17 weeks

I have been seriously slacking on the pregnancy updates, I know. It's so hard to remember and coordinate with my H to take the chalkboard photos that I originally intended on doing. In the past couple of weeks I haven't noticed much of a change so that's another reason that I put off the photos....then all of a sudden a belly appeared overnight! No really, overnight. I left for vacation wishing that I would "pop" so I looked pregnant instead of "omg that girl eats a lot of cupcakes." I popped on the car ride to the beach, no lie. It's so weird how that happens.

Fitting room photo right before I became pregnant. Good thing I didn't buy that top! 

13 weeks

17 weeks
Please excuse the out of control hair, it was late and I was tired. 

Size of the baby?
about the size of a sweet potato (5.5 inches, 5 oz.)

Total Weight Gain/Loss?
10 friggin pounds! I need to get the belt adjusted on the treadmill and get back to work on there!

Maternity Clothes?
None yet but I'm going to need to invest in a pair of maternity jeans soon because there is no way I can squeeze this butt into my size 0's.

Stretch marks?
None. Let's hope it stays that way! I'm loving my cocoa butter.

Best Moments?
My husband getting excited at the sight of my growing belly. Melts my heart.

Movement?
None yet but hopefully soon!

Food Cravings?
sweets. chocolate to be exact.

Anything making you queasy or sick?
Chicken and lemon. Chicken was all I ate and now I'm favoring red meat for some reason.

What I miss?
I really missed going to Seacrets this year, drinking my Pina Coladas.

Nausea/Vomiting?
Thankfully, not since my first trimester ended. The first trimester was rough on me and my stomach. 

Symptoms?
Still a little sleepy sometimes but I have a lot more energy now. I almost feel like a normal human being which is strange considering how sick I was just weeks ago.

Labor signs?
Let's not even discuss labor right now, please.

Gender?
We will hopefully find out on September 12th, as long as the baby is cooperative. I don't have a super strong feeling as to whether it's a boy or a girl but I'm leaning more towards girl:)

Belly Button In or Out?
Still have an innie.

Wedding rings On or Off?
Still on!

Sleep?
I sleep like a rock but I hate having to wake up and go to the bathroom every night.

What I'm looking forward to?
Finding out the gender and seeing our little bambina/bambino on the screen!

Back from Vaca!

I'm baacckkkk... from one of the most relaxing yet jam-packed fun filled vacations I've had to date. The weather was beautiful so we had plenty of beach days (my favorite kind of days). We played lots of mini golf, attempted to build sand castles, walked along the beach at night almost every night, visited the boardwalk a couple of times, went on a cruise, and ate like kings and queens all week. 

We went on a cruise to Assateague Island to see the wild ponies. We were hoping to get a little closer to them but it was still a fun experience.

Sea Horse inside the Life Saving Museum on the boardwalk in OCMD

View of the beach from our balcony. I could really get used to waking up to this every morning.

Another view from the balcony.

...and this right here is what was on our balcony. Skim boards, boogie boards, shovels, and sand castle building materials. Can you believe there were no kids? I guess we're all big-kids at heart, right?



I hope you enjoyed all of the guest posts while I was away! 
Also, I want to thank all of the lovely ladies who posted!

Haute Child in the City: Currently Loving

Meet Chelsea! She's the fabulous writer behind Haute Child in the City. This girl has some amazing taste and she always shares the most gorgeous shopping finds.

Hi there! Chelsea here over at Haute Child in the City! Although I'm a lot little jealous that Schnelle will be soakin' up the rays while I'm sitting at my desk this week, I'm so excited to be posting for her while she is taking a much needed vacation.  I hope you guys enjoy my post and be sure to check me out over at my very own little place on the internets.

     

        

[via 1/2/3/4 ]

If we are really being honest with ourselves here, I don't know ANY girl who grew up in my generation who didn't want to be Kelly Kapowski on Saved by the Bell.  Those bangs, that cheerleading uniform, the outfits, AND she got Zach Morris circa the 90s - seriously.  So when denim vests, a Kelly Kapowski closet staple, started making a resurgance on the fashion scene, clearly, I was on board.  There are some skeptics in our midst and I can understand, but if the above pictures don't make you want to run out and purchase a denim vest for your closet, then I don't know what will.  Throw one on and it can completely transform an entire outfit into super cool and effortlessly chic.  And added bonus, they can easily transition into Fall.  Sold.

Here are some options for you to purchase:

[Gap]

[Nordstrom]

[JCrew]

Sequins & Stilettos: The LBD

Meet Skylette! We have become such great friends over time all thanks to this lovely little blogosphere. We may be on opposite sides of the country but maybe one day our paths will cross. She has a killer collection of shoes, an amazing sense of style, AND to top it all off she's gorgeous!

Hey Everyone!  I'm Skylette from Sequins & Stilettos and I'm excited to be guest posting for Danielle while she takes a breather for a bit.  Are you as excited for her growing little bundle of joy as I am?  I'm a working mama of three and love my children to the moon and back, and whenever someone else starts that phase in life, I become overjoyed.  Okay... moving on...

I work in a professional office and needed a great LBD - keeping in mind it had to be office appropriate.  I scored this number from ASOS and have worn it more times than I'd care to share - it's simple, professional and can be remixed a number of ways.  Here I just used a wide belt and some leopard print shoes to spice things up a bit:

The possibilities are endless and the dress has worked for winter, spring, summer and now fall.  I can't wait to layer with scarves and trench coats!

Outfit Details:  asos sexy pencil dress / white house black market belt and cami

j crew pia calf hair shoes / bag from the buckle

I also purchased the same dress in purple (seen here) and red (here) and have remixed the black (here, and here).  If you need a great dress, I suggest giving this one a try.  One piece of advice for ASOS ordering is to order one size up - the "US Size 6" fits more like a true 4, and so on.  Hope that helps, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Ramblings of a Makeup & Shopping Addict

Meet my BBFF Vanessa! That's Bloggie BFF for those of you that aren't familiar with that cute little acronym. She writes for Ramblings of a Makeup and Shopping Addict which is actually one of the very first blogs that I followed when I entered the blogosphere.  Hello everyone! I'm SO excited to be guest blogging here at Schnelle's blog! She's one of my favorite bloggers and someone I've grown close with over the past 2 years. She's a real sweetheart and I'm so glad we met. (Except we need to meet in person one day!)
This is my first time guest blogging so I'm in new territory. I contemplated for a day or so now what I should blog about. I decided to blog about what I always seem to blog about, and it's also what I do best, shopping. So today I'm going to share some recent fitting room pics. And these come from JCPenney's.
I always find myself taking fitting room pics and looking through them later, when I'm in the fitting room I may think it looks good but then when I go back to my phone and re-evaluate it's a different story. It's like my second opinion. Haha. :)
Anyway I came across this adorable I Heart Ronson lace dress. I will be graduating in the fall, and I'm looking for a cute graduation dress. I decided I'll be walking across stage in the Spring so I thought this pretty lace dress with yellow lining is adorable. I thought able pairing it with a skinny yellow belt around the waist as well. With a price tag of only $32 I didn't think it was bad!



So what is your opinion on this? Do you think it'd be cute for graduation or should I wait on something else? I'd love to hear your opinion!
The next outfit I decided not to purchase. I loved the idea of the outfit so much, but it just didn't work. I've been looking for a cute pair of lace shorts all summer and haven't found a pair I liked. This whole outfit is also by I Heart Ronson.

It's navy blue lining on the shorts and the top is navy blue. I love the fit of both pieces.
This is me attempting to get a picture of the back of the shirt. It has cute buttons going down the back!

Unfortunately, it just looks too much like pajama's and I passed it up. I liked the fit of both pieces, just not together. I think the satin material of the top makes it look too much like pj's. What would you pair the lace shorts with?
And I'm going to leave you with a preview of my upcoming haul, so if you'd like to see it come over to my blog and check it out!

I had so much fun guest blogging here at Schnelle's blog I hope to do it again sometime, thanks again Danielle!

Dainty and Decadent: Minty Fresh

I have some lovely ladies lined up to guest post for me while I'm away this week soaking up the sun, indulging in boardwalk fries, and hitting the mini-golf parks. 

First up is Maria who is the lovely lady behind Dainty and Decadent. If you haven't checked out her blog you need to head over there and check out her perfectly put together outfits and Fabulous (that's right a capital "F" is needed here) collection of shoes! 

So without further ado...

Hi, I'm Maria and I blog over at Dainty and Decadent.  I'm so excited to be guest blogging for Danielle today!  With the summer slowly coming to an end, I am starting to look ahead to fall fashions.  Fall has to be my favorite fashion season.  This summer, I'll be honest, I fell in love...with the color mint!  I thought I would have to retire these jeans for the fall but I'm having a hard time putting them away.  I plan to transition these to a more fall look.  Thank you so much for having me and I hope you stop by and say hello!

Sweater: Ann Taylor Outlet  /  Shirt: Loft  /  Jeans: Loft  /  Shoes: Target  /  Handbag: Coach  /  Sunglasses: Chanel  /  Jewelry: J Crew, Eve's Addiction, Target, Forever 21, David Yurman

Turning Points

So many of my readers have been long-time readers and so I thought it would be appropriate to share a glimpse of my "real life" with you. I know that I like to get to know the writers behind the blogs that I adore so here it goes, things are about to get real personal here...

It's recently dawned on me that a lot about life as I once knew it is changing, it's changing fast and these little life events have probably brought me to this realization:

1.) Planning my husband's 30th birthday party -that's right husband, I have a husband and we've been together for almost 9 years- where did that time go??

2.) We recently started looking into buying a home of our own.

3.) ...a home where we will raise our child, possibly children one day.

4.) I have a baby growing inside of me. Which by the way, is the coolest experience ever. I say that now that I'm in my 2nd trimester and over the always tired, constantly queasy feeling, and so on.

5.) My pink laptop that I used in college is starting to die. I have so many great memories of typing up papers on this baby while sitting in the lounge at Penn State. Granted, I got it in my Junior year and I graduated in 2009 so I understand it's long overdue. This is also the laptop that I used to create my very first blog post for this little blog of mine. So the thought of having to replace it soon, uggg the dreaded "r" word makes me sad. I love this laptop and I'm nostalgic, so what?

I'm leaning towards a Mac. Either the Mac mini or the iMac to be exact. Yes, I'm crossing over to the other side. Does anyone have a Mac? If so, which one and do you love it?

6.) My car is a two-door sporty coupe. I bought her almost 4 years ago during my last semester of college and I love my car. It was my first "big girl" purchase that I got all on my own (well besides furniture). BUT two-door coupe and baby just don't mix. So, here comes the next bout of nostalgia, not wanting to let go, etc., etc. Is a new car in my future? Maybe. I can tell you what isn't in my future, and that's a mini-van or station wagon. I simply can't do it. I've got to find some sort of compromise and whatever I get needs to have a sunroof.

If you've made it this far, congrats and thanks for reading!

I hope I didn't bore any of you too much.

Want a Spot?

So, guess what?! I'm leaving on Friday night for a week of relaxation at the beach and it just dawned on me now that Friday is now just days away!

I know this is super short notice but if any of you lovely ladies would like to guest post while I'm away I would love to have you! I'm not picky so you can feel free to go in any direction that your little heart desires with your post. But here's the thing, I need to have your post no later than Thursday.

The first 5 ladies that contact me will have a spot and will be featured on my blog next week!

Update: The spots are all filled. I have a fabulous line up of ladies filling in for me next week so stay tuned...

...Till You Drop

I told you I would update you on my little shopping trip from last weekend and so here are the goods: 

Aldo

The color is a bit washed out here, it looks more like the first photo.
I really need to play around with my camera and figure out how to use it already... and I better do so before my vacations! DSLRs are so confusing, does anyone have any helpful tips or sites they can share?

H&M Sweaters
Beware- they run really big and they're super long too! I bought both in an XS and they are still big on me, and I still have plenty of room for my growing belly. They're really comfortable though and I can see myself wearing them pretty often with leggings.

H&M Basics -Tank Top & Tube Tops
The tank top is super long and the tubes tops are pretty long too. I'm going to use the tube tops to extend my shirts as my baby bump grows in lieu of a belly band. They belly band I tried on was uncomfortable and it was very elastic so it didn't really look like a shirt, it looked more like spanx- not a good look to show off.

Liz Lange Ruched Maternity Tops
Just a few more basics to add to my growing black and white maternity collection. Don't worry I plan on accessorizing a lot.

Merona Babydoll Maternity Top
This is a size small, believe it or not. It's gigantic on me and while I know I don't have much of a bump yet, I'm not quite sure if it will ever fit me. What do you think should I return it or keep it because I'm just kidding myself?

I really don't plan on buying too many maternity clothes because 1.) I really don't want to waste the money if I don't need to and 2.) There aren't a ton of cute options out there. Two things that are definitely on the list to buy next are a good pair of maternity jeans and a winter coat since I'll be huge during the coldest months of the year.

For all of you moms out there- did you wear a lot of your own clothes throughout your pregnancy or did you rely on a maternity wardrobe? If you have any suggestions for me, please feel free to share your preggo style secrets... I'm all ears!

Shoe Love: Kate Spade Flats

I struck gold this weekend at TJ Maxx. This was the very last pair. In my size. Calling my name. Can you say meant to be?! They didn't look as pretty as they did in this first picture here though- one shoe was missing the bow. I know, so upsetting but I loved the pattern too much to pass it up so I stood in the shoe aisle thinking about what I could do to make these shoes a perfect pair again.

Kate Spade Aeryn Flat

This is what they looked like before. So much potential. 

I removed the double bow and separated them to make two separate bows. Then I took a piece of ribbon and folded it to the desired size, glued it in place, and wrapped it around the center of the bow. Then I glued the bows back onto the shoes and viola! From start to finish it took me less than an hour to complete.

So... I ended up getting a pair of Kate Spade flats for $16.00!
How incredible is that?

OOTD from the Weekend

It's been a busy weekend and it's only Sunday morning. Originally we had planned to look for a home to buy  after the baby is born, just because I'm OCD a perfectionist and I don't want the stress of moving right now. In other words, I want everything in place for when the baby comes and if there is any sort of disarray it's not going to be fun. But we came across this house in the area that we are hoping to settle down in so we went to look at it yesterday! Unfortunately, it had more cons than pros so it's not the house for us but I'm so excited that we took the first step- meeting with a realtor. 

This outfit it actually from last weekend but I wore something very similar yesterday. These are my go-to shorts right now because they are the only ones that fit me at the moment. So here it is, my 13 and a half week baby bump:

Top- Old Navy
Shorts- Forever 21 (old, they finally fit me!)
Sandals- Burlington
Bracelets- Tiffany's, random shops in Sicily
Nail Polish- Revlon Siren (my favorite, go-to color this summer

What I've Been Reading: July 2012

Can you believe that today is August 1st?! I can't believe we are in our "last month" of summer. Regardless, I'm pretty excited because I'm going on vacation in just a couple of weeks and my husband will be turning the dirty 30 while we are away, so there will be lots of celebrating!

Question of the month (from Andi): If you were stranded on an island--which one album and which one book would you want to have with you?

Another toughie Andi! I'd have to pick Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. I read this in college and  it has been one of the very few books that were required reading that I thoroughly enjoyed. My English professor sparked my fascination with Vonnegut and I am so thankful for that. Not everyone is a Vonnegut fan though, I think you will either love his style or hate it. I happen to love it because he's entertaining but on a deeper level, and he leaves a lot to the imagination. 

I'm picking Dave Matthews Band but I'm cheating a little because instead of one album, I'm picking one mixed CD of theirs. I'm not your stereotypical DMB fan but lately I have found myself drawn to their music. I just went to my first DMB concert a few months ago and I loved it. All of their music is so relaxing and I think I would need something to relax me from the panic of being stranded so this choice makes perfect sense to me.

 

• Beautygirl24 - Noelle fell in love with a pretty peplum top
• Ella Pretty -  Ella's made a list of her must-have handbags & shares pictures from her bag collection here
• Lilly's Style - Lilly's feeling summery in shorts
• Saltwater Dreams - Andi has discovered two new must-have products, see what they are here
• Schnelle Couture - Danielle is enjoying her new baubles
• Sequins and Stilettos - Skylette finally found a blouse to try the peplum trend with- take a peek here