Here to Home: 2014

Wrapping Up 2014

A couple friend of mine has a great tradition of posting their Top 5 on their holiday card and I'm graciously stealing their brilliance for my blog.

5. Our annual holiday party

I can't believe we just wrapped up our 13th annual party. It's insane that we've kept something going for so long ... and how old having a 13th annual anything makes me feel. Every year, I treasure seeing everyone we love in our house, basking in that fabulous holiday glow (ok, the glow may come from the Moscow Mules). But the warm feeling that comes from throwing a kickass party to thank our friends for being so damn awesome ... nothing beats that.

The brave souls, closing out the party at 1:30 am.

4. Hosting summer parties

For years, YEARS, I have wanted to host more often and we'd been so limited in terms of space and lack of A/C (nothing like sweating through an indoor summer dinner party). This year, we were able to host a couple shindigs and I loved being able to celebrate a fabulous season with our favorites.


The first summer party of the year ...

3. Being an honorary auntie

Truth be told, we have some awesome kids in our life. Tristan, Hayden, Jack, Owen, Lily, Sophia and the many others we don't get to see as often, THANK YOU for letting Evan and I be a part of your lives. Thank you for smiling at us, playing with us, loving us ... and letting your crazy Aunt Bre take so many damn photos of you. You help us remain young at heart and we cherish watching you grow up. And I can't wait to become an official aunty in 2015!

Hayden, Owen, Tristan and Jack ready to open their Christmas presents

2. Our neighborhood

We live in an amazing place. Not only is it beautiful, but we have AH-MAZING neighbors. Moving from a town home community to Solterra was a big change for us, and if anyone asked we were quick to say that our biggest fear with moving were "the neighbors." And, being pretty anti-social, neither Evan nor I relished the idea of having to make small talk. Well damn if we weren't wrong. Our neighbors are one of my favorite things about where we live. From summer parties to random nights of drinking, I feel blessed to truly adore the people in our community.

Summer celebrations

1. Traveling

I know this shouldn't be one bucket category, but there were two trips this year (outside of my business adventures) that really meant a lot to me. The first was spending the 4th of July in Grand Lake with my family. It's the first family trip we've done since I was 13 and it was so nice to spend time with my parents, sister and brother-in-law. Times like these remind me how important family is and how fun it really can be spending time together.

The second was Evan's and my anniversary trip to Jackson Hole. Aside from getting some much needed 1:1 time with the hubby, we both needed some desperate R-N-R and I can't think of a more perfect spot to go. Instead of boring you with the details, I'll just share some amazing photos from the trip.

Hope you all had a fabulous year and cheers to a bright, shiny and brilliant 2015.

Excuses, excuses

So, yeah, that whole posting every week during my #100happydays challenge ... pretty much dropped the ball on that one. I swear I do have good excuses, but I won't bore you with how insane work and the holiday season has been ... or how lazy I've been. Instead, since I'm a couple days out from wrapping up the challenge, I'll share my thoughts. Good? Good.

The challenge itself was just that, challenging. It really made me look at the simple things in life and challenge myself to find a smile everyday. I truly enjoyed spending the last few months focusing on finding happiness. Did it get me out of my funk? A little. Did it help clarify what makes me happy? Absolutely.

So what does make me happy? That's easy. Flip through my Instagram feed and you'll quickly see lots of food and drink posts. Some of these were much needed glasses of wine at the end of a busy day or a special meal made by a special hubby. But a lot of them were centered around being out -- either with friends or on a date night. It made me realize as much as I enjoying being at home (and trust me, I like it a lot), I'm happier out than sitting on the couch being a bum.

I also realized that I'm not happy with how I look right now (queue the head slap). I know. I know. How long ago did I post about that and how many times have I not done something about it? But going 100 days and only posting 2 photos of myself made me realize some serious change is needed in my life. I can't play at this anymore.

More than anything, my takeaway from this challenge is to not let life pass me by. I need to cherish the small moments in life and make sure to do something every day for myself that counts. It's too easy to fall into the trap of every day looking the same and following the same routine. This challenge reminded me that change really is good and finding small moments of happiness every day can do a wonder on your mood and outlook.

100 happy days: days 1-10

It's been a fun 10 days trying to identify something each day that makes me happy. It really does remind me to pay attention to the small things and challenges me to find something that makes me happy or feel good when I don't have something obvious staring me in the face (brunch, cocktails, dinner plans). There's a couple things I've noticed over the past 10 days about myself:

A lot of my happy moments involve food and alcohol. I guess I've always known this -- I wholeheartedly embrace a "live to eat" mentality. It's just interesting to see that half of my posts through day 10 involved food and/or drinks.
It's A LOT harder to find something to post when I don't have an event planned ... and it's a really good challenge to look for things in every day life. I think this is really what the challenge is about. It's easy to be happy when you're out with friends and family or enjoying your favorite things, but what truly makes you happy the rest of the time? I don't have that answer yet as my other 5 posts have been a hodgepodge of activities.
It's hard to post every day. So far, there have been 2 days where I haven't posted and I think it's because there wasn't an obviously happy moment staring me in the face. For those two days I didn't post and it took some reflection the next morning to really come up with a happy moment.
I'm embarrassed to take photos. Yep, the constantly-has-her-camera-ready-at-every-moment girl has been shy to whip out my phone and take pictures -- especially of myself. The lesson I take from this is that it's important to live in the moment and I need to stop caring what every one else thinks.
It's been a lot of fun. My sister decided to join in on the challenge with me after seeing my first post and I have to say that I look forward to seeing what makes her happy every day. It's also a lot of fun trying to challenge myself to create happy moments every day, which lately have translated into some selfish moments for me (hello bubble baths!). I think that's ok and it reminds me that taking care of me and making sure that I'm happy and healthy only improves my relationship with my husband, friends and family.

100 Happy Days

Down, frustrated, bitter, sad, moody. Call it what you will, I've been in a funk lately. Little things bother me more than they should. I get disappointed too easily. I've been unfocused both at work and at home. I'm temperamental and bitchy. Basically, a real joy to be around. Something needs to change.

I've noticed a couple friends who have posted #100happydays photos and I thought I'd check it out to see if it could help shift my attitude and remind me how good life truly is.

What do I hope to accomplish? I hope to get out of this funk, and appreciate what I have and the little moments in life. I really want to find out what makes me happy. I'll be posting daily photos to Instagram and do a weekly recap here. Wish me luck!

Do we have black thumbs?

It's safe to say that watching our yard grow (and fail) has been one of the most exciting, most frustrating experiences of buying our new house. Some areas are thriving and others ... well, they're a big fat fail.

Let's talk about those fails. Our yard has a pretty steep grade, which our landscaper accommodated for by building some berms, which have been helpful where water gathers and pools (not great for new shrub's roots). We actually had to build a couple of the berms higher due to standing water, which killed two of our forsythias -- and possibly the third.

We ended up replacing two of our forsythias with some beautiful Ninebark Center Glow. We have our fingers crossed they do well, but right now we're not sure if the leaves have leaf scorch or are just drying up because we had a week of pretty cool temps.

We also added a new tall lilac bush, replaced some plants that weren't doing well with some dwarf burning bushes, added a new mulch area in the back for additional perennials, moved a couple of native grasses, added some new boxwood and had our landscaper finish up his work by adding 36 perennials -- mainly to our front yard.

So our game plan for the rest of this year and into next summer: wait it out. We'll make sure to water the shrubs well during the winter months when our drip system is off, and keep our fingers crossed that they come back strong in the spring. I also have a pretty lengthy list of things I want to complete next year to fill some gaps in the yard, move around a couple plants and replace anything that continues to do poorly (already have two on our watch list)

Exciting news -- all of our neighbors (except for the still empty lot next us) completed their landscaping and it truly makes such a difference, as you'll be able to see by the photos (as a reminder, here's the last look at the yard).

You can really see the difference our neighbors' landscaping makes. That back corner is also on our list for improvements next year, including building up a berm to deal with standing water and adding some feather reed grasses.

WIN! This area of our backyard grows like a weed. You can really see the difference between May and now, and can see where we removed some rock and added a new mulch bed for perennials.

WIN! We moved the three maiden grasses we had in various places throughout the backyard together and I love the way it looks.

Right behind the rock in the corner, you can just barely see our new lilac bush.

FAIL! These are two of the same plants and you can see how one has grown and one hasn't. We're looking to move the thriving plant to a new location, build up some tiny berms and add two new plants.

The red plants on either side of the tree are the new Ninebark shrubs we added. Keep your fingers crossed they thrive next year!

The new boxwood we added in front of our front window. Can't wait to see everything grow!! Hopefully, when mature, the tops will be at the white trim of the window.

FAIL! We originally had 3 Blue Mist Spireas here that did not do well. We're thinking of trying some irises that are supposed to do well in wet soil, or possibly just extend the grass. One of the spireas was re-located to a new home and is doing ok(ish). We'll see what happens next year (I feel like a broken record).

Catching up

Wow. It's been quite a while and it's crazy how much has changed in the two months since I last blogged. Let's catch up and then keep those fingers crossed I can follow up soon with some posts about our landscaping and finishing our office.

In May, I committed (through my blog) to a focus on getting back in shape. It started with a well-intentioned dedication to P90X3. It worked ... for a while. In late June, I began to realize that the workouts just weren't cutting it for me. I wasn't seeing any change. My diet was as far from disciplined as I could get. Bottom line, I wasn't losing weight, I didn't look different and, while I was REALLY committed to wanting to change, wasn't committed to doing the work.

All that changed with a photo taken in mid-July with friends in a cabin in the woods. Sound ominous? It should. That photo scared the crap out of me. It's the first picture I've seen where I've noticed my weight has really caught up to me. All of sudden all that weight I gained wasn't just a number on it a scale; it had found permanence in my arms, my stomach, my hips, my thighs ... hell, even my forearms. It was a wake up call and I can say I'm now REALLY committed to doing the work.

I've changed up my approach to something that worked well for me in the past. It's taken a while to set-up and I'm in the first week of it, so I'd like to keep it my little secret for now. That just means the blog will be diverting back to posts about the transformation of our home. Stay tuned.

Roadblocks in Block Two

Today was a frustrating day. I pulled on a skirt that fit a year ago and it was too tight. I pulled on a pair of pants that are a little snug that used to be looser. I completely freaked out.

How in the world are clothes not beginning to fit better? I'm halfway through block 2 of P90X3 and I feel like I should be seeing more progress. It was pretty devestating.

Then I got into work and realized that the shirt I was wearing was much baggier around my waist and hips. I started wondering if it had gotten stretched in the wash and then remembered all the times it was feeling a little snug and I couldn't get it to stretch. My frown turned upside down and I realized that progress is happening even if I'm not able to see it everywhere and even if ALL of my clothes aren't fitting better.

Of course, seeing progress everywhere would be great (and phenomenal motivation). But that's just not my body. Losing this weight is going to take a long time and a lot of consistency around exercise and diet. I know patience is crucial (and that's REALLY tough for me), so I'll take what I thought was a loss this morning and turn it into a mini win because even if it feels like it's slow going, small changes are happening to my body.

P90X3: Block One Results

It's a little hard to believe block 1 is already over and 4 weeks have flown by. My results aren't quite what I was hoping for, but I met one of the goals I established for myself (4 pound overall weight loss) and am not sure why I didn't hit the other (2 inches lost from waist) as I feel like I had some good overall inches lost. To be fair, these weren't overly ambitious goals, but I needed something I knew I would hit so I could start this off with a success. Block 2 and 3 are much more aggressive in terms of goals for me.

Results

Total weight loss: 4 pounds

Total inches lost:

	Block 1 Change
Arms	-.25(R) / 0(L) inches
Chest	-1 inches
Waist	-1.5 inches
Hip	-.75 inches
Thighs	0 inches
Calves	-1(R) / -1.25(L) inches
Total change	-5.75 inches

Lessons learned

Diet is important. I was so, so good with my diet during the week, but then the weekend would arrive and with it came lots of alcohol and overindulgence. I feel like I lost and gained the same 4 pounds over the past four weeks. I'm disappointed in me and know that this weekly battle with the weekend is part of the reason I've not only gained weight, but also failed at losing it. I recently saw a great post from a gal I blog stalk who had amazing results with the Whole30. I don't think I'm there yet, but there is certainly A LOT more I can do around diet to help with my P90X3 journey. Who knows, maybe in 90 days I'll be ready for some massive food changes.

Even without substantial weight loss, I saw changes. So I only lost 4 pounds, but I saw a lot of change in my body even without the discipline I should have had on diet. I saw my stomach shrink, arms slim down, thighs start to take shape and collar bones appear. It's these changes that motivate me everyday to complete my workout (and they should be motivation enough to follow a stricter diet).

It feels good to be working toward something. There are definitely days I have to drag myself to do a workout, but I always, always feel good once I'm done. It feels SO good to look forward to the changes I hope come from finishing my 90-days. This feeling, more than anything, is what I need to hold on to when I'm desperately craving green curry and a ~~bottle~~ glass of wine.

It really is a journey. And, yes, I felt cheesy typing that. There's no quick-fix for losing weight and getting in shape. Part of the reason I'm not ready to fully embrace something like the Whole30 is because I know it's not a sustainable change for me. I live to eat and I need to figure out a good, healthy balance of discipline and enjoyment. This isn't something I can change in its entirety today, but it's something I need to work toward every single day.

What's next? My focus areas for block 2 are to really focus on my diet and to amp up additional cardio outside of the program (walking/hiking with Evan). I also have a week-long business trip to Croatia smack in the middle of block 2, so I need to focus on not blowing my diet and finding ways to work exercise into what promises to be a very, very busy week.

Grow little plants, grow!

Two posts in one day? Gasp!!

I'm on vacation today (awesomeness), so I get to actually spend some time out in our yard. I'm happy to say that it's coming along slowly but surely. Watching our little baby plants grow has certainly been an effort in patience, which we know I'm short on.

Our landscaper was over yesterday to talk about putting the rest of the landscaping in. He said that everything is coming in great with the exception of a couple plants on the east side of our front lawn that we're going to just sit back and see if they bloom. If not, we'll figure something else out.

We also decided, with his advice, to move our purple ash in the front yard this fall once it goes dormant. When we moved in and had our landscaping installed we didn't have any neighbors, and we didn't know they'd end up staggering the houses (and we're glad they did). So our neighbors house sits closer to the curb than ours. As it turns out, our tree, once it starts growing, will end up messing with their gutters and that's not very neighborly of us to mess with their house. So we're keeping our fingers crossed we can successfully move it to the berm by our sidewalk and move the globe spruce that currently lives there to where the tree currently is.

We also decided to put some boxwood in the front of our house and move our moon shadow euonymus in front of it to create more "heft" in front of our office window.

But getting back to current state. It's been exciting and rewarding watching the yard come in and even though everything is still small and vulnerable, it's wonderful to see green in the backyard. Hopefully by the end of the summer, our neighbors will get their landscaping completed and it will transform our little land of dirt and hay.

While we're still waiting for everything to fully bloom, here's some photos of our yard slowly taking shape.

Looking out onto the yard from our patio

One of our lilacs -- can't wait until these babies produce bigger blooms

One of our ivory halo dogwood bushes

One of our forsythia bushes. We got to see a little yellow in early spring this year, but it quickly changed to green.

Our knockout rose bushes and butterfly bush have grown so well in this back corner. It's by far where the most growth has happened this spring.

P90X3: Week One Review

I have to confess, I actually did week 1 twice. The first time I completed it, I wasn't able to start week 2 because of business travel, so when I got home I decided to start week 1 over again so I wouldn't miss the benefit of any initial progress.

In terms of working out, week 1 went well. My favorite workouts are definitely The Challenge and Yoga (no shock there). I could do without The Warrior (thank God I only have to do it 3 times during the program). Evan and I have also been taking walks around the neighborhood each night to spend time together and throw in a little more cardio. My muscles were definitely sore, but in that oh-so-good post-workout way.

As far as diet, I don't think I mentioned that I'm following Weight Watchers vs. P90X3's nutrition guide. In the past, Weight Watchers has worked for me and I don't think I can cut ~~wine~~ Thai food out of my diet and still survive. So Weight Watchers it is. I did ok on diet. I stayed on or under my points each day and increased my water intake (and subsequent trips to the restroom).

Weight loss was ok. In some ways it was better than anticipated and in others a big disappointment -- don't we always want to drop 10 pounds the first week of working out? I lost 4.8 pounds, which I attribute largely to water weight. I know that when starting a new workout program your body likes to do all sorts of funky stuff, so I'm hoping the losing trend continues. Outside of weight loss, I feel really energized (despite some long hours and very early mornings at work) and motivated. On to week 2!

A new journey

Oh man, it’s been a while. April was quite the crazy month. I had two trips for work and have been packing in the hours in the office when I’m not traveling. It hasn’t left a lot of time to work on much with the house, but I did get my dream pendant light for our office for my birthday (thanks, Dad!) and the yard is starting to come in with only minor issues. But those are more posts for another day.

Here to Home started out as a blog for me to share our journey in building our new house and then turning it into a home … and it still is. But if it’s really about the “journey,” there are other things I want to talk about and share, even if I’m just posting to me.

If I step back in time to about 16 months ago, Evan and I were packing up our old house and getting ready to sell. Stupidly, we packed up everything that was cluttering our house, which meant all (and I mean all) of our pots and pans got packed up. Looking back, I think we thought the selling process would be much quicker, and it was … once our house got on the market. Not having anything to cook with started a downward spiral on a super unhealthy path that, if I’m being honest, still continues today.

I’ve easily gained 20 pounds … yep 20 pounds in just over a year. That’s pretty much the equivalent of my best friend’s two-year-old. I KNOW I’ve gained weight and I hate how I look, but I haven’t proactively done anything to change it.

That stops today and this journey of getting healthy is something else I’d like to share on Here to Home. This week, I started P90X3 and am committed to eating healthy. It’s my hope that by posting this publically, I’ll hold myself accountable to meeting my goals, which are: getting back in shape, losing weight and feeling better about myself.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey whether it’s providing encouragement, holding me accountable or using my journey as motivation for your own. Wish me luck.

Curtains make all the difference

I've been wanting to add curtains (and a pendant light) to the office for quite some time. I fell in love with these from West Elm as they're a great match for the limey green color I'm doing for spring and summer. I also got my bonus around the same time I found these (coincidence? I think not). So I used a little chunk of my bonus to move one step closer to a fully finished room.

The hubby just put them up today and I'm amazed at the difference they make in the room. It really does feel more ... finished. And I love them so much, I grabbed a quick snapshot via Instagram to share.

Now, onto getting the pendant light!

Before & After: Powder Room

It's Friday and I'm kicking off the weekend with a short before and after of our main floor powder room. If you check out our floor plans you can see that the powder room doesn't have any windows, which means no natural light. It made for some interesting photos, because in case you haven't noticed at this point, I'm not winning any awards with my photography skillz.

So please excuse my sub-par photos (at some point I'll figure out lighting and levels) and enjoy the reveal!

Powder Room Before

As you can see in the photo, the color was the same as the rest of the house ... beige. We also had a builder-grade mirror over our pedestal sink.

Powder Room After

We painted the walls and ceiling (although it's really hard to tell in this photo) the same color as the office, Benjamin Moore Cape Hatteras Sands AC 34.

We also switched out the mirror with a sweet Restoration Hardware Outlet find, which I think fits the pedestal sink much better. Eventually, I'd love to see use switch out the sink and toilet for something more square, but it's pretty low on our priority list for now. I'm also debating if I need to put any artwork/decor above the toilet as I don't want it to compete with the large painting on the main wall, but this picture does make it look a little bland.

Yep, I took a picture of my trash can because I love it that much. It's also a great shot of our floors.

Speaking of things I love, I also adore the art we put up in here. It's from Z Gallerie and I'd had my eye on it for a while, but didn't know where to put it. The colors went well with the paint and we had a wall that needed some artwork, so voila.

Like most powder rooms, ours is pretty small and doesn't have any built-in storage. I wanted something that followed the somewhat industrial look we had going on in the great room (our coffee table and bar stools), and found this gorgeous cabinet during the same Restoration Hardware Outlet trip for our mirror. It's the perfect size and gives us enough space to store necessities.

I'll finish up the reveal with a shot of the top of the cabinet. The metal 'D' (for our last name) was found during the same RH Outlet trip. I also display matches (cool, yet practical ... right?) from all of our trips/dinners around the world. It's a fun way to show where we've been. I'm also a HUGE hand towel gal, so I'm glad to have a place we can easily place those.

So the powder room isn't much, but there you have it. I have to confess that during my blog stalking, I'll see other powder rooms that are light and airy with white paint, and I wonder if we should have gone down that route instead of painting the walls a darker greige. I think given the lighter beige color of the rest of our house, the white would have looked a little washed out, but it doesn't mean I'm not envious of those lovely, airy powder rooms of my blog/design heroes. The indecision never ends ...

Before & After: Great Room

Our great room is my favorite room of our house. It's the room I spent the most time ~~freaking out over~~ designing, it's the room we spend the most time in and it's the first room that really made our house feel like home. It's also the room that's probably the most "done." Aside from some curtains, which will really complete the room, we probably won't be adding/changing much to the room and I'm so excited to show it off. And I shockingly have a pretty good before photo.

Great Room Before

This photo was taken on move-in day (apparently we needed a fire while moving in ... with the windows open). This was before any new accent paint. It's also photographic evidence of my husband's first attempt to show me that our old TV was too small and bulky for the new house. Sneaky.

Great Room After

Ta da! The colors are a little off -- I've taken the photos about three times and can't find a time of day where the lighting looks accurate. So the oranges are a little orange-er, but you get the picture. We painted the tall fireplace wall an accent color to help make it pop (Benjamin Moore Shenandoah Taupe AC 36, which is the same as the accent color in our entryway).

Photos from each side of the fireplace. We chose to not add the optional windows to both sides of the fireplace as we wanted a place to hang up some art. Given how close the houses are and how awesome the art looks, I think we made the right decision.

Our great room is two-stories. We had a couple options when it came to what we could have done with the stone and mantel around the fireplace (stone to ceiling, hearth vs. mantel). We've seen a couple options in our neighbors homes and they all look great. We're really happy with what we've chosen for our style. However, I think if we would have chosen stone to the ceiling, we would have gone with the hearth option.

Probably the best before and after photo.

These side tables were another atypical purchase for me and ended up being one of my most favorite things in the room. They don't take up a ton of space, but they're substantial -- most importantly they have a ton of character. Love them!

The table the started it all. Out of the room, in the room - I absolutely adore it. We receive a ton of compliments on it and truly is the statement piece we were looking for.

Another look (and even a glimpse into the dining room and kitchen).

How about some detail photos. My plan is to rotate out the orange accents with some green ones for the spring and summer.

Looking up the stairs and back toward the front door.

These are the bar stools that we chose. This was another really long debate as we wanted a stool that complimented the great room, but we weren't sure if we wanted something that swiveled or something with a back. In the end, we chose these tractor stools from Restoration Hardware. The seat is amazingly comfortable and while they do tend to get hidden behind the couch as you'll see in the photo below, look amazing when you can see them.

Ending up the reveal with a peek into the kitchen, which is where I'll focus next post, but for now I'm excited to finally show off my favorite room.

before & after: entryway

Our entry is directly across from our office, so it makes sense to move there next in our big house reveal. So I grabbed a ~~bottle~~ glass of wine and the tons of photos I took of our teeny tiny entry to create a REALLY long post for our REALLY little space.

Entry Before

I really wasn't kidding with it being a tiny space. The front door is just to the right of this photo as you'll see in one of the after photos. Given it was such a small space, we didn't have a ton of room to do something special, but I knew the first thing that had to go was all the beige that covers every wall of our house. I also wanted to try to find a narrow cabinet that wouldn't extend beyond the closet wall. We accomplished both and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of our little entry area.

Entry After

I absolutely love the new wall color! We choose a color two shades darker than the office (Benjamin Moore Shenandoah Taupe AC 36) since the rooms are so close to each other. The cabinet we bought also fits perfectly in the narrow space. You also can see the entry light. It's not nearly as ugly (or crooked) as it looks in this photo, but it's still not my favorite. At some point, I'd like to switch it out for something more like this.

Yep, that's a peek into the rest of our house ... but focus on the awesome runner. Aside from constantly flipping up no matter what we do to it, it's been a great purchase. You can't see any dirt on it, and I love the funky design.

Decor like this was a first for me -- it borders on being too whimsy -- but I'm oh so glad I bought it. I think everyone who's come into our house has commented on it or played with it and I smile every time I look at it. Lesson learned. Broadening my design horizons is a good thing.