'23 and me

I remember writing a melancholy-tinged post last year about the coming of a new year. It was such a rough time for the world, and it was so hard last year to look forward to anything. This year, I'm happy to be feeling much more optimistic and am already refreshed from my time away from our family's usual routine.

The thing I'm looking forward to the most for 2023 is going full speed on the house! My husband and I have agreed we want to prioritize finishing projects and really getting the interior to where we want it to be this year. Six years ago this week, we moved into our house. It's come a long way in that time, and it can be hard to remember that when looking at the to-do list.

Finishing our half-finished projects (plus - fingers crossed - starting a major one) is high on the list because we'd like to stop putting all our time/energy/budget into renovations, so we can travel more. We did quite a bit of traveling when I was growing up, and I'd love for my daughter to have similar memories.

Putting more into house projects will likely mean less fashion content or less content featuring new clothes. I do plan to bring back Style Profiles this winter, as it went on a much longer hiatus than planned due to a busy fall and holiday season.

Here are the projects we have on the horizon so far:

January

Final touches in living room - it's so many small things. The lack of throw pillows drives me crazy; it looks so unfinished. I've also had my eye on a new pair of lamps for almost two years. I also want to add more art to the gallery wall and replace the weird mirror with a painting.

Final touches in dining room - The crown moulding needs to be stained, a small but irritating project. I also have a fairly large collection of plates that need to be hung on the blank accent wall and above the bay window.

February

You know our stop-and-start perpetual master bedroom reno? I'd like to have done with it. The heavy construction (aside from a planned built-in unit) is done. We just need to do the fun decorating portion of the program - install the canopy, custom headboard, hang gallery wall, new nightstands and lighting, and a rug.

March

After Margaret moved out of the nursery and into her big girl room, we started storing junk in the nursery. During quarantine, it was ankle deep in garage sale items. We sold and donated everything in order to turn this room into a guest room. We painted it and reupholstered the wingback chair. Now it's a junk storage room, but with Farrow & Ball on the walls and a random chintz chair. It would be very nice not to have a junk room and to be able to accommodate overnight guests again.