While I was trying to stay offline as much as possible during these waning days of 2015, I couldn’t help but look back at the past year and take a little stock. It’s been quite a momentous 365 days – major {never-ending}home renovations, fantastic travels, and oh yeah, I had a baby! And I’d like to think there was a decent post or two in there as well.
In all seriousness, scrolling back through our work this year it’s pretty amazing to think about where this little space has become in the course of its existence. Nearly nine years and counting. There are certainly a lot of blogger babes {and a guy or two of course} who do all of this much better than I, but I so love our little corner of the internet and the privilege of getting to create with an awesome team. Here are some of the highlights.
2015 started on a high note with this beautiful floral garland balloon DIY that we dreamed up with one of our favorite florists, Natasha Kolenko. It wasn’t easy transporting the giant 3-foot balloons to our shoot location. In fact, with torrential downpour and insanely high winds, Bianca almost blew away. But perseverance makes perfection and we were floating on cloud nine when we saw the results of our efforts!
We kept the sweet life going with this mouth watering ice cream cookie sandwich recipe. Things got messy as we raced against the clock to get the shots we needed – working with melting objects definitely ain’t easy. Not to mention, we “had” to sacrifice our figures {ok, I was 39 weeks pregnant at the time} for some taste testing, but the final images from photographer Aubrie Pick are some of our favorites from the entire year!
Just before I popped out the kid, the team put in as many jetsetting miles as possible. But nothing beat the beautiful oasis of the Four Seasons Biltmore Santa Barbara where I babymooned my butt off. The trip was a magical retreat filled with scrumptious meals, hours of relaxation {by the hotel’s insanely gorgeous pool and beach!} and of course, a heavenly spa day.
With little time to go, the loft revealed another one of its many tricks: reinventing itself. We were able to transform the space yet again to make way for baby. The team office sadly had to go, but look what came out of its farewell – a calming yet striking black and white master bedroom-nursery that everyone quickly fell in love with!
Oh and speaking of falling in love, Carter Joseph was born, making his debut into the world at 22 inches and 8.2 lbs on April 9. He is by far the best of moment of 2015!!
With baby Carter came lots of changes, including yes, reimagining our living room for the… tenth time?? Out went the small choking hazards and in came cozy textures, lots of layers and big statement pieces, like theEmily Jeffords art piece from Minted above the mantel. The baby proof living room is serene and sophisticated – exactly the environment one craves with a newborn at home. When it looks like this. Which is a bit rare these days.
Of course, we came across some epic blogs this year as well. They always inspire to up my game. Our top 3? A clean-eating food blog that’ll blow your mind: Tasty Plan. A lifestyle blog, No Home Without You, that is so cute and full of inspiration you’ll never want to leave the site. And a design blog, Milo and Mitzy, that’ll fulfill any decor lover’s obsession forever.
Middle of the night feedings and no sleep also meant there was a lot of hours spent on Instagram. It’s an addiction and we’re ok with that. We discovered a ton of new Instagram accounts to obsess over this year. If you haven’t followed them yet, here are our top six must-follows: @juleytl @joshuaraymund @trishates @frostyphoto @housetweaking @murlifestyle, but you can see our running list here.
And since cold weather was late this year, we took advantage of the Bay Area Indian Summer and toasted to good times with girlfriends with this giant cheese board and some Aperol spritzes. It was a simple idea with a dramatic impact that we will most certainly do again and again. Because we’ll never say no to sitting outdoors with friends and catching up over cheese and cocktails!
And then there’s our house. We’ve been remodeling the 150 year old beaut for so long now I’m sure it feels redundant at this point, but this fall we started to see some real progress. We’ve finalized a lot of our design decisions – paint colors, lighting, tile. And finally the finish work is underway. That means it’s starting to look like a livable house. Woot!
You can expect progress posts to be a lot more frequent in the new year. And we might even move in pretty dang soon. I’m not going to say a date so I don’t jinx it but if the construction gods are on our side, it should be sooner rather than later. Then a whole new world of decisions are going to open up as I start step two – actually furnishing the whole dang place! I cannot WAIT to start that design process – and to share it with all of you of course.
I never intended 2015 to be quite so jam-packed, but it’s hard to complain when so many positive things come your way in one year. 2015 was also a big year of transition and change – personally – professionally. But with change comes opportunity; opportunity to try new things. To change direction. To uncover possibilities that you may never have otherwise considered. To have options is a gift in itself.
So while I don’t know exactly what 2016 is going to look like for me, or for this blog if I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, I’m excited to start 2016 fresh. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. That’s the saying right?!
In fact, you might see a VERY fresh start here very soon.
Happy New Year!
image 1 by emily scott // 2, 4, 6 by aubrie pick // 3 by arna bee photography // 7 via No Home Without You // 10 by ashley batz
