Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Being half irish and all, St Patrick's day is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is my favorite color (kelly green) EVERYWHERE, but I don't feel guilty drinking a Guinness in the middle of the day. Piper decided she needed to celebrate her St. Patrick's Day in style!

I'm glad I have such a fabulous little model at such a young age!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone!!

 Piper likes her bottle too ;)

33 Weeks!

Baby Camera Happy is 33 weeks and 1 day today.

My belly is protruding A LOT now and I feel HUGE. Like just swallowed a house huge. My lungs cannot expand, and just rolling over in bed or walking to the bathroom to pee for the millionth time in a day makes me short of breath. Baby girl is quite active, and she likes to kick and flop around, especially at bedtime. I cannot believe in under 2 months I will be able to snuggle my outside baby!! I passed my glucose test with no problems whatsoever, so it's been nice not having the added worry of that.  :)

Past Events?

October 22 - Our Maternity Photos

November 6 - family baby shower

November 13 - friends baby shower

Upcoming events?

-December 4th - Having a dinner party with a few friends and their babies 

 - December 9th - Work luncheon/baby shower

 - December 10th - Having another dinner party with a few friends

 - December 11th - Work Christmas party

 - December 25th - Christmas!

 - January 9th - First day of maternity leave!

 - January 16th - Baby Camera Happy's due date!

Check In:

• How far along?: 33 weeks and 1 day

• Total weight gain: I was up 25 lbs at my last appt.

• How big is baby?: Little one is the size of a Honeydew Melon this week

• Maternity clothes?:Oh yes. And I've upgraded to the full panel on my maternity jeans, thankyouverymuch. Got a bunch of hand me down scrubs from girls at work so that I should be able to make it through my pregnancy without having problems with work outfits.

• Movement: Baby likes to have dance parties. Upside down dance parties, where her feet dig into my ribs and her head smooshes my bladder. She especially likes bed time!

• Stretch marks?: Not yet! Fingers crossed! <--Still this! My belly is shiny and I have quite the linea nigra going though.

• Sleep?: I am tired all the time. Not just sleepy, yawn a couple times and deal tired. More like falling asleep on the nurses station at work tired.

• Symptoms?: Right now it's rapid pulse, shortness of breath, swollen hands and feet, and pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome. Not to mention continuing on with restless leg syndrome and heartburn so bad that I can throw up foam sometimes. FUN!!!!!

• Food cravings:  Popsicles. All kinds of popsicles. I can eat 12 freeze pops in a sitting. I especially love the Snapple Sorbet bars from Walgreens. They are delish!
• 
  
• Food Aversions: Seafood (which I normally dont' like anyway) smells so vile to me that it can induce vomiting.

• Belly button in or out?: Still an innie, but it's completely flush with my belly.

• What I miss: I miss having energy. I miss being skinny. I feel so fat and uncomfortable right now!

• What I'm looking forward to: I am looking forward to meeting my little girl!

• Best Moment this week: This week started my new, less hours at work due to pregnancy. Love it. It also put me under the 2 month mark in terms of due date!

It's The Most Wonderful Timeeee Of The Year! Holiday cards ahoy!

I have a confession. I have never once sent out photo cards for any occasion. I have always loved receiving them, and this year, I'm going to do it! We are taking a family photo and I am going to be sending out actual photo cards, instead of the plain ol' cards you can buy from the store. And I'm excited. We just need our first snow, because I can't have a family holiday picture without snow! And I think there is a better chance of snow coming before us actually getting a christmas tree set up. 

What woke up this need you ask? I discovered through Kate over at Some Dreams Come True that this year, Shutterfly is offering 50 free photo cards to bloggers! This is a great opportunity to see if I will be joining the ranks of the photo cards this year, as I have been impressed with everything I've ordered from them thus far.

The first step for me was to browse the internet and see what was out there! I could just make my own in photoshop, but I'm so busy I forget to sleep half the time. I've ordered from Shutterfly in the past, prints of photos, and a photo book, and the quality has always been superb! And their holiday cards do NOT disappoint! So many designs to choose from! I'm going to have a hard time deciding! I made some test cards on the site, since we don't have our actual photo yet, and I love the way they turned out!

Everyone loves wedding photos!

Or maybe cards with our dear dogger Riley!

 The possibilities are endless. I hope that we are able to take our photo soon, so that I can get to the task of choosing my design! Or designs... since I'm really indecisive sometimes!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010  

You can also make tons of fun gifts for friends and family to go with your cards, such as:
Calendars and Personalized Mugs.
Who doesn't love something a little more personal?

I received a promo code in exchange for creating this post, but all the opinions are my own.

Also, if you haven't entered yet, I have 2 giveaways going on right now that end this coming Saturday, and VERY low entires on them = higher odds of winning!

    Lemon Pepper Panko and Chef Chiarello Cookbook Giveaway!

Hershey's Moderation Nation Giveaway!

Have I Mentioned....

Just how much I adore Swagbucks!?!

I joined back in May of this year, and have been stockpiling amazon.com giftcards since then. Originally I was going to save up for a Wii Fit package, but I changed my mind not long ago. Today it happened

I placed my order!

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens

Granted, it's not an expensive lens by any means, but it has had fantastic reviews from everyone I have spoken to. So I ordered it this morning!

Total Price: $99.85

Amazon.com gift cards earned through Swagbucks: $70.00

Leftover balance from old gift card won via blog giveaway : $1.06

Total cost for me: $28.79 

I could not be more excited! 

And Swagbucks has made it even easier to earn! They recently launched Swagbucks TV, where you can watch videos (and they're actually entertaining videos! Not lame advertisements) While you are watching videos, you may be randomly awarded with Swagbucks! My first day watching vids, I earned 15 Swagbucks within 15 minutes. And there are plenty of other ways to earn too!

 

If you havent' already signed up, why  not give it a try? I love getting deals, and with being able to earn all these gift cards, it makes it easier for me to save money :)

Click the link below to sign up if you are interested!

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge 6/16/2010 - NATURE

This week the theme of the photo challenge at In A Yellow House is NATURE! I love nature photographs, so I can't wait to see the pictures :) Here's my contribution, though I was torn between this one, and a flower picture that I really like:

But this duckie picture makes me smile every time! This little guy was just hanging out splashing and swimming around, so I had a photoshoot with him! I love how vivid the colors came out :)

Weekend Getaway

Despite the horribly rainy weather, it was a great weekend in Galena, IL! The wedding got JUST enough of a break where they pulled off the ceremony outside, with some sunlight, and it went away soon after that! I had a fabulous time! Me and my hubby decided to go back there this fall for my birthday, because it would be absolutely breathtaking there when all the leaves are changing colors!

He took me on a few of the back roads of Galena to see the sights, and it was BEEEEEAUTIFUL! The photos aren't the greatest because it was rainy and grey the whole time, but I brought back a couple to share :)

Sooo much greenery, and hills and valleys!

PLENTY of cows hanging out.

Chickens hanging out by the side of the farm

Winding gravel roads

And who WOULDN'T want to live there?

Definitely looking forward to going back for my birthday this year :)

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge 06.09.10 - SUMMER

 

This weeks challenge at In A Yellow House is SUMMER! I haven't been out much to get pictures yet, as I've been working a ton, so I'm picking an older fave of mine from 2007 to use! 

Me and my friends have the most relaxing weekend getaways ever. I love this shot of my good friend napping after a long day of hanging out at the beach! I also love the reflection of her boyfriend in her sunglasses! Makes me smile :)

Check out In A Yellow House to enter your own photo and link up!

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge June 3rd, 2010

I know I'm a little late to jump in, but I've been too busy to do much of anything! Today was the 10th day straight that I've had to work. And my next day off isn't until June 8th. I'm exhausted! This week the photo challenge theme is RED! I have a lot of red photos... But I chose one of my faves of all time!

Don't mind the watermark! I'm too lazy and tired to dig out the disk with the original file on it, rather than the copy that will be going up on my website once I'm done putting it together!

Photo Of The Day

Not much to update on - So I bring you my current favorite photo!

Such a happy boy....

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge, May 26th - Your Town

Joining in the fun of the In A Yellow House photo challenge!

This weeks theme is Your Town - Some thing or place unique to your city or state.

I've decided on this picture:

It's not my specific town (although I did live there for a year!), but I LOVE this clock tower that they put up relatively recently, compared to the area surrounding it. 

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge, May 19th - Black & White

 

This week the challenge is black and whites, and again I had trouble choosing a photo! I think I'm just indecisive these days really! In the end, I chose those one:

This was taken at a beach in Michigan City, Indiana. (Hopefully we're going back later this year) I love the beach!

Winner :)

Riley's photo from a few posts back won the photo challenge over at In A Yellow House!!

He will be so excited to know that his humiliation was for the greater good :)

Or he will just sleep, and be excited tomorrow. Oh dogger how I love thee :)

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge

I am seriously excited by the number of photo challenges I can find on blogs! I decided to play along with another one:

In A Yellow House

The challenge this week was for food photos, so I decided to just pull a photo from a few months back to share for this week, since it's late, and I'm lazy...;)

Plus I love how the lighting turned out in this picture! And it reminds me that I want to make my 3-Bean Ravioli Minestrone soup again soon....

Hellooo Blogger Friends!

I'm entered into a travel photo contest to win a new camera bag (it's badly needed!)

I could use some votes, if anyone is willing to help! Only one of the 3 photos has votes so far, and it's not mine! haha

I'm photo #3 - Almost Paradise

Travel Photo Contest

All you have to do to Vote is leave a comment stating the number and name of the photo you are voting for, and be sure to include an e-mail address so they can make sure nobody is voting more than once!

Thanks!

Simplicity Photo Challenge : Flowers - Blog Hop!

I found a great site called Simplicity on the Tuesday Tag-Along, and found a photo contest! I love photos, so I really enjoyed looking through the pictures that have already been submitted. So I figured I would throw my hat into the ring!

Here's my submission!

Taken May 2009 at Chicago Botanic Gardens

2010 Ultimate Blog Party

Heard about this through a fellow July 2009 bride (Go say hi to Kate), and I loved the idea! So here goes!

I'm Vicki, and I'm 27 years old. I married my dear husband On July 10, 2009. As you can see, he hates buttoning jackets. We are currently trying to have a baby. I am a state licensed massage therapist, and a manager for a retail store (SUUUUCKS!), but the economy definitely isn't helping that situation. I do side work as a wedding and event photographer. I'm relatively new to the world of blogging, but I'm having a great time learning and exploring, as well as reading other blogs and getting inspirations for everything. I LOVE photography, and generally wind up posting a lot of pictures in my posts. Since wedding planning disappeared from my world, I've begun crafting to fill the void it left. I love to be creative, and I love planning things. 

We have 2 cats, Glitter (7) and Hendrix (11), who I have had since before I even met my hubbs.

Glitter above, Hendrix below

We also have one dog. His name is Riley, and we adopted him from animal control in Chicago on 4-22-09.  His adoptaversary is coming up! We have loved every moment of having him. Most people think I'm a bit insane for the amount of photos of him I have.

Riley loves playing in the hose when it's hot outside!

In case this post didn't give it away or anything, I have a tendency to ramble...and jump from topic to topic. Keeps my little world interesting!

If there is anything you want to know, do not hesitate to ask, I'm hoping to make some new blogger friends!  :)

Thanks for looking!

XOXO

-V

Top 3 Prizes would be :

US39 -  Be My Guest certificate ($250 value) for one lucky winner, (2 night stay for a family of four) at any Hilton Garden Inn.

USC3 - A $50.00 Target Gift Card.

USC8 - $55 E-Gift Card for Amazon.com Gift code will be emailed to the winner and can be used for purchases from Amazon.com.

Other Faves:

US48, US36, US23, US18

Spring has Sprung!!