2019 Favorite Moments

Happy 2020!! I hope you rang in the new year with those you love. 
I'm back to a regular blogging schedule for the new year! I'm hoping to be able to blog 2 times a week, with a bonus Friday post every now and then. Before looking to the new year, I wanted to share some highlights from the past year.
JANUARY:
2019 started off with some insane weather for the Midwest, formally known as the Polar Vortex, in which we experienced a week or two of negative temps. Businesses shut down for days and we were home bound for weeks (our pipes even froze, so we had to shower at the neighbors!). It was crazy. We had lots of movie days / nights and Lincoln got extra cuddles. 

FEBRUARY:

I called my mom up in January during this weather and said I needed a sunny girl's trip. We quickly planned a trip to Palm Springs, CA! I recapped it here, but it was the best winter medicine!

MARCH:
While in California finishing up my trip, my husband called and said he found us a house! We had been house hunting for about a month, and of course he found our house while I was away. The most I saw of it before we put in our accepted offer was the listing online and a quick Facetime ;) This marks my most trusting moment as a wife. Haha! It was a whirlwind! This post has all our house hunting details.

APRIL: We got the keys to our house and we began some renovations! Paint, adding builtins, complete makeover of the main bathroom, built a fence and more.
Although we didn't finish them all in April, here are some before shots...

And some afters...

MAY:
In May my grandma and my aunt (my mom's mom and sister) came to visit us and see our new house! We also enjoyed the last Spring at our apartment complex, which had some gorgeous, vibrant trees. I'll miss that! (Bit of a late spring this year, thanks to the freezing temps!)

JUNE: 
My parent's came to visit and see our new home, help us with the front yard makeover and we took them to Traverse City to explore some wineries!

 After:

A snapshot from a client's family room project coming together!

We went on lots of walks 

JULY:
Started the month off with a fun 4th of July at the beach! We hosted a Bloom Workshop here in Michigan and it was really a fun one, focused on Styled Shoots only. I then went home to CA for my grandma's 89th birthday where I got to see tons of family and then my parents and I took our favorite day trip getaway to Carmel with our family dog, Hope.

Finally, my bestie had her first baby girl! Sweet little Penny, how I love you so!

AUGUST:
Not just in August, but throughout the entire summer, I took Lincoln on about a mile or two walk to a high school in our neighborhood. It felt so good to be active almost every single day! I loved meeting neighbors while doing this! When we got to the school we would run around and Lincoln was definitely living his best life. I loved listening to podcasts during our walks!

SEPTEMBER:

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary this month and my mom and grandma came for another visit, this time on a sad note as my grandma's sister passed away who lives in Detroit. We went to the beautiful funeral remembering her life, then they came to our house for a couple days. We had a really sweet time with them. 

OCTOBER:
We prepped our backyard for seed and my husband finished up our backyard fence. Yay! 

We also went on a fall weekend getaway with some friends to see the beautiful Northern Michigan color. So thankful for our people!

NOVEMBER:
I turned 29! I can't believe this is my last year in my 20's. Holy cow! We brought The Bloom Workshop to Dallas and hosted our 2 day event there which was fantastic. I always get so much creative energy from these days! It was a bonus that I got to hug so many of my sweet friends from all over the country who came to be apart of the workshop.

Our styled shoot turned out amazing!!

Another couple fun things I did in November were getting together with my girlfriends to make our own Thanksgiving Day centerpieces and have my friends little girl's over to bake cookies!

DECEMBER:

After getting our first Christmas tree for our new house, hosting my annual My Favorite Things Party, getting a nasty 3 week cold and doing all the holiday things here, I headed to California for Christmas with my fam! We went to the Filoli Gardens to see their beautiful Christmas lights and decor (a must-do if you live close in the Bay Area!), enjoyed a gorgeous trip to Napa with my husband and parents (McCann's first time!), and of course had a lovely Christmas with my immediate and extended family. 

My brother, mom, dad and I on Christmas Day (all wearing plaid, oops!)

My parent's beautiful home:

 One last thing-- while in CA, we went to visit my grandparent's up North in Sacramento. My grandpa had all his old film photos put on to digital files and so he showed me tons of them from when I was little. This is one of my favorites of me ;) It's so funny to see these pictures and remember all those memories. Seeing photos of my parents at our age and even my grandparents when they were in their 30's is SO amazing! Such a gift to have these!

We came back to MI to spend New Years Day with my husband's family and rung in the New Year opening our own Christmas gifts to each other, a drink and pizza at one of our favorite spots, and then watching the ball drop on the sofa. My kinda night ;)

What a year! Of course, these are just the highlights and it doesn't even come close to recapping all the moments that 2019 held. There were really hard, challenging days between tensions of moving, walking through pain of loosing loved ones and some of our friends' unborn babies, missing family across the country, business difficulties, relationships and more. But God is so good and so kind to us. Grateful for all these moments!

xoxo interior design website / services / portfolio