Monday, January 3, 2011 Farewell 2010!
My friend Frank and I were just talking about resolutions and checking them off the good 'ol life list. I am happy to report Joey and I are up to date with our 2010 goals and will be pushing our limits in 2011! So like all resonluioners, we will conduct lists to break down 2010's success and 2011's goals!
2010:
Find fresh inspiration: We found a slew of new blogs this year which well fell in love with, but these five really take the cake as far as their taste and beautiful personalities when it comes to making a house a home
Learn to do things on our own: Leaving the city where landlords take care of every problem was a bit of a shocker when diving into 6,200 sqft of our own space. We promised to learn how to "own it" right away. Here are our fave lessons we nailed.
1. Joey learned to make furniture. (see: here and here)
2. Lana learned to sew.
3. We both learned how to garden (and Lana got poison ivy while weeding!).
4. Joey learned to lay down a floor.
5. Lana learned paint can fix almost anything which looks sorry.
We figured some valuable stuff out: Seems just like in life, homeownership comes with daily experiences which teach you how-to and how-not-to get stuff done.
1. Getting it done, and getting it done right are two very different things. We learned quick to go slow, do research, and then dive in. We made a few mistakes along the way and doing things twice is never fun.
2. Our personal style is constantly evolving. One day it's French country, the next it's totally formal British. We are on a long journey of melding many styles together in a comfortable manner.
3. We have too much stuff, and not enough of what we need. We have a lot of things and a lot of space, but we don't have to fill every corner to the brim with objects. Free space is also part of design, and we are excited to declutter in 2011!
4. Change is hard, so don't do it all at once. We concluded to be more green, start a vegetable garden, furnish our house completely, redo the deck, join a CSA, walk the dogs more, vacation more, etc, etc....and we only accomplished about a 1/3 of our "general goals". Changing from city lifestyle to suburb lifestyle came with a bunch of unexpected "perks" and a lot fell by the waste side. Now we know better, one thing at a time.
In 2011 we publicly announce to do the following. How else will we be accountable for our success?
In no specific order (tons of BIG news spoilers- Beware!):
1. Assemble the bed and get a King sized mattress!
2. Finish the upstairs guest room - the one with the built in's!
3. Make a baby! (we have already picked out our top names!)
4. Buy a new car, think we are going to do the BMW X5
5. Buy a couch for the living room (yes, we finalllly decided on one!)
6. Figure out if a big move in in our future (when we say big, we mean BIG!)
7. Finish at least three rooms
8. Start the kitchen renovation
9. Joey will be renovating the downstars bathroom
10. Our blog will be getting the face lift we have been meaning to do in 2010!
It seems a lot of blogs and magazines are in the mood to purge in 2011, and we can't help but think that's a great idea. Living a simpler life with less objects to manage just feels like the right thing to do. I have a magazine from the '90's I may not be able to part with, but other than that we house many items we don't really ever use. Have you noticed the trend of downsizing your life? Let us know if you found any tips or solid advice!
Warmest wishes for happiness and health in 2011!!
xo,
Joey & Lana
Reader Comments (2)
Just getting to this... thank you so much for the mention!!! Hope to see you in 2011.
xo,
cristin
Thanks for the blog comment!
That photo from Restoration Hardware was one of my husband's inspirations for our makeover from Emily!