I have loved every minute of blogging here at Birds of the Feather, but have found on this blog, I haven’t been able to be truly me. It started as a part of my photography company, then to share pictures with friends, now a lifestyle blog and I’m ready for a fresh start! I hope you will join me on my new blog Good Morning Loretta!
It’s bittersweet saying goodbye to the blog that I ‘ve nurtured and loved for the past two years, but I look forward to getting to show you more of our life, more d.i.y. projects, and a whole lot of Southern-ness over on the new blog. So please follow me to Good Morning Loretta, update your links, and tell your friends!
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It’s not me to ask for favors, but if you have some time and feel so inclined, I’d love for you to vote for my picture in the Cotton Pickin’ Fair’s contest. All you have to do is like the photo on facebook! You can get to it by clicking here or click on the photo below! Thank you!!!
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What does this mean?
I was the lucky winner of a Shabby Apple Dress in a giveaway over at the Lucky and Lovely Blog! I am so excited to be donning this cute little number post baby:
If you haven’t read their blog, you really should. It is filled with tons of beautiful pictures, great wedding inspiration, and D.I.Y. tips. Check it out here!
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Last week, my best friend Lyndsey, my sister-in-law Maddie, and Lyndsey’s mom, Elizabeth, threw me the cutest baby shower. It was a yellow and blue outdoor picnic, and I was so happy to see so many of my friends and family there. This little baby boy is already so spoiled! I’ll save all the cute details for my next post but here’s a preview:
Last week, at my Doctor’s appointment, the doctor checked me and apparently my body is doing things to get ready for labor that it shouldn’t do for another seven weeks. That means, this baby could come very very early, which would be very very soon! We aren’t quite ready for him to come yet, and I don’t think he is either. The Dr. said he needs about six more weeks before he’d be okay coming early, so that would put him at coming the last week of April! We just want him to be healthy and come when his little body is ready!
Last week, my gratitude for Brandon grew 1000%. I have had really painful back pain through my pregnancy and really miss sleeping on my stomach. Last night, Brandon made two piles of pillows on our bed, with a big gap in the middle so I could lay on them and let my belly hang down in the middle. It was so thoughtful and surprisingly comfy! I laid that way for a few hours while he studied for mid-terms and I edited some pictures from my last session. Speaking of…
Last week, I did the cutest session for a friend of mine’s two children. Don’t they have the bluest eyes? This will probably be my last client session for awhile, it was a bit awkward trying to move around with this baby in my way!
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I saw this on another girl’s blog and had to steal it because it took me back to myspace days when everyone would post those surveys about themselves. I loved this one though, because it was for us pregnant girls and thought it would be fun to do throughout the rest of the pregnancy! So, without further introduction- Week 30!
How far along? 30 Weeks and loving it!
Maternity Clothes? About half a half. Jeans-yes. Other pants- no. Tops- only if I feel like. I have plenty of non-maternity tops that still fit.
Stretch Marks? No! And thank goodness! I’m trying really hard to prevent these!
Sleep: I can only get 6-7 hours regardless of when I go to bed. So, if I want to get up at 8, I have to go to sleep around 1:30. If I want to go to bed at 10, I am up at 4, wide awake and cannot fall asleep. No matter what. Until 10 the next night.
Miss anything? I miss being able to move my torso. I am still taking Zumba classes and working out, so doing things like body rolls is really hard when there is a baby in there! I love him being in there but I will be relieved to have full range of motion again.
Movement: All the time! Except when I tell someone to feel. And then he immediately stops; I think he has a sense of humor already.
Food cravings: None! Although I do prefer fresh, raw food like veggies and fruits.
Anything making you queazy? Smoke from cigarettes. I mean, I’ve never liked it, but now it makes me nauseous from a mile away.
Labor signs: None so far, though I have Braxton Hicks Contractions about once a week.
Symptoms: Extremely bad back pain, every single day starting around 8 p.m.
Belly button In or out? It’s still in, but looks like it’ll be an outtie soon!
Wedding ring still fit? It still falls off! I never got it sized correctly when we got married. But I haven’t had any swelling if that’s the question.
Happy or Moody? Happy! I am so excited for him to be here and for us to become a family of three.
Looking forward to: Decorating the nursery and my upcoming baby shower. The sweetest people are throwing it for me and I am so blessed and excited!
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Anyone who has registered for a baby before, or anyone who has pintrest, has probably been amazed by the sheer volume of baby products that are sold. Some are unnecessary, but I guess that’s part of the fun of it right? So here are my completely unnecessary baby wants for the week-
Tube Socks for babies from Hank and Jojo. Instant stud factor
Swaddlers from Aden & Anais
Diwali and Mela are my favorite patterns. I love their muslin fabric, it’s great for swaddling or using as blankets in the summer months. Everyone I that I know that has these loves them. I like these two patterns best, I want my baby to have some things that aren’t duckies and giraffes and stuff. I love the bold patterns of these!
When I first saw this lamp I wanted it for myself, but now I think it’d be super cute in the baby’s room. We’re going for a kind of woodlands look so how cute would it be to have a mason jar inspired night light? This one I might be able to convince Brandon to buy the little guy :)
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So I havn’t been writing nearly enough on this blog, so here is a short timeline and catch up since the last time I posted.
2011:
May- Brandon and I moved back to our beautiful home state of Georgia, where we plan on living forever, hopefully. We had the best drive across the country, stopping to see concerts, family, church history sites, beautiful national parks and the occasional stop to re-tie down the things we had filled our truck to the brim with.
In May, Brandon also left for three months to study Farsi/Tajik with the Army. These months were not easy but made me appreciate having him so much more!
August- My brother Brock and his now-wife Becky got married! They had a beautiful wedding at the Atlanta Temple. It was beautiful and so happy! Brandon missed it by one day, but I was so happy to have him home the next day!
September- As Brandon and I both started back to school at Georgia State, we had what was probably the most exciting month of all. We found out on the 4th that we were expecting a little baby the next year!
We spent the rest of the fall planning, laughing, sometimes being a little sick, but mostly just being so excited for our little baby to come. We were blessed to find some great deals on a few baby things, and started preparing for what we found out in December would be a little boy! There is really no way to explain how happy being pregnant with him has made us, I can’t imagine how wonderful it will be when he is here, whether taking care of a baby is hard or not, I am looking forward to it.
2012:
I started really growing finally, and our little baby has kicked it into hyper active. It takes me about 1 min and a half to get the ten kicks they want for a kick count (most people take about an hour or more) and every time I go to the doctor they have trouble getting him to stay still long enough to measure his heartbeat. While I am so grateful that he is so healthy and happy in there, I do hope the fact that he loves to kick lots around 2 a.m. does not mean that he will be awake at the time every night once he comes! It is so nice to have an active baby though, it makes me so happy to feel his little kicks and punches and to watch him move around in there.
25 Weeks!
27 Weeks! I think this was one of my bigger growth spurts! I am officially showing!
I am so excited for the next few months, some of my dearest friends and family and throwing me a baby shower in March which I couldn’t be more grateful for, or more excited about! This little guy has already been so spoiled! I hope he knows how loved he already is.
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Thanks to my amazing Aunt and one of Leslie’s Angels, Alice, I got the rare opportunity last week to take a master class with the one and only Bravon Pascua!!!
Not only did we get to have a great class with him, each attendee got some great swag, and a makeover by one of Bare Escentuals Global Makeup Artist. I was so engulfed in what was going on that I didn’t get many pictures, but wanted to share the ones I did take!
The only photo I took during the class was of Bravon setting up. He had an amazing makeup truck that was worthy of almost drooling over
Sad to say my next pictures are all of the after! Here was the first picture I took , right afterwards in the ladies bathroom at Nordstrom haha
I love how my makeup was enough that it shows up on camera without looking so over done, she did a great job!
For the foundation of my look, they prepped me with Bare Mineral’s new Deep Cleansing Foam, and Nourishing Moisturizer. Then they apply the new eye Skincare Firming Eye Treatment which has already turned my world upside down in the last week. If you are having problems with dark circles, you need this. It makes an amazing difference. Then the applied BE’s foundation primer and I moved on to makeup!
My eyeshadows were a combination of purples and greens. She used fairly light foundation, and went over that with the hydrating mineral veil and used summer bisque under my eyes and in little other places I needed it. Then she used the pearl brightening eyelid primer and used four different shadows on my eyes. She used the High Shine Eyecolor in Moonshine, Hyacinth, and Sugarplum with a light green rimming the bottom edge of my eyes. My eyeliner is BE’s eyeliner in intense black and she used the original mascara. My eyelashes looked fantastic! She also used the brow finishing gel after applying brunette to fill in my eyebrows. For lips, she did a nice layer of “Heather” in the BUXOM line. I really suggest using the eyelid primer if you’re eye shadow tends to come off during the day. I drove in the car for an hour, cleaned the house, took a nap, make dinner, and my eye shadow still looked fresh. 
With your ticket to the class, you got to reimburse it with product and there were also a few freebies with certain amounts of purchase. The picture is of everything I took home!
Here was what we got in the class:
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Bravon’s makeup chart for the look he did in the class
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A Bare Escentuals pink pen
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The Bare Minerals pink canvas tote bag
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A look book which give step-by-step instructions, tips, and had places for notes during the class
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A brochure of their new skin prep line
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A photo of Bravon
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A list of Bravon’s must-haves
For my own purchases I got:
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The pearl brightening eyelid primer
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The Firming Eye Treatment
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The new set of BUXOM Swinger Girls
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Summer Bisque
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High Shine Eyecolor in Moonshine
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The maximum coverage Face Brush (one of Bravon’s must haves)
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Eyecolor in Sugar Plum
And along with my purchase I got these two kits free:
The Making of a Glamorista Kit includes:
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A Mini Flawless Definition Mascara
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A Big and Bright eyeliner in intense black
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Eyecolor in Giggle
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Eyecolor in Elegance
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Posh Blush
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Lipgloss in Cosmo
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Double Ended Lid, Line, and Crease Brush
The Must Have Blushes Kit includes:
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Blush in Hot Shot
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Blush in Posh
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Blush in First Class
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A cute bag with a mirror
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The tapered blush brush in Green (I’m a sucker for colored brushes)
Over all it was a great buy I would say! I was so excited to get all of it home and start playing so I plan on posting some of the tips Bravon gave during the class, as well as my own makeup combinations soon!
If you get the chance to go to one of Bravon’s Master Classes, I highly recommend it, I learned a ton and got all this great stuff. You can see when classes are and check out any of these products at www.bareescentuals.com
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So we left off in April with some very tired children on Easter. Here is the summer:
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We have been in Utah for approximately eight weeks and have eight left to go, we are HALFWAY!!!! Now the longest I have ever been away from my hometown is 12 weeks, this time it’s 16, 15 if we are lucky. Really lucky. So finally being at the half way mark has made me realize that it hasn’t been too horrible and maybe I can manage the other half. But I am ready to go back to Georgia. I miss my cat, my nieces and nephews, the beautiful lake, and sunshine!So to cure my sickness, here are some of my favorite pictures from last year:
Pretty little Aubrey was born at the end of 2009
Baby Handsome (not his legal name) turned one! We share a birthday
We celebrated Easter in style:
But too much Easter Egg Hunting and candy leads to tired families
I think I will continue this tomorrow starting with May!
Birds of the Feather 