Back on The Blog! (SUPER Exciting News + A Recap of the Last 4 Months!)
HEY EVERYONE!!! Welcome back old friends, it’s been a while. Whew. It has been a long, crazy, overwhelming, stressful, fun-filled, *insert-a-hundred-more-adjectives-here* 4 months. I’ve been so busy with my new (or not so new anymore) job at Havenly that I haven’t had any time to blog. Luckily, one good thing that has come out of this COVID-19 pandemic is a little more free time, which means I’m back on the blog! I have big, exciting news coming at the end of this post, but first, I figured I’d give y’all a quick recap of some of the important events from the last couple of months…
We Got a Puppy!
Meet Ginger! Her name (obviously) matches her beautiful red coat, but she’s also named after the best girl group to ever grace this planet. If you were thinking Spice Girls, you thought right. If you weren’t, reevaluate your taste in music. Ginger’s feisty and fierce and has truly spiced up our life in the best way. She’s an F1b Mini Goldendoodle (75% Poodle, 25% Golden Retriever) and will grow to be about 20-30 pounds. She’s currently about 14 pounds and just turned 5 months old today!
We brought her home just a few days before Christmas and LOVE having a puppy in the house. She keeps us on our toes with her energy, big personality, and never-ending appetite. Luckily for her, both her pawrents work from home so she gets lots of playtime during the day. She LOVES Cheez-Its, playing outside (what pup doesn’t?), and I honestly think she’d let you rub her belly all day long if she could. You can keep up with her spunky self on her Instagram account, @doodlespice.
Designs, Designs, and MORE Designs
To say I eat, sleep, and breathe interior design these days would be an understatement. Havenly has kept me PLENTY busy since I started back in October. In just four months, I’ve completed 53 room designs for over 40 clients with 7 new projects starting this week! That’s A LOT of design time! I’ve worked on everything from bedrooms to backyard spaces with clients all across the country—one even lived in the neighborhood I grew up in! You can checkout a little sneak peek of some of my projects below, or hop over to my portfolio page to see it all! Interested in sprucing up your own space? Head here to checkout how you can book a design package with me :)
quarantine life
M-m-m-my Corona! This is perhaps one of the biggest changes for everyone these days, so it seemed amiss not to mention how Ira & I are dealing with the pandemic. To be completely honest, not much has changed for us…and I feel kind of guilty about it. Ira and I are more than aware of the fact that we are super blessed to not really be impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak and the new quarantine lifestyle. We both still have our jobs, our health, our families, and we pray everyday for the world to right itself so that everyone else can resume a normal life as well. Because we haven’t been impacted as much by current events we’re doing what we can to help those that have been affected—like donating surgical masks to our local doctors and nurses. Aside from that, we’ve been doing our fair share to flatten the curve by avoiding public spaces as much as possible (oh Cheddar’s, how I miss thee), we’ve stocked up on snacks and lotion (incessant hand washing means ashy knuckles and we can’t have that now can we!), and are very, very thankful for Netflix’s vast catalog of premiere entertainment. And before you ask, yes. Yes, we have seen Tiger King. Talk about a wild ride.
One thing I’ve definitely noticed is how being “forced” to stay in the house still feels waaay different than just being in the house. Something about knowing you can’t do something makes it seem so much more appealing. We’ve both worked from home for over a year now, so we’re used to being stuck in the house pretty much all the time, but this just feels strange, yaknow? So to keep from going stir-crazy, we’ve been going on a lot of walks, keeping up with our cheerleading teams by doing virtual practices, and overall just taking more time to enjoy each others company. As much as I’d love to be able to go on a Target run or get my nails filled, I really can’t complain.
We bought a house!
We’re going to be homeowners! AHHHHH. I can’t even freaking believe it! Ira and I have been talking about owning a home for about a year and a half now— debating building vs. buying and the pros and cons of each. We (like a lot of people) were under the impression that we’d have to save and save and save for years to make our dreams come true…but then we learned that wasn’t necessarily the case. Ira and I found a great floor plan with Ashton Woods Homes in a brand new neighborhood that’s being built just down the street from where we currently live. It was right within our price range and it’s scheduled to be complete by the end of summer! It just doesn’t get more perfect than that!
I won’t go into too much detail about our decision making process when it came to deciding to build—I’ve got an entire post coming up dedicated entirely to that!—but I will say it’s the most exciting decision I’ve ever made, with some many more exciting decisions to come! We’re about 2 weeks away from our design studio appointment where we’ll pick out all of the interior finishes, and I plan to keep y’all updated every step of the way! We’re so excited about the house that we (yes, we) have already pinned hundreds of inspiration images for everything from outlet placement to the setup of the laundry room to landscaping ideas. For now, all that’s set in stone (literally) is the exterior of our house. Ah, she’s going to be gorgeous. :)
