Meet the Mom – Keily Herd and Lauren DeSantis
Name:
Keily Herd
Lauren DeSantis
Business: She’s Got An Eye, Interiors
Website: www.shesgotaneye.com
Insta: @shesgotaneye
Where did you grow up?
Keily – I was born and raised overseas, and had the chance to live in all sorts of places across the globe before landing in California. We moved to Florida about 12 years ago and this is where our children were born.
Lauren – Right here in Wellington, FL.
What town do you live in now?
Keily & Lauren: Wellington! We live just a few houses down from each other in Aero Club.
Why do you love living in Wellington?
Keily & Lauren: So many reasons! It’s got a great social environment for both kids and adults to thrive and we love that it’s a close knit community with amenities that fit our lifestyle. This area has great schools and easy access to the beaches, entertainment, and airports. We find it to be safe, and have truly enjoyed raising our families here!
Tell me about your kids.
Lauren: I have three children, two boys and a girl. James (9), Jackson (6), and Avery (3). My boys are in 3rd grade and kindergarten and absolutely love school. When they’re not at school their favorite pastime is baseball, and both play in the Wellington baseball league.
My daughter is the youngest but we call her the boss. She has the boys wrapped around her finger. She is my girly girl. She loves to dance, play with dolls, Barbie’s, and dress up. All of my children enjoy the outdoors and being on the water boating, beach, tubing, jet skiing, and swimming.
Keily: My little ones are both nine years old. Lennon and Davis, are in 3rd grade and can be found at the beach or running after each other on a tennis court. They both have a passion for life in their own unique way. Lennon is definitely bound for Broadway, and we always joke that Davis is likely to end up traveling the world practicing yoga.
Their personalities are larger than life, they have hearts of gold, even though they are so similar, they are so different. I love watching twins grow up together and I am truly in awe of them.
Keily & Lauren: All five of our children are great friends, and spend a lot of time together. They ask almost weekly if we need to have a meeting just to get a playdate out of it!
What are your favorite things to do with the kids locally?
Keily & Lauren: There are so many fun things to do in and around Wellington, and that’s why we love it so much!
The Lion Country Safari is right in our backyard and the kids love to visit often, especially since the new waterslide area opened.
All of our kids love the beach, boogie boarding, and shell hunting.
We all adore going to our local pizza shop, The Sicilian Oven, and then following that up with a visit to Whits for ice cream.
We often visit Jolton Jr, the Pokémon card store, to trade and collect new Pokémon cards. (if you have a child that is into Pokemon it’s a must go!)
We have beautiful parks in Wellington that our children enjoy, and if there’s nothing else to do, the park is always our go-to.
And last, we love going to Food Truck Invasion and concerts at our local amphitheater.
What’s your “day job”? How did you get started with it?
Keily & Lauren:
We are the co-founders of She’s Got An Eye Interior Design, Styling, and Online Shop.
Our goal with SGAE was to provide a platform and outlet to serve individuals with varying budgets, and offer homeowners with smaller scale projects a place to turn.
She’s Got an Eye is the culmination of many years of personal and professional experience. Keily previously worked in real estate for five years before entering an Interior Design program and assisting a luxury interior design studio. Meanwhile, Lauren has a background in fashion merchandising and perfected her design skills through her own home renovations.
Before launching our own interior design business we spent decades being the go-to girls with “an eye” for paint colors, furniture selection, room layout, and more. We figured: Why not make this official? In fact, having an eye for these sorts of things is how we landed on our name. Both of us would always hear something like this, “You have such a good eye! Do you mind helping me with….” And then on we went. So it just seemed to fit.
Most importantly, we are close friends who share a love for creating beautiful, unique spaces.
You can find us at www.shesgotaneye.com, or @shesgotaneye on instagram.
What is your best parenting advice? Lay it on us.
Lauren: Allow people to help you! I know I struggled with this when I first had my children. I struggled with others not doing things for them the way I would do it or wanted it done. But once I trusted in those around me and allowed them to help me it made our lives a lot easier and made us happier.
Scheduling is great. It’s very important for children to have a routine and schedule but it’s also ok to deviate from that schedule sometimes and be flexible. Don’t make yourself crazy if your child doesn’t nap exactly when they should one day. Because very soon they won’t nap anymore and you won’t even remember the days they didn’t!
Give yourself grace! No parent is perfect, we all have our moments!
Keily: Find a good group of supportive moms, put yourself out there, go to the playdate, the mommy and me classes, anything. Momming can be hard and lonely, so make sure you’re not doing it alone!
Know when to hire out. We had no family or friends support here when the kids came and no other friends with kids. So knowing when to hire someone to come help with the house, or sleep train (Thank GOD for the Cradle Coach) or a night nurse. Whatever works for your set up, let go of the guilt and hire out.
Respect yourself and others and know your boundaries. I found this early on to be a game changer. I was big into a set schedule… Like, crazy town. It was the way things worked best for me, having a husband that traveled, no family, and twins.
But it wasn’t the way things worked for other families, so just understanding that my way wasn’t the best way, and their way wasn’t the best way but that we were all in this together doing what we felt we needed to do in our eyes for our families.
What do you do for self care?
Lauren: I love a good facial, working out regularly, and parent nights out!
Keily: This is an area of opportunity for me, I would say my luxury time is listening to a good audio book (I am in the car a lot). Any good skincare tips send them my way!
Karaoke – What are you singing?
Lauren: Last Dance by Donna summers
Keily: Absolutely, Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield
Anything else you want to share?
We love being a part of this amazing network with other mothers. The art of balancing it all can be messy, yet so important for all of us to be doing things we love and have a passion for. So, thanks for the support, and we are truly excited to support each of you along the journey as well.
