Erin Akin Carroll

surprise, surprise

Jul232009

You all know I’m a planner, right? Not just by trade, but in everything I do. I plan events, plan dinners, plan when I clean, plan when I sleep, plan when I do something fun, plan when I do something not fun. I’ve had the occasional spontaneous moment, but my daily life is planned out to the “T.”

I don’t, however, have a long term plan for my life. Some people have five year plans or ten year plans. I don’t have that. Obviously. We did not plan to get pregnant five months after we got married. It just happened. I just have my 8:00 to 5:00 time planned out.

Because I like to know everything that’s going on, I am impossible to surprise. I hate surprises. I don’t like to be caught off guard and if I get in a car I like to know where I’m going. Sure, it may seem fun or romantic to say, “You’ll see when you get there.” Not for me. I want to know and I do a really good job of finding out. Just ask my husband and my mom. Todd still tries to surprise me, but my mom has given up.

surprise

My mom likes the idea of surprising me, but if she buys something for me she’ll call and say, “I bought something for you, but I’m not telling you what it is.” I’ll do my usual routine of saying, “Tell me, tell me, tell me.” But I’ve learned to let it go because I know that she can’t stand not telling me anymore than I can stand not knowing. So she always ends up telling me. She secretly doesn’t like surprises either.

If I buy something for someone, I can’t stand to wait until the time that they’re supposed to receive it. I always call and it takes everything out of me not to deliver the gift immediately so they can open it or just tell them what it is. I can keep a secret, though, and won’t spill the beans if a surprise party is planned for someone. I just don’t like to be the one to plan it!

Am I the only one that doesn’t like surprises? I guess if I don’t know that a surprise is coming and I am truly surprised, I love it. It’s just hard to surprise me without me suspecting that something’s going on.

pink bow bath boutique giveaway

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Jul222009

It’s time for my first giveaway of the summer. I’m really excited about it for a couple of reasons. First, the owner of the company is super sweet and creates all of her products herself! Second, the owner is also pregnant with a little boy and knows just how much women (especially pregnant women) need to be pampered.

Check out her website and Etsy site for more details on all of the Pink Bow Bath Boutique products.

Today you can enter to win a 4 ounce Whipped Body Frosting, a 5 ounce Sugary Body Polish and a 1 ounce Eau de Perfume (EDP) all in the Pink Bow Bath Boutique best selling fragrance, Pink Passion Sand Beaches.

blue_eyed_bride_giveaway

Pink Passion Sand Beaches – Fresh ocean air, hot shimmering sands, and bronzed bodies glistening with suntan lotion mingle with the intoxicating aromas of fresh island-grown passion fruits, juicy pineapples, sweet guavas, and glistening strawberries, all sprinkled generously with sparkling pink sugar.

Don’t you just know that smells like summer?

To enter, just leave a comment on this post telling me why you deserve to be pampered this summer. I will use random number generator to pick a winner.

You have until July 28 to enter and the winner will be announced on July 29. Unfortunately, I have to limit the entries to US residents.

Because she’s just that awesome, the owner of the Pink Bow Bath Boutique has offered a discount code to all Blue-Eyed Bride readers if you mention Blue-Eyed Bride in the comments section of her site when you check out. She will refund you 15% of your purchase, so don’t forget to go to www.pinkbowbathboutique.com or www.pinkbowbathboutique.etsy.com.

home tour tuesday: the guest bedroom

Filed Under: Home Tour

Jul212009

Welcome to the second edition of Home Tour Tuesday. And welcome to our guest bedroom. This is where I’ve been sleeping for the past six weeks. Our master bedroom is on the second floor andhappens to be the only room on the second floor, and because I can’t climb the stairs for a few more weeks, I’m staying in the guest room. It’s extra nice because it makes the middle of the night walk to Hudson’s room a lot shorter!

I love this room because it’s so white and clean.

I had a twin bed all through college and my parents bought this bed for me when I was in graduate school. I love the white upholstered headboard and the matching duvet cover. The duvet cover and the euro shams have this light sea grass piping. The euro shams have a touch of green in them, but that’s the only color on the bed. I chose green silk curtains to add just a touch of color and to help keep the light out in the mornings.

The chest of drawers was also mine in college and grad school. It wasn’t purchased from a children’s store, but I recently saw it the other day on Posh Tots.

yes, I have silk flowers in there and I loathe silk flowers.

My summer reading list is stacked on top in addition to some of my favorite magazines and some wedding photos. I think it’s really important to keep a good variety of magazines in your guest bedroom so your guests have some night time reading material. It’s also important to have lamps on both sides of the bed so they can read in bed and control their lighting from a comfortable position. That’s my Chicago snow globe from Saks that my brother gave me when I was in high school. I also have one of NYC, but Chicago is my favorite city, so I love that I see it every night before bed when I sleep in the guest room.

The desk near the window (that we use as a bedside table) is weathered and unfinished. It was my brother’s and I just loved it, so it was his wedding gift to us. He’s so sweet.

The chair in the corner was my parents’ and it has been recovered a few times. I’m thinking of recovering it again when I find some spare dollars lying around the house.

And that’s Fiona, my shadow.

My absolute favorite part about this room is the giant rose print on the wall. It’s so romantic and soothing. This room has a little bit of personality, but it’s neutral enough for guests and sometimes feels like a hotel to me.

another helter skelter monday post

Filed Under: Baby, Books

Jul202009

We had a great weekend– and it seemed to last longer this time! We actually got out of the house every day to do something fun for the first time since Hudson was born. It wore me out and wore Hudson out, but it was nice to get out of the house just for a little bit.

1. Shopping. Friday night, the three of us went to the mall to try to find some things for me to wear while my body is in transition. I’ve been wearing yoga pants for 6 weeks and it has got to stop! I needed some things that I can wear at the beach and an outfit a rehearsal dinner and a dress for a wedding. I was happy to see that I can fit back into Small tops and got a few really cute tops at BR. I was upset, however, to see that despite losing 30 of the 42 pounds I gained, I am still wearing pants 3 sizes bigger than my normal size. I only bought two pair of pants (one white and one black) and a pair of jeans to get me through this phase. The shopping trip was successful when it wasn’t depressing me.

2. Weight gain stress. I’ve just got to lose the weight. I wasn’t obsessed with it during the pregnancy. I accepted that I was going to gain weight and didn’t focus on it. But now that Hudson is here and I’m trying to feel like myself again, it’s hard to feel like yourself when you can’t wear any of your clothes. I’ve been to the dark side and you’ve all heard that story– I don’t want to go back. Now that we had to stop breastfeeding (due to lots of medical issues that I’ve chosen not to get too detailed with on the blog– for your benefit, trust me) I am not as concerned with getting enough calories. I’m still on my very specific diet that my doctor gave me to help the healing process, but it’s nice not to have to get those 300 extra calories in every day when you’re trying to lose weight.

… alright, enough pity party

3. Birth annoncements. The birth announcements will be mailed out tomorrow. Being away from work for so many weeks, my hands aren’t as strong as they used to be. I’m not on the computer as often and I’m not writing with a pen and paper as often. When I addressed those 200 birth announcements, I thought my hand was going to fall off!

4. Date night. Todd and I had our first date since Hudson was born. We went to see The Hangover. I know it’s not the best date movie, but we both really wanted to laugh and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t take him to see something that would cause him to roll his eyes through the entire movie. We both did laugh a lot. Funny movie. A little yuck at times, but really funny.

5. Sleepy baby. Hudson slept five hours on Saturday night. Not sure what happened to that last night, but Saturday was a good night! The good news is… he always goes right back to sleep after he wakes up and eats. I saved a lot of your earlier suggestions on getting through the night and have been reading them over to figure out what might work best for us. I don’t remember who asked this question, but we do swear by The Happiest Baby on the Block. At least for soothing and calming techniques. It’s magic!

6. A blogging rant. I appreciate the friendships that I’ve made through blogging so much. I know that there are readers that don’t comment so I haven’t directly communicated with you via email, but I do appreciate that you read. Those of you that do comment have become great friends to me. I love the community that has formed through all of these newlywed, young professional, engaged, in college, working mom, and stay at home mom blogs. The support and encouragement that has developed is so much fun and I love to see what everyone is up to. I addressed 15 birth announcements to friends that I’ve made through blogging. Beautiful!

I have to ask one question… because I know other bloggers have dealt with this, too… tell me if you think that just because we have blogs and write about our lives, we want advice on how to live our lives and how to make decisions about our lives including, but not limited to, medical decisions, job decisions, life decisions, and child-raising decisions. Is that why any of you started your blogs? Or did you start your blog to have a place to voice your thoughts and opinions or just track your daily happenings? I thought so.

7. Church. We had our first Sunday back to church yesterday. We took Hudson to the nursery and Todd and I went to Sunday school. It was so great to see our friends! I have loved being at home with Hudson, but when I got out yesterday I felt like an animal coming out of hibernation. He did great in the nursery and was sound asleep when we came to pick him up, so we seized the opportunity and went to Zoe’s Kitchen for lunch. Here’s a picture of Hudson and me right before we left for church. I love his little Bailey Brothers bubble. It has sailboats on it. And this was his first time to wear shoes. He’s such a little southern gentleman!

8. Books. I finished My Sister’s Keeper yesterday. I really enjoyed the book. I haven’t seen the movie yet– wanted to finish the book first. I did hear that the ending is completely different, so I have a good idea how the movie ends. I can never understand why they change the story so drastically from the book to the movie.

9. Giveaways. I’ve got a couple of giveaways coming up in the next two weeks from two fun companies. I just need to get my act together so I can get the details straight and get it posted. Stick with me.

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