Remember my DIY chalkboard I made awhile ago out of an old painting? (It’s here if you don’t) Well, I had some trouble figuring out where I should hang it. I was also having trouble remembering if I had fed Gucci the Roccapoochie. Wait! Don’t think less of me! Now that I don’t feed him as I’m leaving in the morning going to work or when I return at the end of the day, time can blend together and I have double fed him. Gucci loves it, his waistline did not. I decided the best thing was to track his eating and what better way than a fancy chalkboard?

Another Pinterest inspired project coming soon!

Our weekly community newspaper arrived today and I decided to take a look through the flyers as it was a rare moment when the baby was gurgling away happily in his swing, Mr. Roccapuccia was out at a hockey game and the dog had just gotten a rawhide treat so there was no one immediately needing me to do anything.

The flyers are pretty standard for the types of sales and stores, with the exception this week that everyone was trying to hock their products as being “the perfect gift for mom”. While this is a great idea for the People’s Jewelers people (Find me a woman who doesn’t want diamonds. I dare you) and to a lesser extent the Wal-Mart (There are always bath products and scarves finding their way to moms of the world- plus Wal-Mart near me sells flowers), it’s a tough sell for some other stores typically more focused on male clientele such as Canadian Tire.

For my American friends, Canadian Tire is a rare glimpse into all that is bizarre with Canadian retail and why your big box stores are conquering the market… It’s a store that I’m sure started out as automotive products, but that branched out into cheap sporting gear, miscellaneous crappy housewares and some hardware (but not all hardware)… Suffice it to say the store is a freaking mess. They have no clear brand or message and I hate going there- I bet a woman hasn’t voluntarily gone into a Canadian Tire in decades.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. This story is to tell you that our friends at Canadian Tire have given a glimpse into how poor their marketing department is and how they completely don’t understand the female consumer. Here is the ad from the paper:

Things that Canadian Tire thinks moms want for Mother’s Day include such glamorous items as patio furniture, barbeques, bicycles, treadmills and solar lighting. Are you freaking kidding me?

Patio furniture says “You need to weed your lawn, people are going to be sitting on your back deck soon… So get weeding”, barbeques are so Father’s Day that I can’t even believe they made the cut, bicycles and treadmills scream “Mom, you’re fat and need to work out” while solar lighting is a class all of its own.

Word to the (un)wise who might be thinking these would make good gifts… Stick with the spa gift certificate.

I recently remembered that I had two bottles of nail polish that I had not yet had a chance to try and now that I have, I’m wildly obsessed with. I pretty much only buy Essie nail polish- their pale pinks are second to none in terms of a classy manicure (If you’ve not tried them, Ballet Slippers and Mademoiselle are my personal favorites of all-time) and the OCD in me has now got more bottles of Essie than any other kind of nail polish and I want my entire collection to match. Yes, I’m that concerned with nail polish bottles.

I’ll share my favorite finger color today – modeled by people other than me because I have short stubby fingers and toes that just aren’t something I think anyone wants to see.

Color is called Essie “A Cut Above”

I’m going to come right out and admit that I bought this nail polish because it was sparkly pink. I did not think about anything other than the fact that it caught my eye and since I have a weakness for sparkly things, I didn’t have any problems in completing the purchase. Bonus actually worked out when I put the polish on my fingers and realized that it’s the perfect nail polish for the girl on the go without the time to commit to the perfect upkeep of a manicure; the sparkles in the polish mask when the polish is chipped or needing a touch up! I thought it might be a tad too juvenile for day-to-day and office wear but then realized that I currently have no official place I have to go everyday and for the first time in my adult life can have pink sparkly nails if I feel like it. I also just realized from the Essie website that you’re supposed to put this as a top coat on top of another color, but I did not and love it. A representation of what my hands look like is below, as demonstrated by Product Girl.

So in short, this polish color will remind you of wanting to be a Princess at your sixth birthday party… But being grown-up isn’t always the fun that a sixth birthday party is and this polish can help you feel like a kid again. I definitely wouldn’t wear it to my conservative workplace, but my new boss (Baby Roccapuccia) is a big fan of me wearing whatever the bejeezus I want and I’m rolling with it.

I’ve been collecting odds and ends for little projects around the house that I wanted to try while I was off with Baby Roccapuccia.  I’m finally in enough of a “routine” (Baby will sit in his swing happily for awhile so I can do things) to be able to start trying a couple of them.

I’ve been collecting remnants of “dead” candles and today I got fed up with the remnants laying around. You know, all those candles that are burnt down to the point where the wick can’t be lit anymore? With my being at home more I am going through candles like they’re going out of style – having found that burning candles both masks the foul odors that can come from babies as well as making the whole place smell pretty. With not much of a budget to go out and replace my more expensive candles, I need to try and use the candles “to the last drop”. Unfortunately, the “last drop” of candle is no always easy to get to.

I referenced my “I Think I Can, I Think I Can” Pinterest project board and found a cheap way to re-purpose my candles based on the tutorial at Happy-Go-Lucky Blog. I gathered up all of my old candle remnants and picked up a pack of ArtMinds Zinc Core Wire Candle wicks from Michael’s ($3.99 for  12, or about $0.33/new candle) as well as one small glass votive holder as I read that you should have one small glass container to start the new candle into, which was $1.50 at Michael’s.

Candle Wicks and Votive from Michael's, Total $5.49

You’ll need to get a few old candles and you’ll probably want to pick complementary scents as you’ll be layering them in the votive. I had a small votive and two old candles which were quite large so lots of wax on the bottoms. I had a Voluspa Elysian Garden candle (Amazon priced $40… Can’t let it waste!) and an old vanilla candle that I don’t remember where I got it from. Here are the items I used…

1. Old candle remnants
2. Glass container to pour hot wax into (can reuse an old glass container or buy new one, your choice)
3. New candle wicks
4. Chopsticks (to pull out the old pieces of wick)
5. Pot to boil water in

To start, I got out a small pot and boiled some water in it, placing an old glass container in the boiling water until the old candle turned to liquid wax.

Melting old Voluspa "Elysian Garden" candle in boiling water

Once it did, I picked out the old wick and pieces of yuck from the candle (old burnt pieces of wick, match parts, etc.) with chopsticks and the poured into my waiting votive.

Pour the liquid wax into waiting container

The next step is easy- wait for the wax to dry so you can continue layering. Make sure it’s really dry and solid or the wax will dry kinda funny.

Candle wax turns solid - ready for next layer

and voila! You’re done! New expensive candle! I put mine in my powder room.

My pretty candle in pretty votive

I figured that there was some more DIY here, and I cashed in on the Mason jar candle trend. I had a couple of mini Mason jars which came from bottles of Classico pesto, so they were at zero cost to me as the pesto had already been eaten by me. All I had to do was use some Goop-Off to take the sticker residue off.

Mini Mason jars (Came from Classico Pesto Jars)

And my final version… Isn’t it cute?

Mini Mason Jar Candle!

Mini Mason Jar Candle in it's new home!

My entire project cost $5.49 and was definitely worth the investment to revitalize and get the “last drop” out of my expensive candles!

]]> http://roccapuccia.com/2012/05/pinterest-project-candle-rejuvenation/feed/ 0 http://roccapuccia.com/2012/05/mothers-day-idea-custom-recipe-book/ http://roccapuccia.com/2012/05/mothers-day-idea-custom-recipe-book/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 15:42:23 +0000 Miss A http://roccapuccia.com/?p=4917

Ah Mother’s Day- a time of year to give thanks to the wonderful women in our lives who are mothers and for all they do- and only in a smidge less than 2 weeks! Since I’ve started to cook more in 2012 and when you combine that with my love of stationary… Oh, how I want one of these recipe books.

It’s an adorable custom-made hardcover recipe book that you can print your own recipes inside of. Pick your own color of book, title… and fill in a handwritten recipe for your mom to finish off a heartfelt present that is truly one of a kind.

Get it from bakadesign at Etsy

This morning I got a pair of panties in the mail. Yes, you read that correctly- I got a pair of underwear in the mail. While you might be wondering why I’m not reporting this to the police (did someone steal my underwear?) or admitting that I’m a panty fiend (Did I order someone’s underwear?) I’m happy to report that this mail receipt was something that I was looking forward to and had actively encouraged.

My monthly subscription to Loose Button is something that I have been in love with for several months and this month I was lucky enough to get to pick my Front of the Line benefit to be a trial of Panty by Post.

Panty by Post is a monthly subscription service that sends you a fancy pair of French underwear every month based on your preference (You get to pick the pair, or can get them randomly selected for you) and size. I was ready to expect a pair of basic underwear like you can find at any Victoria’s Secret but I was pleasantly surprised with the pair that came in the package… A beautiful pair in an absurdly soft cotton. They came wrapped in pink polka dotted tissue paper and then in an even fancier envelope for the mail.

Mr. Roccapuccia was highly amused with the “Panty by Post” on the envelope and I have to admit that I bet my mail lady was extremely interested in what would be inside that package as well, but frankly the relationship between my mail lady and I is strained at best (She hates me as I get lots of packages and I have a pretty steep driveway that is apparently “treacherous” even on a bright sunny day)

All in all, I loved it. I would recommend it to any of my friends and to you, my blog readers!

PROS

• The panties are adorable – I love that you can say that you’re wearing French lingerie, doesn’t that just sound sexy?
• A new pair comes to your house every month – You can take this opportunity to throw out an old pair so your collection is always in good shape and ready for any opportunities which may arise… Or you can just grow your current collection
• Something fun comes in the mail – The mail is normally a place for bank statements and bills, but one day a month you can get a pair of pretty panties in the mail!
• The packaging is cute – I am a sucker for anything that comes in a cute package.
• They ship Internationally

CONS

• Depending on how much you normally spend on underwear normally, these could be expensive ($18-30/pair depending on the subscription length)
• If you’re a control freak, you don’t get to see the pair before they arrive nor try them on- although there is a return policy

Earlier today, I went out to Ikea with the fabulous CC. We met for lunch and there is always something you need from Ikea- in my case, I wanted a few cheap things for a Pinterest-inspired project I’m working on, more to come soon. By the way, anyone else feel like me and that Pinterest claims to be inspiring you, but you could be confusing the inspiration with good old fashioned egging on?

While driving home, the baby lost it. Like the kinds of shrieks and sobs that make people think you are not only a terrible parent, but an abusive one at that. Unable to do much other than provide words to try and calm him without you know… Crashing the car… The baby only got madder. He was at the peak of his anger when we pulled up to a stoplight near my house. Still unable to do anything as the light isn’t long enough to get into the backseat and help him, I decided that playing the music a little louder might calm him, and it did – My kid likes his music.  (Sidebar: It is somewhat unfortunate that he acquired my taste in music and I am now wishing played more Lil’ Wayne than Mozart, for no other reason than it will be mortifying when he spurts out “Wee-ooo-weee-oo-wee, wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee, wee-ooo-weee-ooo-weee, like a cop car” before he can sing his ABCs)

As he was still screaming but somewhat calming down, another car pulled up beside me and I paid attention because I saw out of my peripheral vision that they were waving their arms or something. As I looked over, the car was actually an SUV full of teenage boys waving, winking and making sexual gestures at me. At ME! ME, who had a baby 6 weeks ago! Me who… Well… Let’s see what the boys saw:

• Hair pulled into high ponytail (Too far away to see slight frizz which had taken over)
• Stylish sunglasses (Too far away to see under-eye bags from sleep deprivation)
• Cool music playing (No excuse for this, I listen to awesome tunes)

and most importantly?

• Huge boobs (Again, no excuse, they’re currently huge. Reminder: I had a baby 6 weeks ago)

So yeah, I guess from afar I looked pretty decent for a wave and gesture. I took a moment to smile at the boys, enjoy the feeling of being objectified (Girls, you know you love it) and then did something I will forever be proud of myself for thinking of… I rolled down the tinted back window to reveal my screaming baby. The looks on their faces was priceless.

I kinda feel like this event accomplished two things: 1- My self-esteem skyrocketed (Thanks boys!) and 2- I taught them more about sex ed and birth control in a 10 second encounter than their health teachers ever could.

This post is about the things that have made MY life easier in the first month of my baby’s life. We’re not talking about things that are useful for my baby.. But things for me.

1. iPad: I liked my iPad before, but I now love it. I read my Zite news, pin things on Pinterest, play Drop7… I also use the WhiteNoise app like it’s going out of style every night for the baby to fall asleep with. I actually play the WhiteNoise app on my iPhone and plug it into a stereo which plays and charges iPhones and iPods
2. Medela Swing Pump: I did the whole full-fledged breastfeeding thing for 3 weeks but it just was not working for my son or I- we were frustrated and I was in pain… So I decided that while I wanted to stop, I wanted to keep giving the baby the benefits of the milk. So I invested in a pump which has made my life much better! I can now bond with my baby when feeding him rather than fighting with both pain and him.
3. Lululemon Still Pants: I’ve lived in these babies for the last 5.5 weeks. Holla! Apparently Lulu stopped making them, so see if you can track them down anyway you can. They’re extremely flattering on a body which is in a state of shock
4. Netflix: I’ve been re-watching Mad Men… and movies… like they’re going out of style. For $7/month, it’s the best thing I spend money on every month! Plus, get it through eBates and get $ for signing up!
5. Swaddler Sacks: I put these on every night to calm down the baby. Works like a charm… Now just to work up to the long sleeps!
6. Lastly, and definitely not leastly, Mr. Roccapuccia. He calms me down after I feel like I’m not able to keep going, takes the baby for me so I can do things like have a shower and is just generally fantastic

Since having a baby, I’ve found myself awake at all hours of the night. While I think I’m pretty lucky with my baby who sleeps for 3 hours stretches (I’ve heard horror stories about babies who only sleep for 45 minutes, yikes) it’s definitely a serious adjustment for someone who is able to sleep for 12 hours without waking up. I was prepared that I’d get no sleep (OK, not prepared, but I knew it was coming) but I wasn’t prepared for the fact that I’d be up for more than 10 minutes to feed the baby before going back to sleep. I get up, feed the baby and then I have to put him back to sleep and get ready for his next feeding- all told, about an hour.

Have you ever heard the songs “4 O’Clock in the Morning” or “5 am”? They talk about how people come home from the club and get frisky… That has not happened in my time being awake unless you count parenthood as a nightclub and a baby cuddling the friskiness… Which I don’t.

So what happens in my early morning hours? It’s a wild ride friends… Here are some of the things I’ve done in the past month and a bit:

• Semi Sleeping: I’ve fallen asleep with a baby in the arms, a pump on my chest and an iPad on my knee. Sounds like it could be a bad song verse.
• Sleep Shopping: I’ve accidentally bought several things online that I probably wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been half asleep. Key items? Tiffany keychain from an estate sale, ring with Baby Roccapuccia’s birthstone, spring scarves… All in all, I’ve not spent more than the credit I had on my PayPal account.
• Life Questioning: “Why did I have a baby?” or “What have I done with my life” or “Is this ever going to get any better?”, you know, all the things you start to question when you’re lacking sleep because of a small person in your life
• Conspiracy Theory Development: I have a neighbor who comes and goes at all hours of the morning. What on earth are they doing? They come, they go… I’ve not been able to figure it out but my top 3 theories are that they’re involved in some kind of illegal activities, they have an addiction to fast food which must be satiated every few hours or they are night dwelling vampires. As I said, I’m lacking sleep something fierce.
• Book Reading: I’ve read “The Lucky One” by Nicholas Sparks as well as several other magazines, housekeeping books and random other things on the iPad
• Game Playing: I play all kind of games
• Sleep Crying: Sleep deprivation can kill the spirits faster than anything, and when you add in a fussy baby who won’t go back to sleep and who can’t be comforted… It’s not always a pretty time of day.

All in all, I’ve relied extremely heavily on my iPad and would highly recommend that any new mother acquire one: I read my Zite news, pin things on Pinterest, play Drop7… I liked my iPad before, but I now can’t live without it!

I’ve wanted a pair of Toms Crochet shoes for about 6 months now, since I saw them looking adorable in a Pinterest outfit collaboration. I actually had made up my mind a couple of nights ago to buy them (Note: When you’re up in the middle of the night feeding a baby… You do some crazy things, including online shopping. Don’t online shop when exhausted, you’ll wake up in the morning with e-mails saying “Thank you for your Purchase!”… Word to the wise) but at Nordstrom the crochet shoes are sold out in pretty much every size except if you have gigantic feet.

So today I was out at Old Navy because I literally am running out of clothes that fit me (I have essentially my pre-pregnancy body back, but with a highly unflattering paunch in the middle which makes my old clothes look like I have a constant muffin top) and I am in need of some clothes to get me through until the exercise I start on Monday, when my little baby reaches 1 month old and I’m medically good to exercise again, starts to work.

So… I found these for the great price of $19.94 at Old Navy- a knock off version of the Toms. The Women’s Crochet Espadrille is something that I can get behind considering…

1. They’re white… I’ll probably have these dirty in about 30 seconds
2. As with most shoes I will likely wear on a very regular basis one season, I’ll be tired of them soon
3.  I’m being frugal on Maternity Leave and the $20 version at Old Navy is cheaper than the Toms by 3 times!