I can't believe that 2017 is right around the corner, literally! This year felt as though it's creaked by and then sped up to a ridiculous speed around August so I am kind of breathless as I think about what's next for the new year. No lies, I am relieved to say goodbye to 2016. It's been a lot of life, and I could deal with setting life to a "cruise control" mode and just enjoying time. 

I am pretty excited for 2017 but not in the way that I am usually excited for the new year. Normally,  I have very itemized goals that I want to achieve. There are lists. There are expectations and I usually fall short. Last year, I swore that I was going to take better care of myself. In a way, I followed through with allowing myself to heal. However, on the other hand, I didn't follow through with what I truly had in mind. Baby weight loss, channeling my inner fashionista, eating the way I am supposed to, getting out more. I still have residual baby weight, I don't always dress for the day (or leave the house), and I am eating chocolate wafer cookies as I write this. #winning  

Transformation Tuesday: 90s holiday dress to toddler romper

Oh my gosh, guys. I almost didn't make another Transformation Tuesday! This was easily the hardest upcycle that I've ever done and I was literally sewing against the clock (well, my self-imposed deadline of tonight). The concept of this transformation wasn't difficult however, I cut all of my pieces two weeks before I began sewing. Of course, during that time Mr. Hugo bear had a growth spurt and I had to scrap my original design when I was 85% finished and let out all of the seams. That didn't work. I have used the seam ripper enough this week for my husband to know that if I am sitting on the couch, seam ripping and binge watching Netflix, it's going sideways.

Now that we've talked about what a wild ride this week was trying to get this transformation to work for me, let's talk about the inspiration behind this romper!

Transformation Tuesday: Updated Old H&M Floral Top

Like I said this week is a little backwards so today it's Transformation Tuesday, except on a Thursday!

I've had this shirt for years. It's a thrifted H&M top that I found for $5.99 at one of my favorite Goodwills when I was living much closer to the city. The floral print of this shirt is what really drew me in a few years ago and I still love it just as much. Since I have a habit of repeat wearing my favorite clothing items (and ignoring the rest of my closet in the process) I was starting to get a little bored with the style of this shirt so I tossed it into the "do something with this" pile.

Transformation Tuesday: Old Maternity Shirt to Ruffle Tank Top

I've always had this idea that sewing a shirt is really hard and I'm just not quite up to snuff to pull it off. Lately, it seems like all of the DIY/sewing projects that I've been viewing have all been shirts and it was just the motivation that I needed to tackle an old F21 denim shirt that I bought when I was carrying Hugo. Initially, I was planning on upcycling it into some trendy pants for Hugo until I went to a consignment store and saw another girl rocking the same shirt. It really caught me off guard how good the shirt looked and I started to think that maybe there was more to this shirt than I was giving it credit. So, of course, the shirt sat in my closet for weeks until, once again, my good ole planner said that it was time to do something with it this week. I really needed to come up with a game plan but I wasn't too sure which way to go so I just started with before pictures. Really, really, awful before pictures.

Transformation Tuesday: Onesie to Knotted Hat for Baby

About a month ago or so, I purchased a new set of onesies for Hugo on clearance at H&M. H&M is my favorite store for baby clothes because they last longer than any brand that we've used with Hugo bear and it's not nearly as expensive in relation to other stores. (Yayer!) It was however, a sad day when his white striped onesie was stained during lunchtime (the week after purchase, ugh!) and no amount of oxiclean or soaking was going to save the areas heavily stained. Darn those lunchtime mandarins!

I really didn't want to throw it out since I literally just bought it and since the staining was isolated on the sleeves, I knew that I could upcycle the onesie into something else for the Hugo bear! So, the onesie sat on my dresser for awhile as I thought about what to make with it. 

Thankful Thursday + Target Style Inspired DIY Holiday Trees

This month, I thought it would be fun to talk about what we are thankful for and I've been looking forward to writing this post ever since I committed it to my planner. Although, I am truly excited to write about why I am thankful and what for, I've had a really hard time writing this post because the topic is so close to my heart and is the product of working through hard moments that I experienced this year.

Today, I am incredibly grateful for opportunities and possibilities. This seems kind of unusual, right? Let me explain, if you have been following my blog this year and my sporadic posts, you know that working through Hugo's birth story was a little hard and then six weeks later I almost died mid-surgery and sustained injuries such as: perforated organs, internal bleeding, air built all around my chest cavity, and a slew of other side effects that continued for months. These events triggered post partum depression and other anxieties, fears that I didn't have before and life became about survival. I struggled, a lot, until rather recently. I spent so much of my time in pain, sick, angry, in shock, and lost in sadness which caused me to miss so many opportunities. Opportunities to hold and snuggle Hugo when I was in too much pain. Opportunities to get to know new moms when I couldn't see passed my own nose. Opportunities to strengthen friendships and other relationships that I had when I withdrew or pushed people away. Opportunities to share kindness, be helpful, loving, etc. I just didn't, or couldn't care.

How to Update a Carseat - The Easy Way

Lately life has been busy. Hugo's birthday is right around the corner (tomorrow!) so I've spent a lot of time planning his birthday, sewing, more sewing, being sick, and all around stressing over adult related things but at least I've been ridiculously productive!

Since Hugo had a crazy growth spurt and is currently in the 89th percentile for height, his carseat is officially too small. We kind of predicted that it would be around this time that he would outgrow his seat so the cost of a carseat has been in the back of our mind for awhile. There's no way that we could afford something new and we were so lucky that my parents held onto my little sister's carseat. I've had the carseat sitting in the closet downstairs for a couple of months but I kept putting it off because I wanted to purchase fancy fabric online and they were either out of stock when I had the money or our money went to unexpected costs. I knew that I couldn't put it off any longer and that I needed to get it done this week so I could scrub the old carseat and get him into his new one. I'm starting to notice that I tend to put things off until the last minute - ha! Anyways, let's talk about how this went down!