So nice to be at home during the day...

This picture was taken of my living room this weekend- I like how cozy it looks with the fire burning! I had a nice easy Saturday, which inspired me to do some "new year" cleaning & organization. It's always nicer relaxing in a clean house!

Resolutions...

Happy New Year!!

I'm pretty pumped for all that 2014 has to offer- We are hoping to buy a house this year & travel to Europe. We already have a few weddings of close family & friends to look forward to, and I'm sure there will be many more exciting things. Its always nice to reset, reevaluate and set some goals for yourself. 

Here are some of the resolutions I have made for myself for 2014: 
- Give Back: Find some charitable causes that I can donate time & money to this year
- Bike 100 Miles before June 31st : Either on my new bike or a stationary bike (ie Soul Cycle if I could find a way to track mileage...)
- Run a full 5K without stopping
- Finish my Interior Design course: This could be tough since I still have 5 out of 6 units to go, but I plan on scheduling time in advance for me to get these done! 
- Take a Photoshop class and continue to develop my Photography skills 
- Keep updating this blog! 

Here's a pretty good HuffingtonPost article on 'Resolutions for Women on the Run' that I found inspiring: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-pelosi/five-new-years-resolution_b_4525975.html
I really like "4. Get out of your own way: We diminish ourselves far more than our foes do, letting fear of failure or success hamper us. We listen to that little voice inside telling us that our skin or clothing is too loose or too tight; the relatives who cheer our professional advice then ask "when are you getting married?" or the ghosts of boyfriends or girlfriends past reminding us of old failure, and we stunt our own growth with self-sabotage disguised as advice. Let that go." This aligns well with Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In", which I am in the middle of- it's very informative & motivating so far!

The Best Way to Spread Xmas Cheer is to Sing Loud for All to Hear!

I wanted to share a really thoughtful gift that was passed on to me from my mother in law. For the past few years, she has mailed us an Advent Calendar filled with clues. Leading up to Christmas for 25 days, each day we get a clue which correlates to a wrapped gift of the same number. For example, “to keep you warm when days are cold” could refer to a pair of winter gloves or “to serve treats for your guests” could refer to a holiday serving dish.

The advent calendar is such a thoughtful gift & fosters excitement in the sometimes stressful days leading up to the big holiday.

Last year, I did an advent calendar for my sister, which was really nice especially because I wasn’t going to see her until late Christmas day. The hardest part, I thought, wasn’t finding the little gifts but it was a lot of work organizing the clues. She would text me each morning the gift that she got along with her guess of what tomorrow’s gift would be based on the clue, so it was a nice way to stay in touch & totally worth the effort. J Highly recommended for families that are apart for the holiday season (especially college aged kids who will really appreciate every little thing)- what beats 25 gifts that you get to open BEFORE Christmas!? 

(Accidental) Project Two: Open Bar

 So, I have yet to attempt the home office project that I mentioned in an earlier blog post. But, I recently was perusing one of my favorite flash deal sites, Joss and Main and came across this gorgeous Farmhouse Leaning Bookcase and I knew I had to have it. Unfortunately, even though I felt the price was worth it, the shipping turned out to be $150! So, (even though I love you J&M) I was searching this shelf a few weeks later- know I have to have something when I can’t get it out of my head for weeks- and came across it at the same price but with free shipping at Wayfair.com!

Wine Rack Before and After

Originally, I was just going to set this bookcase up in the only open corner of my dining room, but when I set it up, I got an idea. I began transferring everything from our current wine rack onto the bookcase and ended up loving how it looked as a replacement. The lines are cleaner, it forced me to de-clutter and ended up looking so much more polished- see for yourself in the before & after above.

I define my personal style as French-Country-Modern, and really feel that this piece hits on all 3 of those adjectives. Ultimately, I also love it because I know that it will fit wherever I need it to once we buy a house- whether it remains the wine rack or actually becomes a bookcase in a living room or guest room. It’s a solid piece of wood so it will last for years. Overall, a successful accidental second project!

Also, an update: we are knee deep in our house hunt. We have seen 15+ properties at this point and even a couple we really liked. Not sure if we’re ready to make an offer at any place just yet, but really hoping to find something great in the next month or two! 

Inspired.

Some Living Room, Kitchen & Dining Room inspiration from House Beautiful

One of the most important things in life is to do what inspires you and to continue to seek out ways to be inspired. Inspiration leads to motivation which leads to positive changes. This is applicable to so many things, and I know it’s a bit deep, but it’s one of the main reasons that I started this blog. 

Interior design has always attracted me. In high school, I briefly shadowed a designer before ultimately deciding to do an internship with a boutique advertising agency. I don’t regret the decision at all, as it has been the catalyst for choosing my Marketing major and led to my career in media. However, it was recently that I realized I didn’t need to make a choice between the two. This fueled my decision to sign up for the NYIAD course.

From a design perspective, I’m inspired by so many things & feel that I have so many more to discover: 

• Nature is one of the biggest things that inspires me- I am really interested in furniture used with natural materials and patterns that incorporate things found in nature. One of the most exciting things about planning a fall wedding were all the options out there to use wood, leaves, acorns and even fruit & pumpkins decoratively.

• There is so much design inspiration to consume from a media perspective- so much that I don’t have enough time in the day for all of it. I watch a ton of HGTV when I can and am constantly impressed by the designers and how they can use bold colors and great furniture pieces to change a space so drastically. (Property Brothers and Love it or List it are personal favorites!) 

• Pinterest and Instagram are amazing outlets where I follow many different designers & design companies. I need to get better about checking out specific websites & magazines- my NIAD instructor recently gave me a list of great ones to look into. On that note, I’ve also been tearing pictures out of magazines and saving the ones I find online into a folder that I will ideally dedicate to a reference library that I can go to for great ideas for any room. 

I could talk about this subject for days, but I’ll leave you on this- It is always important to be inspired to be your best self. Here’s a great post I read recently from another blogger that gives some great advice on ’25 things that every woman should know’: http://hannahbrencher.com/2013/04/04/25-things-every-woman-needs-to-know/

Vanity

A few months ago when I decided to sign up for my course in Interior Design, I realized that I had a project right in front of me. Going from apartment to apartment with different roommates in Manhattan after graduating from college, I didn’t really have the luxury of decorating the way I would have liked to- I was just trying to pay my rent on time. However, since I have finally moved into my current apartment in Westchester with my husband, a place that I feel at home in, I realized how exciting Interior Design is and how much I missed it.

Over the years, I have helped my parents do some updates in their home and even in high school, I redid my room multiple times (and rearranged it whenever I was bored & needed a change, which was often…).

Looking around my room recently, I saw the makeshift vanity that I created from a Container Store folding shelf & a make-up mirror in a different light. The clutter grew to the point where it no longer looked organized no matter how I arranged everything- it was a hot mess. So, I started doing some research and came up with a design solution that I’m super proud of.

My new vanity is 2 separate pieces that I put together- the bottom is a 3-drawer table that I bought on Overstock.com, and the top mirror/drawer combination is actually from Pottery Barn Teen. Both pieces were bought with great deals, and I set it up against the focus wall in our bedroom, where it really pops & brightens everything up.

"Vanity" before... 

Vanity After!

Also, just rearranging the furniture in the room created a ton of space that I never realized I had. We were also able to (very comfortably) fit in some additional furniture, so we added a chair & side table that we purchased from one of my favorite places in the entire world, Home Goods.

My next challenge is going to be trying to fit a home office somewhere within my 900-square foot apartment, so hopefully I have the same amount of luck with that project! 

Wedding Season comes to an end...

This past weekend I attended my sixth wedding of the year (yes, that’s right, 6- not a typo). They ranged in location from Connecticut to Long Island to North Carolina. It was a big commitment, especially since I attended most of the bridal showers & bachelorette’s, but I have to say that we had a blast at every single one... Every bride was stunning & we got to celebrate and have really good times with friends & family.

I’m pretty fortunate that I actually love weddings & almost everything about them. I would have to say that my favorite part (aside from the open bar) are the speeches by the best man & maid of honor. I love to hear what the people closest to them have to say about the bride and groom. I do hold them to a pretty high standard, though, because the speeches at my own wedding were pretty amazing… if I say so myself.  

The best wedding is the one where you can really feel the personality of the bride & groom come out in all of the details. Since my own wedding was less than a year ago, I can really appreciate the time & work that goes into these little things but I feel that it’s very important- I’ll share more tips + some of the things that I did/made in future posts, since I learned a lot. My wedding favors were mason jars filled with mixes for either chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies (filled by hand with love). I also made the tags with stamps from Paper-Source (an amazing store for crafts & stationary- definitely check it out if you haven’t been) and with lotsss of help from my bridesmaids (thanks again Amanda & Morgan!). 

Mason Jar Favors from Left: 1) Stamped tags to be tied to lids, 2) filling jars with cookie mix, 3) finished stamped lids

I really believe that you don’t need to spend a fortune on a wedding to make it special. With a little time, creativity, help from your bridal party and lots of research on Etsy, it can be done pretty efficiently.

I’m looking forward to the break we have now so that we can spend some time relaxing, but don’t worry- there are 2 Save the Dates on my calendar already for 2014- Bring on the next wedding season!