2018 YEAR IN REVIEW

Once again I am shocked that the year is over! We were just sitting in our hammocks enjoying the summer weather and now it’s the end of December?! How does this happen?

I wanted to share a recap of our life in 2018 and I’m not one to keep a journal so I had to turn to my Instagram account to remind myself of what all we’ve done this year! Man we’ve been busy and there’s a lot that’s happened. We received some of the best news and some of the worst. We worked ourselves into exhaustion and yet we found ourselves to be truly happy and content with where we are at in life.

2018 was good to us and if you’re curious what happened, here’s our year in review!

JANUARY 2018

I started this blog in January! It’s officially been 1 year since I decided to put my thoughts and ideas into writing and it has been such a blast! Not gonna lie, I started blogging because I was in a hard spot personally and I needed a place to express my creativity. I had no intention of making this blog anything more than a personal “journal” that happened to be available to the public. I had no idea this would become the #1 thing that brought my passion for design back and would allow our business to reach so many new faces! Thanks for reading along…it really has been such a joy to share and connect with you all!

On top of his full time job, Chris decided to start training at a local gym that his friend opened! He’s obsessed with working out and he loves being with people so training once a week was something that brought him a lot of joy! Chris also turned 29 in January so it was a full month of fun things!

FEBRUARY 2018

I literally cannot think of anything that happened in February other than I cut and colored my hair. So here’s a picture of my hair…haha sorry I don’t have anything better to report for this month! 🙂

MARCH 2018

From November 2017-March 2018 we spent all of our spare time gutting and renovating our kitchen and living room! This was an intense project that involved the majority of our main floor being stripped down to studs and forced us to coop up in the only teeny tiny bedroom of the house that wasn’t in demo mode. March was a big month for us because we officially finished both renovations! (P.S. if you’d like to see both projects, check out the full kitchen reveal here and the living room reveal here.) Finishing the remodel and being able to walk around the house in socks again was seriously a magical feeling!

APRIL 2018

Our washing machine broke and I celebrated my 26th birthday all in the same week! We celebrated by getting a new washer and dryer and I was thoroughly excited which means I’m officially an adult! 😉

2 weeks later we decided to start the guest room renovation. For some reason we felt it was necessary to only give ourselves a 2 week break from the kitchen remodel before starting the next renovation. That short break proved to be a mistake because we got exhausted real quick and have yet to “officially” finish the guest room reno.

MAY 2018

In May I was contacted by an editor at Apartment Therapy who asked us for permission to share our kitchen on their website. At first I thought it was a scam, but then they actually published our kitchen remodel and I literally hyperventilated!! Cannot tell you how much that meant to me to see our space shared by a major online publication!

JUNE 2018

My home town hosts a city wide fair every year in June and this year my whole family (minus Chris) was able to road trip to Minnesota for a few days during the event. We typically only get together on Christmas because we’re all scattered living in multiple states but this is our second time getting together during the summer. Looking forward to the next summer trip!

While I was in Minnesota, we were told that our sweet 2 year old nephew was diagnosed with a rare cancer. The tumor on his liver had grown the the size of a softball and he would undergo chemo immediately. We traveled to Texas to see Chris’ sister and her family shortly after hearing the news. We were all absolutely devastated by the news but he was fortunate to get some of the best medical care in Texas.

A bit of good news – Chris received a promotion at his job and he thoroughly enjoys his new role! We’re so thankful he has a job that he loves and thrives in. It’s a blessing for him to enjoy going to work everyday!

JULY 2018

July was a fairly uneventful month for us. I spent most of the month getting a new product ready for our shop. We also spent a lot of time outdoors at the lake, in the hammock, and going on walks in our area.

AUGUST 2018

We continued to work on the guest room renovation. We decided to install new windows, insulate the walls, install all new electrical, and we started hanging drywall. There’s always a project around here!

We also celebrated our 5th anniversary in August. It’s just crazy that we’ve only known each other for 6 years! We went out to eat to celebrate and purchased the plane tickets for a much needed vacation in October!

SEPTEMBER 2018

This was the month of packing and shipping for me! I released a new product and to my surprise it was a hit! I was so stinkin thankful to be packing your orders in the basement all day! It was a tough year prior to September when it came to sales so I was beyond joyful to be sending our products to your homes!

OCTOBER 2018

We had been planning a vacation to San Francisco for nearly 6 months and it was finally time to go! I cannot tell you how excited we were to spend a whole week looking at the most gorgeous views in California. The ocean never disappoints and the Redwood forests were breathtaking! We stayed in Mill Valley in a quaint airbnb tucked away on the side of the mountain. Of all the places I’ve been, Mill Valley was my favorite by far!

NOVEMBER 2018

Every year Chris’ family stays in cabins at one of our Nebraska state parks over Thanksgiving weekend! We camp out in cabins, eat far too much food, play games and enjoy the pretty scenery around us. Unfortunately we were hit with a snow storm so we had to cut the trip short but it was still fun to see everyone!

DECEMBER 2018

We only do one trade show a year and it’s always the Love The Locals holiday show! This year it was absolutely nuts and we were blown away by the number of people that showed up! We always love seeing friends and familiar faces but we also got to meet a lot of new people which was a blast!

We also celebrated our 2 year old nephew finishing his last round of chemo and we are happy to report that he is now cancer free!!

2018 was good to us and we’re pretty dang pumped to see what 2019 will bring! Thanks for reading the blog this year and staying in touch with us. It means to world to me!!

Happy New Year everyone!