Happy 2015!

Well, I can't believe it's officially a new year. 2014 has come & gone, but it was a great year. Among many other things, we bought our first home, celebrated some people we love at amazing weddings & wedding events, and went on a few great family vacations. However, there are so many things I'm looking forward to in 2015!

Since I looked back on the resolutions that I made last year and saw that I unfortunately haven't made a ton of progress on any of them, I'm going to switch it up this year and just challenge myself to get out of my comfort zone and be a better me throughout all of 2015... 

I'm starting off with some healthy goals & challenging myself to get in better shape this year. So far it's Day 5 and I have to say that it's going pretty well! I made up a points system that I'm using to track some key goals that I have on a daily & weekly basis:
     - 3 points are earned for every healthy meal : Defined as high protein, whole grain & fiber, low sugar/empty carbs, and right around 500 calories
       (Possibility to earn 1 point each for breakfast, lunch and dinner)
     - 1 point for each workout 
       (Must be over 15 minutes or 250 calories- whichever comes first.) My husband & I contributed to a treadmill for our Christmas gifts to each other, so that should help- Keep an eye out for an upcoming post about designing our home gym!
     - 1 point for staying within my My Fitness Pal goals - I'm using this app to track not just calories but many other nutritional benchmarks including: Carbs, Fat, Protein, Sodium & Sugar.
     - I'll also weigh myself weekly and allocate 1 point per each pound lost within that week. 
It's really an experiment to see if I can motivate myself and make myself accountable for making better choices & changes. Since it's going well so far, it should be interesting & I will keep you posted on the progress. The goal that I set for myself is to exceed 150 total points in 50 days! 

From a design perspective, I am hopeful that I'll write more blog posts and be a little more consistent this year. I've been motivated by other bloggers that I follow to create an outline so that I can work towards posting on a more regular basis. This is something I'll be working on over the next few weeks. I also need to finish my Interior Design course by June of this year, so I have to get moving on that! So far, I have completed 3 out of the 6 courses - and should mention that I'm currently a straight A student! 

In late November, I started helping some great friends of mine- Cari & David- decorate their new house, which was such an exciting project for me. It allowed me to apply lots of learnings from my course so far and challenged me to think about what the next steps in the process would be. I put together a presentation for them filled with ideas I had for the rooms we were focused on (which they loved!), and we also started to implement some of the ideas. We're on hold with the decorating for the moment since they just welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world at the end of December! But, I will definitely post more about the process & progress of that particular project. I also hope to help other friends, family & potential clients in 2015 to utilize my skills and creativity and really challenge myself. 

I would like to focus more on my hobbies & personal interests in 2015, as well. My Dad got me a calligraphy set for Christmas that I've been practicing with, and I signed myself up for an in-person class this March in NYC (led by Laura Hooper), which I am really looking forward to. 

Overall, I'm excited and I wish everyone who reads this a happy, healthy & prosperous 2015- I hope that you are inspired to do things that challenge you this year! 

Living Room: Fall Update!

Over the past few weeks since I posted the living room, we have made some updates. Besides our fall decorations, we just purchased this Safavieh rug from Joss & Main (for a great price!). I feel like it makes such a big difference because it finally fits the size of the room and ties the furniture together. 

Living room with Fall Decorations

We also painted behind the built-in shelves framing the bay window, which we have wanted to do for awhile. I love built-ins and feel like they add character to any room. I was excited about these since the first day that we saw the house. We went with a slate grey (to be honest, we used leftover paint that we had from the bedroom) because we thought a darker color would make the white shelves pop.  I'm not sure if this is going to be the "forever" color, but it was an easy, 1-day project so it wouldn't be too hard to change in the future. 

I really can't wait to see what this room looks like with all of our Christmas decorations. We can't wait to put a big tree right in the bay window & will probably rearrange the furniture to make that the focal point during the holidays (stay tuned!)

Close-Up of the shelves

Living Room

Hopefully no one's getting bored of the posts of progress in our house. As I finish this Interior Design course and many of our own projects, I'm getting more and more excited about the prospect of helping other people create a space that is both functional and beautiful. Hopefully I'll have some clients soon (or at least friends/family members who will let me practice designing)! 

So, in our Living Room we finally mounted our TV up on the wall and it also inspired me to organize. I'm really happy with how this space is coming along. I like that the wall color (Benjamin Moore) looks good and contrasts both with white and with black. It's a very clean color and I swear it changes throughout the day- depending on the amount of natural light coming into the room, it gets warmer or cooler so it never looks the same. I was hesitant about putting up such a neutral color but because of the open concept, a bold color choice would have been overwhelming. I am excited to paint a pop of color (or wallpaper) behind the built-in shelves. I think that will really help them stand out.

And, just for context, here's the Before: 

Left (From Listing) / Right (Right after painting)

Ready to Wine & Dine

Sorry for the 2 posts in one day, but- we are just so excited that our dining room set from Bassett Furniture has finally arrived! It really has changed the feel of the room, and makes the space look much more mature than the high top table we had their previously (Sorry, Chris- he still loves that table...).
The set we got is called the 'Emporium' collection and believe it or not, I saw it from the road as we drove by Bassett when we first moved into the house & it caught my eye from the front window. We continued to look at other sets after that but kept coming back to this one and ultimately decided it was the one we both loved. Even better, we were able to purchase the set with a housewarming gift from our parents AND during their 30% off sale!

The dining room is now almost finished. I definitely want to put in a chandelier above the table (thinking about some that are more rustic than super fancy - crystals aren't really my thing). I'm debating a rug for under the table (what do you think?), but I could go either way on that decision. Also there's a blank wall to the left of the table now that we moved the ladder shelves / bar over into the right corner. (We also reorganized it, see below.) I think I want to do a grouping of multiple framed pictures on the blank wall, so that will be a fun project. 

FALL IS HERE...

...and I couldn't be more excited! Maybe its unofficial but today certainly feels like fall has arrived- the sun is out but the breeze is cool, which is my favorite combo! It inspires me to start thinking about how I can decorate for the season. Since we moved, there are still a few "decor" boxes that we haven't unpacked which I hope that my fall stuff is in, but I've already purchased a few new things just in case (and because I couldn't resist). The table napkins and placements & "Boo" candles are from Home Goods, and the fall-scented candles are from Bed Bath & Beyond- they have the best tri-wick candles. The smell is just as strong every time you light the candle AND I bought these in their 2 candles for $22 sale- can't beat that!! 

Also when browsing, here is some inspiration & some things I've seen that I would love to incorporate into my fall decorating scheme. I'm literally obsessed with the Marshall + Hutch from Joss & Main. If I could fit this in my house, I would have already purchased. I love the rustic / modern style of it and the openness of the display (you can buy it here: https://www.jossandmain.com/Small-Space-Savvy-Marshall-Hutch-&-Server~LIF2844~E13132.html.) It reminds me a bit of the open ladder shelving that we bought last year which is now in our dining room & we get tons of compliments on. Also, how cute is that monogrammed wreath for the front door (Etsy)?! 

Good luck with your own fall decorating & if you want more inspiration, follow me on Pinterest as I continue to add to my Fall Decor board: http://www.pinterest.com/kcasey16/fall-decor-cant-wait/!

Master Bedroom Progress

Here it is:

The Master Bedroom.

The master bedroom was very high on our priority list of things to get done as soon as possible in our new home, since its one of the places that we knew we would be spending lots of time. I wanted a peaceful and calming feel in this room. When we decided to go with the wall color (Sherwin Williams, 7669 Summit Gray), at first I was hesitant that it would be too dark but Chris was confident throughout and I'm glad that I trusted him. 
When we first saw the house, this was one of the most boring rooms but instead of being deterred, I saw it as a blank slate. 

Bedroom BEFORE (From the listing)

There was a lot of work done that you can't see here, mainly in the closets- there are 4 total in the room. Two of them are right when you walk in the door- a small walk-in and a linen closet (not pictured) and the other two his & hers closets are on the right side of the room when you walk in, which you can see. They all required lots of TLC but in the end came out bright & clean. We also loved the amount of natural light in the room coming in through the large windows. 

Our Master Bedroom During & After

Because of the dark color, edging wasn't easy, but we did get some help from our friends with the painting (thanks Kevin & Bobby)!

Most things in the room were from our apartment, but I got great deals on the new things we did purchase - the throw pillows, lamps and small mirrored dresser are all from Home Goods. The stand-up mirror (which doubles as jewelry storage inside - pretty awesome) can be found here: http://www.wayfair.com/Powell-Furniture-Cheval-Jewelry-Armoire-with-Mirror-597-514-PW4745.html), and our duvet was a Christmas gift that we asked for from my parents last year from Nordstrom. (http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/nordstrom-at-home-contrast-pleat-duvet/3212613?origin=category&contextualcategoryid=0&fashionColor=&resultback=0)

I still have a wishlist for this room: a rug for under the bed, chandelier for above the bed, and a matching bedroom set (dying for a King!). But for now and until we can afford those things, I'm extremely happy waking up here and wanted to share the progress we have made so far!  

Photography: Jenn's Senior Pictures

This past week in Cape Cod on vacation with my family, I took some Senior Pictures of my sister. Can't believe she only has one more year of high school left, time is flying! She's gorgeous, so she certainly made it easy, and I'm really happy with how they came out. 

See some shots below: