Baby Update

Our baby girl is expected to arrive around June 10th. We are naming her Laney Russell. Laney is my great-grandmother's maiden name and Russell is my twin brother. I thought the name Laney was pretty unique, but maybe not. My mom saw an ad for the new American Girl doll the other day and her name is LANIE. She's Girl of the Year 2010. Ha! So she will probably have a few Lanie's in her school. And of course we will need to buy this doll even though they stole our name. :)

I had a 4D ultrasound on March 15th and got a peek at her! It took almost the entire session to get her to move her hands away from her eyes.

Here's a good foot pic. The tech said her feet and legs are long!

And here is her sweet smiling face!

Here are a couple of my most recent belly pics (taken a few weeks ago). I'll have more after our trip to the beach this weekend for our anniversary.

Nursery Update

I'm back! I decided to keep the old blog address and just change the name and create a new template. It's so much easier for people to keep the current link they have in their saved blogs.
So I'm now almost 31 weeks pregnant (tomorrow) and the nursery is coming together! I picked the fabrics first, then paint samples. The swatch with the orangey/gold background is going on the window and a throw pillow, the pink dot is for the crib skirt and twin bed skirt, the leaf print will be the glider pillow, and the white/raspberry pink is an accent fabric for another pillow on the twin bed.

We ended up not going with any of these paint samples. The center one (Ralph Lauren Gardenia) was my original favorite, but it was too white on the wall. I decided I wanted a softer lavender so we went to Sherwin Williams and found Light Lavender. Home Depot mixed the final product.

Donald did a great job!

Once the paint dried, we moved the twin bed back to it's spot and brought in the glider, stacked dresser, and crib!

My talented mom is making the crib skirt, twin skirt and curtain panels. We picked up the crib skirt a couple weekends ago when we visited Aberdeen. I couldn't wait to put it on the crib and see what it looked like.

The first level of the crib is not as high as we expected, so the skirt is going to be hemmed slightly, but I love the way it turned out.

Next are the curtain panels and twin bed skirt. Mom is coming next week to bring these, so I'll post more pics then. The final touches will be pillows, light fixture, and art on the walls. This is the light fixture I picked out...(PB Kids)

More posts to come soon!

New Town, New House, New Blog!

Since I last posted, we sold our house in Nashville and moved to Montgomery, Alabama. We had three big life changes happen to us in October.....I found out I was pregnant, Donald was offered a new job with his company, and we decided to accept the job and move! We have been in Montgomery now since January 28 and are nearly settled. Now it's time to revamp the blog to include all the new in our lives and especially keep friends and family posted as we prepare for baby and transition into parenthood. I'm 27 weeks pregnant now and am due around June 10. Check back soon for a link to the new blog (I have to create one first)!

For Sale

Our beloved cottage is on the market. Donald received a job offer in Montgomery, Alabama that we couldn't pass up. If you know anyone looking in the West Meade area (near 70/100 split), please send them our way! Realtracs listing here.

Keyway Before and After - Part I

It's amazing how much our house has changed since March 2008. And we're still not done...probably won't ever be! I'm sure as soon as we finish our to-do list, I'll find something else to replace, recover or repaint...

Notice the ugly plant window..

After with new paint and window

Living Room in very beginning

Living Room a few months later..

Living Room now (minus shower gifts)

Dining Room as it was staged when on the market

Dining Room After

Family Room as it was staged

Family Room After

I'll go into more detail on these rooms and show more pictures after I post Part II (bedrooms and bathrooms).

Palmer Weiss

Palmer Weiss is a San Francisco designer who is originally from Charleston, so she has a great mix of traditional design with a fresh California twist. I like her story of becoming a designer. She worked in business for a long time before changing gears and starting her own design firm (following in her mother's footsteps). I hope to do the same one day.

Window Transformations

It's amazing what 5 - 10 yards of fabric and some hardware can do for a room. In the last six months I've had the pleasure of assisting two friends with choosing fabric for their windows. Here are the before and afters! 

Megan's dining room window - Before

Megan's dining room window - After

Megan and I settled on this fabric to pull in the red, green, brown and gold from her downstairs rooms, and complement her black furniture. I think it turned out great! 

Megan's living room window - Before

Megan's living room window - After

This greenish gold fabric worked well because it didn't compete with the patterned PB rug and had enough shine to add a touch of formality to the room. 

Megan's bedroom window - Before

Megan's bedroom window - After

This damask fabric brought pattern into the room and created a dramatic statement when hung right under the tall ceiling. 

Nicole's living room sliding doors - Before

Nicole's living room doors - After

As you can tell, there were many changes in this room including the sofa and flooring. More on that in a future post!