Looking forward, Looking back
Happy 2014! I hope y'all had a wonderful holiday season. We hosted Thanksgiving for the first time in our new home, & then spent December in a whirlwind of parties, celebrations, & just being together. The holidays are bittersweet for us - we have always made a big deal out of Thanksgiving & Christmas in my family, and while we try to continue to celebrate them with joy, it is also the time of year when my mom passed away. Her absence is even more noticeable at Christmas, her favorite time of year. So, I made a conscious decision that if something was too stressful, we just wouldn't do it. It made the season so much more enjoyable, & we spent lots of quality time together, doing our best to honor her memory.
Thought I'd do a quick recap of our year (home/decor wise), & also share some of our plans for 2014. Nothing keeps you accountable like making a public to-do list.
2013 started off with a bang. My business became official, paperwork & all. I began working with some clients who were either referred to me, or whom I met through networking. This was a big change from my previous clients, who were all family & friends. It gave me a sense of validity (although I am super grateful to the family & friends who did use my services - they just might have been a little biased in hiring me). ;)
In late spring, I attended a designers' luncheon & met so many local designers. You can read about that here. I felt like I knew a lot of them already because I have been following their blogs. It was a surreal experience, & I am so grateful for it. It was at that meeting that I met & talked with Julie, which ultimately led to us buying her home. That story can be found here.
The summer was a whirlwind of working with more new clients & doing all the work that comes with buying a home. Thank goodness we plan to be here a very long time; I do not want to go through that again anytime soon! We celebrated our 10th anniversary in mid-August, & then moved 2 days later. It was a hectic week! Since then, we have been slowly moving into the house and have not made many changes yet, as we are trying to take the time to figure out exactly how we want the house to look & work for us. Knowing that we will be here a long time has taken away the sense of urgency to get things done that I have felt in other homes, when I knew the Army would move us again & I had a short amount of time to make a place feel like home.
The fall brought lots of yardwork so that we could host my daughter's birthday party in the backyard. My husband deserves lots of praise for the many nights he spent out in the yard after work, getting everything just right for his baby girl. We also loved celebrating Halloween in our new neighborhood, especially really meeting our neighbors.
We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. The dining room is the only room we have painted so far, & I posted a pic on Instagram (follow me for even more house pics) of the table all ready for the big meal. The color in there before was a beautiful charcoal, almost black color. But we are just not cool enough to have a black dining room, so I went with a blue-gray instead. It was the first time I've had a color custom mixed, & I was pretty pleased with the results. The blue-gray goes much better with my buffalo check drapes, vintage buffet, & library of books. It's much more us.
As I mentioned above, Christmas was both good & difficult. But it was nice to know this was the first of many Christmas mornings to be spent in this house. New Year's Eve day, I hosted some of my mom's closest friends & their kids & grandkids for a little get-together. It was a fun way to close out the year.
I've already begun working with new clients, & am excited to see where my business will go this year. We also have some projects on our to-do list. Below are some of the things we hope to accomplish this year:
*Guest bath: re-paint, hang new hooks so towels are in reach of little hands, & hang new artwork
*Basement: have recessed lighting installed (so it's not a cave down there), organize the storage area
*Pantry: turn this shallow space into a mini-mudroom. We are lucky to have 3 pantry spaces in the kitchen, but no wall space for purses, jackets, backpacks, etc. Hoping it's feasible to turn this tiny space into a mud-closet (room is too generous of a description)
*Whole house: finish unpacking & organizing. We have lots of "storage" going on right now, i.e. stuff is tossed into different empty rooms until we figure out where each item should be stored.
There are a few other projects in the works, and one that has already been completed. Hope to share those soon. Until then, Happy New Year!
Holly
Thought I'd do a quick recap of our year (home/decor wise), & also share some of our plans for 2014. Nothing keeps you accountable like making a public to-do list.
2013 started off with a bang. My business became official, paperwork & all. I began working with some clients who were either referred to me, or whom I met through networking. This was a big change from my previous clients, who were all family & friends. It gave me a sense of validity (although I am super grateful to the family & friends who did use my services - they just might have been a little biased in hiring me). ;)
In late spring, I attended a designers' luncheon & met so many local designers. You can read about that here. I felt like I knew a lot of them already because I have been following their blogs. It was a surreal experience, & I am so grateful for it. It was at that meeting that I met & talked with Julie, which ultimately led to us buying her home. That story can be found here.
The summer was a whirlwind of working with more new clients & doing all the work that comes with buying a home. Thank goodness we plan to be here a very long time; I do not want to go through that again anytime soon! We celebrated our 10th anniversary in mid-August, & then moved 2 days later. It was a hectic week! Since then, we have been slowly moving into the house and have not made many changes yet, as we are trying to take the time to figure out exactly how we want the house to look & work for us. Knowing that we will be here a long time has taken away the sense of urgency to get things done that I have felt in other homes, when I knew the Army would move us again & I had a short amount of time to make a place feel like home.
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| Master Bedroom on Move-In Day |
The fall brought lots of yardwork so that we could host my daughter's birthday party in the backyard. My husband deserves lots of praise for the many nights he spent out in the yard after work, getting everything just right for his baby girl. We also loved celebrating Halloween in our new neighborhood, especially really meeting our neighbors.
We hosted Thanksgiving at our house. The dining room is the only room we have painted so far, & I posted a pic on Instagram (follow me for even more house pics) of the table all ready for the big meal. The color in there before was a beautiful charcoal, almost black color. But we are just not cool enough to have a black dining room, so I went with a blue-gray instead. It was the first time I've had a color custom mixed, & I was pretty pleased with the results. The blue-gray goes much better with my buffalo check drapes, vintage buffet, & library of books. It's much more us.
As I mentioned above, Christmas was both good & difficult. But it was nice to know this was the first of many Christmas mornings to be spent in this house. New Year's Eve day, I hosted some of my mom's closest friends & their kids & grandkids for a little get-together. It was a fun way to close out the year.
My beautiful sign from Between You & Me blog. It was the heart of our Christmas decor (excuse the measly garland - I took these pics after I'd removed all the other decorations & forgot about the garland)
I've already begun working with new clients, & am excited to see where my business will go this year. We also have some projects on our to-do list. Below are some of the things we hope to accomplish this year:
*Guest bath: re-paint, hang new hooks so towels are in reach of little hands, & hang new artwork
*Basement: have recessed lighting installed (so it's not a cave down there), organize the storage area
*Pantry: turn this shallow space into a mini-mudroom. We are lucky to have 3 pantry spaces in the kitchen, but no wall space for purses, jackets, backpacks, etc. Hoping it's feasible to turn this tiny space into a mud-closet (room is too generous of a description)
*Whole house: finish unpacking & organizing. We have lots of "storage" going on right now, i.e. stuff is tossed into different empty rooms until we figure out where each item should be stored.
There are a few other projects in the works, and one that has already been completed. Hope to share those soon. Until then, Happy New Year!
Holly