.:Meet the Ritchies:.

I realize that summer is nearing it's end, although for us in the Northwest it really never felt like it got it's beginning.  But a shoe is a shoe.  And this is not just an ordinary shoe, it's one that comes with a huge mission of love and encouragement and compassion.  The company is called Sseko Designs and their mission is straight from the heart.  Here is their story:

If you happen to find yourself in Kampala, Uganda, make your way to the Old Taxi Park. From there, grab a taxi van to Matuga. Jump off at the end of the line, and hop on a boda boda to the Cornerstone Leadership Academy. After a (bumpy) ride along a dirt road, you will find yourself in the company of some of the most intelligent and committed young women in Uganda. These women are graduates of the Cornerst one Leadership Academy and employees of Sseko Designs.

Sseko \say-ko\ Designs was created to help these bright young women continue their education. The Ugandan school system is designed with a nine month gap between secondary school and university. These nine months are intended to allow time for students to earn money for tuition before continuing on to university. However, in an impoverished and male dominated society, many of these young women struggle to find fair work during this time.

Sseko Designs hires recent secondary school graduates for this nine month period to live and work together, while earning money that will go directly towards their university education. These women will not make sandals forever. They will go on to be doctors, lawyers, politicians, writers and teachers that will bring change and unification to a country divided and ravished by a 22 year-long war.

Sseko Designs is a not-just-for-profit enterprise that recognizes the power of business and responsible consumerism to support sustainable economic development, which in turn affects a country's educational, justice, and health care systems. The goal of Sseko Designs is two-fold: provide university tuition for these promising young women through a sustainable monthly income, while also contributing to the overall economic development of Uganda.

Although consumerism makes many empty promises, responsible and proactive consumerism has the ability to change lives. Like the lives of Mercy, Mary and Rebbecca.

Every sandal has a story. This story has only just begun, but with your help, it will be a story of hope, success and change.

****

I couldn't help reading that without a lump in my throat.  And I know what you're thinking, "you're pregnant, hormones are working double time, you probably cry about everything".  That's partially true, but I am pretty sure that had I not been in my delicate state, I still would have been moved by their story.

The bonus to all of this is, the sandals are freaking adorable!  You can buy a pair here.  It's definitely for a wonderful cause, one you can be proud of, as they say above just call it "responsible consumerism".

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Isn't that sewing machine divine? *swooon*

Super adorable sandals, with ties that you can lace up in many different ways, and change them out for other ties! Brilliant!

This is only a coincidence that this will be my second post in a row having to do with weddings, really.  I came across a "same-day edit" video that I just had to share with you.  For those of you that may not be up on videography lingo - same day edit means they shot the video all day during the pre-wedding festivities, during the ceremony, and then quickly threw it together to show at the reception party.  This takes not only an amazing knowledge of getting all the right shots, but also the talent of putting it all together in not very much time at all.

Now, if you are like me and a total sappy sap (even worse now that I am pregnant), then you may want to have a kleenex handy.  It is just too beautiful!  A friend that I used to work with, has a videography company that she and her husband run called Ambient Sky Productions (check them out on Facebook!).  This is an example of their work.  I really wish that we had had it in our budget to have a video done of our special day.   Not to take away any of the specialness from it, because the entire purpose was to marry the man I want to spend my life with and I did that (oh yes, I did!).  But if I can share any advice with brides-to-be, it would be to hire someone to take a video of your wedding day!  And if you are in the Portland area, hire Ambient Sky!!  Capture every moment.  Pictures are wonderful yes, but being able to see special moments with your parents, your friends, and most importantly your handsome groom - is priceless.   The Bride is usually in her room, getting ready and does not get to see the excitement building with everyone else as she touches up her makeup and adjusts her headpiece (by the way, the Bride in this video has the perfect accessories, she really thought of every touch!).  Okay, enough advice giving... check out this video of a wedding they did at a wine orchard in Dayton a couple weeks ago, and ladies - trust me - get some tissue!

Ben & Jenn - same day edit (scroll down a bit to see their August 13th post for the video).

Great job Amanda!!!

xoxo

On Sunday evening, our cousin Molly tied the knot with the man of her dreams, Joel (whose birthday was yesterday, happy birthday Joel!).  It was a beautiful ceremony at the Queen Anne Victorian Mansion in North Portland.  You know, the one with all the twinkling lights that you can see from the freeway?  Everything about that place is just oozing with nostalgia, I loved every second!  Mark and I dressed up in our best, appropriately vintage themed though not on purpose.  The weather held out despite some threatening rain clouds earlier in the day.  And two very special (and gushingly happy) people said "I do" under a gazebo, surrounded by friends and family.  It was perfect.  I forgot tissue, which seems to be happening a lot to me lately when in situations where a tear may be shed (My Mom and I went and saw the movie The Kids Are All Right last week, and I cried big huge alligator tears, it wasn't until the movie was almost over that I realized I still had napkins from the popcorn in my lap, der).  And I always cry at weddings, I even cry watching strangers get married on TV.

I got to meet some new in-law family members, which is always a treat for me!  And they did not disappoint!  My father in law's cousins were very nice, and both born in February, so we added a few more dates to target for our baby's arrival.  I think we have every single day, give or take a few, in February that contains someone's birthday that we know so it shouldn't be hard to land on one.  We even have it covered if it were to be a Leap Year, since Mark's friend Perry is February 29th.  But the next one of those isn't until 2012, so sorry Perry, it won't be your day this time around.

Anyway, back to the wedding.  My bakerific Mother in law made the wedding cake and it was DELICIOUS!  She really has a way with cream cheese frosting I tell you.  I took a moment and walked through the Mansion itself, which is set up and decorated as if someone from the early 1900's is still living there.  Each room felt as though someone had just been in there, reading a book or knitting a blanket, or playing music.  There were old photographs of other wedding parties, from all the eras.  There was a room where the most beautiful sequin and beaded dress was hanging on the wall, in the style of the 1920's with a drop waist.  It took my breath away!  I loved that you were allowed to just wander around at your leisure and take it all in.  The bathroom even had some feather stoles hanging on the shower rod, as if the lady who wore them that evening had just slipped it off her shoulders after an evening of dancing the Charleston.  I wish I could go back in time and spend a weekend in the roaring '20s.  I do believe that would have been my decade.

Here are some pictures that my Mother in law emailed us from the wedding.  The two lovebirds are honeymooning in Mexico right now, and I hope they are having the loveliest time!!  I can't wait until they start adding babies to the mix!

Queen Anne Victorian Mansion

cousin George (brother of the bride), Mark and I, and Amy (sister in law)

Wedding cake!

Congratulations Joel & Molly!

Have a great Thursday!

xoxo

What a busy week we've had!  We decided, kind of suddenly, to tear apart our bathroom Tuesday evening and give it a complete overhaul.  It's been a long time coming really, we've been talking about it since we moved in but hadn't made it a priority.  With both the girls gone this week, vacationing with their other parental units, we took advantage of the situation and turned the house upside down!  No really, it looked like a bomb went off in our house while we were shuffling stuff around, ripping up floors, painting walls and purchasing new cabinetry.  After four evenings of hard work, done mostly by my amazing husband since I am pretty much only useful for measuring and marking things, we are finally finished (for the most part)!  We still need to glue the flooring down better, and fix some places where the paint got smudged, but I would say it was good enough to cross another thing off our t0-do list!

to-do list

So without further ado, here are some before and after shots!

BEFORE: I forgot to get pictures of the floor but it was white linoleum with yellow spots that had accumulated in number since we moved in? Not sure if it was glue coming through the floor or what...

Tearing the place apart...tub and toilet were the only things that remained intact. The shower is another project for a later date, Mark wants to tile that baby...

Ripping up the flooring...

Rudy and Mark taking a break, watching a little TV...

First coat of paint, it's so nice to have those boring white walls anymore!

Installing the new flooring...

Installing the new pedestal sink, this will be a space saver for our tiny little bathroom... or at least it makes me feel like it's saving space...

New floor!

AFTER: Here is the new and improved bathroom!

Isn't she a beauty?

Our new shower curtain and bath rug are on the way, should have those early next week.  We are very pleased with how it turned out and we did it on our small budget.

And I am 14 weeks and 1 day today, so I'll leave you with a little side view of the blossoming belly...

xoxo

...

Aren't you excited?

So it's my birthday in a couple weeks, and I don't usually come right out and "wish" for things but I couldn't help myself this year.  Mainly because I know that this will not go further than being just a wishlist, but it was fun to daydream for a minute.  That, and I always enjoy looking at what Anthropologie has happening in their world, even if it is mostly overpriced and not the best sewing quality.  I still *swoon* at most of what I see!

Here are some things I wish I could have all wrapped up in a box with a bow:

River Tyne Tee

Fluttering Lashes Poncho

Sticks & Stones Top

Akela Necklace

Migrating Mallard Cardigan

Relaxing Tee

Wingspan Heels

Gossamer Henley

The best part about all of those things, is that they will also work with my expanding waistline.... just sayin'...

xoxo

** We are currently in the middle of a bathroom remodel, so stay tuned for some BEFORE and AFTER pictures of that fun project! **

Oh my sweltering heat batman!  I hope you all survived the heat wave this weekend, if you aren't in our beautiful neck of the woods, chances are you were experiencing warm temperatures yourself.  We had 90+ degree days, which hasn't happened for awhile, so we chose our activities carefully.  On Saturday we went over to our friend Josh's house for a pool party in celebration of his nephew Alex's birthday.  The best part was that his pool was completely in the shade, so we didn't even have to worry about drenching our girls in sunscreen.  After that we took a drive out to Newberg, which is quite a drive considering I don't remember the last time we were out there.  My friend Jessica Bobillot, whom I graduated with from the Art Insitute had done the costumes for a Shakespeare play and it was being performed outside at the Allison Hotel & Spa.  Willamette Shakespeare put on A Midsummer Night's Dream for the 2nd weekend of a three weekend run.  It was so much fun!  Not only was it a beautiful venue, but the weather was perfect also.  We took a picnic dinner and delighted in the live band Roughly Hewn that played before and throughout the performance.  And it was totally free!

Shakespeare in the park

And today, even though we knew it was going to be a scorcher, found us at the Clark County Fair in Vancouver.  We toured the animal barns, which always brings back very fond memories for myself regarding the 8 years I spent in 4-H when I was growing up.  I never showed any large animals, but I did have rabbits!

We saw some goats...

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(I've been feeling a lot like this guy lately, always with my head in the feedbag...)

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And the llamas.. or are they alpacas?  There was a sign explaining the difference but I didn't read it. I guess I wanted to keep it a mystery...

I think she was giving me the eye, so I couldn't help but take her picture...I wish I had lashes like that...

This guy was hilarious... is this a llama or a poodle?

or maybe an Ostrich?

We walked through the buildings that had the 4-H kids exhibits including photography, food, clothing and table settings.  I can remember standing up in front of the judges and baking muffins, like I was practicing to have my own cooking show.  I remember being really nervous even though you don't have to explain what you are doing, you just have to do it.  I also put together table settings and won blue ribbons for doing so.  I should dig up those old photos..

After we had some lunch and walked around the commercial buildings, we made our way over to the grandstands for the Monster Trucks.  Hey, it was free (with fair admission of course) so why not, right?  The place filled up quickly and the girls put in their earplugs.  Then it got seriously noisy!  My ears are still ringing.  We didn't stay for the whole thing, about a half hour was all we could handle.  The smaller trucks were more fun, especially the ones that either broke something or almost crashed.

Then the girls were ready to ride a few carnival rides before we headed back to our air-conditioned home.  They had a tough time agreeing on which ones they'd go on, since neither of them wanted to ride alone and we didn't buy enough tickets for Mark to ride any.  And oh darn, I wasn't allowed to ride any on account of being pregnant.  As you can tell, I was really disappointed (ppsshhhh).  They finally decided on a ride called Haywire, which when I was a kid it was called the Scrambler.  Mark and I were making bets on who would lose their lunch first, which probably sounds pretty mean but it's only because we both remembered having similar episodes as kids ourselves.  When I was in the 6th grade, my friends and I rode the Tea Cups and they made it spin like crazy and I was laying under a tree in the shade for the remainder of the day, sick as a dog.  But luckily, they had fun and nobody complained about feeling ill.

Before..looking very confident...

And during...laughing like banshees...my face hurt from laughing at them while I was taking these pictures...

And then it was time for the Tilt-A-Whirl...

Still smiling...

So from Shakespeare one night to the Monster Trucks and carnival rides the next, we had a great weekend.  Too bad the work week starts up again tomorrow, as my friend Kira said, the weekends just go by way too fast...

xoxo

Snickerdoodles baking in the oven.

Baby baking in my belly. 13 weeks done today in fact.

I look as tired as I feel, but I had no idea I looked as tired as I felt. Does that make sense? Wearing an apron from Pier 1 Imports, gifted to me this Mother's day by my adoring hubby & girls.

Hubby and V are sinking each others battleships with Grateful Dead 
playing in the background.

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Dogs barking at the back door because they can sense all the 
excitement they are missing out on.  (either that or they smell the 
yummy cookies and can't help themselves).

It's warming up outside and having the oven set at 400 degrees isn't 
helping the inside temperature any.

So You Think You Can Dance finale results are on in 15 minutes. I 
voted 100 times last night for Kent. I don't care if it's him or 
Lauren, I just don't want Robert to win. He pales in comparison. Hubby 
and V agree.

I found a heart shaped rock this morning as I was getting in the car. 
It made my whole day.

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I hope your day was full of heart shaped things!

Xoxo

I came across this blog last week while looking at one of my favorite sites Design Mom, and it's just too darling to share!  This Mom takes advantage of the time during the day when her sweet little baby is napping, and sets up photo backdrops involving something that she feels her baby might be "dreaming" about.  Clearly, she has a lot of time on her hands, and a great imagination.  Not to mention an adorable baby! She posts new ones a few times a week, you can check her out here.

These are some of my faves...

"little ray of sunshine"... also, I LOVE these pants, I will definitely be making a pair for our baby...

"space Mila"

"autumn leaves"

"bookworm"

xoxo

This week we had our hardwood floors refinished, and they turned out beautifully!  When we first bought our house, almost two years ago (man, time flies!), there was carpet throughout the living room and bedrooms.  It didn't take long before we decided to lift up the carpet to see what was hidden underneath, and we were pleasantly surprised to find hardwoods!  They were not in great shape, but they were good enough that we could live with them until we figured out a plan for having them refinished.  So we took up all the carpet and painstakingly removed all the staples and nails.   There were a few places where the floors were chipped a bit so we put down masking tape (X marks the spot!) so that nobody would snag their socks.  It was pretty ghetto fabulous.  And finally, a year or so later, we hired a very nice family owned and operated company to come in and make them look as good as new!  They were done in one day, and then we let them dry for two.  The smell is still lingering a bit, but it's not anything a smelly-good candle from Target can't take care of!  : )

Here are some pictures!

Our spare bedroom, currently the play room, soon to be the baby's room (after a new paint job!)...

Our bedroom, as you can see Rudy was the first one to move back in... haha..

Living room... there is a dark spot, but it will be covered up with a rug...

A big thank you to Bill & Betty for letting us live in their home while our floors were being done!   It worked out perfectly and we really appreciated it!

I highly recommend these guys if you have any refinishing needs.

xoxo

You may have noticed that our banner artwork above has changed to portray our growing family!  Oh, and my new haircut!  I will post pictures of that soon, I just don't have any right now.  I also don't have any pictures of my rapidly expanding waistline yet, at least none besides the ones taken with my Iphone standing in front of a mirror (all of which have my head cut off).

We had our first ultrasound last Thursday, at 11 weeks along.  It was pretty awesome to see the little jumping bean, and it was definitely jumping.  Although I was wishing with all my might that we would have twins, I am perfectly okay with there just being one very healthy and active baby in there.

as Mark affectionately says, here is "junior"...

They say that you show sooner with your second baby, and apparently even if 12 years have gone by since you were last pregnant, that rule still applies.  Because I am HUGE for still being in the first trimester.

I have no complaints with pregnancy so far... Well, that's not true.  I do have one complaint.  Breakouts.  Holy cow, I feel like I am going through puberty again with the havoc that has been wreaked upon my face so far.  But it is clearing up and I hear from a good friend that after the first trimester, you take on that "glow" that everyone talks about and you have the best skin of your life!  I am very excited (and ready) for this!  I don't remember this detail the first time around, but I was young so I was probably used to having pimples still!

I had some queasy stomach feelings during the first 3 weeks we knew, but it never led to anything more than that.  And now the queasiness is gone, so I feel fantastic.  I am eating everything in sight.  It's pretty crazy when I am going back for seconds and thirds, eating more than my husband.  I am trying to be good about what food I am pigging out on, since clearly I am pigging out.  I gained a ridiculous amount of weight when I was pregnant with Claire and it was from eating tons of junk.  So this time around, I am trying to be smarter.  I just make sure I have fruit and nuts and 100 calorie snack items nearby.  At all times.  Because I am always hungry.  Always.

We are super excited for our future family member!  I will update with pictures and more information as we go!

xoxo

P.S.  look for a post coming soon about our newly refinished hardwood floors!  They look AMAZING!