Guest Blog: Holy Makeover, Batman!

I was going to wait till next week for this one, but it was simply too good to hold back. Eric Teng from DMDinsight.com took a weekend to be fabulous and makeover some drab IKEA dressers. I have to be honest, I have seen these night-stands at IKEA many times and have never looked twice at them, but Eric has transformed them into pieces of art. Stain, paint, beautiful pulls, and elbow grease are all it took. OH YEA, and the foresight to see the nude dresser and dream up something spectacular! Check out the before and after.

I think I'll be going to IKEA sometime soon!

First Guest Blog! Swoop Desk review

Hello all! I'm Jen, Keri's sister-in-law. I'll be doing a weekly guest blog about anything and everything design related! I have been anticipating reviewing this desk for a while because of how pleased I have been since I bought it! It is the Swoop Desk from CB2 and is one of the best desks for the price.

For $299.00 the Swoop Desk from CB2 has been sittin pretty in my room for the past six months, and it is about time I share the gospel of this amazing deal! Sleek, modern design is the tip of the iceberg, this is a very functional, very consumer friendly desk. Easy to set up when it arrives in the mail, unless of course you do what I did and put the little white shelf wall in backward and have to take it all apart again to get it right the second time!! But I digress, once it is set up, you'll find that it is the perfect size for its purpose. I can comfortably fit my laptop, notebooks, drink, pens, etc on the main part of the desk for easy access to all, and the drawers are very useful for storage of office supplies. I have read some reviews saying that others have found this desk to be too top heavy but I have not found that to be true at all. The legs are very sturdy and I have never once felt that I had to be easy with it so it wouldn't wobble or whatnot. Ok, back to the best part, the price. There are many other desks on the market that cost more than the Swoop Desk for the same quality, and that just doesn't seem very enticing.

The Nelson Swag Leg desk will cost you a pretty penny for the George Nelson name, not that the George Nelson name sitting in your office is anything to sneeze at, but running a cool $1745.00 at DWR.com, for me and mine, this is just simply not an option at this point in life! But as you can see they are very similar in design and stay tuned into the guest blogs because soon I will be showing you a very easy tweak to the Swoop Desk to make it look a little bit more like the classic Nelson Swag Leg.

She's Walking!!

Hadley is officially a walker, a toddler, a (slightly) ambulatory human being. There's no stopping her now! Although Hadley took her first steps at the beginning of August, she has seemed ambivalent about walking until the last few days. I guess when you crawl at the speed of light, there's really no incentive to try to walk where you need to go. But, for some reason, she has been practicing walking constantly for the last two days.

Yesterday, Hadley was standing by a chair in our living room and decided to walk across the room to me. She bravely took four wobbly, jerky steps to get to me before plopping down on her bottom. I excitedly called Sean at work to tell him this exciting news, and his response was, "You were supposed to knock her down if she walked while I was at work!" As if! Hadley and I spent the rest of the afternoon praciticing. And, just for fun, when Daddy got home from work, Hadley walked for him, too. That's my girl!

I am trying to get Hadley's new skill on video, but this is proving to be quite difficult. As soon as we turn the camera on, Hadley goes right to it, turns the little viewing monitor so she can see it, and then proceeds to kiss the baby on the screen. It's adorable, but it really makes getting movies of her very difficult. I'll see what I can do, though.

Sickly

Well, I think we did it. Hadley has finally caught her first cold. I know, I know-- I made this proclamation here. But really, that little malady was merely a farce. She was better by the end of the day. This time, I think she is truly sick. Runny, runny, snotty nose, a slight cough, raspy breathing. It's great fun around here. And, what I love the most? When Hadley decides she would rather wipe her nose on the couch than let me we wipe it for her. So lovely.

We're going on day 4 of this little illness and I'm crossing my fingers that we're on the tail end. If not, I may need to move to a little bed and breakfast until the snot subsides. I'm not sure I can take much more of the ickiness.

Dear Hadley: Month 11

Dear Hadley:

You are 11 big, amazing months old now! Already, you are acting like a little toddler. You took your first steps alone a few days ago and are prancing around constantly with the aid of one of our hands or a piece of furniture. And, the attitude! Oh my. You let us know instantly if something is not going exactly as you want it. You have this squeal that you emit when you are dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. It's one for the books. But most of the time, you are a happy, content baby and love to learn new things and play with us. You mimic just about anything we show you, copy sounds that we make, clap constantly, and have started waving at anything and everything. Lately, when we walk through the house together, you wave as if you are in a parade and want to make sure your onlookers see you. You also wave to Bella and Allie as we pass them in the house. They rarely respond but you hardly notice. You are happy just to see them.

You spend most of your day cruising around the furniture, or any sturdy object that will support your weight, and walking while holding our hands. You walk very confidently when only slightly touching something. But, the minute you don't feel like you are holding onto something, you plop down on that bottom. It's a security thing for now, but I think you will be walking in no time. A few days ago, you were practicing walking between Daddy and I and you would reach for our hands as you walked to us. One time, you let go of Daddy and couldn't reach me, so you took a few steps all on your own to get to me. I think you were as surprised as we were! You haven't done this again, but I expect you just have to work up the courage.

Your favorite toys right now are little, plastic balls and little, puffy cars and trucks. Your Maggie and Pop are helping foster this love by giving you new balls and trucks to play with, and I jokingly told Daddy that they are going to make a tomboy of you yet. But, you really do love these toys. Your favorite activity right now is to stack toys. You have learned that a ball fits inside a cup and your cup fits inside bowls and you practice this constantly. If we show you a new configuration, you work on that, too. It's so cool to see you learn these things and then apply them.

Things you love this month include cheese crackers, blowing raspberries on our shoulders and knees, your Bella, of course, and any other dog you meet, pasta, cheese, and pancakes. You also LOVE your shoes. You will play with them for hours and actually sit still when I put them on you. You try to put them on by yourself and hold your feet up for me when I put them on you. You may like cars and trucks, Sweet Pea, but you have a little girly side, too!

Unfortunately, this month wasn't all good. You experienced your first loss this month with the passing of your dear grandmother, your Daddy's mom. Memaw had been battling brain cancer for four years, and I hate that you will not remember the short time you had with her. She was a beautiful, talented woman who you inherited your beautiful looks from, and I am grateful she got to meet you and that you were able to spend even a small amount of time with her.

Time is so fleeting. Your first year is rapidly winding down and I sometimes feel that I don't know where the time has gone. I love that we have experienced so much in one year but at the same time, I want to stop the clock and hold you right where we are now. I know I can't do that, though, so I'm determined to cherish and remember every moment. I love you, Sweet Pea.

Love,

Your Mommy

Favorites

This is one of my new, favorite pictures from this last month. Well, this one and this one:

I love the image each conveys. The sweet, calm, little lady in the first and the mischevious, little imp in the second. Hadley definitely has a little of each in her. By about 3:00 every afternoon, I start hoping her mischevious side is tuckered out. Maybe one day that will happen, but so far, this little imp is keeping me busy. And I couldn't be happier!

A Family Resemblence

It's no secret that Hadley and I look absolutely, 100% nothing alike. Instead, the general consensus is that Hadley looks just like her Daddy. In fact, people feel so strongly about this that we are routinely accosted by strangers who feel the need to point their similarities out to us. There are occasions where I see the similarities, too, like when Sean and Hadley are playing a game and make the same facial expressions. Then, it is so easy to see where my beautiful baby got her looks.

But, most of the time, I find it a little hard to see the resemblence. Really, I'm much too close to them to objectively make that comparison, and the fact that Hadley is a young girl and Sean is a bearded man doesn't help any. My imagination can only stretch so far. That's why I was so happy to find this picture of Sean's mom as a baby. This picture was taken when Sean's mom was 6 months old.

Do you see a resemblence to someone??

This is Hadley at 8 months old making a similar expression. Can you believe how much they look alike in these pictures??? When I saw the picture of Sean's mom for the first time, I got chills. I felt like I was looking at a picture of my baby. Now this is the kind of proof I like. Pictures of two people at the same age making the same expression. I can see the resemblence without any imagination whatsoever. Whew. Life is easy again.

And, I couldn't be happier that both Sean and my Hadley look like Sean's mom, a beautiful, amazing woman.