Pretty, eh? Earlier this summer, when my parents came to visit, my mom brought me these awesome little succulents, and then she planted them for me in my garden. Today, my buddy Catherine came over to weed my garden as a gift to me. You guys, BEST GIFT EVER. Do you have any idea how much I hate gardening? Or weeding? I like choosing plants. That's it. The rest? I totally suck at it. I kill the easiest of plants and I require a lot of hand holding, so this was a pretty rad gift from dear, sweet Catherine.Anyway, while I was uselessly keeping her company as she weeded, I saw that the plants mom had brought me had bloomed! I had no idea they would do that! Pretty, eh?For your internet share of the day, how about these photos from the weiner dog races at the race track? HILARIOUS.

I found this image today while cleaning up my computer to make room for new files. I shot this backstage at a burlesque show in 2010, and I had completely forgotten about it.One of my favorite things about sneaking backstage at burlesque shows to watch the beauties apply makeup, glitter, sequins and pasties is the glamour behind it all. It doesn't matter the woman or the body type, everyone exudes confidence and is so full of style and elegance.Let me tell you something: As I sit here a week before my due date, I am lacking such glamour in my life right now. To illustrate this point, let's talk about what I had for lunch today. It is the most horrific thing I have eaten since this whole pregnancy thing started, but I'm going to confess it to you anyway. I was running out the door for a shoot and I thought I should grab some protein. I had some fried chicken fingers in the fridge for a recipe I'm making for Sunday's post (oh relax, it's a SALAD), and there was a small, runt of a piece in there and I thought that would work just fine. So I'm nibbling on this fried chicken, when it pops into my head that you know what would taste delicious with this? CHOCOLATE.Yeah. I know. WTF.So out comes the chocolate chips and I have a friend chicken finger in one hand and a bunch of chocolate chips in the other, and I take like three bites and then it was like I stopped and could see myself from outside my body. Holy cow, what have I become?!? So I put it all away, grabbed a handful of almonds and headed out the door.In other non-glamorous news, only one pair of shoes fit these swollen feet right now and we're not even going to get into what I look like when I drop something on the floor and have to bend down to pick it up.But! On the side of "attempting to keep some semblance of decency" I am still donning my bright red lipstick and dangly earrings. Also, I just had my hair dyed, so I have that going for me.You guys? I cannot wait to get my old self back. It might take a while, but damn will it be nice.For your internet share of the day, do you know what Bardarbunga is? It sounds like my new favorite cuss word, doesn't it? Also, I am coveting this dish towel. And have you listened to the new Delta Spirit album yet? WHY NOT?

This is Orion! Don't you love that name? I do. Not pictured are the chunkiest of chunky thighs -- totally hilarious.He is Miss Meredith's latest nanny charge, and she brought him over today so we could catch up for a bit before their next stop. I've been asking loads of friends to stop by with kids lately just to get Magda used to the smells and sounds of small children. Orion is 5 months and he was perfect around the pups. Not at all bothered by Merlin's raspy barks of excitement, and just a tad curious about Magda's wiggling. Which lasted about 2 minutes until she disappeared (as usual).After Mere left, I roamed the house to find her. Oh, here she is.Hiding under the dresser, despite her dog bed RIGHT THERE. (Also, do not judge me for all that dog hair. Please.) It took about 15 minutes after Orion had left the house for her to tiptoe out and get back to her normal self. Poor thing.For your internet share today, did you guys hear the State Fair Craft Beer exhibit was robbed of $10,000 last week? Wow.

Many of you have sent me notes wanting to see Kid Plesser's room, and I'm happy to report that we are finally done, and we are just waiting on the kid itself. A few notes: First, yes, I am fully aware that it will probably not continue to look like this once Junior arrives. But I might as well live in my fantasy for a little while longer, eh? And two, I know that sheepskin is just asking for a big poop or vomit smear. I will likely remove it once the kid is actually in place, but for blogging purposes it fits my aesthetic WAY better than the ugly Fisher Price color scheme. Seriously. Someone design beautiful swings/rockers/bassinets etc.So in this photo above, you have the crib which was gifted/loaned to us by über generous friends, the glider which was gifted to us by my über generous mother-in-law, the side table from Target and the mobile (LOVE THAT!!!!) gifted from my pals Stacy and Andrea (you can find it on Etsy).Also, this is the brightest room in the whole house (which should prove awesome for photos, ahem), but because of that we have blackout roller blinds that we bought for the windows, and then thin curtains in front to diffuse light when we do want it. Window treatments galore!Here is the other corner of the room. Oh by the way, NICE FLOORS, EH? Yeah, Jamie rocked that. And that rug is from Target, and it is awesome. I was smitten with that dresser because it's the exact height of our kitchen counters, meaning we don't have to bend way over to change diapers. That's important for us tall folk.This side of the room is decidedly more "kid." I had the bookshelf in my old office, and it was stained a very dark, dark wood. I hired my friend Kim to repaint it the colors of the nursery to make it more whimsical and matchy. And then? She surprised me with that AWESOME round mirror above the table on the right. It's an old slide carousel and she painted it the matching yellow and put a mirror in the middle! So creative, that one! Plus, I love it that it's a slide carousel because it reminds me of Don Draper :)The photo above the bookshelf is from our cabin trip in July, and behind that I have 5-6 prints from different trips we took while I was knocked up that I can rotate out. The poster on the right is one of my favorite designs by the amazingly talented Brian Danaher, and it's from Vampire Weekend's show at the Triple Rock years ago (which I dragged Jamie to). While I do like Vampire Weekend a lot, it got in the room because of the design and color palette more than the music. But whatever. Maybe we'll have amazing Vampire Weekend dance parties in this room later.This is just a close up of that dog mobile I love so much.On the side table I have these AWESOME kids books that a former coworker gifted to me -- aren't they gorgeous!? And that wooden camera was from friends too! Fun! And that's the magical Ikea lamp that makes the room look all starry.Over on the bookshelf are toys and books that have been given to us. Seriously you guys, I think in this whole room I only bought the rug and the dresser. My friends are all kinds of generous. Oh wait, I also bought the diaper pail ;)Don't you love these wooden blocks? They have the french word for each animal! (My dad is barfing right now.)And finally, this piece of artwork is from Aesthetic Apparatus. We bought it many, many, many years ago thinking "This would be cool if we ever had a kid!" And it sat in our basement for ... a very long time. And now it's out! And the best part? IT GLOWS IN THE DARK.So that's it! Lemme know if you have any questions!For your internet share of the day, I thought this article on a theory behind the rise in food allergies in kids was fascinating.

Happy Labor Day from Magda! Magda, who has been a complete angel all week until today when she has been on several barking rampages, several digging rampages, has stolen toys from the nursery and in general seems a little angry at the world. I have no idea what happened between yesterday and today, but man is she pissed off about it. So she's out on a long walk with the man right now (whew!) and hopefully that will mellow her out a bit.Merlin? He's the gentlest of giants and I'm gonna walk him after I post this since I'm apparently the speed of an 11-year-old arthritic collie right now. And let's be real, I'm winded keeping up with him at this point. But I'll waddle along. We make quite the couple.For your internet share of the day, I adore this poster mapping out all the legends of lake monsters throughout the United States. As someone who has always dreamed of spying Nessie in the Loch Ness, this is super fun!