Obviously our posting over the past year has been sporadic at best. While I don't have the best excuse in the world, it's been a great year for both of us.

Almost one year ago, Holly and my brother Jason welcomed my gorgeous nephew into the world. The little Halloweenie will be 1 in 10 days.

Beck has brought a lot of joy and changes to Holly's uber sophisticated world in Chicago.

In June, Holly and Jason bid adieu to their gorgeous one bedroom condo they've lived in for the past 6 years as little man needs more space to roam around, and quite frankly, Jason needed to ease up on the 24/7 working situation. Over the last two weeks, the condo has successfully been rented out and their little family trekked in to Chicago to make sure that everything was in tiptop shape for their new occupation as landlords. I know Holly is thrilled that they ended up renting out the place so that someday Beck can see the gorgeous views he saw when they went to check out the place.


Jason took a job in our hometown of Kalamazoo and so off they went, to a place with much more space to run around (and a basketball "court" in the driveway), preparing Beck to take the world by storm in all things sports. Just like Daddy.


The move was met with nothing less than sheer delight by everyone, namely Beckham's grandpa and Aunt Hana who, quite frankly, give me a run for my money in the competition for title of Beck's biggest stalker.

And Beck laps up the attention and adoration with his charming smile and impish laugh. He spends his days walking the Target aisles ahead of Mom, lounging with some snacks, making sure the toilet paper situation is ready when the Mom starts potty training, and refusing to come out of his crib, demanding his books be brought to him. Obviously, Holly's only to happy to oblige with the reading.


Much of my days have been spent worshipping Beckham from afar, and hassling his mom for more pictures and videos (seriously her milestone videos are amazing!), working, more working and saving up (when not shopping) for a house. Oh and buying my first house. On October 1, I officially became a homeowner and I could not be more ecstatic unless my family lived closer to me (The 1200 miles between us is moderately annoying). While I was hoping to find a townhouse on the cheap (the oxymoron there for anyone in the DC metro region should be supremely noticeable), I lucked out in scoring the lower levels of a stacked townhouse.

And I've found I have a desire to redo (not a lot because the place was pretty much gorgeous, albeit with an interesting/difficuly living room layout) myself, so I've taken to purchasing home decor and renovation books (thanks in large part to Borders, where I also procured several amazing cookbooks for $2 to use in my awesome kitchen (middle photo is half of the kitchen cabinets). Look at the size of my master closet (I have 2 master closets! Score!)!



My first project has been to paint. So far, I've got the living room nearly completed


I have to be honest, I'm salivating at the ideas for my little home office (even more than the guest bedroom). I've even gone to Ikea to get some ideas, but I think I want to invest in real, solid wood shelving (because I want a library - I cannot think small scale when it comes to shoe space or book space. I have issues).