Slow and Steady

Well this is weird.  Today is the second day that I don't have to get up for the 9to5 and I'm not on vacation.  I am now self employed. I am self employed!

Someone needs to tell my brain this, though- I totally had dreams the  past few nights about the office.  We don't close on our first flip until Thursday (so you'll have to wait until then to see it), but I have some prep and planning to get started on- like pricing out a kitchen!  I think the hardest part for me about self-employment will be creating a daily routine.  I'm sure I'll figure it out, though.  Let me rephrase- I KNOW I'll figure it out.  Hubby's commented that he's seen me more confident in the past few weeks talking about this flip than he has in a long time.  Bring it on!

In other news, I adopted the most adorable brass turtle box last night.

He came from an awesome design shop in Boston, Twelve Chairs and just screamed "Take me home!"  I figure he can be cute and useful as a business card holder in my home office that I'm still working to get all set up.

Dining Dressings

Thank you guys so much for all your support of my Big News on Monday! In addition to my new job, this transition will also mean great things for this blog!  The most obvious thing is that I'll be able to blog about my flip house.  I don't know how to tile a bathroom...yet...but you can rest assured that I'll tell you all about it.  In more detail than you'd probably ever ask for.  The other blogging perks that come with my career shift is that I'll have more flexibility to work on projects, take photos in the daylight (kind of hard when its dark by the time you get home from a 9to5), and generally blog the way I really want to blog.

Until we close on our first flip house on Valentine's day, I've been naturally keeping my mind busy (much to Hubby's dismay) planning a few projects here.  One design target is the dining room.  I've been thinking about curtains in the dining room for quite a while.  It's felt pretty naked in there since it's wall make-over, but I really wanted to step back and see what curtains, if any, the room wanted.

I had been thinking about one curtain per window to keep the space open and bright but still add some softness.  A few months ago, I saw this dining room on Pinterest and it confirmed my plans.

It wasn't until I noticed today that West Elm is having an amazing curtain sale that I decided to finally pull the trigger.  The dining room's been naked long enough.  Now I just have to decide what I really want (the hardest part!)

These have a nice, subtle pattern, but may be too beige for the room.

Simple and elegant.  Too simple?

Normally I'm not drawn to florals, but the watercolor feel to this one appeals to me in some way.

I'm not sure if any of these are quite right, but my design brain is on the job!  With you as my witnesses, I vow that the dining room will have curtains by the time I refocus my energies to the flip house.

West Elm curtains 1/2/3

January Motivations

Sorry I've been neglecting you this past week.  It was a blur of a week and I've been struggling to get back in the swing of things after the holidays.  I finally took my decorations down over the weekend, though. Today has been 2 years since we moved into our house & organization has been a HUGE challenge in this tiny house.  Some areas function flawlessly while others collect stuff we don't need.  I've actually been spending quite a bit of time in the basement trying to organize my life house from the bottom up.  After pseudo-organizing the basement last winter, it got totally lost again when my parents started prepping for their move.  My basement ended up inheriting more than a few boxes of things saved from my childhood.  Can I interest you in over a dozen original Carebears?  I still am undecided about saving or selling.  But anyway, that's not my point for this post.  I've been spending a bunch of time down there as opposed to tackling some more of the 'pretty' projects on my to do list.  I'll spare you the "unorganized" to "slightly less unorganized" before and afters and wait until I have something a little more glamorous to show.  I have lots of basement ideas- we'll see if I can actually keep up the motivation in the basement long enough to make it happen.

For now, I'll play show and tell with a super cute love birds print that my sister got me from etsy for Christmas. (from here)

It found its place on our dresser.

Don't you love it?  I know I do.  Thanks Sis!