A Fourth to be Reckoned With

What a wonderful Fourth of July weekend! It started off strong and then fizzled into couch-dwelling by the time Monday rolled around. And to be honest, that was pretty much a perfect pace for me.

That nesting instinct is a powerful force, friends (hence the punny title of this post). As I mentioned recently, I have been going to town on errands and crossing things off my list. In fact, I've been so on top of things that I have run out of preparations to complete, and I found myself searching for projects on Saturday. I decided to wire lamps out of two $5 glass vases (vases from HomeGoods, lamp kit from Home Depot, shades from Target), then I did a little hand-painted, no-sew valance in the guest bathroom to coordinate with our towels and mats and cover up an unsightly metal bar at the top of the wooden blinds.

My lamp project. The other one looks just like this.

This lamp from Crate & Barrel kind of looks like my lamp, but costs $229!

Bathroom valance. I just used hemming tape and craft paint. It actually looks pretty good in person and finishes out the room.

We also bought a baby monitor (it's a good one!) and visited Cabela's, had brunch, went to the Dallas Farmer's Market, and ran a ton of random errands (grocery shopping and the like). I think sometimes I forget my nine-months-pregnant limitations, because on Saturday night Brad and I were getting ready to go for a walk, and I realized my ankle had really been hurting. Sure enough it was all swollen, and not just because of the heat and stuff. I think I tweaked it, or the relaxin hormone made my ligaments temporarily really crazy in one ankle.

So we went to church on Sunday and otherwise were pretty low-key, since I had developed a really attractive little limp. I was REALLY self conscious because I didn't want to be perceived as having a "pregnancy waddle." I baked and just did stuff around the house.

Monday our friends Abby and Zach came over in the morning... SO nice to visit with them. Brad and I were going to make mozzarella, but I didn't realize you needed a gallon of whole milk and I didn't feel like going to the grocery store again. So I made chicken tikka masala out of stuff I already had on hand. Interestingly, that's considered the unofficial national dish of Great Britain, and I made it on the day we celebrate our independence from them. :)

Not a whole lot of baby news in this post. He is moving A TON and really making me excited to meet him in a few weeks!