (#27....check)

The following day we spent a few hours relaxing at the beach and enjoying some fresh air....I think it made her sleepy! Maybe she wasn't waiting for me to finish the first half of my list after all....my little summer baby was just waiting for the sunshine! 

♥ Lindsay

Welcome to the world Alexis!

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our beautiful baby girl!

Alexis James Bradley Trudel 

June 27, 2012 at 1:50pm

6lbs 14 oz. 

The Trudel Family is home, happy and enjoying lots of snuggles and cuddles!! 

 ♥ Lindsay

40 weeks + 4 Days....do you think the baby saw my unfinished before baby list?

As much as I have been keeping busy with crafting, yoga, shopping and watching an embarrassing number of Gilmore Girl episodes (and yes, we did go for delicious waffles again at Patisserie Lebeau.....and yes, they are still as delicious as ever) I must admit that since my due date has come and gone with no baby yet..... I am getting pretty anxious. I keep telling myself that this is normal....and really 'due date' is kind of a misnomer anyway....I think it should be called 'guess date' or 'due month'. I must admit I have tried a few of the labour inducing recommendations that can be found all over the internet and everyone knows the internet is always right (haha), but let's be honest....I am pretty sure that these lists just give women something to do while waiting to feel like they are in control of something that they actually have no control over! I have also read some interesting things about releasing fears or blocks that are preventing women from feeling truly ready for baby (either consciously or subconsciously) and I can't help but wonder.....is the baby waiting for me to finish my list? It is called 'things to do before baby' after all, so maybe she is timing her arrival for when I check off those last two items? Interesting theory....no? So tonight I will be crocheting my little heart out to finish that blanket and tomorrow Ty and I will head to the Museum of Anthropology to use our free passes and if my theory is correct....baby will arrive shortly after. Ok, so maybe this is wishful thinking and really just gives me a few more things to keep me busy during this ultimate waiting game but hey it can't hurt right? 

♥ Lindsay

Return of the sunshine!

Dear Vancouver weather Gods....thank you for the sunshine finally! It is officially summer and I am glad to see you are finally acting like it! Although the last few weeks of some very...ahem....un-June-like weather (to put it nicely) has given me the perfect chance to do peruse my favorite DIY blogs and do some fabulous crafty crafts......

My friend Jillian recently started a new blog and her first post was a tutorial for making this bracelet. It is super easy to follow, so check it out! It takes longer than I thought, but her suggestion to do it while watching the Bachelorette makes it much more enjoyable ;) I might even make another one during next weeks episode....if baby hasn't arrived that is! PS: Bachelorette Fans....can you believe what is going down next week?Poor Emily can not catch a break! Arie was my fave!!! Now who can I root for?

So apparently the 'must-have' baby toy (for reasons still unknown to me) is the Sophie the Giraffe squeaky toy. To me it seems more like a dogs chew toy....but I guess babies also like to chew on things too so now that I think about it does makes sense. Either way I have one and they aren't cheap.....so according to all the parenting blogs I must protect it with my life! Dramatic? Maybe so, but like I said babies LOVE these things so to avoid any potential devastation the 'must-have' Sophie accessory is a Sophie leash to tether Sophie to the stroller or car seat. They carry these in various baby stores, but they are charging $12!! Can you believe it? $12?! With scrap fabric and two snaps, I figure I could make one for practically free. So I did. in fact I made 3. With the mark up on these things I could make some serious profit....hmmmm maybe I should start selling them?

And finally I came across this tutorial for the Lululemon Vinyasa Scarf on Hammers and High Heels. I love this scarf but I was having a hard time rationalizing the cost.....I mean, it's $50 for a piece of fabric with some snaps on it? Really? So I googled DIY vinyasa scarf and voila....someone else had the same thought. Check out her site for how to make the scarf and the TON of different ways you can wear it! As I expected it was super easy to make and since I got a fabulous deal on fabric and snaps at Dressew (fabric for 3 scarves was under $20 including 1.5 yards of actual lululemon bamboo fabric and the snaps were on sale for .25¢ for a pack of 10 with the fastener) I was able to make 3 scarves for half the price of a Lululemon one! 






......It was even better to finally get out of the house for a nice long walk. 
Hello sunshine. Welcome back!
♥ Lindsay

Life lessons from FRIENDS (yes, the tv show....just to clarify)

Many people have warned me that although at first maternity leave seems fabulous (no work, few responsibilities and of course some much needed relaxation before the big life changing event that is forthcoming)....inevitably boredom ensues, especially when the due date comes and goes without the arrival of baby! Given I am only a week and a bit into my maternity leave and my due date is still a week away, I must say I am quite enjoying my time off so far. I think I have found the perfect balance of relaxation and productivity thanks to a little life lesson I learned from FRIENDS. Remember the one where Ross goes on sabbatical and he is bored by the second day because he finished his entire to-do list on the first day? Then comes advice from the out of work actor....you can't jam a week's worth of activities into one day....you gotta spread it out a little! So I have a big list of crafts, errands and other activities to choose from and I take 3 things from that list per day. Throw in a morning coffee with the 'Gilmore Girls', perhaps a 'How I met your Mother' episode with lunch, an afternoon nap and..... voila; the perfect day. So far, so good.....but ask me how I feel on day 21 if I am still waiting for baby in order to get a true test of my formula! 


♥ Lindsay

What I've been up to lately....

You may have noticed I have been MIA lately....but I have been busy enjoying my last few weeks of pregnancy and making the most of my time before baby arrives. What have I been up to?

Pregnant in heels....dinner in gastown! 

Lunching with girlfriends. I treated Jill to a birthday lunch at the Mac Shack...YUM!!! 

Jill has a serious mac 'n cheese game face on here and I respect that :)

Waffle breakfast at Patisserie Lebeau with my hubby to celebrate my last day of work! The owner is actually Belgian so you know the waffles are authentic and you get so much delicious fruit on the side....we will be back here for sure!!

BC Place...how did you know? 

Soccer game with my hubby + my two biggest pregnancy cravings....

mini donuts and lemonade= perfect date night

Evening walk on the beach and impromptu belly photo shoot by my hubby at 36 weeks (our professional belly shoot was the next day so ...... #5 ✓)

On the long weekend Ty painted the baby's dresser and switched out the hardware...while I made the drawer liners to make it pretty. Then I spent the rest of the weekend doing baby laundry, organizing the 'baby corners' and getting everything ready  to bring the baby home and I think we are ready to go!! (#8- ✓)

Then we rewarded ourselves with a full day on the couch watching movies and doing absolutely nothing!! (#3-✓)

Now that I am 38 weeks and officially done work....our little bundle of joy could come any day, but for now I am looking forward to the next few weeks of keeping busy while trying not to get too impatient with wanting to meet our baby girl! She will come when she's ready and there's not much I can do about it....and so I will relax, read (hopefully cross off #4), do yoga, craft(hopefully cross off #9), visit with friends, perhaps fit in another visit (or two) to Patisserie Lebeau :) and wait for her arrival.

♥ Lindsay

Check, check and check....3 more list items down!

My life lately has been filled with work, crafting, yoga and sleep (when baby lets me). Over the past few weeks I have been feeling less tired and I have really taken advantage of this burst of energy by getting a few more items crossed off my list!


#1- Host a Dinner Party 
Last week we had a few friends over for a lovely dinner party. The menu consisted of a cheese plate appy, almond crusted chicken stuffed with goat cheese served with couscous and spring salad with blueberries, pears and sunflower seeds for our main course....and finally berry crisp with ice cream for dessert. Great food, great company....and overall a successful dinner party! Unfortunately I dropped the ball in the photo department and with no documented proof that this fabulous evening happened....you will just have to take my word for it. 

#12- Decorate the Baby Corner

Since we don't have an extra bedroom in our apartment the baby will be sharing our room for awhile...but I wanted to make the space feel special and baby-like so I had an idea to create a few wall canvasses to put above the bassinet. Then.....when we move and the baby has a room of her own, we can use the canvasses to decorate her space! 

So the obvious first step was a trip to Dressew; a fabric store with the best selection in Vancouver! They have every fabric imaginable and the prices are pretty reasonable so although it took hours....in the end we had some great finds. 

My vision for the wall decor was to make 2 similar fabric covered canvasses with an applique of an owl on a branch and then above those would be a covered canvas with a painted wood letter (the baby's initial). I wanted to use various patterns and colours to create kind of a patchwork look, but it turns out that pattern mixing is more difficult than I thought! Luckily I had recruited my friend Jill to help me find the perfect combination to achieve my vision. So this is what we found...... 

and this is what I made!  

Well actually it's only half of what I made....it turns out when I measured the wall, I didn't take into consideration the thermostat and so only one owl canvas fit. So, I guess I will have to save the other one for when the baby has her own room and more available wall space! For now I think it looks pretty good and it defines the baby's corner to make it feel more like her own.....not that she will even notice so let's be honest it's really more for me...but cute nonetheless right?!?

I also had another project I needed to buy materials for on this trip to Dressew. We recently got a new couch and of course..... a new couch just screams for new throw pillows! Am I right? Since I find it a bit ridiculous how much they charge for pillow covers and they are so easy to make, I decided to make a few new pillow covers to freshen up the space and  tie in some colour to our neutral grey couch. Again I wanted to try my hand at pattern mixing and I knew that I wanted a mix of white, black, grey and turquoise blue. 


The black and white patterned pillows are actually from Ikea because they were on sale and I really liked the bold pattern, so I used those as a jumping off point to find other complementary fabrics that tied in the grey of the couch but also incorporated a pop of turquoise to match our side tables. I chose these 3 fabrics that I thought might work together nicely. Then I had to figure out how many of each pillow  to make and what size for each etc.....so much to think about! I also had my husband's voice in the back of my head saying "really? 8 pillows? Where am I going to sit?"...soooo I had to limit my selection to a reasonable 6. 


In the end I decided to use the 2 large black and white IKEA pillows, then I made two smaller grey and white cases and 1 white and turquoise patterned case. I eliminated the green and blue fabric because it didn't look right....but just five pillows didn't seem like enough and I felt that I needed 1 pillow that was a solid to tie in the turquoise. Tyler disagreed....but then I was in Pier 1 and there was a sale on napkins that happened to be the perfect size of my pillow form and they had 2 turquoise napkins left that matched perfectly. It was obviously meant to be, so for under $10 I was able to create a solid pillow to tie the whole colour scheme together! I think Tyler agrees now that he sees how good it looks....and after he realized that he and the 6 pillows do actually fit on the couch! 


Side note.....check out the photo project from list item #9. After 3 years of the frames sitting behind out couch, I finally committed to a photo to blow up and divide into 6 to create an art piece to put above the couch. Since I took the photo and my perfectionist hubby took on the task of painstakingly measuring and cutting the photo to fit in the 6 frames....creating this photo art project was a team effort that we are really proud of!

#13- Prenatal Yoga

For the past few months I have been attending prenatal yoga classes and they have become the best part of my week! Yoga has been a wonderful stress reliever for me and this class is no different in that sense.....the only difference is that the class is all women and the bathroom is a whole lot busier! It's so fabulous to get together in a room full of women that are there to empower and support each other in our common experience. The teacher is so encouraging and she reminds us all that we are strong, powerful and we have everything we need to create a positive birthing experience for ourselves. There are women in their 1st trimester alongside women who are long past their due dates....but we are all there to take time for ourselves as mommas-to-be, to practice breathing through challenges and to prepare ourselves for this life-changing journey we are about to embark on. Love, love, love this class and can't say enough good things about it! 

My only gripe is that it's only offered twice a week :(

So for those keeping count I have 7 weeks(ish) left until the baby comes and 5 1/3 list items left.... I hope I can fit it all in!!

♥ Lindsay