5.20.2013

Maternity Photos Sneak Peek

Well, Aaron and I are only one week away from moving into our little "cottage" in Seattle. We've spent the past two weeks living with our parents. 
If I didn't love my family and in-laws so much, I might feel a little let down since I graduated from college and a week later moved back in with my parents ;)
In any case, we had a blast! While we stayed with Aaron's parents, we saw the film 42 and then went to eat at The Bodacious Pig in Meridian, ID. We highly recommend both! They were amazing. I also had the opportunity to design a flyer for a non-profit organization (pubic school district scholarship program) and I sewed up a storm, and got some help from Aaron's mom, who is a wonderful seamstress. 

After a week in Fruitland, we drove to Nampa to stay with my family for another week. My mom, sister, and I did a lot of sewing and finished most of the cloth diapers we will be using when the babe arrives. I think the diapers are stinkin' adorable, but I can't vouch for their functionality for yet :)
Aaron studied diligently for his next actuary exam (averaging about 2-3 hours per day). He is such a hard worker! Even when we are supposed to be on vacation, he works hard to stay on track.
During the week with my family we did some barbecuing, bike riding, tennis playing, and bowling. I also got to do some photography tag-teaming with my mom at a wedding last weekend. It was such a gorgeous wedding and reception, and I got some quality practice with my new camera.

Oh, and did I mention my mom took us out for a maternity photo shoot? Here is a sneak peek!




5.13.2013

Mikarose Dress Review

I was so excited when I found out that Mikarose was giving pregnant/nursing women the opportunity to wear and review their amazingly beautiful (and modest!) dresses! I was even more excited when they chose me to wear and review one of their dresses!!!

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical when I went to their website and couldn't find a maternity section; I have had some issues in the past wearing dresses and skirts that weren't made specifically  for the pregnant-bellied.

However, when I wore the dress for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it fit my belly just right! There was little or no rise in the front, and the gathering in the belt gave my belly plenty of room to pop out. 

The other thing I really like about this dress is the material. It is very soft and and seems to be of high-quality fabric. I've worn it a few times already and have had a lot of people touch and rub my belly, and the fabric is still soft and smooth. Some of my other shirts and dresses' material have started to ball up and looking old from all the rubbing and touching.

The best part about this dress is that I can wear it after the baby is born! It's the main dress I'm taking to Seattle because of the versatility from pregnancy to postpartum. 

Overall, I love it! It's extremely comfortable, doesn't wrinkle, fits my pregnant body wonderfully, and is versatile.

The only thing I would have done differently is looked at the sizing chart since my chest and belly are [obviously] a bit bigger than my pre-pregnant size. If you are pregnant/nursing I would recommend measuring your chest and basing your size mainly on that :)

33 weeks

You can find this dress and many other super cute dresses at the Mikarose website! I definitely recommend checking them out, especially if you are pregnant! It is really nice to have a dress that will fit during and after pregnancy!

UPDATE:
My sister-in-law brought up a wonderful point: most dresses are not breastfeeding-friendly since you can't easily pull the top down. This particular dress may not be very breastfeeding friendly, but I know that on the Mikarose blog quite a few women have reviewed certain designs of dresses that do work for breastfeeding mothers. You can find the blog here.